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_JHTB_

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  1. Hogaborgs BK Season 10 – Allsvenskan – 1st – Back to Back Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: We didn’t have that busy an offseason this season in terms of first team players though we did raid Brazilian side Santa Cruz bringing in 5 players for the future with Carlos Alberto just about forcing his way into first team reckoning towards the end of the season. Omar Lindstrom was the first major transfer of the window, despite coming in for free it took a big contract for us to be able to get him to join but fits well in both defense and defensive midfield. To end the off season transfer window we smashed our transfer record spending £3.4m on goalkeeper Adrian Ene who is now considered a wonderkid. It was a high initial fee but he looks very good. The only other signing we made in the midseason window was Scott McTominay, he is getting to the end of his career but is still a solid midfielder for our level with good versatility. Outgoings: With us breaking the bank for a new goalkeeper we had to say goodbye to the goalkeeper we’d bought the season prior as we managed to get £1m for Lund. The other outgoing was not one that we needed to make as he was still featuring often enough but with young players coming through not much worse who can get homegrown I sold Maric for a healthy £1.5m. League: The season started poorly a 3-1 home loss in the season opener but we quickly shuck that off not conceding a goal in the following 5 winning them all. Despite a few more losses than I would want the first half of the season was very good for us, in fact two thirds of the season in results terms. Though we were playing a little frustratingly making it harder to win games than we should with us missing a lot of chances. September was where we started to really struggle, we lost 3 of 6 games and went from out on our own for our title defence to being 4 points behind top with 2 games remaining. Thankfully we won our penultimate game with top only managing to draw which meant we had to win and them lose on the final game for us to win the title and, for the second season in a row, the final game of the season had 1st vs 2nd in a winner take all match. We started the game pretty shakily before we got a penalty against the run of play which we converted to go 1 up, (we then missed another penalty 2 minutes later). From there we didn’t look back and ultimately went on to win the game 3-0 and leapfrog Djurgardens on the final day to win the league again. On the balance of the season I think we probably deserved the league, but we so very nearly bottled it. It does mean that since the start of the save we became the first team to retain their league title. Cup: We comfortably navigated the group stages in the cup before comfortably winning in the quarter final to secure our best ever showing. We followed this by taking till extra time against Elfsborg before Jibuti came off the bench to score a hattrick and fire us into our first ever cup final. The cup final was a poor affair, we did not show up in the slightest even with them down to 10 men for all of the second half as they won 1-0 with us missing a penalty in the 90th minute to boot. Europe: Europa League We finished off the group stages in the Europa League with a loss against Chelsea before beating Basel 4-1 to finish 8th in the group stage and secure progression straight to the round of 16. We actually managed to go one further, beating Midtjylland 5-2 on aggregate which saw us pitted against a team who had already beaten us this season Chelsea in the Quarter Final. The first leg completely killed us off as we lost 5-0 on the night, we did save some face at least in our home leg as we won 1-0 but that was the end of our Europa League journey. Champions League This season, we of course qualified for the Champions League playoff where we beat Basel 5-2 on aggregate to secure our first appearance in the Champions League group stages. It started of fantastically for us as we topped the group after a 5-0 opening day victory against Finland’s HJK. Alas, the fairytale didn’t last so long as Villareal comfortably dispatched of us in the next fixture before we earned an admirable draw against Juventus. We then lost a winnable game against Rennes in which they scored in second half injury time to snatch the win. We did bounce back by beating Shaktar in the next game at least comfortable even if down to 10 men for a large portion of the game. Tottenham beat us handily in the final group stage game before the new year which sees us in 27th. We have 2 games left which are tough so I’m not sure our chances of progression really as we face both Liverpool and Bayern Munich in January. Weirdly, the Champions League rules don’t stipulate a minimum capacity for the stadium so we’ve been playing our home games in our 3.5k capacity stadium which is a shame as it lowers our income from gate receipts. Next Season/General Our formation has brought us a lot of success, but I’m actually contemplating changing it and perhaps switching to a formation with wingers/inside forwards. I don’t really have many players in terms of wide players but I want to try and fix whatever is causing us to undershoot our xG. Even if I don’t change up the formation, an area I do want to strengthen is central midfield and perhaps also in the fullback areas. I need to start removing foreign players from the team who aren’t going to improve to the level we need them to be and replace them with youngsters who maybe aren’t as good now, but can be plus can be eventually considered homegrown. Next season we will have our new stadium as it finishes construction before the new season kicks off. We have also upgraded our youth recruitment, training and youth facilities which is a good step forward. I am hoping that at some point we can have a youth prospect find their way through to the first team squad but no one so far has really been close to trouble the squad. I hope our new stadium will have expansion capacity as I would not be too surprised if we expand to a point where we're selling it out constantly. Players of note Sinval Keller - By average ratings Keller was our best player, but I feel he was a little underwhelming at times this season, he started like a man possessed but ultimately only ended up with 12 league goals this season, he did chip in with a good few assists but his goalscoring output I had hoped would be higher. Deninho - He scores goals, he’s rapidly catching Jibuti for total goals for the club but again, I think he had a poor season by his standard, less goal contributions in the league than both his previous 2 seasons. I am tempted to sell him, not because of having a down season, but as he has a high value and he is probably at his ceiling, which is still probably our best player, but I don’t think for too much longer. Marko Ljubisic – Central defense is probably the position I rotate the most in the team so for Ljubisic to have featured in all but 4 league games means he was doing well (though he did also fill in defensive midfield from time to time). A very good free transfer when we got him and could now potentially be called up for Sweden. Karoly Varga – Varga had his best season for us this time out operating in central midfield or attacking midfield where the need arose 11 goals and 6 assists in the league and ever improving. He was subject to bids from the big guns of Europe in the mid-season window so I think we will have a task to keep him still. Overview
  2. Hogaborgs BK Season 9 – Allsvenskan – 1st – Champions! Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: The off season was again quiet in terms of overall numbers of players brought in, but we actually spent more money this season rather than cheap or free transfers. First in was Melberg a Swedish defender who just strengthened our homegrown contingent he came in for £190k. Lund was our next first team signing as we upgraded in the goalkeeping area spending £525k to bring him in – he was our second choice of signing, but the main guy wanted £20k per week on top of the £20k per week the selling club would cover. Penn was our only first team free transfer of the off season, the American Central midfielder bolstering our ranks in that position. Our final money signing was Kallman for £700k a Swedish right back in what was an area of weakness for us coming into the season. In the mid season window we did bring in a few players to just strengthen our overall squad depth to cover for injuries, suspensions and fixture congestion. Fullbacks Dapo and Jallow both came in with Jallow also being homegrown before I signed Collingwood to provide more depth in the midfield area. Outgoings: Our first major outgoing was Peacock who we had brought in last season, but we could get some good value out of him as he left for £1.6m. As we had brought in a new goalkeeper we also sold our previous seasons keeper King for £500k. He had actually handed in a transfer request before we’d replaced him so it was a no brainer to sell him and his sale pretty much offset the deal for his replacement. Tannor who had been a good striker for us the past few seasons also left us, he was in the last year of his deal and I wasn’t planning to extend so when he agreed a pre-contract with Empoli I persuaded them to give us £160k for him to transfer immediately – he was replaced my returning loanees. League: The start of the season was pretty much a carbon copy of last season with us sprinting out the blocks, our only blemishes in our opening 12 games was a 2-2 draw against the team who ultimately finished second in Djurgardens where we went down to 10 men after 20 minutes, and a poor 1-0 loss where we just didn’t take out chances before again being reduced to 10 men only to concede a late goal and lose. July was when we started to wobble a little as we went through the 4 game month without a win, though only one loss but we soon regained our composure and went back to winning games until we got the dreaded inbox item telling us that we were one win away from a new club record so the next game we lost the lead 3 times in a 4-4 draw and didn’t win either of the next two – drawing one and losing one. This took us into the last game of the season top by one point but playing 3rd who were only 2 points behind us meaning if we lost we could still yet finish 3rd. In fact, after a 17th minute goal for BK Hacken we were 3rd on the live league table, thankfully in the second half the players started to pick up their performance and we scored 3 with no reply to secure our first top flight title! Cup: A disappointing exit in the cup but we did get a tough group stage draw with Djurgardens ending up being our other top flight team. We did get through to the group stages again for next time out following an unconvincing 5-3 win. Europe: This season we were in the Champions League Qualifiers, facing off first against Dinamo Kyiv, we comfortably beat them in the first leg 3-0 before overcoming them in a tighter second leg 2-1. Our reward was Besiktas where in the first leg we made a bright start scoring early before being reduced to 10 men with only 20 minutes played, we held on to win the first leg but I did think we would likely lose the second. 3 minutes into the second leg we found ourselves 2-0 down on the night with us looking to be in for a long night they got a 3rd before halftime and looked out of sight but we put in a great comeback in the second half to make it 3-2 on the night and through to extra time. They were again fast starters in extra time scoring to make it 4-3 on aggregate but we equalised in the last minute to take us to penalties which we duly won. We then faced Lyon in the final playoff and were bossed both legs losing 3-0 on aggregate and dropping into the Europa League. In the group stages I was not sure what to expect, but somehow we managed to overcome Porto in our first game before losing to Montpellier in the second. LASK Linz were are next opponent and we comfortably beat them (both games we had won so far had been our home games) before we had a trip to Greece and Olympiakos. They had started the group stages poorly winning one from 3 conceding 9 goals in the process, we seized on that defensive frailty and managed to record a 5-0 away win. We then took the trip to Cyprus to play a Famagusta side who were last in the table losing all 4 of their games which we promptly made 5. We then welcomed Celtic to Sweden and recorded a comprehensive 5-1 victory. We do still have 2 games remaining in the groups which are taking place in January for some reason but find ourselves in a prime position to qualify for the next round currently finding ourselves 3rd in the group. Next Season/General We’ve got to look at trying to retain the title next season, since the start of the save no team has managed to win back to back. We do need to bring in some more depth in some areas of the pitch but on the whole I’m happy with how the squad is looking so we don’t need any major changes unless there are any sales. We are ticking along nicely in terms of facilities upgrades with me mostly focusing on asking for those whenever we have the spare money to do so. I have also asked the board for a new stadium as we’re filling out ours on a weekly basis and it is too small for continental competition, unfortunately, it is planned to be 7k seated which is not going to be big enough for European football anyway, nor, what I hope to be our ever expanding fan base. Our Average attendance this season was 3000 higher than our stadium capacity due to the European games. [EDIT] One continue later, we are building a 8.1k capacity stadium, so it will be big enough for European games. Players of note Deninho – Picked up where he left off last season, a fantastic year for him averaging a goal a game in the league before picking up a broken toe that saw him out for 2 months. We were getting bids of about £7m for him this season which was a tempting proposition as I would say striker is our strongest position Sinval Keller - I had signed Keller 3 seasons since and he’s been out on loan since, including the first half of this season where he was scoring regularly for the team dead last in the league so I recalled him and he had a fantastic impact. He scored 18 goals and 8 assists in 23 appearances in all competitions in the second half of the season including 10 in the league as he pushed himself into the reckoning for first choice striker. Zarko Maric – Maric has been at the club a while but hasn’t really ever found himself first choice and, in truth, we did rotate a lot this season too but he performed very well for us throughout the season Paulo Vitor – Vitor again proved his worth this season, 9 goals and 9 assists a strong return for the attacking midfielder, I don’t think it is beyond the realms of possibility for him to take up Swedish citizenship and play for Sweden internationally. Overview
  3. It's telling that Elfsborg, who won the league, did not have any European football this season so were fresh to take advantage of all the teams around them having lots of football to play. Myself, I'm someway from the squad depth I would want but that's half the process. AIK almost pulled themselves out of it after a horrendous start, in the first half of the season they didn't even have a win to their name drawing 7 and losing 8 and only scoring 9 goals in the process. Last season Djurgardens actually flirted with relegation a bit after winning the title the season prior so seems there is some fluctuation between good seasons and bad seasons for teams
  4. Hogaborgs BK Season 8 – Allsvenskan – 2nd Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: In terms of players coming in to be immediate first team challengers we had a very quiet window. Ahmed came in to provide depth in midfield and fulfil homegrown quotas. Krusnell and a return for Tada were our next first team signings both arriving on loan for left and right back positions, I had hoped to ultimately bring in Tada when his contract expired but messed up and he’d already agreed to go elsewhere before I got round to offering. Peacock was another to provide depth in midfield a handy free transfer. Demitriou was the only first team signing we made in the midseason window following a sale of a defender. Outgoings: The incomings were quieter, the outgoings were quieter still, of players that weren’t completely out of favour or youngsters needing gametime the only outgoing we had was Barratt leaving for £1.6m. He is a decent player but never played too well for us plus we could get similar quality replacement cheaply so was a worthwhile sale. League: We had a fantastic start to the season not losing in our opening 10 matches winning 8 of them. I had hoped to not lose the 11th match of the season either as it preceded a 2 month break for the World Cup, alas, we lost it. After our break we came back swinging with a 5-1 victory, but then we started to show chinks in our armour as our European campaign started. We started to lose a lot more games, but largely due to us not taking our chances – an xG of 3.78 resulting in us scoring just 1 and losing as a result in what was a very frustrating time of it. Due to the European games we had plus it just happening to be a world cup year with a long break midseason, we were playing a lot of games and it was harming our consistency, we had dropped from the top of the league though still had games in hand to rectify that but were just not really playing well on the whole. Eventually a run of 5 games where we won just once saw the title for the first time in the season fall out of our control and actually, I was a little worried we could slump even further down the table which would have been extremely disappointing. Thankfully we did pick up winning 4 of our last 5 to secure 2nd including a final day victory over the team that finished 3rd. 2nd is a really good showing, but in my mind the title was ours to lose and we lost it. In other news, the team that pipped us to 3rd last season AIK ended up getting relegated this season for the first time in 25 years. Cup: We finally exited the group stage for the first time following 2 wins and a draw in our group which pitted us against IFK Goteberg in the Quarter Final, we did not play well though managed to hold out the initial 90 minutes at 0-0. We then fell 2 behind in extra time with us only managing a consolation goal after that. We’ve again secured our spot in the group stages for next time out. Europe: Our first foray into Europe came in the Conference League the 2nd round pitting us against Valur of Iceland, I was unsure what to expect in terms of relative quality but we soon answered that as we won the first leg 6-0 which meant I rotated in the second leg losing 4-3 on the night. The next round saw us against Girona, this I thought would be as far as we got as to qualify from the Spanish league they must at least have something about them. Apparently not, as we again won convincingly in the first leg 4-1 this time, and again, lost 4-3 in the away leg. We then got dealt arguably the hardest possible draw – Manchester United. The first leg we didn’t embarrass ourselves leading 2-1 at half-time before they turned it around to take a 3-2 lead back to Old Trafford. Half time in the second leg was the same scoreline at Old Trafford 2-1 to us – level on aggregate. They took the game away from us in the second half though ultimately winning 5-2 on the night to make it seem not as close as it perhaps was. Alas we were out of the competition. Next Season/General Few transfers in the last couple of seasons means there are a few areas that do need addressing, both left and right back was supplemented by loan players. Left back we would have been fine, but Luiz tore his ACL so is out injured for a year right back we are very much lacking though so a busy window here. Defensive midfield is an area we need to start looking at as our starter here is 34 and declining physically. Goalkeeper is also an area I do want improvement in as I’m still to be convinced that King is good enough for the long term. The area I’m strongest is Striker, we have 3 good players there plus 2 players out on loan who have high potential (only reason they’re out on loan is they’ll have more gametime due to homegrown limitations for squad selection). So if we have to sell one of our strikers I’m not adverse to it in general as we still are in a gain money where possible stage as we are losing quite a lot in general due to lack of sponsorship and low attendances. Next season I want to aim to win the league, but I think we may encounter similar issues to this season once European Qualification rolls around. We are continuing to improve our facilities as soon as I have enough buffer in our balance so we should hopefully see some rewards from that sooner than later. Players of note Deninho – Our best striker this season, 27 goals and 11 assists in all competitions is a great showing as is an overall average rating of 7.51, above the rest this season. He is wanted and will never qualify to be home grown so I may end up selling him but he has had a great season. Giorgi Jibuti - After a fairly poor season last time out Jibuti was much better this season, 21 goals in all competitions he was back closer to his best. He was of course upstaged by Deninho this time out but played well nonetheless. Paulo Vitor – The 3rd of our attacking trio to have a good season, he did fall off a little midseason before ending the season strong eventually managing 10 goals and 7 assists, a little lower than we’ve come to expect from him but still a handy return. Anton Salestros – Our oldest player, but a player who performed well the majority of the time for us in defensive midfield. 8 assists overall is a good return but at 34 he is only going to start getting worse from here. We’ve him another year and I’m happy for him to play there but his place in the team is definitely under threat. Overview
  5. Hogaborgs BK Season 7 – Allsvenskan – 4th Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: A much quieter offseason this time out as we already have a good core of squad, but did bring in a few players nonetheless. First player came in before the league ticked over with Tannor, a Swedish homegrown striker, joining on a free to bolster our forward line. Varga was next in who I had signed to be a back up attacking midfielder, but ended up being a regular starter for us. Strid and Sallesteros both joined which added to our home grown contingent with both featuring a good amount in the team this season. Following poor goalkeeping in the first few games of the season I brought in King to be our first choice. In the midseason window following outgoings we did bring in a couple extra players to provide replacements for the players who had left. Barratt came in, who does look a very good player and provides cover at left back and centre back which is handy. Kakay was somewhat a panic signing but a solid option on the right of defense. Outgoings: Prada had already stated that he was going to leave on a free when his contract expired so I cashed in on him whilst I could securing a £115k +50% next sale fee for him nothing spectacular in fee but some money at least. By the time the mid-season window came about we were in deep debt, so I decided to cash in on Vitali as we got a £2.5m and 50% of next sale offer for him. My hope was this would mean that the board would not sell from under us, alas, this wasn’t the case as within one continue click the board had accepted, and the player had signed for, Nurnberg as Eduardo left for £1.3m. It was disappointing as he was on track to be homegrown at the club and a good right back and if I wanted to sell I could have gotten more for him. League: I was actually a little disappointed with our start to the season even though our second game this term was a 6-1 victory over last season’s 3rd place team, but that was the only real game that we looked that good in. We were still winning frequently, just was one of those where we just seemed a little leggy. Once King had joined we did start to be a bit better defensively even keeping 5 clean sheets in 6 games which for us is unheard of. This season was largely positive in results terms we just every so often just lost a couple which meant we never picked up a full head of steam but were still in and around the battle for the title (which as a second season at this level is very good). Three wins towards the end of the season, including 2 goals in the last 10 minutes to turn around the game for our victory with a loss for top of the table in the penultimate game saw us 2nd in the league going into the last match needing to better Hammarby’s result on the final day. We played poorly but were still drawing as the game was coming to it’s conclusion with Hammarby only drawing themselves which meant I went chasing a goal, unfortunately, we were hit on the counter and ended up losing with us dropping to 4th as a result. In the end, Hammarby scored a 90+3 minute winner so even if we’d have scored it would not have mattered. We have qualified for the Conference League next season which is a huge positive. Cup: The group stage from the last season’s cup started out well with us winning both our opening games, unfortunately, our fellow top flight team were a tough one with Elfsborg coming out on top in the fixture between us so we exited at this stage. This season, we easily found our way through to the group stages with a 5-1 victory over lower league opposition. Next Season/General Despite finishing higher this season we actually only got 1 more point than the season prior but the league as a whole was much closer. Next season we’ve got to aim to give a good account of ourselves in Europe, hopefully bringing in some good funds along the way. We have a good chance of challenging for the league next season I feel though we do need to bring in more homegrown depth as a lot of the players for that are leaving at the end of the season. We have upgraded the training facilities finally and are getting some Youth coaching and recruitment upgrades so maybe in the future we can have some actual home grown players (our youth intakes so far have been awful really). I’m not improving youth facilities for now so I can try and improve the finances on the whole. Players of note Emmanual Tannor – We turned on a couple of other divisions as view only so Tannor found his way into the database, but a very good free signing and homegrown to boot. 18 goals in the league for us is a good showing as he fought his way against 2 good options to be the main striker. Paulo Vitor - Vitor started the season a man possessed racing to 6 goals in the opening 6 fixtures before settling down a little. He still had a very strong season ending with 11 goals and 8 assists in all competitions. A lot lower than his early season form suggested but still a very fruitful season for the attacking midfielder. Karoly Varga – As mentioned in the transfers, Varga was initially supposed to be Vitor’s backup, but forced his way into the squad as a started in central midfield. 5 goals and 13 assists a strong showing and a he’s developed very well this season so I’m hoping for more of the same. Giorgi Jibuti – Jibuti didn’t really have a good season by his standard, he started the season slowly so actually found himself probably 3rd choice up front, but towards the end of the season he seemed to have got his mojo back ultimately ending with 12 league goals. The main reason for his inclusion here is that he is now our leading league appearance maker with now 96 and he became our first full international as he played and scored for Georgia. Overview
  6. I do love signing players for a fee and for them to be retiring one month into the season!
  7. Hogaborgs BK Season 6 – Allsvenskan – 6th Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: Our first handful of transfers were before the league reset and were all home grown players that added greater depth to the first team squad. We did also need to replace our outgoing loans as we only managed to keep hold of Tada. We had pre-agreed some deals so as soon as the window opened in came Eduardo (perhaps one we didn’t need given we kept Tada), Vitali, and Luiz as right back, centre back and left back respectively. It wasn’t too long coming before we brought in more defensive reinforcements as Nsubuga, a home grown player who was playing in Scotland, came in alongside centre back Maric. We then demolished our transfer record as we got the notification for the NxGn award and the player who came second was barely affordable for us, so in came Shantz for £1m, I think I probably overspent in terms of what we have in the bank but we have the 2nd place NxGn award winner at least. Midseason we brought in two reinforcements with Deninho coming in to bolster the attack and Farnerud coming in for midfield depth (though whilst he is Swedish, unfortunately he does not qualify as home grown). Outgoings: Thankfully, this season was much quieter on the outgoings with our only sales being players I didn’t consider as first choice options. Santos, a back up, left for £250k with 50% of next sale and Sakho a goalkeeper who has been in the Reserves since he arrived left for £200k, again with that 50% of next sale. Sigurbjonsson went a similar way, £100k, 50% next sale. The board did try and sell one player from under me as Paulo Vitor was attracting interest from a lot of German and French top flight clubs with the board eventually buckling and accepting a £1 million offer for him, I managed to protest it and subsequently get him to agree to a new contract. League: We had a inconsistent start to the season, but a start that I was more than happy with as we were pretty much showing lower midtable form, enough to avoid relegation which was our ultimate aim. However, in May, we decided that we liked to win games as we kicked off what would end up being a 7 match winning streak to catapult us up the table to be clear challengers within the top half of the table. We did start to falter a little after that as we started having more of our fixtures that were against the top teams in the league but we were still picking up solid wins every so often and at one point ended the gameweek in a continental qualification spot. Eventually we did drop down a bit following 3 games without a win but ended the season strong with 5 wins from 6 as we tried to wrestle an unlikely 4th spot. In the end we finished a very good 6th with all but 2 of our 8 losses being from teams who finished above us (2 were Malmo FF completing a double over us). Cup: We just about navigated our way through to the group stages for next season in the cup with a 1-0 victory against 3rd tier opposition. Next Season/General We have got to aim for another season at around the same level next time out, I’m hopeful that we can keep the core of the team together and continue to perform well but there are some areas we need to strengthen. Goalkeeper is one such area, I’m not fully convinced by my player in this position and feel we could do with an improvement if one presents themselves, attacking midfield is another, we have our best player in this position, but there is no real depth in case he is injured or suspended which is an issue. We upgraded both training and youth facilities this year and hopefully we can continue on that track this summer with a healthy amount of prize money from the league. Players of note Giorgi Jibuti – Continues to impress, he missed a fair chunk of the season with various injuries but still managed to score 19 times for us this season. He now counts as a homegrown player so I’m even more incentivised to keep hold of him. He has passed the 50 goal mark for the club, here’s to a few more. Paulo Vitor - Such a good player, he equalled the Allsvenskan record for assists with 10 this season chipping in with 7 goals for good measure. Given he signed a new contract I’m confident of keeping him at the club for the foreseeable. Travis Shantz – He started paying back some of his transfer fee with some good performances in the middle of the park. 2 goals and 6 assists is a strong showing and hopefully he will only get better from here. Overview
  8. All the Brazilians have come courtesy of Agent offers, took a bit of time after we were promoted to the Superatten, but eventually we just got loads of them all at lower league Brazilian teams so available for free. I haven't actually managed to extend my scouting range out of Sweden yet but, I'm still largely focusing on trying to bring in more homegrown players so it's not too bad.
  9. Fair enough, always curious how some players just seem to perform better despite not much difference in their attributes
  10. Hogaborgs BK Season 5 – Superatten – 1st Transfers (1) – Transfer (2) – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: We had a busy transfer window as we tried to get in more homegrown players so we could more easily fulfil the team requirements. Wallinder was the first as we upgraded our goalkeeper – the previous one was a foreign player too so makes it an even better transfer. Noori came in on loan to play as our defensive midfielder, not the best player, but not awful and again, homegrown. Backstrom, Stroud and Wikstrom all were signed to be good depth players again with that all important homegrown status. The best two incomings this offseason however, we Ljubisic, who I signed because he was straight into the first team quality player, but, after he signed I got a very welcome surprise that he was actually homegrown in Sweden somehow. Paulo Vitor was our best signing though, I had him on my radar from the previous season, but was only this summer that budget opened up to sign him. A shame we signed him after he was already 19 so he can never become home grown, but he’s a quality player so I can’t complain too much. Outgoings: This offseason was not without it’s frustrations, as the board decided to accept some transfers from under me which meant players I’d rather not have sold were sold, and for values well below their worth. Thankfully the best ones I did manage to get on a loan back for the season but that it was still a kick in the teeth. Tada was the first of the players that I did not want to, and for a measly £5.5k, thankfully the board did at least listen to my protest about putting a sell on fee which could net us a lot in the future. Valdares was the next, not as upset, but still frustrating we could do nothing about it. Nomelini and Naor we also sold from under us, both more back up than anything else. But first choice centre back Marquinihos was also sold without me agreeing which was really annoying, 5 players in one window with me not being able to do anything about it. Some I think I would have sold anyway due to lack of long contract but I think I could have bargained for more. League: This season started much the same as last time out, very strongly. After 6 games we’d conceded only once and won 5 of the 6 with goals for the most part being spread around multiple players. Alas, we then forgot how to defend for a bit as our next 4 games saw us concede 12 goals, though, our attack was still potent so we actually only lost once in that time, but it was a little frustrating that after starting strongly defensively we were now just open. That would probably be covered as our poor spell of the season as we just went about our business winning more often than not, however, we were not alone in this form with many of the teams around us also winning more often than not. However, our last 6 games ended up seeing us against the bottom 6 of the league so we managed to end the season well, aside from one disappointing game where we threw away a 3 goal lead to bottom of the league. We only reached the summit of the league in matchday 27, but stayed there for the rest of the season to win our second league and get promoted to the top flight. Cup: In the group stage of the cup we did pretty well all things considered, we had a close loss to Hammarby, who eventually won the top flight this season, before beating the other two in the group to finish second. This/next season’s cup was not the best though as we lost on penalties to a team the league below to not even reach the group stage this time out. Next Season/General Next season we have quite big issues all told. We will be losing all of the players that we have on loan that we had sold this season leaving some pretty big gaps as is expected when you lose strong players. Much like this season we are probably going to look to bring in stronger homegrown players but I can see the squad perhaps being weaker by the start of next season which is disappointing. The name of the game is to stay up, we need to improve our reputation as well as starting to get ourselves into a better position financially. We are lacking severely in terms of facility upgrades since we took charge so I would like to upgrade something given the chance. Players of note Giorgi Jibuti – What a player, one player I managed to keep away from being sold was Jibuti, even managing to get him to agree to a new long term contract with a 3 year extension too. 24 goals from 25 games, you can’t really ask for much more (except maybe less red cards, but 18 aggression runs that risk). Paulo Vitor - New signing this summer and a very positive one at that, 11 goals and 5 assists in the hole behind the strikers. I wasn’t expecting to be already playing using a trequartista, but Vitor proved good enough for me able to use him as one. Almar Muhsin – The remaining player from the front three also had a good season, brought in this summer to improve our homegrown quota and contributed very well. Not as prolific as Jibuti of course, but scored plenty crucial goals for us up front. Gilberto – Gilberto carried on where he left off last time out providing plenty assists, but this season he also scored 8 goals whilst busting forward from midfield. His 13 assists this season is incidentally more than any other player has in total since the start of the save. Overview
  11. Very much worth being my only paid signing, on a long contract too. That said, I haven't found any other Georgian players but then again, Jibuti was only an agent offer so maybe once I can scout their he can have a compatriot to join him. Congrats on your promotion, looks a pretty convincing promotion, two 20 goal striker is good going, hopefully they can keep it going up a tier Is there a reason you play Saulo and Menendez that way round? Figure Menendez slightly better finishing would maybe fair him better, though I guess Saulo does have the height advantage.
  12. Hogaborgs BK Season 4 – Superatten – 11th Transfers (1) – Transfer (2) – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: The offseason started off really slow, no players of quality were really coming through the scout reports. However, eventually we started getting a lot of agent offers for foreign players that were a lot better than what we had and were mostly available for free. Tada, Marquinhos, and Prada the pick of our free transfers. We did ‘splash’ the cash with a club record transfer of £8.5k for Jibuti who looked a very good striker for out level. In the mid-season window I did bring in another of the Brazilians that were offered as Gilberto joined our ranks alongside a few loanees that aimed to bolster our depth. Outgoings: Nothing much in terms of the outgoings, but we did sell one of the Brazilians we brought in the offseason that were more higher potential fringe players as Souza left for a healthy £36k fee with us retaining a 50% of next sale fee – hopefully will net us some funds in the future. League: We got off to a fantastic start, not losing any of our opening 5 games and drawing 2 which had me dreaming of what would have been an unbelievable back to back to back promotion. Alas, we soon came back to earth with a bump with a 4-0 loss to another team who had made a good start. Whilst we won our next game it did initiate a run of awful form for us which, including the aforementioned win, saw us win only twice in the next 10 fixtures and lost 7 as we slid down the league towards our predicted relegation fight. Eventually we did start scraping a few results which added the team morale sufficiently to take us from bad form to battling form. We were never really looking like pulling up trees since our very early season form but we were doing enough to keep our heads above water. In fact, following our long losing streak early in the season, we found ourselves in the relegation playoff positions, but we never dipped below that for the rest of the season and eventually avoided even the playoffs on the penultimate game. It was a good job as in our final game of the season we lost 5-1 to a team that was occupying one of the relegation playoff places – a disappointing end to an otherwise good season. Cup: The cup is weird, we won in our second round tie which puts us into the group stage for next season’s competition. Next Season/General I am very happy with securing our place in the same league next time out with my main transfer aims being to sign better home grown players with the requirement for us have at least 9 in our matchday squad. That said, pretty much all of our foreign imports, including those I brought in purely for their potential, are wanted by other clubs. So if I can sell them for good money and then bring in the next batch of agent offered players then hopefully we’ll be in a good position financially – currently we are very much not. Next season, we are looking to do the exact same, survive. I feel we have a good chance of doing so but it does depend on our offseason transfers. I will look to try and sign some high potential players should they come in my scout reports to maybe sell on before too long. Players of note Giorgi Jibuti – Our record signing and well he lived up to his price tag. He did start the season fantastically 8 goals in 5 games before dropping off a bit, but still did fire in 17 in the league which was a huge factor in our comfortable survival. Unfortunately he did miss 3 of his 4 penalties or he could have had a better return (and higher average rating – 7.3). Gilberto – Only with us for a 3rd of the season but was a great player since he arrived. He managed 6 assists in 9 starts which is actually joint most with Jibuti, I’m looking forward to what he can achieve next season. Erlend Jacobsen - An understandably worse season than last time out, but he still managed to keep 7 clean sheets which for sure helped our quest for survival. Overview
  13. I'm a bit surprised we managed it, though we were about mid-table predicted by the media so we had a fairly strong promoted squad (though still a welcome surprise to manage it, especially through the playoffs). Yeah, as soon as promotion was confirmed we immediately went professional, so undoubtedly will be losing money at a higher rate than we have previously. Thanks -- Where have you landed for your at least pre-season?
  14. Hogaborgs BK Season 3 – Division 1 Sodra – 2nd Promoted Via Playoffs Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: Another off season where we made a number of signings, this time including a few loans. Unlike previous seasons the new players this time round weren’t signed to be automatic starters as we look to start to get some semblance of consistency in the squad. The key signings were probably Tim Van Assema ,a utility midfielder who if needed could play centre back, and Erlend Jacobsen an upgrade in the goalkeeper position. Towards the end of the season with suspensions and injuries, I did bring in a few short term options to bolster the ranks that will likely not get any contract extension. Outgoings: Not many players out on loan this season, all of the outgoings though no where near the first team so I was happy to let them go. League: A league up, and a great start to the season, defensively superb. Aside from two consolation goals we conceded in second half stoppage time in our opening two games we did not concede in our opening 7 games. When we did concede, twice in 2 minutes in the next game, we did start to falter somewhat after our strong start winning just 3 of our next 11 games dropping from our early table topping position and a fair few points off even second. Despite our poor form we were still showing as top of the xG league table which was positive and negative in equal measure, positive that we were creating well, negative, we were poor at finishing. We did start to turn it around however picking up an important 2-1 victory against the then second placed team Falkenbergs FF. We soon found ourselves back in the driving seat for 2nd place, until we drew 0-0 with 3 matches to go despite putting up an xG of 2.3 which meant it was out of our hands. Somehow, Falkenbergs, who had leapfrogged us, somehow lost 3-0 to the team who had long since been relegated in what was only their 3rd win of the season (our aggregate against the same team was 7-0). This meant we needed to win on the final day and we had secured playoffs – in the end, despite only winning by 1 goal it was a comfortable win with our opponents scoring 2 consolation goals in the last few minutes. In the playoffs first leg we went 1 down to a first half penalty, and the rest of the game were very wasteful, missing the target on the vast majority of our shots but were the team in the ascendency and eventually got our just reward in grabbing an equaliser to draw the game where really we aught to have won. The second leg was much more even, but we were more clinical grabbing two early goals to put us in a strong position. Whilst we had chances to extend our lead further, they were also knocking and grabbed a goal back early in the second half from a defensive mishap. Fortunately, we ultimately managed to hang on to our lead and with it secured back to back promotions. Cup: We were not in any cups this season, so nothing to mention here. Next Season/General This season I had no idea what to expect, but our strong start to the season was a good litmus test for how we shaped up against the rest of the league. In the end, had we not reached the playoffs at least it would have been somewhat unjust with us actually underperforming when it comes to the xG league table which had us finishing top. We now are promoted to the professional leagues, so there is a lot of contracts that need to be converted from the team and several players I’m sure now making unfeasible demands for wages so I’m envisioning our toughest offseason and one where I need to be much less scattergun than I have been previously. A key issue with our team this season was not putting the ball in the net as often as we should have, but really I feel we will need bodies all over the pitch. Next season we really shouldn’t be doing anything other than aiming for survival, we’ve arguably risen too quickly as our reputation will make signings difficult but we can hopefully reap the benefits of being professional with additional training to improve those already at the club. Players of note William Nilsson – Another strong season from Nilsson in the heart of what ended up being the best defense in the league. He rarely plays badly for us and is a pretty well rounded player all told. I guess next season he may be past his limit, but I won’t write him off. Daniel Sellevoll – Sellevoll didn’t have as prolific a season as last, however, unlike many of our players he was outscoring his xG and putting in good performances, ending as our top scorer with a respectable 14. Alongside that he also put up the most assists in the team with 7. Erlend Jacobsen - Goalkeeper wasn’t actually an area we were too weak last season, but Jacobsen was an upgrade and available and he did not disappoint. He equalled the league record for clean sheets managing 13 though that could have been much better as we had 5 from just 7 games. Really, he performed exactly as expected, conceding as many as he was expected to but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Overview
  15. Yeah, this off season I think maybe due to our finances we can't even offer part time contracts, only non-contract ones which means we're less secure on the players that we will have for the following season. Survival it is!
  16. Hogaborgs BK Season 2 – Division 2 Sodra Gotaland – 1st Transfers – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: We were a lot less active in the window this season compare to last but still saw 14 (5 arrived before league reset) players arrive in the offseason. All of which were signed to be immediate contenders for the first team and represented big upgrades on our existing players. (Our pre-season media prediction went from bottom to top with our signings). Later into the season we did bring in some reinforcements as I let some young fringe players out on loan, but these mostly served as back up to our existing contingent of players. Outgoings: Players who’d now found their likely first team involvement limited were let go either permanently, or just out on loan. The major outgoing this season came in the mid-season window as Selven was sold for £8k rising to £10k as the board accepted above my head, though it is good money for us for a player who hadn’t been playing fantastically in the league. His buying club did offer us a loan back which I took up to prevent me having to source another striker. League: We started out or season in fine form, winning our opening 4 on the bounce, and only losing once of our opening 10 fixtures as we were looking set to provide justification for our pre-season billing as league favourites. In truth this season we just generally very good and in control of most the games we were competing in with us only really having one spell of poor form as we scored just 1 in a spell of 4 games which included 2 of only 3 losses all season. From there we never really looked back, a couple of draws that I feel we could have done better in but wins mostly. Despite our great form, we didn’t actually secure the title until the last game of the season as it was a title showdown with second place, winner takes all. After a cagey 1st half that ended 1-1, in which we were arguably 2nd best, we came out the traps quickly in the second half to take the lead before late on we added a second to secure the victory, title and promotion to the 3rd tier! Cup: We were not in any cups this season, so nothing to mention here. Next Season/General We don’t really have any money, so have not managed to improve my coaching badges, nor youth recruitment or junior coaching this year, maybe the next tier will give us more money but I don’t think it’s too likely. There is also some squad rules for players trained in Sweden we will need to be wary of due to us signing players from neighbouring countries. The initial aim for next season is very much survival, but I’m not too sure the difference in standards between the 3rd and 4th tiers so maybe we can go strong again next year. One thing I’m not yet settled on is a formation, currently I’m using a 4-4-2 diamond, but, depending on the personnel I can bring in that might change before too long – though I am a little reluctant to change a title winning formation prematurely. Players of note Johannes Selven – Two spells with us this season went a bit differently, whilst a permanent player he was solid if unspectacular, 7 goals in 17 appearances, but as a loan player he really stepped up netting 8 in 8 to end the season with 15 in total. I will see if I can extend his loan next season, but I think we may be looking for a new striker. William Nilsson – One of our offseason recruits, pretty well rounded for the level and was a strong player for us at centre back and chipped in with a few goals for good measure – actually our 4th top scorer. Daniel Sellevoll – Another of our summer recruits, Sellevoll was similar to Selven in ways, sometimes he was just incredible in front of goal, others he couldn’t hit a barn door. He ended up our top scorer with 16 in the league. Overview
  17. Hogaborgs BK Season 1 – Division 2 Sodra Gotaland – 10th Transfers (1) – Transfers (2) – Transfers (3) – Best XI – Squad – Key Player – Hot Prospect – Supporter Profile Overview Transfer Window: Incomings: As is often the case with the start of these, we inherited a squad of not very much quality and poor depth. That means we signed a lot of players this season in a pretty scattergun approach with us signing players in all positions even ones I ended up not using within my tactics as evidenced by 3 screenshots of incomings. Outgoings: Many of the players that were already in the club I ultimately let leave as they really weren’t fantastic. A few of the players we brought in early doors also left due to lack of playing time. League: I did not know what to expect from the league, we were predicted to be one of the league strugglers but won our first game 4-2 with us looking good value for the win leaving me to be hopeful for the season ahead. Alas, we then lost our next 4 bringing back down our expectations – we were in for a relegation battle. The 4 losses on the spin did see me change from wingers to a 442 diamond, or at least midway towards our 5th loss on the spin with the change in formation seeing us turn a 2 goal deficit into a 1 goal win (all 3 of our goals coming in stoppage time at the end of the second half). The formation change did improve our fortunes with us managing to find ourselves in mid-table but not really too far from the drop zone. Our form did drop off again towards the end of the season, in fact, we went 8 games without a victory as we started to drop back down the table. Fortunately, the latter 4 of those 8 games were actually draws which did mean we amassed enough points to avoid relegation both from automatic and playoff routes. Cup: We were not in any cups this season, so nothing to mention here. Next Season/General I managed to get a couple of coaching badges sorted this season and the board upgraded both youth recruitment and junior coaching, but, it will be a while before I see the benefits from that. Our intake has a lot of high potential players but I can’t see any really reaching it in honesty, more in need of players ready to go now. Players of note Mans Saebbo – I signed him after he scored 5 in a friendly, but didn’t really hit those heights in the league, but a1 in 2 scoring record isn’t too bad. Johannes Selven – Came in as one of our best players, but wasn’t perhaps as prolific as I would have hoped. He did end as both our top scorer and assister so perhaps I’m being a little harsh in my assessment. Overview
  18. Hogaborgs BK I have already completed one season on this and will cover first season accordingly, but will try and do opening post avoiding spoilers Division History Manager Profile Had to use this as my profile as I have completed a couple coaching badges since the start of the save. Everything else I neglected to document as I was too busy jumping in. It will be a bit varied from last season - my completion with Rhys Guppy leading the line for my Donegal Celtic side - the league I anticipate to be more of a challenge, but Champions League victory should be slightly easier. Either way, I'm looking forward to another journey and a new country I've not managed in before.
  19. I should learn to press continue a couple times after the end of the season.. if we get promoted next season we'll have this expansion for only a few games.
  20. Enfield Town Season 19 SkyBet Championship – 6th – Playoff Semi-Final Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Nothing to note from the summer this time out, no players sold, only some younger players going out to get game-time. League Despite losing 2 of our opening 4 games we actually had a pretty good start overall mostly due to scoring freely rather than being solid defensively. It wasn’t until the 10th game that we failed to score in a game – which ended up being one of only six times that we didn’t score in a match. Our strong scoring start meant that we were regulars of the top 6 for the large majority of the season. We briefly dropped out about halfway through the season, however, we quickly returned. The main ingredient in our successful season was winning games rather than drawing. We won only once less than eventual 2nd placed team Sheffield United they just happened to convert their losses to draws more frequently than us. At points during the second half of the season we were actually within 3 points of getting automatic promotion but we were never in a position where we weren’t chasing. We ultimately secured our playoff berth with 3 games remaining following a 90+2 minute penalty save by our ‘keeper. Unfortunately, we lost two of the next 3 games to see us in relatively poor form going into the playoffs. Portsmouth were our opponents for the playoff semi-finals and our tie got off to a poor start with Portsmouth taking a 2 goal lead into half time in our home leg. We did improve a little in the second half to reduce the deficit to 2-1, but it meant we had it all to do at Fratton Park. Ultimately, the second tie was almost a carbon copy of the first, they raced into a 2 goal lead on the night before we pulled on back in the second half. Portsmouth, in all fairness, were just better than us with their striker, Chris Owen, someone I’m happy to see the back of after he scored 9 goals past us this season. Cups A very disappointing exit in the first round of the League Cup as we were smashed 3-0 by lower league Cheltenham Town. The FA Cup was one of our better showings as we reached the 5th round after beating League One Blackpool and Championship Stoke before bowing our to Premier League Wolverhampton. Unfortunately, the Wolves game was at home otherwise we might have gained a bit of money from the tie. Youth Intake A very good intake with at least a couple of players who could already have some impact in the first team squad. Paul Cottrell 19 – Goes straight in as our back up attacking midfielder and I don’t think it will be too long before he becomes first choice. Very well rounded player with a pretty good personality. After coming through he came into the team to contribute 3 goals and 2 assists. I have high hopes for him. Jerome Brooks 19 - Another player who I can see troubling the first team picture in the not distant future. He has a good base for being a very useful midfielder for us going forward. Due to last years intake also containing a promising midfielder Brooks will get a bit longer to develop before being thrown into the first team but again, a pretty good personality and good attributes. Simon Davies 19 – More development required for Davies, but physically he’s pretty good so I’m hoping he can improve a decent bit technically and be a good option for us be it as a striker or attacking midfielder. Key Players Ed Stevens 13 – An ever consistent performer for us, Stevens again lead the way in average ratings managing 7.35 across the season. Just one goal and one assists to show for it but ever solid in our defense. Ken Cover 13 – Back to his best for us this season, 28 goals in the league (2 of which in the playoffs) and 9 assists too which is a really strong showing. Sean Papirnyk 10 – Papirnyk was subject to more rotation than Cover, but still hit 17 goals in the league which is good going from our second striker. He also hit 11 assists which was great to see. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead We upgraded our training facilities once and our youth facilities twice so we’re finally getting fully going in that regard. Due to facilities upgrades we are losing money but long term I’m sure it’ll pay off. Realistically we could do with a stadium expansion, but given how close we were to promotion this season and our stadium having a maximum capacity of about 10k I don’t want to spend the money only for us to need a new one should we get promoted. I’ve got to aim for the playoffs again next season. Last season when we finished 8th I thought it was a one off, but this season we have proven that we are a good team for this level. There is only Gareth Sullivan 17 that I feel we could lose this summer as half of the Premier League is interested in him but we do have at least some depth in that position and he should command a healthy fee. Notable Landmarks 300 Appearances Another two players passed the 300 mark for us this season: Nicolai Lauritsen 11 and Juan Calero 11 200 Appearances Two more players also passed the 200 appearance milestone this season both from the class of 13. Ken Cover 13, Ed Stevens 13 100 Appearances Neil Mitchel 11 – I think Mitchel did actually pass this milestone last season, but made a lot more appearances as a back up player to propel his total to a current 141 apperances for the club.. 100 Goals Ken Cover 13 – Cover becomes the 3rd youth player to pass the 100 goal mark for the club currently sitting at 122. 50 Goals Romario Wellard 11 – Wellard managed to get to the 50 mark this season following is 11 goals season from attacking midfield. 50 Assists Juan Calero 11 – Not only did he pass 300 apperances this season, Calero also became our 4th youth player to hit 50 assists for the club. 50 Clean Sheets Josh Mohammed 11 – It’s taken him over 250 appearances, but Mohammed becomes our first youth goalkeeper to amass over 50 clean sheets for the club
  21. Enfield Town Season 18 SkyBet Championship – 8th Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect A quiet time on the transfer front which is pretty much the norm. We did get a 50% of next transfer fee as Cardiff sold on Eirik Stensrud 10 was sold to League 2 for 120k. League It was a weird start to the season for us, we only lost once in our opening 10 fixtures but 6 of them ended in draws as we were trying to be hard to beat. However, the next 10 games saw us lose 6 and us finding ourselves in a very much midtable battle with about 10 teams having 6 points between them. The season as a whole seemed to follow the similar pattern, we were just generally in decent form, not good, but not bad plugging away and slowly but surely climbing the table and actually looking like an outside bet for the playoffs. Three wins on the bounce in March set us up only 2 points behind the playoffs with a final 7 games consisting on all of the bottom 3. Unfortunately, some late goals conceded saw us dropping points we really needed to have a shot. Our hopes ended in the penultimate game when a 85th minute penalty saw us drop 2 points and with it mathematically unable to reach the playoffs. In didn’t really matter in the end as we lost our last game to already relegated Huddersfield, a disappointing end to what was a fantastic season for us. Cups Not much to write home about in the cups, we won the first round of the League Cup against lower league opponents before again facing lower league opponents in the second round with the opposite outcome. The FA Cup gave us a tough draw against Chelsea which actually we held our own pretty well, conceding an 89th minute goal to be knocked out. I’d have quite liked the monetary boost from a game at Stamford Bridge. Youth Intake A reasonable intake this time round a few players in positions that have weak depth. Cormac Byrne 18 – Needs improvement in his physical and mental attributes, but in terms of pure defensive attributes – heading, tackling and marking – he’s a strong candidate to be in the first team reckoning within maybe even the next season. Kevin Shanahan 18 – Central midfield is a position we only really have 2 or 3 players I’m happy with in the first team so Shanahan will hopefully develop enough to be in the same reckoning. He does need to improve a bit to be an option for us but he’s already developing well since coming through so I have some hope. Matty Anderson 18 - A second in two years, a decent attacking midfield prospect. He’s a fair way to improve to be troubling the starters in the first team and not a great personality, but I have hope he can improve to be a useful player for us. Leon Edwards 18 – We haven’t really had much in the way of good prospects in goal for 7 or 8 seasons and whilst Edwards doesn’t really look too great he’s probably already our 2nd or 3rd best goalkeeper. Hopefully he will improve a lot to challenge for first choice but a second choice is still helpful really. Key Players Josh Mohammed 11 – A fantastic season for Mohammed, and clearly a key proponent of us going so well in the league. He saved 5 penalties this season to go with 30 expected goals prevented for us. Ed Stevens 13 – The only other player to average over a 7 this season which is a bit crazy considering how positive a season it was for us. He’s signed a new long term contract this season with a much higher release clause so I’m hopeful he’s here for the long haul now. Sean Papirnyk 10 – Papirnyk has generally been a consistent scorer for us, this season no real difference 16 goals from 29 starts is a good return. Since we got promoted from league two 3 seasons since his finishing has gone from 3 to 7 which is a pretty good improvement considering. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead We managed to improve both our youth and training facilities once we got our Championship money in the season as well as improve our youth recruitment. The board have also agreed to expand our stadium, but we had £3m in the bank at that point and now, well, don’t have that. We also secured our first affiliate club this season with Dulwich Hamlet being the lucky club. Despite being close to playoffs this season, it isn’t really my aim next to reach them. I’ll be happy with survival really anything else is a bonus. I feel overall the squad is getting stronger but we still lack general depth across the park. Notable Landmarks 700 Appearances Both Stephen O’Brien 1 and Kieran Preece 1 have managed to surpass 700 club appearances which is a great achievement. Both are very much down to bit part players and really don’t have the quality needed to compete at this level but still contribute decently enough. 300 Appearances 3 players passing this milestone from this season Sean Papirnyk 10, Romario Wellard 11 and Jason Bailey 8. 200 Appearances Another 2 players passing the 200 mark and both are regular starters so I see them reaching the higher milestones too. Josh Mohammed 11, Jamie Sandford 13 100 Appearances Ryan Evans 13 – The latest of the 13’s to pass 100 appearances, it took him a while as there was a player ahead of him at right back but he’s also trained up to play left wing back too so plays there. He needs a new contract, but keeps insisting on a £600k release fee so I've been putting it off in the hopes he'll remove that ask. 100 Goals Sean Papirnyk 10 – Papirnyk becomes only the second of our youth players to surpass 100 goals for the club after Kieran Preece. 50 Assists Romario Wellard 11 – Another seldom reached milestone passed this season with Wellard becoming the 3rd youth player to pass 50 assists for the club.
  22. Enfield Town Season 17 SkyBet Championship – 18th Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Following our promotion we did manage to keep hold of all our players, although, we did receive our highest offer for our players as Ken Cover 13 attracted bids towards the £2m mark – not worth selling for that. League We kicked off the season in emphatic fashion beating Huddersfield 3-0 though we were more so clinical than better than them. Unfortunately, the momentum from last season was soon cut out as former keeper Andrei Lefter 10 (unfortunately he's leaving Hull on a free transfer so our 50% of next sale is out the window) put in a player of the match performance in our second game to allow Hull to beat us 2-1 which saw us have some tough form not winning again for another 8 matches. In truth, the season on the whole we were pretty much just sitting above the relegation zone, having some bursts of good form before bad form took over but we never actually found ourselves in the relegation zone all season. Eventually we did secure our survival with 2 games remaining ending the season 6 points clear of the drop. Cups We didn’t win a cup game this season, bowing out at the first opportunity in both the League Cup and FA Cup. Youth Intake A much better intake this season with one player who goes straight into first team contention and a few others who don’t look too far short from providing us with options. Gareth Sullivan 17 – Looks very adept at as a full back with his attributes, he does need a bit of improvement of course, but looks to have a good base to provide us with a very capable player in the future. Harley Fisher 17 – Is probably better suited to being a central midfielder to striker, but I’m hopeful with his mental attributes he can provide a good supporting role up front in the future. Curtley Lumley 17 - We don’t actually have a lot of depth in attacking midfield, so Lumley is a welcome prospect Toib Bostwick 17 – Another welcome player in a weaker position, has a bit of developing to be doing, but he looks like he could be a good left wing back option for us. Key Players Ed Stevens 13 – Ever consistent performer for us always one of the best players on the pitch even if we are losing the game. I’m worried we’ll lose him this summer as he has what seems like half of the MLS interested in him. He does have a release fee of £1.8m but that’s only for domestic clubs in the division above so we aren’t forced to sell him aboard at least. Josh Mohammed 11 – A good season for Mohammed managing to keep 7 clean sheets but also being the league leader in expected goals prevented. Juan Calero 11 – Calero since we turned professional has played almost every league game for us, this season no different, missing just 3 games as he managed 7 assists in the end for us. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead As mentioned last summer we did get the go ahead to improve our youth facilities, however since then we’ve lost a lot of money throughout the season being at our worst place in terms of balance since we started. Next season the goal is pretty much to replicate this one, hopefully securing survival a little sooner. Next season I am looking to bed in some players who were out on loan to be first team players which will hopefully ultimately serve to improve the quality of the first eleven as they develop. Notable Landmarks Stephen O’Brien 1 – New club record holder for overall league appearances with 623 surpassing the 614 recorded by Muhammadu Faal. 300 Appearances Martin Parker 10 – Becomes only the 6th youth player to reach the 300 mark for the club though there are two more that should reach it next season. He’s coming towards the end of his first choice life at the club. 200 Appearances 2 players passing the 200 mark for the club, though both were fairly close to the mark last season regardless. The latter suggests he has a ‘dislike of the club’ and only a year left on his contract so will likely be sold if he has any suitors this summer. Juan Calero 11, Lee Brown 11 100 Appearances Ken Cover 13 – Now passed 100 appearances and would have potentially been the 3rd season on the bounce he passed 20 goals had he not picked up a couple of medium term injuries towards the end of the season.
  23. Enfield Town Season 16 SkyBet League 1 – 6th – Promotion via playoffs Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Just the one outgoing this summer with Eirik Stensrud 10 completing his transfer to Cardiff City. We did manage to get a few more of our youngsters out on loan. League We picked up this season where we left off the last, in good form. We only lost one of our opening 10 games and were actually occupying the automatic promotion places. Between 17th October and until the 2nd January there was only one time we didn’t have two games in a week and it really took its toll on our players in fitness terms and it told in patchy form. Even with the patchy form it was largely alternating wins and losses. Our form picked up a bit following that and we were relatively comfortable in the playoffs before we dropped off a lot from March onwards – we weren’t in poor form, but weren’t in good form really either. This meant when it came to the last game of the season we faced Birmingham in 7th (we were 5th) knowing that if we lost they’d leapfrog us leaving our fate in the team in 6th place – Blackpool. We weren’t really great in our game as Birmingham won 1-0 to secure their own playoff berth whilst leaving our chances out of our hands – thankfully, Blackpool also lost their last game and we finished 6th. The playoffs saw us against Cardiff with the first leg being an end to end affair which ultimately saw us lose 3-2 which meant we had to go to Cardiff and win to reach the final. The second leg was pretty much all Cardiff in terms chances 25 shots to 11 however, we were clinical, of our 6 shots on target we scored 5 of them ultimately winning 5-2 on the night and reaching the final. The final was a low key affair against AFC Wimbledon, although they did get reduced to 10 men after 30 minutes. Regardless, we couldn’t make our numbers advantage pay as we went all the way to penalties at 0-0. We scored all of our penalties whilst they missed 3 of their 4 as we won 4-1 on penalties and secured promotion to the Championship! Cups We did rotate a decent amount in the league cup for the first round, but were incredibly disappointing as we lost 8-0 to QPR. In the FA Cup we finally got a decent run, managing to make our way to the 3rd round as we again got heavily beaten, this time 6-1 by Middlesborough. We also had our best showing in the League Trophy, passing through the group stages before a bit of rotation in the first knockout and again lost pretty heavily – 4-0 to Maidstone. Youth Intake All in all, a pretty poor intake for us this season, not really sure if any of these will trouble the first team but maybe they can develop to be squad players at least. Axel Clunis 16 – A striker who has reasonable attributes, but nothing that excting. Would guess he will be able to act as a back up striker for us, but his mental attributes are far from ideal. He also does not have a great personality. Ciaran Reid 16 – To be fair, our defensive options are fairly limited so Reid does look like he may be able to provide a decent option as he does look like he could provide some depth there, but again poor personality and is not the fastest. Simon Braithwaite 16 - Unambitious is the common thread with our intake this season with Braithwaite no exception. He will be trained as a left wing back for us to add some depth there, but I’m hopeful he’ll not be someone we need to rely on for too long. Key Players Ken Cover 13 – A fantastic season from Cover setting club and league records along the way for assists. He also scored a lot for us and was easily the main component in our fantastic season. In the league this season he managed 36 goals and 21 assists which is a fantastic return. The downside is he's unhappy due to wanting to move to a bigger club, but we've him tied down on a long contract meaning we don't have to sell. Ed Stevens 13 – A solid season again for Stevens, again the main issue is that he requires a lot of time off for jadedness through the season. I’m hopeful that our promotion will mean we can agree a new contract with him, however, at the moment he is wanting a too low release fee. Juan Calero 11 – A strong season for Calero, 13 assists in the league is his best showing for us so far, and in average ratings terms this was his best showing for us also. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead Promotion via the playoffs was the best possible way for this season to go in financial terms as we get share of the 52k gate receipt for the final which means we end the season in the black for the first time in some time. I immediately requested youth facilities upgrades which were granted marking our first facilities upgrade since we started. Survival is the only thing on my mind, we're definitely not equipped quality wise for the Championship but I'm hoping Cover can fire in goals for fun again and see us safe in the league above for next season. What we really need to be doing is starting to make money without exceptional circumstances i.e cup runs or playoff finals so we can improve our infrastructure and start developing higher quality youth players. I would be far from surprised if next season we are far bottom of the league when considering our only results against higher league opposition this season were heavy defeats. Notable Landmarks 200 Appearances 4 of our players reached the 200 appearance mark this season. Sean Papirnyk 10, Romario Wellard 11, Jack Jones 9, Nicolai Lauritsen 11 100 Appearances 3 players passed the 100 appearance mark for us this season. Ed Stevens 13, Josh Mohammed 11, Jamie Sandford 13 50 Goals Ken Cover 13 – Cover has taken just two seasons to surpass the 50 goal mark and currently sits at 62 goals for the club. Lee Brown 11 – Never been a prolific striker, however, he consistently scores a decent amount each season so has this season also surpassed 50 goals.
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