erik45

Yeah, I haven't had the best of luck with the sell-on clauses. I think I've sold one clause (for 1.07 m€ ) and only once I have gained a "real" sell-on payment (and that was a very small sale, we only got 750 € ). At the moment we have 6 sell-on clauses, but I think none of them are getting activated anytime soon. I'd say out of those 6 clauses, 4 of them have the potential to bring us 1+ million €.

Season 2041/2042 review. 2nd season in the National League and we were so, so close to make it the last. Three points from winning the league and one win away from promotion, but we just couldn't make it. Final league table. 100 goals and 93 points, what a season! It would be perfect, if we would have get promoted, but it didn't happen so we go again next season! AFC Wimbledon had an amazing end to the season, winning the last 8 in the row. Stockport choked during the spring. At one point they were in the lead on even points, but had three games in hand - I think they only got one point from those three games. To rub salt to the wound, the game notified me that our point tally is the highest without winning the title... xTable. I think I've never had a season with such a dominating xPts number. We outperformed that number quite well, especially considering we underperformed our xG. These numbers give me confidence we can be challenging for the title next season! Best XI. Once again this is basically the 1st XI. Only omission is... our best goalscorer?! Interesting. But I kind of agree, he was very inconsistent! Players by minutes. Eleven players started 30+ games, nice to have that kind of consistency without too many injuries! The 1st XI CBs had the most minutes, the difference between them being Mayman 28c's one sub appearance. He's been very consistent, although not amazing, player for us since returning to the club a few season ago. Players by average rating. Target man = good rating. Both Lowndes 40k and Dugdale 31c keep on getting high avg ratings every season. But what I'm really happy about is pressing forward Dingwall 39d getting such good ratings! Also, 4 out of the top 4 are younger than 20, nice! Players by goals. Smith 40a couldn't score from the penalty spot, but otherwise he was quite good. I don't know if I'm satisfied with 24 goals from our main goalscoring threat and penalty taker, but it is still the best in the team. He will leave us this summer, I really hope ManU has a proper plan to continue his development. Players by assists. The star of the show: Dingwall 39d! But after him it is quiet, next player getting only 8 assists. I don't know how this is the new record when Lowndes 40k had a better avg rating in the league this season? Did he play too few league games (22) to be considered for the record? Anyways, happy our player has the record! U18s league. This team is just levels above every other team in the league. How do U18s get promoted? By upgrading our youth level? By getting our senior side promoted? Unbeaten in the league is just amazing achievement, especially considering all the U18 players with even okay CA were even playing for the 1st team or loaned out. How could our 1st team learn from the youth when it. comes to scoring? Facility upgrade. This was a costly one, but we have the money for it. The playoff final brought over 0,5 m€ to us, and I decided to try all kinds of upgrades. Turning pro and getting youth facility upgrade were denied, but the board agreed to upgrade training facilities. Expiring loans. Three of the best CA players are leaving the team for good. I think we have good enough replacement for Broe 39a in the CM position and an okay player to replace RB Wellenreuther 38b. But I have no idea who will play advanced forward next season. I have two players out on loan who have scored 20+ goals this season in National South/North, maybe one of them is the answer? Ps. all the transfer deals for these players include massive sell-on clauses, could some of these deals bring us the big bucks? E.g. Wellenreuther 38b has been immediately put on the transfer list - and his worth 5+ m€!

Playoff final. No words... we played really well... until we didn't. We just totally stopped playing after the first half. I don't know what happened there. Our players were fresh and motivated, and the opponent didn't do massive changes to their tactic, but still something happened that made us just give up. They deservedly scored an equaliser, but the winning goal was just so, so frustrating. Their goalie just booted the ball and neither of our centre backs went for the ball. It went behind them, they just stayed still while their striker ran past them, took the ball and scored.

Playoff semi final. If we were inefficient in our attack during the regular season, it was because we saved all of the efficiency to the playoffs! We got a horrible start when Stockport scored after our goalie parried a free kick save straight to the path of their player. After that we got our game going and after the 3-1 just before half-time it was clear we were able to win this game. They got one back in the beginning of the 2nd half, but it was just a consolation for them and we killed off the game in the 65th minute with the 4-2 goal.

April 2042. What a month, one of the best we've had in this save! A very difficult schedule, but we battled magnificently! The big one was the away win against Stockport which gave us some breathing space between us and them. Then the win against Rochdale basically guaranteed our top three finish before we coasted past Halifax and Newport. Our defence is still a bit wobbly, but our attacking is just so much better than anyone else's at the moment that it makes it possible for us to win any game. In the previous months we've had some problems with finishing, but this month we were very efficient! Table. In the end our great run wasn't enough as Wimbledon had an even better run, winning the last 8 games! But 2nd position means skipping the first playoff round and getting the home advantage for the semis, so I'm not complaining! xPts table. I think I've never had this level of domination at the xG table. Almost seven expected points more than the next one? xG of 109?? Maybe I should be disappointed with finishing second..? We will face either Stockport of Corinthian-Casuals in the semis. My hopes are on Stockport as they've been a bit more favourable opponent for us.

March 2042. Not the best, but undefeated. In all the games, we were better, if you count being better by having better xGD. We created whopping 11.96 xG in these three games, but scored only 5 times. If we would be even a little more efficient, we would run with the title this season. Just look at this: Table. We had one game postponed, so there's still six games left for us. Winning all of them would give us a chance to fight for the title, that would be nice! International call-ups. Four players at international duty, that's a new record for us! And only one of the players is a loan player! On top of that, 16-year old Arnison 41a got called up for The Gambia - and played his first minutes for their national team! Here are the players that got called up for the first time: Upcoming fixtures. The postponed Stockport game will make April even more trickier than it already was. We've had some injuries and we don't have too many back-up players, so it will be interesting to see how our squad can take up this massive challenge. We will definitely be in the playoffs, but it would be so nice to be in top 3 to skip the first playoff round.

Youth intake 2042. No standout wonderkids here, but an interesting prospect to the midfield positions, a good keeper and a player from Montserrat! I'm not sure, but I think this might be the first time it is not a 5 star intake? The personalities are not the best. The top prospect, Wakeham 42a, is unambitious, but fortunately his determination is high. With some mentoring we might be able to "upgrade" his personality in a year or two. Here are my favourites + the Montserratian Dyer 42n: We haven't had too many midfielders who have solid defensive stats, this is a nice change! His passing stats aren't the best (yet), but I think I still want to play him as deep lying midfielder. Dyer 42n won't probably play for the first team, but I will make it my task to develop him as much as possible! If he fullfills his (low) potential he might be a handy player for the Montserratian national team. He will be only the 2nd Montserratian player to play at FC Isle of Man, Lucas Kirnon being the first in 2029-2031.

February 2042. Terrible loss against Tranmere, a great win against FGR and a frustrating draw against Wimbledon. Not the greatest month. Table. Four points from three games means we are a bit further away from the top than we were at the beginning of month. But there are still 9 games left to play and we are looking at least a place in the playoffs. Penalties. Here's one small challenge we've had this season. Our star, Smith 40a is our penalty taker. He's good, he's happy and there's no indication there should be any major problems with his penalty taking. But he has score only 1 of his five penalties?! Clause buyout. I noticed I had two clauses to sell. One was almost worthless, but this one, this one is a big clause! Mortimer 36a hasn't played a single league game for Bolton and his transfer value isn't that high, so getting 1m€ for 30 % sell-on clause is good enough for me. Finances. After selling the clause, we are rich! At least compared to our previous financial position. Upcoming fixtures. Really challenging month: Romford, Corinthian-Casuals and Stockport are all in the mix for playoff positions. BTW, why is it that Corinthian-Casuals can lure players from PL and CH to their amateur side?

January 2042. Almost a perfect month. The game against Kettering Town got rescheduled because of waterlogged pitch, so we had an internal friendly instead. The actual game against Kettering was a disaster. They are last in the league. Their player received a red card in the 3rd minute. What happens? They create unbelievably 2.3 xG (and we didn't do much better with 2.5) and end up winning the game, what?! If we had won that game we would've been at the top by three points at that time. I think that was FM's way of saying "not yet, my friend". Table. It is very tight at the top, but it looks like Stockport has the chance to run away with the title. They just keep grinding on wins. Their GK had 7.3 or more rating in all the games this month, he gives them the opportunity to win any game. My (updated) minimum goal is top 3, but I wouldn't count us out from the title battle. Finances. Nice small profit once again! Upcoming fixtures. What is this, why there are so few games? The Tranmere game will be huge, it is already our 4th game against them this season. If we win, we have a 5 point gap against them and if we lose it will be even tighter between us.

December 2041. In the FA Trophy game against Morecambe we created more than 3.0 xG, but scored only once... the rest of the month was much better. We are conceding way too many goals, but as long as we win most of the games, I can't be too bothered. Table. 6 wins in seven games shoots us up in the table. We are 2nd, only by goal difference. Well, there's one team that will most probably overtake us: Stockport have played five(?!) games fewer than us and they've been really strong. xG Table. This is just to show that our good performances are backed up by different xNumbers. We are doing really well (and I feel sorry for Maidstone ) Finances. Another strong month financially, mostly because of four home games + a cup game. Upcoming fixtures. Our 2nd XI will start the new year against Woking before our 1st takes the stage. This should be a strong month for us, we'll see if it will be.

Youth intake preview. As always, an excellent intake is coming. Good goalkeeper has been more of a rule than an exception in this save, but I'm happy to have more of them But mostly I'm excited about the "top prospect in the centre of the midfield". I think I need to change my HOYD at some point as we are producing waaaay too many wingers. Many of them can play in the attack or maybe even as a full back, but it is bit of waste of our good youth setup to have so many wingers. Only 9 of the 16 players are in positions we have in our formation.

November 2041. A very nice month. Corinthian-Casuals were too strong for our 2nd XI, but rest of the month was relatively smooth sailing. Highlight of the month was the 3-0 trashing of Stockport! Table. We climb up only one position, but it is very tight at the top. Couple of wins and we could be close to the top 2. International call-ups. Our two best players gets called-up again and both are doing well in their NTs. Broe 39a scored a hat-trick against Slovakia U21s! Upcoming fixtures. Veeeeeeery busy month. If we somehow manage to get through in the FA Trophy, I think there will be some re-scheduling. The 2nd XI needs to show their consistency in midweek games (and challenge for places in the 1st XI).

October 2041. Tranmere times three and then the heaviest loss in this save, what a month... We should've won the home cup game, but just couldn't find the net for the 2nd time after an early goal. Our 2nd XI played the other two games, and surprisingly won the league game. In the cup replay we almost pulled a miracle, but it just wasn't enough. No cup run this year. Rest of the month was fine until the Romford game. They created dozens of chances and took too many of them. 3-4 goals would've been fair, but our goalie was not having a good day (5.7 rating). Table. Not the best goal difference after the massive loss, but we are still in a good position. Now that there won't be any more FA Cup games, I think our stock will rise in the league. Finances. The 2 cup games brought a nice little boost to our finances. Facility upgrade. Youth facilities were upgraded earlier this season and now the training facility upgrade is completed as well! Now those are at adequate level, which is, well, adequate at this point of the save. Upcoming fixtures. No cup games to mess up the schedule, but still couple of midweek games. The Stockport and Corinthian-Casuals games will be the most interesting ones.

September 2041. Heyyy, an unbeaten month! Two annoying home draws, but still a very good month Table. We are in top 7, yee-haw! The league seems to be quite even, no team has more than 20 points after 10 games. Finances. After the monster income months of last season (because of cup success), it has been much more quiet now. We are practically breaking even, which is good enough. International call-ups. Two of the three players we sold and kept on loan with us got a call-up! Smith 40a for the England U20s and Broe 39a for the Ireland U21s The only downside is that they have and will miss multiple games as for some reason they play four international games in one window?! Upcoming fixtures. First busy month of the season as we start our journey in the FA Cup against Tranmere. It will be back-to-back games against them as we fave them in the league as well. Not the easiest opponent but I think we still have a fair chance of advancing.

August 2041. Definitely not the start we wanted - or even expected. Only six points from five games is much less than we deserved. The sample size is extremely small, but in xPts we are 2nd. For me, this means we are playing quite well, but being a bit wasteful in the attack and letting some easy goals in in the defence. The only solid piece of the puzzle has been Dugdale 31c who scored in all of the games! Table. Well, six points means we start the season in mid-table positions. FC United of Manchester, who had the worst odds for winning the league, have started really strongly! Scoring in all of the games wins you trophies. This time a small personal accolade for Dugdale 31c, but hopefully his great form will be rubbed on others as well. Upcoming fixtures. Our fixture list for the first two months of the season looks relatively easy, but I think August already taught me that looking easy is not the same as being easy. Still, we should have a strong chance of winning in all the games. And our 2nd XI will get their first game of the season against Kettering Town!

Season 2041/2042 preview. Second season in the National league. Last year we were three points outside of playoffs spots. If we can keep improving, we should be in the playoffs spots at the end of the season. What does our board think about this season? Board expectations. They are much more pessimistic/realistic than me about this season. Avoiding relegation is enough for them. I think we should be nowhere near relegation battle. Board culture. How have I disappointed them with developing players using the club's youth system?! At the moment we have only players from our youth system. We also have the youngest squad in the league (20.67). What could I do more??? New contract. I noticed my contract was ending at the end of the forthcoming season, so I asked for an extension - and got it! As a bonus, I got a little raise. Transfers. Big things happening at the transfer front! Sadly, we've sold our best three players. But it had to be done, as they were making noises about leaving. The positive thing is we have them all for one more season for loan. More about the deals below. I think this is the first time we got some real money out of a sell-on clause. Nothing major, but 13k€ is still something! This is the big one. All the big clubs were circling around him and I accepted 9 deals in the end and hoped he would choose the most beneficial deal for us. In the ideal world, I would've hoped Smith 40a moving to a Championship club before taking the step up to the PL. But he wanted to go straight to the deep end and I can't blame him. We get 200k upfront, a friendly, 2k per appearance for 50 games (= potentially 100k) and a profit clause. On top of that ManU offered a loan back. He's already a L1 level player, I don't understand why would they send him back to us?! But I'm not complaining! Only downside with this loan is that he can be recalled, which I think they might do if he becomes even better, or even more "too good" for this level. Just look at his valuation... The 2nd deal of the summer was much smaller, but still an important one. Wellenreuther 38b really wanted to leave, but his valuation was so low that it was impossible to get good money out of the transfer. In the end it was just 14k, but I really hope the profit clause will bring something to us. The friendly definitely will and I'm happy to have him on loan for another season. He's good, but he's wrong-footed to play right back, so he hasn't been that active providing chances to our strikers. The two previous deals were to expected to happen, but this one was not. When Wrexham came knocking and offering very little for our best CM Broe 39a, he immediately let me know he needs to leave us for Wrexham to get to play in CH. I thought I would have him for at least one more season before bigger teams notice him, but I was wrong. 57k€ is an okay amount of money, but I think we could've had at least double of that season later. But he's still going to be with us this season, as I got a loan back included in the deal. On top of the transfers, we got some "extra" money from the friendlies included in the previous deals. Coincidence or not, we faced both of the teams in the FA Cup last season. Finances. After the summer, we are making quite a bit of profit! Usually July is a month of financial loss, but this time the transfers turned it to profit. Facility upgrade. Our youth facilities were downgraded a while ago, and now we are back to the previous level. We also have a training facility upgrade going on, It will finish sometime in October. Media prediction. Usually I have this at the early parts of the preview, but as I wanted to showcase the transfers first, media prediction is now moved further. Last season we were predicted to finish 19th, now 15th. Last season we finished 8th, so now we finish 4th, right? Smith 40a is our star and the star of the league, making it to the media dream eleven. But he was not on the lists for predictions for top scorer or best player of the league?! In one month, his valuation has gone even further up, what's going on?? Our youth prospect is Arnison 41a, the best player from this spring's intake. He has started to develop nicely and is going to get some game time already this season. He's just too good for U18s, just look at his form: He also has switched his allegiance from England to Gambia, and there has been discussion about him making to their national team. He hasn't played any games for us and just six for the U18s but he's already in contention for a place in the men's national team?? He must be a very hot prospect! 1st XI. Some changes here as we lost a goalkeeper and a centre back from the XI. After a successful loan, Gilroy 38a takes the CB spot and our previous back-up goalie steps up to be #1. 2nd XI. This XI has seen so many players already during this season. Many of the players planned to play in this XI left for loan to get more guaranteed game time. Most of the players have already experience at this level, but the defence is relatively inexperienced. GK Montgomery 39c will play his first games for an adult side and Johnson 38c, Cleary 39k and Diamond 37e get rewarded with a place in the 2nd XI after loans. Pre-season friendlies. Many wins = very good. The Bolton win was the highlight and it is nice to see Smith 40a still has his scoring boots on. This pre-season I didn't have as many friendlies as could have had. The reason is the busy fixture list onwards from ~November. Last season we ran out of gas in March, I don't want that to happen again. Upcoming fixtures. A very straight-forward month: five games, all at Saturday 3pm. Gillingham is the only side expected to be better than us, so this schedule should give us an opportunity to start the season strongly.

The first season in National League - and quite a successful one! Let's dig deeper into it. Final league table. In the end it was Stevenage that took the 2nd promotion place, relying on penalties in two of the three playoff games. We were just left outside of playoff spots (thank you, miserable March), but 8th place is a good platform for the next season. xG table. We were pretty much where we "deserved" to be in the table. We scored and conceded more than the xG numbers suggested, and got almost the exact point tally as xPts. Stockport were the "luckiest of the season" but their luck didn't carry on to playoffs as they lost the final on penalties. We were considered the biggest overachievers, which I think is a compliment in this setting..? I think this just highlights we really need to continue developing our players and our system to have a chance for the playoffs for the next season. FA Cup review. If I doubt whether being "the overachievers" in the league is a compliment or not, I know that in the FA Cup it definitely is. We made it all the way to the fifth round, beating League 1 side Burton and Championship side Bolton during the run. In the end it was the mighty Man City who stopped us by winning 1-0 (scoring from a penalty ). What I think is really funny is that the club board wasn't that impressed. "Team outside of EFL making it to the fifth round, let's give them a... B+." Best XI. Is the same as 1st XI, only difference being Hayward 32k, who was injured for three months, being pushed out by Adams 30c. Players by minutes. Our latest (re-)signing clocked out more minutes than anybody else, that's quite surprising! Mayman 28c hasn't been amazing, but he's very solid and consistent enough to stay in the 1st XI. We will miss our loan players, as Mortimer 36a and Wilson 36b played the 2nd and 3rd most minutes this season. I'm happy they stayed with the team for "so long", leaving at the age of 21. Players by average rating (7.0 or higher). Unsurprisingly, Smith 40a was the star of the season. Target men (Dugdale 31c & Lowndes 40k), once again, got really good ratings and I'm happy to see four players younger than 20 in this list! Players by goals. 33 goals on his full debut season, that's just more than anyone could ask for. Scoring more than once every 90 mins, Smith 40a is just too good for us. Players by assists. Not only was Smith 40a our top goalscorer, but he also got the most assists?! He literally carried the team this season. Just look how good he was this season: breaking the league's record for average rating! No notes, just perfect. Record. New average attendance record, thanks to many games in FA Cup (and the higher division). Finances. This season our turnover got much bigger this season, thanks to cup games and facility upgrades. I was yet to post about the second upgrade, here it is: Transfers in. Two players we sold and kept them for another year for loan and one player who we signed for free after returning for us on loan. These three players played the most minutes by any of the club's players, so really important and really successful transfers! Transfers out. Two sales, a lot of loans and a few players leaving for free. I hope our and our players' reputations keep growing so we get more money from our talents in the future. I knew this was going to happen. Smith 40a has been wanted by almost all the clubs in PL and CH. He said he's going to be unsettled if we don't agree the S'oton deal, that's why it is a bit lower deal than the rest of the accepted ones. About half of the clubs offered a loan back, so I hope some of those clubs will be the one our wonderkid chooses. If I would be in Smith 40a's shoes, I would choose a smaller club with a clear path to the starting XI, maybe in the Championship. And I would definitely say no to a loan back to FC Isle of Man. He's a leading player at League 1 level, why would he stay with us?? Yes, he's from our academy and is a fan of the club, but still, it's just not realistic for him to stay on loan for us. But as I'm his manager and not him, I really hope he stays for another season!

April 2041. After a disappointing March, these were three solid games to end the season! We even had a new goalscorer in the loss against Corinthian-Casuals as Burdett 37d scored a consolation goal in the end. He had a successful loan at National League North, scoring 10 times and he returned a bit early to finish the season with us. Table. In the end we pushed so close to the playoffs. One win more and we would've been there. But being 8th on our first season at this level, that's more than decent final position! We were the 2nd best promoted side, Corinthian-Casuals doing even better than us. Record league appearances. This record feels big to me as it is a "marathon" record, now held by a youth product of our academy. Adams 30c has been a reliable soldier for us throughout the years. He's never been the star of the show and some seasons has had his playing time limited to impact sub, but he's still here. He's usually the CM for the 2nd XI but also the first choice to be moved to 1st XI if there are injuries. This season both the CM and DLP had injury problems, so Adams 30c took their place and played okay. As he's one of the few players who are 25+ he also has been mentoring some of the players. His personality isn't the best, but for unambitious players with low determination he's a quite solid mentor. Season review next!

March 2041. Aaaand we've run out of gas. Having two games a week throughout the season is just too much for us at the moment, even when we use 1st and 2nd XI evenly. These results reflect quite well how we played, maybe we should've gotten something out of the Stevenage game. Here's the main reason of our meltdown: we just don't have enough fresh players. We've had some small injuries and usually it has meant that a player in one of the XIs has suddenly played in both. Table. We are practically out of the promotion contest. It would've been nice to get there, but in the big picture, top 10 position for the first season at this level is more than satisfying. International call-up. Dingwall 39d is our 1st XI pressing forward. He doesn't have the best attributes for that (low teamwork and work rate being the Achilles' heel), but he's been doing quite well. He's also one of the very few players of making it to the international level. We've had some loan players playing these games, but not too many with a proper contract with us. Youth trophies. Our U18s just went and won it all. Okay, they didn't win the FA Youth Cup, but that was never going to happen. They won everything they can in reality win. Upcoming fixtures. Odd friendly to start the end of the season. Three teams above us in the league, we want to show them that we are going to challenge them next season for real!

Youth intake 2041. 2 players with 5 star potential and six players with more than 1 star in current ability, very nice! Let's take a close look at the intake. So many dual nationalities, I love it! Most of them have English as one of the nationalities, but then we have one IRL/COD and one NED/SUR - could he be new Clarence Seedorf or Edgar Davids? This is a quite nice intake, but there are some questions in the air. Can the best talents actually fulfil their potential? Balanced, low determination and unambitious (with determination of 4) are the personalities of the top three talents. I will try to use mentoring to make them better human beings and players. Here are the top three talents and two other of my favourites:

February 2041, part 2. As I already went through all the games and the league table for the month in the previous posts, I will skip those and move forward. Injuries. The Man City game was not gruelling only because of the result, but also by the injuries. We lost two key players, Hayward 32k for the rest of the season and Dugdale 31c until April. It wouldn't be a massive loss if we would have only one game a week, but at the pace of the 2 games a week we just don't have enough players. Finances. We've made soooooo much profit in the last two months, I'm in bit of a shock. Suddenly we have money for a second facility upgrade. But I think I'm going to put that on hold until the end of the season. If we somehow get promoted, I want to turn pro - and we need money for that. The chances for promotion are slim, but I'm not in a rush to use this money. (Okay I'm in a bit of a rush as I don't want to lose the money on taxes ) I think this shows quite well how extraordinary these past two months have been! March 2041. Still in one cup! And in the league we try to keep our playoff hopes alive, but it won't be easy as we start the month by facing the leader and finish the month by facing two sides battling for the promotion places.

FA Cup 6th round. I need to applaud SI for creating such a cruel game. The first half was relatively even when it comes to possession and chance creation, but in the second half Man City were just too good. I'm still amazed that we were able to create over 1.5 xG against the team at the top of the Premier League. The way the game was decided was just too much for me I'd love to think there were accusations of corruption after the penalty call, it just felt so, so unfair. Not in a way that they wouldn't have deserved the goal, but in a David vs. Goliath way. David didn't win in the end, what is that?! I'm just so proud of the team after this crazy cup run!

February 2041. Through in the cups, that's all I can remember from this month. It is just too hectic at the moment, no time to think or hesitate! The only mid-week break between Romford and Yeovil games allowed me to change rhythm of the 1st XI for the weekends / 2nd XI for the mid-week, so our 1st XI would be fresh for the Man City game that awaits us. Table. We still have a chance of making it to the playoffs, but I don't think we are real contenders for promotion. I'm happy as long as we keep the top 10 position, which looks close to secured. Money, money, money. I noticed we were able to sell the sell-on clause from Dyer 37a's transfer. He's a Marine (L1) player but is loaned out to Aldershot in League 2. He's still only 20 years old and has some potential to be fulfilled. But he isn't playing that well (3G+2A in 55 league games after leaving us), so I don't know if he's going to move on from Marine with a big transfer. Getting over 120 k€ from the sell-on clause feels at the moment like a very good deal for us. Of course we get another televised game, as we are the last team from National League in the competition. Actually, there's no teams from League Two and only one from League One in the competition, so we are truly outliers right now. New affiliate. In the beginning of the save we had Guernsey as our affiliate, but at some point the board cut the ties to the Crown Dependency on the other side of England. As we have had multiple promotions after that, I decided it was time to ask for a new affiliate to have a team to loan players to. There wasn't any amazing options. Harleston Town play four divisions below us and that level is no longer active in my save. But it's still something, I would like to have multiple teams, maybe even outside of UK at some point. FA Cup 6th round preview. Our odds are just 8.00?! I would've thought it should've been north of 20.00. Yes, Man City will probably rest their best players, but they should be slaughtering us, even if they use academy kids.

FA Cup 4rd round replay. Bye bye Bolton, you had no chance against us! They took the early lead after ten minutes from a low cross, but after that it was pretty much one-way traffic for the rest of the game. Their manager Harry Clarke had said before the game that he's happy to have such an easy opponent, maybe that gave some extra motivation for me and the players. Smith 40a had another amazing game, scoring two. He's now wanted by almost all of the top clubs in England. Man United offered something like 50k€ + sell-on clause + friendly, but as he's still happy to stay, I want to develop him here and max out the selling price. At the time of writing this, his value has gone from January's 24-40 k€ to 75-130 k€. Our star player was deservedly the POTM, but my favourite moment of the game was Dingwall 39d's goal. The 168 cm tall pressing forward won an aerial duel in the opposition box, controlled the ball, turned around and glided around three Bolton defenders before hitting it perfectly right under the bar to make it 2-1. The replay brought us a lot of money (just like @shd34_216_42 said). 150k TV money + 142k prize money + 70k gate receipts = over 350 k€. FA Cup 5th round. This will be so amazing! Away fixture would've brought us much more money, but it is such a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to host Man City's superteam at the Isle of Man. They haven't been as dominant as they used to be, but they did win the Premier League last season and won the Champions League the season before that. If I could choose, I would give free tickets to this game for as many locals as possible. Man City are going to destroy us, but I don't care, it will be amazing no matter what happens.