benrollo

Got good numbers in the right areas hasn't he. Our senior side is probably strongest up front, need to make sure he gets minutes!

Appreciate it mate cheers! Being a Data Analyst for a living has its advantages

A pretty similar season to last time out really. Flirted with the playoffs but I don't think we were as good as our position shows - good home form carried us through to be honest. Youth players mostly played out of necessity than them blowing us away with their ability. We were super short at centre back, which is why Koichi Mori 24-6 ended up with most appearances of our graduates. He really is pretty crap, and our defense as a whole were way below J3 league average. Thankfully, offensively we were way above average, and that carried us through. Hiroki Scharod Akai was our best player, with 12 goals and 2 assists on his way to a 7.06 rating. Shinsuke Sato 24-2 was actually our best player average rating wise, but whilst he made 21 appearances, 16 were off the bench. We had multiple upgrades to Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching over the season, along with a training facilities upgrade too. Things might slow down a bit now until I can get those facilities upgraded again, but I'll keep pestering the board! On the 2025 graduates front, there was definitely a step up from 2024. But still nothing particularly mind blowing! Suzuki being marked as 5* potential probably says more about our coaching staff than his ability. But we were so weak at left back that he's already first choice! Quick and a decent finisher. Maybe not much more than that, but there could be something here if Kikuchi develops. A young promising keeper is always a nice sight. Those attributes don't really scream that he'll be ready any time soon though. Our 32 year old number 1 will need to stick around for a few more years I reckon!

With the financials I've seen so far with Criacao in J3, the money to fund youth recruitment and junior coaching etc is definitely there. It's simply a case of pestering the board enough to get them to cave in! I managed it by May time (started with them in January), and saw youth candidates come through in November.

I holidayed forward 3 seasons in Japan yesterday to check intakes. All clubs had yearly intakes of youngsters, but they didn't show up in that tab at all. A bug surely!

Another FM, another chance to dust off the Power BI report :D. A successful opening season. A real challenge starting with nothing on the youth front, but after constant pestering, the board relented about 3 months in to the season. Managed to get two more recruitment upgrades in over the season too. Things were shaky at times though. With only 14 players in the club, there were times when our backup keeper had to play out on pitch. And we regularly played with formations like this just to get the most out of the players we had. Far and away our outstanding looking prospect. We are actually relatively strong up top, but won't be long before Murakami is a regular I imagine. Sato had the highest total attribute count of all the new players, without standing out as much as Murakami. My weird asymmetric formation had a left winger and an AM, mostly because we had basically nobody able to play on the right. Not sure if Sato is that guy, but we'll find out. Probably says quite a bit that Hiraoka is a top 3 prospect. We're pretty thin on the ground. But I've got my eye on a potential ball winning midfielder here I think. Next season hopefully we push on with the upgrades and get some more promising prospects through. The squad are aging, with 9 of my original 14 aged 29 or older. So let's get some more talented fresh blood in there!

Edit: I actually wonder if there's a bug causing this conflict. Looking at the Intake Distribution, it looks like there are no players who have come through. Wonder if that's why it's a half star intake?

Honestly if they get the youth recruitment sorted for JFL clubs there's a lot of potential. Decent financials from what I can see so far. Waiting to see if I've managed to get my recruitment increased in sufficient time to get a batch of youngsters this season!

It took pretty much constant pestering for months but in mid May we've made a big step forward:

A pretty unremarkable 3-1 victory which we did just about deserve... Notable for the fact that Yu Kanoshima is my number 2 goalie. Outfield rating of 1, but 81% pass completion! 4 injuries and zero youth players = desperate times.

Ah this is interesting, and concerning. I'll holiday forward a few seasons and see what it looks like

Yeah that is painful. Hope my team at least have a few decent players kicking about to get off to a good start and get the board onside

So after 69 (nice) re-loads and 8 different teams coming up, I've decided to go for... Criacao finished 15th of 16 teams in 2022, but managed to avoid relegation because 2 teams from the JFL were promoted to the J3 league that season. Should be an interesting test!

Yeah Honda seem interesting. I'm on my 17th reset now and defo seen them the most. I wonder if that motor company money will help them out? Seen 6 different teams come up, but not Okinawa yet. I'm going to keep going Edit: Okinawa only got promoted into the 4th tier last season, would be a long shot to see them come up I think!

OK, more Japan spam and then I'm done until I find the right team! I've tested a few save points to get fresh teams on the 15th January, and it looks like 30th November might be the sweet spot. Save on that date, then holiday to the 15th January, and you should get fresh teams each time. Happy hunting!

haha yeah for sure! I'm hoping I can see Suzuka Point Getters come up. Side note, I was wondering how promotion was implemented in Japan, because IRL teams have to have a license in order to be eligible to be promoted to the J3. I just had Tokyo Musashino get promoted in a re-load who don't appear to have a license, so I guess any team can get promoted!

Looks like Japan resets on the 15th January. Now to see who comes up with a few reloads

Heck yeah, let's do this! Currently holidaying in Japan to work out dates etc

I'll be giving this a go as my customary beta save. Definitely want to give Japan a go, imagine they'll be popular this year!

This is a game changer by the way - superb tip!

European football secured! I was wondering if last season was a fluke, but we've only gone one better and got ourselves a top 4 finish! With us saying goodbye to club icon Anto Vasovic at the end of last season, we were finally going to see a new best player crowned. And that player was central defender Nemanja Milinkovic 26-7, who had a great season on his way to a 7.17 average rating. We conceded the least goals of any team outside of the top 2 this season, and Nemanja was a big part of that. As was his centre back partner László Marton 24-3, who was our second best performer with a 7.09 average. An excellent partnership that hopefully goes from strength to strength. Also coming in with a 7.09 average was wantaway midfielder George Booth 25-4. He decided mid-way through last season that he was going to lave at the end of his contract, and now he'll be doing just that in a few weeks. Pretty gutted about this one. Our graduate class preview was, for the first time, not 5*. The class itself did have 7 elite talents, but it dropped off pretty sharply after that. Page 1 -- Page 2 -- Page 3 Really like the look of Petar. A decent starting point from a technical and mental perspective, but needs some work in the gym. Another lad who could do with some physical development, but technicals and mentals again are a really good starting point. Very no-nonsense, and a long way to go. But he might have a chance. Off the field, nothing really happened. I did finish my Continental Pro license, which is nice. Here's my Overview. I'd love a few generous draws in the Europa Conference League to get a few quid in the bank - right now we're at a point where our youth setup is costing a few quid, and we end up barely breaking even once the end of season income comes in. And that's with us renting a much bigger stadium (hence the big jump up in our average attendance!)

Cheers @The7Striker! The high youth rating for Serbia certainly helps, in combination with our Junior Coaching being as high as it can be. Just wish we could get some decent personalities!

A superb season! I certainly cannot complain about a 4th place finish once we'd finished the Group A playoffs. Rather painful that a 4th place finish doesn't get us Europe, but let's not get greedy! What's this? A new player at the top of the average rating rankings? No. It's still Anto Vasovic! A 7.26 rating to go with 21 goals, despite my assistant thinking he's surplus to requirements. As things stand his contract is up at the end of the season. He wants 2 years, I only really want to give him one more (I know, where's my loyalty?!). We have a couple of promising youngsters who came through in the latest class who have already looked to get starts over Anto - more on them later. Dejan Đurović 24-5 (7.02 average) was next, scoring 4 and assisting an impressive 14 goals. Dejan was also one of the first players I've had who has been willing to sign a second contract, which is a big step. He has a pretty low release clause that I couldn't get around, but I'd rather have him here than be forced to sell him early. Keeper Goran Petrović 26-1 (7.01 average) was third, highlighting the fact we had contributors at both ends of the pitch. Our youth class again promised much, and delivered a pretty similar class overall to last season. Maybe a bit more of a drop off towards the bottom of this class, but some good looking players at the top. Nice physicals right away, and someone with a bit of technique and work rate. I think Vasilije has all the makings of our next pressing forward, and he's already made 5 starts up top, scoring 3 goals. More pace! They've been putting something in the water in Belgrade. Bojan should be out on the wing, and we're working on that happening. A promising looking full back who will be getting minutes before long. Let's take a look at some notable departures since I've been in charge: Dragoljub Tasic 24-1 actually hasn't yet made his debut for TSC, spending the last two seasons out with affiliate club Bajsa in the Serbian lower leagues. He looks decent though, surely they'll recall him next season. Dragan Radovic 24-4 is in the same boat as Tasic - yet to make his Partizan debut and on loan at Teleoptik. Certainly needs more development than Tasic. I'd be interested to see if he even makes it to Partizan. Mate Bagoly 25-1 is with Milan's under 20s, and now has 8 Hungary caps. He really looks like the real deal. He is listed for loan, and honestly I'm hoping he goes somewhere, gets in the shop window, and then gets sold for big money. Milos Svonja 25-3 is our latest sale, and it was done on my terms for once. I wanted to keep our funds ticking over, and with another 50% sell on clause if he does develop we can make a few more quid. Off the field, our youth facilities have been downgraded which is pretty painful. We haven't had the funds to get anything upgraded, and don't look like we will for a while yet. I did complete my Continental A license, and am working on the Pro. Here's my Overview. A great season that I'm not sure can be replicated, but we'll give it a good go.

This is the first I'd heard of it, and oh my word! The options

It must be easy to tell when my wife is away with work, because I get to post twice in one day Our first year in the Superliga was actually relatively comfortable. Yeah the goal difference at the end isn't great, but we did a good job of beating teams around us and being competitive against some of the bigger teams. We ended up topping Group B to finish the season which was really encouraging. Stop me if you've heard this one before - Anto Vasovic (7.27 Avg) was our best player. He's certainly on the decline, but 16 goals in the Superliga is no mean feat! Our half-Scot George Booth 25-4 came in next with a 7.06 average. He took advantage of the departure of Bagoly (we'll come to that) to be the driving force in our midfield, scoring 6 and setting up another half-dozen. Winger Dejan Durovic 24-5 (6.92 Avg) was third after finishing the season strong. We sold two starters this season. Dragan Radovic 24-4 actually did have a contract that ran for a couple more seasons, but his moaning was so toxic I ended up giving in. He moved to Partizan for £140k, along with a 50% next profit clause. Our other sale was accepted by the board, and it was superstar Mate Bagoly 25-1 who left. I always knew he wouldn't be sticking around here long. AC Milan ended up getting him for £600k - I managed to convince the board to add a sell on clause, and we got a 20% of next profit clause added. That may well come in handy, with him being valued at up to £14.5m already. On to the arrivals. Another promising looking class, and another set of graduates dripping with potential. Great to get an immediate contributor too, in the shape of... We are overloaded with right wingers, so I'm working on getting Markovic up to speed with the pressing forward role that he may well end up taking from Vasovic. Another right winger (and one who can't yet play in my system!). That dribbling though. Full of running and loves crunching people. My kind of central midfielder. Off the field, the Bagoly money was put to use immediately, getting us up to exceptional Junior Coaching, Recruitment up to adequate, and a Continental A license for me. Hopefully we'll get a couple more recruitment upgrades over the coming months too. Here's my Overview. I'm kind of counting down the days to getting a few quid in the bank for one of our sell on clauses. That could change things if we can get facilities upgraded, although I cannot request a youth facility upgrade at present. On the field, I'm not sure how much we will miss Bagoly - he was clearly a great player at our level but central midfield is one of my strongest areas of the pitch. Hopefully we can stay safe in the Superliga and get another great graduate class.