TheLutterworthFox

December 2031 This season seems to be flying by, the fact we're so far ahead in the league means I can take my eye away from it and concentrate fully on Europe! I've massively mixed the team about and whoever comes in does an amazing job. That 3-3 draw against Villarreal was brilliant, we were 3-1 down at half time, we now have 10 points from 6 games, I think 1 more point will be enough to get into the playoff round, we have Barca (A) and Marseille (H), I fully expect us to do what is needed against Marseille A few more academy lads have played this month and in the final game of the month against Bangor, 2031 intake player Keith Kennedy scored his first league goals for the club. In other news one of our player won the Welsh Player of the Year. Weirdly enough, with us play 4231 with 2 DMs Julian Gordon hasn't played that much this season but still wins the award, Johnson Fernandes came 3rd! And in the Welsh Young Player of the Year Tom Torr ends 2nd above Johnson Fernandes.

November 2031 Firstly the Euro 2032 Qualifying is over, we had a tough-looking group with Ukraine and Norway in it but we did amazingly! Only two defeats and they were both to Ukraine, we beat Norway twice but they had no Haaland both times. Overall though a brilliant qualifying and that means we're going to the Euros for the first time since Euro 2020! In that final game I gave a debut to one of our own from Barry Town, Johnson Fernandes, who came through the 2029 intake is now a fixture in the first team and has put in some brilliant displays, he deserved his chance and played well against a strong Ukraine team. Fantastic! Now to domestic action and it's been another really good month. Just look at those Champions League wins, away victories over Leverkusen and PAOK, we've won 3 of our 5 games and now have a really good chance of making it into the knockouts! The league is all but over already!

October 2031 Firstly, some big news, my Summer signing Gajdos has eventually had a work permit accepted, he is currently out on loan at Werder Bremen and I'll now be recalling him as soon as I can. Now to the results. Overall really good with two exceptions, we managed to get dumped out of both the League Cup and Challenge Cup, really annoying as I was attempting to win all four domestic trophies in a season, something I've not done so far. The good news is we claimed our first points of the Champions League and are smashing it in the league, plus Steven Allan eventually scored! Absolutely miles clear!!!!

September 2031 And there goes our shot at an unbeaten season! It's been a weird start, we score 10 goals in 2 games but in the rest we've really struggled to break teams down, maybe we're so good now that teams just want to park the bus against us. Steven Allan, the master goalscorer hasn't scored all month now! Still top though! In other news, we have another player leaving for a big profit Left Back Sam Stewart is moving to Rangers for £1.1m + addons, signed on a free so a good profit, he will stay here for the rest of the season on loan.

August 2031 For the second straight season we've done it! We've made it into the League Phase of the Champions League! That playoff round was tense but we did it....just! And we have some really tough games but also, personally, some games we have a chance of winning. Unfortunately we were once again the only Welsh team to get to the League Phase of a European competition, Llanelli made it all the way to the final qualifying round of the Conference League before losing to Demirspor 4-0 on aggregate, they're getting closer! Domestically it's started as well as expected, I've mixed the team around a lot but it's not had any affect on results, in fact this has been the best start we've had so far. Haverfordwest got absolutely spanked!!! It's nice to see the intake players still doing the business, Carroll, Fernandes and Torr, the midfield trio are just incredible.

July 2031 It's been another busy Summer, lots of players leaving, all because their contracts expired and lots of players joining. I've handed a bit of money to a couple of fellow Cymru Premier clubs but mainly I've invested in future prospects who cost me very little, hopefully they can improve here, take us to the next level in Europe and maybe make a decent profit in the transfer market. Firstly, the players to leave. A lot! The main headlines there are Headley (LB), Collins (LW), Jarman (CB) and Robinson (RB). All had just outgrown the journey and just weren't good enough. Now for the in's Nathan Williams - Attacking Midfield/Striker - Free from Cardiff A top quality, young forward who will add good depth to the squad. Josh Taylor - Central Midfield - £2m from Connah's Quay One of two players I overspent on to hand some money to other Welsh clubs. Overall though he's a decent midfielder who will definitely do a good job. Ryan Quigley - Right Wing - £2.5m from Haverfordwest And here is the second of those players, a highly rated, young Welsh winger, I only overspent slightly but I feel he's worth. The big news from this deal was it gave Haverfordwest the money to turn professional, the second club this Summer to do that after Llanelli Town. Miroslav Gajdos - Defensive Midfield - Free from Cardiff I took a gamble here, this lad is top, top quality, a certain start, the big issue is his work permit got rejected, I decided to do the deal anyway as the transfer fee was nothing. He is going to spend the season on loan at Werder Bremen, let's hope he plays! Mads Jacobsen - Striker - Free from Man United Another talented, young forward signed for nothing. He already looks amazingly good, he will definitely get some game-time in the domestic competitions this season. Matthew Brook - Right Back - Free from Man City And another really good, young player, his physicals are what drew me to him, a brilliant signing. Connah Ong - Left Wing - Free Newcastle Another 5* rated player, again he looks first-team ready and will definitely get game-time in domestic competitions this season. Eric Brennan - Goalkeeper - £63k from Blackburn With Taylor leaving, he signed a deal to join Wolves last season but stayed here on loan, I needed a new GK, I found it really hard to find the right player for the right fee. Brennan looks decent enough for now but I will need to bring in someone better in the next season or so. A really, really good Summer, some top quality young players, all who are rated really highly, let's hope they progress as well as I hope! Now for the early results and July is dominated with Champions League qualifiers. We've done well so far. Two round negotiated with ease, next up we face Slovakian side Dunajská Streda. Unfortunately it hasn't gone well for the other Welsh club. Penybont, who are in the Cymru South but are in the Europa League qualifiers as they won the Welsh Cup went out in the 1st qualifying round, TNS lost at the first hurdle in the Conference League 2nd qualifying round. Llanelli Town however did make it through the Conference League 2nd qualifying round, beating Maccabi Tel-Aviv, we really need them to get into the League Phase! In other news, we have another training facility upgrade agreed. A large amount of money but I want my facilities max-ed out as much as I can and the training facilities are the only thing I can ask to upgrade. Rankings wise, the League has seen another decent jump in the competition rankings. And we are now the 60th best team in Europe! Wales has also seen a jump in it's co-efficient, a 5 place rise to 24th.

MAJOR NEWS!!! It took me complaining like crazy and leaking it to the press but the board caved in and have agreed to look into building a new stadium!!! 13,000 capacity! This is massive!

2030/31 End of Season Review Another brilliant season Our highest points total in the league so far in the save, our best run in the Champions League and a total of 2 domestic trophies, our only failure was in the Welsh Cup, overall though, what a season! I'm expecting a big change in players again this Summer, we have quite a few players who really aren't up to scratch and have fallen away who are out of contract, my plan is to let them go and bring newer, younger players in, players who I can improve, will make our squad better and maybe I can sell for a profit. But, just in case I want to splash the cash, the board have given me sizeable budgets. Nearly £10m in transfer money and a huge jump in the wage budget. Malik Mothersille had a brilliant season, he was only signed as backup to Steven Allan but actually played a lot more due to injuries, he ends as the clubs player of the season and top goalscorer with 22 goals in 33 starts Another Summer signing Chris Waters was incredible with 22 assists in 30 starts Finally, young AM Tom Torr had an amazing first season since joining from last years youth intake, I changed to a 4231 to accommodate him and he repaid me with some brilliant performances. 8 goals and 10 assists in 34 starts, not bad for a 16 year old! Here is the formation I've been using, just a basic gegenpress 4231 And here is the whole squad. As you can see we have a lot of players out of contract and they will not be renewed. Time to bring through the next generation of player to take this club to the next level. The one big aim is to use my transfer funds to filter it down to the other Cymru Premier clubs to trry and give them the funds to improve their sides, maybe turn them professional, which should help them progress further in Europe and help us improve the co-efficients. One other piece of news is I have topped the Welsh Hall of Fame. Not bad for 8 seasons! Everything continues to improve, our reputation aside, which seems to have stopped at 2*. Co-efficient wise we are going to see a big jump next season after our run in the Champions League, we should go up to 23rd for the next season.

March 2031 Easy as that, we make it 6 league titles in a row!! We had already won the league before the TNS game and I played some of the kids, 2031 intake player Francis scored on his debut! Easy peasy! We've also had the Challenge Cup final against Rangers B and we came out with a superb 2-0 win to claim our second Challenge Cup of the save.

2031 Youth Intake These intakes are definitely getting worse, I guess that's what happens when your squad improves and you can't improve the facilities anymore. There are two "top talents" there and I have to say both of them look pretty good even if they aren't rated as superstars Evan Francis - Right Wing I've said before, there are 4 attributes I tend to look for in a player, determination, bravery, work rate and natural fitness. Well Francis has 15 for Bravery and 16 for work rate! Overall he looks really good, he needs some work but I have high hopes for him Keith Kennedy - Central Midfield A really good personality and a great base for a star player. I am excited for him as well. It's not the golden generation intakes we were getting but I expected the quality, compared to the first-team squad to fall as the side improved, I do feel these 2 players can improve enough to become squad players

February 2031 A couple of iffy draws but we end the month with some good win, I thought we were out of all the cup comps but I was wrong, we're still in the Challenge Cup and scraped into the final against LInfield on penalties. In the final we'll face Rangers B Another title is almost here, 10 clear with 5 to play

January Transfer Window I thought the window was shut when I put the last update out, I was wrong and Sunderland have decided to nick two of my better players! Firstly, right winger Steve Singleton leaves for £1.1m + addons, not bad for a free transfer signing in the Summer and he wasn't playing that often! Secondly, full back Samuel Agbo leaves for a deal totalling £4.3m after all the addons, he was signed on a free last season. The good news is I've got him back on loan for the rest of the season, he will be a big loss next season though. I haven't signed any replacements, with the league nearly wrapped up and us in no other competitions I didn't see the point. This means the bank balance now sits at just over £27m, I'm expecting massive budgets next season! What I have done though and this is something I said I'd do once the bank balance was looking good, is filter money down to the other clubs. I don't want to do it in silly ways. I want to sign players that I feel I can use at some point, unfortunately there are no world beaters in the Cymru Premier so I've had to improvise! Firstly, in comes Niall Jones from Connah's Quay for £500k up front and 2 x 6 monthly instalments on £500k And secondly, central defender Iwan Hopkins, again from Connah's Quay and again for £500k up front and 2 x 6 monthly instalments of £500k. This helps Connah's Quay out with £1m up front and another £2m over the next 12 months. Connah's Quay are probably one of the better teams in the league bar us and TNS (although they're having a shocking season this time around), hopefully it gives them money to either become professional or sign some better players. I will continue to do this because, currently, I cannot spend the money on much else. I don't want to go mad on transfers, I see no point in spending millions on players when I can buy just as good players for nothing or small fees. The facilities are also max'ed out as much as I can request and the board won't build me a new ground, so the only thing I can do is give the others clubs some money to hopefully make them better, I then hope they may qualify for a European League Phase! Will it work? Who knows!

January 2031 This save just gets better and better! Firstly, we lift another League Cup with a lucky 1-0 win over TNS It was an awful game with very few chances settled by a penalty, that's four successive League Cup wins! But this result was by far the best result of the month, dare it say it, the best result of the save so far! WE BEAT DORTMUND!!!! Unfortunately it wasn't enough to qualify for the next round by 7 points is our best points total in the League Phase of the Champions League so far. In the league, even with that TNS defeat, we still sit way clear at the top. A game in-hand and 9 points clear!

December 2030 Wow what a month! Absolutely tonnes of goals, some great football along the way. Just a shame we decided to screw up in the Welsh Cup, I did pick a rotated team in preparation for the Roma game but we played awfully against a team in the division below us to go out on penalties. The Roma game however was brilliant, a 3-3 draw sealed with a last minute own goal. What a season so far!

November 2030 A great month ruined by our first domestic defeat of the season. Really frustrating but I have to be happy, we managed to win our first Champions League game of the season, giving us £2.4m more to add to the bank balance. We've dropped to second in the league with that defeat to TNS but we have 3 games in hand! We also find ourselves in the League Cup final again, where we play TNS. In other news, I've just finished the Nations League campaign with Wales and it went very well! Some great wins along the way, this seals promotion to Division A.

October 2030 Rinse and repeat 25k fans watched the Real Madrid game at the Cardiff City stadium, we really need a new ground even if we aren't filling it for the domestic games.

September 2030 Domestically it's going as well as expected, unfortunately we've lost both our Champions League games, I really expected to beat Kobenhavn but we really didn't play well enough

August 2030 What a month!!! Let's start with Europe, in the 3rd Qualifying Round we faced Lech Poznan and after drawing the home game 0-0 we looked to be heading out, queue an amazing away leg where we dominated and won the tie 2-0! Into the playoff round, win this and we're in the League Phase for the 2nd time, ironically we faced Dinamo Zagreb who we beat in this exact round the last time we qualified for the Champions League proper, well just like the last round we played at home first and didn't play well, scraping a 0-0 draw, surely we couldn't do it again? Well Zagreb scored early but in the 2nd half we grabbed a leveller, it looked to be going to extra time before Steven Allan, just back from injury, came off the bench to score a 92nd minute winner!! WE'RE INTO THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PROPER!!! And with that nearly £13m in prize money! The fixtures though are once again really tough! There's maybe two games there that I'd expect us to have a chance of winning! The other Welsh teams in Europe once again failed to make it to the League Phase of a competition with Haverfordwest losing to Sevilla in the Conference League playoff round. Still, bar TNS in season 2, that's as far as any Welsh team has got in Europe so far. Domestically it's also started well, I've had to rotate with the qualifiers going on but we've managed to only drop points in 1 game. In other news I've used some of our prize money to upgrade the training facilities once again. Weirdly enough I cannot seem to request anything else to be improved, the youth recruitment and junior coaching is max'ed out but the youth facilities are only at good so they should be able to be upgraded. We've also made a huge player sale as goalkeeper Aaron Taylor moves to Wolves for £2.4m, not bad for a £61k signing. He is a huge player for us though and with it happening late in the window I added a loan-back clause to the deal so he'll stay with us this season..

July 2030 A new season and as planned a lot of players left on free's after their contracts expired Out of that huge list the big names are Oliver Cooper, Max Woltman, Isaac Jeffries, Aled Thomas and Mark Davies-Parry, all first-teamers but the squad now has space for me to bring in better players without exceeding the squad registration rules in both Europe and the League. I ended up making more signings than I planned but that seems to happen every Summer! Steve Singleton - Right Wing - Free from Linfield Just another option on the right wing after losing Jeffries. A solid backup with some great physicals. Dean Davies - Left Back - Free from Sheffield Wednesday I needed new players at left back, he is young and Welsh so helps with the HG rule. James Jarman - Central Defence - Free from Swansea A young, highly rated CB joins to add some depth to the defence. Sam Stewart - Left Back - Free from Cardiff Another option at left back, I really like the look of this lad. Malik Mothersille - Striker - Free from Bristol City During the Summer there have been numerous bids for Steven Allan, so far I've rejected all bids and he hasn't complained but I decided to bring in two new strikers just in case he goes. Malik is one of those, he has pace to burn and looks quality for this level. Chris Waters - Left Wing - £20.5k from Llanelli Town Signed to help with the HG rule, he also ended last season as the 2nd highest assister in the Cymru Premier. Mark Harris - Striker - Free Transfer The second striker signed just in case Steven Allan leave, not highly rated but, as you'll see in a moment, he's started amazingly! Some great signings and now we're set for a shot at getting into the League Phase of the Champions League And boy has it started well! We eased past Maltese side Flamrun and then dominated Slovan Bratislava but just look at the scorers! Mark Harris played as Steven Allan got injured in a pre-season friendly, he's played 3 games and scored 10 goals!!!! What a start! Finally, some rankings updates and once again there's been a big jump in all areas This has suddenly started going really well. We now need other Welsh teams to progress in Europe to help with the co-efficient, currently, we're expected to jump about 7 places in the co-efficient rankings next season and there's plenty more football to play to increase that even more!

2030 World Cup Here we go! Only a matter of months after taking the Wales job we're in the World Cup in Türkiye! Firstly, here is the squad. I'm still unsure who I should be picking, we have a lot of newgens and I need to spend time scouting them and researching how good they are. For this I decided to let me assistant manager pick the squad, Some recognisable names there including Rabbi Matondo, Neco Williams, Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu. We have a decent group with Iran. Ghana and Brazil in it, I fully expected to end 2nd and that's exactly where we ended. A couple of good wins before the inevitable defeat to Brazil. We had made it to the knockouts and we were drawn against hosts Turkiye, a game I expected to lose but we put in an amazing shift to nick the game 1-0! A brilliant performance against the hosts and we were into the Last 16! Where we faced Poland, ranked more than 20 places above us in the FIFA rankings but I expected to give them a game, we didn't! A really poor performance and a disappointing end to what was a promising run! Our best performer was definitely Rabbi Matondo, the Winger put in a couple of really good performances and managed to grab 2 goals including the winner against Turkiye. I was also very impressed with forward Paul Kelly who also grabbed a goal in the tournament, could he be the man to lead the line? Young midfielder Harrison Hughes also put in a couple of really good performances, I expect him to be a key man moving forward.

2029/30 Season Review What an amazing season, the domestic treble and an amazing run in Europe! Fantastic! We even beat our highest points tally in the league. The good news is, with our great run in Europe, the co-efficient has had a big bump up, even if no other Welsh team seems good enough to help us out! We started this season in 32nd but with our great season we should rise to 29th and that means we will get a team in the Europa League qualifiers for the season after next! Financially we're also looking really good, helped by our run in Europe we now have a bank balance of £11.6m, a rise of £1.4m from last season, not bad seeing as we've spent nearly £2m on training facility upgrades. The big one though is out youth setup costs which have jumped to nearly £2.5m, that is the biggest expenditure at the club. We need to keep winning that European prize money to keep the balance on that upwards trend. The good news is the board have once again backed me with decent budgets. A lot to spend! Next season we need to improve this side to get into the Champions League proper! Player-wise it's been another great season and once again Steven Allan has been incredible! He scooped every award possible for club and in the league! His best goal-scoring season yet with 44 in 44 and 7.55 average rating! It's only a matter of time before a bigger club comes in for him. Summer signing Samuel Agbo ended with the most assists at the club. 18 in 39 starts and 3 goals, not bad for a right back! And here's the whole squad. So many players averaging over 7!!! Next season we will be losing quite a few players as their contracts are up and, as you can see above, we have some players who's CA is dropping. A lot of players will go but I won't be replacing them all. I mentioned at the start of this season we struggled to register all the players in the European and domestic squads so it needs a trim down. Lots of money to spend though so expect some improvements in certain areas, particularly out wide and in defensive midfield. Maybe another striker in case Steven Allan leaves!

April 2030 Can we keep our amazing European run going? Well the first leg was away and we played really well, unfortunately we couldn't find a way through and lost the game 1-0 Then in home leg chaos took over! Wolves took a lead mid-way through the first half but we got a goal back just after, then half way through the second 45 we scored twice, one of those courtesy of 2030 intake star Tom Torr, to take a 3-1 lead on aggregate. Wolves scored soon after to level the tie on aggregate. The game ended and went to extra time, we then ran out of legs and Wolves showed their class to score twice and knocked us out. What an amazing run though, we've held our own against some of Europe's elite and got the to the last 6 of the Europa League! That is a massive boost to the nation co-efficient! The league games this month I didn't pay much attention to but we managed to beat TNS away but lose to Llanelli. The final game of the season would be the Welsh Cup final against Aberystwyth Town, well we absolutely hammered them but somehow struggled to score!! 28 shots to 1, you'd expect a battering but we somehow only won the game 2-1! Fair play to their keeper!!! What a season though overall!

March 2030 What a month! Even though the league is wrapped up we still have the Welsh Cup and the Europa League to play for, this European run is just getting crazier by the minute! In the first leg we went to AZ and came out with a solid 1-1 draw courtesy of a second half penalty. Then in the home leg we played really well, we had the lions share of the chances but AZ scored early, it looked like we would be going out before two late goals from Allan and Gordsmark-Ford to seal a 2-1 win and progression to the quarter finals!!! Where we will face Wolves, a team we beat in the League phase but I fully expect a much tougher task this time around. So a great month but its been even better than that! I've played the kids in the league and we've won both games, we also won the Welsh Cup semi, just look at the goal scorers though!! Tom Torr has managed 3 goals, 2 of those on his debut for the club, this lad is going to be an absolute star! In other news we've had the 2030 World Cup draw and we have a tough-ish group, I do expect to be challenging for qualification to the knockouts though.

2030 Youth Intake The preview wasn't great, everything was "E" rated but we did have one "A" rating and my word we may have a star here! Yeah not the best and none of those "good" talents are actually good! BUT........ OH YES!! Tom Torr looks amazing for this level, the only issue? We don't play an AM. Maybe it's time to change formation for the first time in the save?

February 2030 Well that was easy! Title wrapped up with 6 games to spare! We did however lose to Dunfermline in the Challenge Cup but managed to get through the Welsh Cup Quarters. MILES AHEAD! Now we have the Europa League knockouts to look forward to and, after our great results in the League Phase I am confident we can get past AZ