shd34_216_42

Game must be glitching, shouldn't be facing Blackburn twice at home. Promotion is looking likely, can't wait for the ground sharing because of stadium expansion and where you end up when that happens.

You balance the higher wage demands with higher revenues (you should have higher ticket/season ticket prices and more attendance because of the promotion). The bigger issue is probably holding on to the players you want to keep.

I see you've discovered the glory of youth intakes in the lower tiers. It's a shame you can't win the FA Vase anymore, but honestly I think you would rather be promoted.

IIRC Isle of Man has really good attendance compared to other teams in the same level, so you might be in better shape than it seems because you'll have good gate receipts. (I appreciate you adding attendance numbers to your view.) I'm guessing the youth setup probably takes the in-game reputation value along with the current league competition into account, and typically your reputation will be increasing every season so the costs should be going up every year. Yes, that's the smallest league. Nice cup run to make it to the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup, the other cups aren't nearly as lucrative but it's more games to keep the backups happy.

Unless you have really good home attendances (or a FA Cup run), I doubt you're going to get much in the name of facility improvements, so the junior coaching is probably the right approach to take. Too bad Isles of Scilly isn't in the game, the footballing history there is rather interesting.

I bet the board will be expecting automatic promotion next season.

I'm guessing that Guernsey has a lot of decent CA players compared to the other teams (that's what the odds in the season preview actually mean, and the board tends to base their season expectations on those odds). If it worked like real life, Guernsey's odds would be a lot lower because the average public gambler tends to favor big names, which Guernsey would most definitely not be given the club's reputation.

There's typically an attendance bump in the first game of a new stadium. I guess I should check your Isle of Man save for reference, although I believe the stadium situation was similar. The issue with 8k attendance is maintaining Championship-level wages, because your players are probably wanting new contracts constantly unless they recently signed new ones.

I'm guessing the relatively low attendance is because of the team reputation being at roughly League One level. Good news is that you won't need stadium expansion in the short term, bad news is that you probably will in a couple of years which means more loans.

Hopefully Newcastle away in the league cup helps with the money situation for a month or so, because I foresee Mr. Chairman forcing player sales again.

EU4 is fun, I prefer the Meiou & Taxes mod though. France is probably going to be the hardest one due to the HRE limitations, and IIRC Friesland/East Frisia aren't in the HRE in 1444 so be aware of that.

Hoping that the stadium has potential for a capacity of ~25k or so, you're probably going to need it to keep up with all the expenses. I'm jealous of the wage structure you have on display, 5k/wk is a bargain for a first-choice Championship keeper. I assume that you're still renting the same stadium as well, if you have sellouts there that would be a good sign.

It would be hilarious if you somehow got promoted, because that would really mess with the future stadium plans.

You should have made the Middlesbrough offer to Portsmouth as well to avoid the chairman doing what the chairman does best. I suspect the chairman is thinking about how likely the future clauses are to be met, and that upfront money is way better than potential future money. (Also I'm guessing the AI is really bad at understanding the payout after 1 appearance clause.) Curious if you can afford facility upgrades.

If I were the board, I wouldn't intervene given the current success. Of course, that requires the board to value future success over short-term money. Next season might be a different story, although your players will be worth more at that point (especially if you get promoted, which seems likely). There's still the stadium expansion to deal with as well (guessing it will end up in the 5-6k range).

I would be tempted to play Simon Mason in the Pizza Cup games. Making Liverpool work for the win is also a good sign.

I don't think the chairman is an idiot, £1.4 million for a League Two player is quite a bit. The reality is that until you get to the Premier League (maybe the Championship, but players love to complain about new contracts constantly at that level), you're a selling club to compensate for the expenses of running the club (in your case, the youth setup). Think of the money as funding future youth that will likely be worth more than that. As far the friendly clause, you have to compare it to the fee Stoke would charge to play at your stadium (guessing about £15k or so). It's still worthwhile because the typical player sale will go to higher reputation clubs in higher reputation leagues, and sometimes the buying team wouldn't otherwise accept a friendly at your stadium so it's a chance to play higher-level competition.

Spanish is probably because of the nationality.

I'm guessing that the expectation is based on reputation and aggregate squad CA, and his players must be doing well in the improving part to make promotion a realistic demand. Guessing that the odds would have the team as a promotion candidate (although the game hasn't resolved promotions/relegations yet, so it may change after that).

Five Model Citizens in one intake is absurdly good. I'm guessing player sales are a bit less scary (unless it's from the intake), plus you definitely will need the money to keep up the youth setup expenses.

That's pretty normal, actually. Even with that much in sales, I expect given the level of spending that you'll be in the red by the end of the season. Plus there's that stadium capacity issue...

I look forward to all those 50% on sale clauses.

I expected this when the added seating announcement mentioned that the stadium capacity was going to be reduced as a result. I'm expecting the game to expand the stadium to somewhere near the minimum at the end of the season (probably, ironically, by adding more seats). Hope you got a good draw for the FA Cup, looks like you'll need the money.

Double-checked and apparently you need 2000 seats (unless it's changed since FM22), so looks like it's time for more fixed seats.

League Rules typically has the capacity rules mentioned, and I believe that 5,000 is the exact minimum needed for League Two.