mpm2342

Thanks. Next step in this save will be to take over the Gibraltar national team and win a world cup. That is likely to take many years as I will step back from coaching the Lions and just play GM / holiday between international breaks. Before that though, I am likely going to take a break from this save for a bit and maybe try a youth only challenge save. I find the transfer market too easy even when restricting myself to just players the scouts find, so the youth challenge is a different approach that will force me to learn more about development and tactics to be successful.

Thanks. Probably a bit lucky to win it this season, but I will take it!

UEFA Champions League Finals: Second year in a row in the Finals and this time we have drawn Tottenham who play in the Premier League. England is 1st in the nation club rankings and Tottenham are 10th in the club rankings. We have played Tottenham a fair bit in the last few years, beating them in the Semi Finals last season. I have my fingers and toes crossed that we can repeat that feat and take home the Trophy. Awesome!!! Jumping around the room in joy. Another game we shouildn't have one based on the stats, but Jacquin had a good game and Alfredo delivered when we really needed him.

UEFA Champions League Semi finals: For the Semi Finals, we have drawn Borussia Dortmund who play in the Bundesliga. Germany is 2nd in the nation club rankings and Borussia are 6th in the club rankings. We have played them a couple of times before and lost both matches. The experts don't give us much chance on this one, but I am optimistic. It will be tough though. First match away and we managed a draw in spite of them going down a man at the 26th minute and losing two starters to injury ... that is the perfect opportunity to steal a win away that we did not capitalize on. Coming home with a draw is good as I feel the homefield advantage should even out the teams to a 50/50 state. A couple more lucking bounces and off we go A victory and on to the finals! Jacquin rebounds from his poor performance (I made it clear to him that it was poor ... seems to have worked) and delivered the man of the match performance to lead us to victory and on to the finals.

UEFA Champions League Quarter finals: For the Quarter Finals, we have drawn Real Madrid who play in the Spanish First Division. Spain is 4th in the nation club rankings and Real Madrid are 1st in the club rankings. We played Real Madrid to a draw very recently in the league phase ... hopefully we can repeat with a bit extra! The fans and experts give us a bit of a chance, but not much. Game one at home ends in a scoreless draw. Not much happened in terms of chances and the highlight of the match for us is that Jude Bellingham got sent off and will not be able to play the next match. that will help reduce the quality of their side a bit. Away game and we sneak away with a victory in a game we probably should have lost. Jacquin had two super games in a row against Madrid and is why we are moving on. There is a reason he is our highest paid player - the best GK our scouts have brought to my attention and I do not want him leaving.

UEFA Champions League Round of 16 : We drew Benfica for the round of 16. Benfica play in the Portuguese Premier League. Portugal is 6th in the nation club rankings and Benfica are 17th in the club rankings. We played Benfica a long time ago in the Europa league and lost to them. We did beat them two seasons ago in the league phase and I am expecting to beat them this time as well. Close one in their stadium. We were lucky to win it based on the stats. Back home and a comfortable win for us to move on to the quarter finals.

UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 5: Next up is Bodo/Glint who play in the Norwegian Premier League. Norway is 15th in the nation club rankings and Bodo/Glint are 68th in the club rankings and a pot 4 team. We played Bodo/Glint last season in the league phase quite convincingly and I am expecting the same again. Nice solid victory for us to lock in advancement from the league phase UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 6: Next up is Parthenope who play in the Italian Serie A. Italy is 3rd in the nation club rankings and Parthenope are 20th in the club rankings and a pot 2 team. We have not played Parthenope before, but we should be able to pull off a victory . Close one that our GK pulled out for us. Undefeated after 6 games with both pot 1 teams to close out the phase. UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 7: Next up is Real Madrid who play in the Spanish First Division. Spain is 4th in the nation club rankings and Real Madrid are 1st in the club rankings and a pot 1 team. We played Real Madrid two seasons ago in the league phase and came away with a draw. A draw or victory would be nice. At a minimum, I would like to see a close result as these next two games will tell us where we stand.. A draw is good. The statistics indicate that we had better chances, so that is very promising. UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 8: Next up is Man City who play in the Premier League. England is 1st in the nation club rankings and Man City are 2nd in the club rankings and a pot 1 team. We played Man City in the finals last season and took the game to extra time before succumbing to defeat. Hoping for better this time. Another draw against the top teams .. I will take it. We were out chanced in this one, but not by an embarrassing margin, so it looks like we are in the hunt this season.

UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 2: Next up is Brighton who play in the Premier League. England is 1st in the nation club rankings and Brighton are 71st in the club rankings and a pot 4 team. We have not played Brighton before, but based on their ranking, we should be able to win, though I would never take a premier league team for granted. Close game, but a nice victory. UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 3: Next up is BRG who play in the Portuguese Premier League. Portugal is 6th in the nation club rankings and BRG are 33rd in the club rankings and a pot 3 team. We played BRG last season in the league phase and came away with a draw. I'm hoping for a victory this time around. That's a lovely scoreline. The statistics were closer than the score. Off to a blistering start to the league phase this season. UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 4: Next up is FC Porto who play in the Portuguese Premier League. Portugal is 6th in the nation club rankings and FC Porto are 50th in the club rankings and a pot 3 team. We played FC Porto last season in the league phase and came away with a draw. I'm hoping for a victory this time around. Nice to get a victory when we didn't play as well as they did. Keeps the winning streak alive and pretty much guarantees advancement from the league phase.

UEFA Champions League League Phase Game 1: First up is Lazio who play in the Italian Serie A. Italy is 3rd in the nation club rankings and Lazio are 19th in the club rankings and a pot 2 team. We have played Lazio a lot in recent seasons and have not lost in the last 4 meetings. Their coach had the gall to say he was happy to have an easy match to start so he could rotate his squad . We will have to show him. I was appropriately snarky in return during my press conference... now we need to back it up on the field. That is what I call backing it up! A nice thorough domination on the scoreboard and the stats. He was not contrite, calling it lucky ... Ha! I hope we meet again.

Finished up the early matches in the Champions league fairly smoothly with no major struggles and a chance to play some younger players due to the first two rounds being lopsided after the first match. I like our draw for the league phase as the tough matches are at the end giving time to build cohesion and rapport between all the new players. The last two games will test the new squad and give us an idea if we have a shot this year to win it all.

One more signing as a familiar face return to us on loan. Charlie played for us in 2032/33 and is another strong physical presence in our back line.

New Additions: Molyneux signed as a fill in for Deniau at DLP. Great distribution and mental attributes. Ornellas signed to be part of the future homegrown contingent. Doubtful he will ever be a starter, but he will be an upgrade to some of the current homegrown Enghardt is our new CD. Big, strong, jumper who will fit right in. Sarrazin will be our new BMW after I train him in the position. Costa takes over for Biten Valare at RFB with great pace and stamina to run all day. Mikulic is in for Kaya and is a nice upgrade with good pace, dribbling and crossing

Fast forward to mid July and once again there have been a lot of changes to the squad. I will run through the new additions after this post. Deniau is out on loan again as I keep trying to get him to play for us - at least I am making some money on these loans. I suspect this will be his last go with us though, but I have signed a decent replacement. Kaya (11M), Zouaoui (4.4M) and Fanning (9M) were sold. Lost money on Zouaoui and Fanning, but needed to clear the salary and playing time. Molyneux (24M), Costa (4.8M), Mikulic (43M), Enghardt (4.5M) and Sarrazin (7M) are the main additions. Revised recruiting needs based on the Premier target: We now have 3 positions that have a realistic chance of making the Premier League target. Pretty much done with changes now except for a fullback who I have an offer out to. He won't improve the ratings immediately, but is close to the incumbents and has potential to grow. Otherwise, will keep watching for a winger or CD upgrade. The squad needs time to settle in and get cohesively happy. GK Gap: 1.9% - We are good (a little improvement from Jacquin) CD Gap: 3.4%, 6.3% - Could still use one upgrade - Urgent FB Gap: 4.8%, 4.2% - Upgraded right FB, nothing better on the market, so will stand pat here BWM Gap: 3.4% - Finally found an upgrade on Blasco, but will still try and get Blasco lots of playtime given his leadership value. DLP Gap: 4.6% - Signed Molyneux as a solid fill in. Winger Gap: 3.9%, 2.0% - We are ok for now AP Gap: 0.6% - We are good as Alfredo continues to improve ST Gap: 4.5% - Good for now We are pretty much set for the season. Will watch for another CD upgrade and maybe try recalling Deniau right at the end of the January transfer window and see if I can get him for the important final games of the champions league.

Ouch, you didn't just break it, you smashed it and ground it into dust

Gibraltar's ranking in the Nation Club coefficient moved up to 17, and the coefficient is now 43.75 very close to the three teams ahead of us. The next target for the rankings is to get to 15 where 5 Gibraltar clubs will make Europe... hopefully we can get there this season. The club improved to 11th in the European club rankings... higher ranking gives better seeding and more $. Gibraltar improved in the world rankings to 177 as a few more Lions players became eligible and helped the team. The league moved up 3 more spots to 34 in league reputation. The club reputation moved to 3 stars and I got a message that it significantly improved. We had a takeover of the club that opened up the option to upgrade the youth facilities and they agreed to do that upgrade which just finished as the season ended. We have a very healthy cash balance again, the same as last year interestingly enough. I am managing to spend more of the transfer and wage budget this off season ... It's been fun! Scouting budget is re-upped at world, so don't need to adjust.

Upcoming Season recruiting needs based on the Premier target: We have 3 positions that have a realistic chance of making the Premier League target. GK, AP and DLP. DLP is questionable as I am pretty sure I am out of creative options to try and hold onto Deniau, but I will try again . . GK Gap: 1.9% - We are good. CD Gap: 6.1%, 7.7% - Need two upgrades - Very Urgent FB Gap: 4.8%, 6.3% - Upgrades required - Urgent BWM Gap: 6.3% - Upgrade required - Urgent DLP Gap: 1.7% - We are good if we can hold on to Deniau Winger Gap: 4.4%, 5.5% - Look for upgrades, but am happy with the performance of the current wingers AP Gap: 1.1% - We are good ST Gap: 4.5% - can use an upgrade - Important, but am happy with Bent's performance Going to be another busy transfer window trying to find great players who are willing to talk to us. Some of these positions such as FB, I have not seen a player with a higher rating and willing to talk to us for loan or transfer come through our scouting. This make it very hard to upgrade and a scramble to try and hold onto the guys we have. I am hoping for a bit of reputation boost to help again.

Left FB - Premier Target = 72.8 FB seems to be a position that generates good match ratings in our tactic although this season, the LB did not perform as well as in previous seasons. Not that 7.0x are bad ratings, its just that I have become used to 7.25+ ratings from the position. The two of them split time pretty evenly and had very similar numbers with an awful lot of sprinting going on. 25 sprints per 90 is quite high. Konate improved slightly again, but at his age won't make it to the Premier League target, so will likely need upgrading eventually. I was hoping Zouaoui would develop, but he stayed flat. I doubt I will find an upgrade on these two, so hopefully can get some growth from Zouaoui as he has small (little yellow arrows) growth over the last year, so hopefully rounding catches up for my ratings. Plan - start Zouaoui and have Konate backup. Leyland provides emergency depth. Right FB - Premier Target = 72.8 Biten Valere was the starter with Leyland backing him up. Biten Valere had another good statistical season, so no reason to change unless a solid upgrade can be found. Biten Valere looks like he has plateaued around the 66 rating. Leyland improved again and is much younger. Matondo could develop into an interesting option - will have to loan him out again. I find it interesting to look at the year by year growth of Leyland since he has been with us from 15 yrs old. He declined in the age 20 season even with plenty of playing time, but has grown by 10 rating points since he joined us. I am hoping for more, but not expecting much. Plan - start Biten Valere with Leyland getting a lot of playing time in anticipation of Biten Valere's age catching up to him. Will look for an upgrade for RB. If found, sell Biten Valere. Carlos can play here, but it is his 3rd best position, so would rather not. Loan out Matondo for further development. BWM - Premier Target = 76.9 Same as last season: Blasco started, Stranak and Pizarro backed him up. Blasco had the best stats with Stranak looking ok on the offensive side, but not so good defensively. Blasco looks like he has plateaued, Carlos is highly rated as a BWM and might take over backup duties this season. Stranak developed some and Pizarro's rating bounced back a bit. Plan - Try to upgrade Blasco, and start him in the mean time. Use Carlos and Stranak as backups and try to continue their development. DLP - Premier Target = 78.4 Deniau was the starter at the beginning of the season, but went out on loan in January. Alfredo and Castro did most of the playing after that with Rasmussen subbing in. They all played pretty well. Deniau had very solid growth last season and isn't too far away from the target though I am not sure I can keep him unfortunately. Alfredo will be the starter at AM. Castro is growing slowly, but won't get too much higher, so is a good backup. Stranak is a better CM than Rasmussen so will get his playing time. Plan - We are good as long as we can hold onto Deniau and he doesn't force his way out to a larger club. If that happens, I will need a new starter. Castro is a great backup with a developmental player in the mix Winger - Premier Target = 76.2 I am analyzing LW and RW together as most of the top players can play both. Van Hoof started at LW with Kaya at RW. French and Vincent filled in. They all had pretty great statistics. French stands out as outperforming his role / rating and might justify more playing time. Kaya is definitely heading in the right direction and will keep the starting role at RW. I am thinking I should give French the start over Van Hoof based on the stats. Not sure any of them will hit the target rating though. Vincent was steady and a solid backup, but isn't going to grow, Harry Harvey came in this youth class and if he can grow, he could get to the 70's for his rating. Plan - Look to upgrade both positions, start Kaya and French in the meantime. Keep an eye on early season performances to see if they need to be replaced. Try and develop Harvey on the U19s Advanced Playmaker - Premier Target = 77.1 Alfredo and Castro played most of the matches with Meireles filling in. They both had good stats with Alfredo scoring lots of goals. Meireles continues to be a goal machine for us and will stick around to mentor and help the new guys. Alfredo has a very good rating at AP and will be our starter. He grew nicely last season and will hit target if that continues this season. Bradley looks like a youngster to keep an eye on. Plan - Start Alfredo with Meireles and Castro as backups. Advanced Forward - Premier Target = 76.9 Bent lit up the scoreboard. Very happy with his statistical performance. Nolan and Meireles performed very well in their backup roles. Bent grew a point and is getting closer to the target. Nolan grew as well after being flat last year and age is starting to catch up to Meireles. Plan - Start Bent and have Nolan and Meireles as backups.

Cool idea. Good luck with it. You might be playing for a very long time to try and beat this one... I have a vision in my head of a future time when all the other records have been beaten and you are now playing with 11 forwards on very attacking (I know it's not really possible, but with visions... what the heck)

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts). GK - Premier Target = 70.4 We signed Jacquin before last season and he delivered the best statistics and ratings of any GK we have had so far. Sidibe played well in league matches, but his stats against easier competition are not as good as Jacquin's. Jacquin improved a tiny bit and is very close to the target. Sidibe looks to be pretty much finished growing. Santos grew very nicely on loan, and still has the report that he could improve a lot. There is nothing worth talking about in the youth ranks. Santos had a very good development year and his scouting report says he can improve a lot in the future and he has 2.5 stars of potential now (down from 4 last season), but the squad as a whole has improved. I signed him to a cheap extension and will loan him out again. Worst case, I should be able to make some money by selling him once he is done developing. Plan - Start Jacquin. Give Sidibe playing time in league matches and easier cup matches to keep his form and to fill one of the homegrown slots. Loan Santos out. CD - Premier Target = 75.9 White and Fanning were the starters for the big matches and did fairly well. White was steady across all the statistics with Fanning weaker in the air. Carlos was the primary backup and got significant playtime. He did alright - close to Fanning statistically. Albiach got into a few games, and played well enough to keep a spot as a homegrown player. White and Fanning both declined and are too far away from the target to hold onto their roles. Carlos has become homegrown and will take on the primary backup role. His rating is slowly improving. Albiach has plateaued as a third string. Interesting to look at the kids and see Luke Toms have a nice improvement in his first full year at the club. Seeing this, I will try and loan him out to get some quality playing time. Rosano also improved nicely, so will get sent out on loan again. Carlos had his rating improve a tiny bit, but looking further, his mentals showed improvement across the board, Given the vagarities of the attribute rounding, I can hope for an improvement in his physical attributes next season.... one can always hope . Plan - Pretty much the same as last season. Find at least one starter, ideally two. Start them along with White and give Carlos lots of playing time. Albiach as injury backup.

I sure hope so! This has been a fun save.

End of Season 12 (34/35) Analysis: The team average rating improved by 1.1, improving from 69.2 to 70.3. I didn't count Deniau this time as he has requested to leave and I sent him on loan in Jan to try and see if I could keep him another season. He would the DLP rating to 76.8. Reminder that the rating for each of the leagues below is the average of the top 10 rating for each position across the entire league. The appropriate top 10 average for the positions in my tactic are then slotted into the chart and averaged across the 11 ratings. Only a few teams in each league would have a player in each position that ranks in the top 10, so by using this as a target, it provides a measure of when the raw attribute ratings of the team would position it near the top of the league being compared against. We all know that cohesion, morale, happiness etc. gives the human manager the edge, so when my team hits the rating for one of the leagues, I would expect it to be able to win, or at a minimum compete to win, the league. I have seen that team can successfully compete with most of the teams in a league above their rating. This means that once I can get the Lions to the ENG Champ level, we should be able to compete in the Champions League. We have two positions that are in good shape currently (as long as they don't get poached), GK (Jacquin) and AM (Alfredo). A third position couild be good if we manage to convince Deniau to stick around. Everything else could use an upgrade. Could be another offseason with major turnover. We got closer to the previous slope and probably need another point or two. If we maintain the same improvement we have seen in the past, we should be ready to compete this coming season. The squad has very strong depth now an with some good youngsters coming through to become homegrown - Stranek, Rasmussen, Matondo and Henrique are two years away. Carlos becomes homegrown before the start of this season.

Too funny! Congrats on the win - well done

UEFA Champions League Finals: We made it to Finals against Man City who play in the Premier League. England is 1st in the nation club rankings and Man City are 8th in the club rankings. We have never played Man City so this will be a treat. They still have Haaland who at 34 is still an imposing figure. I don't really think we can win this, and think the poll is pretty accurate with a 22% chance that the RNG gods are in our favour. Well, that was close. Didn't help us to go into extra time down a man, but pretty amazed that we made it there in the first place. Haaland killed us with a couple of goals in spite of our efforts to contain him. I have added the detailed stats view given the special occasion. We were competitive, so with a bit of improvement in the squad for next season, we have a decent shot to make it back again.

Thank you. Man City in the finals is likely too much for us at this stage. I was expecting to be in a position to make finals and possibly win next season or the season after, so it is a very nice surprise. And very exciting.

UEFA Champions League Semi Finals: Semi Finals pits us against Tottenham who play in the Premier League. England is 1st in the nation club rankings and Tottenham are 12th in the club rankings. We played Tottenham last season and they beat us soundly, though we were able to score. Not sure about this one, but they are not one of the very top clubs so we should have a chance against them. Fingers and toes crossed . Ok, I did not expect that. What a win at home and a 3 goal cushion to take to their stadium. From the looks of the stats, we were in control of the match, but not quite as much as the score ended up, but we are consistently outperforming our XG on offence and it is nice to see the same defensively. Ok, time to pull out the defensive version of the tactic and see if we can hold the 3 goal edge. I have rarely gone away from the very attacking mentality, but it just doesn't seem like the right approach when playing away with a three goal lead. Awesome!!! onto the finals we go. We didn't generate much offence, but managed our share of the ball to keep them from generating too much either. And what they did generate game to nothing. From the looks of it our GK and defenders played an amazing game to keep them scoreless. Didn't expect the finals this season, but will take it!