mpm2342

Fast forward to the end of June and Gibraltar has improved it's rankings in the Nation Club coefficient, but has slid back a bit in the national competitions, they are now in qualifying for the Euro Championships and I suspect they will not win a game, so I will be keeping an eye on the HC role. The league moved up 9 spots which will be helpful in getting players. Our club reputation and ranking improved nicely as well. We spent a lot of money upgrading facilities last season, so are going to have to win some prize money in Europe if we want to keep improving things. Our current expenditures will incur a deficit of 1.5M without taking into account the prize money. I am hoping to start getting some good youngsters coming through. We did sign a couple of players, Yuri who will start at CD and rotate with Morata. He has a 60.2 rating and 4.5 star potential. We also signed Mbemba who has 5 star potential, but is unambitious. We are trying to loan him out to get him playing time as he is not quite at the club level yet.

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts) GK - L1 target = 58.2 Alonso is the clear starter and performed the best. Hankins is ok and certainly good enough to play in the league games given the team in front of him. I gave McCormick a couple of games just to see since he was part of our youth system, but he didn't do well and at 5' 9" with poor aerial reach, is just not going to cut it. Plan - continue to start Alonso and play Hankins in League matches as much as possible without annoying Alonso. Playing Hankins gives us one of the 5 homegrown spots in league and the associated flexibility in the other positions. Continue to look for GK with the potential to have ratings above the L1 target who will come and play for us. Have only found a couple so far who are good enough and they won't talk to us. Need to continue to build the club and league reputation over time to be able to get those players. CD - L1 Target = 64.7 All the players who put time in a CD played pretty well. Sofikitis was probably the worst performer of the group. The others varied, Morata and Rojas or Diaz got all the tough games, so they get a little boost when I consider their stats. We have Albiach joining the team for the next season and he has a rating of 60.2 with loads of potential, so a good shot to grow beyond the L1 target. Morata is growing a bit each season, but will not make the target. Diaz, Craggs, Rojas are ok backups. Plan - start Albiach and Morata. Keep 2 of the three others as backups, let Sofikitis go and look for another CD with the potential to grow past the L1 target. FB - L1 Target = 60.8 Caldiera is the best performing FB, but they all played very well. Roman becomes homegrown before the next season starts. I don't think any of the current FBs are going to grow to hit the L1 target, but they play ok and help with the homegrown numbers. Plan - Start Britto and Caldiera and use Roman as the primary backup and homegrown substitute for Caldeira if needed. Monveneur is a useful bench player for lots of positional flexibility. Will continue to look for young FB with potential to surpass the L1 target to take over for Britto and Roman. BWM - L1 Target = 67.2 This is a tough position for stats, so I also look at the CM numbers for additional clues. Angong had slightly better stats than Cottrell, but not a lot. Angong has a 63.7 rating and can improve slightly, but won't make it past the L1 rating in all likelihood. Cottrell can improve slightly as well, but at 54.5, he won't make the L1 target. They are both consistent players who like big matches and just seem to perform well. Plan - Angong for European matches and Cottrell for the league with Angong playing when I can balance the homegrown numbers. Look for upgrades. DLP - L1 Target = 64.4 Parker just keeps playing well. His rating isn't growing, but his work rate, teamwork and leadership makes the team much better, so he gets playing time. Key played 13 games as a DLP with an average match rating of 7.02, so he played better as an AP. Marcos had nice stats as well. While they are performing well on the pitch, neither Parker or Marcos are going to develop to the L1 level, Plan - rotate Parker and Marcos and look for an upgrade. Winger - L1 Target = 63.2 Gbeme played very well and the rest of the wingers played well, De Stefano was the lowest performer of the bunch and he is leaving at the end of the season. Gbeme's rating of 65.3 is already above the L1 target as is Rafael's rating of 65.9. Gbeme will only improve a bit and Rafael still has potential to grow. They are both Right Wingers, so I need to retrain Rafael to play LW as he has a reasonable left foot. The retraining will use up some of his potential, but that is ok because his rating as a winger is very strong already. Plan - start Gbeme and Rafael and keep Negrette and Coombes as backups. Coombes is very useful as he played very well in 4 different positions AM (RLC) and ST. Advanced Playmaker - L1 Target = 62.5 Golliard had the best statistics of the AP, with Key close behind. Key is likely to leave in the transfer window before the season. Golliard's rating of 61.5 is very close to the L1 target, so even though he is unlikely to develop further, he is a good player for us at this stage. Marcos can fill in as a sub as can Coombes. Plan - Golliard starts, Marcos and Coombes backup. Look for a bit more depth here. Advanced Forward - L1 Target = 61.9 Rafael scored 15 goals in 13 games and so why am I moving him to Winger? because I signed a very strong AF in Carrasco. and because he is an awesome winger. Kawe performed very well as did Golliard and Coombes (not shown, but scored 3 in 3 games as ST) Rafael is rated 58.9 as AF with room to grow, so would likely make the L1 target. Carrasco is rated 62.1, already above the L1 target with room to grow. Kawe makes a strong backup and we have deeper options with Coombes and Golliard. Plan - start Carrasco with Kawe etc. as backups. If he sucks big time, then reverse plan and put Rafael back in as AF. Upcoming Season Recruiting needs: GK - Look for upgrade - not urgent CD - Need one upgrade - normal urgency FB - Both positions could use an upgrade - Urgent BWM - Could use an upgrade - Urgent DLP - Could use an upgrade - normal urgency Winger - We are good AP - Look for depth - not urgent ST - We are good

End of Season 4 (26/27) Analysis: The team average rating improved by 2.6, improving from 56.7 to 59.3. We are almost at the next "level" England League Two (60.4 average). I will be targeting L1 for the next season and beyond. De Stefano declined a bit from last season, so I didn't attempt to resign him and he has already accepted a transfer when his contract is up. Key got offers from a Spanish first division team and an English Championship team, so he is not happy and wants to move. I doubt I will be able to keep him, but will try as I have an agreed upon price to move him, but they will likely pay up for that. It is ok as Marcos is homegrown now and we have a replacement for AP who is close to Key, so we won't lose too much. I can see we will be challenged to keep the players if the team gets much better than it's reputation and the reputation of the Gibraltar league. The end of season squad depth chart has changed a fair bit. Carrasco was a later signing who played a bit, but didn't replace Rafael. Rafael can play Wing and has a strong Left foot, so I am going to train him into the LW spot and in two more years he will be homegrown. Albiach was a signing in Jan who had a loanback as part of the deal, but is a good 18yr old for next season.

An update to the end of the season where we won out the Rock cup and the league, nothing too interesting any more as the Lions are now overpowered for the league. Gibraltar League Results: League standings at the end of the regular season: Gibraltar League Championship Round: We won the league after the first game of the Championship round and we have 4 teams going into the European competitions next season Rock Cup Quarterfinals Rock Cup Semi-Finals Rock Cup Finals: The other update is our youth intake that had a few players with some potential. I signed the top 4.

More transfer activity. We found a great player who was willing to join us and gave us reason to spend some of the transfer budget and salary budget that we had. Feels funny to have all that room, but not spending it because the only players who would come weren't much better than the current team, if at all. Introducing Mervin Gbeme. We spent 2.2M on him 1 up front and the rest based on league appearances. His rating as a winger is 64.1 which puts him above the ENG L1 target of 63.2 and on the way to the ENG Champ target of 69.6. With a 5 star potential, he has a good chance to get there. He is the first player on the team to make the L1 target, so one down and ten to go. In other news we got rid of a few players to clear up the roster and playing time pathways. Nunes (ST) on loan with option future fee to Lincoln - he will help them be better Yenpariye (ST) to Europa FC on loan Pinto (AM/ST) transfer to Lynx Those players will help make the other teams better and are all young enough to become homegrown in the next season or two. Starting trying to build up the league now.

Back to league play with a close one with Magpies and then a tie with Lincoln. We signed two players who joined us at the start of the transfer window. First up is Louis Rafael who is a striker / winger with good ball control. He will play advanced forward and take the lead role as I really need to develop a homegrown option for flexibility. He has 5 star potential and a current rating of 55, so hopefully can develop into a solid option for us. Bernardino is a decent player who we sent out on loan. He likely won't ever make the team, but he can become homegrown and be useful to the other teams in the league, so I am planning to transfer him out at some point. More league games more victories. Rafael's second game and he scores 4 goals for us ... watching the goal replays and 3 of them were from runs using his pace to receive a pass, gives the team a nice element.

Another league match and another victory, this time against the second best team in the league. UEFA Europa Conference League match four: Next up is HNK Gorica from the Croatian First League. Croatia is ranked 16th in the nation club rankings and HNK Gorica is 335th with no points until last year, so they are better than their ranking for sure. Would love to get some points from this one if we are going to challenge for a spot in the playoffs. The score was closer than the game and we could not sneak away with a result as they got a late goal to take the victory. Another League win. Youth intake preview and it says it will be a good one, doesn't really look like it though. A good striker would be very nice to start developing a homegrown one. Kawe and Yenpariye have been great, but their ceiling is below my target ratings. UEFA Europa Conference League match five: Next up is our old friends Larne from the Sports Direct Premiership in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is 39th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Larne is 208th in the European club rankings. We played Larne in the Champions League and tied them at home and then beat them 3-0 on the road. Would absolutely need to win this one if we are going to challenge for a spot in the playoffs. I also got an email saying if we didn't win, we are going to set a record for the longest winless streak in Conference League play... definitely need to win now. Wow! The boys really listened to the urgency for this one. What a game. Check out the game from Golliard: 3 goals, 5 assists and 8 key passes. That's one for the ages. Good thing I am not paying him by the assist.... oh wait, I am because I was so smart that I put him on a heavy pay for performance plan, at least we made way more money from the win than we paid him. Back to league play and another victory brings us to the halfway point Not much to say when you are in complete control. UEFA Europa Conference League match six: Last up is our old friends Ludogorets from the Bulgarian First League. Bulgaria is 18th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Ludogorets is 59th in the European club rankings. They are not doing well in the competition, but look to be a much better team than us. We sit a point out of a playoff spot, so a win or draw will get us in thanks to out goal differential. Close, but not this year. We will be back stronger next year and hopefully progress a bit further.

A couple more league games and a couple more convincing wins. The team appears to have developed to the point the league cannot play with us anymore. I will now have to try and make the other teams better by feeding them some players. Will target the teams who are making Europe first and see if I can do anything in the Jan window. I will also keep an eye on the Gibraltar HC position and apply if it come up and I can keep the Lions job at the same time. UEFA Europa Conference League match two: Next up is Valencia from the Spanish First Division. Spain is ranked 3rd in the nation club rankings and Valencia is 132. We aren't ready yet for the top flight teams, but hopefully we can keep it close. Not bad. We managed to keep it close and respectable and looks like we sent them home with a few bumps and bruises for their trouble. A couple more league games with the same result. I am mixing in the squad depth to get them development time and to keep the main starters fresh for the European competitions. Only two complaints so far - Diaz complained twice, first time he agreed to a lower playing time and second time he agreed to be let go at the end of the season, which is already the plan, so I am good with that. Going to try and get him to land at one of the other Gibraltar team as he is a good player. McCafferty complained and I agreed to give him more playing time as I hadn't been playing him enough anyways, so far the squad is happy. UEFA Europa Conference League match three: Next up is Slovan Bratislava from the Slovak First Division. Slovakia is ranked 25th in the nation club rankings and Slovan Bratislava is 82. Another game where we want to try and keep it close. Slovan Bratislava should not be as strong as Valencia, but are still too strong for us. Wow! Nice result from a game we were out played a bit and down a man for most of the match. I will take the point and run! Back to league play and we beat up on College '75. Yenpariye's agent really liked his game too: He is currently making £130, so am happy to give him a raise as long as I can keep the playing time commitment down. Which is what happened, so the agent was truthful in the message and signed a contract for £160 p/w as a breakthrough prospect.

We open the new Gibraltar season with the Pepe Reyes Cup against Lynx and walk away with a victory in fine fashion. That is now 3 years in a row for us and we are planning for a permanent location in the club's trophy case, which will hopefully be upgraded to a room by the time I am done. The season opener is up next against Lincoln and it was painfully obvious which club had been playing football for over a month and which one was just getting their season started. Lincoln never had a chance. Great game from Marcos with 4 goals. UEFA Europa Conference League match one: First up is Brondby IF from the 3F Superliga in Denmark. Denmark is ranked 12th in the nation club rankings and Brondby is 261. Going to be a tough match, but hopefully we can pull it out. Alonso gut sick before the game, so Hankins stepped in and left us to wonder if we could have pulled off the win with Alonso. In any case, I will take a tie and the point and hope for more down the road. Last season we only got one point, so we have equalled that already. Back to league matches and a convincing victory, though Alonso gave up one goal on 2 shots and answered our wondering from the Bondby game - he wouldn't have helped playing this way.

UEFA Europa League Playoffs We have drawn AIK from the Swedish Premier Division in the Europa League playoffs. Not sure there would be a good draw at this stage, but this one is not very good for us. Sweden is 27th in the Europe Nation club rankings and AIK is 277th! They are a much better team than that. First leg is in Sweden and , say what? A victory? Well DONE Lads!!!! That was an unexpected result, but the statistics show we had the better chances, so I will take it. We had loads of yellow cards and lose two players (Rojas and Roman) from the next match which will hurt some. Second leg is back home. We can close this out right! Right? oh well, maybe next time. We still had the edge in shots and XG, but out D and Alonso picked a bad game to have a bad game. We did get £2.5M for our trouble, so that's cool. The draw for the Conference League matches was done and looks better than last year, but we will see. Hopefully we can do enough to advance from this round.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Third Qualifying Round: Next we play against Slavia Prague from the Czech First Division. Czechia is 21st in the Nation Club Coefficients and Slavia Prague is 75th in the European club rankings, right in the middle of some premier league teams, so I am not expecting much. Decent account from the team, but a step too far at this point in our growth. FYI, the second screenshot is the match summary I use when I forget to hit the simulate button.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round: Next we play against Larne from the Sports Direct Premiership in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is 39th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Larne is 208th in the European club rankings. The polls think we can win, I am hoping we can, their team looks slightly stronger based on attributes. A draw keeps the hopes alive, now just need to pull one out in the second leg. It doesn't help that our top 2 strikers are injured. Before the second leg, another player signing came through. This will likely be the last for a while as the team now has pretty good depth and I need to give play time to the ones I want to develop. Caldeira is a solid FB and will rotate with Romain. We now have a decent league squad and a better European cup squad with only one or two players who are going to give us grief over playing time. Second leg is in the books and we pulled it out on the road with a fine game. A couple of late goals from the bench put this one away. Happy to see the deeper squad contributing.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path First Qualifying Round: First up we play against Sutjeska from the Montenegrin First League. Montenegro is 49th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Sutjeska is 260th in the European club rankings. First leg at home and we came away with a disappointing draw in a game we should have won based on the statistics. We had a number of players suspended from last season, including all 3 of our right fullbacks, so that gave us a bit of an odd lineup. Hopefully the second leg goes better. The next day after the game, my new right FB signed ... could have come a day earlier. Monveneur has strong physicals and is rated our best right fullback, so he will get a rotation with Roman and we will see who plays better. Well, I was nervous heading into the second leg away from home, but I should not have been as the boys put on a show. That's how you do it!

I did get one very strong player in for a £74K transfer fee: Theo Golliard could be the starter in multiple positions as he is highest ranked as: DLP (60.6), AP (62.4) Winger (61.3) and AF (59.7). He is at my L1 target ratings for AP, but that is where Key will play, so Golliard will sub in at DLP and AP while he also trains at right Wing and Striker. Happy to have him on the team as he is a very balanced player. Signed a player for the future as well. Great physicals for 17, hopefully everything else develops.

July has arrived and we signed a few players with one to help now and three 18 year olds for the future. Not all (if any) of the 18 year olds will make the team, but I am hoping I can bring them in and then farm them out to the other Gibraltar clubs to improve them. The most important signing is Frank Angong a BWM with a rating of 63.4, much closer to the target of 67.2 than our current players. He is consistent, likes big matches and has solid work rate and determination. He will start the European and cup games and Cottrell will start the league matches. The best part of the Angong signing is that he only wanted to be a Fringe player... I won't complain about that as it gives me the flexibility to swap squads for league matches. Luke Craggs is an interesting case in that he has solid attributes for CD, a 5 star potential in our strong club, but his technicals are horrible. It will be very interesting to see if he can turn into a serviceable player or not. Barosi and Nunes are here to fill out the youth ranks. Barosi has a 4.5 star potential and will be sent on loan. Nunes only has a 3 star potential, so will likely keep him around to play on the U23 team and be emergency depth Have offers out to a couple more players, one strong first team and another youth player... we will see if they pan out. I tried to get the top players to come, but they wouldn't join us. It is nice to have a couple of million in the transfer budget, but there are no players to spend it on who will come. I targeted the best of the players that I am aware of based on my rules and struck out. The scouts are hard at work to try and find more, but I expect we will play the year with this team and grow reputation again to get better players and repeat a couple of times before we are ready to truly compete.

This email made my day!!!!

The end of year rankings and coefficients got updated and Gibraltar moved up to 42 in the Nation Club rankings. This is great as it now means an extra team gets to play in Europe to help collect money and improve the rankings.

BWM - L1 Target = 67.2 This is a tough one to judge the stats against a benchmark as we control possession, so defensive opportunities are more limited. For this role, I like to look at relative ratings and I really want the role to get the ball and get rid of it to someone else, not looking at them to run with the ball or score. Cottrell's numbers show he plays ok in the role I described. Ganet not quite as good, but adjusted for the fact that Ganet played all the tough teams, I would likely give him a small edge on the stats front... that shows in his average rating as well. This position could use an upgrade. Ganet (58.5) was the primary BWM for the cup matches but Cottrell (54.5) played the league games to hit the homegrown quota. Rojas can play DM and has a decent rating (57.4). None of the three have potential ability to grow into and they are all a fair ways off the target rating. Ganet is at the end of his contract, Rojas would require retraining and Cottrell makes a decent backup as he can also play CD in a pinch. Plan - Keep Cottrell as backup / league player, do not retrain Rojas, but have him as an emergency only player for this role and let Ganet walk. Urgent search for an upgrade - ideally homegrown, but that is unlikely, so look for anyone in the low 60s. DLP - L1 Target = 64.4 Key played most of his games as AM, so his stats are skewed that way a bit. Parker has great numbers and Marcos as well. Key (59.9) and Marcos (56.5) are both strong options with growth. They are also the primary options at AM as well. Parker (52) is an ok backup based on ratings, but he plays incredibly well. His high work rate and teamwork must have a large impact. Plan - start Marcos and watch his growth to see if it continues. Marcos becomes homegrown in February which will help squad selection. Parker is the primary backup with Key as a third option. Look for a backup with potential for depth purposes. Winger - L1 Target = 63.2 Negrette and De Stefano are the starters and they played very well as evidenced by their stats and their average match ratings. McCafferty is a solid backup and Coombes and Yome filled in well. Yome's age and deteriorating physicals show up in his sprints/90 metric. Negrette (57.3) and De Stefano (60.4) are close to the target ratings, but their growth looks to be close to max. McClafferty (55.1) still has room to grow (1 star), so he also could get in the L1 range. Coombes is a useful backup to keep around and it is time for Yome to move on. Plan - in good shape, get McClafferty solid play time for development. Look for younger players to come in for the future. Advanced Playmaker - L1 Target = 62.5 Key played most of his games in this position his stats are good, his match rating is excellent. Marcos played here as well, but mostly in the midfield which explains his lower shot number - a bit, though Marcos has a low finishing attribute, so is not as suited to an attacking role. Barber played the third most and had decent numbers. Key (59.2) is the starter. He will likely grow to the L1 level by the end of the season. Marcos (56.1) will play DLP, but can fill in if needed. Barber (52.5) is an ok backup, but the deep bench spots should be reserved for homegrown or potential future homegrown players. Plan - start Key and look for depth options with growth. Advanced Forward - L1 Target = 61.9 Kawe has the better conversion rate and Yenpariye is way better in the air. Looking at the non penalty XG / 90 and Yenpariye has the edge, likely due to his heading. Both played well though the AF role is likely not a great fit for either one of them. Kawe (56.8) has 0.5 stars of growth potential, but declined a bit last season and Yenpariye (46.6) has 1 star of growth, so neither of them is going to get to the target in the AF role. Kawe's best role is P(A) where he is rated 60.8 and Yenpariye's best role is TF (S) where he is rated 53.2. Plan - look for a future AF to take over. In the meantime change the tactical approach to leverage what these two are best at. P(A) when Kawe is in and TF when Yenpariye plays and see how that goes.

FB - L1 Target = 60.8 Britto is the starter on the left side and Roman on the right. The stats for Diaz and Rojas are skewed due to them playing CD (75% CD for Diaz and 50% CD for Rojas). McClafferty was 75% winger, so his stats will be off, but not as much as the FB attack and the wingers support, so there is a lot of overlap. Britto has a 54.4 rating, not the 60 target, but he plays very well and is homegrown. He has a 3 star current ability and a 3.5 star potential, so hopefully he can grow closer to the 60 rating, but he is the starter for the next year or two if not longer. Roman was the starter at RFB, is natural on both sides and will become homegrown at the end of this upcoming season. At a rating of 51.4, he needs to be upgraded, but will eventually be very valuable depth. He has 3.5 stars for both current and potential ability, so I don't expect him to grow. McCafferty is about to become homegrown and is a very useful backup as a winger and FB. Right now he is accomplished at LFB, but his right foot is very strong, so could train there as well. He has 2.5 stars current ability and 3.5 potential. His FB rating is 50.4, so there is room for him to grow, but likely only to the mid 50's. Tamargo is strong with both feet and had decent stats when he did play. His rating at FB is only 47 and I don't think he has the potential to become useful, so will try and loan him out and keep him in the league until he becomes homegrown and hopefully catches on with one of the other Gibraltar teams. Plan - Britto starts. Look for an upgrade at RFB with potential with Roman starting until then and moving to backup if we find one. Develop McClafferty as FB and winger, keep Rojas around as backup CD and FB. Look to move Diaz out.

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts) GK - L1 target = 58.2 Hankins didn't allow a goal, but it was just in league play, so not a fair comparison, but it does show that GK is a position that needs a homegrown option to play in the league games to allow flexibility to have imports in other positions. That means I can't have an import with Star playing time expectations like Alonso is currently. It is hard to tell how well the other GK played when they played very strong teams in the Europa League matches, but the average rating is not quite as good as I would like. Alonso grew 1.2 to a 53.5 rating and he is just 20 with a 3.5 star current ability and a 5 star potential, so has a chance to get his rating to the target level. However, he will not ever be homegrown. A new name did appear in the depth chart - Leighton McCormick from the youth intake this past season. He is only 15 with a 39.8 rating and a 1.5 star current ability with a 3 star potential ability. Would like to see the potential higher, but will see in a year or two - he is a Model Citizen and has 17 determination, so would love to see him develop. Plan - default to playing Alonso and Hankins along with some time for McCormick in the "easier" league games. At the same time look for an 18 and under GK with a rating >55 and high potential. If we can find that, we will try and sign them and if successful, try and move Alonso on or loan him out for the remainder of the year. Will likely not resign Alonso, as he is on the last year of his contract, but if nothing else materializes, it will be a fall back. CD - L1 Target = 64.7 Rojas played a fair bit of his time at RFB, so his stats will not be the same as the other CDs. Nothing jumps out at me from the Stats. Hastings said he was retiring and then wanted to be move to play part time and is now just unhappy... funny guy. He is out of contract at the end of June, so will not be around next season. Rojas and Diaz are useful players, but as imports without potential to grow, they need to be upgraded. Morata and Sofikitis both have potential and both we become homegrown in two years, so they should take over the starting rotation from Rojas and Diaz. Plan - Start Morata and Sofikitis and look for an upgrade to start in the rotation. Will look into Frankie Edwards and see how he did in the year away as well as look for imports with ratings above 60 and potential to grow,

End of Season Analysis: The team average rating improved, but at a lower rate than last season, improving from 55.2 to 56.7. The next "level" England League Two is at 60 average and we have one player at that rating - De Stefano and another who will be there soon - Key, so the other positions either need to grow or they will need replacing. I will refer back to this chart as I go through the position by position review. Basic idea is that imported players should be at or above the target as homegrown players will generally be below. I also need to get cracking on developing homegrown, though it is all connected as our youth setup is improving rapidly, but that will take a few years to impact the senior squad. Our reputation and the league reputation has to improve to attract better players, though I have a LOT more money to spend, so maybe I can buy some good players or look to loans as well as another means. I suspect I will be a few (2-4 more?) years before I can get the team above L1 range. It is tricky in that I do not want to take the best players from the other Gibraltar teams because we need them to perform in Europe to get the league ratings/rankings up to help us get better players. The end of season squad depth chart is pretty similar to the end of last seasons. The major moves need to happen from now until the European registration window. This time, I will leave a few more spots open for new players, so I can keep hunting. Major positive changes in ratings: Jay Key (again) +3.7 Oscar Marcos +3.9 (Oscar will become homegrown in Feb of this season - BONUS) Michael Negrette +1.6 Aaron Alonso +1.2 Benjamin Rojas +0.9 Major Drops Yome -3.4 (second year on this list, so won't be around long) Hankins - 2.4 (this is likely due to not playing enough as I made a mistake bringing in Loic on loan planning to make him the future GK, but couldn't get him to consider a transfer and then couldn't balance the play time to keep him and Alonso happy, so kept Alonso happy, but that did not leave enough game time for Hankins) Diaz - 1.6 - this one I have to look into. He is 24 and his potential shows the same as his current, so maybe this is as good as it gets. Kawe dropped 0.9 ... he played in enough games looks like he has 1/2 star to grow, so maybe injuries got him Either way, this is concerning Interesting that I made a comment in last end of season review that said I can't wait to see what growth I can get from the after training full time. The growth was about the same as the part time year!!!! I am guessing I over worked them in training so that with all the European matches and heavier training and injuries most of the players didn't actually spend enough time training.... more digging and thought required.

Two more games to finish out the Champions Round with both ending in victories. Final table had us comfortably ahead. We had a few players lead the league in ratings, goals and we dominated the assists category. We received £539K for UEFA Europa League television revenue and £89.73K from the coefficient ranking pool money. This will help offset the last round of facilities upgrades which were £1.5M each for the training and youth facilities. Next post will be the season review of players, progression, stats and an early look at needs for next season. Before we get to that though, the team collected some awards: The board announced the initial budgets for next season and we have some money to spend!! Still not sure we will spend the transfer budget as our reputation and the league reputation is not high enough to get the really good players to come. I will try and sign a few of the homegrown stars / future stars to more expensive contracts to try and make them less attractive to the nasty, ugly, mean vultures out there... I mean the higher division teams that will try and take them from me.

Rock Cup Semi Finals: We lost a close one to Mons Calpe in a game we should have won. Final game of the regular season and a victory for us as we handled Glacis even after we went down a man. The regular season final table has us with a 9 point lead heading into the Championship Round. With a 9 point lead and only 5 games to play, we should be able to take the league title. A lot of the injured players are coming back as well which will help the cause. Ahead of the first game of the championship round, we held a team meeting and I picked the wrong motivational speech and completely tanked the team morale. There were already a few unhappy players - Key because he wants to leave and a couple of players who are pissed that I am not playing them, so that probably didn't help. The first game was a tough matchup, but the team prevailed on the backs of 3 from Kawe who had a great game. Second game and the result was a lot closer than the game looked to be from the numbers. 3 goals on 5 shots ... boo to that. We are still 9 points up with 3 to play, so a point in any of the next 3 and the title is ours. Kawe is injured for the rest of the season, so time to play the young guy again. Fortunately, we already know he can do the job from earlier in the year. Third game of the Championship Round sees us clinch the league title! A fine victory with a lovely header by Yenpariye to bring us level and then De Stefano won it late. Looks like we dominated the game from the shots etc. Something to look into at the end of the season to see what tweaks can be made as we seem to be allowing more than we should and not score quite as much as we should.

The injury and sickness bug hit the team and at one point we were down 8 players! We had enough depth to field a team, but suffered on the pitch as well with two ties. Youth intake this season is more promising for sure, with a few players who look decent. Pryce has a 15 finishing, but just ok stats other wise and Dodd looks reasonably balance. Don't think they will ever make the team, but maybe they can grow enough to help the league. Djurgardens IF from the Swedish premier division are making transfer offers for Jay Key - I really, really don't want to lose him so am refusing. He is under contract for 3 more seasons, so I can hopefully hold him through this, but seems likely that I will lose him eventually. As a side note, at the beginning of the season, I made all the top leagues in Europe playable so they would get real players etc. to see if that made a difference in the European competitions. In a very unscientific way, it seems to have made it more realistic and now they are coming for my better players, which sucks, but is also realistic.

Couple more victories in league play and the team is rolling. Rock Cup quarterfinals time and we defeat College '75 quite comfortably to move on into the semi-finals The January transfer window was uneventful for us. The only move we made was to loan out our 18yr old CD Sofikitis to Lynx. I included an optional transfer fee, so hopefully they buy him and he agrees to go as that would strengthen their squad for next season... trying to sign the young kids and farm them out to the rest of the league. Our scouts are finding lots of 18 and under players for us to look at when the season winds down.