mpm2342

UEFA Europa League Quarterfinals: For the quarterfinals we have drawn Benfica who play in the Portuguese Premier League. Portugal is 6th in the nation club rankings and Benfica is 17th. Since our wage budget is a rounding error of their budget, I am not optimistic in this one. We really don't have much chance, so a super result would be a draw or win at home to provide a bit more boost to the rankings for next season. First match at home and we pulled out a draw! Was a tough run up to this match with 2 league matches in the 4 days before. Fortunately, I had enough depth to rest pretty much everyone in advance of this with the exception of Abid who played two days earlier. We were outplayed handily, but snuck away with a tie, so I am thrilled. Onto the away match and Benfica ended the European run for the season. Looks like Alonso had a great game to keep the score as close as it ended up being. We are not ready yet to compete with the top teams, but we are getting closer.

UEFA Europa League Round of 16: For the round of 16 we have drawn Trabzonspor who play in the Turkish Super League. Turkiye is 7th in the nation club rankings and Trabzonspor is 40th. Looking at their roster, they have better attributes, but not by a huge margin, so we should have a chance here. We played them in 2025 when they beat us, but we have improved significantly since then. First game is away, so hoping for a draw or a very close result to give us a chance at home. Of course a victory would be nice too. That is what happened! Second game was a close one, with the team pulling out a tie and a victory in the round. Off to the Quarterfinals now!

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 8: Next up is Rizespor who play in the Turkish Super League. Turkiye is 7th in the nation club rankings and Rizespor is 205th. Looking at their roster, we should have a pretty good chance of winning another game. We managed a win in a close game. What an incredible league phase helped by a few teams playing backups, we only lost one game and placed 2nd! On to the round of 16 - hopefully we get a lucky draw,

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 7: Next up is Omonoia who play in the Cypriot First Division. Cyprus is 20th in the nation club rankings and Omonoia is 85th. Cyprus is not a playable league in FM24, so Omonoia has a few "live" players and a bunch of greys filling out the lineup. We should be able to win this game because of that. Good to win the game. Makes a big difference if the team is from a playable league or not.

Youth intake preview is in and it says good intake, so hopefully there is a gem or two in there. Finished the first half of the regular season, including victory in the Pepe Reyes Cup, undefeated as expected.

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 5: Next up is SK Sturm Graz who play in the Austrian Premier Division. Austria is 10th in the nation club rankings and SK Sturm Graz is 63rd. This will be another tough one unless we see backups again. Close one, but we took the loss. Still sitting in a very good position to move on from the league phase after 5 games. UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 6: Next up is RB Leipzig who play in the Bundesliga. Germany is 5th in the nation club rankings and RB Leipzig is 18th. This should be a loss unless we see backups again. We won ... checking to see if they played backups and NO, they didn't fully rotate, but did play their backup GK, who had a very bad game, and rested a couple of players, but we got a strong side from them. We clinched a playoff spot with the win and two more games to go. Just for fun, I will show the lineup they played. We seem to be right in that sweet spot where the AI doesn't know how seriously to take us

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 4: Next up is OGC Nice who play in the Ligue 1 Uber Eats. France is 6th in the nation club rankings and OGC Nice is 63rd. We should have no chance in this one unless they play their backups. We played them last season and lost, but not a blowout Well, they did play their backups and we managed to get a tie out of it. We are definitely showing improvement as a squad

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 3: Next up is Villarreal who play in the Spanish First Division. Spain is 3rd in the nation club rankings and Villarreal is 20th. We should have no chance in this one except to try and keep it close. No way we should have won this except when looking closer they played their second string for the most part. Their star players didn't play. This could be an interesting season if the top clubs think we are bad enough to play their backups against, we could have a chance to win a few more games. The Villarreal lineup is below and you can see that they didn't play key players like Jones, Cuenca, Jorgensen and Rafel to pick out a few. Works for me

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 2: Next up is Levski who play in the Bulgarian First League. Bulgaria is 11th in the nation club rankings and Levski is 70th. This is a tough matchup and the poll agrees. Their squad doesn't look overwhelming, so maybe we can keep it close or sneak away with a result. Now this was unexpected, but am very happy to see a victory away from home to put two wins in the bank early. Good game from the players we need to step up - Rafael and Golliard.

The draw is out and we have an ok lineup of opponents where we should have a chance in a few of the games and if we can pull off an upset or two like last season, we might make it through. UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 1: First up Viktoria Pizen who play in the Czech First Division. Czechia is 19th in the nation club rankings and Viktoria Pizen is 153rd. This is a tough matchup but one where I think we might have an outside chance. We managed a victory in a match that we needed to have if we hope to advance. We had the advantage in the statistics, but not by a huge amount.

We are finished adding to the squad for the season with one transfer in and one loan in: Abid is a winger who is very fast but falls over in a gust of wind, so will be interesting to see how he does. Signed him to be contingency in case I can't keep Rafael from the vultures. Zohouri is in on loan and is rated 66.1 as a BWM, so a nice upgrade on Angong. The additions, plus a little bit of growth has brought our starting squad average rating to 62.2, just a bit below the L1 target of 62.9.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Playoff: Next up we play against Olympiacos from the Greek Super League 1. Greece is 15th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Olympiacos is 44th in the European club rankings. This is going to be a tough one. Fingers crossed as it would be very nice to make the league phase. That is a decent result giving us a chance on the return leg at home. We did get 9 yellow cards - 9!! without doubling up to a red, pretty crazy. Almost, but not quite. We were outplayed and deserved to lose, so I'm ok with it. the £4.2M for making it this far eases the pain.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Third Qualifying Round: Next up we play against Qurban Qurbanov from the Azeri Premier League. Azerbaijan is 22nd in the Nation Club Coefficients and Qurban Qurbanov is 80th in the European club rankings. This one should not be hard because they are a non-playable league in the base game, but the league and club rankings say otherwise. Shouild be interesting. Home victory in strong form. Managed to win the away match as well to take this one handily.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round: Next up we play against FCSB from the Romanian First League. Romania is 28th in the Nation Club Coefficients and FCSB is 146th in the European club rankings. This is a tough one as they knocked us out last season, but since the squad is a bit better this time, maybe we can sneak one through. We won the home match by one with them conveniently going down a man in the 52nd minute. I will take it. We came away with a convincing win at their place in front of 18,850 fans. Nice comeback and great to move on to the 3rd round.

A few early July signings and a loan player brought in to provide some insurance on the players the vultures are circling. I decided I will not be able to keep Gbeme long term and even though the rest of the squad is on my side in the dispute, I figure now is the time to sell him as we got a decent replacement in on loan. Ikechukwu Orazi is in on loan without costing very much at all. Good pace and great ball control/distribution perfect for a support winger. He is rated 67.5 in that role, which is almost the same as Gbeme (67.7). Hopefully our reputation improves enough to go get a good long term solution at the end of the season. I signed Oliveira as insurance to our starting central defenders: Yuri and Albiach as both of them have been subjected to offers from bigger clubs and Albiach is slightly unhappy at the moment. Hopefully I can keep both of them, but now have more reinforcements on the squad. I signed Ferreira as he is a solid FB and also a highly rated BWM if I choose to retrain him. Going to give Angong a run there first and if he plays well and shows improvement, that's the plan.

UEFA Champions League Champions Path First Qualifying Round: First up we play against Flora from the Estonian Premier League. Estonia is 50th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Flora is 369th in the European club rankings. We should not have much difficulty with this matchup. Comfortable victory at home followed by another away that was a bit closer - I played a few backups in the second game and that showed. The other three Gibraltar league teams all lost their first round matchups in the Europa Conference league. They will not be a help in getting the league reputation up.

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 haven't won any games in the last year, so I will be keeping an eye on the HC role... though he keeps hanging on. The league moved up 6 more 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. we have a couple of good youngsters coming through who are probably a season or two away. We did sign a couple of players. Canales will play DLP. He is rated 63.2 as a DLP and as an AP, so can play a couple of spots for us. Chiab will play LFB and has a rating of 59.7, so a nice upgrade.

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts) GK - L1 target = 58.2 Alonso is the clear starter and performed well. He got all the European matches so his statistics won't be as good as Hankins who just played League matches. Hankins is ok and certainly good enough to play in the league games given the team in front of him as evidenced by the fact that we won every game with him in the net. 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. Alonso's rating improved by 2 points and one more year like that and he will be at L1 level. CD - L1 Target = 64.7 All the players who put time in a CD played pretty well. Yuri and Albiach got all the tough matches and did quite well. Morata is top backup and Sofikitis and Craggs are depth options who are homegrown. Plan - start Albiach and Yuri for as long as I can keep him. Look for another CD with the potential to grow past the L1 target. FB - L1 Target = 60.8 All the FB's played well. Roman is more defensive in his attributes and it shows. McClafferty played mostly as a Winger but had 7 games at FB with a n average match rating of 7.16. 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. Caldeira might get close to the rating over time and plays well, so the primary need is a LFB Plan - Start Caldeira and play Britto or Roman depending on how they play. Britto is declining slightly, so will likely play Roman more than him. 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 defensive stats than Cottrell, but not a lot and Cottrell had better passing stats. Angong's rating dropped over the last season, so he is up for replacement if possible. Cottrell can improve slightly as well, but at 55, 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 to try and upgrade Angong. DLP - L1 Target = 64.4 Similar to last season, 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 was the guy, but he left. Hartjes played mostly at RFB, so his stats are not accurate, but he has the highest rating at DLP. 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 over Hartjes as he is not enough of an upgrade over Marcos and Parker to take playing time. Winger - L1 Target = 63.2 Gbeme and Rafael played very well and the rest of the wingers played well, Rafael's 28 assists and 7.73 average match ratings are very impressive. Coombes was the lowest performer statistically of the bunch, but he is cheap and usually gets good match ratings, so worth having him hang around until his contract expires. Gbeme's rating of 67.7 is already above the L1 target as is Rafael's rating of 66.6. Gbeme will only improve a bit and Rafael still has potential to grow. Rafael is now trained as a left winger, so we have our wingers of the future ... if we can hold onto them. Plan - start Gbeme and Rafael and keep Negrette and McClafferty as backups. Advanced Playmaker - L1 Target = 62.5 Golliard had the best statistics of the AP, with amazing match ratings, so he is the clear starter. He scored a lot of goals from this spot on the field and I am very happy with his performance. 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 will backup when not playing at DLP. Look for a stud at either AP or DLP as Golliard can play both, but AP is his best spot. At a minimum, need a bit more depth here. Advanced Forward - L1 Target = 61.9 Carrasco scored 36 goals with a good match rating average and good statistics, Rafael scored 5 goals and 10 assists in 7 games as a striker with an average match rating of 8.07... pretty crazy good statistics. Kawe performed well in limited appearances. Carrasco's rating dropped over the season, but he played very well, so we will give him another season since Rafael is better at winger. If he continues to decline, we will hand over the role to Rafael or look for alternatives. Plan - start Carrasco with Kawe etc. as backups. Upcoming Season Recruiting needs are fairly similar to last season: GK - We are good CD - We are good unless Yuri leaves and then we need a replacement, but not urgently 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 5 (27/28) Analysis: The team average rating improved by 1.3, improving from 59.3 to 60.6 taking us past England League Two (60.4 average). I will be targeting L1 for the next season and hopefully we can get there and then work on Championship. Our biggest gaps right now are at DLP where Key left, BWM where Angong declined and at FB.. I am guessing we will lose two more players shortly - Yuri at CD and Gbeme at Winger. Will do my best to keep them around for at least the start of the European competitions and hopefully longer. The squad did not change much from last season with Hatjes and Yuri the main additions early last season. Carrasco's rating declined at striker as did Angong. Rafael, Gbeme, Yuri, Albaich and Alonso all improved, but likely not at a rate needed to get much beyond L1 level. I have identified players who would be higher rated, but they won't come and join, so it is likely to take a few seasons. Interestingly, Ben Lambert from this season's youth intake shows up as the number 2 rated BWM. This is primarily due to his very high work rate (18) and stamina. His other attributes are good, but he needs some time to develop if he can as his potential is only 2 1/2 stars. Neil Whitbread is not shown here, but at 16 has already played with the Gibraltar senior national team at FB which is a weak postition for us, so another player to keep an eye on.

End of season update: We had a clean sweep of all the games with no draws of losses. Won the cups and League The 3 other teams to make the European competitions are the same as last season. I will look to try and strengthen them a bit via loans and transfers if I can. We need more than just the Lions picking up wins in Europe to continue to improve our rankings and reputations. We lost Jay Key to PTM in the Portuguese Premier League and we almost lost Yuri and Rafael to teams in their countries top divisions. This will continue until the team and league reputation gets high enough, realistically it will continue whenever we get players who are much better than the reputation. That will be a steady state for us as we try and get the team stronger.

Youth intake is here. The best prospect is unambitious with a determination of 5, so he wall not amount to much. Ben Lambert is the only one who I think might have a chance to eventually make the squad as a league player. Not what I was hoping for.

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 7: Next up is Zalgiris who play in the Lithuanian A League. Lithuania is 44th in the nation club rankings. This is the first time in an important match we have played a country ranked below us! Zalgiris is 239th in the club rankings. The poll seems to think we should win and I think so too. Good game from the lads. Close down our goal differential as well, but likely not enough. Going to need at least a draw in a tough final match. UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 8: Final match is OGC Nice who play in the Ligue 1 Uber Eats in France. France is 3rd in the nation club rankings and OGC Nice is 73rd. The poll has them winning, but I hope we can sneak some points. Not to be and we lost a close one. Pretty even game on most metrics, but we just couldn't get the point we needed and got eliminated. Final table for the league phase had us even on points but knocked out by goal differential. That 9-2 loss is what did us in. We are on the brink, so there is hope for next season to see additional success. 3 teams we played finished in the top 8 and 4 others made it through and one finished at the bottom. Tough grouping to be in for us this season.

The youth intake preview has come in and it is not great, but hopefully a few of the youngsters will be good enough to help us or at least help other teams in the league.

UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 3: Next up is Grugge who play in the Jupiter Pro League in Belgium. Belgium is 8th in the nation club rankings and Brugge is 44th. Another match to try and keep close. Or not, that was a beatdown and pretty much kills our goal differential as a means to sneak out of this round. UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 4: Next up is Ajax who play in the Eredivisie in the Netherlands. Netherlands are 9th in the nation club rankings and Ajax is 41st. Another match to try and keep close. That was unexpected. 2 victories against two of the tougher teams in our draw is wonderful. UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 5: Next up is BRG who play in the Portuguese Premier League. Portugal is 7th in the nation club rankings and BRG is 31st. Another match to try and keep close - we got a lot of tough ones in this draw. We got outplayed and outscored. 4-1 isn't horrible, but was hoping for a bit closer. UEFA Europa League League Phase - Game 6: Next up is Athletico Bilbao who play in the Spanish First Division. Spain is 3rd in the nation club rankings and Athletico Bilbao is 123rd. The poll seems to think we have a chance, in fact it thinks we are going to beat a first division Spanish team???? Maybe if we get lucky for a third time. I will take a 1-0 defeat. It shows along with the other results (except Brugge) that we are getting much closer to being competitive.

Updates can change as you go too. Early save focus points will become rote later on, detail levels can decrease accordingly and increase in other areas later as they become more important. As @Carambau says, do what you enjoy most.