Ceching You Out

Glad to have you checking back in! Here's what our squad looks like at the moment with our typical starters, subs, and others I'm keeping a keen eye on: By CA, (27e) Biedermann and (26c) Kaiser are our best players. Let me know if any of the others catch your eye! I love his profile, so so much. He's a fast, mostly two footed giraffe with okay-ish technique. Playing in the German part of the world, I'd take 10x more (27e) Biedermanns. My only real complaint is that he falls short of the (extremely) high personality bar I'm setting. (26c) Kaiser is our biggest mentoring success story so far. He came through as Fairly Loyal with borderline bad hidden attributes and he's now 4ish points away from Model Citizen. Granted he's unlikely to make it, but he's close enough to not get the boot once he's become influential in the squad. I've always fancied giving him a try in our BWM(d) role in midfield, but we've been short at DC in this save. Intake: Last Year:

Very interesting! I wonder if somewhere as multi-lingual as Switzerland the primary language is set by region. If so, Belgium would likely be similar. I do recall that for some languages in game, for example the family that Serbian is part of, if a player learns one they get a decent chunk % knowledge of the others. Supposed to reflect the similarities across those. Could that apply to Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian as well?

Europe 2032/2033 We get Norwegian club Odd and are considered favorites. To be honest, just playing a team not in an active league should be a big advantage. A disappointing draw after a horribly misplaced goal kick in the 90'+4th lead to a ridiculous finish off both posts. So we head to Norway with the tie on a knife's edge. We dominated, even before their pair of second yellows, and got just enough for it. Our first European success. We've got this two-legged tie versus CSKA Sofia for a spot in the... [checks notes] League Phase. Not the Group Stage any more. Without doing any xIncome calculations, feels like we'd come out a few $M ahead between results and gate receipts. Plus extra games to grow our youth and raise our reputation. 3-0 away, 2-1 at home with a heavily rotated side. Easy as you like. League Phase here we come! Most of my "edits" on here are just working around forum idiosyncrasies with copying from old posts, but legit EDIT: [heart eyes] This takes us to nearly $7M in the bank. Our finances are seriously stabilizing.

Europe 2032/2033 In the first match we give up a goal in the 3rd, then immediately leave a backpass short to play in an attacker. Somehow we rally to take the lead 2-1 before settling for a point in the face of a Standard Liege onslaught. The home leg was a beating, but the final scoreline isn't all that unfair in the grand scheme of things. Their $30-46M rated striker scored a hattrick of offside goals in the first leg, followed by two legitimate goals in the second. He's 135 CA and their 8th best player by that metric. We are out of our depth at this level, even more so with the super young backups we're having to play given I haven't been keeping significant depth behind our starters. This certainly puts into perspective the level of player that's relevant for us long-term.

Post-season 2031/2032 A draw on the last day of the "Regular Group" meant we were guaranteed a top half finish even results went against us elsewhere. They didn't, so it was quite comfortable in the end. I'd hoped to sneak 5th and a shot at Europa Conference League. Instead, we managed 4th after Rapid absolutely imploded. They're easily a top 3 side, but their long-term coach of 9 years hit the skids and decided to join Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga in April. They slipped a bit further, then finished with an unlikely win to nab 5th then comfortably beat the best placed team from the Relegation Group to still get a taste of Europe. This is the worst I've seen a team perform in a 32 game season. Sure, LASK lost 4 points when the table got halved, but 13 is awful. And they still had a chance to stay up with two games left because Blau-Weiss was only fractionally better. Just a sign of how far we've come. What appears to be three relegated seasons in the distant past of the 60s then our most recent two. So we venture into the Europa League to test our mettle. No real expectations for how we might match up against other EL sides. I'll be happy with a bit of cash before we crash out of EL and then EC. Besides that, we've got our usually pruning of the squad for cash and focus on cultivating our Cult of Personality. More to come on both those, plus Europe.

Mid-season 2031/2032 I'll skip most of my usual editorializing since, for once, my expectations were spot on. We're a mid-table side. Decidedly worse than Salzburg, Sturm Graz, and even a down-year Rapid. We're in the next tier with Wolfsberger, Vienna, and Wacker Moedling. If we can beat one we're in the Champions Group, two we've got a decent shot at Conference League, all three we're in the Europa League. I'd bet on the former right now, but still much to play for as we head into the business end of the season. Let's see how well this predicted our intake. Lowish-CA but high-ish PA? CMs and AMs check out as the highest PCA, followed by Wingers. I'd say overall PA is actually worse than indicated. Positives: one Model Citizen plus the best of the group, (32g) Sulzbacher, is one Loyalty point from popping. To be fair, I'm not all that upset by a mediocre intake since our depth charts are already clogged with 120-130+ PA players. We've been getting poached less so players are starting to pile up. Good problem to have, but still.

The distance is substantial, but we spent 7 years churning just to get promoted. I think we'll get there eventually! One of the reasons I liked the challenge here -- there are such dominant domestic sides to overcome. But I'd be happy for just a little taste of Europe when we can.

I was able to talk the board into this. It may be a bit aggressive financially as it leaves us sub-$4M in the bank but I'd like to really max these now in the expectation that we'll see returns in how quickly some of our poorer personality you improves. We're at 14/12/20/20, so I think this will take us to 16ish for Training.

Post-season 2030/2031 Three points adrift at the bottom of the table in January isn't a very promising position. How could you say something like that? At the end of last season you were predicting you'd be fine. Last doesn't feel very...fine. No, no. I'd never say that. Hubris isn't in my nature. I quote: "Then we try to stay up. Famous last words, but I think we'll be okay". Maybe you're taking that out of context? No. Fine, you got me. Things looked desperate in January. We took a risky loan of (26b) Dabrowski in January to make sure our attack was better than needed for the Premier Division. He lasted five games before picking up a several week injury that would've cost us $1M+ in fees. Whether it was that, or the shift to (27e) Biedermann up top and our AM playing more attacking, natural progression, or just the right bounces resetting our morale -- our season turned around. We comfortably avoided the drop, finishing 2nd in the Relegation Group and a path to Europe opening up. Feeling verbose today, eh? Relegation battles get me feeling some sort of way. I think the sequence in our last attempt where we went winless for 18 matches in a 30 game season and (1) didn't get fired, then (2) stayed up on the last day might be my favorite FM memory ever.] Anyway, we should be settled in the Premier Division now. We lose (27f) Aedtner to RB Salzburg after his loan concludes. (26e) Hilti similarly returns to Stuttgart although he'll be far less missed. We'll clear out 4-5 players, largely loan players or now-backups outside (LTC 26) Grünenfelder who is worth cashing in on. "Regular Season" Relegation Group Altach really took a dive, picking up only 4 points in the Relegation Group and plummeting to the First Division as a result. I love how the Championship/Relegation Groups shake up the end of the season, and they actually work well for an Academy save like this. We can take more risks blooding players in the "Regular Season" and hopefully be in better shape when we really need results. Next season I expect that we'll be near the top of the Relegation Group. Our reserves will be very young even for us, but we'll bring back a pretty settled first 11 unless the Board sells over our heads. Our bank account is healthy and players valued pretty robustly, so that should be less of a concern as well. Two topics for our next deep dive -- checking in on the Liechtensteiner National Team and our Cult of Personality.

Spending that windfall as soon as our Board will let us. I missed the notification, but we've also got Training Facilities upgrading by September as well. ...and (31f) Itter pops too. Very nice! I may be (re)learning an old FM tutoring lesson -- do similar personalities still see the most change? They had similar positions too, which likely has an impact as well.

In a bit of luck, we get (31a) Jumabaev to pop to Model Citizen from "Light" mentoring not two weeks after coming through. Woof, then we immediately after we get the far worse end of things. Away he goes, albeit having given us a boost in both points and morale. We've won 3 of 5 heading into the Relegation Group. I'd love to keep him, but he'll miss at least half our games -- potentially more like two thirds. Not going to pay a $1M for that.

This is just... [delirious laughing]. Easily the best intake I've had on any version of FM, at least that I was aware of. 10 players 115+ PA. 5 players 125+. 2 players 135+. And then the creme de la creme, a bona fide star. Personalities are solid, maybe even borderline great. (31a) Jumabaev, the Kyrgyzstani wizard, and (31f) Itter are 1 point of Loyalty from being Model Citizens. Only 4 of the 10 have Pro < 13, and they're all 9-11. I can work with this, and our Academy is going to be stocked. For posterity, here's (31d) Starke:

Mid-season 2030/2031 Despite the fantastic incoming fees and the promising facility news off the pitch, on the grass we've been poor. We should be two spots better by xG and that matches my subjective experience so far. We've just lacked killer instinct to get games over the finish line due to bad luck and boneheaded decisions. We've conceded 7 (!) penalties so far, 4 worse than the next. And that was 7 in 12 before we stopped shooting ourselves in the foot. 5 more games until we split into the Relegation Group, points get halved, and it becomes all about out competing at least one of our fellow bottom dwellers. With the unexpected windfall and struggles, I've brought former player (26b) Dabrowski back on loan. We'll pay a minimum of $70K, but the rest will be set by the % of minutes he plays. As one of our top three players by CA, he'll slot right into the line up and hopefully help us put the ball in the net while staying healthy. Should things go off the rails and we can't reliably play him ~90 minutes every game (e.g., an injury), we'll immediately cancel the loan to prevent the $650K charges from totaling up. I honestly wrestled with making this move. It's certainly not value for money even if he's a workhouse -- I'd be happy with a $330K total outlay that has him playing 90% of minutes. If we weren't flush with cash and desperate for points, I don't think I could pull the trigger. Knowing we have an out helps, and we'll be prepared to overpay a little if he's making a difference.

When (27f) Aedtner agreed that an "acceptable" bid was $7M I thought we'd successfully priced him out of a move. Then RB Salzburg bid and let us negotiate this frankly ridiculous amount of money. I guess we need to stay up so we can use it.

Well, we won't be hurting for money for a bit. The Board was ready to accept (relatively) meager bids for (26e) Hilti so we maximized offers and out he goes for a hefty sum. I'm honestly less sad about this one. He's 91 CA /138 PA @ 20 and struggling to close the gap because of a miserable personality (15 Det/7 Amb/8 Pro) I haven't been able to turn around despite being with us for ~5 years. After the already planned, extensive sales, we're sitting with > $5M in the bank. Time to upgrade Training Facilities just as soon as the Board will let us request it again. EDIT: Took until October but here we are. Completes before the youth intake too, which could be a big plus.

Another side effect of promotion (besides turning Professional) -- I can finally talk the Board into this: And after cashing in a nearly $1M sell-on fee for (26d) Weirather, the Board is suddenly amenable to this as well:

Post-season 2029/2030 So, the obvious question: how'd it go on the final day? Smooth. Then, not so smooth. Uh oh... (27e) Biedermann, our 6'5" giraffe powered home a header from a corner inside the first 10 minutes. Felt like we things might end on an anticlimactic note. But we couldn't hold on for even the next 10 before conceding a screamer from the edge of the box. The tide turned against us. Kapfenberger smashed a shot off the underside of the bar... and back out. Knuckles whitened as we tried to keep grasp of the game despite the reversal of momentum. That burst was all they had; one way traffic resumed. 2-1 before half, before piling on to finish 4-1. And in the end it didn't matter because Lustenau could only pull back level against Liefering. Promoted, and champions at that. About time. I want to argue, but honestly I agree. This was the third season running we had a serious chance to go up. What next then? Well, we sell some players in the summer to manage squad personality and cash balances (as we always do). I'll check in with some of our recent departures to see if I can convince them to rejoin us, although my expectations are low there. Then we try to stay up. Famous last words, but I think we'll be okay. Sounds like-- I also think, despite our recent setback with (27a) Hug's departure, that we'll focus heavily in the short term on our Cult of Personality. Europe may be another half dozen years off, so we'll need another way to show progress. I may have figured out a more cohesive, effective approach and we can see if the data supports it. Anything else? You seem to have a lot on your mind there since you cut me off. I'd ask you if you want a Hug, but it's me. I'm the problem, it's me. I need a Hug. ...Taylor Swift, now? And a bad hug pun. What can I say, I'm a man of culture. At least when we're winning. Largely our starting line-up and rotational players here. 110+ CA is good for the next level, so you can see we're roughly 50/50 compared to that mark. And, quite possibly for the first time, we end the season significantly in the black. Our Chairman giving away Hug(s) is the larger chunk of it, but we'd still have been positive without it. The Austrian pot payments are delightful when you can hit them contorting your lineup. We've been strangely buoyed by only our (questionable) back-ups switching to represent Liechtenstein. That's a problem in the long-term, but for now it's helpful to the tune of $1.5M+ a year.

Matching wins in the first round of matches kept us and Lustenau level. A 90'+2 winner for us against Amstetten gave us a two point lead when Lustenau failed to topple Klagenfurt. We dominated Vorwaerts Steyr in what looked to be the clincher, but Lustenau responded with a deep stoppage time goal of their own to beat lowly Bregenz. So it all comes down to the final matchday of the season - if we at least draw versus 14th placed Kapfenberger (which would see them relegated), we win regardless of Lustenau's result. If we lose, then we need help from Liefering to at least take a point at home against our rivals.

I think we've got the best run-in here with Lustenau and Hartberg both having significantly harder paths. Ried, trying to return to the top division at first asking, should be too far back. Need to be goldfish here -- memories of last year purged for positive thoughts.

Second 2030 intake here since the game crashed after the first. Better from the very brief look I had -- previous best player was another GK and overall PA was worse before (I think).

I'd spent the afternoon daydreaming about how far we might be able to push this Cult of Personality concept, given how well I'd laid the foundation. Our captain (27a) Hug was already Highly Influential at 18 and he had the potential to bump up another player's 1-2 attributes to start a chain reaction. I say "had", because our Board was willing to accept $125K on deadline day after refusing lower bids the entire window. Absolutely infuriating. This was the only time in the save I'd considered pulling out an FM trick to keep a player. It is just a game after all, and one I want to enjoy. (27a) Hug was shaping up to be the central figure going forward. In the end I stuck to my "renegotiate but player still goes" rule. I think abandoning that undercuts the challenge here, and would thieve more joy than it'd return. So I played negotiations back to square away a much larger fee and a buyback, although a sell-on clause was impossible to make happen without chopping the fee in half. The new Board is starting out on the wrong foot. Rapid is becoming a personal rivalry.

The last two under Board Culture ought to be interesting. Hopefully I can finish off promotion and then have some leeway to negotiate them away; they just laughed at me when I tried that now.

What debts? Even though we'll dip into the negatives over the winter break, we're not there yet. And we'll quickly pop back with our Austria pot payment that is only 3 games away. Surely they don't mean this paltry thing?

If our hypothesis is right, this means bad CA and bad PA. Hooray!

Mid-season 2029/2030 You feeling up to one of these? The tears into a pint of Haagen Dazs was just sad. The first time. Then I couldn't keep watching. It was salted caramel so I was just enhancing the flavor. Because I happy about how delicious it was. Definitely. Those are words of someone on a winning streak. Grandpa always used to say -- when things are going against you, get out there and exorcise. Well, exercise is a good way to raise your endorphins and-- Exorcise. [sigh] You mean-- Exorcising last seasons demons. And I must say, we're setting a fast pace and getting our heart rate up so far.