Ceching You Out

State of FC Liechtenstein - 2030 Let's spend a little more time than usual reviewing where we are. There's been massive changes over the last four years, although they've felt incremental along the way. I didn't set any goals at the start because (1) I wasn't sure whether I'd even last a few years given my rustiness with FM and (2) I wanted to feel out any limiting factors before making grandiose promises. I think now a few pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together on how I want to define "success" for the club and how we want to approach it. Finances We're starting here because it will quite possibly be our biggest challenge for the foreseeable future. We're obviously able to put a talented squad on the field even before our jackpot intake this year; the only thing that can jeopardize that is our finances deteriorating to the point we can no longer pay what's needed, the board starts selling over my head, or our facilities/recruitment upgrades get scaled back. Yearly income: $6.4M Yearly expenditure: $8.1M Loss: $1.7M No two ways about it, this is a bleak total after our first season in the Premier League where we've generated our largest income yet. Sponsorship and TV Money nearly doubled from the First Division. We sold $2.1M worth of players. We set (and re-set) record income from gate receipts. There's even a $250K injection from the Board. And the picture here looks better than it should because we've already received ~$600K in sponsorship for the upcoming season. Roughly $1.6M of the outgoing was salaries for players and coaches, which is fairly respectable. $3.5M is our youth setup alone! The remaining ~$3M are small chunks of $2-300K for things like Ground Maintenance, Match Day Expenses, etc. There doesn't appear to be an obvious place to cut our expenses - transfers have been less than $300K total for Otto and Backhaus. We'd save some upfront costs if we self-sabotage our Academy, but that's never going to be on the table. We'll never voluntarily cutback on our youth setup. It's the whirring engine that we're using to push us forward. But these levels are not cheap (10/12/20/20): That means we need to raise our revenue. I'm not sure how much growth to expect here in media rights, gate receipts, sponsorships, etc. but 20% would be pretty phenomenal given we only saw those figures double-ish with promotion (usually the single biggest increase). That'd add about $800K next year. Meaning we'd be $900K in the hole again assuming another $2.1M of player sales. That's... not going to do it. Our finances are currently "insecure" and staying in heavy debt is going to incentivize our Board to accept an offer they shouldn't. We'll need to strategically sell $3M+ of players each season to turn our finances around, at least until the income mentioned above grows enough to give us more breathing room. The good news: I'm excited to wheel and deal a bit. I'm happy running a lean squad and cashing out aggressively; you may recall this nearly got us relegated a few seasons ago. The bad news: the figures we're talking about mean we're probably going to have to cut some meat, not just fat. Hence why I want to look at our squad more closely next.

We end our season with a whimper. (25b) Michaud returns in time, but not at full strength. (27g) Emmerling and (26a) Brehm are unable to feature - although the end date for the latter's loan was automatically extended a few days which was a nice touch. Vienna sit back in both legs and dare us to break down their sturdy defense. Without 2/3 of our best attacking players, we're toothless. Conceding 2 goals off corners and then a PK (conceding only one from open play) means we'll miss out on Europe. Rollercoaster of emotions this season. I'm not sure we have the quality to stay up. Maybe we can squeak top half? We're definitely doing it. Nevermind, we're just not good enough. Wait, we did it! Sure seems like we could qualify for Europe, maybe even EL. Well, missed that opportunity. Maybe just the Europa Conference then. I guess we'll have to be satisfied with avoiding relegation. Another busy offseason coming up. We'll need to look at our finances and likely make some significant sales, adjust our depth chart for our amazing new youth players, and decide how we want to approach the next few years. Not necessarily in that order.

I'll spare the drama here. We entered the last two match days of the Championship Round in control for 4th (!) place with games versus LASK and Sturm Graz left, compared to Altach playing Sturm Graz and Rapid and LASK playing us and RB. We've got the easier schedule. Then (26b) Michaud, our string-pulling #10, goes down to injury. We stumble to a loss, falling behind Altach (who beat Sturm Graz by a goal) and opening the door for LASK to catch us on the last day; however we still have the the possibility of vaulting back to 4th with a win and an Altach loss to Rapid, a far from unlikely event. (27g) Emmerling and (26a) Behm pick up injuries before we play Sturm Graz and suddenly our best three attacking players are all out. We go ahead twice but can't hold on, and in the end the result didn't matter regardless. Altach drew, sealing 4th regardless based on their GD advantage and LASK loses so they can't close the gap. 5th it is, which I believe means we'll play the winner of Vienna/Wolfsburger in a final for the Europa Conference spot. EDIT: Vienna hammers Wolfsburger 3-0 so let's see if we can sneak into Europe. EDIT x2: Hold on, it's a two-legged affair? And the latter is after (26a) Behm returns to his parent club (if he's even healthy enough to play). Woof.

Hey, I know those guys!

We entered the last two matches of the... regular season? seeding matches? round robin? Whatever you call the first 22 occasions where you play each team home and away - a quick Google search was not very helpful on terminology. Anyway, last two matches before teams split into a championship and relegation mini-leagues a point behind Vienna. We've got Red Bull Salzburg (emphatically top of the league, duh) and Sturm Graz (4th place but slumping); Vienna has Wolfsberger (10th place but picking up form) and Rapid (clear runners up to RB). I'd take their schedule given the choice. Through 60 minutes we're 2-0 down to RB, our better xG really no consolation for getting carved apart by a more talented, clinical team. Not too bothered (it's RB, duh), I throw on far too many junior subs (aka the human version of "the towel") plus (26h) Bertl. I suppose (26h) Bertl was offended - he responded with goals in the 72' and 88' to rescue a draw. We'll take it! A nice morale booster, sure. Not much more than that given that -- no, wait! Wolfsberger beat Vienna 2-0. We're now exactly level on points and GD but ahead on Goals For. Things just got interesting. We're likely favored now since we're playing the weaker opposition in worse form. Can we definitively stay up with a 6th place finish? Call the bookmakers and punt a sum because I'm feeling optimistic. Begin matchday 22. Sturm Graz comes out flying. No, that other thing. Poke them with a stick because they seem to be dead and not doing anything. Their possession drops into the 20% range with zero shots on goal. Vienna scores against Rapid in the 28'. Fine, we still control our own destiny and Sturm Graz are uninterested. The game is fairly devoid of chances but we're in control at least. Halftime sees our score 0-0 and Vienna 1-0. Sturm Graz stumbles awake (not dead after all! at least on set pieces), lazily looping a front post header to the back post where Bachmann taps home with his head. A few minutes later (27g) Emmerling taps home a deflected (26h) Bertl cross from the goal mouth. Okay, now lets just ease ahead and sleep easy tonight. Except we don't kick on. We remain in control but generate nada. Minor changes on our end don't generate much. Desperation is knocking on the door. Hey Rapid, beginning to think we need some help here. More changes in the 80' but, in an uncharacteristic move, I leave tired starters on the field. We just need that extra bit of quality; don't think the youthful energy of our subs are what we need to change things. Chances start to pop up, finally. But still nothing to show. Then! In the '87' (27e) Stenzel corrals a ball near midfield and smashes a through ball to a breaking (27g) Emmerling. He's the man we want the chance to fall to, he's in, he... smashes it home. Done! Crank up the time wasting, swap a couple tired starters for fresh, more defensive players. Beautiful. Stoppage time, the Sturm Graz winger breaks down the right. Lots of space. My heart clenches, surely not. Winger gets to the byline. Their striker is open at the corner of the six. No no nooooo -- he smashes it wide. Yes yes yes! We win, matching Vienna on GD and taking it on Goals For. Only after looking at the scores post-match do I notice that we also desperately needed a Rapid goal for our goal to matter. A two goal victory for Vienna would've meant we needed to win by two. Thank you, Rapid, for the help I didn't know we needed. Written in the (admittedly low stakes) stars. So that means we're staying up. Our finances are a wreck but I'm honestly not sure if we have more money coming based on how we finish in the Championship mini-league. First two spots are guaranteed CL, next two get EL depending on the results in the Cup, and #5 plays the winner of the Relegation mini-league for a Conference spot. I suppose we could target the latter given we'll only be 2 points behind LASK after points are halved. That'd be the cherry on the cake that we didn't even know we wanted at the start of the season. EDIT: Sturm Graz would be the easiest club to catch and if that game was anything to go off of...

Now we're talking! 156, 154, 143, 132 as the top PAs with pretty solid CAs. I could get used to this. I imagine this plays a part (in addition to last season's rep boost and now being in the top flight): But it ain't cheap!

Funny that this is still bad by letter grade, but a distinct improvement on the last couple years. Let's see if it has any relation to reality. (Still five out of five stars.)

Only time I've legitimately wanted to throw something in 6 seasons. We hit a rough patch playing the best 4 sides essentially back-to-back-to-back-to-back; no real concerns. We get a shot at the second bottom side to recover plus dig their hole a little deeper. Instead, a second yellow in the 3rd (!) minute leaves us short-handed. We cope beautifully, pulling ahead and playing confidently... until throwing it away in stoppage time for the loss. Their first goal came after we turned it over on a cross-field pass to the wing at midfield. By our DC. With no fancy role, playing on Cautious. Just clear the ball. Ugh.

An earlier "halfway point" now that we're in the Premier League. We play each team home and away, then split into two mini-groups to finish the season. Mixed emotions at the moment. I started concerned about our safety, began to wonder if we'd pretty clearly be a top half team, and then slumped into mid-table that's clearly neither hear nor there. Realistically, our best finish is probably 6th. I think we're better than most of the teams below us so we just need to catch one from the Altach/Vienna/LASK trio. EDIT: Impressive we're this far down the list when we're nearly academy only. Means there's a lot of HG talent in Austria.

I would not claim to be an expert on the ways of the FM Transfer Market, but bizarre to me that (26g) Bender and (26d) Strohmaier bring in more cash than the two above. The former is a 19 year old 76/108 returning to the First Division for Amstetten, the latter a 19 year old 71/114 heading to Poland. They both saw rotational game time last season but the addition of Backhaus and the emergence of a better youth meant they were #5 and #6 on the DC depth chart now. Both have very meh personalities to boot.

Beautiful. Glad to see it. Now if I can just arrange a sale or two we should start the season close to even. EDIT: Getting better... in fact that puts us $500K to the good. Until we quickly blow it on our youth set up. EDIT X2: Both of these required pushing deals through the Board's initial refusal. (24a) Goop is a 21 year old 86/102 backup ST/CAM who has youth 4 years younger nipping at his heels; (24b) Nickel is not-quite 21 year old 95/113 regular starter in the middle of the park with a mediocre personality and dressing room influence.

More confirmation of our dominance:

In previous seasons you'd have needed between 54 (very low) and 74 (very high) to match the champions. Three times in between it was either 67 or 68. This season - 67 points. We clinched promotion on GD with 4 games remaining (Liefering can't go up) and the title with 1 game left. In a twist of fate (26f) Voigt, playing on loan for Poelten scored two goals to send us to defeat, but it didn't matter. We finish the season 2nd highest scorers with the stingiest defense by some distance. Fully deserved. Media prediction of 14th? Not so accurate. To be honest, I'm most excited about this offseason. We'll need to sort our (awful) finances and reevaluate our squad to lock players down or create space for dev pathways. We're going to be a bit worse than any of the bottom Premier League sides, at least to start. But we only have to beat one to stay up. Lost in the midst of championship revelry:

With four matches to go, we clinch. The record for worst discipline, that is. Safe to say we'll be extending our own record before all is done.

Hey, I know that guy!

Not awful, but not great. Wishing for another class with 5+ 120 PAs. I'll sign anyone with PA over a 100 and cut the rest loose.

Focus on promotion, he says to himself. Don't get distracted by shiny objects. Do not worry about filling your nest with glittery trinkets. Do not... Backhaus - 102 CA / 139 PA @ 19, soon to be 20. Hidden attributes are all solid including Professionalism (14). Love the all around physicality for our level. Ordinarily I'd write down his high PA a bit since his growth should be slowing down into his 20s, but there's some dev window left, he's never played a senior club game, and our training facilities are no longer laughable. He gets anywhere near 139 and he's a gem. A shiny, shiny gem...

This was such a pain to negotiate I can almost forgive the Board for just accepting any flat fee - apparently they were content with any bid $115K and up. I'd talked (27f) Wenaweser (and our star striker (27g) Emmerling into staying through the end of the season to see if we could get promoted and he'll be worth much, much more if we are. He's got similar stats to (26a) Behm we'd just sold for a few million. But to be fair, I'm paying the piper for spending on facility upgrades. Highly doubt the Board steps in otherwise. Don't yet have an option to ask the Board to reconsider. (27g) Emmerling stays and we do get the benefit of (27f) Wenaweser through the end of the year. On to the promotion charge. EDIT: Interesting change, although I can't tell if it's tied to the transfer or I'm just now noticing - he's flipped to Austrian as primary nationality and Liechtensteiner as secondary. EDIT x2: Nearly three months later, but this probably explains the switch.

These letter grades started bad in year one and have continued to get worse. 4.5 out of 5 stars is peak comedy.

The table tells the tale here. Joint best defense with a top three attack yields the best GD and means we're good value for the top at the midway point. Can we hang on? Two questions loom large. 1a. Can we keep up this form? Signs so far are positive and if anything we're ever so slightly underperforming versus xG. 1b. Will the jackals stay away from appetizing herd of players? Even sniffing around might be enough to slow us down. The appeal of chasing promotion is a poor natural defense to a challenging bank balance and low reputation (picked 14th).

No, I have not learned anything. Spend! Spend! Spend! Unfortunately they shot down Youth Facility and Junior Coaching upgrades, despite my fervent protests. But... They did accept Training Facility upgrade. Looks like we'll be back in the red soon!

Another example of why I feel comfortable loading old saves when the Board accept an offer over my head. They were willing to take $125K for (26a) Carsten Behm. His agent will tell you he can get $3.7M. Clear our debts or snap it off for just a pittance? Tsk tsk Board, tsk tsk. There's our finances solved for a bit. $2.5M to the good after climbing out of the hole. Have I learned my lesson about aggressively spending? Time will tell.

Got so carried away with the Otto transfer that I forgot to update at end of season. As you can imagine, that means we did not get promoted. After 6 games into the back half of the season we weren't quite on promotion pace even with a loaned back (26f) Voigt. We packed it in and started preparing for the upcoming season, relegating Cavafe, Fetahu, and (26f) Voigt to the deep bench in favor of lower ability/higher potential players. I don't want to be too future-looking, but playing time is critical to develop a treadmill of talent when we're just Semi-Pro. Lustenau won the league on a crazy run. Only two wins and two draws in their first nine was a rough start; from there they only dropped points in five of the last twenty-one games. Championship form.

Our first transfer of this save in 2028 at the end of year 5. Otto ended up on the transfer list, which was nice for our bottom line, but not the reason we finally bought him. I've become quite frustrated at the influential players and squad average dragging down our key mental attributes. We're purchasing Otto with an eye to immediately making him Captain (despite terrible Leadership); between that and being a talented player on Star status, I'm hoping he'll drive our culture forward. Otto - 102 CA / 123 PA @ 21. Injury proneness could be better (14) but we need him in the locker room more than on the field (Professionalism - 15, Determination - 15).

More of a spread of nationalities here, but significantly worse than last year. Only one 120+ and one 110+ so we'll be hoping the rest of the 100+ are contributors. General low CA too unless we have fast growers. Bah.