DaneBramage

May 2027 Copa Argentina A pretty poor performance. We had plenty enough chances but didn't take them. -------------------------------------------- Copa Sudamerica If football matches were only 80 minutes long we'd have come away with 10 points this month. But they're not, so we only got seven. We put together a good defensive effort in Brazil, but ultimately America Mineiro were too strong for us and scored in the 80th and 89th minutes. And in Venezuela Independiente del Valle scored in the 80th and 83rd minutes to limit us to just a point. But at home we didn't run into the same problems, coming out on top with a pair of 3-0 wins. We blew Jorge Wilstermann away in the first 20 minutes and they didn't really offer much after that. America Mineiro rotated their entire team for their trip to Argentina and we beat their back-ups and youngsters with ease. A good first year in continental competition. We weren't in the running to win the group but made ourselves best of the rest. -------------------------------------------- Finances The season ticket money started coming in this month, as well as the gate receipts from the cup games. --------------------------------------------

May 2027 Youth Intake This was the first time the intake wasn't rated at 5.0 stars, instead only as a 4.5 star Excellent intake (1 Elite talent, 5 Top talents, 6 Good talents, and 4 Decent talents). Everyone is Argentine, with a couple of Italian second nationalities. There's also a couple of new second nationalities, Paraguayan and Mexican. The top players having decent determination is good, but there's a few no hopers towards the bottom of the list I just haven't bothered signing. --------------------------------------------

April 2027 Copa Sudamerica Our first venture into continental competition is underway. We started off with a trip to Bolivia, and had our finishing to blame not coming away with anything (and also our goalkeeping). We had 21 shots but could only manage five on target, whereas they scored with both of their accurate efforts. We then hosted a Venezuelan side, and in a strange coincidence we again had 21 shots, five on target, scoring once. But this time we restricted our opponents to less clearcut chances and kept a clean sheet. Only the top finisher goes through, which is obviously going to be a tough task with a Brazilian team in the group. But we should be able to challenge for 2nd. -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- Facilities Wahey! My normal efforts at requesting upgrades were rejected as usual, but the reason was the board arguing they were already good enough rather than lack of funds. So I pushed back and this time managed to get one of them sorted. --------------------------------------------

February 2027 Departure We've completed the first big sale of the career as 22 Angel Cabrera moved to Colombia for £1.8 million. Unfortunately we were not able to get any future clauses added on. He was one of the lads who wanted astronomical wages so we didn't stand a chance of keeping him past the end of this year. He's definitely earnt the move, having made over 50 goal contributions during his time here and in the short-term at least it will be a big hit to the team. -------------------------------------------- Finances Still a million in the red, so the board won't let us make any upgrades at this time. --------------------------------------------

January 2027 Copa Argentina At the third attempt we won a game in this competition. Deportivo Maipu are in the league below us so the victory was expected, comfortable but unspectacular. The next round isn't until the end of April. I'm not sure why games have been at neutral venues, but it meant we received an additional £100k in gate receipts. --------------------------------------------

January 2027 Future Transfer Not impressed with the board. They accepted £1.1 million (+15% of profit) from Manchester City for 25a Maximiliano D'Alessandro and I didn't have the chance to protest the decision. I managed to get Newcastle to offer £950k + £300k in potential clauses + 40% of profit + a friendly + a loan back until the end of the season, but the player chose to join Manchester City instead. Unsurprisingly, when you look at the wage they're giving him. At least it isn't going through until June, so we'll still have him for the opening stage of the Copa Sudamerica, but he'll be gone by the time the league season starts. --------------------------------------------

January 2027 Interview Invites Fluminense are currently 8th in the Brazilian Serie B, and have been a yo-yo club in recent years with two relegations and a promotion. Newell's Old Boys are in the same division as us and have finished 14th, 21st, 2nd, and 12th over the last four years. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records I would have happily kept both players, as between them they'd made more than 150 appearances for me and were both still the second-string team. But Gonzalo Errecalde asked for more playing time towards the end of last season, and when I said I'd make sure that happened, he then said he was considering his options at the end of contract before I'd even had the chance to play him more. And I fell out with the agent of Tomas Robles, essentially arguing about £25 per week and I wouldn't back down. -------------------------------------------- Unhappy Players They're asking for way too much money, you absolute morons. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

December 2026 Squad Stats Both strikers reached double figures for the season. Considerably down from previous years, but still a really good effort taking into account the step up in competition, and that we're playing far fewer games. We only played 28 games all season, my goalkeeper started 27 of them and my left-back was the only other to start 20 or more. The issue now is players wanting ridiculous wage increases. I've already had someone ask for £9.5k per week, when the maximum we can offer is £2.9k. With a number of contracts having just a year left a few players might have to go this winter to avoid losing them for nothing in 12 months. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records Six academy players made their debuts this season, making it a total of 25 so far. -------------------------------------------- History A phenomenal season. This is going far better than I could have anticipated. Our season ticket sales tripled, and we're selling out our home games on a regular basis. Jonathan Herrera returned to the top of the charts. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances Our reputation has bumped up another half star. There was no prize money for our league position, so our finances remain as ropey as ever. But next season the Copa Sudamerica group stage will give us £782k. So hopefully that will improve our situation (or more likely just mean we'll get this instead of a cash injection from the board). --------------------------------------------

December 2026 Primera Division We ended the season with games against the sides top and bottom of the table. I expected one win from this time, but it's a surprise that it came against River Plate. River Plate completed a league and cup double. We massively overperformed to finish 8th. Goals are guaranteed in our games, we had the fourth worst defence in the division but the best attack. --------------------------------------------

November 2026 Primera Division With the games a bit more spread out now I was able to pick the strongest teams possible instead of rotating. We had a pretty gentle run of fixtures this month (including games with the teams 26th and 27th in the table) and did well with three wins and just the one loss. 25e Valentin Maldonado has been in our second team but had his best spell of the season here with goals in back-to-back games, while 25c Dario Romero has been drafted in due to injuries and has also managed a couple of goals this month. I think we're all but guaranteed qualification into the Copa Sudamerica. Two games left, it would take a lot going against me to miss out now. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

October 2026 Poached Players Another player poached, number seven. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division There was a bit of a gap between fixtures, so the first-team played against both San Lorenzo and Tigre. Three times we gave up the lead against San Lorenzo before eventually scoring in the 89th and 90th minutes to take the win. It was a pair of late goals against Tigre too, but this time it was to win a point. A pair of poor losses followed, both the first-team and second-string getting beaten badly. Our starting wingers have both picked up injuries and we struggled without them. The Under 20s I called up to fill in the gaps weren't really up to the task. I let the AssMan pick the team to take on Newell's Old Boys. We took the lead before letting them go 2-1 up in the second-half, but we responded well to come out on top in the end. During this game 22 Roberto Heredia and Jonathan Herrera both reached 10 goals for the season (and the latter also reached that many assists). Six games left. With a good run-in we could grab a spot in the Copa Sudamerica, but the table is very close so a dodgy run could see us fall a lot of places. -------------------------------------------- Finances I cashed in a few clauses (20% of profit, 20% of next sale, and 25% of next sale, respectively). The money won't make any difference to us really, it just goes into the money hole. But each of these players only have 14 months left on their contract, and being released at the end of these deals seems more likely than them being sold for any significant amount before then. So I thought it would be better to take this now rather than watch the option to sell disappear. --------------------------------------------

September 2026 Poached Players Two more players poached away, both by clubs in the same division as us. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division A rough month. This is more like I was expecting, even with some mad scorelines here. Scoring five but still losing is never acceptable. The first-team won four points, the second-string just one. The first-team should have had an extra point though, the goal scored by Atletico Tucuman was clearly a couple of yards offside. We've slipped down the table a bit, but with almost two-thirds of the season gone we're sitting in a Copa Sudamerica qualification spot. And just for admin purposes, given that relegation is based on average points instead of bottom two so not shown on the table, I think it's near enough impossible for us to get relegated now unless we lose all of the next 10 games. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

September 2026 Rejected Offers One of our young centre-backs is starting to receive some serious attention from England. 25a Maximiliano D'Alessando is away on international duty, where he has just earned his first cap for the Under 20s (and is the first of any of our graduates to win international recognition). The first offer came in from Manchester United, then over the next few days Manchester City, Newcastle, and Arsenal all made advances too, until Tottenham came in with the biggest offer of them all. Luckily his head hasn't been turned. He didn't show much interest and wasn't bothered when each offer was rejected. He may well go at some point, but at only 17 there's still plenty of time for him to grow here before a blockbuster move later on. 20 of his games have come as a starter, and 9 from the bench. His performances have actually improved slightly since promotion. --------------------------------------------

August 2026 Poached Players A fourth player stolen from our academy. Only silver stars so probably not a big loss. Aldovisi are in the second tier, but have a reputation slightly better than ours. Feels a bit strange that this is happening so much when our facilities are amongst the worst in the division. and not any better than the clubs that have taken from us. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division The dream start continued as we picked up two massive wins, smashing the goals past Defensa y Justicia and Colon. Between them 22 Roberto Heredia, Jonathan Herrera, and 22 Angel Cabrera scored ten times over these two matches. I was starting to think the game was broken, as these wins seemed to be coming too easily. It had basically been more than two seasons of non-stop success at this point. And luckily in a way, we lost the next game. With the busy schedule the second-string were rotated in for the midweek games. They struggled and only picked up one point from their three matches, though 24a Constantino Puig and 25e Valentin Maldonado both managed their first goals for the club. This allowed the first-choice team to stay fresh for the weekends, where they stayed unbeaten. A draw with Estudiantes was followed up with a historic win over Boca Juniors, the reigning champions. In truth, the goal was lucky - a shot from 22 Roberto Heredia was hit straight at the goalkeeper before taking a deflection off 22 Angel Cabrera and ricocheting into the corner, but they all count. But the result wasn't a fluke, we definitely made our own luck and deserved the points. Wacky scheduling means some teams have played just eight games, whereas others have played as many as 13. So it will probably be a while until our true position is a little clearer, but for now I think it's safe to say we are far surpassing any expectations (apart from my goalkeeping coach, who for some reason did a press conference where he predicted us to win the league). -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

July 2026 New Contract A two year extension with a £300 per week increase. -------------------------------------------- Departures A couple of players left whose contracts were up in December. Teams had agreed to sign them when their deals expired, and I used the Sell Now option to let them leave straight away for a bit of cash. The sale of 23e Ramon Motta is now the biggest sale from our academy. -------------------------------------------- Expectations The media and the bookies don't like our chances. The media think we might just scrape survival, but the bookies think we'll finish rock bottom. The board want us to avoid relegation. I think we might get mullered on a regular basis, but if we can pull last year's momentum over we might spring a few surprises. And I think we'll at least be able to beat Almagro who came up with us. There are 28 teams, so everyone plays each other once for a total of 27 games. The top 11 or 12 (depending on the Copa Argentina winners) qualify for continental competition. And two teams get relegated. But because this is South America, there are some stupid rules in this league. So it's not necessarily the bottom two that get relegated. It's the two teams with the worst points per game ratio over the last three years. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division Wow, we made an incredible start. Nine points from nine, literally could not ask for anything better. And they haven't been flukes either, we've been good value for the wins. Admittedly, it hasn't been the hardest competition. Sarmiento have lost all three of their games so far this season and sit in last place, Argentinos Juniors have only been back in this division a year after relegation in 2023 and then promotion in 2024, and Almagro came up with us. Off the top of my head (and I can't be bothered checking) I don't think we've had any midweek games before. But with Primera Division games condensed into a five month period there will be plenty of them now. That'll be good for player development as more will need to be involved, but we'll also take some big hits as the second-string isn't really strong yet, although they were enough to beat Almagro. I'd complain about it being a stupid league that won't fit in one screenshot, but actually I think it looks pretty good at the moment. -------------------------------------------- Finances Even with increased gate receipts and a couple of small players sales we still can't make a profit. --------------------------------------------