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. --------------------------------------------

May 2026 Poached Player A third player poached away before coming through our academy. Sarmiento are in the same league as us but with a better reputation (3.0, Continental). -------------------------------------------- Finances We received £492k this month from season ticket sales. --------------------------------------------

May 2026 Youth Intake This was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (1 Elite talent, 5 Top talents, 6 Good talents, and 4 Decent talents). Everyone is Argentine, with one Italian second nationality. There's not been anything interesting yet. The top two players both having low determination is annoying. The midfielder in particular could have come in handy, but we'll see. I'm happy that the next two down though include a goalkeeper and someone that can play at left-back. They beat the Under 20s 1-0 in the tryout match. --------------------------------------------

April 2026 Interview Invites Back when we were in the third tier I was invited to a few job interviews for clubs at the same level, or struggling near the bottom of the second tier. But these are the first invites for top tier or foreign clubs. Racing Club are in the division we've just joined, and have finished 20th, 12th, 6th, and 20th over the last four years. Coritiba are in Brazil and have just been relegated to Serie B. -------------------------------------------- Departures Nobody of note left over the winter, just a few of the original reserves and young players at the squad when I first joined. They were always in the unfortunate position of constantly being overlooked, firstly due to the better players at the club in the early years, then the academy graduates afterwards. -------------------------------------------- Copa Argentina We are currently going through a ridiculously long pre-season as the Primera Division campaign doesn't start until July, so we're putting on a load of friendlies. There was one competitive game though, a tie in the cup against Velez (who are also in the Primera Division). We took a surprise early lead but ultimately lost out to a much better side (they finished 7th in 2025). -------------------------------------------- Finances We also received about £240k in gate receipts from the cup game. --------------------------------------------

December 2025 Squad Stats Our top scorers scored less than last season, but considering that I'm absolutely astonished at how we did this year there is no criticism on them for that. 22 Roberto Heredia came top with 20 goals (and was chosen as the fan's player of the season due to this), then Jonathan Ferrera on 17 strikes. 23a Ernesto Farias also reached double figures for the first time. In more good news for Jonathan Ferrera, promotion convinced him to stay here and sign a new contract (after the screenshot below was taken). It hasn't broken the bank either, just a small increase from £1.2k to £1.4 per week. Lautaro Montani had our top average rating with 7.44, and also created the most with 12 assists. In my formations wingers normally offer most assists, but this year it was the midfielders doing so with his regular partner Nicolas Sanchez also managing 10. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records 22 Roberto Heredia and 22a Francisco Lopez have become the first academy graduates to reach 100 appearances for the club. 22 Roberto Heredia is also extending his lead even further in the goalscoring charts. 19 academy players have made their debuts so far. Currently we have five in our first-choice team, and another three on the bench. Goal and left-back are the only positions where there hasn't really been any breakthrough yet. -------------------------------------------- History I am just completely amazed at how we did this year. I expected a relegation battle, and I would have been happy with 35th place. To come within one goal of automatic promotion blows my mind, and the fact that we then completed the job through the play-offs is incredible. The filthy casuals and glory hunters have jumped aboard and our attendances have increased massively. Come on Mr. Chairman, it's time to hike up ticket prices and take advantage of the newcomers. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances Despite all this we're still losing money like nobody's business (and there was nothing injected by the board to reduce this either), and our training facilities have been downgraded. --------------------------------------------

December 2025 Rejected Offers Boca Juniors came in with an offer for 23a Ernesto Farias, with a straight-up £850k. Thanks lads, great timing. Exactly what we need right now. I rejected the offer and he became unsettled, but I managed to calm him down by promising him we'd be a stronger team in a year's time with the youngsters having developed more. Then they came in with another offer a week later. Rejected again. Much less upfront offered upfront, but further incentives down the line. Obviously with our poor financial state we need money coming in, but if we're selling one of our best players I want to be for an amount that puts us into a positive bank balance so we can request improvements. -------------------------------------------- Primera Nacional Play-Off Semi-Finals The first leg went well. We'd played a friendly a week before to stay fresh, while Arsenal de Sarandi had only three days rest since the previous round, so we had more energy and that made the difference. Both of our wingers scored, the two assists coming from our midfielders. I was pleased to see 23a Ernesto Farias stay focussed and score one of the goals. A back-and-forth game. Three times they took the lead, reducing our aggregate advantage to just one. But three times we drew level and Jonathan Herrera added another late on to assert our dominance over the two legs. -------------------------------------------- Primera Nacional Play-Off Final Legends! 22 Roberto Heredia put us on the right track early on, with a tap-in after a goalmouth scramble. That was the only major moment of the first-half, but the floodgates opened after the break. 22 Angel Cabrera met a cross at the near post before Jonathan Herrera latched on to a through ball to fire home. They then pulled a couple back, a decent strike in the 74th minute and an own goal in the 86th to make things a bit nervy, but in the 89th minute Tobias Luna beat the offside trap to find himself one-on-one and with the pressure on he made no mistake. Jonathan Herrera was MotM with a 9.6 rating, a goal and a pair of assists. If this is his final game for the club he's signed off in style. Five academy graduates started, and another came off the bench. --------------------------------------------

November 2025 Primera Nacional Gameweek 35: A really good result. Jonathan Herrera scored twice within the first 15 minutes and from that point Flandria were always playing catch-up. We were reduced to ten men just before the break and Flandria starting coming on strong, but we added a third against the run of play to kill the game off, and when they scored later on it was only a consolation strike. And the three sides around us all lost! We've moved into 1st place with a three point lead over Almagro, and are guaranteed a top three finish (and there are four stages to the play-offs, so finishing as high as possible is integral). Gameweek 36: Three times we went behind, but we could only pull level twice. We had chances, but didn't take enough of them. Racing CB were 33rd in the table, we should be beating them. This could really cost us. Almagro won and went top again, pushing us into 2nd place on goal difference. Ferro Carril Oeste drew, so we stay three points ahead of them. Gameweek 37: Poor. We led 2-0 at half-time and threw it away. We underperfomed our xG, they overperformed theirs. Almagro won so gained a two point lead over us. Ferro Carril Oeste drew so stay three points behind. It's all going down to the final day. Gameweek 38: After three away games we're back at home and end the regular season with a big win. But is it enough? No. By one goal. Almagro could only draw, so we drew level on points with them. But their goal difference was one better than ours. -------------------------------------------- Play-Offs The ten teams in 4th-13th place now face each other in the first round. The five winners go through to the second round, joined by the team that finished 3rd. The three winners go through to the semi-finals, which is where we join in. For some reason this stage has home and away legs, whereas the others are one-off games. The two winners then go through to the final, and the winner is promoted. --------------------------------------------

October 2025 Primera Nacional We had another fan day and set a new record attendance. Fortunately the game after this was away, as any new fans may well have been put off by our bad performance against Quilmes. Luckily when we returned to home soil we were back to winning ways. We beat Chaco For Ever comfortably, and should have done the same to Agropecuario Argentino. Instead we missed a lot of presentable chances before eventually completing the job in the last minute. It's ridiculously close going into the final month. Four games remaining, though worryingly three of them are away. Play-offs are guaranteed at a minimum, so even if we do struggle in November we have a second chance. -------------------------------------------- Finances A smaller loss than normal due to increased gate receipts, from three home games and increased attendances (glory hunters!). Also a bit of fund raising. Could really do with the board injecting some cash again, it's been a while since they last did that. --------------------------------------------

September 2025 Poached Player A second player stolen away in the last few months. Quilmes are in the same division as us but have a better reputation. -------------------------------------------- Primera Nacional Ouch. Two back-to-back home losses. Our first home losses in 15 months, after 25 games unbeaten. Our starting goalie was out injured, but I don't think that by itself explains the results. I was trying to prepare for next year by leaving out Jonathan Herrera, and that may have backfired. I let the AssMan pick the team for the trip to Nuevo Chicago, and of course Jonathan Herrera came back in with the winning goal. Back down into 3rd place. Eight games left and we're still in the mix, and it would take a big drop-off to fall out of the play-off spots (down to 13th place, because this is a stupid division). -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

August 2025 Departure Fabricio Lopez was my first-choice right-back for the first two seasons, but since the start of last year he's only made one start (and another 46 sub appearances). He was also considering his options with his contract expiring at the end of the season, so made sense to move him on earlier. A small initial fee, but there's potential for more in future (20% of profit + a friendly). -------------------------------------------- Primera Nacional A great month. 13 points from a possible 15 is always something to enjoy, and nine of them coming from away games is especially pleasing. 22 Roberto Heredia has now hit 15 goals this season, and Jonathan Herrera is on 10. Unbelievable Jeff. We may have played a game extra, but it's still one heck of an effort to reach top spot. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

July 2025 Departure Tomas Jerez was a regular in my first year but had slipped down the order since then, and wasn't in my plans at all this season. No cash upfront, but potentially there's a friendly + 20% on his next fee to come. -------------------------------------------- Rejected Offer Boca Juniors were runners-up in the Primera Division last year and they see 23a Ernesto Farias as someone who could improve their squad. Hopefully that says good things about his future. I'm not accepting only a guaranteed £300k though (and that's only £120k upfront then £180k in instalments). The player was somewhat interested in the move, but didn't kick off when it was rejected. -------------------------------------------- Primera Nacional The game against San Telmo was picked as a fan day. Good choice, as although we conceded early on and then late as well, we scored three times in between. There were eight academy graduates starting against Central Cordoba. We should have been good enough to get at least a point, but ultimately they overperformed their xG and we underperformed. We were 2-0 down against Arsenal de Sarandi, then 3-2 down, and we kept coming back from behind to eventually grab a 93rd minute winner though a screamer from 22 Roberto Heredia. The fairytale story continues. We're just past the halfway point and still flying high in 2nd. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------