DaneBramage

September 2023 Primera B Metropolitana One step forward, one step backward. We finally win a second away game, with Jonathan Herrera smashing four goals past Sporting Italiano. But in the process he got hurt and will miss most of the run-in. We then had a second successive away game against a relegation candidate, and should have won again. But we were terrible instead and passed up any chance of gaining any momentum. It's just incredibly frustrating. Nearly every game we have at least two players performing poorly, and it goes around the team, different players each time letting us down. -------------------------------------------- Finances The biggest single investment yet, but really it makes no difference. --------------------------------------------

August 2023 Primera B Metropolitana We're not showing any signs of improving any time soon. After mentioning our good home form last update of course we got smashed almost immediately afterwards. Deportivo Espanol are in the relegation area so we should have got a win from that, but no, just a draw. At least a draw against league-leaders Colegiales was a good result. The drop-off compared to last season is just embarrassing. We're scoring 0.5 goals a game fewer, while conceding 0.5 goals more. Only two players have average ratings over 7.0, nobody else is performing to an acceptable level. -------------------------------------------- Finances Another £130k down. --------------------------------------------

July 2023 Primera B Metropolitana A bit of a rubbish month. We drew a game we should have won at home, then drew a game we should have lost away. Feels like karma sorting itself out immediately, but in reality it means we're down a point. At least we won our other home game this period, but it was sandwiched between a pair of really bad away performances, especially the last game when we were leading 2-0 after 11 minutes. There's no excuse for losing that one. Our home form is actually really good, second best in the division. The problem is away games, where we're absolutely diabolical. Just the one win so far, third worst record in the division. -------------------------------------------- Finances More than £1 million owed to the bank. --------------------------------------------

@Vakama2619 Appreciate it, thanks. Luck is the right word, I think I'll need as much of that as I can get.

July 2023 Departures Carlos Marques Semeao was a spare goalkeeper we didn't need using up our wage budget. £21k isn't a huge amount by any means, a drop in the bucket compared to the money we owe to the bank, but we'll save roughly the same again though not having to pay up his wages over the rest of the season. We managed to sell 22c Javier Banegas (to a team in the division above us) rather than lose him for nothing. Again, £29k by itself isn't much. But we've also got a 25% of next sale clause and a friendly included. And they've loaned him back for the rest of the season, but I probably won't use him. -------------------------------------------- Clauses I thought I'd checked this when taking over and not seen any clauses in place, but maybe I didn't look properly as I saw some when checking for 22c Javier Banega. First up is the money we'd have to pay for our starting goalkeeper. For some reason, if he gets sold he gets the entire 100% of the fee. What a nonsense idea. Pretty much means I will never sell him, just as a matter of principle. Second is the money that would be coming in to the club. Leonel Alvarez and Agustin Pereyra are both contracted to us, but have been on loan at clubs in the tier above. Both deals could be made permanent for £450k. Yes please. The interesting one is Ivan Leguizamon. He's at San Lorenzo in the top tier of Argentine football, and is valued at £1 million-£9.8 million. We'd be due 35% of any transfer fee, and Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Benfica, and RB Leipzig are all showing some interest. If that turned into something substantial we'd be laughing all the way to the bank. --------------------------------------------

June 2023 Primera B Metropolitana 22c Javier Banegas has been really poor so far this season (admittedly, few players have performed well). But he's been especially bad, with just 1 goal and no assists in 14 appearances, and an average rating of just 6.40. So he's received a number of criticisms and warnings, and not reacted well to them. He asked to leave and I told him to grow up, and now he's skipping training. His contract is up in December so there's not much I can do, I'm resigned to losing him. There's been very little transfer interest in any of my players so far, but I'll try and drum something up. In turn this has led to 23a Ernesto Farias coming in to make his debut on the left-wing, setting records in the process. And we happened to win on his debut too, one of two wins this month. Both came at home with Jonathan Herrera showing his class, a brace in each. He's now at 12 for the season, after him we have one player on 5 goals then nobody else has more than 3. Both away games were terrible though. We may as well have just not turned up, it was pathetic. Especially the loss to UAI Urquiza who were in the relegation area at the time, At the halfway point of the season we're in 8th place, but it's all very close in the middle of the table. -------------------------------------------- Finances Nearing the million mark. --------------------------------------------

May 2023 Primera B Metropolitana Bit of a crap month really. It started well, then went downhill. We were comfortably better than Argentino Merlo, but did survive a scare when they missed a penalty. We led for more than 40 minutes against Dock Sud, probably against the run of play, then threw it away in the final five minutes. A draw was fair against Los Andes, we had more chances than them but most were low quality efforts. The performance at Defensores Unidos was really poor. We dominated possession but didn't do much with it, and they scored nearly every time they mounted a strong attack. We have just as many losses as we do wins. We only lost seven times last season and we're already on six this time, and we're not even at the halfway point. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

May 2023 Youth Intake This was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (1 Elite talent, 7 Top talents, 5 Good talents, and 3 Decent talents). Everyone is Argentine, with one Italian and one Spanish second nationalities. A lot of low determination stats here, that sucks. I like that the top-rated player is a left-winger, that's a position we need strengthening in. They beat the Under 20s 4-1 in the tryout match. --------------------------------------------

April 2023 Primera B Metropolitana 22a Francisco Lopez has been getting plenty of gametime at right-back, he's one of the main academy players who has made it into first-team reckoning. But being ruled out for half the season will slow down his progress. I'm trying to ensure there's at least two academy players in every starting line-up, sometimes three, so I'll have to pick someone else to make the step up. Ignoring the injury though, we had a much better month. We're up and running with several wins, and both starting strikers Jonathan Herrera and 22 Roberto Heredia have been scoring. Just the one loss, but it was to Colegiales who have been going strong at the top of the table so I can't really complain too much. We've moved in the right direction and into the top half. Colegiales have made a very good start and already hold a six point lead, but I'm not worried about that. I don't think this season is about promotion, it's about bringing more academy graduates into the team and letting them improve so we're in a better state when the original players at the club start getting phased out. -------------------------------------------- Finances No investments this month, so we're back to losing large amounts of money. £661k in the red. --------------------------------------------

March 2023 Primera B Metropolitana Pretty poor, but at least Jonathan Herrera has ended his drought and most of the players are now match-ready. A bad start, but plenty of time to go. No need to panic yet. -------------------------------------------- Finances Keep it coming, one of these every month and we might just make it out of this mess. £514k in the red. --------------------------------------------

February 2023 Expectations After last year's good performance the media now think we'll go one better and finish 2nd. Luckily, expectations are more realistic elsewhere. The bookies don't think we'll be in the mix, having us midtable with 10-1 odds of promotion, while the board just want a top-half finish. -------------------------------------------- Primera B Metropolitana The AssMan did a terrible job of getting the squad ready during pre-season, and we've come into the campaign completely undercooked. We're not sharp at all and are lacking fitness. We got away with it against Talleres due to a defensive mistakes from our opponents, but we were well off the pace and deservedly lost to Fenix. -------------------------------------------- Finances A couple of big donations have helped with our bank balance, as well as the season ticket payments this month, but we're still £598k in the red. --------------------------------------------

December 2022 Elections New chairman, but nothing is changing. -------------------------------------------- No, no, and no I asked for upgrades, but predictably increases to the junior coaching and youth recruitment budgets were declined due to the lack of funds. An application to go an o coaching course was also rejected for the same reason. The board did agree that finding a senior affiliate to receive an annual fee from would be a good idea, but couldn't find a suitable club to link up with. -------------------------------------------- Departures Eight players left at the end of their contracts, with combined wages of £395 per week. We also managed to get rid of this red card machine. No one would take him permanently, even for free, but at least Sansinena agreed to pay 90% of his £1,200 weekly wages, In all it's about £1,500 per week saved, or £75k per annum. A small amount in the grand scheme of things, but got to start somewhere. -------------------------------------------- Loanees I thought we were going to be financially ruined even further by these six returning to the club, with a combined wage of more than £15k per week. Turns out that they're all on two year loans, so won't be back another 12 months. So I can ignore this problem until December 2023. -------------------------------------------- Finances £909k in the red. --------------------------------------------

November 2022 Squad Stats Jonathan Herrera had a great season. He was our top scorer, had the highest average rating, and the most MotM awards. He also took these awards for the division too. Nobody reached double figures for assists, though there were six peoples in the 6-8 assists range. -------------------------------------------- Academy Players Seven academy players made their debuts this year, and three of them are now firmly involved in the first-team squad. 22 Roberto Heredia has certainly staked his claim to play more next year with 7 goals in 9 games. -------------------------------------------- History I'm happy with this first season. I didn't know what to expect and when we had a rocky spell through April and May I thought this career might be coming to an abrupt end. But we recovered well to finish in 3rd place. I just hope expectations don't go mad next year. With just one promotion spot up for grabs I don't want that to be the objective until we're really ready, with enough younger players ingrained into the first-team squad that we can handle it. -------------------------------------------- Finances + Facilities If it wasn't for the cash injected by the board we'd have lost well over £1 million this season. I don't know how much transfer business goes on at this level but we have a big squad, so I'd happy to move out quite a few of them. There are a few contracts expiring so that will reduce the outgoings somewhat, but it likely won't make a huge difference. --------------------------------------------

November 2022 Primera B Metropolitana A pair of draws to end the season, though the results didn't really matter. Just a case of getting more experience for the lads. That being said, we have finished up with a 13 game unbeaten run. That should send us into next season with some confidence. 3rd place, very happy with that. We were top scorers and averaged just over 2.0 goals per game, getting 17 more than the next highest team. -------------------------------------------- Finances We received a £178k sponsorship payment this month, but we're still more than £800k in the red. --------------------------------------------

October 2022 Primera B Metropolitana I picked squads based entirely on potential, and we responded with our biggest win of the season and a really good away win too. Perhaps trying to pretend you know what you're doing is overrated, and it's better to rely on dumb luck instead. 22 Roberto Heredia benefitted from that this month, and he's also quietly turned into a tidy current ability player too. Two games left, we're guaranteed a top three finish. I just hope that means the board don't get their hopes up too high for next year, the difficult second season. -------------------------------------------- Finances There was a news story about upcoming elections, so hopefully that'll sort this out. Otherwise I'll have no chance of requesting any upgrades once the season ends. --------------------------------------------

September 2022 Primera B Metropolitana Two good home wins, including a convincing victory over the league leaders Acassuso. Tobias Luna returned from his injury to grab two assists off the bench. Tomas Jerez was pretty ineffective over the first half of the season, but he's come on strong over the last few months with seven goals in his last 10 games. Jonathan Herrera is still miles ahead of everyone else with 26. As the away game at Sporting Penarol was midweek a second-string team with a few youngsters played. They did well, but tired and conceded an equaliser in stoppage-time. Five games to go, we're likely to end up somewhere from 2nd to 4th. Since it doesn't really matter which I'll use more kids over the last few games. -------------------------------------------- Finances A slight improvement in our financial position due to this investment but we're still £687k in the red. --------------------------------------------

August 2022 Primera B Metropolitana 2-1 is a great scoreline, I will happily take a few more of these. Three home games in a row was definitely preferable to the four consecutive away games last month. With nine games left we're not getting promoted and we're not getting relegated, we just need to keep stringing a few wins together to ensure we finish as high as possible. Board wanted top five so we're looking in good shape to manage that and earn another season here. -------------------------------------------- Finances £730k in the red. --------------------------------------------

July 2022 Primera B Metropolitana A good win over Villa San Carlos. 22c Javier Banegas became the first 'real' academy graduate to score for the club, we managed a rare penalty success (33% record). The loss at Dock Sud was pretty poor. We had the majority of the possession, but failed to turn it into anything useful until it was too late. The game at Sarmiento was a 4th v 5th clash. When they took a two goal lead it looked like they'd go back above us, but we levelled things before half-time and then took charge in the final 20 minutes. We ended the month with a second loss this season to Ituzaingo, they're just better than us. We've risen another spot. We've scored 46 goals which is the best in the division, but 34 conceded is the fifth worse defensive record. -------------------------------------------- Finances Due to this we only lost £28k in July, our balance is now £628k in the red. --------------------------------------------

June 2022 Primera B Metropolitana It probably wasn't ideal that a 15 (now 16) year old was playing so much, but this is even worse. We now don't have a recognised left-winger, 22c Javier Banegas is going to have to learn the role quickly. We won the first and last games of the month, thanks to some magic from Franco Almanza and Jonathan Herrera. There were a couple of poor results in between though, due to stupid players doing stupid things. We took a very early lead against Fenix, then Carlos Battigelli got sent-off in the seventh minute and it was all over as a contest. That's his third red card of the season already, I think he's done. Fined, transfer-listed, and demoted to the reserves. Then Gonzalo Errecalde missed a penalty against San Martin, costing us the win. We have only a 20% success rate from the spot. I don't want to put my goalkeeper on PKs, but it looks like I might have to at this rate. We've moved up into the top five, keeping the board happy. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

May 2022 Primera B Metropolitana 22c Javier Banegas came into the first team at the first opportunity possible, while 22a Francisco Lopez came off the bench. The game was a bore draw, but the former set a new record for club and league youngest player. Things were feeling decidedly rocky, as we'd gone six games without a win. I was beginning to think we were never going to win again and that this thread would be shorter than I'd hoped for. Luckily we hosted Sasachispas at the end of the month and their form wasn't much better than ours, and we smashed them 3-0 to add to their woes. We haven't slipped any further down the table, but a significant gap has grown to top spot. -------------------------------------------- Finances £168k gone this month, now £468k in the red. --------------------------------------------

May 2022 Youth Intake The first real youth intake has come around pretty quickly, less than five months into the save. It was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (2 Elite talents, 3 Top talents, 5 Good talents, 6 Decent talents). Everybody in the group is Argentine, with a couple of Italian second nationalities, and one each of Spanish and Uruguayan second nationalities. Everyone has been signed for now, which will put further strain on our wage budget and bank balance. Most are on £5 a week youth contracts, but the top four all wanted full-time contracts straight away, ranging from £90 to £210 per week. Under 20s don't need to be registered so we'll get them in to start making use straight away. Left-wing was a position I needed, but there's not much in that regard, so I'm thinking of re-training 22c Javier Banegas to fill this role. Determination stats and personalities are a bit of a mess, any recruitment I've made during my time here has been for staff with 10+ determination, so hopefully that will improve in future intakes. In the tryout match they beat the Under 20s 3-1. --------------------------------------------

April 2022 Primera B Metropolitana The new manager bounce has well and truly worn off. We only managed five points from a possible 15. Quilmes fans will be baffled how they lost that match to us. They had more possession and over 20 shots, but of a low quality and few were on target. We broke their spirit early by taking a quick three goal lead with attacks on the counter, all from an xG of just 0.91 We used up our luck in that game though, we absolutely battered Los Andes but couldn't extend our lead, then conceded in the 91st minute. We then battered Canuelas too, but penalties have been an issue for us. We've missed three out of four, and this time it caught up with us and cost us points. In better news 22 Roberto Heredia was the first intake player to score (on his debut). The stats suggested a draw would have been a fair result at UAI Urquiza, but that's because there isn't a stat for 'how many times do defenders refuse to mark opposition forwards and leave them free in the six yard box?'. Jonathan Herrera is at 12 goals for the season, but nobody else has more than three. A bad month and we've suffered, dropping down to 6th. -------------------------------------------- Finances Another £140k gone, we're now £300k in the red. --------------------------------------------

March 2022 Primera B Metropolitana I mentioned that Tobias Luna would have to be thrown in at the age of 15, and he's already setting records. He's now getting attention from some of the big boys, though nothing serious at the moment. He's on a youth contract until 2027, is that safe? Or can players be stolen on that type of contract? Two more narrow wins made it six games unbeaten, and things were going well as we made it to the top of the table. But next up were Ituzaingo in a 1st v 2nd clash. It was an even tie, but they narrowly had the better chances. We took the lead, but they turned it around to take the points. That didn't knock us off top spot though. Points are equal, but we have the superior goal difference. -------------------------------------------- Finances One word - terrible. In three months we've lost over £200k and are now £160k in the red. --------------------------------------------

February 2022 Primera B Metropolitana There are twenty teams in the divisions, everyone plays each other twice for a total of 38 games. There's only one promotion spot, while the bottom four are relegated. We won all six friendlies during our pre-season warm-up, so we headed into the campaign full of confidence. And then we conceded within 52 seconds of the season beginning. We equalised pretty quickly, before suffering an own goal, an injury, and a red card. We battled back to clinch a point late on but we made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to. At least we know scoring goals won't be an issue, even if we're leaky at the other end. We hit four goals in each of the next two games, though neither display was entirely convincing. Jonathan Herrera is the man who's made an immediate impression, scoring five times in these three games. For what it's worth, we're in third place after the first few games. --------------------------------------------

January 2022 Expectations The media think we should finish in the top three, while the board want a top five placing. The bookies aren't convinced though, favouring 15 teams over us and giving odds of 20-1 for promotion. -------------------------------------------- Finances + Facilities Our facilities are among the best in the division (yes, that is a major part of why I picked this team). We hold just under £50k in the bank, I have no idea what the finances are like in the Argentine third tier but I can't imagine they're great. We have a wage budget of £21,295 per week and we're overspending at £23,170, so this probably won't last long. --------------------------------------------