DaneBramage

October + November + December 2024 In Demand I believe this is the first interview I've been invited to. Declined it of course as the intention is for this to a one club save. Mura are currently bottom of the 1. SNL, 8 points adrift. Youth Preview Probably shouldn't get my hopes up for anything worthwhile from this. 2. SNL October (and the opening game of November) was miserable. Terrible performances, a lot of dropped points and fines. In November I changed the formation, dropping back the AMC to DMC instead. I also decided to start picking a few less academy players for now, just going with the strongest XI each time out. I know that their development will take a hit, but we needed to get some points on the table, and arrest our slump down the rankings. Luckily, it worked, and we picked up 10 points from the next 12 available. A5 Lukasz Fedoruk has been the only academy graduate starting, and he's hit a bit of a purple patch. The winter break has come at the wrong time for him. It's pretty similar so far to my first season. We either win or we lose, with not many draws. We've got a decent buffer over the relegation places so should be okay.

August + September 2024 Departure One additional player left over the summer. I didn't want to let Omar Kocar go, but once the offer came in he wanted to leave and wouldn't talk about a new contract, so it made sense to take the money for him now. If he makes at least 50 appearances for Radnik Surdulica (Serbia) the total fee will be £134k. Expectations I think we'll be trying to integrate more youth academy players this year, so I don't have high hopes for the season. Midtable will do. Slovenian Cup Out of the cup at the earliest stage possible. I thought it was to a non-league, but it wasn't quite that bad; Vipava are now in the same league as us after being promoted. 2. SNL We're either good, or we're bad. No middle ground. Nik Omladic is the main man as always, he's directly contributed to 60% of our league goals so far. A2 Marko Kozar is now 17 and eligible for the first-team, and he picked up his first goal in the big win over Dob. We've been up and down the table over the opening months, but as things start to stabilise we sit bang in the middle. I'd be happy with this come the end of the year.

2022/23 Season Review Players Annoyingly, Scumbag Vinko Bicanic was voted player of the season by the fans, who evidently aren't bothered about contract tampering. In fairness, he was pretty good, picking up 7 MOTM awards throughout the season and having an average rating of 7.42, much higher than anyone else. He probably deserves a shot at the 1. SNL with Domzale. At the other end of the pitch Nik Omladic was again the star man, outdoing his contributions from last year with 17 goals and 13 assists this time around. Scumbag Vinko Bicanic and Duje Biuk both made the 2. SNL team of the season. Giuseppe Barone will be the other departure this summer, off to America with Indy Eleven. Not as big a loss, and his contributions have been underwhelming, but we can't keep losing senior players at this rate. I need to get better at renewing contracts earlier. History + Facilities This failure hurt. I never thought it would be possible at the start of the season, but when we stayed near the top and became real contenders I got my hopes up. Feels like that was probably our big chance, could be a while before we get up there again. We received £252k through investments during the season, and another £43k for the final league position, but our bank balance still ended up down on last year. At the end of the season requests were submitted to improve youth training and youth recruitment, but both were rejected.

May 2023 Play-Off - First Leg Yes boys! Around about 80 minutes I was thinking 'This 1-0 lead is great, but we've had 15 shots with only 3 on target and just the 1 goal. Could do with another or we'll regret it." Then we scored again a minute later. Play-Off - Second Leg Ah, ****. **** **** ****. At half-time we were 1-0 down, and it was one-way traffic. We'd barely gotten out of our half. We improved after the break, but even so our first shot didn't come until the 70th minute. We were then making more chances in the final 20 minutes, but our attack was utterly woeful. And we were punished. Somehow Mura broke away with a three-on-one attack in the 89th minute, and bagged an equaliser. The game went to extra-time and it looked like we'd hold out for penalties until the 121st minute, when Duje Biuk saved from close range, only for the rebound to fall for their other striker to poke into the net. The dream is over.

April + May 2023 2. SNL We started April with a couple of tough games, against the sides in 4th and 1st at the time. Getting just the one point from these ties certainly wasn't the worst outcome, but it did allow Rogaska to pull three points clear of us. Our next few games were a bit kinder, with a midtable side and two relegation threatened teams. We did what we needed to and took the full nine points available. Meanwhile Rogaska earned only a single point in this spell, and we leaped above them and created a five point advantage of our own. Getting smashed by Ilirija wasn't part of the plan, but Rogaska lost at the same time. This left us five points ahead of Rogaska, with two games to play. And the next match was away at their place. We should have battered Rogaska. We led 1-0, 2-1, and 3-1 but somehow conceded three times from an xGA of just 0.69 to finish the game 3-3. The berate team button took a pounding throughout the 90 minutes, but looking on the bright side it was enough to ensure that they couldn't overtake us. 2nd place in the table was confirmed. Could we prepare for the play-offs with a win on the final day? No, we were bloody awful. The one upside was that both strikes came from academy graduates, and A13 Dejan Jurisic notched his first goal for the club. Wahey! We'll be taking on Mura in the play-off after they finished 9th in the 1. SNL. The first leg will be at our place, second leg at theirs. Ominously our ex-striker Sandro Jovanovic is on their books. He only has 1 goal in 14 games for them, so he'll have something to prove. Probably shouldn't have typed that. I can feel the FM Gods awakening...

2024 Youth Intake >>>>>>> The quality dropped a little between the preview and the intake, but luckily not by too much. The nationalities are boring, all 16 players being Slovenian. And you have to look pretty hard to find any decent personalities. But the bright side is that we did have one player listed as a top talent, and another as an elite talent, so they should hopefully be able to make an impact whey they turn 17. Nik Omladic is our current AMC, but at the age of 34 he won't be around forever. The low determination will probably prevent B1 Nejc Ceh from developing too much to ever be as good, but he definitely has something about him. I'd like to see a better finishing attribute, but once he's old enough B2 Peter Trdin will be a contender for the lone striker role. Or maybe we'd even be able to go two upfront. Both of these two scored in the trial game, as the Youth Candidates beat the Under 19s 4-2.

February 2023 2. SNL We've had a bit of any injury crisis this month, so it's lucky that a few more of our first intake are now 17. Seven of them have now made their debuts. A5 Lukasz Fedoruk is the main contender so far, and he was one of few players to come out of the Dravinja Kostroj match with any credit. We led 2-0 at half-time, but somehow conceded three times from an xGA of just 0.64, including the goal that condemned us to a loss in the 95th minute. A13 Dejan Jurisic got the chance to show off against Dob with a hat-trick of assists, earning himself the MOTM award. We were on top all game, but we really put the hammer down with a blitz just after the interval. Scumbag Vinko Bicanic has scored in each of the last two games, temporarily putting himself back in my good books. Triglav Kranj have pulled away at the top, but we remain behind Rogaska on goal difference.

January 2023 Intake Preview I know that the general consensus is that the previews don't mean much, but even so, I'm glad that this is better than last year's 0.5 star preview. Still not good mind, but at least it's not the worst possible rating. Traitor A few months back I offered Vinko Bicanic a new deal, but he said he wanted to wait until the end of his contract and then explore his options. Turned out it was a total lie. As soon as his contract was within six months of expiry Domzale (6th in 1. SNL) swooped in, and he signed a pre-contract agreement with them as quickly as he could. Henceforth, he will now be known as Scumbag Vinko Bicanic.

Nicely done, congrats. That prize money at the next tier will be a big help.

November + December 2023 2. SNL Ugh, All of the good work of the last few months thrown away in just a handful of games. We somehow managed to not score even once against Krka Novo Mesto and Rogaska, despite a combined xG of 3.98 over the two games, and we hit the woodwork three times in the second of these matches. Bilje then punished us further, scoring with their first two attacks of the game. At least Nik Omladic had a good month, in particular against Sencur. He absolutely bossed the game, scoring twice and providing the assists for the other two. We were put on the back foot immediately at Primorje Ajdovscina, when A9 Aljaz Pintaric decided that being sent-off in the first minute for a two-footed lunge would be good idea. It was not, he lost two weeks wages. Nik Omladic again showed his worth by putting us in the lead, but the majority of the game was one-way traffic, and we could only hold on so long before conceding an equaliser. We would be utterly screwed without Nik Omladic. He has 17 goal contributions so far this season, made up of 9 goals and 8 assists. Nobody else has more than 4. I know we're still a lot higher than I'd have expected us to be at the start of the season, but given where we were a month ago it's hard to be too happy about this now. We are still in the mix though, only two points behind the sides above us.

October 2023 2. SNL I thought we might get destroyed against Gorica, away at a team who were in the 1. SNL last year. But we were good money for the win. The destruction came a game later instead. Triglav Kranj just cut through us with ease. They scored in the first minute, were 3-0 by the tenth minute, we never stood a chance. Luckily it didn't leave any lingering effects. With Duje Biuk fit again and back between the sticks we picked up two more wins, all goals coming in the first-halves to kill the games off early, either side of a bore draw. Despite suffering our first loss of the season we remain top. Triglav Kranj are right on our toes though, they're the in-form team with 5 consecutive wins.

September 2023 Slovenian Cup The good - Nik Omladic scored his first open-play goal of the season, then grabbed a second to put us 2-0 up. After Ilirija had pulled themselves level, A5 Lukasz Fedoruk scored his first goal for the club. The bad - Due to injury we had to use a grey goalie, and he was worse than useless. Two of the goals conceded were his fault, and he never looked like stopping anything in the shoot-out. 2. SNL A couple of our academy graduates are now 17 so can be included in the matchday squads, which helps with filling out the bench a bit more. Both have made their debuts this month. Neither was a goalie unfortunately, so we've had to use a grey for the last couple of games. I was annoyed by the draw with Dob (22 shots, 1.84 xG), but can't complain too much given how the rest of the month has gone. Two games in a row were won by Vinko Bicanic heading home from corners (provided by Nik Omladic). We looked down and out against Nafta Lendava before A5 Lukasz Fedoruk scored his first league goal, and Luka Verbic had me punching the air with a 95th minute screamer. I really like this. In a drastic change from last season xG is going in our favour. We've scored as many as expected, but conceded 3 fewer, winning us an additional 5 points.

August 2023 Season Tickets We sold 96 season tickets, up 6 from last year. Expectations Given that we came 4th last year I was worried that the board might want us to aim that high, but luckily the expectations are more conservative than that. I think we might struggle with the squad considerably weakened now though. Mutiny We're down to 15 players in the senior squad, so offers from Tabor Sezana for Marin Karabatic and Juraj Spudic were swiftly rebuffed. They were told to match the £110k release clauses or stop wasting our time. Both were upset, and the squad twice led dressing-room meetings to air their grievances. The morale of the team was killed when I told them to stop being so unprofessional, and now a lot of them really dislike me. 2. SNL Ha ha ha. Ridiculous. Despite the lack of players, no striker, and an unhappy dressing-room, we've had a great start to the season. At most we can only name four players on the bench, but due to injuries on the opening day we only had one taking their place there. I have amended the formation somewhat, moving the AMC back to an MC role. A penalty made the difference against Bilje, and newly promoted Sencur were handled easily next time out. xG finally went in our favour against Primorje Ajdovscina, scoring a pair of long range efforts from an xG of just 0.42. It could have been a perfect month, we were leading at Krsko from another penalty. But they were gifted an equaliser from a defensive mix-up. I'm sure this won't last, but the table looks good for now.

2022/23 Season Review Players Nik Omladic was undoubtedly player of the season. He won the fan vote, scored the most goals, had the most assists, most MOTM awards, and also had the highest average rating. Sandro Jovanovic was the only other player to reach double figures, but I found him really underwhelming most of the time. He scored 10 goals, but I'm pretty he also lost that many weeks' wages through fines. Between loans ending and contracts expiring, six of these players won't be here next season. Luka Baruca, Matija Kanceljak, and Marko Martinovic will be going back to their parent clubs. Sandro Jovanovic will be joining Mura (4th in 1. SNL) on a free. Kristijan Sekulic complained about not playing enough, not taking into account that when he did play he conceded twice as many as his rival for the goalkeeper's jersey. And as we can only include one non-EU player in a matchday squad, there was no point in renewing the contract of Sampson Wirekoh. History + Facilities We were given £25k for our league finish, and also had £95k invested. Despite that we've lost roughly a quarter of a million pounds throughout the season. Edit: Well that's some terrible spreadsheeting. I've used an old template and forgotten to update the team name. It should of course be Rudar Velenje.

May 2023 2. SNL We ended the season with a good month, again winning three games and losing just the one. It was an infuriating loss though, conceding in the 89th minute. We managed to tie down Nik Omladic for another year, reducing his demands by £100 per week, and he celebrated with two more goals. The final game of the season was designated a fan day, and we sent the 253 attendees home happy. The 1 travelling away fan probably regretted their journey. No change to our final position, we ended the year in 4th. This is much higher than I hoped for at the start of the year, but somehow it never felt like a good season. I think the main reason for that is the lack of draws. We won 16 games, which was the joint most with the champions Aluminij Kidricevo. But if we didn't win, we nearly always lost. Only four teams suffered more defeats than our 12, and they all ended up in the bottom five. Our longest run without losing was only 4 games, so I was never more than a month away from shouting and swearing at the laptop. Although admittedly that slowed considerably when I turned off the annoying 3D engine and went with the 2D dots instead.

April 2023 2. SNL Three wins and one loss. After last month's terrible form I'll definitely take that. The wins over Bilje and Primorje Ajdovscina have seen us overtake both of them in the table, but the loss to Triglav Kranj let them go back ahead of us. Last month I said we'd plummeted like a stone. Well, this month we've rebounded like a yo-yo. Surely we couldn't sneak the play-off place... could we?

Slowly but surely improving each season. With the rules in place it was never going to be an easy task, so it's pretty good going.

2023 Youth Intake The warning was correct. This looks like a very poor intake. Everyone will be signed up just in case there's a diamond hidden away, but it seems unlikely. Terrible personalities, no current ability, and not much more potential either. With my only striker having signed a pre-contract elsewhere, we'll be left with A2 Marko Kozar as the only option up front, and I don't think opposition defences will have much to fear. His finishing is good, but with his lack of acceleration, pace, determination, strength, and positioning awareness, he's never going to get a chance to shoot. Edit: I've just checked the 2. SNL rules, and players under 17 aren't allowed to play. I'm screwed. A5 Lukasz Fedoruk scored twice in the Youth Candidates v Under 19 game, maybe I can re-train him as a striker.

February + March 2023 Slovenian Cup We weren't far off scoring a major upset here. We raced into a two goal lead by the half-hour mark, one goal coming from a free-kick and the other from a corner. But Koper were 2nd in the 1. SNL at the time and showed their class in the second-half to overturn the deficit. 2. SNL Utterly terrible. I'm starting to hate every stupid player in this useless team. Plummeting like a stone.

We only have 21 players at the moment, and realistically only 20 available at any one time due to the one non-EU player rule. So other than one of the EU players I'm not trying to sell anyone currently, not that there's particularly any interest anyway. If and when youth players start coming through with quality and potential that may change, but we're probably a few years off that. This year's preview is a bit of a stinker. With regard to staff recruitment, I've delegated that out for now. I generally go with the premise that if I pick Team X to manage, then I should manage Team X. I always have transfers turned off in the first window, and I don't make sweeping changes to the backroom staff. Once I've completed a full season that changes, and I will be looking at what improvements I can make then. Determination is certainly something I do take considerably into account when hiring. Although in the Slovenian second tier it's probably more a case of grabbing whoever I can rather than holding out for someone who meets the highest criteria. The current staff all have determination values between 9 and 14, so pretty average as a whole.

Manchester United legend, sign him up.

November + December 2022 Slovenian Cup Maybe the worst 3-2 win I've ever seen. We let a two goal lead slip and needed extra-time to beat a side from the 3. SNL. Good to see Sampson Wirekoh get a goal though. As we're only allowed one non-EU player in the squad for league games he's not seen much gametime, and he made the most of it here. 2. SNL The loss to Beltinci was pretty poor, conceding in the 2nd minute set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. But we more than made up for that over the next few weeks. We beat league-leaders Nafta Lendava in their own backyard, and it was a convincing performance, We had to hold on a little against Dob, but Nik Omladic was a large part of our victory with a goal and an assist. Finally we took on Brinje-Grosuplje in our final game before the winter break, and set ourselves up for a nice Christmas with a comfortable win. Wow, this is most unexpected. The closeness of the league has allowed us to make a big jump up the table into 4th place, only a single point off the top. There's another three teams just another point back though.

Thanks both. I think constantly getting upgrades is a little bit gamey, so I'm going to limit myself to only making requests at the end of each season. Depending on the finances of course. We started the year with £130k and now we're £90k in the red, so might be a struggle getting anything approved.

October 2022 Slovenian Cup We were soundly beaten by Brinje-Grosuplje when we played them in the league back in August, so it was good to get a measure of revenge here. After we scored early on they pegged us back and I thought it wasn't going to be our day, but we kept going and punished them towards the end, twice forcing the ball over the line following frantic goalmouth scrambles. 2. SNL We had serious goalscoring problems last month, so hosting Dekani was a good way to turn it around. They had the worst defensive record in the division, and we added to their woes by putting five past them. We were back to being profligate again against Triglav Kranj, but managed to grab the win from the penalty spot. Krsko was an abomination. A draw would probably have been a fair result, but a horrendous mix-up between our right-back and goalkeeper gifted them the only goal of the game. Rogaska and Ilirija are both in the midtable battle with us, but the two games couldn't have gone much differently. We blew away Rogaska in the second-half, while Ilirija gave us a battering in the first-half. Three players lost a week's wages for their poor performances. This included the goalkeeper, who conceded 4 goals from an xG of just 1.31. We remain midtable, and 10 points above the relegation spots gives us a decent buffer. Surprisingly we're only five points off the top, as nobody in the division seems able to pull away. Everyone has lost at least three games so far. Going by xG we should be four points clear at the top, outscoring everyone else by five goals. Sandro Jovanovic With 7 goals so far Jovanovic is our topscorer at the moment, but he's not happy at the club. During the transfer-window we rejected an offer from Tabor Sezana, and this got him upset. He's refusing any attempt to negotiate a new contract, and has decided he'll be leaving when this runs out in the summer. Losing literally our only striker will be fun, I will be keeping all my fingers crossed for the April youth intake.

September 2022 Slovenian Cup This is going to be a grumpy update, so I'll get the good news out of the way early. In a midweek cup game we made easy work of 3. SNL side Posavje, smashing five goals past them (all from different scorers). 2. SNL In the league though we've been absolutely miserable. I don't know how many times we've had presentable chances, only to just tamely poke them at the keeper. The only thing more annoying is the countless passages of play where we pass it around, turn and give it to a defender, who then proceeds to aimlessly hoof it forward to lose possession. The Bistrica draw was a fair result, but we should be beating sides in the relegation places. Against both Krka Novo Mesto and Primorje Ajdovscina we had more possession, shots, and xG, but were totally impotent when it came to actually getting the ball in the net. Primorje are top of the table so it would have been a boost to take something from them, but we wasted the opportunity. I hate that this view has removed the goals scored and goal conceded columns. The only alternative is the stupidly large table with the massive gap in the middle of it. Surely it's not that difficult to just provide useful information in a reasonable size? xG This is a new one for me, as I'm used to playing FM20 which doesn't have xG. But this does support my case that we are massively underperforming up front. If we were even remotely confident in front of goal we'd be top.