DaneBramage

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.

August 2022 Results After the first two matches and two good wins I was starting to get excited about what the season could bring. Then we were diabolical three games in a row. We had a better xG against Aluminij Kidricevo and Fuzinar, massively out-shooting our opponents, but the finishing was dreadful. It's telling that only three players have found the net so far, and all of them have been guilty of their fair share of misses as well. 2. SNL Early days, but we've already taken up our expected midtable spot. That being said, with the drastic fall-off over the last three games we should probably be looking downwards rather than up.

The Star Man Whisper it, but I might have one of the best players in the league on the books. In the build-up to the season getting underway news articles have marked out Nik Omladic as the number one player to watch, and he's also expected to be in the reckoning for top scorer. At 32 years old he has a ton of experience behind him with 350 games of senior football, including six international caps. He's returned to Slovenia this summer after spending the last eight years in the German second and third tiers. He doesn't score many though, with four league goals the most in a single season during this time.

The Tactic With the lack of strikers making my normal 4-4-2 formation a non-starter, I've simply moved one of them back into the AM strata instead. We'll see how that goes. I don't like that this screen isn't showing tactical suitability for each player's role, but now I'm wondering if that wasn't in FM20 either, or was just part of the skin I was using.

The Squad Anyone know a formation that uses seven right-wingers? Of the 21 players in our squad, a third of them could play there. Meanwhile, there's only three players who can play in central defence, and just the one striker. That rules out my normal 4-4-2 tactic then, and an injury or two could cause real trouble. Most of the squad is Slovenian or Croatian, with a couple of Bosnians, an American-Italian, a Serbian, and a Ghanaian. The last two players will have to spend a lot on the sidelines as only one non-EU player is allowed in a 2. SNL matchday squad. We have a 32 year old and a 27 year old, but the majority of the squad is fairly youthful as everyone else is 24 or younger. The U19 squad is empty. I will be keeping the three loanees as I think we'd just be too short of numbers without them.

History The trophy cabinet at the Ob Jezeru stadium is hardly overflowing, but there are a few trinkets in there. While part of Yugoslavia Rudar Velenje won the Slovenian Republic league a couple of times, but it was never a top tier league. When first won in 1976/77 it was part of the third tier, and in 1990/91 (the final season before independence) it was part of the fourth tier. A few years after the split Rudar Velenje won the Slovenian Cup in 1997/98, but since then they've bounced between the top two divisions. After relegation in 2002/03 Rudar Velenje topped the 2003/04 2. SNL, but declined promotion. After winning it again the following year they did go up to the 1. SNL, but only lasted a single season before going back down. 2007/08 saw a third 2. SNL victory, starting a period of 12 years in the 1. SNL. But another relegation was to follow in 2019/20, and they've finished 8th and 5th in the last two seasons. Expectations We're predicted to finish 9th by the media, which is just a little below the board's hopes of a top-half finish. The supporters aren't having that though, they fancy a push at the play-offs. Only the 2. SNL winners earn automatic promotion, the team in 2nd place go into a play-off against the side that finish 9th in the 1. SNL. The bottom two go down. Finances and Facilities The facilities look pretty decent, among the best in the division. I imagine that there isn't much money at this level and that our cash levels will decrease pretty quickly.

Why youth only? I've briefly flirted with the idea before, inspired of course by various topics in this forum, and now seems like a good time to commit to giving it a proper go. Why Slovenia? My last FM20 save was in Poland, and I enjoyed it, but I didn't want to go back there straight away. Playing in a new nation seemed like a better idea. A large part of my success though came from picking up Slovenian players, with five signings having a significant impact on my team (a centre-back, two midfielders, and a pair of wingers). So it's clearly a country that can produce talented young players, and hopefully I'll see some of them here. Why Rudar Velenje? There are 16 teams in the 2. Slovenska Nogomenta Liga (to be known as the 2. SNL going forward), made up of six professional teams and 10 semi-pro. I wanted to go with a pro team so I didn't have to worry about non-contracted players being stolen away, and of the six pro teams, Rudar Velenje were predicted to finish lowest in the league. Also, I recognised the name as one of the teams that I'd signed a player from in my aforementioned Polish save.

Could it be the loyalty bonus? The figures don't seem to add up, but I was under the impression this was paid out over the course of the contract, coming out of the transfer budget.

Gutting end to the league season, at least there was the Vase for a silver lining. Keep Bird and you'll be in a great spot to go one better next year.

@Jimbokav1971 will be mad that he picked the wrong club. Solid enough start so far.

And that seems like a good place to come to a halt. I don't have a solid plan for FM23 yet, so on the beta I've loaded up the Scandinavian nations to get a hang of the new game, and I'll see how it goes from there. I did enjoy this save a lot though. And I'm pleased to end the FM20 run with some success.

Season Review 2029/30 Transfers In January we made over £10 million in sales. Rodrigo Valente and Aboubacar Cisse would have been useful players to keep around, but as neither of them were in our strongest team it made sense to let them go when big money offers came in. Re-inforcements came in the shape of Pawel Bujak on loan from Chelsea (Polish, 22, MC/AMC), and Tiago Antonio (Brazilian, 23, DC). Both went into the first-choice line-up. ----------------------------------- Ekstraklasa Four losses by November gave Legia Warszawa an early lead over us. Over the course of the season we narrowed their advantage, but when we failed to beat them in the Championship Group Stage any hope of overhauling them was lost. We were miles ahead of everyone else though. ----------------------------------- Puchar Polski We won the cup with ease. There weren't any difficult tests en route, and we blew Lech Poznan away in the final. ----------------------------------- Europe We were drawn in a strong Champions League group, but we thrashed Ajax twice, and also picked up a draw with Inter to finish 3rd in the group. This saw us drop into the Europa League. Unfortunately a draw at home wasn't enough, as West Ham smashed us at their place. ----------------------------------- Players Matthew Harper was an incredible signing, scoring 28 times in his debut season. This was enough for him to be Ekstraklasa top scorer. Despite this he wasn't voted our player of the season, as Urh Bloudek took this accolade with an average match rating of 7.44. Our top creator was Luis Pinheiro with 15 assists. ----------------------------------- We couldn't make it three league titles in a row, but we still picked up a double of sorts, winning both the Polish Cup and Super Cup. This moved me up to 4th place in the Poland Hall of Fame. -----------------------------------

Fun premise, good luck with this. Though I'm sure I won't be the only person slightly hoping for a humiliating, typically Scottish, loss to minnows at some point.