DaneBramage

August 2030 Interview Invite 17th in Serie A (Brazil). -------------------------------------------- Poached Player Yet another! Number 18. -------------------------------------------- Solidarity Payment While we're on the subject, the first player to be poached away has made a move. 27x Braian Romero has gone from Instituto ACC to Bologna (Italy, Serie A) for £500k, possibly rising to £835k. We've received a 6% solidarity fee for this of £30k. Not much, but it's free money with the potential of a little more to come. And a move to Italy as a teenager must be a good sign, hopefully he'll make a bigger move in a few years -------------------------------------------- Primera Division Why did I do this? We all knew exactly what would happen next. The win over Independiente meant our club-record run of consecutive wins reached double figures (two at the end of the last season, three cup games, and five at the start of this season), and then I posted the above. Immediately, we fell apart. We were leading 1-0 at Rosario Central then suffered a red card just before half-time. They came out in the second-half and turned the game around, and it's been miserable ever since. The good start means we're still high in the table, but we need to snap this losing streak quickly. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

@Jimbokav1971 Not a single Armenian so far. I'd guess it's just a historic link rather than anything still in effect today. I did a little bit of Googling to see if there had been any Armenians there IRL, and found just the one on Transfermarkt. A player called Jose Andres Bilibio who had a couple of spells there from 1997-2002 and 2010-11. Earned 10 Armenia caps and also had spells in Armenia, Spain, Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. At this point though I'd be happy with literally any foreign players coming through. All 144 academy graduates so far have been Argentine, with a very limited selection of second nationalities (14x Italian, 8x Spanish, 1x Mexican, 1x Paraguayan, 1x Uruguayan). Glad that the naming bug has been fixed in FM24 then. I've temporarily removed all nicknames and seen that of the 76 players currently at the club who came through the youth intakes, 45 of them were originally called Tomas. I was annoyed with the second tier at the time, 37 teams is ridiculous. But I dislike the Primera Division more. I can cope with the silly average points rule, but it's nine games fewer, just 27 league games isn't enough. And there's still crazy congestion as more than half of that is squeezed into August and September. I'd definitely prefer clauses based on next sale rather than profit, but beggars can't be choosers. I've tried changing them at times but it's generally just been one club interested rather than a bidding war, so I've had to take what I can get. Appreciate it, thanks. Enjoying this one, the meteoric rise was fun but I've paid for that with the tough season last year.

July 2030 Expectations The media think we'll finish 26th, the bookies think we'll finish 28th, the board want us to avoid relegation. I just want to do better than last year. That was an abomination, it can't be repeated. -------------------------------------------- Copa Argentina Tougher opposition than the last two rounds, but we made it through again. We required the experience of Lautaro Montani to do so, coming off the bench and striking home a 30 yard free-kick. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division I think I've worked out what went wrong last year. Or it could just be a coincidence, but I'm mentioning it anyway. When I had the e-mail about pitch dimensions at the start of the year, I saw that it was set at the shortest and widest dimensions possible. I don't know what had possessed me to do that, but I put the pitch back to the standard size this season. And we've demolished everyone in our path so far. And I've just realised the above might be nonsense, because we've only had one home game, so that obviously would have no effect on the other two. Maybe the FM Gods are just in a good mood. -------------------------------------------- Finances The sale of Franco Almanza gave a handy boost to our bank balance, and we also received the final instalment of £1.33 million from Corinthians for 22 Roberto Heredia. --------------------------------------------

July 2030 Departure Franco Almanza had been a regular on the right-wing for the last eight years, first-choice for a couple of seasons before settling more into a rotation role. He always contributed to a decent level, though never put together huge numbers. Time catches up with everyone though, and at 29 and with only six months left on his contract it was time to capitalize on interest from abroad. Real Valladolid have paid £1.1 million up front with another £1 million guaranteed in three annual instalments + £100,000 after 10 league appearances + a friendly. -------------------------------------------- Poached Players Numbers 16 and 17. Both are to clubs in the same division as us, but with 3.0 Continental reputations rather than our 3.0 National. --------------------------------------------

May 2030 Copa Argentina We hit the post twice in the opening ten minutes, but despite bossing the game we couldn't find a goal during the first-half. We made the breakthrough shortly after the interval, stealing the ball from their left-back and quickly releasing the ball into the middle for 27a Victor Pagano. A second followed and we were cruising, before conceding in stoppage-time against the run of play to set up a tighter finish than I'd have liked. --------------------------------------------

April 2030 Youth Intake 5.0, Excellent. 2 elite talents, 6 top talents, 8 good talents, zero decent talents. A lot of attacking players at the top end of this group. I wish some would come though who only play in one position though. AMR, ST and AML, ST players annoy me. I'd rather they're just a winger or a striker so I don't have to guess where they should be playing. Still boring nationality wise. I didn't bother signing five of the lower rated players without any determination. --------------------------------------------

March 2030 Copa Argentina Dispatching second tier Chaco For Ever was more difficult than it should have been. We dominated them, limiting them to just two proper chances, but our defence didn't do much to try and stop said chances. So what should have been a comfortable victory actually turned into a nervy finish where we got the win, but the defenders got the hairdryer treatment. In terms of goals 25e Valentin Maldonado obviously impressed with a brace, and with a pair of assists after coming off the bench 26f Carlos Alessandria has already doubled his tally from last season. --------------------------------------------

January 2030 Departures Three players from the original squad left when their contracts expired, having made more than 500 appearances for the club between them. German Aguirre and Nicolas Sanchez were both part or our first-team squad last year, both making more than 20 appearances. But last season stank and a change is needed, so sacrificing the players over 30 on high wages was the obvious route to go. Indeed, Nicolas Sanchez retired (at 32) rather than find a new club so he clearly didn't have anything left to give. --------------------------------------------

December 2029 Squad Stats 22 Fernando Pardal played well in defence but he was surrounded by a bunch of clowns. Lautaro Montani was decent in midfield, when fit at least. He spent a lot of time out injured and then broke his leg towards the end of the season. 24a Constantino Puig and 26f Carlos Alessandria were spectacularly unproductive, not providing anything useful whether in midfield or on the right-wing. Jonathan Herrera was again top-scorer, but didn't get anywhere near enough support from his striker partner 25e Valentino Maldonado. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records 49 academy graduates have now played for us, with nine more debuts this year. 22 Fernando Pardal is now the player with most appearances for the club, while 23c Diego Fernandez is the fifth player to reach a century. 25e Valentin Maldonado has jumped to 2nd in the top-scorers list, but is a long way off top spot. -------------------------------------------- History This was a really disappointing season. We were terrible throughout August and September, and due to the compressed nature of the Argentina season, that meant we were terrible for more than half the campaign. Just two wins in 15 games during that time killed us. At least the fans kept coming, we sold out the stadium on a number of occasions and with the increased capacity that meant we set a number of attendance records. The board are now looking at plans to build a new stadium, though nothing is finalised yet. I think that would be rushing things. Not having continental football next year is annoying. We're missing out on roughly £800k prize money, so we'll have to sell a player or two in the next window. But more than that it means we'll go from January to July with basically nothing to do (other than the Copa Argentina). It's going to be a long pre-season. Jonathan Herrera was top-scorer for a seventh time and fan's player of the season for a sixth. Lautaro Montani had the highest average rating for a fourth time. Franco Almanza shared the top assister award with 24g Federico Giaccone, though only the former gets added to the spreadsheet because he did it in fewer minutes and I don't want to change the formatting. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances Our youth recruitment was improved this year and is now at the highest level possible. --------------------------------------------

December 2029 Primera Division We eventually put together consecutive wins for the first time all season in the final two matches. The goals coming against Godoy Cruz from a pair of youngsters getting a shot up front was pleasing. Some bright lights for the future. --------------------------------------------

November 2029 Interview Invite This is the second time in six months I've been approached by River Plate. When they were managerless at the start of the season it made sense, but now? Have they not noticed how poorly we're doing? -------------------------------------------- Primera Division The same pattern as last month - a loss followed by a win, then a draw. The game against Velez could have gone either way, both teams very equal but ultimately they managed to take one more chance than we did. We should have beaten Almagro, the left side of the attack combined for the goal while the right side were terrible, more hindering the team than helping. Three games left but it doesn't really matter, this has been an awful campaign whether we stay in 23rd, finish as high as 15th, or fall as far as 27th. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

October 2029 Primera Division Games against the sides 26th, 27th, and 28th should have been what we needed to at least try and finish the campaign strong. Instead, we barely put up a fight against Instituto ACC and lost to the only goal of the game. We beat Lanus comfortably and should have done the same versus Banfield, but Lautaro Montani missed a penalty to cost us the win. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

September 2029 Primera Division After getting hammered by River Plate there was a two week break. A team meeting was called to tell the players they needed to buck up their ideas sharpish, and we also hosted a couple of easy friendlies to get the winning vibe back. And it worked, as we looked like world-beaters while absolutely smashing Racing Club. But it very quickly wore off, and we were back to being awful and only gained one point from the next four matches. Now seems like a good time for a reminder that even though we're plummeting down the table with no apparent change in fortunes looking likely, we're not in the relegation conversation because of the dopey average points rule. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

August 2029 Poached Player Yet another. Number 15. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division I loaded up the save today for the first time in a week after being busy with work, but to be honest this stinking run of form is just as much a reason for the break. Nine games in 29 days is obviously stupid scheduling, but every other team has a hectic period too so I can't blame that, we've just been terrible and can't score goals. This is by far our worst form since making it to the top tier. Nothing is going our way. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

July 2029 Interview Invites Santos are bottom of Serie A (Brazil), yet to win a game after 12 matches. River Plate are the reigning champions in Argentina, and their manager has just left to take over the Uruguayan national team. -------------------------------------------- Poached Player Number 14. Banfield have the 20th highest reputation in the country, we're a few spots behind in 23rd. But they're listed as continental while we're still national. -------------------------------------------- Departures A couple of players who were regular starters last year were shipped out. Both have a ton of PA, but I got annoyed by their constant poor performances. 25c Dario Romero scored just twice in 26 games last year, and only added 3 assists. This does leave us a little short on the left-wing, but may as well go with a younger player rather than this overpaid waste of space. It took a lot of offering him out to get any clubs interested, in the end only Bristol City made an offer. We couldn't get them to budge, so it's a straight-up £625k fee with no additional payments. 26e Hector Anselmi is a centre-back less than six foot tall. Always a tough task to trust that they be a commanding figure in your defence, and a 6.71 average rating last year suggests that he couldn't. River Plate clearly see something more in his future as they've paid £210k + £2k per game for 30 league appearances + 20% of next sale. -------------------------------------------- Expectations The same as normal really. The bookies think we'll finish 27th, the media think we'll finish 24th, the board want us to avoid coming last. I want to get into the Copa Sudamerica again. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division A poor start as we didn't deserve anything against Talleres, we were really poor. We should have got a point against Argentinos Juniors, Jonathan Herrera did his part as normal but was let down by the other attacking players. Jonathan Herrera didn't leave anything to chance against San Lorenzo and grabbed four goals. We're a one-man team really. Here's our goalscoring chart after 11 games (three league, two cup, six continental). -------------------------------------------- Finances The second guaranteed instalment of £1.33 million from the sale of 22 Roberto Heredia in 2027 has come through this month. The third and final instalment will be in 2030. --------------------------------------------

May 2029 Copa Sudamerica We got back on track with a pair of wins, the charge of course being lead by Jonathan Herrera. But just as swiftly it was cut off by the return fixture against Vasco da Gama. We beat Colo-Colo to try and keep the chase going, but Vasco da Gama had already won the group at this stage. With the result not mattering I tried something different in midfield against Independiente del Valle. Didn't work. Vasco da Gama ran away with the group, it was clearly pretty early that we were aiming for second place and we managed that. No prize for second though. -------------------------------------------- Copa Argentina We departed not just one, but two cups this month. A rotated side were picked and put up a decent fight, but it wasn't enough. -------------------------------------------- Finances Season ticket money has come through this month to reduce the losses. Looks like another sale is being completed which will take place in June. --------------------------------------------

April 2029 Copa Sudamerica Not a fun start to the campaign. We're immediately on the backfoot and with only one team getting through the group stage, Vasco da Gama are the early favourites. -------------------------------------------- Finances There was a shred of good news from the Vasco da Gama game - with the capacity increase completed we set new attendance and gate receipt records. --------------------------------------------

April 2029 Youth Intake This was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (4 Elite talents, 6 Top talents, 5 Good talents, and 1 Decent talents). That's the most elite players in an intake and the fewest decent players, so that's got to be a good sign. Everyone is Argentine yet again. We still haven't received anyone with a different first nationality. There's four with Italian as a second nationality this time though (we've now had 13 in total. Next is Spanish with seven. No other nation has more than one.). As a whole the determination attributes are really good. But unfortunately the only two that are drastically bad have been assigned to players with high PA, effectively ruling them out of developing to their potential best level. Everyone has been signed, but with most players going straight onto a full contract rather than a youth contract it's getting expensive to do so. The top-rated player being a left-back is useful, and another with good PA is a bonus. But the centre-backs not being rated too highly is a blow. --------------------------------------------

March 2029 Departures Another of the original players left. We're now down to just seven real players remaining. Tobias Luna had his moments of being useful over the years, but just 2 goals and no assists last year meant there was no way he was getting a new contract, and especially not with a pay increase as he wanted. -------------------------------------------- Copa Argentina We scored very early on against third tier opposition (through Jonathan Herrera, obviously) but despite dominating the game couldn't increase our lead. They never looked like scoring or getting back into the game, but we should have scored more regardless of whether it mattered or not. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances The off-season is so long in Argentina that I got bored and asked for a couple of upgrades. I also decided it was time to ask for a feeder club to loan players to. The other requests were rejected, but the board did decide to improve the youth recruitment. We have a player sale agreed for when the window opens in July, but it's not a particularly big one. --------------------------------------------

December 2028 Squad Stats Our defensive record was poor this season, just three clean sheets all year. After managing 66% of this total in the final two games of the season 26d Raul Gomez has put in a good shout for stepping-up to be first-choice next season. None of our defenders impressed, and the more defensively minded midfielders weren't great either. Lautaro Montani did well in the more attacking midfield position with 15 goal contributions, and Franco Almanza continued to be consistent on the right-wing. Jonathan Herrera was again the main man up front, and 21 goals is his best tally since reaching the top tier. His strike partners 25b Amadeo Martinez and 25e Valentin Maldonado blew hot and cold. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records Eight academy players made their debuts this year, and now 40 of them have represented the club. 22 Fernando Pardal reached the milestone of 150 games and will likely become the player with most appearances next season. -------------------------------------------- History Obviously I'm pleased to qualify for the Copa Sudamerica for a third time in a row, but I'm still annoyed that we nearly missed out and only scraped in on the final day. Jonathan Herrera was top scorer for the sixth time, Lautaro Montani was top creator and had the highest average rating for the third times, as well as winning player of the season for the first time. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances We regularly sell out our 10,500 capacity, so this is a sensible decision. I don't think taking out a £1.6 million loan to pay for it is smart though. We had enough money in the bank to cover it, but (if my maths is correct) we'll be repaying nearly double that amount to the bank (10 years x £26k monthly = £3.12 million). The improvements that were completed this year have set us up nicely for the future, hopefully it won't take long until we see the results of this through the youth intakes. And maybe if we keep qualifying for continental competition we won't see so many youngsters poached. Annoyingly one of our sponsorship deals wasn't renewed, so we only received £796k this month instead of the £1.2 million we got last year. --------------------------------------------

December 2028 Primera Division Goalkeeper 26d Raul Gomez came in for the final two games of the season and kept a pair of clean sheets, more than the previous incumbents had in total over the last 32 matches. Right-winger 26b Jose Ramos Mendoza made his debut on the final day and scored the only goal of the match, and it was probably the most important goal of the campaign too. We had dropped out of the top 12, but that final result saw us overtake Chacarita Jrs. and steal the final Copa Sudamerica place. I'm not terribly impressed with our performance, 43 goals scored is considerably down on the 55 and 59 from the last two years. River Plate also won the Copa Argentina to make it a double. --------------------------------------------

November 2028 Primera Division I have a theory that if you change formations to something that doesn't work for a couple of games, when you switch back to the favoured tactic it gives you a little boost. And thus we beat Boca Juniors. Turned crap again afterwards though. You know that point in the save where you just hate your team and every single one of your players, and would sell all of them if you could? I'm there right now. Other than Jonathan Herrera obviously. He deserves better than slumming it here. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

October 2028 Copa Argentina Due to the way the dates fell I was able to pick the strongest team possible, but Talleres were just better than us. Still, quarter-finals is our best cup result to date. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division I got really annoyed by the loss to San Lorenzo and decided if the team didn't care about trying to keep clean sheets, I would force them into it. So we went to a defensive 5-4-1 formation against Racing Club, and finally managed a first clean sheet of the season. It was a terrible game, but we managed to grab the only goal when Jonathan Herrera pounced on the rebound off a long-range effort. We stuck with the same formation against Godoy Cruz, and it was a disaster. Disgustingly poor. We only had 16% possession, and six players were fined. We went back to the tried-and-tested 4-4-2 for the trip to San Martin, and after going 2-0 down early, yet again we were bailed out by Jonathan Herrera netting a brace. Just about hanging on in there. -------------------------------------------- Finances Tried my luck again while our bank balance was looking so healthy and got our youth recruitment upgraded. --------------------------------------------

September 2028 Primera Division The FM Gods are always watching. After I mentioned we were on an 11 game unbeaten run and had scored in every league match so far, we immediately drew a blank and lost the next game. Two more losses followed over the next couple of weeks, but we turned it around with a paid of wins at the end of the month. I also mentioned last month that we could do with a clean sheet or two, but instead our defensive record has gotten worse. We've gotten away with it a couple of times by netting a bucketload to outscore them, but that's not a long-term solution. I need to find a way to make us tougher at the back. Two-thirds of the season is complete and we're in a good position, in a Copa Sudamerica qualification spot. There's plenty of teams with games in hand on us, but luckily most are above us in the table so staying in contention is within our own hands. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

August 2028 Departure 22a Francisco Lopez had a release clause of £4.1 million which I didn't expect anyone to meet, but Burgos stumped up the cash to take him to Spain. He'd been our first-choice at right-back since 2024 and holds the appearances record of our academy graduates, so it's a blow that he's going, but for this kind of money I can't be annoyed and I wish him luck in the future. Right-back is a position where we've got a couple of promising youngsters, so it's not a disaster, but an opportunity. -------------------------------------------- Primera Division The rotation policy has been implemented this month as things have gotten busy, and both the first-choice and second-string teams have done well despite the upheaval at right-back. So far this season we've both scored and conceded in every game (with the exception of one cup tie when we didn't score). Getting a clean sheet or two soon would really benefit us. Unbeaten after 11 games, a nice start (actually, we're nearly at the halfway point). Easier said than done of course, but we could do with turning some of those draws into wins. -------------------------------------------- Finances In addition to the 22a Francisco Lopez money, we also had the first additional £1.33 million instalment from the 22 Roberto Heredia transfer (which took place in August 2027). Incidentally, we've also made £320,000 from appearances he's made at Corinthians, but it's not looking likely that we'll get much more from those clauses as he's been sent out on loan with an optional fee of £2.7 million to make it permanent. So far we've received more than £15 million from sales of academy players. -------------------------------------------- Facilities It took a bit of persuading, but I managed to push through another upgrade. --------------------------------------------