DaneBramage

January 2025 Departures A couple of significant losses here, one that was expected and another that is a bit of a blow. Gonzalo Rios and his £5k per week had to go, but he represented us well last year and we'll have to hope someone steps up and contributes what he did from the left-wing. 23h Hector Leon was our back-up goalkeeper and was poached away during the period we couldn't offer new contracts. We're now left very thin in that position. A few of the others were regulars in 2022 and 2023, but frozen out last year when they were considering their options. Turned out to be for the best considering how well we did without using them. In total these departures will save us about £8k a week. -------------------------------------------- Finances A smaller hit than normal due to the season tickets being bought this month (currently at 1,358, the exact same amount as the last two years). --------------------------------------------

November 2024 Squad Stats Both of my starting strikers had great seasons. Jonathan Herrera beat his tallies from the last two seasons, managing 31 goals this time, while 22 Roberto Heredia also had his best year yet with 23. Gonzalo Rios is the player earning £5k a week that I couldn't shift, but he knuckled down and played well. I thought he might complain about often being on the bench but he didn't and contributed 11 assists. I did have a cheeky punt at asking if he'd like to stay (obviously on massively reduced wages), but he still wants to leave when his contract is up. On the other wing 22 Angel Cabrera also impressed. He reached double-figures for assists, and nearly the same with goals too. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records Four academy players are now in our first-choice starting XI, with another two rotating in and out. 22 Roberto Heredia is the obvious star man with more than 40 goals already, but 22 Angel Cabrera is also breaking out. -------------------------------------------- History We sold the exact same amount of season tickets to the faithful, but the average attendance rose in line with our success. Jonathan Herrera is continuing and improving on his own records. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances After promotion was confirmed we received a bump to our reputation, from 2.0 stars to 2.5. Our bank balance is basically the same as it was this time last year, a tiny bit over £1 million in the red. There doesn't seem to be any way of making significant amounts of money, we need regular injections of cash put in by the board. --------------------------------------------

November 2024 Primera B Metropolitana The final two games of the season didn't matter, but I was still annoyed by the loss to Lujan. The team was rotated slightly, but it should still have been strong enough to get at least a point. It looked like the season was going to end with a whimper, but Gonzalo Lazzarotto came off the bench to grab a 93rd minute winner. I was ready to let him leave this summer, but since September he's scored three late winners so I think he might have earned himself a new contract. I expected nothing from this season, so I'm massively surprised that we've won the title. I thought it was nonsense when the bookies made us favourites and the board wanted promotion, and thought I'd be doomed to being fired. Then when we went five games without a win over June and July I still thought we'd fall away. But then we just started winning again. An incredible year. -------------------------------------------- Finances Crossing my fingers that going up a division will see more money coming in next year. --------------------------------------------

October 2024 Primera B Metropolitana The game against Ituzaingo could have gone either way, but 22 Angel Cabrera made the difference with an assist and a goal in a MotM performance. Sacachispas could only draw, while Sporting Italiano won to become our nearest challengers, albeit seven points behind. We didn't allow Estudiantes anything, but they restricted us pretty well too. It took until the 87th minute for a couple of substitutes to make the difference. And the goal from Gonzalo Lazzarotto was the one that won us the title! Sporting Italiano drew, Sacachispas lost, no one can catch us now. We celebrated by giving San Miguel a whooping. YES LADS!!! We've been on a great run of form, and while doing so our rivals were floundering and falling away. The title was wrapped up with three games to go, and whatever happens over the final two matches we'll end up with a good winning margin. -------------------------------------------- Finances Keep 'em coming. The real good news is that with promotion confirmed, our wage budget has been increased accordingly and we can start offering contracts again. If this hadn't happened our squad would have been decimated in December, as it stands we now shouldn't lose anyone vital. --------------------------------------------

September 2024 Primera B Metropolitana If Sporting Italiano thought they might squirm their way back into contention, then that was a short-lived hope. We were comfortable and arguably should have beaten them by more. We nearly suffered an embarrassing loss to relegation candidates Defensores Unidos though. We were looking well on course for a 1-0 win until a five minute disaster in the 79th-83rd minutes saw us reduced to ten men and concede twice, the second from a terrible defensive mistake. But our strength in depth saw us take the win really late, both stoppage-time goals coming from substitutes. UAI Urquiza are a decent side, 5th in the table, but it's never good to concede from every shot on target. The game against Central Cordoba looked like it was going to be a bore draw, but Jonathan Herrera had other ideas with his 30th goal of the season. Wow! We might actually do this? We started the month three points above Sacachispas, but they lost two games this month and the gap has grown to six points with just five games remaining. And our goal difference is far superior. -------------------------------------------- Finances More of this please. --------------------------------------------

August 2024 Primera B Metropolitana A bit of a potentially tricky month with four away games, but we handled it very nicely. Two away draws at first was fine, but the turning point was the home game against Dock Sud. We battered them in a dominating performance, admittedly where we did benefit from them going down to ten men during the first-half. That then gave us the momentum to follow this up with a pair of away wins, both by the only goal of the game. Sporting Italiano only won one of their games this month, and we've climbed back to the top. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

July 2024 Primera B Metropolitana A mixed month, but better than last so I'll take it. We really should have received two points more, we were the far stronger team against Midland but just couldn't make the breakthrough. I'm trying my hardest to move on Gonzalo Rios, he of the £5k weekly wages, but no one will take him. In the meantime though he put on a MotM performance against Comunicaciones with a goal and an assist. We've dropped to second and fallen a couple of points behind Sporting Italiano, but it's still all to play for. -------------------------------------------- Departures We did manage to shift one of the big money drains, letting Francisco Molina go for free to remove £3.3k from the weekly wage costs. Nicolas Gimenez was a first-choice player during my first two years, but when he announced he was considering his options at the end of his contract I froze him out. That's another £1.1k per week saved. -------------------------------------------- Finances Profit! Just a one-off though due to the player sales and a new sponsorship deal. --------------------------------------------

June 2024 Primera B Metropolitana I thought we were on for a good month after the big win against Lujan (5th at the time). But that turned out to be our only win of the month. We lost three points due to late goals, two in the last five minutes at San Miguel and another in the 87th minute against Deportivo Laferrere. We also struggled a little with injuries; nothing major, but issues keeping players out for a couple of games at a time meant we weren't able to field consistent line-ups. We had eight academy players starting against Sacachispas, including one debutee, but it was more out of necessity than choice. We're just past the halfway point now. Top on goal difference. Hopefully this month was just a blip rather than a turn in fortunes. -------------------------------------------- Finances Cheers lads, very helpful. --------------------------------------------

May 2024 Primera B Metropolitana Three good wins, all with clean sheets, and one astonishing loss. I'm baffled how we lost to UAI Urquiza. They were 4-0 up at half-time, we dragged it back to 4-2 but then they added another after 55 minutes. We carried on battling and got two more, but couldn't find a fifth. Infuriating, and their goals came from an xG of just 1.01. All free training sessions over the next week were replaced with additional goalkeeper sessions, and we responded well. Against Ituzaingo seven academy players started the game, including two debutees. We've scored 40 goals so far this season. Nobody else has more than 24. We've conceded 20 goals, and only three teams have let it more. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

May 2024 Youth Intake This was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (zero Elite talents, 3 Top talents, 9 Good talents, and 4 Decent talents). Everyone is Argentine, with one Italian and one Spanish second nationalities. A lot of low determination stats here, that sucks. I wasn't able to sign three of these players as they wanted more than £90 per week. By the time the tryout match happened the deals for the other 13 to join the club had been completed. So in the tryout match the candidates team was made up of the three unsigned players and a bunch of greys. They beat the Under 20s 4-3. --------------------------------------------

There's just so little money coming in. Even if we weren't paying any wages we'd still be losing money each month. The largest source of income last month was fund raising, just over £23k. Then 'other' and gate receipts, about £9k each. The total income was £46,758. Our total expenditure was more than four times higher, at £219.585. Player wages of £115k made up more than half of this, along with another £21k on bonuses and £19k on staff wages. But then there's nearly £20k on loan repayments and interest (we don't have any loans being repaid, so this must all be interest on the overdraft) and £15k tax, plus the other smaller ongoing costs. ----------------------------------- At the end of the last couple of seasons we received sponsorship payments of just under £200k per year (if I remember correctly). It looks like one of these deals ended and a new one has started at a much lower rate, as the deals now come to a total of just £58.1k per annum. This is the second lowest amount in the division, though this screen only seems to be picking up a couple of these deals. ----------------------------------- Our wages are the highest in the division, entirely due to the three players who returned from their loans that I was unable to move on. - ----------------------------------- We made more money selling players during pre-season that all other teams combined, and only one side spent more than they brought in. - ----------------------------------- Only 7 clubs have finances listed as okay, the other 13 are listed as insecure. So it's not an issue isolated to us, it's a division-wide problem.

April 2024 Primera B Metropolitana Our great run of form continued, making it as far as six wins in a row. It was ended by a stinker of a match with Sarmiento, a game of low chances and low skill but they just eked out the one goal needed. The scoring run of 22 Roberto Heredia also ended at this time, previously he had scored in seven consecutive games. We stay top thanks to the win over Sporting Italiano, a 1st v 2nd clash, but way too early in the season to call it a six-pointer. -------------------------------------------- Finances Our crap financial situation could put us into some major trouble soon. We're limited to offering wages of only £90 per week, so we're not able to renew contracts. A lot of deals are running out in December, including three first-team regulars (22 Fernando Pardal, 22 Roberto Heredia, and 22 Angel Cabrera), and it's pretty worrying. Once we reach 1st July they'll be within six months of expiry and other clubs will be able to talk to them, and we won't be able to counter their offers. --------------------------------------------

March 2024 Primera B Metropolitana This lad is great. In my last save I went through 22 teams (and 1 country) in 35 seasons, so I never really knew any of the players. But this chap is obviously my favourite here. He just won't stop scoring, he's already at 12 goals this year in 7 games. The draw with Midland was a decent point, as they were newly-relegated into this division. But losing to El Porvenir was poor, as they're new to this division from the other direction. We somehow conceded three times from just four shots on target. and a 0.91 xG. We bounced back though with three good wins, something we haven't achieved since August 2022. We're top of the table, but I don't know why we're playing so much better than last year. It can't be all down to the return of Gonzalo Rios can it? Though he has slotted in well, with 4 assists and 1 goal so far. Academy players aren't being forgotten, we generally have at least three in the starting line-up. 22 Roberto Heredia has 4 goals so far and 22 Angel Cabrera has 3 assists. -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

February 2024 Expectations I think I might be screwed. The media are predicting that we'll be winning the league this year, the bookies have us 6-4 favourites, and the board want us to secure promotion. I don't see it happening. The pressure will definitely be on. -------------------------------------------- Primera B Metropolitana Although if Jonathan Herrera continues on like this, we might stand a chance. Seven goals in the first two games is certainly a good start to the campaign. Three of the loanees that returned to the club are still here, we haven't managed to move them on. The 33 year old is in the reserves, but Gonzalo Rios (AML, 25) and Agustin Pereyra (DR, 25) are involved with the first-team. They will be allowed to leave if any offers come in, but in the meantime and given how much we're paying them, it seems silly not to use them, especially with the ridiculous expectations this year (which is probably partly due to the fact that they are here). -------------------------------------------- Finances --------------------------------------------

January 2024 Departures Any transfer fee for Ivan Lopez would go straight to him, so he was let go for free, although we will get 50% of his next transfer fee and a friendly. Two of last year's loanees were shifted for a total of £675k. There's also an additional £63k after 50 games for the first player, and £83k after 50 games for the second (plus 20% of any profit on his next transfer). This saves us £4.5k per week on wages, roughly £235k for the year. -------------------------------------------- Finances Some improvement but the finances are still in a poor state. In reality we lose so much money each month we need a lot of sales all in one go to stand any chance of reaching a positive balance again, and then we have to hope the board are amenable to any upgrades immediately if and when that happens. --------------------------------------------

December 2023 New Contract Renewed for two years on the same terms. -------------------------------------------- Affiliate Club Last time I asked for a senior affiliate the board looked for a team, but couldn't find anyone suitable to link up with. This time they provided a shortlist of three teams, but all were for loan options only and didn't offer any financial incentives, so no point taking them up on it. -------------------------------------------- Returning Loanees When I took over there were six players out on loan for two years, and these deals have now come to an end. One of their contracts expired in December, but the other five have now returned to the club, and this poses quite the dilemma. Four of them are ranked among the six best players at the club, so they would obviously massively improve our starting XI. But they are very expensive, between the five of them adding £13.1k to the weekly wage bill (just over £680k per annum). The one not listed here is 33 and on £3.5k per week, so it's an easy choice to get rid of him. But the other four are at their peak or approaching it in the next few years, so they still have a lot to offer. But they would of course be removing opportunities for young players to come through, and AML and DR are both positions where academy graduates have been involved a decent amount. And they are very expensive. And all four only have a year left on their contracts, and have already stated they'll be considering their options. I think I know what I have to do really, for the long-term gains rather than the short-term advantages (which will fall apart when they leave anyway). -------------------------------------------- Finances Sponsorship money for 2024 has come in, but things are still looking bad. Also, with the aforementioned players returning from loan, wages are a disaster. --------------------------------------------

November 2023 Squad Stats Not a lot to be impressed with this year. Jonathan Herrera and Lautaro Montani are probably the only players coming away with any credit, also maybe 22 Roberto Heredia and 22 Angel Cabrera if I'm feeling generous. I wasn't really able to introduce as many young players into the team as with how badly the senior players were performing it was a battle just to meet the top-half expectations. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records 22 Roberto Heredia is by far the best product of the academy at the moment, with the most appearances, goals, and assists. Three more players made their debuts this season and 23a Ernesto Farias is showing some early promise. 22c Javier Banegas is the first academy player to be sold. -------------------------------------------- History A significant step back from last year, though as long as we're not being relegated it doesn't really matter. There's no prize money so just not getting fired is the aim really until if and when we start producing enough players to have a proper crack at promotion. But the difference between our home and away from was mad. At home we won 39 points, best in the division. Away we won just 13 points, worst in the division. Our games were exciting for the neutral - we scored 65 goals, best in the division. But conceded 67 goals, worst in the division. -------------------------------------------- Finances + Facilities No change other than our bank account sinking deeper into the red --------------------------------------------

November 2023 Primera B Metropolitana A strong end to the season, though we can thank the AssMan for that. I put him in charge of team selection, and he picked 22c Javier Banegas. I'd probably have removed him if I'd noticed, but I didn't, and he went on to score twice in the first game and add an assist in the second. We recovered to rise back up to 10th, just about scraping a top-half finish. The board are delighted with this, I'm lucky it doesn't take much to keep them happy. -------------------------------------------- Finances Back over a million in the red again. --------------------------------------------

October 2023 Primera B Metropolitana Ugh. We scored six goals over two games, yet managed to come away from them with just a point. Idiot goalkeeper and idiot defenders can't do their stupid jobs properly. Yikes. We've slipped to our worst position since the opening months of the season, and the board are now disappointed in my performance. Media messages are also starting up about the fans being disillusioned with the tactics we're using (4-4-2). -------------------------------------------- Finances I missed getting the value, but I think it's safe to assume we continued losing money. --------------------------------------------

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