PandaQC

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 12 - 2035 Very solid season. We were competitve across the board, winning the J.League Cup (second win in a row), losing in the Emperor's Cup final to Vissel Kobe and finishing second in the J1 League. This was our best season in J1 League with 83 pts. Most of the time this is good enough to win it all. But this year Vissel Kobe was flying with 90 pts and 99 goals (league all-time record) ! We lost in Quarter Finals of the AFC Champion's League for our first participation, against FC Tokyo. This was a little bit disappointing since I think we were the better team. But we are getting closer to our goal. J.League Cup Victory (again) !!! Emperor's Cup J1 League results AFC Champions League Youth intake Strong intake with a goal keeper (Narahashi 35.5). At last ! He is only 15 years old so I will probably wait one season or two before involving him in the first team. But he's the future at this position. Also I'm still getting small central defenders, and fast strikers (especially Shimura 35.2). I don't have any player above 179cm in this intake. I would really like having one or two big central defenders but they are extremely rare in this save. Attacking midfielder Nishiya 35.1 has already been added to the first team. Finances and facilities Training facilties have been maxed out ! It cost us 5M+5M. That's a big investment but now we have the best facilities in Japan. Finances are strong because we have increased the average attendance by a lot and we are starting to sell some players. We are doing good. Squad We have so many players now that it is hard to choose which one deserves to make the team, which one should go on loan, which one we should sell. My best player Fukushima 32.5 wants to leave the club. I will do my best to keep him around but he has a 3M selling clause. Weak point is still the goal keeper position. I am playing two GKs but none of them is really progressing. They cost us a few games and got me very angry. Striker position is really strong and I consider changing my tactic to play two strikers. Young striker Nakamura 34.1 is only 17 years old but he's already one of my best player. I would not be surprised if he becomes the best striker in J1 League next year. Transfers Some minor sells. And we loaned some players too. Nothing very interesting. Next season preview I hope that next year we finally win our first J1 League title. Also the Champion's League semi-final would be a great achievement. I don't think we are ready to win the CL yet though. Also, I would like to improve the Youth Facilities. One challenge will be to keep my best players because other teams are getting interested. That won't be easy because there agent is putting release clause in their contracts. We will have to be very careful. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 11 - 2034 Another great season. We are becoming one of the best club in Japan and Asia. This year we did great in all competitions we entered. In J1 League we placed 3rd after having led the league for a while. It was close until the end but FC Tokyo - which is my nemesis in this save - repeated. We lost in semi-final of the Emperor's Cup (to FC Tokyo), and we won the J.League Cup (against FC Tokyo). Our first major trophy ! The AFC Champions League groupe stage was a walk in the park against weak opponents. We have a lot of young talents that give us a lot of depth, and our second unit is almost as strong as the first one. It feels like from now on, our team will be a threat for the J1 League title, and maybe soon be for the AFC Champion's League. We are getting closer to our final goal. J.League Cup Victory !!! J1 League results Youth intake A very strong intake lead by two strikers. Nakamura 34.1 looks amazing. The best player coming out of the academy for sure. He's been added to the 1st team immediatly and has already been capped at the U20 level while he's only 16 years old ! Winger Sugiyama 34.3 will be an excellent player as well with his speed and work rate. A lot to love... but yet again I don't have a big central def or a GK. This is what I am missing the most ! Finances and facilities We have improved facilities again and have now the best youth academy in Japan ! We don't have any debt left for the stadium - that we don't even play in because it's too small for J1 League. It took 10 years to pay the debt in full. This is a relief. It was costing us 120k per month. The club is in a good financial situation with 10M+ in the bank and no debt. Squad Roster is deep. I have 2 or 3 players ready to play at every positions except DC and GK. GK position is a problem. I think it cost us the J1 League title. My two young GKs don't progress as much as I expected. I'm a little bit disappointed. I hope that our academy will produce a good GK next year. That would be a game changer. I have so many young talents that I need to review every positions and take some decisions. I will have to sell some of them as i cannot guarantee playing time to everyone. Rich man's problem. One sign my team is getting better is that I have a lot of players that are selected to play in Japan's national youth teams now. Transfers I sold Takano 31.1, my best player, at the start of the season. He was not willing to extend his contract and I did not want to let him go for free. I have a lot of talent at the ST position so it was not so bad. Also I sold young players I could not guarantee playing time. Had to make some decisions. The money helped improve the club facilities. Happy with those transactions. Next season preview I think we will have a good shot at the J1 League title next season. Our roster is strong enough. Also, we will see what we can do in the AFC Champion's League and how far we are from the final objective : winning the Champion's League. We will try to max out facilities too. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 10 - 2033 Incredible season that came up to the last game. We were in 2nd place and needed a win at home to secure the J1 League title. We were tied 4-4 at the 52'. Then our team proceeded to miss two penalties in a row (67' and 70'). Ouch ! Game ended at 4-4 and we finished the league in 2nd place. I'm not disappointed because we had a very good season and it was a big improvement after our 9th place last year. We did not get too many injuries, morale was high, team was rolling. We are qualified for the asian Champions League ! J1 League results Youth intake A little bit disappointed by this intake. We are in need of GKs and big DCs that can jump. We did not get what we wanted. It feels like I cannot get DCs bigger than 175cm. We have only one player taller than 180cm in that intake out of 16 players ! What is going on ? However we get some interesting midfielders that will add some depth to the squad. We are pilling up talent at M(C) and AM(C). We should be strong at those positions in the years to come. Finances and facilities We were able to improve Youth Recruitment a little bit. It is now one of the best in the nation. We are losing money every month though. For some reason one sponsor deal ended last year and was not replaced by a new one. We are basically keeping afloat right now. That would be really good if we could get new sponsor deals next season with the Champion's League. Also I hope TV rights for Champions League will be significant. I don't know what to expect. Squad Squad is getting older and stronger, but we are still weak at the GK and DC positions. Our starter this season was 16-year-old GK Minami 32.7. He cost us some points but made some strides. Now we are facing new challenges as our young players are the target of other teams, starting with our best player Takano 31.1 who scored 18 goals at 18 years old. He wants to leave the club and does not want to renew his contract. Tanno 29.7 did not want to renew his contract without a release clause that is pretty low (700k). We will have to sort this out. Transfers Nothing to report. Next season preview This will be our first participation to the asian Champions League. Let's see what we are capable of. We have a lot of young players. I will have to make some choices and maybe sell some of them. That would be great if we can finish top four again in the J1 League. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 9 - 2032 A very good season overall. This was our comeback season in J1 League after one season in J2. Our team was very hot from the start and we were still 2nd after 22 games. The last third of the season was disapointing though. A lot of injuries, a lack of talent at the GK position and no depth at the central defender position killed us. We lost a lot of games and finished 9th. This is our best place ever (previously 11th in 2028). This is very promising because all my players are very young and will keep improving. J1 League results Youth intake Very good intake that is providing a talented central defender (Murata 32.2) and the GK (Minami 32.7) that we were desperately waiting for. Those two are added to the first squad immediately. Best player we are getting is a ST (Sonoda 32.1). We have now a lot of very good strikers. My only complaint : yet another small central defender (173cm) while I keep getting 180cm+ offensive midfielder... But this is the best intake I have had in this save. Finances and facilities This is going way better thanks to the J1 League TV money. We have only 3M of debt to repay and a 6M balance at the bank. Meaning that we have 0 net debt. In two seasons the debt will be paid in full. Now that we have stable finances we are able to improve facilities at a faster rate. And we invested in Youth Recruitment : 6 > 9 > 12 > 15. This is very good news and explains why our youth intakes has been so good this year. Squad Squad is very young but has a lot of potential. Our best player is striker Takano 31.1, at only 17 years old ! He is the first player coming from our youth academy to be selected in the national U19 team (Japan U19). We are very proud ! We don't have any legacy players in the first squad. Old goaldkeeper has been moved to the 2nd team. All players are coming from the club academy. 15 years-old goalkeeper Minami 32.7 will be my starting next season. I don't have any other viable options. GK is our weak spot. Transfers No transfers even though I received a lot of bids from other teams for my young players. I will have to sell players that don't want to sign new contracts soon. Next season preview I expect to finish mid-table again next season. I will continue to develop my (very) young players. A little bit scared by our 15 years-old GK though. My goal is to maximize Youth Recruitment to become the best youth academy in the country. I don't pay attention to cups for now. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 8 - 2031 Promoted to J1 League (again). After being relegated last season in J2 League, we needed a complete overhaul of the squad. Almost all legacy players were dropped and replaced by young players (17-18 years old). And that worked well. We have had a lot of success and finished in first position quite easily. Our team clearly deserves to play in J1 League now. Some young players have matured and should be able to carry us in J1 League next year. J2 League results Youth intake Good intake. A lot of potential but I'm still disappointed by the personalities. My second and third best young players have the "casual" personality which means they have very low professionalism. Striker Takano 31.1, DC Fukoin 31.5 and GK Hata 31.14 will probably be added to first squad rotation. Finances and facilities We were able to improve Youth Recruitment a little bit ! But J2 League TV money does not cover our expenses and we have been losing money every month this season. Our net debt is back to 1M. We really need that J1 League TV money to stay afloat. In three years the debt will be entirely repaid. Almost there. Since we have been promoted to J1 League, we are moving back to the 20k-seats stadium. This is a running gag. We have played only two seasons in our 10k-seats stadium that we have bought and cost so many $$$. Squad The squad is very young. Most of the players are 17 or 18 y.o. Tanno 29.7, Lee Byung-Min 29.1 and Shigemitsu 29.3 are carrying the team. My problem is the lack of depth at the DC and the GK positions. GK is the biggest problem. Legacy player Amamoto will be 34 years old next season and is declining fast. I will probably replace him by the 15 years old 1-star GK from this year intake. This is scary. Transfers For the first time I am receiving offers for my young players. I have not sold anyone so far but I can feel the pressure from top J1 League teams trying to buy my talented players. This means they have some potential ! Next year preview Back to J1 League. This time our team should have the tools to avoid relegation. Weaknesses at the DC and GK positions are worrisome though. If we get injuries at those positions we could get in big trouble. We will try to continue to improve Youth Recruitment and will repay the debt. Goal is definitely to avoid relegation. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 7 - 2030 Awful season. We got relegated. Last year we barely survived. This year this is it. We are going back to J2 League. Our legacy players are declining faster than I thought. They played horribly. Our young players are progressing well but are not strong enough for J1 League. Morale was low. Defeat after defeat. Only bright spot: i have not been sacked. Directors still want me as their coach in J2 League. J1 League results Youth intake Meh intake. Good potential abilities but personalities are still pretty bad though, and positions on the field don't always match my current tactic. I will maybe change my tactic next season to fit those young players better. I don't see any outstanding player. A little bit disappointed. Finances and facilities I am still repaying the debt. 4 years left. 120k every month. This is roughly what I pay for players wages... And I was not even playing in the 10k-seats stadium that was bought with the loan, because it does not meet the J1 League requirements.... but surprise surprise, since we are relegated to J2 League we are going to move back to the 10k-seats stadium we bought. We are going to play next season in the stadium we have been paying the debt for 6 years now ! Also, for some reasons board does not want to improve Youth Recruitment. We are stuck at 3 for years. I hope it is not a bug. Hopefully this is related to our net debt. Squad This squad got us relegated. Legacy players have declined fast even though they are only 31-32 years old. Weird. Next year I don't think we will have much legacy players left. We are weak at the DC and GK positions. My two young strikers Shigemitsu 29.3 and Tanno 29.7 did pretty well given the context. Our two full-backs Yamauchi 29.9 (right) and Nishiyama 26.1 (left) are promising. I need to do something to solve my problem at DC. I do have young DCs but they are short and can't jump. My taller DCs are really slow and got killed this season. Transfers Next year preview Back to J2 League. This is probably not so bad. It will give me time to develop my young players, build a stronger team and get them prepared for J1 League again. Without J1 League money and with the debt to repay, finance will be a problem. Also, not being able to improve Youth Recruiting is harming the club. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 6 - 2029 Painful. I did not expect that we would go through that much suffering. From start to end we were in a battle to avoid relegation, and we barely escaped. We were lucky because they were some atrocious teams this year in J1 League. 35 pts were sufficient to avoid relegation. This was really stressful though. We got some injuries, some young players did not met expectations, some legacy players are getting old and slowing down... They were games we were just unlucky. And then the morale got low. Tough year. J1 League results Youth intake A golden generation. This is by far the best intake i've had in this save. For the first time we have two players coming from outside of Japan. One player fron South Korea, and one player from North Korea. Big DC with pace Byung-Min 29.1 will be starting right away in the first squad. Striker Shigemitsu 29.3 will see playing time next year for sure. Two things that annoys me though. Year after yearI keep getting 1m65 DCs with 3 in Jumping. It just does not work. I have to retraing them as full backs. Also, pesonalities are quite atrocious. This is disappointing since I have selected my staff carefully to only get coaches with good personalities... Finances and facilities Directors have accepted multiple facilities upgrades. All of our money was put in those and we don't have much yet. However we can see that youth intakes are getting much better each year. Our net debt in around zero. We still have more than 7M of debt to pay. Can't wait to have this debt totally paid off. Squad Not satisfied with this group. They underperformed. Some young players with bad personalities did not progress at all (Doi 27.1). Some others are too injury-prone (Inamoto 25.1). My two starting DCs (Kato 28.9 and Hata 27.3) were awful. Not enough potential. Too limited. Three players have made some strides: Nishiyama 26.1, Matsunaga 28.2 and Sasaki 26.2. They will be given more responsabilities next year. The other ones probably won't make the team. Transfers Next year preview The team needs a rebuild. Some players have underachieved and we just got ourselves a golden generation of young players. Some legacy players are getting old. I will review our options position by position and come up with a new group. Next year will be about avoiding relegation again. And continue to develop the club by improving Youth Recruitment, repay our debt, improve reputation, get new sponsor deals. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 5 - 2028 I feel like this year the club took a big step forward. After battling against relegation the past two years, the team is finally strong enough to finish mid-table. We were never in the danger zone. Therefore we were able to give playing time to young players. And those players are growing quickly. The future is bright. Looks like this save in under control now. J1 League results Youth intake Intakes are getting better and better as we improve our facilities. This year intake is excellent. 4-5 players will be involved in first team rotation straight away. Taiki Matsunaga 28.2 looks amazing. I will play him as a Segundeo Volente. Plus I get a backup GK in Atsuki Kato 28.9, which was a big hole in my squad this year. Those elite talents have way more potential than my "old" first team players. Meaning that in the long run my team should be way stronger. One little thing that bothers me: personalities. They are so so, even though my U18 staff is professionnal. Don't know if I can improve that. Finances and facilities A lot of good news on that front. We are now in the positive thanks to J1 League money, even if we account for the debt (we still have around 8M euros of debt to repay). Also, the club has been taken over by a member of the board. As a result the board is approving requests to improve facilities now, and we got a few of them ! This is a game changer and explains why our youth intake are so much better. Next step is to have the Youth Recruitment upgraded. Current balance: Squad 7 young players from the 2027 intake were part of the rotation ! And they did pretty good. Shin'ya Nishiyama 26.1 is improving very fast. He is already my best player, and still has room to improve ! More than 50% of my players are coming off the youth academy at this stage. Transfers Next year preview Next year I hope we will finish mid-table again. I will involve young players from the 2028 intake as much as I can. Also we will continue to improve facilities to get closer to our J1 League competitors. This is our top priority. Get the best Youth Academy in Japan. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 4 - 2027 This was our second season in J1 League and we survived ! Last season we were saved by a win in the promotion/relegation game. This year we avoided relegation by 10 points. This is a relief. Young players were introduced in the rotation and did ok. I gave playing time to promising players with great personalities, and it paid off. They are progressing well and now I am feeling more confident for the next seasons. The team is still pretty weak though - especially when my key players are injured or suspended - and next year will still be about avoiding relegation. J1 League results Youth intake The best intake so far. A lot of players with great potential. Problem is that their position does not match their attributes. DCs are 170cm and 169cm high, while right back is 187cm and slow . I will need to retrain those players to more suitable positions. But all in all I should not complain. I have a lot to work with. Finances and facilities We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And this is maybe the best news of this season. Thanks to J1 League money, our net debt is now zero (we were deep in debt in previous seasons because of the purchase of a new stadium). Now the board accepts my requests to improve infrastructure. But for some reason they don't want to improve Youth Recruitment. This is a mystery. I hope this is not a bug. Squad Transfers Next year preview Avoid relegation again. The sooner the better, but I know this will still be a struggle. Improve club facilities with J1 League money now that we are out of debt. Develop young talents by giving them playing time. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 3 - 2026 Painful season. From start to finish. Got saved by a late goal in the promotion/relegation game ! One of my best player, midfielder Nagayoshi, was injured most of the season. We lost a lot of keys games during the season. Our players can barley cope with J1 League talent for now. Two major players are leaving the team at the end of this season. My goalkeeper (retiring) and my central defender (he doesn't want to renew his contract). Therefore this is with an inexperienced defense that I will start next season. This is frightening ! J1 League results Youth intake Happy with this year's intake. Got two young players with good potential and very good personalities. A left fullback, and a central midfieleder. They are both "Light Hearthed" and "Unflappable". Both are locals, born in Miyazaki. I will immediatley integrate them in first team rotation. Finances and facilities This is a nightmare. Board has put us deep in debt to buy this brand new 10 000-seat stadium... and we don't even play in it anymore because J1 League requirement is 15 000 seats ! We are playing in another stadium with 20 000 seats, that we are renting. And there is no plan to increase the number of seats in the 10 000-seat stadium. We have bought a stadium that is not used... Because our financials are bad, directors are rejecting most of my requests to improve facilities. Youth recruitement is still at 1. Awful. I guess I will have to wait 1 or 2 additional seasons to have the debt under control thanks to J1 League money. And then go from there. Squad Transfers Next year preview Avoiding relegation will be hard. We will try to survive and integrate young players in the rotation. Also by repaying debt, we will hopefully get in a better financial situation that will allow us to improve Youth Recruitment. We are in a bad situation for now. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 2 - 2025 With the same players and same tactic that we used last year in J3 League, our team crushed the J2 League. We were on top early, and never looked back. This was a good surprised. I have the feeling that there is not a big gap in level between japanese divisions, at least between J2 and J3. I think the reason is that sponsors money is comparable. Anyways, we are promoted to J1 League ! Three young players players promoted last year from the youth academy were part of the rotation. J2 League results Youth intake I am a bit disappointed by this promotion. One of the most promising youngsters - Kijima 25.2 - is a left back. My best player from the past promotion was also a left back. I would rather have a player at another position. The other player with potential - Inamoto 25.1 - is a striker with poor physical attributes (171cm, pace=4, jumping reach=4, agility=4, strenght=3...). Technical attributes are OK but I am not sure it will be sufficient in J1 League. Finances and facilities This is a MAJOR problem. Board has started to build a 17M euros stadium last year. The club is in debt. Finances are insecure. Because of this the board has rejected every single ask to improve facilities. My youth recruitment is still at 1... Worse, the stadium to be built is a 10 000 seats stadium while the minimum requirement of J1 League is 15 000 seats... Meaning that we are in financial difficulties for a stadium which is not even compliant with J1 League rules... If I cannot improve my facilities quickly I won't be able to get decent youth intakes. What a nightmare. Only hope is a takeover. There are rumours of potential offers. But nothing concrete yet. We desperately need someone to inject money in our club at that point. Squad Transfers Next year preview Top priority is to avoid relegation for sure. Then I hope a takeover will take place and some mony injected in the club so that we can improve facilities. Recap

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Japan) - Season 1 - 2024 Got promoted to J2 League ! It was a battle between our team, Matsumoto Yamaga and FC Gifu all year long. The youth intake did help us closing that season because it brought new blood to our short-staffed team. I was lacking depth in defense, especially central defense. We played a 4-4-2 with two Segundo Volante. J3 League results League past postions: Youth intake Got an awful preview but the actual youth intake was pretty nice. Three players have been added to the first squad already: Osamu Kudo 24.1 (DL), Mitusa Matsunaga 24.2 (DM) and Daichi Kato 24.4 (DC). Those defenders are very welcomed. They will have plenty of playing time next season. . New stadium Board has decided to build a new 10k seat stadium. The current stadium does not meet the J2 League requirements (8000 seats). Poisoned gift. I'm afraid it will be a drag on my finances for years. Hope it will not impact facilities improvements. Squad Transfers Next year preview It will be about avoiding relegation, improving facilities, developing young players and hoping to get new promising talents. Recap

Finally good news. Thank you board !

Five months in my first season with Minebea Mitsumi FC in Japan and my board declines every improvement to my Youth Recruitment.

Minebea Mitsumi FC (Just getting started) Starting in Japan this year with this little club located in Miyazaki, on the island of Kyūshū. The place looks lovely. I had to load the game almost 40 times to get this club since its reputation is quite low. I will move those two guys to my B team and sell them as soon as possible. Those transfers have been setup before my appointment.