[FM17] Football, fire and ice: The inside story of Iceland's remarkable rise.

[Jimbokav1971]

Kriss 6. (21a) Haukur (Sport) (2021) *.

 

Season 1. 2 appearances. 

Summary. As mentioned when discussing Kriss #4, there have been brighter prospects come through in this position and this is the main one. I will invest time and appearances in him and hopefully see him progress.

[Jimbokav1971]

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm not going anywhere. 

Despite the attentions of Stjarnan.

[Jimbokav1971]

Transfer rumours. 

[Edit]

It's Oct 2021 and the (17a) Baldur (F.Pro) (2017) * contract expires in Oct 2023. The way I see it, I have him for next season and then I sell him at the end of next season.

If I don't need the money at that time, then I might even keep him for another year and let him leave on a free. I'm not sure yet what sort of situation our finances are going to be in, so I don't want to set up to sell him unless I really have to. I have a couple fo other player I want to off-load and while they might not bring in loads, they should keep things ticking over nicely, 

[Edit2]

£100,000? No way! 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Significant change in PA. 

There is something that I keep meaning to mention, (but keep forgetting), with regards to a player who seems to now have significantly more PA than was once thought to be the case when he was promoted from the Academy. 

(18k) Davíð Þór (Pro) was designated "k" in the 2018 intake to suggest that he was only ranked 11th of 16 by PA at that time. He has since developed to the point where he has the best PA of all DL's and also actually has the best CA too. 

From rated 11th by PA in the 2018 intake, he is now rated 22nd by PA in the whole squad, (consisting of every youth intake plus the players that I inherited), and has 4.5 PA. 

When you considered that he only had between 2.0 and 3.0 PA when he initially came through the intake, (and the level at which we are judged has improved significantly between Aug 2018 and Jan 2022), and he now has 4.5 PA, that's a pretty enormous change in opinion. 

This is the Youth Intake pic from 2018.

My personal opinion is that this is based on a few different things. First of all, my Ass Man is rubbish. He has a JPP attribute of just 4, (I think I still have the same guy who I had in 2018, although he is overdue an upgrade it must be said), so he is not going to be great at judging the PA of players. 

@Ceching You Out @Makoto Nakamura @LPQR @Jupjamie @mjaferrie @MadCatPT @BoxToBox @Maw74 @abulezz @Raware @Shevchenko @Moonshine you might be interested in this. (Apologies if you are not and also apologies if I have missed others who are running Youth based saves).

So with that in mind, how many of you who are playing similar saves don't sign youth intake players based on rubbish PA reports given to you by rubbish staff with a rubbish JPA attribute? I know for a fact that quite a few were in FM16, because I mentioned it in your threads and tried to get you to sign all Youth intake players to a Youth contract and then make up your mind when they were eligible for a Pro contract. Yes finances are an issue in your saves, (as they are in mine), but are 16 youth contracts every season rather than just 8 going to make that much of a difference? Some of you will be playing in Nations where you will benefit from a Youth subsidy which I think pays for some if not all the cost of the youth player wages, but in any case there will be at least a contribution made. 

To back that up, I am currently receiving a £27 subsidy per week, (it's listed as youth grant on my Finances - Wages screen). That compares with a total of £40 per week that I am spending on player wages for players who are still on a Youth contract. (8 players x £5 per week). I'm making this up as I go along because for some reason I have never looked at this in any detail, but that suggests that I will receive a rebate of 67.5% of my total Youth player wages. I don't know if this exists in every Nation, but I would suggest that it probably exists in all European Nations at least. (Iceland is NOT a member of the EU and probably never will be, but they are a member of the European Economic Area which would probably make SI include it in stuff like this). Is there really a financial reason not so sign all Youth Intake players to a Youth contract in order that you give your staff a longer period to provide an accurate assessment on them? I honestly don't think so. 

While I am going off on a little tangent I might as well show you this. 

Squad rated by PA. Jan 2022. 

We now have 18 players at the club who are rated at 5.0 PA. What's different now compared to the last time I showed you this pic is that we have significantly more CA to go with our PA. There are now 5  different players who have greater than 3,0 CA in that group, (it was probably 0 the last time I showed you this), and one of them is (21b) Skúlason (Pro) * who came through the intake towards the end of last season. His development seems explosive at the moment and it can be of no surprise that he has a Pro personality. 

[Edit]

The fact that both (18k) Davíð Þór (Pro) and (21b) Skúlason (Pro) * are the players that I have been talking about in this post are both Pro personalities is not lost on me at all. I think it's hugely significant and just serves to spur me on to improve my overall squad personality. 

With that I'm off to sign some tutors. 

 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Shevchenko]

Great analysis! I'm interested to see what my youth intake is going to look like (though I'm still in August in-game), but I agree that having rubbish Assmans can get you VERY wrong almost everywhere. For example, my Assman can't even properly tell me what role a player is good at. A striker with great pace, adequate finishing and composure can be a defensive forward rather than a poacher. So this is a situation where you as the manager have to analyze your players yourself.

[LPQR]

Skulason is the type of player these saves are worth the time for  

On the above mentioned issue, I have a look myself at every youth player before making a decision. I know that trying to judge a player's potential yourself is swimming in dark waters, but as long as you have a decent staff member (judging CA/PA) giving you a reasonable opinion on the players' potential you can then make an educated decision based on the chances of development the player has according to the reports, his personality and current stat distribution. It might come out as a success, it might not, but I quite like there's no route-one way to know just how good a player will be. When it comes to star ratings I don't get too hung up on them, as they are generated in co-relation with so many things that vary on a weekly basis. For example, to pull this to its extreme, lets say you have a scout with 4 for JPA and JCA and your first team is full of youngsters. His (already dodgy) opinion of the CA and PA of your first team will vary as they develop (for better or worse), and thus, his opinion on the CA and PA of your youth will vary accordingly, as they are tied to each other, as I'm sure is well known. Couple that with players changing personalities in the youth team due to influence from the squad, players having quicker jumps in development thanks to game time or spells of stagnation due to none, and you have a milkshake with so many variables that to determine at least roughly how your youth develops is quite the indigestion. So yeah, no clear policy there, but it's an approach that allows for surprises and I quite like surprises

[MadCatPT]

It's very interesting.

I need to check but I think the big differences where from my first season and had the inherited staff with poor skills.

Now I have staff that is at least decent (min 10) in at least the JPA and JPP areas, still I for the first time signed all the youth candidates to try and see the difference.

The extra players in the squad that required tutoring to get Det and Pro up increased, lost my 100% Squad Cohesion, so if there aren't any big change signs I won't do it again this year.

Most of these players will not play for me, because you started with a player that at worst had 2*PA, I (stupidly probably) signed 0.5*PA at worst players.

I'll post an update at end of season (1 years after) and will link to the people you mentioned to see if the differences are anything to go by, with the staff stats also.

[Jimbokav1971]

9 minutes ago, Shevchenko said:

Great analysis! I'm interested to see what my youth intake is going to look like (though I'm still in August in-game), but I agree that having rubbish Assmans can get you VERY wrong almost everywhere. For example, my Assman can't even properly tell me what role a player is good at. A striker with great pace, adequate finishing and composure can be a defensive forward rather than a poacher. So this is a situation where you as the manager have to analyze your players yourself.

It must be said that I prefer to look at a player and judge him "at a glance" using the octagon graphic, but at the same time I rely heavily on the JPA stars.

Attribute balance is my "thing" that I thin is more important than others do, but it's very..... I can't think of the word, (sorry). SUBJECTIVE! that's it. Looking at attribute balance in a player is very subjective. Yes you have rough guides for what attributes are most important to a role(duty), but there are many nuances within a role and when you add in ppm's and individual instructions it's quite possible that the look of a player may change significantly. I think you have to have a very clear view of what a player in a particular position should look like, (my DL should not look like my DR for example). 

Having said that, that only takes into account there here and now and because I don't use FM scout or whatever it's called now, I have to rely on the JPP stars. I will admit that I am more likely to gamble on a player with a more professional personality, (because these are more likely to improve further than anticipated), as the above example shows, but again, there is no 100% accurate formulae and it's very much a case of covering all bases until such time as you have to make a decision. In my case I offer all players youth contracts and I am only now getting to the stage now in 2022 where I am not offering them all a subsequent Pro deal. I am just hugely reluctant to risk losing a player simply because we had a poor JPA opinion on him. 

I remember @dafugein one of his old saves, (it was quite a long time ago), losing a player through his academy while he was in League 1 I think, and this player got the Premier League before his club did. He never even considered keeping him because the reports were so poor, but the report were wrong and the player went on to have a good career elsewhere. 

[Jimbokav1971]

18 minutes ago, LPQR said:

Skulason is the type of player these saves are worth the time for  

On the above mentioned issue, I have a look myself at every youth player before making a decision. I know that trying to judge a player's potential yourself is swimming in dark waters, but as long as you have a decent staff member (judging CA/PA) giving you a reasonable opinion on the players' potential you can then make an educated decision based on the chances of development the player has according to the reports, his personality and current stat distribution. It might come out as a success, it might not, but I quite like there's no route-one way to know just how good a player will be. When it comes to star ratings I don't get too hung up on them, as they are generated in co-relation with so many things that vary on a weekly basis. For example, to pull this to its extreme, lets say you have a scout with 4 for JPA and JCA and your first team is full of youngsters. His (already dodgy) opinion of the CA and PA of your first team will vary as they develop (for better or worse), and thus, his opinion on the CA and PA of your youth will vary accordingly, as they are tied to each other, as I'm sure is well known. Couple that with players changing personalities in the youth team due to influence from the squad, players having quicker jumps in development thanks to game time or spells of stagnation due to none, and you have a milkshake with so many variables that to determine at least roughly how your youth develops is quite the indigestion. So yeah, no clear policy there, but it's an approach that allows for surprises and I quite like surprises

If you are using the "scatter-gun" approach like me and signing all players until such time as you have to make a more informed decision, (for example I signed  (18k) Davíð Þór (Pro) to a semi-pro contract before I noticed his improvement in PA), then you are less likely to miss things. If you are making the decision at the outset however, (as many people do), then even with a fair bit of knowledge and intuition, I think this player might have been one that escaped under the radar. More than that, I think even if I was to have made the decision when he turned semi-Pro, then I still wouldn't have seen much worth keeping, (other than the personality of course). 

I don't think it is knowledge or insight or intuition that is the danger here. It's simply that certainly within a week after the players arrive, we simply do not have enough information to make this sort of significant decision. We have more information by the time that the player turns 17, but even then there are occasions where a decent PA player will slip through, (as was the case here). 

I've got to admit I quite like the way it works too. 

[Jimbokav1971]

12 minutes ago, MadCatPT said:

The extra players in the squad that required tutoring to get Det and Pro up increased, lost my 100% Squad Cohesion, so if there aren't any big change signs I won't do it again this year.

What do you mean by 100% squad cohesion?

[MadCatPT]

14 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

What do you mean by 100% squad cohesion?

I think it's squad harmony, on the same place it shows the board % for philosophies, etc.

I had it at 100% and it appeared the squad is a tight unit on the pro's for the team, now it appears as a con.

[mjaferrie]

Really interesting!  So far I've signed everyone that comes into the youth system, but I let a lot of them go after 2-3 seasons to clear up some space.  If they've got 3 stars or less PA and they're not playing over a 2 or 3 year period I don't bother hanging on to them, unless I'm short in that position.  Lots to think about though, I thought that your scouts also had an effect on how accurately the CA / PA are shown in your squad?  And it also definitely changes if you have some player who is significantly better than the others, such as the case with Wihlborg in my save.  When he left, all the other players in the squad gained 1 star in both CA and PA...

[Jimbokav1971]

3 minutes ago, mjaferrie said:

Really interesting!  So far I've signed everyone that comes into the youth system, but I let a lot of them go after 2-3 seasons to clear up some space.  If they've got 3 stars or less PA and they're not playing over a 2 or 3 year period I don't bother hanging on to them, unless I'm short in that position.  Lots to think about though, I thought that your scouts also had an effect on how accurately the CA / PA are shown in your squad?  And it also definitely changes if you have some player who is significantly better than the others, such as the case with Wihlborg in my save.  When he left, all the other players in the squad gained 1 star in both CA and PA...

1. Your scouts don't have an impact on the CA or PA of your squad. They only deal with players outside your squad. 

2. The screen I have created for my "Youth Day" uses the Ass Man opinion for both CA and PA. 

3. If you want a different opinion on a player from other members of staff then you can go to Player - Reports - Coach Report and then cycle through a number of different staff opinions on the same player. In my save, the following can be asked for an opinion, (I think). 

Senior Squad Ass Man.
Senior Squad GK Coach.
Senior Squad Coach.
Senior Squad Fitness Coach.

HoYD.

U19 Squad Manager.
U19 Squad Ass Man.
U19 Squad Coach.

You can't ask for the opinion of a Chief Scout or a Scout.

4. Your CA/PA s based on the best player in your squad, so of course if the best player in your squad leaves then the new rating will be judging them against the player who was the 2nd best player in the squad, (so of course the rating may change). 

[mjaferrie]

7 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

1. Your scouts don't have an impact on the CA or PA of your squad. They only deal with players outside your squad. 

2. The screen I have created for my "Youth Day" uses the Ass Man opinion for both CA and PA. 

3. If you want a different opinion on a player from other members of staff then you can go to Player - Reports - Coach Report and then cycle through a number of different staff opinions on the same player. In my save, the following can be asked for an opinion, (I think). 

Senior Squad Ass Man.
Senior Squad GK Coach.
Senior Squad Coach.
Senior Squad Fitness Coach.

HoYD.

U19 Squad Manager.
U19 Squad Ass Man.
U19 Squad Coach.

You can't ask for the opinion of a Chief Scout or a Scout.

4. Your CA/PA s based on the best player in your squad, so of course if the best player in your squad leaves then the new rating will be judging them against the player who was the 2nd best player in the squad, (so of course the rating may change). 

 Excellent answer as always!  

[Jimbokav1971]

It's been slow going, but the following pic shows the personality and determination of my preferred starting XI at the beginning of the 2022 season. 

The casual was slack previously, (Pro 1), but we have managed to increase the Pro level a little bit to get it to casual (Pro 2-4). If we can get his Pro levels to 5 then I think he would become...... dunno. Something else. 

[MadCatPT]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

It's been slow going, but the following pic shows the personality and determination of my preferred starting XI at the beginning of the 2022 season. 

The casual was slack previously, (Pro 1), but we have managed to increase the Pro level a little bit to get it to casual (Pro 2-4). If we can get his Pro levels to 5 then I think he would become...... dunno. Something else. 

Maybe Hipster. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, MadCatPT said:

Maybe Hipster. 

I think it's true that a hipster personality can only play in certain positions.

SK(a), L(a), HB(d), RGA(s), (RMD(a), EG(a) & F9(s). 

[MadCatPT]

2 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I think it's true that a hipster personality can only play in certain positions.

SK(a), L(a), HB(d), RGA(s), (RMD(a), EG(a) & F9(s). 

I think the HB and F9 are getting too popular for a true Hipster to be seen playing them. 

[Jimbokav1971]

12 players called up for INT duty.

Andrea Guidi (SMR) was the young (SMR) GK who was playing, (albeit very poorly), for the (SMR) National Team and conceding approx 8-9 goals per game. He has now retired from football after being unable to find a new club after we released him. 

(16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Pro) * is now labelled the next Gordon Banks.  After making 15 appearances for Wolves in the Championship he has now made 3 appearances for Leicester in the Premier League. He has 6 (ENG) U21 Caps and has kept a clean sheet in all 6 appearances. He is also the (ENG) U21 captain at the moment. Ron Roberto Zieler is the Leicester 1st choice GK and Jake is #2. Kasper Schmeichel has been banished to the U21 squad to train after making only 8 appearances in the last 5 seasons. 

 

[Bedese]

My policy was always similar - PA is just a guess, especially from a rubbish AssMan, so it's worth keeping around everyone at least for a few years to see how they turn out. This is why I always only tag the players who I feel can make it in our squad rather than everyone - I like to see who I'd completely written off (usually because of bad PA) that have turned into starters for us in the future. Usually there would be at least one such player, and it wasn't uncommon to have one of the best players at my club be someone who never received the tag on intake day.

With that said - San Marino is absolutely rubbish at this  There's no money for youth players, and the league was giving me no TV money, so my finances were pretty consistently awful. I worked out that cutting loose the bad players on youth intake day would save me about £65,000 a year, and that's too much money to turn my nose at. I'd take a look at every player before deciding what to do with them (so I'd keep the 0.5* PA players with decent starting stats), but any winger with 4 dribbling and crossing wasn't going to steal a wage.

[Jimbokav1971]

After we actually got the £1.6M cash from the (17b) Barðdal (Det) * deal, I tried to go Professional a 2nd time.

Again I was unsuccessful.  

[Edit]

£5M seems to ring a bell. 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Raware]

Although I've been playing CM/FM since the early 90's, I've only recently been playing youth development saves, last year being my first on FM16, so this is all new to me really and I have a lot to learn.  Some interesting points that you make @Jimbokav1971 and definitely something for me to monitor and watch 

[Ceching You Out]

4 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

*Snip*

My personal opinion is that this is based on a few different things. First of all, my Ass Man is rubbish. He has a JPP attribute of just 4, (I think I still have the same guy who I had in 2018, although he is overdue an upgrade it must be said), so he is not going to be great at judging the PA of players. 

@Ceching You Out @Makoto Nakamura @LPQR @Jupjamie @mjaferrie @MadCatPT @BoxToBox @Maw74 @abulezz @Raware @Shevchenko @Moonshine you might be interested in this. (Apologies if you are not and also apologies if I have missed others who are running Youth based saves).

So with that in mind, how many of you who are playing similar saves don't sign youth intake players based on rubbish PA reports given to you by rubbish staff with a rubbish JPA attribute? I know for a fact that quite a few were in FM16, because I mentioned it in your threads and tried to get you to sign all Youth intake players to a Youth contract and then make up your mind when they were eligible for a Pro contract. Yes finances are an issue in your saves, (as they are in mine), but are 16 youth contracts every season rather than just 8 going to make that much of a difference? Some of you will be playing in Nations where you will benefit from a Youth subsidy which I think pays for some if not all the cost of the youth player wages, but in any case there will be at least a contribution made. 

To back that up, I am currently receiving a £27 subsidy per week, (it's listed as youth grant on my Finances - Wages screen). That compares with a total of £40 per week that I am spending on player wages for players who are still on a Youth contract. (8 players x £5 per week). I'm making this up as I go along because for some reason I have never looked at this in any detail, but that suggests that I will receive a rebate of 67.5% of my total Youth player wages. I don't know if this exists in every Nation, but I would suggest that it probably exists in all European Nations at least. (Iceland is NOT a member of the EU and probably never will be, but they are a member of the European Economic Area which would probably make SI include it in stuff like this). Is there really a financial reason not so sign all Youth Intake players to a Youth contract in order that you give your staff a longer period to provide an accurate assessment on them? I honestly don't think so. 

*Snip*

 

Glad you mentioned this, as it's something I've been contemplating doing a long post in my Avenir Beggen thread on. The long version will require plenty of screenshots so I'll save that for the moment, but I'll chime in here with the "short" version. I may end up lifting half of my post here word for word when I do the longer version .

I'll start with the context of how I play which hopefully helps understand my perspective. I rely heavily on my staff for JPP. So heavily that I prioritize that attribute (plus JPA) the most when hiring an Assistant Manager, because I'm horrible at it when left to myself. I'm nearly 30 years into my save and during that time I've had progressively improved staff; for the last decade or so I've had Assistant Managers that are at least 15+ in both. Some have been as high as 18-19. That, plus all that game time at a single, relatively stable club, has lead me to some interesting conclusions.

I imagine most people already know this, but just to cover my bases -- perceived potential does not necessarily reflect actually potential. We will only ever see their perceived potential according to a staff member. That said, I think I'm able to put a finger on how staff member's roughly calculate perceived potential. For clarity's sake let's stick to the calculation itself; put aside for a moment any questions of accuracy. Then, in a nutshell, perceived potential is a staff member evaluating a player's ability relative to the time left in their development window to reach their potential.

What does that mean in practice? A 22 y.o. 5 CA, 200 PA player is going to have a different perceived potential than a 16 y.o. 5 CA, 200 PA player, all other factors the same. Development generally slows around 23 so the development window is much different. Perceived potential is, in other words, the level your staff member expects the player to reach before stagnating, not his full potential.

Nothing too ground breaking there, but I do need to point out a side effect of this calculation on accuracy. Once we leave the perfect world, margins of error increase in each dimension. Thus a closer a player is to his potential (fewer unknowns), the more accurate the perceived potential. There is simply less guesswork to measure smaller distances.

So what other factors would we expect to affect the accuracy? The short answer is the player's age, reputation, and time with the club plus the staff member's JPA. All of these equate to a larger body of information about a player (if we think of reputation as "exposure to the world", i.e. more people know them). The younger, less known, and shorter a player has been with a club, the less likely you can trust a staff member's perceived potential. The older, more known, and longer a player has been with a club the more likely you can trust a staff member's perceived potential.

"Blah blah blah," you might say. "I'm not here to read a treatise on player development. Get to how you'd apply this knowledge." Fair enough. Now that the rationale is clear, let's get into the takeaways. All players in your youth intake have a sizeable margin of error, but it varies significantly depending on the factors above. The best initial prospects will tend to have a better starting CA and higher reputations. For the rest, consider the first round of perceived potential a very, very rough guideline. From there, aging, reputation increases (playing first team games, national call-ups, etc.), and individual development will help to pin down a more accurate perception of potential.

Now that the club is financially stable, my own personal rule of thumb is to sign any youth player with over 2 star potential. I'll get more into the rest of my approach when I post the longer version (not that I've been exceedingly short here).

 

Sidenote: I don't believe Luxembourg club's receive any subsidies in the database I'm playing, at least that I could see. That means the club was on the hook for the full $5k/year for each youth player. Taking an extra 10 players each year would've horribly compounded our finances at a time when we were already hemorrhaging money as a club. Despite having some room in the budget, it took nearly a decade before I let our total wage bill grow from $50k to $200k. Would've meant a drastically slower pace of upgrades.

[Jimbokav1971]

4 minutes ago, Ceching You Out said:

perceived potential does not necessarily reflect actually potential.

This is such a key point that it deserves quoting for emphasis. 

[Jimbokav1971]

7 minutes ago, Ceching You Out said:

Sidenote: I don't believe Luxembourg club's receive any subsidies in the database I'm playing, at least that I could see. That means the club was on the hook for the full $5k/year for each youth player. Taking an extra 10 players each year would've horribly compounded our finances at a time when we were already hemorrhaging money as a club. Despite having some room in the budget, it took nearly a decade before I let our total wage bill grow from $50k to $200k. Would've meant a drastically slower pace of upgrades.

I wondered about that because I know we briefly discussed this in FM16. I can remember at the time thinking "why doesn't he get a Youth Subsidy in Luxembourg?" and decided that it was simply an oversight of whoever had created the league structure in the editor. 

I agree that's a huge cost to wear.

[Ceching You Out]

5 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I wondered about that because I know we briefly discussed this in FM16. I can remember at the time thinking "why doesn't he get a Youth Subsidy in Luxembourg?" and decided that it was simply an oversight of whoever had created the league structure in the editor. 

I agree that's a huge cost to wear.

You're still giving me too much credit -- I'm on FM15 . Might make the leap to FM17 in the spring, depending on how life and my Avenir Beggen save go. Already starting to plot potential challenges for then!

If my back of the envelope math is correct, each class becomes a $150k total commitment and it adds up to a continuous extra $150k in salary each year (after 3 years fill the academy). I do wonder who we may have missed out on though in the name of finances.

[Jimbokav1971]

Upper League Cup 2022.

[Jimbokav1971]

Leading producers of Icelandic National Team footballers. Apr 2022.

[Jimbokav1971]

These type of saves generate a lot of real life feeling for me with regards to real Football clubs. I love anything San Marino or Gibraltar related now and I'm definitely a Partizan man ahead of Red Star, but above all that at the moment I flippin hate Rosenborg! (I'm struggling to write this without swearing but they are in for about 9 of my starting XI and I literally want to go and batter whoever is in charge of recruitment over there. Seriously. Just go far away. Go really far away. Keep going far away until you come all the way back here again and then go far away again!!!! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Leading Development clubs in Iceland Premier Division.

We are absolutely smashing this. 

[MadCatPT]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Leading Development clubs in Iceland Premier Division.

We are absolutely smashing this. 

Impressive!

Next news:

- Leading development clubs for Rosenborg is HK with 9. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Serbia, Montenegro & Albania join the EU. Jun 2022.

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 2022. 

There are a few different things that I want to mention about this years Youth Intake. Some of which is interesting and I want to share, but also some of it I'm going to try and predict stuff to back up my opinions and then come back and see if my predictions hold any water or not. 

1. We got another 5.0 player, (which is obviously great), but possibly also a little surprising in that we are developing quite nicely in that area. I suppose that the reason we got a 5.0 is that although our young SC's are developing well, the best in terms of CA is only at 3.0 CA, so plenty of room fro growth there before we get anywhere near the PA ceiling. 
    
2. As well as the 1x 5.0 player. we got 2x 4.5 players, which are probably just as good considering how poor my Ass Man is at judging Pa, (or PPA as it should be known). 
    
3. Not content with 1x 5,0 player and 2x 4.5 players, we were rewarded with 2 more who were 3.5 PA. There were none that were 4,0 strangely, and only 1 of this top group of 5 players has a Pro personality, (I think they often end up getting considerable boosts from the initial PPA report), but maybe I will be able to track some of the lower ranked Pro players. 
    
4. There were no foreigners or second Nationalities this time I'm afraid. We've twice had players with (ENG) as either a primary Nationality and on each occasion despite the players coming through with reasonable PA's, they both ended up with a significantly higher PA later down the line. 
    
5. You might notice that I have highlighted 2x (F.Det) players from this intake. That'snot to suggest that Det is on a par with Pro, (far from it), but I'm just highlighting that it is an issue that needs resolving alongside Pro, and these 2 players will assist with that. 
    
6. Continuing on from the 2x (F.Det) players, so far in this save I have so fra chosen to highlight players in the squad who come through with a mind Det of 9. In this case however I thought it more sensible to point out that we only have 1 single player in this intake with what  call a very low Det score, (3). Yes there are quite a few 6, 7, and 8's, but there is just this 1 rating below 6. That's a significant improvement and it will be interesting to see if things continue in this vein next year. (I certainly hope so). 
    
7. You will see that I have highlighted 3 players over on the left who have either (Pro) or (F,Pro) personalities. They are ranked 8th, 9th and 12 in this intake by PA. It is my opinion that they will end up having a notably better PA than suggested here in relation to their peers. I also think that the (22a) Pro player will also have better PA, but as he is top of the pole it's hard to track that. I will be keeping an eye on these Pro players as they progress and hopefully report back either way. (On that note, it's probable/likely that these 3 players are going to receive more game-time than their ability/potential warrants, certainly in comparison to similar non-Pro players, and I'm not going to pretend that's not going to skew results at all. What I would say though is that you would really expect it to increase CA towards PA rather than improve PA itself). 
    
8. I have also placed a box around the CA/PA ratings of the 4 poorest players in the intake. At first glance and without looking at the attribute balance and other things about the players themselves, these are the players who would be most at risk of not being offered a Youth contract at the outset. It will be interesting to see how these players develop and what my opinion is first when they turn 17, and then as they are either kept on or released at the end of their initial Semi-Pro/Pro contracts. 

"Kriss". (22a) Jón (Pro) (2022) *.

Wow! 

I can't begin to tell you how good this bloke is for the level we are playing at. I'm possibly being greedy, but when I first saw him, my first reaction was, "Oh God, I hope that corners and free-kick taking aren't weighted for a SC". lol

He actually reminds me of a rubbish Icelandic Harry Kane if that makes sense. This bloke is going to far out-strip the current 5,0 striker whe have at the club if this is him at 2.0. Properly love him, but soooo wish he was a MC. Frustratingly, the only 2 MC's in the intake are right at the bottom of the PA list. My HoYD's contract is due to expire at the end of this season and I'm looking at replacing him I think. He's done great for me so far, but I desperately need someone who can bring through some MC's an d this bloke isn;t for some reason.  

[Jimbokav1971]

European Campaign 2022. 

Our first sojourn into continental competition proved to be a memorable one. I would have been happy with a narrow loss in the first qualifying round if I'm honest. I didn't change my tactics at all and and I still didn't play these games either. I just pressed "IR" and then went back to look at the goals. 

I know it looks ridiculous that we have managed to do this, (and it is), but I would actually say that the most ridiculous 2 results in this campaign were the 2 narrow losses to Feyenoord. It should also me mentioned that I fielded a weakened team in the 2nd legs against both Dagava and Pelister, but fielded my strongest team in both legs against Brann and Feyernood.

FC Dagava are from Latvia and I must admit that despite being a regular participant in early European rounds in recent issues of the game, I have never heard of them. 

FK Pelister are from Macedonia and again I have never heard of them, I don't think it's that much of a surprise that wend eventually finished a progressed past these 2 teams, although the manner of our victories was somewhat unexpected. 

Brann are from the Norwegian Premier Division and this is the 1st result that should be considered a big surprise. 

Feyenoord are historically a big Dutch side, and that we were able to run them so close with a tactic that is designed to compete against domestic Icelandic opposition is.... quite franky astonishing. 

This is my 7th season at the club and we are yet to win the Premier Division in Iceland. Our first season in the Premier Division, last season saw us go close, (we bottled it), and eventually finished 3rd. This season we have improved, but the European campaign has taken it's toll and we are still not going to win the League. I would have expected it to take me 15-20 years to progress this far in a save of this type. Maybe I have just been lucky, but the Feyernood results would suggest otherwise.

Because we have such a young squad, we were only required to register 12 players for the Europe League, and off the top of my head, I think only 6 of them featured.

Financially, it's been big for us this season.

We were always going to be up against it the way that UEFA try and fix things to benefit the big boys. 

 

  

Edited November 9, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Bedese]

Jon looks ridiculous for this level. Absolutely insane. His face is going to give me nightmares though  

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Jupjamie said:

Jon looks ridiculous for this level. Absolutely insane. His face is going to give me nightmares though  

I need that Debski newgen hair/face thing again. Does anyone know if it is being done again and if so where I get it from?

[kandersson]

6 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I need that Debski newgen hair/face thing again. Does anyone know if it is being done again and if so where I get it from?

No news about it. It's usually shared on fmscout when it's out, same for OLT hair pack (also excellent). I'd use past versions but with new faces most beards and moustaches are messed up so can't be used. I feel we need those hair packs more than ever as not only current hair styles are dreadful (as usual) but regen faces look all the same... don't feel like starting a long term save atm...

Btw great story so far, keep us updated about GK scoring goals

[MADA]

why don't they sort out the regen faces? it's so so frustrating

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, MADA said:

why don't they sort out the regen faces? it's so so frustrating

I know that the Debski thing improved things, but I don't remember the faces being this bad last year. I thought it was just the hair. The eyes make them all look like zombies. 

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season Update. Sep 2022.

We had a great season as far as I'm concerned, even if we almost bottled it again after the Youth Intake. I really don't know what is going on with our loss of form in August and September each year, but it's something that I am going to have to look at carefully and resolve. 

League Table. 

League Graph.

League Fixtures 1. 3 losses in the 1st part of the season, 2 of which came when I weakened the team prioritising our European campaign.
League Fixtures 2. I think that the end-season loss of form was caused by our 2 European losses. After the 1st loss to Feyernood in the Europa League, we went 5 Premier League games without winning, (2 losses and 3 draws). and only 2 wins, (including a 4-2 come-back win against Champions FH after being 0-2 down at half-time), secured a return to Continental football next season.

Cup Fixtures. Vestri won the Cup this season, despite the fact that they only finished 8th in the First Division. Last season the Cup was won by Grotta who finished Runners Up in the First Division. In 202 it somehow seems as if the Cup was won by Ægir who were a non-playable Second Division club at the time, (however are now up and playable in the First Division). 

European re-cap.

Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season. (20b) Klemenz (Bal) *. It's a bit of a strange one here. He won more than 50% of the votes for player of the year, but he was actually our 2nd choice AP(a). He is good, absolutely no doubt about it, but player of the year? Really?

Icelandic Premier League Young Player of the Year. Ingvi (F.Pro) Tutor. This player didn't come through our Academy and I signed him on a free after he was released by Leoknir R and immediately loaned him back. My intention is to keep loaning him out before using him as a Tutor. (if I can keep him that long), or possibly sell him to a foreign club for a decent amount. He would get into our team, but I am determined that a non-HG player will never play for us. Tutor? Yes. Be sold for a profit? Hopefully? Actually play for us in any competitive game? Not a chance.

Transfers.

Proof that Ingvi (F.Pro) Tutor never played a single game for us. 

Tracker. 

Edited November 10, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

15 hours ago, kandersson said:

No news about it. It's usually shared on fmscout when it's out, same for OLT hair pack (also excellent). I'd use past versions but with new faces most beards and moustaches are messed up so can't be used. I feel we need those hair packs more than ever as not only current hair styles are dreadful (as usual) but regen faces look all the same... don't feel like starting a long term save atm...

Btw great story so far, keep us updated about GK scoring goals

Well I have obviously sold (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Pro) * but of course someone has taken up his mantle. 

Give me a shout if and when you have any Debski news please. 

Edited November 10, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

 Fat Goal-scoring GK watch. 

I'm not actually sure how many goals Jake scored before he left, (I will check the next time I have to re-load an old save for something). Just because he has left does not mean that the habit is finished though. 

The GK's have been listed by PA, (best at the top), but (17c) Ingvar Hjál (Bal) * is comfortably our #1. Andri Þór (Bal) * used to be our best GK and was once a 5.0 PA player, (this shows succintly how far we have progressed. He is still our 2nd best GK, (by attribute balance and performance), but I have now decided that he will probably not play any more if I can help it. 

(19d) Ívar Örn (Pro) * (19 yo), has the best PA at the club, (5.0) but I am not overly happy with his performances. He played 13 times this season and conceded 13 goals in all competitions, (just 3 clean sheets), but he missed both the pens he took and didn't score any free-kicks. He also didn't get any assists. This flies in the face of my idea that the game uses the "position" for free kicks in his make-up, that is used for handling in a GK to determine free-kicks, because his handling rating is 15 and I would have expected him to score at least once. The penalty thing is something else and more limited to his composure I think. (Maybe the composure rating is impacting on free-kick ability?)

(22c) Davíð Snorr (Amb) (16yo), is ranked next by PA, (4.5), but I really don't like his attribute balance and I don't see him ever as a First Team regular even at this early stage of his career. He might turn out to be decent, but he's unlikely to turn out how I want my GK's to look. I know I'm not in a position to throw decent players away in a save of this type, (and especially at this stage), but I really hope someone throws some money at me of him. He only played 1 game this season and didn't take any shots because he only came through the intake this season and I had forgotten to add him to the set-piece/penalty takers list. He conceded 3 goals in that game so...... perhaps a tad early is the most polite I can be. 

(17c) Ingvar Hjál (Bal) * (21yo), is the current #1 who has now notched a club high 10 career goals. (I'm pretty sure that Jake never got to 10). He hit 3 from 5 pens this season and managed 1 assist, but he didn't score a free-kick. Although contracted for 2 more years, he is currently unhappy (wants to leave to play in a better Division), so I am probably going to keep him until the end of next season and then look to cash in on him. He currently has 3.5 CA out of 4.5 PA, so there is still room for development, and I will hope to eke at least 0.5 out of him over the next season before he goes.

(20h) Magnús Þórð (Bal) (18yo) is decent and while he has a PA of 3.5, his CA of 1.0 is a bit of a block to giving him game-time. Having said that, I think I actually prefer him to (22c) Davíð Snorr (Amb) in terms of attribute balance, so there might be decisions to be had in the future when (17c) Ingvar Hjál (Bal) * & (19d) Ívar Örn (Pro) * are on NT duty. His single appearance was not made this season.

Andri Þór (Bal) * (23yo) was the GK before and after Jake, and I actually loaned him out this season, only to drag him back once the 1st 2 GK's vanished on NT duty together at the same time and I was left with 16yo (22c) Davíð Snorr (Amb) in goal conceded 3 times on his debut. I think next season will be (17c) Ingvar Hjál (Bal) *'s last season where he is eligible for the U21 NT squad, so I could just be keeping him for next season and then getting rid. (On that note I really need to check the quality of the GK's in the Senior NT, because although it would be great for him to get a call-up to the Senior NT, I really need to plan for that and be ready). 

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Is he having a laugh? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities downgraded. Sep 2022. 

It's ok though because we are in a much stronger financial position now so I went to the board and explained the situation to them, sure that they would agree. 

Nope. 

Facilities are expensive and we should be ok for a while, but I really need to have another big sale or 2 and turn Pro before the cash just dwindles away. The European campaign will have helped last season, but I really can't rely on 8 matches every year. 4 matches is about our level at the moment. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Model Pro OCD.

Well we haven't got our first (M.Pro) player yet, but things are moving in the right direction at least. 

That's actually decent for this stage of the save. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Thinking ahead.

I obviously have loads of long-term goals with a save like this, but some of them are pie in the sky stuff at the moment and I need to be more realistic in the short-term and have some more achievable goals. There are obviously far fewer of these taking into account where we are within the save, but there are certainly a few that are realistic and I can track. 

1. I would like to win the League in the next couple of seasons and I think that's realistic. FH started really well this season, but all it takes is 1 bad result early on to knock their morale so maybe if the fixtures could pair us in the early weeks of the season then we might be able to give them a bloody nose and a bit of an early-season morale hangover. 
2. The current record for INT call-ups stands at 12. It would be good for that to be increased. Is that realistic over the next 12 months? Yes I think it is. 
3. (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Pro) * has a "Media comparison" that sees him  "Labelled the next Gordon Banks". It would be good if just 1 of our players was given an Icelandic Media comparison. It doesn't have to be that he's good, (we know it doesn't work like that), but at the same time it would be good. If this was a save in England you could bet your life that I would have players in my squad who would have Media comparisons. Just because the standard is lower doesn't mean that there shouldn't be any. Off the top of my head, Gylfi, Hermann, Joey, Eidur and Gudni Bergsson would all make decent players to be used as Media comparison templates, (although Gylfi is perhaps too young).
4. I would like to see us turn Pro, but even if we replicate our European form next season, I still think I need to sell 2 or maybe even 3 players for £1M+. I'm hoping that it's cheaper, but I have a feeling that I might need somewhere in the region of £5M to turn Pro. 
5. I don't think we are a million miles away from having a player called up to the Senior (ISL) NT. That would be cool. 
6. We should really be trying to win the Icelandic Cup. At the moment I have been really rotating players and not caring at all, but that might change this season depending where the ties land in the schedule. 
7. I would like a new Nationality to come through the Intake this season. We've had (SRB), (ENG) & (SMR), but what about some other Scandinavians?
8. I'm not getting any non-(ISL) staff apply for positions. I know our reputation has to increase for this to happen, but in view of our European exploits last season that's a realistic possibility isn't it? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Decisions decisions....

This is our best centre-half. 

The board have just accepted this bid for him. 

Now the decision is, he has 2 years left on his contract so I was going to keep him for 1 more year and then sell him, (for a similar amount but with better add-ons), but the loss of him playing for a year plus the fact that we won't get a 50% clause, is making me feel like pressing the protest button. On the other hand, I already know that this bloke is going and I feel I've had decent value out of him already. It's not that I mind him going actually. It's just that I want a better deal than that, (and the extra season of playing him). 

Now the question is, do I press the protest button on this transfer, (and they might agree), only for me to sell him a year from now anyway, and risk them accepting a really rubbish bid for someone I REALLY don't want to sell, because they want the money and I have already cancelled this one. If I accept this one at least, they are less likely to accept other bids because we will have £2M+ in the bank and more on the way. 

[Edit]

In fact, I have decided that I'm going to protest this deal because this is what was offered and it's just not enough. Up front? Possibly. No way like this and with such rubbish add-ons. 

[Edit]

It doesn't matter anyway. They knocked back my protest not once but twice. BARSTEWARDS! 

I would have got a minimum of £1M up front + £250k after 50 league appearances + £250k after 1 INT appearance + 50% of re-sale value. This one is going to come back to haunt us. 

And and and and and, there were Belgian, Turkish & Portugese clubs in for him too. Buy selling him elsewhere we might have made it more likely that the re-sale value was higher. Another Scandi Nation is not the best for that. 

Edited November 10, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

The deal went through so I basically wasted my protest. 

To make matters worse, I tried to use the influx of cash as a trigger to turn Pro and they knocked me back saying that they don't have confidence in me, (the board changed not long ago). 

I'm starting to hate the elections here. Just give me 1 board for 10 years and leave me to get on with it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Thinking ahead.

I obviously have loads of long-term goals with a save like this, but some of them are pie in the sky stuff at the moment and I need to be more realistic in the short-term and have some more achievable goals. There are obviously far fewer of these taking into account where we are within the save, but there are certainly a few that are realistic and I can track. 

1. I would like to win the League in the next couple of seasons and I think that's realistic. FH started really well this season, but all it takes is 1 bad result early on to knock their morale so maybe if the fixtures could pair us in the early weeks of the season then we might be able to give them a bloody nose and a bit of an early-season morale hangover. 
2. The current record for INT call-ups stands at 12. It would be good for that to be increased. Is that realistic over the next 12 months? Yes I think it is. 
3. (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Pro) * has a "Media comparison" that sees him  "Labelled the next Gordon Banks". It would be good if just 1 of our players was given an Icelandic Media comparison. It doesn't have to be that he's good, (we know it doesn't work like that), but at the same time it would be good. If this was a save in England you could bet your life that I would have players in my squad who would have Media comparisons. Just because the standard is lower doesn't mean that there shouldn't be any. Off the top of my head, Gylfi, Hermann, Joey, Eidur and Gudni Bergsson would all make decent players to be used as Media comparison templates, (although Gylfi is perhaps too young).
4. I would like to see us turn Pro, but even if we replicate our European form next season, I still think I need to sell 2 or maybe even 3 players for £1M+. I'm hoping that it's cheaper, but I have a feeling that I might need somewhere in the region of £5M to turn Pro. 
5. I don't think we are a million miles away from having a player called up to the Senior (ISL) NT. That would be cool. 
6. We should really be trying to win the Icelandic Cup. At the moment I have been really rotating players and not caring at all, but that might change this season depending where the ties land in the schedule. 
7. I would like a new Nationality to come through the Intake this season. We've had (SRB), (ENG) & (SMR), but what about some other Scandinavians?
8. I'm not getting any non-(ISL) staff apply for positions. I know our reputation has to increase for this to happen, but in view of our European exploits last season that's a realistic possibility isn't it? 

Well this counts, although I must admit that while he is indeed foreign , (he's from Bos & Herz), he was already based in (ISL) so it's a bit of a cheat.