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

[Jimbokav1971]

19 minutes ago, MadCatPT said:

Do you have anyone you can train to cover?

Although after going through that list of ex Academy players, I have just possibly signed a 33yo MC with Premier Division experience. He is slow and I will have to adapt his role, but he is actually just what we are looking for. He's not a like for like replacement for  Kristófer (Sport) * , but he's not rubbish.

[Edit]

Would you believe that he is (F.Pro) and has determination of 13. It's a no-brainer even if he never plays a minute. 

Edited October 29, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[MadCatPT]

That is nice!

[Toffle]

Thanks for sharing this story, I'm enjoying it a lot

[Jimbokav1971]

25 minutes ago, Toffle said:

Thanks for sharing this story, I'm enjoying it a lot

I know that there is less of a structure to my threads than others, so do you mind if I ask what you are enjoying and what you don't really care about? (and that goes for anyone else reading too).

I'm not going to change the way I post, but I am at least interested in what others are interested in. 

[Toffle]

What I like the most is the challenge itself. Your explanations are clear and interesting.

I don't really mind about how structured your story is (only the tracker is important). The fact that we don't know what's coming in the next post makes up for the lack of structure.

[MadCatPT]

With so many structured an unstructured one is strangely refreshing.

Like your detailed posts, especially when it show the thought process.

[Jimbokav1971]

GK Depth. Oct 2017.

I know it's hard for readers to get a grasp on individual players in a save like this, so once in a while I will give you a "depth report" on an individual position to enable you to see who we've got at the front of the queue, who is waiting in the wings and who is just clogging up the dressing room. 

(16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * came through in that 1st season and has already established himself as 1st choice despite only being 17 years old. Now given the responsibility of both free-kicks and penalties, it will be interesting to see how easy he adds to his 1st 2 career goals. The only frustrations with him are the amount of bids coming in and my expectation that the board will accept an offer sooner or later, and that he misses so many games as a result of International call-ups. He has 2 (ENG) U20 Caos and although he has been in the (ENG) U21 squad on 5 occasions, he has yet to feature. 

(17c) Ingvar Hjál (Bal) * came through in the 2nd season and as only 3rd best PA he sort of slipped through unnoticed under the radar. He has a similar PA to Jake which is pleasing, and although I thought it was going to be tough to see him get game-time, with 3 of the other GK's involved at some level of INT football, it's surprisingly easy. I would expect to see him called up to (ISL) U19's in the bear future.

Andri Þór (Bal) * was the best GK that I inherited and if I'm honest I was quite happy to stick with him, (he's a product of the academy rather then bought in), and it;s a shame that we have 3x 5.0 PA players all in the same position at this early stage of the save. Having said that, with so many INT call-ups and Jake seemingly destined for bigger things, it could be that this depth will be much needed. A regular in the (ISL) U19 squad, however capped only twice, and called up to the (ISL) U21 squad 3 times without featuring,m that will surely change in the coming season. 

(16o) Guidi (F.Amb) doesn't really deserve a mention other than that he is the 3rd of our GK's earning INT recognition, (with San Marino). He's pretty rubbish but has earned 7x U21 caps, and who knows what will happen as he progresses. At the moment he is still only rated 3.0 Youth stars and has a potential of 2.0 Senior stars. It's unlikely that he will ever play for the club, and would surely have (SELL) next to his name were it not for the fact that he is from (SMR). 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Ex product of the HK Academy production line watch.

I'm not sure how much I have mentioned our ex players who came through the academy and have gone onto greater things, Rather than a proper scouting list like most saves have, I instead just have a list of players who's HG status is "trained at club" "HK".

At the moment it gives us a total of 38 players on the list, (I have just signed 2 of them), and 3 must have retired because I was sure that there were 43 players on the list before. 

Now I'm not going to go through all of them, but it would be remiss of me to not follow the careers of some of the best talent that we have produced in recent years. As far as I am concerned, they are still "My players" and I will obviously try to bring some of them back at some point. Whether or not I am successful will probably depend on how good we are relative to how good they are. I'm not able to scout some of the better players as yet, (so their profile might look a little bare, but it will at least tell you a little about them in case you have never heard of them before, (which is quite possible). 

#1 ExFK Player is Eyjólfsson HG.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

I've just screwed up. 

I had an advert running for a new GK Coach, because we didn't have one), and when I found a good one, (it took a while), I offered him a contract. Well he accepted and that's great, but when he came to sign, the board said that although we didn't have a GK Coach, they wanted me to release one of the coaching staff first before signing this guy. Well we only had 1 normal coach so I had a look and the GK was a better all-round coach than the existing guy, so I decided that I would sign the GK Coach as a Coach and swap him with the original coach. The GK was rubbish at training attackers, but as we didn't really have many of them, it was sort of a decent fit actually, We had some decent GK's and defenders however and that's where the GK Coach's strength lay so it all sounded good. I clicked on the bottom right to get rid of the old coach and then...... I realised that I would be replacing him with just a GK Coach rather than a Coach who could coach everyone, so I tried to adjust my offer. 

No luck. 

I now have a GK Coach, but no Coach. 

[Jimbokav1971]

[Jimbokav1971]

I've never understood what these are all about.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

I've never understood what the point of this is. 

1. Part of me thinks that the bloke on 1.5M points must be cheating, but on the other hand I have absolutely no idea how it is worked out so I don't have anything to gauge it on. 

2. If I'm not buying anyone and I'm not actually even playing the game, then how on Earth am I ranked 8 of 79? It doesn't make sense to me. That many people playing in Iceland can't be that bad can they?

[Jimbokav1971]

The bidding is up to £450,000 now for (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) *.

[Edit]

The valuation was set at £500,000 so I have just bumped it up to £750,000

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Toffle]

This young lad is going to pay brand new infrastructures to the club

[abulezz]

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I've just screwed up. 

I had an advert running for a new GK Coach, because we didn't have one), and when I found a good one, (it took a while), I offered him a contract. Well he accepted and that's great, but when he came to sign, the board said that although we didn't have a GK Coach, they wanted me to release one of the coaching staff first before signing this guy. Well we only had 1 normal coach so I had a look and the GK was a better all-round coach than the existing guy, so I decided that I would sign the GK Coach as a Coach and swap him with the original coach. The GK was rubbish at training attackers, but as we didn't really have many of them, it was sort of a decent fit actually, We had some decent GK's and defenders however and that's where the GK Coach's strength lay so it all sounded good. I clicked on the bottom right to get rid of the old coach and then...... I realised that I would be replacing him with just a GK Coach rather than a Coach who could coach everyone, so I tried to adjust my offer. 

No luck. 

I now have a GK Coach, but no Coach. 

Lol - I do things like that all the time.  I think I'm being so smart, and then, I get a nice bruise on the backside. 

Things are progressing nicely in the save - those are some nice offers for some much needed funds!

[Jimbokav1971]

It seems that whenever there is a bit of a bidding frenzy over  (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) *, he pops up with another goal. 

This is his 3rd goal (+3 assists), from 21 appearances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

20 minutes ago, Toffle said:

This young lad is going to pay brand new infrastructures to the club

 

8 minutes ago, abulezz said:

Things are progressing nicely in the save - those are some nice offers for some much needed funds!

Yeah, well we are starting to need the money actually. 

We have a net debt of £322k and it only seems like it is going to increase. As you can see from a previous post, I actually have 3 decent GK's who all have similar PA and if I'm honest, I think I quite like the guy who was 3rd in the intake last season. 

If I could get £1M +50% and a friendly for Jake, (yes I know that I'm being greedy), then that will be huge for us. £500,000 + add-ons will put us back in credit but probably not for long and I really want to reduce any chance of this board or future boards selling players from under me. I want to be the one who does the deals so that I can get the most out of the player in terms of both playing time and add-ons. 

I've resigned myself to the fact that Jake is going to go and were it not for his goals I'm not sure I would even be bothered. I've got 2 more waiting in the wings so what's the problem! 

I've just got to hope that I don't get another good one in this intake and instead get some central midfielders and a striker. It's getting desperate now. 

[Holdii]

It looks like you have some good young players. I've enjoyed reading so far!

[Jimbokav1971]

I have just played a game that shows both the good and the bad in my goal-scoring Fat GK exploits. 

We concede a goal when an attacking free-kick, (taken by  (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * ), is cleared to the opposition and because I haven't got my set-up right to recycle the ball effectively yet, they comfortably score from 60 yards. 

Before I have a chance to think about whether I should reconsider all this rush-goalie malarkey however, up pops  (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * with an indirect free-kick that my centre-back heads home for the 1-1 equaliser. 

That;s 3 goals and 4 assists in 22 appearances now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

51 minutes ago, Holdii said:

It looks like you have some good young players. I've enjoyed reading so far!

I am still selecting players for games based largely on PA. (If they don't play then they don't reach their PA), but I think I will have to hold myself back after the Youth intake this season and see if we can get promoted, (because that's what I'm aiming for), I need to be in the Premier Division so that my best players don't want to leave, and I also need to think about turning Pro soon. 

I don't think cash is going to be a problem because Jake is not the only player attracting interest, but of course I am desperate to be able to sign these players to 3+3 deals and that just isn't an option as a Semi Pro club. 

We do have a few 5.0 PA players knocking about though. 

It;s interesting that (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * was only the 4th highest PA to come through the 2017 intake, but there he sits atop of the pile for the whole club now.

Has he been helped by his time with (ENG) U20's and (ENG) U21's?

Or is just the result of form such as 1 goal and 2 assists in his opening 4 games this season? 

[Edit]

It's also interesting that there is a player sitting 3rd on the list who doesn't have an asterix after his name meaning that he has not previously been seen as a 5.0 PA player. 

(17d) Hafliði Þorst (Bal) came through the 2017 intake 4 in terms of PA and was only 4.5. He's now already jumped up to 5.0 after some early exposure to First Team football. 

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[abulezz]

I have found that at this level, with such low reliability when it comes to the coaching staff and inconsistencies in youth development, a lot of star prospects fail to live up to their tags.  Jake has definitely shown improvement, but it could also be due to the fact that your other players just haven't come along the way they were predicted to off the bat, which is completely normal at this level.

[Jimbokav1971]

22 minutes ago, abulezz said:

I have found that at this level, with such low reliability when it comes to the coaching staff and inconsistencies in youth development, a lot of star prospects fail to live up to their tags.  Jake has definitely shown improvement, but it could also be due to the fact that your other players just haven't come along the way they were predicted to off the bat, which is completely normal at this level.

I don't think so. 

As far as I understand it, (and please feel free to correct me), but PA ratings are based upon the best CA ratings in the squad, They are not based upon other PA ratings. 

So 1 player not developing  wouldn't impact on the PA of Jake, because he was being judged against the best CA in the group rather than the best PA in the group.

You do make a very valid point about the level of coaching, however it's no accident at all, (it's 100% on purpose), that while the coaching at the club is poor, the facilities are incredible for this level, (hence who they have produced in recent years. 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Leading Icelandic producers of Elite Footballers. Mar 2018.

Yes, that's right. Despite the fact that we are technically wallowing in the stagnant depths of the Icelandic First Division, we are the most successful Icelandic club when it comes to producing Elite footballers that go on to ply their trade in the Spanish, English, German, Italian or French leagues. 

[Edit]

Actually, it's 3 players, but Kolbeinn Sigþórsson only stayed at the club for 1 season before moving onto AZ, Ajax, and then Nantes, so he doesn't count, (which is ridiculous). He came through our academy so he should bloomin count!

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

So it looks like (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * might be going. 

He was complaining about wanting to leave and I can't afford for him to leave on a free next season so I did the deed and offered him out for the following. 

£1M up front. 
£250,000 after 50 league appearances. 
£250,000 after 1 INT appearance. 
50% of next resale value. 
A friendly. 
A loan back for 1 season. 

That seems pretty reasonable to me. 

I didn't get everything I wanted, but the following clubs countered with this deal. 

West Ham, Stoke, Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Bournemouth, Leicester & Watford and the deals were accepted.

Brentford, Aston Villa & Swansea also came in with slightly lower bids and these were declined. 

(16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * is a Birmingham supporter by the way. 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Noe the questions are, is this enough money on it;s own to enable us to turn Pro, and will we be able to get promoted without him?

Oh wow! 

The season long loan is included! 

It wasn't there before, or at least it wasn't where I was looking. Maybe there is another tab or something that I missed, What a result that is! 

So let me get this right.....

They give me £825,000 now. 
They give me £250,000 after 1 International appearance, (which is bound to happen). 
They give me £250,000 after 50 league appearances, (which isn't that much at all in the Premier League).
They come to play us in a friendly, 
We get 50% of the next sale value. 

AND they loan him back until the end of the season? 

Ah buggar. That's the end of their season rather than the end of our season. 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[BoxToBox]

Monster deal to be fair, even if the loan ends early.

[Jimbokav1971]

6 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Monster deal to be fair, even if the loan ends early.

What good is the money if I can't buy anyone though? 

I feel all dirty. 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

40 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Monster deal to be fair, even if the loan ends early.

I think I've got that wrong. 

 

I think the deal goes through on 1st July 2018 and then we get him back for another year after that. 

[BoxToBox]

That's amazing!

[Bedese]

Will he ever play for England/50 games for Leicester? Even so, it didn't take you long to produce a player good enough to play for the best team in England  

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Jupjamie said:

Will he ever play for England/50 games for Leicester? Even so, it didn't take you long to produce a player good enough to play for the best team in England  

HAha. I forgot he was English and assumed he was Icelandic

[Toffle]

Nicely done! He's probably the first one of a long list to come.

Time to get promoted now!

Edited October 31, 2016 by Toffle

[MadCatPT]

That is being a Viking! 

That is some negotiations skill you got there. Luckily your board didn't jump the gun.

[Jimbokav1971]

Upper League Cup 2018,

As defending Champions I should be dismayed that we didn't progress past the Group stage, but the truth I was well chuffed to just lose 1 of 7 games. The issue was too many drawn games, but of course these could have gone either way. 

Something that I experienced in FM14 was that bigger teams significantly underestimated you in the early stages of a teams growth and this basically allowed you to counter them to death and spring surprise after surprise, at least until such time as the club reputation caught up with our escapades. I still think it happens in FM17, albeit to a lesser extent. I think this is partly the reason for our success last year.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 2018.

There are a few positives to take from this intake. 

1. We have a 2nd Nationality and it's great that it's a 2nd (SRB) and this gives some continuity from my Partizan save on FM16.
2. We have 5x 5.0 PA players. That's great in that there is significant room for growth,  but it also serves to highlight the fact that our squad is all PA rather then CA.
3. There is some decent professionalism within the intake, (2x Pro, 2x F.Pro).
4. We have 2x decent strikers in the intake, (where we were desperately short).
5. We have 1x decent central midfielder in the intake, (where we were even more short than striker).

"Kriss" (18a) Arnar (Unamb) (2018).

We now have 16 players at the club who have 5.0 PA. That sounds really impressive, but actually what it highlights is that the older players are not developing either to the expected level, or if they are, then it's taking them too long to get there. Whether that be as a result of me sacking the only coach at the club and replacing him with just a GK coach,, or something else I don't know, but for whatever reason our players are not developing as they should, (and I can't blame the facilities at the club which are excellent).

Edited October 31, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

8 Players called up for INT duty. Aug 2018.

The most we have had before is 5, and the 18yo Serbian DL who usually plays for their U21's was not called up this time so it could have been 9.

 

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season 3 Update. Sep 2018.

League Table. 

League Graph.

League Fixtures 1. We didn't win any of the opening 6 games, (only scoring twice), but on the positive side we only lost once. When we eventually started winning, we won 6 from 9 games and actually only lost 1 of our next 17 after our opening day loss. There were too many draws though and although we dragged ourselves momentarily up to 2nd, we weren't capable of sustaining the promotion challenge.
League fixtures 2. As usual though, we imploded after the Youth Intake as I just couldn't resist playing some of them, and we lost 3 on the bonce without scoring as a result. 

Cup Fixtures, (plural this year). 

Player of the Season, Young Player of the Season, Top Goal-scorer, First Division Top Goalscorer. Hákon Ingi (Bal). He didn't win goal of the season this year, and for some strange reason we didn't get a signing of the season, (despite signing 2 players and both of them doing ok. 

Transfers.

We signed a back-up striker, (5 goals in 6(6) appearances is pretty decent I think), and an experienced rotation central midfielder, 6.74 over 21(2) appearances while also doubling as a (F.Pro) & (Det) tutor. We had 2 holes to fill and while certainly not great, they actually did more than I expected when signing. 

As always, proofage that they are indeed products of our academy. 

Guð Steinþór (F.Sport) HG 5 History.

Finnur Ólafsson (F.Pro) HG 13 History. 

Tracker 2018.

Edited October 31, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[cpfc27]

Did a save in Iceland last year with IBV. Loved it until the league got way too easy and the only meaningful games were the European qualifiers before which I would always lose my best players to the European leagues when they offered so much (£100k usually) that my board accepted on my behalf! Got close to Europa League group stages twice. Lost once in extra time to Sparta Prague when I probably should have got through - missed a load of chances in the home leg! The other I lost on aggregate to Palermo but was a goal away from qualifying on away goals!

I eventually up and left for Levski Sofia and made the Europa League semi finals before losing to Liverpool. I ended up at Leeds having been tempted by the opportunity to take them back to the PL after what had turned into a 40 year exile.

This year I have gone for a similar save and started with Ahi Nazareth (Nazareth being the home of Jesus Christ in Israel!) and, after being inexplicably sacked midway through my first season, have now taken cross town rivals Hapoel Nazareth into the Israeli top tier for the first time!

 

Good luck with the Iceland save, patience is a key virtue!

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, cpfc27 said:

Did a save in Iceland last year with IBV. Loved it until the league got way too easy and the only meaningful games were the European qualifiers before which I would always lose my best players to the European leagues when they offered so much (£100k usually) that my board accepted on my behalf! Got close to Europa League group stages twice. Lost once in extra time to Sparta Prague when I probably should have got through - missed a load of chances in the home leg! The other I lost on aggregate to Palermo but was a goal away from qualifying on away goals!

I eventually up and left for Levski Sofia and made the Europa League semi finals before losing to Liverpool. I ended up at Leeds having been tempted by the opportunity to take them back to the PL after what had turned into a 40 year exile.

This year I have gone for a similar save and started with Ahi Nazareth (Nazareth being the home of Jesus Christ in Israel!) and, after being inexplicably sacked midway through my first season, have now taken cross town rivals Hapoel Nazareth into the Israeli top tier for the first time!

 

Good luck with the Iceland save, patience is a key virtue!

Sounds like you should never have left IBV. 

I'm here for the long-haul. The only thing that will stop me is my laptop dying, (and the regular cloud saves not working), myself dying or.... getting sacked. Other than that I'm hear for the whole year. 

It is a bit easier for me because I have absolutely no expectations of winning anything, (and that I have already won something is ridiculous), and I'm really more keen about producing the best players I can and see how they develop. Iceland have already dropped from 30th to 88th in the World, (so that will give me something to fix), but I would love to have a player who was a regular starter at a Barca or Real or equivalent and had been produced by our academy. 

The pinnacle of the career is probably to see Iceland win the World Cup managed by the AI and have one of my HG players win the Ballon d'Or. The only problem is it might take me 2 years rather than 1 year to get that far in the save, (even IR'ing). 

[Jimbokav1971]

I've asked twice to turn Pro now and the reason that they decline is not that they can't afford it, but that they don't trust me! 

[MadCatPT]

7 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I've asked twice to turn Pro now and the reason that they decline is not that they can't afford it, but that they don't trust me! 

After Jake negotiation they are probably afraid that after you negotiate your next contract you get the club. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Well after initially thinking that they had removed the 1 year loan-back clause and then thinking we had him for a whole extra year on top of the current year, it was actually something in between. 

Jake joined Leicester on 1st July 2018 and he was immediately loaned back to us. 

He was only loaned back until the end of our season however, (which is late September). 

It was better than I had expected, but less than I hoped for. I only realised in the end when I checked his contract info with us because it was about as clear as mud, (although it's very possible that I completely missed a message in my inbox telling me exactly when he was going to return.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Going back to your post about the leaderboard Jimbo... I don't see the point either. I've never once looked at one on my game.

[BoxToBox]

34 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Going back to your post about the leaderboard Jimbo... I don't see the point either. I've never once looked at one on my game.

I've in the past modded skins to permanently remove it.

[Sir_Liam]

I'm glad you got a nice amount of money for Jake (And that he chose the right club to go to ).  I managed to get £1m + 50% of next sale for a player in St Lucia, so I was hoping you'd hold out for more when the early bids came in.

[Jimbokav1971]

18 minutes ago, Sir_Liam said:

I'm glad you got a nice amount of money for Jake (And that he chose the right club to go to ).  I managed to get £1m + 50% of next sale for a player in St Lucia, so I was hoping you'd hold out for more when the early bids came in.

As I mentioned in someone else's youth development thread, it's a balancing act between getting the best deal for players that leave. and eeking absolutely most out of them in terms of their playing ability. What price do you put on a player staying for an extra 12 months before leaving on a free if he is maybe the difference between winning the title/promotion, or avoiding relegation, (or whatever your goal is for that season). 

In this case, I actually had 2 other GK's with similar PA and who were only slightly behind in terms of CA. If I'm honest, the main reason to keep  (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * at the club was his goal-scoring exploits, and while it's an enjoyable side-story, it really shouldn't be the basis for transfer decisions such as this. 

To put a slightly different slant on it, had  (16d) Jake (ENG) (F.Sport) * been either a centre-half or a central midfielder, then I would have made him see out his contract no matter what the offer, (we are really short in both positions), and then let him go on a free, (if that's what he wanted), when his contract expired. 

We seem to be pumping out GK's at the moment, (Jake was the 2nd of 3x 5,0 PA GK's we have had at the club), and we have just produced a 4.5 PA GK in the 2019 intake. I would sell my first-born, (well ok, my second-born), for a 5.0 DC and an 5.0 MC at the moment. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Upper League Cup. 2019.

We had lost just 2 games from our previous 17 in this competition over the last couple of years, so I certainly wasn't expecting this.  

It certainly wasn't that I was taking the competition lightly, we just got beaten, (and often played poorly) during the campaign. If we were struggling in the aftermath of Jake's leaving, I was worried that these struggles were going to continue into the league itself. Failure in the League Cup or the Cup is one thing. Falling below expectations in the League itself quite another. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 2019.

1. We are desperately short of MC's now and I can't believe that we have gone another intake without getting a decent one through. I'm not sure that we can get promoted without new MC's irrespective of improvement in other areas of the squad. The other problem is that the MC's we do have are all developing, but as they develop they come closer and closer to the end of their contracts. If they leave before we get replacements and then get those replacements up to the required level, then we will be in serious trouble. 
2. We are short in quality at DC. Not quite as short as we are at MC, but short nevertheless. I think we can get promoted with these DC's, but obviously they aren't going to be around forever.
3. The Determination levels this season are not great, but they are slightly higher than last season's intake. Last season the top Det levels were 15, 10, 9, 9 & 8. This season we have 16, 14, 11, 10 & 9. It doesn't seem like much, but that's decent improvement. 
4. There is actually decent depth in this years intake. We have 9x players who have better than 3,0 PA. 
5. (19i) Þórður Sævar (L.Det) might be worth persisting with because of our shortage in the middle, but I will obviously have to sort his Det levels out.
6. (19l) Arnar Þór (Bal) doesn't have great PA, but also might be worth some investment in time after looking at his attribute distribution. The PA rating can obviously be wrong, (and I hope so in this case).

"Kriss" (19a) Ágúst (Unamb) (2019).

If I could pick 3 positions that we didn't need a new 5.0 player in, then they would be GK, DR & AML. Of course the way that FM works is that 3 of our highest 4 players by PA in this intake were exactly those positions. On the plus side, our starting DR has 1 year remaining on his contract and isn't going to hang around forever. (19a) Ágúst (Unamb) (2019) will hopefully be ready to step in when and if that time comes. 

[Jimbokav1971]

DL Depth. Aug 2019.

After seeing the relative strength in the GK position, left back is the next position on the list and unfortunately things don't look quite so good. We have 2x 4.5 PA players here in this position, but you will notice that each of them are very much full of PA promise rather than CA for the here and now. (In fact, in the 1 week game time since I took the picture below, (17d) Hafliði Þorst (Bal) * has popped back up to 5,0 PA. He started off on 5,0 and has dropped to 0.5 a couple of times before popping again). He was going to be my 1st choice left back, however the Pro personality of (18k) Davíð Þór (Pro) has made me favour him and he will be my 1st choice in the long term despite being slightly behind in terms of PA. IN actual gfact, it;s actually decent to have 2 in each position to cover for injury, illness, fatigue and loss of form, so having 2 left backs vying for the same position will certainly not be a hardship. 

(18k) Davíð Þór (Pro) came through in last seasons intake and I am loving his Pro personality. I know that it's counter-productive to keep swapping who you consider to be the best layer in a position, (because the investment in him in terms of playing time is partially wasted), but I am adamant that I will be sticking with him, (unless I get a similar ability M.Pro or Resolute through next season. It's also interesting to mention that the initial he has been allocated is "k" and as such he was the 11th higher rated PA player in the 2018 intake. The 11th highest rated by PA, and he is now a 4.5 PA player. That's pretty good going for a player who was initially rated at only 3.0 PA.  

(17d) Hafliði Þorst (Bal) * was the front-runner in this position after coming through the season before, but he is just a little too defensive for my tastes in a full-back. (He looks like a centre-half playing at full-back rather than a full-back). He's still going to play, but the plan is that he will be very much 2nd fiddle to (18k) Davíð Þór (Pro).

(16e) Zeljko (SRB) is really only getting a mention because he is Serbian, (and already has 13 U21 Caps at the age of 19). He;s going to be decent in Iceland, but a little like (17d) Hafliði Þorst (Bal) *, he's bigger than he is quick and as a result looks like a centre-half playing out of position.

Teitur (F.Sport) is actually a centre-half and the ogthers don't really deserve a mention.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season 4 Update. Sep 2019.

League Table. 

League Graph.

League Fixtures 1.

League Fixtures 2.

Cup Fixtures.

Player of the Season, Young Player of the Season, Goal of the Season, Top goal-scorer, First Division top goal-scorer (joint): Hákon Ingi (Bal).

Transfers.

Tracker 2019.

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Jimbokav1971