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

[tyler16]

Fascinating read as always from you. Your attention to detail blows my mind.

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, tyler16 said:

Fascinating read as always from you. Your attention to detail blows my mind.

It's easy to focus on the little things when you don't have to worry about scouting and signing players and actually playing matches. Scouting in particular used to be a job in itself. 

What in particular am I doing that blows your mind? It all seems pretty basic to me. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Upper League Cup 2023.

[tyler16]

7 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

It's easy to focus on the little things when you don't have to worry about scouting and signing players and actually playing matches. Scouting in particular used to be a job in itself. 

What in particular am I doing that blows your mind? It all seems pretty basic to me. 

 

Just your attention to detail with personalities, trends, development, etc. I know a lot of people who just flip through the screens while you take a critical aspect to every part of your club. I love it.

[Jimbokav1971]

 Fat Goal-scoring GK watch. 

He didn't score a free-kick last season, nut it hasn't taken  (17c) Ingvar Hjál (Bal) * very long to notch his 1st League goal this season. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Leading Development Clubs for Icelandic Premier Division May 2023. 

We are fairly banging them out now. We are up to 65 players and the next best is 26. 

[Jimbokav1971]

They obviously don't count it when you lose on pens in the Cup. 

[mjaferrie]

22 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

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. 

Jeezo mate, is that your squad or a youth intake!?  Amazing!

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, mjaferrie said:

Jeezo mate, is that your squad or a youth intake!?  Amazing!

That's my whole squad, just picking out the most Pro personalities. 

[mjaferrie]

1 minute ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

That's my whole squad, just picking out the most Pro personalities. 

Keep it up!  

[Jimbokav1971]

This game is having a laugh at the moment. We have 13 players away on INT duty at the moment so I had the opportunity to postpone 4 league matches. I considered not postponing the games, but decided that I would benefit from a spell of lots of games in a small amount of time as I have a larger squad than the other teams in the league. 

Well that sounds great until you look at where the re-scheduled games have actually been scheduled for. 

I've already played 2 league games with 13 players out and I have now got to play 2 more now with 5 players out, (they are at the U21 Championships). As if that all wasn't bad enough, I have actually been given games to play on 2 consecutive days, (while we have 5 players missing). The 1st game is against the top of the league and the 2nd game is the 1st leg of the 1st Qualifying Round of the Europa Cup. 

We are currently on a 20 game unbeaten run, (because the game counts a loss on pens in the Cup as a draw), and the 1st leg of the Europa Cup will be game #22.

The draw hasn't been made yet and I am hoping that when it is the League game will be postponed, by why schedule the game for then when they know I am going to be playing in the Europa League that day? I'm going to have to post this in the bugs forum and try and recreate it and upload a save next season I think. 

Thank God for my big squad or we would be screwed. 

Edited November 11, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

2023 Europa League 1st Qualifying Round Draw. 

And we will play one of these. 

I can't really moan about getting any of these, but I would like to give Sligo Rovers a miss given their development this season in real life, but any of the others should be doable. I would probably like to play the Faroes team NSI if I'm honest just because they are from Scandinavia, (rather than being the poorest ranked), but other than avoiding Sligo Rovers I'm not overly bothered. 

[Edit]

Of course we get the highest ranked team possible. 

[Edit2]

After the good draws we got last season I can't complain, but things are harder this season as we have a trip to Sweden if we can overcome the Latvians. 

Edited November 11, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Fixture congestion. 

[abulezz]

Lol - that's a lot of matches! My team would be probably just keel over and die just at the sight of that!

Immersive read, keep it up!

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 2023.

 Really gutted about this intake. I was desperate for players promoted in any of 3 positons. 

MC is the biggest priority because we are really struggling and we lose either of our 2 best central midfielders, I dread to think of the repercussions on the pitch.

AMR is much poorer than AML to such an extent that we have 5 AML's who are better than our best AMR, (by CA and PA). We are desperate for an AMR and (23b) Jón Haukur (Cas) will be gratefully received, (even with that personality). 

DC is a tough one. We actually need 6 centre-backs which equates to 2 in 1 team and 2 in the next team, (we can't play 2 matches in such quick succession and expect to win). In addition to that we need 1 more player to cover injuries and a 6th to sit on the bench. At the moment I would say that we have 4 decent DC's, a 5th who has decent PA but is only 5'9", 2 more who are below standard in terms of everything but who have some level of Pro personalities and I'm hoping they will gave more PA than reported. (23c) Guð Jónas (Bal) will play for us at some point I am sure because I was planning on selling 1 centre-back during the close-season and it's probable that another will leave on a free the following season. We are going to be down to just 2 decent centre-backs and there is little or nothing coming through to replace them. 

This was my current HoYD, (poor I know but beggars can't be choosers). I have so far been leaving staff recruitment to the DoF, (that's the only reason he is at the club), basically due to the paucity of reasonable candidates. I am going to terminate this HoYD contract right now, but I will be letting the DoF find a replacement. This HoYD has done really well for us up to this point, but I need someone who is going to bring through some MC's and DC's. 
 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

European Campaign 2023.

[Edit] 

I forgot to mention that I put out a weakened team in the 2nd Bilbao game and also adopted a more defensive version of my tactic. We were effectively putting out a 3rd Team against a team full of stars and I didn't want a huge morale hit to my fringe players. I'm delighted to score and also quite pleased that the team full of absolute rubbish only conceded 4 goals. 

New attendance high.

New Gate receipts high.

Cash 1.

Cash 2.

Cash 3.

Cash 4.

Total cash = approx £17,412 + £18,000 + £75,000 + £258,390 + £202,000 = £570,802.

[Edit]

A run of 24 competitive games without losing, (the game classes a loss on pens as a draw rather than a loss), came to an end with the 1st leg defeat by AIK of Sweden. 

The fixture congestion means that we now have 5 games in hand on most of our rivals.

If we don't win our 1st Premier League title from here then I need shooting.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

My DoF has signed a new HoYD. (And I think he's done ok). 

Where on Earth did he get this bloke from! 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Toffle]

Hopefully, this new HoYD will bring you some MCs! I also hope you'll win the league this season, it's a necessary step.

[Shevchenko]

That working with yongsters is a bit low but he seems OK for this level. I think  . Win the league, get European cash, sell a guy for 1mil, turn Pro. Looks simple enough 

[Toffle]

5 minutes ago, Shevchenko said:

That working with yongsters is a bit low

It's low, but way higher than what the old one had

[Jimbokav1971]

15 Players called up for INT duty.

[Jimbokav1971]

Just for a moment I thought I was about to see my GK score from open play.

Instead, he completely bottled it, passed to someone else and we scored. So near but yet so far. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Toffle said:

Hopefully, this new HoYD will bring you some MCs! I also hope you'll win the league this season, it's a necessary step.

You are right about winning the league and the Champions League spot that comes with it, but I was quite enjoying my early-save entry into The Europa League. A lot of us don't get to spend to much time in the Europa League because once we start winning the league it tends to be pretty consistent after that. Apart from getting far enough in the Champions League that gets me back into the Europa League, this might be our last visit for a while. In fact, as I think we are way off that sort of level, even it could be a long while. 

I suppose I need to just suck it up and think of the money. (It will be interesting to see the difference in income next season, assuming we win the league of course). 

[Jimbokav1971]

We have a League game and are missing 15 players through International call-ups & 1 injury.

1st and 3rd choice GK's. 
1st choice DL.
1st and 2nd choice DR. 
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice DC's.
1st and 2nd choice MC's.
1st and 2nd choice AMC's. 
2nd 3rd and 4th choice SC's. 

We win 4-0. 

I think it's safe to say that we have a little depth at this level. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, Shevchenko said:

That working with yongsters is a bit low but he seems OK for this level. I think  . Win the league, get European cash, sell a guy for 1mil, turn Pro. Looks simple enough 

It is indeed low, but everything is relative and he has great quality for Iceland and the small number of staff we can attract. 

6 hours ago, Toffle said:

It's low, but way higher than what the old one had

He's much better isn't he. I was contemplating binning the DoF and recruiting the staff myself but he played an absolute blinder here. 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

The wheels are coming off. 

[Jimbokav1971]

I can't believe we are going to bottle the league title. 

We have 2 games to play and we are top, (just), from FH, (by +2 goal difference), who have only 1 game to play. 

If the goal difference is level then the next sorting rule is goals scored and they are romping that. 

FH play Valur (9th), in their 1 remaining game. 

We play Vikingur R (4th), and Grotta (3rd). 

This is not funny. Every single season we implode after the Youth Intake! 

[Edit]

[Edit]

Oh Gawd! Now I've just screwed things even more with a team meeting that went boobies up. ARGHHHHHH!!!! [headbang]

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Toffle]

FH is going to lose this game

Edited November 12, 2016 by Toffle

[Jimbokav1971]

[Jimbokav1971]

League Table with just the last round of matches left. 

We are level on points and goal difference so the league is now sorted on goals scored. 

FH have scored 48

We have scored 41. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Well we did our bit. (although we left it late).

Now we just need to find out if FH won too or did they slip up and let us in?

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions. 

We won 2-0 and FH won 2-1 meaning that the goal we scored in the 90th minute of the last game was effectively the goal that won us the league. 

It wasn't a bad little goal either. 

 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Bedese]

How's that for drama? Congratulations 

[deltablue]

Wow, that's leaving it late!

[scousevasey]

12 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

We won 2-0 and FH won 2-1 meaning that the goal we scored in the 90th minute of the last game was effectively the goal that won us the league. 

 

Nice to note that ex-players are also playing a part in you winning the league.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, scousevasey said:

Nice to note that ex-players are also playing a part in you winning the league.

No, I'm afraid not. Indridi Aki (Bal) is not actually an ex player, (although I appreciate why you thought that). The (Bal) is indeed his personality, but because there was no year and a-p in brackets as a prefix before his name, then it indicates that he's not a product of our academy, and because he doesn't have SELL after his name it means he wasn't an inherited player who was at the club when I joined but who wasn't part of our academy. 

This is what he would have looked like in those circumstances. 

(21x) Indriði Áki (Bal) (product of our academy).

Indriði Áki (Bal) SELL (non-product of our academy who I inherited and has since left the club).

Indriði Áki (Bal) simply tells me that I have had a 100% scout report on him and that his personality is Balanced. 

I am always looking for Professional players, (there is a real shortage in Iceland), and any level of Professionalism, even (F.Pro), is considered a Tutor prospect, (but more on that in the transfer section of my season update.

In order to resolve the squad determination issues, I was planning/am still considering, buying players with high determination attributes, to act as non-playing members of the squad who will falsely increase the mean level of determination so that our determined players don't drop down because the average is so low. The problem is however that I have to be careful not to sign too many players in a non-playing capacity, or I will risk their unhappiness becoming a thing.

At the moment I have signed the following non-playing players. 

Ingvi (F.Pro) Tutor is a 21 yo MC who was signed mainly because he had either 4.5 or 5.0 PA, was available on a free, and his determination of 13 and (F.Pro) personality would have a positive impact on the squad. As it happens he has actually been loaned out, (if I want to sell him for a profit then he needs games), and in his 1st year loaned out he won the Premier Division Young Player of the Year. He would walk right into our team but will never play for us. 

Ragnar (M.Pro) Tutor is a 25 yo AMR who was signed solely as our 1st Model Pro Tutor. He is actually our best AMR, (by a distance), but again he will never play for us. He will just go on tutoring players on a regular basis. 

Oddur Ingi (F.Pro) Tutor is a 34 yo MC who was signed as a (F.Pro) Tutor. Ideally I want Model Pro tutors, but they just aren't available at the moment and this is the best I can get. 

None of these players will ever play for us, but we will certainly benefit from their personalities and possibly by way of a future transfer fee that will at the very least cover the cost of their wages while they are here. Either way, I am happy to pay wages for non-playing tutors. It's a vital expense. 

Edited November 13, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[dafuge]

17 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

This is not funny. Every single season we implode after the Youth Intake! 

Could this be because you are effectively signing a large number of new players at once? Does this affect your tactical familiarity or squad harmony?

[MadCatPT]

25 minutes ago, dafuge said:

Could this be because you are effectively signing a large number of new players at once? Does this affect your tactical familiarity or squad harmony?

The only time I did sign all the candidates I lost squad harmony and haven't recovered even after 2 seasons.

[MadCatPT]

Also the team played noticeably worse after.

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season 7 Update. Oct 2023. 

I've got to be happy with this season. We won the Premier Division title for the 1st time, (despite almost imploding at the death), and we continued to develop our young players. We are now up to 15 players being called up for INT duty, (something that I am using to gauge success/development). We won the Upper League Cup, (for the 2nd time), and got as far as the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League. I'm not sure that I can have asked for much more, (well apart from winning a Cup game of course, but let's not be greedy!).

League Table. 

League Graph. 

League Fixtures 1.
League Fixtures 2. I don't know if it is a mixture of fatigue or.... well I just don't know, but every season we seem to struggle with form after the Youth Intake. In the early years I sort of laid the blame on myself for introducing young, high PA players into the first team before they were ready. I was doing that on purpose and it was a price I was willing to pay to see them given early development opportunities. I have purposefully holding back on that in the last couple of seasons however and if anything, the drop in form is getting worse.

[Edit]

While I was writing this, @dafuge has suggested that our loss of form might be down to "signing a large number of new players at once". He actually makes a very good point and it could well be that this is at the very least a contributing factor. I will have to monitor the situation next season when this happens. It could be a very good shout. 

Cup Fixture (Singular). Yes, I am going to have to do something about our domestic cup form. 

European re-cap.

Player of the Season (75%), Young Player of the Season, Top Goal-scorer & Highest Average Rating. (18c) Óskar (F.Amb) *.

Transfers. 

Proof that Ingvi (F.Pro) Tutor never played a competitive game.
Proof that Ragnar (M.Pro) Tutor never played a competitive game.
Proof that Oddur Ingi (F.Pro) Tutor never played a competitive game.

Tracker. 

I'm a little bit concerned that despite getting to the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League, and selling a player for £900,000, our finances only increased by approx £312,000. It means that without the player sale we would have made a loss of approx £588,000. That's not good news at all. I'm ready to sell players to boost our bank balance, but I don't want to sell them before we have got some value out of them on the playing side, and I also want to make sure that we get value out of them in the transfer market. I'm not overly bothered about selling players for £250,000. I want £1M for a player. (Maybe that's why we are losing money). 

Squad size. 101.

Our squad is currently made up of the following numbers. 

Inherited players who came through the academy before my arrival. 3
Players who came through the 2016 intake. 4
Players who came through the 2017 intake. 7
Players who came through the 2018 intake. 9
Players who came through the 2019 intake. 9
Players who came through the 2020 intake. 15
Players who came through the 2021 intake. 16
Players who came through the 2022 intake. 16
Players who came through the 2023 intake. 16
Inherited players who didn't come through the clubs academy. 3
Players who didn't come through the academy but who I have signed. (Non-playing players). 3

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nooooooooooo!

It's too early. We need to turn Pro and develop first. The debt is going to cripple us. 

Some time? Yeah, about 5 years I would hope. 

[Moonshine]

Congrats on the league! And unlucky on the stadium... tocuh wood it won't impact too much.

 

I'm intrigued about non-playing players though... are they all signed on a free? Do you not feel that by denying others a chance at having better players you are 'unfairly' denying them a chance of competing more closely with you? Or is it that at some point focus will shift to Europe alone?

[Jimbokav1971]

44 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

Congrats on the league! And unlucky on the stadium... tocuh wood it won't impact too much.

I've never seen anything like this with a stadium before. Is this a new feature that has it so open-ended like this? 

[Moonshine]

No idea... keep us updated. Are you going to be the first person to reach Brexit, too? Or have I missed it in GD?

[Jimbokav1971]

45 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

I'm intrigued about non-playing players though... are they all signed on a free? Do you not feel that by denying others a chance at having better players you are 'unfairly' denying them a chance of competing more closely with you? Or is it that at some point focus will shift to Europe alone?

Yes they are all signed on a free, and 1 more has already been signed this pre-season. 

I'm not sure that I am denying opposition teams anything at all. 

1 of the players, Ingvi (F.Pro) Tutor was signed as just an 18 year old I think, (he is now 21), and he has spent the last 2 years at loan at different Premier Division clubs, so they certainly didn't miss out on his services. I am continuing to loan him out this season on the basis that unless I make him captain, then I can't use him as a Tutor anyway before he turns 24 anyway. As a result it seems only sensible to loan him out. You have to remember that this particular player was purchased with a view to making a long-term profit on him because he had very good PA when scouted. Using this bloke as an example, I'm not sure why his club didn't extend his contract, (but they didn't), and interestingly I have loaned him back to them, (Leiknir.R), and am loaning him to them again this season. He was playing for them as an 18 year old, (28 appearances), and even made a few appearances as a 17 year old (9 appearances), so I don't know why he left but leave he did. 

Of the other 2 players that I have mentioned....

Ragnar (M.Pro) Tutor was snapped up from FH after they nicked him from Vikingur.R as a 17 year old, so all is fair in love, war and transfers I guess. He was a regular for FH for the previous 3  years and God only knows why they let his contract run down. Actually.......... yes I do. FH have a brill Belgian winger as 1st choice in that position and he is one of the best players in the league, (scored twice against me last season in 1 game). I think it's likely that if he had been at any club other than FH, (the best club in the Country), then they wouldn't have let his contract run down because he would have been a key player. 

Oddur Ingi (F.Pro) Tutor was just with us for 1 season before retiring, so that was quite a reasonable situation to my mind. 

It's certainly not my intention to reduce the overall pool of decent (ISL) players, but at the same time, there is not a single player in the (ISL) Senior National squad who is still at an (ISL) club, so me taking (ISL) players is probably going to make no difference at all. 

The new player of this ilk that I have just signed is Ragnar (M.Pro) Tutor, a 24 yo who was signed on a free from FH, after spending time at both Stjarnan and IR previously. Again, if FH want to keep these players, then all they have to do is offer them contracts. Additionally, all the other (ISL) clubs can also try to sign him. I am relying completely on my scouts so if they find these players then I send them back again to scout 100%. The only exception to that are players who have previously come through our academy which the club would be aware of in real life. I have just signed Hafsteinn (Bal) HG 12, a 32 yo MC player on a free after he was released by a Swedish club, and I wasn't even able to scout him, (because he was in Sweden), but knew he was a HG at club player and a MC so just went with it. Turns out he looks excellent, (if a little slow). 

[Jimbokav1971]

23 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

No idea... keep us updated. Are you going to be the first person to reach Brexit, too? Or have I missed it in GD?

I'm not sure that I am going to hear anything about Brexit because (ISL) aren't actually in the EU. I hope I do, (and I hope restrictions are extreme) , but I honestly don't know. 

Having said that, I got the info about Serbia, Macedonia and someone else so I guess I will get the new item. Any idea when I should expect news?

[Jimbokav1971]

Transfer Update. 

There are a few areas within the squad in which be seem relatively strong. These are DR, AML and SC. 

SC is more about PA rather than CA and AML will not be nearly as strong once we lose the 1st choice there, so I have been concentrating on selling our best DR with a view to bringing in some cash. 

This is our Right Back depth. Please note that although (20f) Ingvi Karlsson (Res) is down as a DR, he is actually considered a DC by me as that is where he is needed and more suited.

As you can see, while (20e) Sölvi Sigur (Casual) * has the best CA, we actually have a number of good DR's available. My favourite in terms of attribute balance for the very attacking role I use is actually (19a) Ágúst (Unamb) (2019), and although the best 3 were rotated evenly last season, (19a) Ágúst (Unamb) (2019) created more assists than the other 2 put together, (although that might have been because he played in easier games). The other thing of course is that I have a preference to the (a) "Kriss" players. Whatever way you look at it, (and I haven't even mentioned the Casual personality, (20e) Sölvi Sigur (Casual) * is going and it just remains to be seen how much money I get for him. 

As you can see, while he's not rubbish, he's not exactly a World-beater either, and while he is only valued at £34,500, I want considerably more than that. CONSIDERABLY more than that. 

What I do is set a minimum fee of £100,000 for all my decent players and tell my Ass Man to reject bids under that amount, (because they are just annoying. Then, when the bids start coming in and it rises to nearing £100,000 I up the valuation to £250,000 and again ask the Ass Man to reject buds under this amount. I do the same twice more pushing the valuation up to £500,000 and then £1,000,000 if possible. 

In this case however, the bids stopped at £300,000 and I had to liven things up a little. 

Initially I offered him out for £1M up front + 50% of next sale, (the 50% was non-negotiable), and then I stuck on £100,000 in monthly instalments, £250,000 after 50 league games, (I don't mind waiting for a little bonus later on), and £250,000 after 1 International appearance. (I have no idea if he is going to be good enough to get to that level, or even if his personality might stop him reaching those heights even if he does have the PA), but either way, if he plays for Iceland I want to get some cash out of it. 

Goteborg and Rosenborg, (who else!) both came back in and started negotiating, and while I was happy wth the Goteborg deal that I negotiated first, the Rosenborg deal was even better and I hope he takes that offer.

 

I think you would agree, that's better than decent business for a 19yo DR who has already reached 3.5 out of a max 4.5 stars and is currently valued at £34,500! (Did I mention that he has a casual personality)?

KERRRRRCHING! 

[Edit]

Deal Done. 

 

Edited November 13, 2016 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Damn. I was so close to pulling off another belter of a deal, but it fell through at the last minute, I pushed just that little bit too hard I think. There were 22 cubs interested in him, but only 3 made bids. I really need more to get a bidding frenzy going. 

[Jimbokav1971]

In other news, they are all after my 19 yo MC called (21b) Skúlason (Pro) *.

I've set his asking price to £1,000,000 but I don't even want to sell for that at the moment if I'm honest. Ideally I will keep him for this season and next season and then sell him for a fortune with 12 months left on his contract. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Game crashed on me last night and I lost the whole of the close season including the New Stadium and the great deal for  (20e) Sölvi Sigur (Casual) * .

Gutted.