[FM19] French Lingerie - Acre State, Brazil

[Bobby_Zamora]

1-16-15 LOSC

[Jimbokav1971]

Perfect hat-trick. May 2043. 

I like the achievements in FM. (Actually I like achievements in all games, but I especially like achievements in FM). It's a such a cool and really basic feature, but I love it. In past issues of FM, "Perfect Hat-trick" was an achievement, but one that I was never able to trigger, despite the fact that I know for a fact that I had a player score a perfect hat-trick. Every time a player scored 3 or more goals in a game I would go back over them to watch them again to see if it was a perfect hat-trick.

I've never heard of a "Flawless Hat-trick", but I will remember it now. 

So anyway, getting back to the achievement, even when I had a player score a perfect hat-trick, it never actually triggered for me so the "achievement" was never achieved. I guess that's why they have removed it as an achievement. What I can say though is that even when I "achieved" the perfect hat-trick in the past it never showed me the commentary line as shown in the GIF above, (love that by the way SI). 

Left foot. By the way, that's the inside forward crossing the ball from wide left on his wrong foot. (Oh, well that makes more sense). 

Right foot.

Header.

By the way, I should probably mention that this goal was scored in the same game, (and stopped it becoming a "Flawless Hat-trick". 

Top bins. 

It's things like this, (the prefect hat-trick, the same player going AWOL 6 times and my GK spanking in free-kicks), that make the game for me. All the little things come together to really give the game an immersive feel. 

[Jimbokav1971]

5 hours ago, Bobby_Zamora said:

1-16-15 LOSC

Good spot. I hadn't noticed that.  but 

Their problem appears to be a lack of goals. Only Tours have scored fewer but 7 teams have conceded more. Champions Elect Marseille have only conceded 6 goals fewer.

They are playing with 1 up front and he is an ageing experienced striker who has scored 100 career league goals. They are playing with 3 behind him in the AMC line and although 2 of them are on loan, all 3 look decent. There is no reason why they are not scoring more goals than this. I would be very confidant of avoiding the drop with a front 4 like this. I would suggest that if they employed a "we'll score 1 more than you" mantra, then I think they would have been save months ago. 

Danish Manager Lukas Lerager has only been in charge for 25 days, but I'm afraid it's been more of the same under him. 

They play Marseille, Monaco and then us. What's the betting they spank 3 past us? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Scorer. May 2043. 

I noticed this guy once previously, but never thought to look in any great detail, but he was just announced in a recent Ligue 1 Team of the Week and his name again caught my eye based on his position so I thought I would have a closer look. 

Great nameage considering his exploits. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2043. 

The big news is of course not that we have qualified for the Champions League, (went right down to the wire in the end), but that we did concede against bottom of the table Lille, (who have only scored 19 goals all season). I predicted that they would score 2 or 3 against us I think, so am delighted to have been proved wrong. 

My aim was just to qualify for the EURO league again. Champions League is brilliant, don't get me wrong, but rather than us beating the opposition, Monaco and Lens have simply imploded. Metz, and Sochaux were are rivals in the run-in, with the established big-boys nowhere to be seen. Champions Marseille lost 5 games, (and drew 7 more), and still romped the league with a 10 point margin.  

You might be asking what has happened to moneybags PSG, (I know I was wondering), so let me show you. 

Last season was the 1st season since the save began that finished lower than 2nd in the league. On 4 occasions they have broken the 100 point barrier, but for the last 6 seasons now they haven't broken 90 points and for 4 or 5 of the last seasons they haven't even hit 80 points. 

Here is why. 

In real life, although I know that PSG are backed by Middle East money, I don't know who is whom in terms of the owners. Quite early in the save, Nasser Al-Khelaifi scaled down the level of investment that was being provided to the club, but then, although there were 2 failed takeover bids in 2035, someone called Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is shown to have sold the club in 2036, (to a French owner I might add). The new French owner then floats the club on the Stock Exchange meaning that there are shareholders to answer to and importantly dividends to pay. 

As expected, their finances are not great, and it probably took them quite a while to adapt to the normal restrictions that everyone else has to cope with. There is no way that we would be able to complete with the old PSG. This new French-owned one though...... 

(39b) Xabier (Res) * missed 5 of the last 6 games of the season, but came back for the last game against Bordeaux to score his 21st league goal of the season. 

(36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) * had played 2nd fiddle to (39b) Xabier (Res) * for most of the season, but in his absence in these games at the end of the season he really hit form and scored 2 hat-tricks in his last 4 league games to tie things up at 21 league goals each for the season. 22 year old (36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) * has now scored 92 career league goals, (and 107 in total), but 16 of those have been scored for the Reserves, (albeit in a competitive League). I know I have seen @dafuge and others try and even complete the 1,000 goal challenge with a player and while that would normally be completely impossible for me, I feel it just might be possible in a save like this where the Reserve Team is completely dominant and the Reserve games are counted because they take place in a competitive league. 

[Jimbokav1971]

U19 Champions League. 

Does anyone know what the entry criteria for this competition is? 

In 2041 we won the U19's League and then went on to win the U19's Playoffs, (for the 1st time), against the other 3 U19's League winners. 

In 2042 we won the U19's league and then went on to win the U19's Playoffs against the other 3 U19's League winners. 

We were also invited into the U19's Champions League, and I assumed that this was down to having won the U19's Playoffs last season, (but I was wrong).

In 2043 we have just won the U19's league and then gone on to win the U19's Playoffs against the other 3 U19's League winners. 

I expected to be in the U19's Champions League again this season, (as holders), but we weren't despite the fact that we had won the Playoffs again. I'm really not sure why. 

Lyon were Champions of Ligue 1 last season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League this season. 
Monaco were Runners Up in Ligue 1 last season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League this season. 
Marseille were 3rd in Ligue 1 last season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League this season. 
Lens were 4th in Ligue 1 last season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League this season. 
PSG were 5th in Ligue 1 last season and their U19's were NOT in the U19's Champions League this season. 

So that suggests that you have to qualify for the proper Champions League to get into the U19's Champions League, (which is what I always though was the case). So I wonder why I was able to enter last season then? 

The previous season....

Lens were Champions of Ligue 1 the previous season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League last season. (We beat them in the Final)
PSG were Runners Up in Ligue 1 the previous season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League last season. (We beat them in the Semi).
Marseill were 3rd in Ligue 1 the previous season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League last season. (They lost to S.Gijon in the 1st Knockout Round). 
Monaco were 4th in Ligue 1 the previous season and their U19's were in the U19's Champions League last season. (We beat them in the 2nd Knockout Round).

It just doesn't make sense to me. Why were we invited in 2041/42? 

I think we will be invited again next season, (because we are in the Champions League proper), but that still doesn't explain how we got invited before. I also think it's a bit rubbish that we don't get invited back as holders. 

Edited May 4, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season Summary. Jun 2043.

League Table. (Ligue 1). From a personal point of view it's pleasing to see Rennes to bounce back from being relegated and then qualify for Europe again in their 1st season back at the top table. I didn't really have a favourite French team, but I liked Marseille because Waddle played for them and I like the idea of a little club from Monaco, (if not quite the reverse reality), and I quite like the way that Lyon churn out so many good youngsters, but after managing Rennes in FM18, it is they and nobody else who are my favourite big French club now, (although for musical purposes I will always have a soft spot for Saint Etienne). 

League Graph.

Cup Fixtures. 

Ligue Cup Fixtures. 

EURO Cup Fixtures. 

Reserves Table. (National 2-B).

Youth Table. 

Awards.

Stats.

Season Review. 

Dynamics.

Confidence. 

Facilities. 

Finances. 

Goal-scoring record broken. 

MotM record broken. 

Clean sheet record broken. 

Significant players. 

(36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) *.

He looks ok doesn't he, but he's certainly not anything special. Despite that, he is probably going to be our most significant player during this phase of the save. There are going to be other players who are better, but they are likely to be sold to bigger clubs where as he is at a level that I "think" I can keep hold of. When (39b) Xabier (Res) * was scoring all the goals earlier in the season, it was he who provided many assists and to score 30 goals, (no free-kicks and pens remember), and create 17 assists is a remarkable contribution. I would love to see him get capped at some point, but I'm really not sure how likely that is because I think he has peaked already and what you see now is as good as he's going to get. 

(39b) Xabier (Res) *.

He has converted all that early promise to actual quality now and this 2nd year we have had him back in on loan he has been phenomenal. 40 goals in all competitions and 10 assists are mental numbers for a team managed by me. I'm sure he is going to fill his boots at..... can't remember if it's Sporting Lisbon or Benfica now... (he's at SLB which is Benfica), but they are in the Champions League too so would be good to come up against them in the Group phase, (assuming we get there of course). I think this kid is going to be REALLY good and I fully expect a big Spanish or English club to be in for him before too long. I will of course keep you updated. If I can get him back in at any point then I will, providing of course that he doesn't break the bank.

[Edit]

Right. Let's get this straight once and for all. 

FCP = Football Club Porto. 
SLB = Sport Lisboa Benfica. 
Sporting = Sporting Lisbon.

(39a) Jesús (F.Pro) (2039) *.

This is the guy who came through the 2039 intake ahead of (39b) Xabier (Res) * in terms of PA rating, but who had nothing like the CA at the start. he has had to adapt to a new IW role from his more suited IF role, but he has done well, (he has recently become our 3rd Wonderkid after the 2 above), and has really started to blossom. The big-boys are starting to circle though and with 2 decent prospects waiting in the wings, I am already considering cashing in despite him having 3 years left on his contract. The clubs that jump out as favourites are Barca and Spurs, but it would also be interesting to see him go to Porto to beef up the rivalry between them and Benfica, and I would also be almost guaranteed a hefty sell-on clause if he goes there. One thing for sure though, he won't be going to a French club. I quite like the idea of selling to Portugese clubs and then using them to "finish" our players before selling them on. 

(36c) Schmidt (Bal) *.

We are producing some reasonable GK's but nothing to rival this bloke yet. Of course it helped that he came in at a time when our starting GK was coming to the twilight of his career, and of course our results would have suffered in the early days as a result of playing him rather than a more experienced GK, but all those times he played when he wasn't ready were an investment in his future and this here now is the reward. I know he's not amazing, but there still seems to be room for improvement and he has scored 27 career goals at 22 years old. 

[WillHoward42]

What a player Xabier is.... he will be missed!

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, WillHoward42 said:

What a player Xabier is.... he will be missed!

He will absolutely be missed, but his absence will just give me a chance to play and develop someone else. 

[Jimbokav1971]

European Golden Boot. Jun 2043. 

(36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) * won the European Golden Boot last season with 24 league goals and (39b) Xabier (Res) * has pipped him at the post to win the award this season with 21 goals. He only wins it ahead of (36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) *, (who also scored 21 league goals), by virtue of scoring his 21st goal in the 16th minute of the last game where as (36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) * didn't score his 21st league goal of the season until the 38th minute of the last game.  That's what In call tight!

Pierto Pellegri scored 39 and 30 league goals back in 2026/27 & 2027/28 for Monaco and Jose Vitulin scored 32 and 27 for R.Madrid in 2024/25 & 2025/26.

The record books show that William "Dixie" Dean scored 60 league goals for Everton back in 1927/28 and Jozef Bican (who I had never heard of until now), won the award 5 years on the bounce between 1939/40 and 1943/44, scoring 50, 38, 45, 39 & 57 league goals for Slavia Prague, but it should be said that the rest of Europe was pretty busy back then.

More recently Messi scored 50 in 2011/12 and the scoring in-game has been pretty average since the save started, with Pellegri scoring the most with 39.

The Bayonne totals of 21 and 24 over the last couple of years seem pretty meagre by comparison, but let's not forget there are no free-kicks or pens in that total. 

[Jimbokav1971]

If Carlsberg did loan deals? Jun 2043. 

The loan deal of (39b) Xabier (Res) * is due to expire shortly, so nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that......

This is absolute madness! We couldn't get him back in again could we? 

The board will only let me pay 30% of his wages though. 

We can't pay more of his wages, but let's see how an extra £20,000 per month goes? 

If they are only thinking of "giving the player a chance" in the 1st team, then we might have a chance of pulling this off. Maybe I should have gone bigger in my fee offer? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Big Bid. Jun 2043. 

Benfica rejected the loan deal for (39b) Xabier (Res) * with a £20,000 per week fee but I have gone back in with £30,000 per week. let's see what happens.

We are paying our top player £38,000 per week and our 2nd top player £30,000 per week. I'm willing to stretch to £40,000 for him, but I'm not sure I want to go as high as £50,000. I think that's too much for the club right now. £50k over 52 weeks is £2.6M. That seems like a reasonable deal actually. Maybe I will go as high as £50k.

That's not the big deal though. 

It's enormous money for us, but he is contracted until Jun 2046, (so a full 3 years), so I could keep him for 2 more seasons and then sell him. Why would I sell him now? If I do sell him I want a friendly and better other add-ons. 

I can't negotiate this deal but I would be looking for something like this. 

£50M up front. 
£10M over 12 months. 
£10M after 50 league games. 
£10M after 50 league goals, (I think he will score a lot of goals when he leaves). 
£10M (£200,000 per league game up to 50 games).
£10M after 10 International appearances. 
I might be inclined to go for another loan-back deal. 
£25% of re-sale value. (He will be going to a bog-boy in Spain/England rather than Portugal I think). 
A friendly. 

If I could get that deal now, then I would sign on the dotted line immediately. 

Edited May 5, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

More Awards. Jun 2043. 

Star of the Season. 

Star Goalkeeper. 

Ligue 1 Best Player. 

Ligue 1 Most Assists. That's pretty impressive actually. No only is he joint top scorer in Ligue 1, but he also provides the most assists. 

Ligue 1 Top Goal-scorer. 

Ligue 1 Team of the Season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

European Rankings. Jun 2043. 

[Number seven]

That is most extreme rise up the rankings I've ever seen...

[Jimbokav1971]

16 minutes ago, Number seven said:

That is most extreme rise up the rankings I've ever seen...

It's to be expected I think. 

San Marino and Gibraltar teams are at the bottom of the rankings system right now, but even they have benefited from a 5 year ranking increasing their ranking to an admittedly tiny amount. 

The (SMR) and (GIB) teams may not have earned any points themselves, but they do get 5 years worth of the average ranking for their Nation, (which is 0.333 and 0.575 respectively). 

This is where we are now. 

We would have had a ranking of 0.000 last season because although we were a French club, we hadn't been in Ligue 1 the previous season so would not have benefited from the Ligue 1 ranking. There are no Ligue 2 teams anywhere on the list. They have a nil COEF. 

Actually, no. We were not promoted the previous season. We had finished 15th in Ligue 1. 

I'm not sure why we didn't get the benefit of the Ligue 1 ranking. 

You know what else is interesting is that the in-game message says that we are ranked 90th, but the rankings show that we are ranked 89th. Not sure what is going on here. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Loan deal for (39b) Xabier (Res) *. Jun 2043.

The fee has been going up and up and up but I have finally pulled the plug at £150,000 per week fee. I wasn't willing to go anywhere near that, but I wanted to keep going until I had secured the deal so I knew how much a deal of this might cost in the future. 

£150,000 per week at 52 weeks = £7.8M

That's not such a great deal no matter how good he is. 

[Jimbokav1971]

EURO U21's. Jun 2043.

Goal of the Tournament.

Team of the Tournament. 

[Jimbokav1971]

(39b) Xabier (Res) * Transfer saga. Jul 2043.

He's been at Benfica for 2 years, (but has been loaned out to us for both those seasons so hasn't played for them yet. They only signed him to a 3 year deal though so he is already into the last year of his contract. As a result, other clubs are starting to sniff around. 

[Edit]

Edited May 5, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Thebaker]

Perhaps who ever buys Xabier will be more willing to loan him out to you 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Thebaker said:

Perhaps who ever buys Xabier will be more willing to loan him out to you 

Nah. There is no way he should be getting loaned out by anyone. He's possibly not good enough to be a regular starter for a top top top top team, but he's plenty good enough to start for most or sit on the bench for the best. If anyone is going to buy him, it should be to play.

[scousevasey]

12 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

(39b) Xabier (Res) * Transfer saga. Jul 2043.

He's been at Benfica for 2 years, (but has been loaned out to us for both those seasons so hasn't played for them yet. They only signed him to a 3 year deal though so he is already into the last year of his contract. As a result, other clubs are starting to sniff around. 

[Edit]

What percentage of that money would be yours?  And what would that make your total income on his sale be?

 

Really interesting to see the thought process about taking a little less early to ensure that you get more in future. I have included sell on fees in the past, but never thought about the best way to maximise it. (Although this is not an issue in my Luxembourg save as nobody buys my players for money, and no foreign teams are interested in our low quality players)

[nie jem frytek]

17 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Actually, no. We were not promoted the previous season. We had finished 15th in Ligue 1. 

I'm not sure why we didn't get the benefit of the Ligue 1 ranking.

You only get league points if you have played continental football in the past 5 seasons. You got no points, because why would they rank a team that have never played any continental football before?

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, scousevasey said:

What percentage of that money would be yours?  And what would that make your total income on his sale be?

 

Really interesting to see the thought process about taking a little less early to ensure that you get more in future. I have included sell on fees in the past, but never thought about the best way to maximise it. (Although this is not an issue in my Luxembourg save as nobody buys my players for money, and no foreign teams are interested in our low quality players)

I may have a been a little too smart for my own good.

These are the clauses outstanding on the (39b) Xabier (Res) * deal.

Ideally, what would happen is that we would have loaned him, then he would have played 50+ times for Benfica, scoring 50 league goals in the process. We would have collected £3.7M for the 50 appearances, we would have collected £5M for the 50 goals, we would have got £3.7M after he made 10 International appearances and we would have got £2.5M, (£50k ever game for 50 games. 

That little lot would have netted me a tidy £14.9M to go with the £19.75M that they paid me up front bringing the total to £34.65M. The spanner in the works is that because I sold to a smaller club, there is no guarantee that he will trigger these clauses. Especially when you consider that he has been loaned back to us and played 54 league games scoring 30 league goals in the process. I was the Manager of Benfica it would have been fine, because I would have signed him to a 3+3 deal, (or ideally a 5+3 deal if I thought he was special), and none of this would be in doubt, but I'm not the Manager of Benfica and they just signed him to a 3 year deal when they already knew that he was going to be loaned back to us for 2 of the 3 years! 

What I need to happen now if for (39b) Xabier (Res) * to sign a new 3 year deal at Benfica, stay there for a couple of years and fill his boots. Then move on at which time I will get........ 50% of the next fee. That's  not 50% of profit. That's 50% of the next deal.He shouldn't be going anywhere for less than £50M after the last season he had with us, he has just scored the winning goal in the U21 EURO's and is about to break into the Senior French team. Please sign him to a new contract. Pretty please. 

If I was the Benfica Manager, (who is Raúl Baena by the way), then I would be tying him down to a new deal asap. Obviously that's what I want, not just from a financial point of view, but also because I want him to be the best player he can be and that involves him being a regular starter for Benfica rather than sitting on the bench as might be the case at Spurs. 

[Edit]

Just for @scousevasey If we sold him for £19.75M and then we were paid £14.9M in add-ons, (which seem perfectly achievable if he signs a new contract), and then he gets sold for £50M, then the total amount we would receive for him would be £19.75M + £14.9M + £25M = £59.65M. You also have to take into account that we loaned him back for 2 seasons and if we were to loan him back now then the fee per season would be in excess of £8.5M per season. I'm sold players for much more money than this in previous versions of the game, but all things being equal, this is the best value deal I have ever done pound for pound in the game considering what sort of club we were. 

Edited May 6, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

23 minutes ago, nie jem frytek said:

You only get league points if you have played continental football in the past 5 seasons. You got no points, because why would they rank a team that have never played any continental football before?

That makes complete sense. Of course. 

[scousevasey]

7 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Just for @scousevasey If we sold him for £19.75M and then we were paid £14.9M in add-ons, (which seem perfectly achievable if he signs a new contract), and then he gets sold for £50M, then the total amount we would receive for him would be £19.75M + £14.9M + £25M = £59.65M. You also have to take into account that we loaned him back for 2 seasons and if we were to loan him back now then the fee per season would be in excess of £8.5M per season. I'm sold players for much more money than this in previous versions of the game, but all things being equal, this is the best value deal I have ever done pound for pound in the game considering what sort of club we were. 

Even with the worst case scenario of not hitting any of the add ons (and by my understanding you will get the installment that is due irrespective of if he is sold), you will hit ~£45 million which is more than you had offered originally, so it was worth the detour even if he doesn't resign with Benfica.

When you then try to consider the value he added to your side over the past two seasons, in finishing position, and the prize money attached, as well as helping you into Europe (unless this would have been on the cards with his replacement), then there is extra hidden value in the deal from the loan side of it.

 

And as you go through this in depth with the moves you make, I know the detail has made me think about how I play, and improved my game - keep it up

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, scousevasey said:

And as you go through this in depth with the moves you make, I know the detail has made me think about how I play, and improved my game - keep it up

Thanks. It doesn't always pan out, (as in the case here where I might miss out on the add-ons), but it's hard to factor in AI stupidity. 

I have just finished scouting him after his return to Benfica. 

£45M is a little conservative I think but £122M....... 

That's a lot of wages though. I'm not sure Benfica can affored to re-sign him. The biggest wage they are currently paying if £65,000 per week. That's quite a big just from that to even the minimum of £88,000 per week, (but as Ginola would say "because I'm worth it!")

Ooooh! 

I must have missed the Milan offer. Come on R.Madrid or Barca. Surely you want to turn this into a bidding war! 

 

[AdamFitz]

£74m is more like it. I find clubs tend to accept bids somewhere just north of the halfway point in the Estimated Cost, wouldn't be surprised if there was a bid over £80m

[Jimbokav1971]

32 minutes ago, AdamFitz said:

£74m is more like it. I find clubs tend to accept bids somewhere just north of the halfway point in the Estimated Cost, wouldn't be surprised if there was a bid over £80m

So if I make a bid of £100M and get it accepted then I might just start a big ole bidding war? 

[Edit]

No, I haven't got £100M to spend. 

We're doing ok financially, but I think that I might accept a bid for (39a) Jesús (F.Pro) (2039) * if I get a big one. I know he has 3 years left on his contract but we have 2 good guys waiting in the wings and I think that I have to accept that we are still a selling club and as long as we have someone in the same position then we need to sell them on and replace them with the next in line, (whether it be from the Academy or brought in). The only problem with that is there is a limit to the number of Basque players being produced and obviously Atletico Bilbao are keen to hoover up the brightest prospects. 

Edited May 6, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[scousevasey]

6 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

So if I make a bid of £100M and get it accepted then I might just start a big ole bidding war? 

And as you would get half of it back, it might be a good deal.

 

Imagine signing him for £100 mil, claiming 50 back, then selling him for another 100+ next time round...with another loan back clause...

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, scousevasey said:

And as you would get half of it back, it might be a good deal.

Imagine signing him for £100 mil, claiming 50 back, then selling him for another 100+ next time round...with another loan back clause...

I must admit that I did use the buying back part of that to pretty good effect back in FM14 when I was managing San Marino. The player would want to leave so off they would go for a big fee and then 3 years later I would make a bid for a slightly bigger fee, safe in the knowledge that I was in effect only going to be paying half of it. Not managed to get it working since then though. This is certainly the save to give it a go though.

[AdamFitz]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

So if I make a bid of £100M and get it accepted then I might just start a big ole bidding war? 

Definitely worth a shot  Although I'm not sure if the AI treats your bid differently to other teams

[Jimbokav1971]

Absolute Barstewards! Jul 2043. 

OMG!  He's immediately worth £61M. 

He's on £190,000 per week! 

See @scousevaseyThe best laid plans and all that. It turned out to be an unmitigated disaster! 

[Jimbokav1971]

I can't believe they have sold him for that little. 

On the plus side....... 

I guess I'm not selling (39a) Jesús (F.Pro) (2039) * this year and let me just stick a few million quid into the wage budget while I'm here. 

There. That's better. 

[Jimbokav1971]

(39b) Xabier (Res) * is dead, long live......... Jul 2049. 

OK, so he's gone and we have to just get on with it. We were never going to get him back on loan anyway, so whether he is at Benfica or Spurs is really all about how many Millions we have in the bank and that's not what this save is all about at all. 

So who do we have waiting in the wings to start up front alongside (36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) *, and do I have to go out and buy someone. Is there even anyone available within my budget. 

These are all the strikers I have at the club ranked by CA for a change. 

(36a) Dulce (Bal) (2036) * is obviously the main man now. (I should mention that the last time he started the season as the main man he went AWOL.... was it 7 (SEVEN) times that season?  Oh gawd. 

Leroy (FRA) (F.Det) £ is the 2nd best striker at the club, (and I like him), but he's not Basque so will never be playing for us. At the moment he's going out on loan for the season. 

(40c) Dumont (Driven) * and (40b) Reta (Bal) * are both right wingers, so let's just ignore them,. 

JMM (BAS) (Bal) is the player I dithered over last close-season, and he scored 10 goals from 28(2) appearances so that's adequate for a 3rd striker I suppose, but does he have what it takes to become a regular starter. 

(40e) José Pérez (F.Det) * is 3rd choice left winger so let's ignore him too. 

Big Dom (BAS) is now the 3rd best striker at the club! Is that really where we're at? 

(41b) Rubén (Bal) * is the guy I was really pinning my hoped on, but I'm not sure that he is ever going to recover fully from his serious injury. He's still injured anyway so we probably won't see him until the very end of the Year. 

(43d) López (Det) is a player that I don't remember at all so..... oh wait, yes I do. He's a PF and I didn't like that and he has loads of PPM's and I don't like some of them too. 

(43a) Javier (Unamb) (2043) * is a player I like the look of, but he is only 15 anyway so I can't play him even if I wanted to. 

We really are down to the dregs now. 

I think I might have to try and buy a striker, (and look how quick and easy that was last time around!). 

Edited May 6, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[scousevasey]

52 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

See @scousevaseyThe best laid plans and all that. It turned out to be an unmitigated disaster! 

This game would be much easier if the AI did what we wanted it to...

On the positive side, the £35ish million from the two sales, plus the loan back is a decent amount.  It should allow you to max out any facilities awaiting improvement and push on with your aim of Basque world domination development

 

19 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Big Dom (BAS) is now the 3rd best striker at the club! Is that really where we're at? 

 

Big Dom is better than anything in Luxembourg.  Can you somehow send him through my next intake?

 

19 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I think I might have to try and buy a striker, (and look how quick and easy that was last time around!). 

If you don't crowdsource the decision it might be quicker this time...

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, scousevasey said:

If you don't crowdsource the decision it might be quicker this time...

 Yeah possibly. But I only asked before because I couldn't make up my mind. If anything there seem to be even fewer options available now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

9 minutes ago, scousevasey said:

Big Dom is better than anything in Luxembourg.  Can you somehow send him through my next intake?

I REALLY like Big Dom. It's a shame he's not a product of our Academy, but I think he's going to offer us that something different. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Excellent qualifying for the Champions League Jimbo.

I have no idea what entry criteria for the Youth Champions League are.

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2043.

This wasn't really a surprise. He's currently valued at £21M, but we have set an asking price of £100M for him. Despite the huge asking price, there ares till plenty of clubs interested. I'm not expecting to get £100M for him, but if I start with a high price then at least when they work me down it will still be decent. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul & Aug 2043.

Pre-season went as pre-season goes, with the only point of note being that we only conceded 1 goal in 8 games. 

We seem to have a habit of starting slowly after pre-season, and this season was no different as we took only 2 points from our opening 3 games. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Selling club. Sep 2043. 

* Gorka Martín (BAS) is a good player, and the best right winger at the club in terms of CA, but he's not a product of our Academy and it made sense to accept this deal even if the add-ons aren't what I would usually be asking for when selling a player. 

We paid only £1.7M for him and we are getting £8.25M for him as he leaves. He had 3 years left on his contract so I didn't have to sell, but we have a few other options on the right flank so I think this is good business. I think it's important to keep these relatively smaller deals going through to keep us on a firm financial footing. 

Other options on the right flank, and while I would rather have 3 players rotating in this position, I think when it comes to young players who need to play more for their development, I think I am better off just working with 2 here and using a make-shift when I need to. 

(40c) Dumont (Driven) * is a wonderkid who just needs to play. 

(40b) Reta (Bal) * came through the same intake, (2040), and although he was initially ranked higher by PA, he's fallen behind slightly in the pecking order so * Gorka Martín (BAS) leaving could give him just the break he needs. 

(40c) Dumont (Driven) *.

(40b) Reta (Bal) *.

Our finances now look like this. 

We've got £50M+ in the bank for the 1st time, £28M in the transfer kitty to spend and £230,000 per week available to spend on new players. Things are looking very decent indeed financially. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2043.

An unbeaten September in the league is a little misleading. It means that we have only lost 1 domestic game in 8, and are no unbeaten in 6, but we have an (39b) Xabier (Res) * sized hole in the squad in terms of goals being scored. We've already had 3 0-0's and these are games that we would have won last season. 

Everyone else in the league has already conceded at least 2 goals and if you keep looking down, (no, further down. yep, a little further...) you will see that PSG are languishing in 13th and having already lost 3 league games this season, have conceded as many goals as they have scored after 8 games. 

After the real-life excitement of the Champions League this week, our debut in the competition has been a much quieter affair. 

We started off with a comfortable win against Basel and lost a REALLY tight 7-goal thriller against City b a single goal. I wondered how good City were, (because we looked to have been good going forward), so had a little look at their squad. 

Man City have 0 (ENG) players in their starting line-up and just 1 on the bench and 0 others in the senior squad. Uche Okoro was born in Nigeria but came through the Chelsea Academy before transferring to City for £35M. While that was a slight surprise, just have a look down the "value" column on the right hand side. 

The lowest valued player in the starting XI is £43M. 

The 20 year old Serbian GK on the bench is valued at £25M 

After that we have a 35 year old (ARG) DM who is worth £4.5M and a 32 year old (CIV) midfielder valued at £18M. I don't think I have ever seen a squad valued like this. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2043.

Losing to Lens obviously wasn't great, but 3 wins and a loss = 9 points which is more than our previous 4 games yielded, (8 despite going unbeaten). 

18 year old Big Dom scored his 1st league goal for the club and I should introduce you to new arrival Txomin (BAS) (Bal) who scored twice this month, (his 1st and 2nd goals. He is not my typical signing at all, but needs must and all that, so here he is. 

Txomin (BAS) (Bal).

He's not great, but he's scored 2 goals in 4 Ligue 1 games, (after 3 goals in 2 National 2-B games), and we only paid £525,000 for him. I couldn't find a striker I really liked, so I decided not to spend big on one and instead signed a couple who I thought might do a job at a push. He is the 1st one and I would say he has done ok so far. 

We are up to 3rd in Ligue 1, just a point off both Monaco and Marseille.

PSG are up to 9th, and are only 5 points off the top of the table. 

We picked up another win in the Champions League , but we're not really firing up front like we have been in recent seasons. 

That we have won 2 out of 3 games ins't a surprise. That the star-studded Man City team has somehow drawn their other 2 games 0-0 is.

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2043. 

Our goal-scoring problems seem to have been resolved, with 3 goals scored in 5 of our last 7 Ligue 1 games. 

JMM (BAS) (Bal) scored a hat-trick against Monaco in the last game, but the 3rd of them was a penalty that was saved and then the rebound converted. Despite leading Monaco 3-0, we still couldn't hold on to all 3 points and they fought back to draw 3-3. 7

After a brief stint at the top of the table, we have now fallen behind Lyon, although we do have a game in hand. 

We scored 9 goals in 2 Champions League goals in just 2 games this month, and that was enough to secure us qualification to the Knockout stages with 1 game still to play. 

Whether we qualify as Champions or Runners Up will depend on whether we can beat Man City at home. All they need is a draw to finish top of the group. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Job offer number 23. Dec 2043.

Jobs offered.

FC Metz while 10th in Ligue 2. Dec 2025.
Dijon while 20th in Ligue 1. Dec 2025.
Troyes while 17th in Ligue 1. Dec 2025.
AJ Auxerre while 11th in Ligue 1. Nov 2026.
Strasbourg while 20th in Ligue 1. Jan 2027.
EA Guingamp were 14th in Ligue 1. Jun 2028.
Stade Lavallois were 1st in Ligue 2. Jun 2028.
Lille while 12th in Ligue 2. Oct 2028.
FC Lorient while 6th in Ligue 2. May 2030.
Nancy while 20th in League 1. Jun 2030.
AC Ajaccio while 1st in League 2. Jun 2030.
FC Lorient(2) were 17th in Ligue 2. Jun 2031.
Stade Lavallois(2) while 17th in Ligue 2 in Aug 2031.
Nancy(2) while 6th in Ligue 2 in Dec 2031.
Italy National Team. Jul 2032.
Lille while 2nd in Ligue 2. Feb 2033.
Saint-Etienne finished 7th in Ligue 2. Jun 2033.
Italy National Team(2). Jul 2034.
RC Lens finished 15th in Ligue 1. Jun 2036
France National Team. Jul 2038.
Bordeaux while 2nd in Ligue 1. Mar 2041.
England National Team. Jul 2042.
Marseille while 12th in Ligue 1. Dec 2043.

[Jimbokav1971]

The best again? (I would swap it for a title). Dec 2043. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Dec 2043.

[Jimbokav1971]

Awards. Dec 2043. 

French Player of the Year. 

(39b) Xabier (Res) *.

You might notice that the player who came 3rd this year is Leroy (FRA) (F.Det) £. We signed him on a free and he scored loads of goals for our Reserves, but never played a single Ligue 1 game for us. This season he is on loan at Bordeaux where he has 0 goals in 3(8) appearances. This is obviously a bug and it must be counting his National 2-B goals in error. By the way, his history shows that he scored 63 goals in 49 appearances for the Reserves last season, but he only scored 35 so not sure what is going on there. 

Ligue 1 Foreign Player of the Year.

Bengoetxea (BAS) (F.Amb).

Ligue 1 Revelation of the Year. 

(41a) Jérôme (F.Det) (2041) *.

[scousevasey]

16 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

By the way, his history shows that he scored 63 goals in 49 appearances for the Reserves last season, but he only scored 35 so not sure what is going on there. 

Is it because it is a calendar year award, not a season award?  So he scored 28 goals between September 2042 and December 2042, then the 35 fall in the January-June part of 2043, with the lack of goals for Bordeaux also counting (or not as it happens)