[FM19] French Lingerie - Acre State, Brazil

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, zlatanera said:

Upon seeing the Athletic Bilbao thread I've now taken to having free kick-taking goalkeepers - Alban Lafont got 3 in his first season taking them for my Dortmund team, 2 of which were winners  

I wouldn't do it with anyone below 12 free kicks though, unless I had nobody in the squad with 15+, as it would seem a waste. 

You are falling into the same trap as many others. 

If Messi And Ronaldo are no good at penalties in the game, (this was my thinking back in FM14), and they have 20 for penalties, technique and composure, and all the other attributes that seem in any way linked to penalty taking are also high, yet they keep missing, then maybe there is more to scoring penalties than these attributes, (or less for that matter). 

How the goal-scoring GK thing started was that someone said that the game was broken because he couldn't score with Messi. He said he couldn't even score penalties. He was annoying me so I told him something along the lines of "don't be so stupid, even my GK can score the odd penalty!" What followed was a seasons worth of my GK spanking in not just penalties, but also free-kicks.

My GK has scored 56 goals in a struggling team and he has the above attributes. I would suggest that when it comes to FM, you should think outside the box a little more and assume a little less. Things don't always work as you think they might, nor as they are intended.  

[scousevasey]

7 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

You are falling into the same trap as many others. 

If Messi And Ronaldo are no good at penalties in the game, (this was my thinking back in FM14), and they have 20 for penalties, technique and composure, and all the other attributes that seem in any way linked to penalty taking are also high, yet they keep missing, then maybe there is more to scoring penalties than these attributes, (or less for that matter). 

How the goal-scoring GK thing started was that someone said that the game was broken because he couldn't score with Messi. He said he couldn't even score penalties. He was annoying me so I told him something along the lines of "don't be so stupid, even my GK can score the odd penalty!" What followed was a seasons worth of my GK spanking in not just penalties, but also free-kicks.

My GK has scored 56 goals in a struggling team and he has the above attributes. I would suggest that when it comes to FM, you should think outside the box a little more and assume a little less. Things don't always work as you think they might, nor as they are intended.  

I have been getting my GK to do penalties in my current save, based on this experiment and reading threads over a couple of years.  My latest intake GK has something wonderful about him

When I look at all the players at the club he has the highest Penalty rating of everyone including attackers.  Unfortunately he isn't very good in goal...

[Jimbokav1971]

4 minutes ago, scousevasey said:

I have been getting my GK to do penalties in my current save, based on this experiment and reading threads over a couple of years.  My latest intake GK has something wonderful about him

When I look at all the players at the club he has the highest Penalty rating of everyone including attackers.  Unfortunately he isn't very good in goal...

Don't let a little thing like him being a rubbish GK get in the way of the fun and frivolities! 

[Edit]

I'm sure my GK has the hidden PPM "likes to palm the ball into the corner of his own net". 

Edited December 3, 2018 by Jimbokav1971

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

You are falling into the same trap as many others. 

If Messi And Ronaldo are no good at penalties in the game, (this was my thinking back in FM14), and they have 20 for penalties, technique and composure, and all the other attributes that seem in any way linked to penalty taking are also high, yet they keep missing, then maybe there is more to scoring penalties than these attributes, (or less for that matter). 

How the goal-scoring GK thing started was that someone said that the game was broken because he couldn't score with Messi. He said he couldn't even score penalties. He was annoying me so I told him something along the lines of "don't be so stupid, even my GK can score the odd penalty!" What followed was a seasons worth of my GK spanking in not just penalties, but also free-kicks.

My GK has scored 56 goals in a struggling team and he has the above attributes. I would suggest that when it comes to FM, you should think outside the box a little more and assume a little less. Things don't always work as you think they might, nor as they are intended.  

Point noted, but in this case I've got a pretty high budget so I need to set myself some restrictions otherwise I'd just swap my entire squad every time. 

Penalties are definitely one of the parts of the game most susceptible to our own biases - we, as supporters, tend to think of them as a guaranteed goal (unless an Englishman takes it in an international fixture) so when a "good" penalty-taker misses a couple for us we're outraged.

[Jimbokav1971]

Job offer number 4. Nov 2026.

Auxerre was actually a job that I would have taken under different circumstances. Very much a club set-up and geared-up for youth development. Hope they do well. 

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.

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2026.

We might be in 12th, but we are only 3 pts away from 15th placed Vannes OC who are in the relegation zone.

Above us, Grenoble & US Orleans haven't won in 6 games, and below us, Bescanon Foot have lost the last 8 league games, (but are still in the Cup).

GK Lesec (FRA) (Bal) scored his 5th and 6th goals of the season, (the 2nd goal a 90th minute winner against Vannes OC), to bring his career total to 60 goals.

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2026.

I was annoyed to lose to US Orleans. The minimum I expected was a draw. They hadn't won in 6 games until they beat us. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2027.

Surprise surprise, we won at home and failed to win away. Rather than showing you the normal league table I'm going to show the Home table and then the Away table and then the fill table. I#m expecting a marked difference.

Home. I knew we were doing well, but a little surprised we are doing quite this well, (although we've still conceded 14 goals in 10 games at home). 

Away. I'm not sure how bad this is going to be, but I'm expecting it to be VERY bad.

Christ that's bad. That's REALLY bad. 

Overall. I think it's safe to say that I need to do something differently when playing away from home. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Bidding frenzy. Feb 2027. 

FCSM are in with a bid of £175,000 for (23a) Aizpurua (Bal) (2023) *. We are £284k overdrawn though so whatever the next player goes for, I want it to be for more than that. I would also like to sell a couple of players at a time to give us a few quid in the bank so that I can upgrade the facilities and maybe go on a coaching course. 

Nimes have come in with the following bid and the board have accepted it. 

£120,000 + £59,000 in 2 installments, + £70,000 after 10 games, + £35,500 after 10 games, + 40% of re-sale value + income from friendly. 

So that's £284,500 + 40% of re-sale value + income a friendly. 

And what's our balance? 

Well that's that then. 

[DavidBeckham]

That Aizpurua loss is painful  

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2027.

GK Lesec (FRA) (Bal) scored his 7th and 8th goals of the season against Le Mans, (bringing him up to 62 career goals). 

I've adapted the tactic significantly to try and improve our away from. 

Sannois SG hammered us in the 1st away game with the new tactic, but 1 goal came from a direct free-kick, 1 came from an indirect free-kick and a 3rd came from a corner. I don't think you will be too surprised to hear that I forgot to set up my defensive set-pieces before this game. 

Dinon Lehon FC might be bottom, but we secured only our 2nd away clean sheet of the season, and with it earned a point.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

12 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

That Aizpurua loss is painful  

It is, but I have accepted that it's just the nature of the save at the moment. 

I'm not naive enough to think that the 3 players that the board have sold are going to be world-beaters, so what have we lost really? It's more disruption and annoyance that proper pain as it might be if a potential Worldclass play was flogged for a pittance. 

(20a) Rubén (F.Det) (2020) *.

(22a) Fabio (Unamb) (2022) *.

(23a) Aizpurua (Bal) (2023) *.

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 9. Mar 2027.

I used to have a decent idea what the intake was going to be like based on the initial message, but now it really doesn't give me much to go on at all. "Most gifted players to come through in recent years" hints at significant promise, but actually means very little in my experience with FM19 so far.

Well this looks pretty good. 2x 5.0 PA players and one of them is already at 3.0 CA. That's brilliant for now if now never mind about the future. (27b) Théo Garnier (F.Loyal ) * may not be the "Kriss" (27a) player, but he's certainly the one to watch with a CA that immediately puts him in line for 1st team selection, (as soon as he turns 16 that is).

You might notice that on Day 1 there are 3 players that I have nick-named with a "." after their name. (27g) (27j) & (27n) are not being offered Youth contracts. Partly this is as a result  of their Det levels being low, (4, 5 & 5), but it's not just that. I have also taken into account personalities, (which I know are linked to Det, (Casual, Unambitious & Unambitious), as well as positions, (ST, AMR & GK), as well as their PA, (2.5, 2.5 & 2.5), as well as their attribute balance and how many players we already have at the club in their positions but with better PA. 

"Kriss" (27a) Joseba (Bal) (2027) *.

We've recently started playing with a DM away from home, (and 1 less player up front), so a "Kriss" DM  at the 1st attempt is a result.

(27b) Théo Garnier (F.Loyal) *.

Théo is another DM and a fine-looking one at that. The only real negative thing about him is that his injury susceptibility is high which is a real shame. 

[Jimbokav1971]

CA & PA. Mar 2027.

CA.

While it's already been mentioned that a player who had only the 14th highest PA in his youth intake group, (22n) Garrido (F.Pro) *, now had the highest CA at the club, (that is still quite frankly astonishing), it's also surprising that 9 seasons into this save, we can have a player come through the Academy, (with no recent investment), who is immediately ranked 6th at the club by CA. (27b) Théo Garnier (F.Loyal) *.

The best 3 players at the club now, (by CA), are all youth products, GK Lesec (FRA) (Bal) and ST Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG * still up near the top. 

PA.

The best 2 from this intake are at the top of the list followed by players b, c, a, d, a, b, c, a, c, d, e, b, f, b, c, g, & e.

While (22n) Garrido (F.Pro) * is top of the PA charts, he is still only ranked 21st by PA which augurs well for our future. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2027. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2027. End of Season.

[turnip]

At the risk of stating the obvious, I think you need a tactic for Away games

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, turnip said:

At the risk of stating the obvious, I think you need a tactic for Away games

I have at least got one now. 

Now I just need a better one. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul, Aug & Sep 2027.

Despite the fact that we find ourselves in 8th after the 1st update, there are reasons for optimism. We were 4th before the Niort game, (which shouldn't have been in the update because it was played in October), and we have won an away game. 

More than just winning an away game though, our away form has been improved and we also drew sway to FC Quest37 and were beaten by a single goal twice. (The SSG game for example was a game that we should have won, but they scored with their only shot on target and we somehow came away with nothing). Niort are a Pro club and are likely to be close to the top come the end of the season. (They are one of 3 relegated teams this season). We are a million miles away from turning pro.

While we have improved away from home, things are still decent at home where we have won 3 of 4 games and the only game we lost was an opening day loss to our old friends Vendee Herbiers. 

Overall League Table. 

[Jimbokav1971]

4 GK goals this month. Oct 2027.

GK Lesec (FRA) (Bal) scored 4 goals this month to bring him to 6 for the season and 67 career goals in total. 

Brest, Bastias, Niort & FC Quest 37 are all Pro clubs in this and if we finish above even just one of them then we will be doing well. Teams like US Orleans, Vannes OC, Le Mans FC and Arras FA have done remarkably well be so competitive thus far. I expect them to drop off in the 2nd half of the season though and for Brest and the other Pro clubs to go on a bit of a charge. 

In terms of where we are, I think we are progressing nicely and I am liking the new tactic more and more, (although still looking to strengthen defensively). We are not looking to play for set-pieces, but we do seem to be benefiting from them.

If I had to be self critical right now though, I would say that our strikers are not pulling their weight and can do more. Our GK has 6 goals for the season, (and I think he lost 1 in another crash too), and the next highest scorer is a midfielder. Our top scoring striker only has 2 goals. There is a certain amount of rotation going on, but they need to score more between them, (although one of them does have 7 assists).

Edited December 9, 2018 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Too many draws. Nov 2027.

Lesec (FRA) (Bal) notrches his 7th and 8th goals of the season and brings him to a career total of 69 goals.

We had actually gone 5 league games without loss before the loss at home to US Orleans, but while that sounds decent, 4 of the 5 unbeaten games were draws. We also crashed out of the Cup. but I really don't care about that. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2027.

We were never going to get anything out of the Brest game because quite frankly they are on a whole different level to us right now. We needed 3 points against Bescanon and delivered comfortably despite the modest 1-0 scoreline. 

We have 3 games in Jan and 2 of them are against Pro clubs. We are going to have to make sure that we win the other game against SSG.

[Jimbokav1971]

Job offer number 5. Jan 2028.

Even if I wasn't keen to stay at Bayonne, I wouldn't have been overly keen to join Strasbourg.

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

[Jimbokav1971]

The arrival of (27b) Théo Garnier (F.Loyal) *. Jan 2028.

On 30th December 2027,  (27b) Théo Garnier (F.Loyal) * turned 16. He was rated the 6th best player at the club, (by CA), when he came through the intake, and despite never playing a single game for us, is already the best player at the club now, (rated by CA). 

Squad listed by CA.

FA Arras absolutely hammered us, but 4 points from the other 2 games nearly made up for it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day 10. Feb 2028.

I often say that "any intake with at least 1x 5.0 PA player is a good intake", and we have 1x 5.0 PA player but....... it feels a little rubbish to be honest. 

I might be clutching at straws, but when I look at the above list, by eye is drawn to (28g) Marcos López (F.Det). He has a (F.Det) personality and the powers at be say that Det is just as good as Pro when it comes to player development, (although I am not completely convinced). The main thing that makes him stand out however is that he has 1.0 CA rather than the 0.5 that he is surrounded by. There is no guarantee that he will turn out to have a better PA than those around him, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he just might. I will keep you updated anyway, whatever the outcome.

"Kriss" (28a) Maxence (Unamb) (2028) *.

(28a) Maxence (Unamb) (2028) * is a GK, and my current GK is 29yo Lesec (FRA) (Bal) who has 3.5 PA and is already maxed out at 3.5 CA, (as you would expect). We have another 5.0 PA GK prospect in (23e) Bouchez (F.Det) *, but 5 years older than (28a) Maxence (Unamb) (2028) *, he is only marginally better. While my plan was for (23e) Bouchez (F.Det) * to take over from Lesec (FRA) (Bal) in a couple of years, I think the new plan is that we will just skip  (23e) Bouchez (F.Det) * and go straight to (28a) Maxence (Unamb) (2028) *.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Christ they start young in France.

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2028.

I have recently been playing 343 at home and 442 away. We have improved a little, but we are still conceding too many goals. I will keep tweaking in an effort to sort that.

[Bigshow1]

Why the different formation away from home? Could you not just change a couple of roles/duties and play counter attacking up to your 3 forwards?

[Jimbokav1971]

5 minutes ago, Bigshow1 said:

Why the different formation away from home? Could you not just change a couple of roles/duties and play counter attacking up to your 3 forwards?

I suppose I could, (and in hindsight probably should), but as I was looking to try something different I started from scratch. In my mind the 343 is VERY attacking with the 3 defenders largely being left to do all the defending while the WB's attacked upfield. 

What I did 1st was drop 1 of the strikers to a DM position and alternated between a DLP and a DM role, but it wasn't effective and in the end I decided to scrap it and start from scratch. 

I have used 442 before, (although not for a while), and it just seemed easier. Complimenting full-back/winger relationships, a basic 2 in the middle and 2 complimenting strikers up front. Very basic tactical instructions, (I always tend to go very basic when I'm struggling) and I wonder how I was doing so poorly before.

I suppose what I need to do is go back and look at the 2nd tactic, (352), and remove all the team instructions and just start with a blank canvas. At the moment the 442 is working well though and has allowed me to play more players in wide positions rather than just in WB roles. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2028.

Following on from the reply to @Bigshow1, I think the change in formation between home and away games has been significant in terms of squad management even if we ignore tactics. By swapping from 3 to 2 strikers, we are effectively giving ourselves a chance to rest striker #3. More importantly than that though, it allows our wide defenders to play in more conservative roles to which they are suited better, and probably more importantly than that, for wingers to play in actual winger roles rather than me trying to shoe-horn them into either WB or ST roles. 

We've been on a really good run since I started to rotate the tactics properly, (I'm lazy), and I wonder if I had started earlier might we be challenging Niort for the Runners-Up spot.

There are just 4 games left now and we are on a charge.

US Orleans are flying high, but they have drawn the last 3 games, and I will be delighted with a point against top of the table Brest.

 

[Thebaker]

Personally i always use different tactics home and away with a more attacking one at home.  With a youth challenge and less choice with natural player positions it can make a lot of sense to do that.

Going to be tough to win promotion as it looks like you might need 9 points to do it, best of luck.

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm sure you are right @Thebakerbut the problem is I have become particularly lazy. While I don't have an issue of going through every player and editing their individual training, I'm basically too lazy to swap from 1 tactic to another for home/away games.

I'm so lazy that I couldn't even be bothered to alternate tac5ics initially and instead played the new 442 tactic both home and away. The problem with that was that it was just a rubbish as playing the home tactic away. 

You have to remember that I'm REALLY lazy. I'm not paying much attention to scouting. I was shortlisting & scouting Basque players, but decided to stop because of a mixture of cost-cutting and the fact that I'm just too lazy). I'm also using the IR button rather than watching matches, (again too lazy), and I'm not even a little concerned with individual results, and instead, just so long as there is a general upwards trend, then I'm happy.

I think it's pretty obvious though that while I can dodge/delegate/ignore a lot of stuff, I can't ignore the difference between home and away form.

I know I shouldn't write this, (the FM Gods are always watching), but I seem to have resolved my laptop issues and the game is no longer crashing on a regular basis. 😎

[Thebaker]

58 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I know I shouldn't write this, (the FM Gods are always watching), but I seem to have resolved my laptop issues and the game is no longer crashing on a regular basis. 😎

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2028.

You would think that I would know by now not to comment openly about how well things are going. The FM Gods are always watching and ready to being you crashing back down to Earth when things are going well. 

Grenoble absolutely battered us. I mean completely and utterly battered us. Any lingering hope we had of promotion was completely dashed with this record defeat. 

[Njeroe]

Interesting read, hope you can get promoted soon! Seems like you're being held back financially being unable to upgrade your youth recruitment. How's the overall team looking? Getting stronger or more or less stable?

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Njeroe said:

Interesting read, hope you can get promoted soon! Seems like you're being held back financially being unable to upgrade your youth recruitment. How's the overall team looking? Getting stronger or more or less stable?

Yes, we are certainly being help back by financial constraints. Not just in terms of finances which mean that we are unable to improve facilities and the quality of youth intakes, but also in terms of reputation which is currently not high enough to attract Spanish Basques. The third thing which shouldn't be ignored is that I think I started with 0 badges, (or certainly minimal badges anyway), and while I think I have been sent on 1 course, (at the very start of the save), I obviously haven't managed to get myself sent on one since and this causes to keep my personal rep down. 

In terms of how the team is looking, I'm not really sure how to judge it. I personally think that we are significantly improved from where we were early in the save and I think the best way to show that is as follows. 

The following picture shows Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG * on Day 1 of the save. 

It was taken from the following picture on page 1 of this thread showing that he was the only 5.0 PA player at the club at that time. 

So he was a 3.5 CA 5.0 PA player. 

He is now a 3.5 CA 3.5 PA player at the age of 29, (so should still be peaking and shouldn't have started declining yet).

So the best player (in terms of PA), at the start of the save, is now rated as 2.5 CA.

The next question is how many players we have better than 2.5 CA stars now in Apr 2028?

So in terms of CA, we have 32 players who are rated better now than the player who had the best PA at the start of the save. 

It should be mentioned at this stage that the only players who remain from the squad that I inherited are Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG *, GK  Lesec (FRA) (Bal), back-up GK Íñigo (BAS)  (F.Pro) who has never made an appearance for the Senior team and González (BAS) (F.Det) *.

Now let's have a look and see how many players we have who have a better PA than 3.5.

We have 24 players at the club with 5.0 PA.

We have 13 more players with 4.5 PA.

We have 18 more players with 4.0 PA.

So we have 24 players with 5.0 PA + 13 players with 4.5 PA + 18 players with 4.0 giving us 55 players rated at 4.0 PA.

I could go on and show you the 11x 3.5 players and the 18x 3.0 players and even the 1x 2.5 PA player who is higher than Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG * in the CA rankings, (bringing the total to 85 players with better PA now than the player with the best PA that we inherited. 

I would say that's enormous progress, but we still inly have 2 meagre promotions to show for it. Even now we are still very much PA rather than CA based.

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2028.

Something has just happened for the very 1st time that has just given me another way in which to show you how the squad has developed over the course of the save. 

We started off in N3 - Nouvelle-Aquitaine and after finishing 3rd in the 1st season, we were promoted as Champions in the 2nd season. 

This season, 2027/28, our Reserve side played in a competitive league for the 1st time. I don't know what the "trigger" was, only that it was met and that our Reserves played this current season at the same level that we started the save at in 2018/19.

So, considering that they were completely managed by the AI, (there is a dedicated Reserves Manager), how did they do I hear you ask?

That's correct. Our Reserves are now better than our Senior side was at the start of the save. 

 

[Thebaker]

You need to be careful the board don't think Kevin Martin is doing a better job , although that league looked easier this year.

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

You need to be careful the board don't think Kevin Martin is doing a better job , although that league looked easier this year.

I'd be more concerned if they were looking at employing my Ass Man. I've gone through a string of them already during the save and they have all gone on to become Managers in their own right. (Probably influenced by the fact that they are basically Managing this club anyway). 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2028.

Brest are way too good for us and we were never going to beat them, but we bounced back with a good away win against VH.

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season 2028.

French National League. 

Reserves. National 3 - Nouvelle - Aquitaine.

U19's. There are still not in a competitive league at U19 level.

Overall Best XI.

Seasonal Best XI.

End of Season Awards.

Season Review.

Dynamics.

Confidence Review.

Finances.

[Jimbokav1971]

Manager of the Season. May 2028.

Franck (BAS) (Bal) has a nickname because he used to be my Ass Man and has now gone on to be manager of Grenoble. He was our Reserves Ass Man, then the Reserves Manager, then my Ass Man before he took the Bergerac job and then moved on to Grenoble, (who smashed us 7-1 at the beginning of April.

Stéphane Ruffier (BAS) is someone who was mentioned on page 1 of this thread by @BoxToBox as a potential transfer target, (but although I scouted him, I wasn't keen on signing him). He's a Bayonne fan, (he comes from Bayonne), but only spent 1 season with is on loan from Monaco.

[Jimbokav1971]

Part of the Furniture. Jun 2028.

[Jimbokav1971]

Job offer number 6. Jun 2028.

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,

[BoxToBox]

6 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Stéphane Ruffier (BAS) is someone who was mentioned on page 1 of this thread by @BoxToBox as a potential transfer target, (but although I scouted him, I wasn't keen on signing him). He's a Bayonne fan, (he comes from Bayonne), but only spent 1 season with is on loan from Monaco.

FM doesn't mention it, but Monaco actually bought him from Bayonne's youth academy.

[Njeroe]

18 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Yes, we are certainly being help back by financial constraints. Not just in terms of finances which mean that we are unable to improve facilities and the quality of youth intakes, but also in terms of reputation which is currently not high enough to attract Spanish Basques. The third thing which shouldn't be ignored is that I think I started with 0 badges, (or certainly minimal badges anyway), and while I think I have been sent on 1 course, (at the very start of the save), I obviously haven't managed to get myself sent on one since and this causes to keep my personal rep down. 

In terms of how the team is looking, I'm not really sure how to judge it. I personally think that we are significantly improved from where we were early in the save and I think the best way to show that is as follows. 

The following picture shows Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG * on Day 1 of the save. 

It was taken from the following picture on page 1 of this thread showing that he was the only 5.0 PA player at the club at that time. 

So he was a 3.5 CA 5.0 PA player. 

He is now a 3.5 CA 3.5 PA player at the age of 29, (so should still be peaking and shouldn't have started declining yet).

So the best player (in terms of PA), at the start of the save, is now rated as 2.5 CA.

The next question is how many players we have better than 2.5 CA stars now in Apr 2028?

So in terms of CA, we have 32 players who are rated better now than the player who had the best PA at the start of the save. 

It should be mentioned at this stage that the only players who remain from the squad that I inherited are Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG *, GK  Lesec (FRA) (Bal), back-up GK Íñigo (BAS)  (F.Pro) who has never made an appearance for the Senior team and González (BAS) (F.Det) *.

Now let's have a look and see how many players we have who have a better PA than 3.5.

We have 24 players at the club with 5.0 PA.

We have 13 more players with 4.5 PA.

We have 18 more players with 4.0 PA.

So we have 24 players with 5.0 PA + 13 players with 4.5 PA + 18 players with 4.0 giving us 55 players rated at 4.0 PA.

I could go on and show you the 11x 3.5 players and the 18x 3.0 players and even the 1x 2.5 PA player who is higher than Romain (BAS) (Bal) HG * in the CA rankings, (bringing the total to 85 players with better PA now than the player with the best PA that we inherited. 

I would say that's enormous progress, but we still inly have 2 meagre promotions to show for it. Even now we are still very much PA rather than CA based.

Thanks for your explanation. Really interesting to see how the player group has evolved.

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

FM doesn't mention it, but Monaco actually bought him from Bayonne's youth academy.

I love stuff like that. Thank you. 

[Reggiana]

It seems like reserves have to be at least 2 tiers below senior sides, so it wasn't until you were promoted to your current division that reserves were eligible for promotion to a playable league. I assume at that point they are treated the same as every other club at that level and have a chance based on their rep of being one of the promoted teams.

Will be interesting to see if it helps speed up your youth development at all, you'll have a lot more players playing competitive football.

[Jimbokav1971]

Job offer number 7. Jun 2028.

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.

[Jimbokav1971]

On 15/12/2018 at 19:09, Reggiana said:

It seems like reserves have to be at least 2 tiers below senior sides, so it wasn't until you were promoted to your current division that reserves were eligible for promotion to a playable league. I assume at that point they are treated the same as every other club at that level and have a chance based on their rep of being one of the promoted teams.

Will be interesting to see if it helps speed up your youth development at all, you'll have a lot more players playing competitive football.

I think it certainly is helping. We seem to be developing nicely across the board. 

I'm still not sure when the U19's get into a playable league. Fingers crossed for..... actually I have just checked and our U19's are in a playable league for the 1st time in 2028/29.

Rennes U19's have win the league for the last 3 seasons, so it will be interesting to see how much of a hiding they give us. I think this is going to give our development another boost. 

Edited December 16, 2018 by Jimbokav1971