Barnet: How High Can They Go?

[Hootieleece]

Excited to see who you bring in with a respectable transfer budget.

 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Excellent season Scott. And Stoke.

[scott92507]

Barnet spent £36.55 million on players who most likely will replace current starters. That means moving current backups off the roster in many cases, either through transfer or loan.

Monty needed to fix just two things: offense and defense. Oh, and the midfield.

His first goal was to fix the offense. Barnet could not score multiple goals. We won too many 1-0 matches and lost 2-1 matches.

So we picked up a striker, Warren, for £6.5 million. He is compared with the former #2 striker. He will play in rotation with Theo Mendes, who scored 11 goals for us last season. Stott will either ride the bench or get loaned out.

We also bought a new attacking center midfielder, Harkin (£7.75 million) , to supplant Payne as the starter.

 

Monty was not that unhappy with the left wingers, but the GM put in a bid on Periera (£4.2 million) and Monty decided to let it go through. He probably will take minutes away from Jack Harrison.

We needed more help on the right wing than on the left, but no opportunity presented itself. So we are moving Rhian Brewster from striker/winger to winger only on the right. He probably is not truly a Premier League-quality player, and we may need to shop at that position next season.

At  midfield, we bought Stannard (£8.5 million), who will probably be taking minutes from our only original Bee, Fonguck.

 

We needed to be stronger defensively in the corners, so we bought two fullbacks: Kalinowski (£6.5 million) and Gibson (£3.1 million). Gibson already has replaced Fleming, who was loaned out to Fulham.

One change is that, as a team, we got better at jumping reach and heading. So we should win some goals on corners this season. We scored very few that way last season.

Now we face the same problems as last year -- integrating new players into the team and dealing with all of the whining that will ensue.

Edited December 30, 2019 by scott92507

[Hootieleece]

Good Upgrades to all positions I believe. Make sure to have a weekly Teamwork session (Match Preparation) or Team Bonding (Extra Curricular) Session during your training to integrate all your new players.

 

@scott92507: Thought I would tell you B. Fleming is working out at DL-WBD for me in MLS as New England in 2025. Quite the crossing machine.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Hootieleece

[scott92507]

Hootie, Fleming has skills. For me he played inconsistently on defense.

Edited December 11, 2019 by scott92507

[Carambau]

Very sensible dealing. Hope it pays off in the end

[scott92507]

 

At the mid-season point, Barnet sits in 8th place, 5 points out of EURO Cup contention. So you think Monty would be happy, but he isn't. His team has played with little enthusiasm and at times with little intelligence. The team's defense is good, allowing 22 goals in 19 games, but its offense is terrible -- just 20 goals. The striker he spent 6.5 million on, Conner Warren, has scored no goals in 13 league games. The AMC he spent 7.5 million on, Mark Harkin, has been more productive: 5 goals in 11 games, but just 1 assist. Yet, somehow, the team has won more games than it has lost. Barnet has beaten nearly every team below it on the table. Its losses have been to Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, and Wolves. Barnet cannot expect to be beating teams like that yet (although the Bees did beat Tottenham).

Honestly, Monty does not know how to fix the broken offense. His team may simply not be fast enough to outrun defenses, and his midfielders may simply not be good enough to get the ball into the opponent's half after possession has been won. 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1, and 4-4-2 have not produced much. Perhaps 4-3-3?

Edited December 18, 2019 by scott92507

[scott92507]

I normally do not discuss an individual game, but...

The second half of the season started just as the first half did -- with a game against Wolverhampton. However, the game ended in a 1-1 draw this time, which felt like a victory, since the first meeting was a 2-0 thumping. The Wolverhampton striker, Michael Obafemi, was unstoppable in that first match, scoring a brace and running circles around our defense. Barnet was outshot 18-1 in that first game, and the Wanderers won possession 56%-44%. This game looked like a repeat of that game after Obafemi scored 13 minutes in, despite instructions to mark him and shut him down. So Monty pulled Wesley Fonguck back from his midfield defensive position to halfback, and he gave Fonguck the assignment of marking Obafemi specifically. This meant Fonguck was frequently out of position, but Obafemi had few shots on target after that and he scored no more goals. Barnet was outshot only 17-8 and won possession, 51-49. So that worked.

 

One complaint Monty has had this season is the lack of leadership or heroics. There has been no player who stepped up and carried the team, who had some dramatic influence on the outcome of a match. But in the 95th minute against Wolves, down 1-0, we had some key plays. Johnny Mitchell was a substitute at right back, and he secured possession and quickly go the ball to Mark Harkin, a playmaker in the center, who then passed to Jack Harrison, who was cutting inside from his left wing position. Harrison was playing at about 50% at this time because of a gashed lower leg, but he was not subbed out because Monty had used all of his substitutions. Despite that limitation, he ran into the penalty box, pulling the goalkeeper toward him, and then drove the ball toward the far post. Perhaps that will inspire the team for the second-half campaign.

Edited December 19, 2019 by scott92507

[scott92507]

For perhaps the second time this season, Barnet won two games in a row. This came when a frustrated Monty switched formations from his usual 4-2-3-1 control possession to 5-2-3 gegenpress. He gave up on scoring more. That doesn’t seem to be in the books for this season — the Bees have scored 3 goals only twice. So he decided to keep the other team from outshooting his team.

But those two wins secured Barnet from relegation. With 8 games left in the season, the Bees have as many points as all of last season.

And the board rewarded Monty with a Premier League-sized contract. Monty will start shopping for a penthouse apartment to buy.

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by scott92507

[Hootieleece]

How about Gengenpressing with 4-2-3-1 Wide?

That is my go to. I use the template and then scale back the TI's and tailor the roles to the team.

I also train two other formations with the same TI's just for variation if nothing else.

Need to work on the youth facilities.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Excellent season in progress with Barnet.

[scott92507]

 

Springtime in London and Barnet survived another season in the Premier League, improving its standing by flipping its results from the previous season. The Bees’ first year in the Premiership ended 13-9-16; their second season ended 16-9-13. And they moved up two places in the standings — 11th to 9th.

Of course Barnet was again one of the most profitable teams in the league. The improved standing meant increased prize money, and the team secured some lucrative sponsorships. Up from less than a million pounds last year to nearly 14 million.

Some of that money will be spent on improving the team’s youth facilities — a 2 million pound renovation is planned.

Edited December 29, 2019 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Before last season Barnet spent more than £30 million on several players to upgrade the team. It worked in that the Bees managed to avoid relegation. It did not work offensively, as the team struggled to score goals. They scored 3 goals perhaps twice. 

The Bees lacked a star, a key player around which to build the team. So Monty spent more than £30 million on one player, young right winger Luke Richards (Barnet’s first wonderkid), hoping that such a man could make the players around him better. Perhaps he could inspire better play, but also, practically, he could attract the defense’s attention and give other players freedom to operate. Monty paid a premium for him: he was valued at £24 million, but Barnet paid £33.5 million.

Richards was coming off what in the United States we would call a “rookie contract” — a player’s first professional contract that typically locks him into a relatively low salary for the first few seasons, even if he is a star. Richards went from about £750K per year to more than £3.5 million.

Needing some depth on defense, Monty purchased a veteran player, Ben Godfrey from Southampton for £9.75 million.

 

Did it work? At least through the first four games — yes.

In his league debut for Barnet, Richards was the Player of the Match, scoring two goals. However, the desire was for him to lift other players — and that seems to be working so far. Striker John Waters cost nearly £10 million to acquire last year, but he scored one goal all season. Against Crystal Palace, playing alongside Richards, he scored two goals. 

Granted, the first four games were not against top-of-the-table teams. Barnet probably beat them last season. But the increase in scoring was much celebrated.

And as for tactics, all four games were played in 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 gegenpress.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done staying up again Scott.

[scott92507]

I wish FMT19 tracked the attribute changes for staff members. I know Monty’s general manager has improved by 1 in Man Management only because I looked at an old save.

Having said that, I think Monty needs a new GM. His judging of player potential and player ability is 12 and 12. That seems mediocre for the Premier League. I have looked at other GMs in the league, and some have similar abilities, but none of them are at teams in the top half of the table.

And having said THAT, I wonder if there is an upward or downward tendency in the accuracy of GM’s assessment of players. The higher their attribute for this, the more accurate their assessments. But do they tend overrate or underrate players?

Edited January 4, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Barnet’s unreal season became decidedly real. After a 4-0 start with lots of goals, the Bees were 1-2-3 and the scoring dried up. Still, 10 games into the season they are in a EURO Cup spot. That probably will not last, but the lads should enjoy it while they can.

 

October was fun for awards, though. Our £33 million man won some recognition, as did one our loaned-out prospects and the team’s boss.

Edited January 4, 2020 by scott92507

[Hootieleece]

Richards looks like a player....

[Carambau]

Europa league 2 beckons

[scott92507]

Monty remains very frustrated with the play of his team. Two things in particular: the apparent inability to score -- we can outshoot our opponent 2-1 and still lose or draw -- and late lapses in defense. I am sure a lot of this is because the person driving Monty's decisions is still a football novice (I feel I am fairly astute on American football, but that comes with a lifetime of playing and watching). As I have noted before, the Bees lack a leader, a hero. Perhaps Luke Richards will develop into that. We shall see. He has worn the captain's arm band in some recent games.

So Barnet's recent Carabao Cup match against Newcastle was very frustrating and then suddenly very rewarding.  The Bees were down 3-2 going into extra time, and a late substitution apparently provided some inspiration. The team scored in the 94th and 95th minute to win, 4-3.

Richards won Player of the Match honors, with a goal and an assist, but Peter Stannard was the hero. He came in late, to replace Marc Harkin at center attacking midfielder. Normally, Harkin is one of our best players, but he was having a bad day and was very tired. Stannard came in and was involved in both of the late goals.

Barnet is in the semifinals of the competition now. They drew Wolverhampton for the next match. They will play Tottenham or Birmingham if they win.

In the first clip, Stannard passes to Richards, who crosses to Mendes for the header. In the second clip, Dominic Rea crosses to Stannard for the goal.

Edited January 9, 2020 by scott92507

[Hootieleece]

Nice Attacking Goals....now to do it more often!

[scott92507]

Mid-season:

 

This is one point better than last season at this time, but it is two positions higher.

Last season Barnet was -2 in goal differential at mid-season. Plus 11 is a good turnaround.

Edited January 6, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Luke Richards is no longer described as a ”wonderkid.” Now he is a “dynamic winger.”

Is this simply because he is now 21 years old? Or has the assessment of his potential changed? My staff rate his current abilities at 4.5 stars and his potential ability at 4.5-5 stars. However, my staff have scores of 12 for judging player potential. They may not be accurate. 

Also, his value has declined from £24 million to £18 million. His abilities have not changed since Monty bought him from Cardiff for £33 million (and Monty does not have buyer’s remorse). In fact, his abilities are trending upward.

Is his decline in value the result of his losing the “wonderkid” label? Are wonderkids generally overpriced since they may be looked at like an unscratched lottery ticket?

Edited January 6, 2020 by scott92507

[Nobby_McDonald]

Going very well Scott.

[scott92507]

The come-from-behind victory over Newcastle seems to have inspired the Bees, as that game started an unbeaten streak in league and cup games.

Waters is now third in the league with 12 goals. Harkin and Richards are tied at 8th (with many others) with 8 goals.

Barnet has 13 wins so far. They had 16 in all of last season and 13 in the season before.

Interestingly, in the fan sentiment information, the fans have no particular attachment to Waters and Richards. What will it take to win them over?

[scott92507]

The improvements on Barnet’s youth facilities are finished. The team’s youth level improved from 3 to 2. 

The board just agreed to expand the stadium — I call it Canons Park, but FMT19 will not let me edit that, so it remains Barnet Stadium in the game. It currently seats about 19,000 and is a very basic design. It looks something like Millwall’s stadium, except in orange.

A sensible expansion would be to close the corners. That would make it look more like Reading’s stadium.

But the game may not change the appearance of the stadium at all, or it might just add a deck. I wish the game gave us options on stadium appearance. Canons Park will seat about 22,000 after the expansion, which should be complete for the start of the next season.

When that is complete, Monty will request another upgrade of the youth facilities.

Edited January 8, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Barnet is headed back to Wembley Stadium. Early in Monty's career, he led the Bees to the finals of the Checkatrade Trade Tropy competition (they lost). Now he is headed back, but this time for the finals of the Carabao Cup competition.

Barnet beat Wolves on aggregate goals, earning the trip to Wembley to take on Tottenham.

Barnet was lucky in the earlier rounds, as the top-of-the-table teams kept drawing matches against each other. Manchester United (currently 2nd)  knocked out Chelsea (currently 3rd) and then Arsenal (currently 1st), and then they were knocked out by Tottenham (currently 4th), who also knocked out Manchester City (currently 5th). Barnet (currently 6th) also was assisted by Birmingham upsetting Liverpool (currently 7th) on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

This is crazy:

[Carambau]

18 hours ago, scott92507 said:

This is crazy:

You should be glad there are no Europa League legs between you both during those 8 days

Edited January 11, 2020 by Carambau

[scott92507]

I do not know if "isn't the best" is an English way of saying "is actually bad" or if it literally means "not the best," which could mean anything from good to bad.

But this assessment of Barnet's weaknesses suggests to me that the team sucks and Monty needs to rebuild everything. (I suppose the list of weaknesses is relative to the competition. Compared to Premier League teams, Barnet is truly mediocre. It is still a Championship League team, honestly.)

 

 

And finally

PS -- I would like to see a comparison of crossing success between games played with the match engine and games that are simulated. FMT19 suffers from the crossing glitch that many have complained about -- players waiting until they are well marked before attempting to cross the ball, so the ball bounces off the shins of the defender and out of bounds. I have not heard if this has been fixed in FM20. Is Barnet's success rate in crossing (11%) so dreadfully low because so many games have been played through the ME? Or do they just suck that badly?

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Another season, another rung higher on the ladder. Barnet finished in 7th place this season, winning two more games than last season.

The last month of the season was a battle against Everton for 7th place. It turns out they were a bit distracted; at the same time they were winning quarter final and semi-final matches to qualify for the final match of the EURO Cup. They lost to Sevilla, 1-0. Current IRL whiz kid Erling Haaland plays for them, and he finished second in EURO Cup scoring with 9 goals.

The Barnet three-game showdown with Tottenham was a draw. The first match was a 0-0 tie (league game); Barnet won the second match, 3-2 in extra time, to qualify for the quarter final of the FA Cup; and Tottenham won the third match, which was the Carabao Cup final, 2-0. Barnet faced a similar back-to-back schedule against Chelsea -- FA Cup Semi Final and then a league game three days later.

In the FA Cup, Barnet was selected as the biggest overachiever. That was probably true for the Carabao Cup, but I did not save that news item.

If the Bees had won the Carabao Cup, they would have qualified for a spot in the EURO Cup competition. But since Tottenham won AND qualified for continental play by their finish in the table, Barnet gets a EURO Cup seat anyway. (At least, I think that is how that works.)

The Board of Directors changed their minds about the stadium expansion. They had intended a modest addition of about 3,000 seats, but they switched to a more ambitious 9,000. Canons Park will seat about 28,000 when the work is done. (Playing at Brentford seems like a big inconvenience for the fans, doesn't it?)

Barnet turned a healthy profit again, with lots of activity in the sales and promotion office.

 

The transfer rumor mill has started for our young star, Luke Richards. Fortunately such rumors often never turn into offers, though they do cause the players to start asking for big raises. We shall see how the young man responds.

The new salary budget is £59 million, an £8 million increase. And the new transfer budget is about £72 million. Monty needs to get some better defenders all across the back.

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Monty went shopping.

He sought to upgrade both fullback/wingback positions. So he spent £16.5 million on Yilmaz Akgun, a Turkish giant from Everton, and he loaned in Jose Torres from Manchester City. One thing he liked about all of his new acquisitions was the lack of "cons" in their reports.

 

Monty also picked up two new center backs: Lucas Vega for £4.4 million (valued at £9.25 million) from Watford and Trevoh Chalobah for £16 million (valued at £18.25) from Brentford.

 

Luke Richards was the team's first wonderkid. Monty purchased the team's second with Tommy Docherty for £18 million from the Rangers.

 

Monty also brought in some young foreign players to develop: Bosnian Muhamed Halilovic for £3 million (valued at £3.8) from Huddersfield and Icelander Baldur Jonasson, who will join the team in October when his contract with Stjarnan expires (he has 5-star potential).

 

The Bees will need more depth this season, as they have the EURO Cup competition added to the already busy mix of league play, Carabao Cup and FA Cup competitions.

And finally, Monty hired a new general manager: Marc Overmans from Ajax. He has JPP and JPA ratings of 16. Our previous GM had ratings of 12.

Edited January 25, 2020 by scott92507

[Hootieleece]

Now that you have an AJAX GM will you become youth system oriented?

 

I also approve of all the Tall Players! It helps with Set Pieces.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Very good season again Monty.

[scott92507]

Although I have had some success with this Barnet save, I must admit that my team is not that much fun to watch. For a break I go back to my Ross County save (season 19 now) and play a few games because that team really flies around and plays some liquid football. But I realize playing in different leagues is probably a big reason for the difference in play. If my current Barnet team were in the Scottish Premiership, they might be flying around too.

By season 12 of my Ross County save, Angus MacDangus  had a player salary budget of about £23 million. He had managed to dethrone Celtic and win the league three seasons in a row. That meant the Staggies were playing in the Champions League each year and bringing home big prize money. He needed that prize money — his TV money was never going to rival Barnet’s. In fact, Ross County needs Champions League prize money to cover its expenses. And Barnet’s Premier League prize money far outweighs any prize money it earns from domestic cup competitions and what it might earn from the EURO Cup competition this season. The Scottish league prize money is tiny compared to English league. In season 12, Monty has a player salary budget of more than £50 million, and that is good for only 7th place.

In the comparison below, I was looking at Ross County season 11 vs Barnet season 11 (last season in both images).

Edited January 24, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

I finally downloaded FM 2020 that I bought weeks ago. My introduction of Football Manager thus far has been TM Touch 2019. The full game is pretty overwhelming. I cannot say I am ready for that, and I may never be. I will probably play FMT 20 for my next save.

Ten games into Barnet's fourth season in the Premier League -- and three games into Barnet's first ever EURO Cup competition.

The overall ratings of Monty’s first team look OK, but he is disappointed that neither of his strikers are team leaders. Barnet’s new giant fullback, 6-foot-4 Yilmaz Akgun, has a good overall rating, but he seems very inconsistent so far. He has performed very poorly in some games and he has yet to use his height effectively in set pieces. Monty needs to give him some special instructions for corners.

Finally, I wanted to give a shout out to Work the Space on YouTube. I have been following his Tow Law Town (lower, lower league team) save on FM20, a series he calls Park to Prem.

Edited January 25, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

I took a little break from Monty’s world and finished my 19th season with Angus in Ross County. Rewarding but frustrating. He hoped for a league season without a loss, but the Staggies lost one game late in the season.

As you can see, in Angus’s world Scottish soccer has risen in its status. More than half of the league can qualify for continental competitions. That rise is, I assume, in some part due to Ross County’s performance in the European Champions Cup. 

Angus’s 19th season in Dingwall was his most successful, sweeping all of the competitions and winning the league for the 11th consecutive time.

And Staggies dominated the European Champions Cup dream team.

But I will return now to Monty’s world and see if he can keep the Bees in the top half of the table of the Premier League.

Edited February 2, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Back to Monty's world.

Halfway through Barnet's fourth season in the Premier League.

Barnet is sandwiched between Manchester City and Stoke. If the Bees can hold on to 7th place, they might qualify for the EURO Cup competition again. That means more prize money and an increase in reputation, which will help recruiting. (Another upgrade in the youth facilities is in the works, and Barnet should have a 1 rating when it is completed.)

They face Liverpool in the quarter final of the Carabao Cup, so making it to the final again seems unlikely. The Bees face Olympique Lyonnais in the first knockout round of the EURO Cup. They finished the group stage undefeated.

As I noted earlier, I have been following Work the Space on YouTube with his series on Tow Law Town, a non-league team he has now worked into the Vanarama National League. He scouts players by manually scrolling through the youth rosters of national teams. So I did some of that myself, though Brexit makes picking up young players outside of the United Kingdom difficult. Monty found one diamond-in-the-rough on the Scottish National Team, and he bought him from Heart of Midlothian for 100K. He has 4-star potential. He has 1-2 star ability at the moment, so Monty will develop him in the academy or send him to an affiliate (York or Hampton & Richmond) once he arrives.

 

Right winger Luke Richards is now classified as a "world class player" in internal scouting reports, and rumors keep floating that PSG and Manchester United are ready to pay £54 million for him. Monty will try his best to keep him at Canons Park.

The directors must be happy with their expenses-paid trips to the continent for EURO Cup games -- they have given Monty another raise.

Edited February 5, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

It seems Kyle Young will not be coming to Barnet for another year or so. I thought he would transfer immediately. He is young, but he would be going from Scotland to England, and I thought that would not count as a foreign transfer. I hope Hearts do not ignore him, knowing that he will not be playing for them long term.

I think I misunderstood Work the Space’s method. I think he looks for you players with international caps through the Player Search function. I went through national team rosters manually looking for promising players.

[scott92507]

When Monty received his first £1 million pound p/a contract, he bought a 2-bedroom penthouse apartment (about £650,000).

Of course, he has decorated the balcony with plants so it is more appealing. (His wife chose the plants.) But he enjoys his views of Edgware and its surroundings. But now that he is making £4 million p/a, he is thinking of buying a house. The problem is, there is not a lot of ultra expensive homes in this part of London, and the high-priced homes are not very modern. He is looking at this Scandanavian-style home on north side of Edgware for about £1 million. It is not far from Canons Park.

He can afford to live in a pricier neighborhood, and plenty of those exist in London. But he wants to stay close to his roots. So whatever he  saves on buying a home, he plans to spend on travel with his wife. Ibiza, for example.

And he has traded in his Audi Q3 for a Jaguar EV SUV.

Edited February 14, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Barnet upset Liverpool and then beat Everton on aggregate to qualify, again, for the Carabao Cup Final. But the Bees lost to Arsenal, 2-0.

In the EURO Cup, Barnet is now in the second round of the Knockout Stage, facing Real San Sebastian. In the FA Cup, they are in the sixth round, which is really the quarter final, against Swansea. They got lucky in the draw, since Swansea is the only non-Premier League team at this stage. So the Bees have been doing very well in non-league play. This is re-assuring, as it suggests they have some actual quality and have not simply been riding luck in the Premier League. 

As you can see from the average ratings on the roster, the team is performing well.

Monty has been more conscious this season of managing the reserve team. He has been choosing the reserve lineup most often, scheduling friendlies, and using the reserves to keep senior squad players in match condition.

The team continues to hang on to 7th place, with the potential to reach 6th. Monty hopes this will continue and the team can qualify for EURO Cup play again.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

As I had reported, teams were knocking on Monty's door to buy Luke Richards. But Barnet locked him down with a £5 million p/a contract for 4 years and a £79 million release clause. The fans were delighted.

The team was not successful in keeping Michal Kalinowski, the starting right back.

Barnet bought him for £6.5 million three season ago, so they turned a nice profit on his sale. Barnet was not happy with his play, though, and the team was looking to replace him. But they wanted to have someone in place before they moved him. Now they are covering that part of the pitch with a wonderkid loaner, a backup, and a young player recently purchased from Celtic. None of them are Premier League quality players. Meanwhile, the staff continues hunting for a solution at right back.

The roster surprise of the season has been Terry Brown. He was picked up on a free transfer to provide backup to Marc Harkin as an attacking central midfielder. But Harkin has been injured for much of the season, and he has played poorly when he was not injured. Meanwhile, Brown has been having the best season of his career.

Monty sold off one of the Young Ones, Michael Butler, a member of the group he recruited when the Bees were in League One. The Young Ones were youth player castoffs from Premier League teams, and he was the only one to make it this far with the team. But this season he complained constantly about being a backup. Then he announced his plans to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season and turned in a 6.2 rating in an important match. So despite Butler's £2.2 million value, Monty slapped a £500K price tag on him and sold him to the first bidder, which happened to be Middlesborough in the Championship. (He has played 7 matches for them with an average rating of 6.57.)

For what it is worth, the only original Bee left is Mark Cousins. He was the goalkeeper when Monty arrived, and he has been the team's lead scout since he retired. Monty gave him a raise this season since his JPA and JPP ratings have improved to 15 each.

Edited February 9, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Despite beating Everton 4-3 on aggregate in the Carabao Cup semi-final, Barnet lost to them in the semi-final of the FA Cup. It was a tight game for 90 minutes, but in extra time the Bees’ goalkeeper must have decided he was ready to go home. In transition, he dribbled the ball out of the box and lost possession to the Everton striker, who was the only other player in the final third. That man walked the ball into the goal. Barnet wound up losing, 2-0.

In the EURO Cup, Barnet has reached the semi-final as well. They will play Athletico Bilbao after defeating Real San Sebastián (sorry, I do not have the name/license fix downloaded, but you know who these teams actually are).

Barnet tied San Sebastián in the first leg away, going up against 36-year-old Paul Pogba and 34-year-old Anthony Martial. And then hammered them at home.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Excellent result in the Europa League.

[scott92507]

In the next-to-last league game, the Bees moved into their newly renovated stadium. The game against Chelsea sold out -- 28,483 tickets. The Bees won, 2-1, and on the next day Chelsea fired their coach. Sorry, dude.

The game seems to fire managers easily. Chelsea finished in 5th place. That does not seem too shabby.

Canons Park Stadium was rather orange in its first version. It is now very yellow. The renovation did not close the corners, as I had hoped. It looks like the upper decks were enlarged all around, the exits were redesigned, and the roofs were replaced.

The end of the season schedule was mad busy. The last week of April had four games. The first week of May had four games.

Despite the player exhaustion and the free-flyer miles, Barnet held on to 7th place, securing a return to the EURO Cup next season -- and they beat Athletico Bilbao to reach the EURO Cup Final!

The only Barnet player in the top 10 stat-wise was Luke Richards, who finished the season with 10 assists. Kylian Mbappe led the league with 24 goals (he went to Manchester United in 2020 for 113 million). Barnet strikers, Connor Warren and John Waters, finished with 12 goals each.

The final player ratings suggest the team was playing well. Terry Brown was the big surprise of the season. Baldur Jonasson is the Icelandic teenager Monty picked up on a free transfer, and he performed very well in light rotation. I included the roster down to Grant Wright, a young center back Monty bought from Celtic to groom for the first team. He saw more action once CB Michael Butler was shipped off and after RB Michal Kalinoski was lured away by Roma.

Next up, Bayer Leverkusen in Turkey for the EURO Cup title. I find it funny that all of the social feed posts about the upcoming title match have the fans typing out the entire name of the Turkish stadium. Somehow that seems unlikely.

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

You know how some players feel that the game program cheats? People tend to not talk about when the program seems to screw the AI team. That is how this game felt. In the first half, Bayer could do nothing right. Before halftime, the Bees were up 4-0. I felt like I was cheating somehow.

The game felt like such a fluke that when it was over, I saved the file and then simmed the match 10 times. I played the same formation on the same offensive attitude: 4-2-3-1 gegenpress, cautious. However, for offensively strong teams, I adjust the formation. I pull the two midfielders back to DM/halfback and I pull the attacking midfielder back to midfield support. I also adjust one of the wingers to be an inside forward (that was Domenico Rea). The results? Barnet won 5 and lost 5. The games they lost were close: 0-1, 0-0p, 0-2e, 0-1, 0-1. Some of the games they won were blowouts: 2-0, 1-0, 5-2, 4-0, p0-0. In nearly all of the games, Barnet outshot Bayer 2-1. So ultimately, the victory seems justified, or at least reasonable.

So I guess Barnet is going to the Champions Cup next season.

Luke Richards finished the EURO Cup competition as the highest-rated player at 8.0.

Domenico Rea won Player of the Season for the EURO Cup, with teammate Trevoh Chalobah finishing third.

And three Bees were elected to the competition's dream team.

Edited February 13, 2020 by scott92507

[Hootieleece]

Chelsea Managers are required to win the League.... and do no worst than Champions League places so the replacement can get players in the summer Transfer window.

[scott92507]

England wants Monty to manage the national team.

I have not done this before in FM. Is it worthwhile? Is it a pain or too much to manage?

[Carambau]

Try it

[scott92507]

Perhaps I will play Welcome to the Multiverse again and have Monty manage England’s national team in one save and not in the other. I cannot see someone managing a Premier League team (including continental competitions) AND the national team. Sure, Monty would make an additional £4 million per year, but is £8 million that much different from £4 million (his Barnet salary)? He already makes more money than any human should, and it is more money than he knows how to spend.

So in the main save, Monty turned down the offer. He will concentrate on Barnet. In the other save, he will resign from Barnet and take over the national team.

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by scott92507

[scott92507]

Armed with a transfer budget of £120 million, Monty and his staff looked far and wide in the off season for two things: first-team left winger and first-team right fullback. They found neither.

They did sign a future potential first-team right fullback from Holland for £6 million. His current ability is 2 stars, but he has the potential for 3-4.

Monty was not looking for a midfielder, but one kind of fell into his lap. Vitor is a free transfer from Liverpool worth more than £35 million. And he is just 22. Cha-ching.

Terry Brown was a nice surprise last season, taking the place of Marc Harkin at attacking midfielder. Harkin seems to be on the decline, and he has become a whiner. Monty picked up a new player for that rotation after he noticed other teams bidding on a young player and joined the fray (£13 million). Leandro Brazan will need some time to develop, but he looks good. He played very well in Brazil, but his first season in the Premier League was not impressive — but look at his age. He will be fine.

Monty was not looking for a new defensive midfielder, but his general manager recommended someone and was willing to pay a lot of money for him. Let’s hope it works out. He played very well in France, but he could not break into the starting lineup at Manchester City. But we are not Manchester City. His preseason has gone well for us.

Another free transfer provides more options at center back. He did not perform that well for Wolverhampton, but perhaps he can thrive at Barnet. If not, he did not cost Monty much.

So far, Barnet’s academy has produced no starters. Not even steady backups. So Monty has been trying to load the pipeline by buying the rights to some teenagers who will join Barnet in a couple of years.

The Bees have looked good in preseason, actually playing some liquid football against teams like Real Madrid. Next game is the start of the league season against Watford.

Edited February 15, 2020 by scott92507