[FM20] It was Cambrogi in Wales, but now it's all about aggression in Wales, in England. Bellicosity, pugnacity and belligerence are all excellent words. But Welsh belligerence, in England now.

[Jimbokav1971]

I've been struggling along with my Scandi-Nordic save, but I just wasn't feeling it for some reason and have hardly played since Christmas until recently. The Joint Save got me interested in FM again and I started playing the Scandi-Nordic save, (and it was ok), before absolutely falling in love with FM all over again during a really brief spell managing Rijeki in Croatia in the Joint Save.

But my stint in charge of the Joint Save is over and I just can't go back to Scandi-Nordic land. 

There have been a couple of threads that have really piqued my interest. I'm a huge @Makoto Nakamurafan and as long as he is managing in the right leagues, I love reading his stuff. Similarly @smp20is someone who's threads I always take an interest in. They are managing in Faroe Islands and Wales respectively, and when each started I felt a huge sense of envy that they were managing there and I was "stuck" in Scandi-Nordic land. 

Oscar Wilde famously said.....

Others less well known have been less polite. 

With the above advice ringing in my ears, I have been too much of a chicken to risk direct comparison with @Makoto Nakamurabut have foolishly decided that comparisons with @smp20should be risked. 

I am playing in Wales. 

More than that I am going on holiday for a year and taking over a newly promoted club in either the JD Cymru North, or the JD Cymru South. (Yes, that's exactly what @smp20did in his Monmouth save, but what have we just said about imitation again?  (I should point out that Monmouth were again one of the promoted sides, but even I couldn't go that far). 

Edited June 13, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

I was looking for inspiration in terms of which team to pick, (anyone but Monmouth right), and when I saw the club culture at Ton Pentre I was immediately sold. 

It's only "favoured" rather than set in stone, so if I signed a single older player I don't think it would get me the sack, but at the same time it's something that I plan on sticking to. 

They have a rich history and in particular I like the fact that despite being founder members of the League of Wales, they refused to take part in it's 1st season, preferring instead to gain access via the old fashioned way. Promotion. 

A "big club" in Wales, they have since fallen on hard times. 

The Squad. 

Things are not looking good. I thought I had ticked, "add players to playable teams" to avoid this, but either I didn't or it didn't work, but for whatever reason this is what we've got. 

We have 12 players, but I've no idea how good they are because I don't have an Ass Man, or any staff for that matter. 

My plan is as follows. 

1. Get the Chairman to appoint a DoF. 
2. Get the DoF to appoint other staff. 
3. Get the DoF & other staff to scout and sign players. 
4. Press the IR button a fair bit. 
5. Get my GK to score lots of goals. 
6. Press the IR button a bit more. 
7. Get really good at scoring goals from Long Throws.
8. Press the IR button some more. 
9. Win the JD Cymru South League. 
10. Press the IR button a lot more. 
11. Qualify for Europe. 
12. Press the IR button a little more. 
13. Win the JD Cymru Premier. 
14. Press the IR button loads more. 
15. Completely dominate the Welsh structure. 
16. Completely dominate Europe. 
17. Take over the World. 

That should keep me busy for a couple of months...... 

[Edit]

This idea doesn't seem much of a challenge so I have given myself absolutely no badges and just Sunday League reputation. This should be a piece of ****. Right? 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

June 2040.

This is going swimmingly. If I'd known it was going to be this easy I would have started this save ages ago. 

• Get the Chairman to appoint a DoF.

• Get the DoF to appoint other Staff. 

Now that we have some staff, this is their opinion on our squad, such as it is. 

7x 5.0 players? 

On the plus side, this means they are going to improve. 

On the down side, these are our 2 best players, (by CA). 

The DoF has made a rake of signing, and they generally seem to be very well received by the fans. 

GK given an A-.

SC given a B-.

MR given a B-.

MC given an A-.

ML given a B+.

DL given an A-.

MR given a B-.

DC given a B.

MC given a B.

MC given a C+.

SC given a C.

MC given a B-.

SC given a B-. 

They seem to be easily pleased. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Pre-season. Aug 2020. 

Everything seemed to go quite well. We almost have a squad that I'm happy with, our GK scored a penalty in a friendly and we are hammering goals from long throws. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2020.

It's been a pretty impressive start. Pontypridd are expected to finish 7th in our league and we beat them in the Cup, and then we went on and beat Newtown, (who finished 7th of 12 in the JD Cymru Premier), on penalties, so we are surprisingly still in the Cup. 

We're unbeaten in the league but it's still very early days yet. We are playing on the biggest pitch, (long and wide), that I have ever seen, and I'm not sure if this is helping or hindering us. We took the significant scalp of Afan Lido away, who are pre-season favourites for the title and who are playing in Europe this season after somehow winning the Cup last season while in this league, (where they were Runners Up).

Ryan Evans scored a penalty against Afan Lido, but unfortunately he isn't a GK. I had both GK's at the club set as penalty takers, but then we went and signed a new 1st choice GK and I forgot to set him as a taker. I have changed that now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sept 2020.

We're still unbeaten in the league after 7 games, but we are out of the Cup after a defeat on penalties to Cwammanammanamman or something like that, (who are a lower league club). I rotated the squad and technically we drew, (so are still unbeaten), but either way we are out of the Cup. 

We're still very much a work in progress and have weaknesses everywhere. Fortunately so does everyone else it seems. 

Manager of the Month.

Team of the Month. 

Rano score a penalty against Swansea Uni and then another which was the winner against Pontypridd. He would have had a chance to take a 3rd, but Parry was on a Hat-Trick in the Cup and thankfully converted to send us to penalties. 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2020.

Even playing a striker in goal, (yes really and don't ask why!!!), couldn't end our unbeaten run as we progressed in the Cup, (the Main Cup), and retained our position at the top of the table. 

Team of the Month.

We're unbeaten at the top of the table and nobody except our GK is getting in the team of the month. Am I rotating too much perhaps?

After 2 from 2 penalties, Rano now has a direct free-kick to the collection.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2020.

Well we're not losing and are still in the Cup, but we're still not firing on all cylinders. We should be beating the likes of STM Sports at least. 

Jano notches his 4 goal, (3 from 3 on penalties).

 

[Thebaker]

you maybe should have gone for Scotland or N Ireland, its a bit more competitive especially in the top division.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Thebaker said:

you maybe should have gone for Scotland or N Ireland, its a bit more competitive especially in the top division.

I've done a N.Ireland save to death and Scotland doesn't really appeal. 

I know this won't be very competitive, (once we topple TNS), but we're a long way from that now. 

I quite like the idea of two very different challenges in terms of domestic and European. Will also be good to set some ridiculous targets. 

I also want to speed through things pretty quickly. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Preview. 

I got a pretty rubbish intake at Rijeka who had great facilities, and now I have just about the worst facilities of any club I have ever managed and I appear to have a decent intake. I suppose everything is relative and the standard of player I have here now is appalling. 

• A decent full back. 
• Good centre mid. 
• A Dane in the middle of the pitch! 
• A real Golden Generation! 

We will see.......

ps. Just as a reminder as to what our facilities are like. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Just like Buses. Dec 2020.

I will be honest with you and admit that I had already started to have ideas about going through the season undefeated. It wasn't to be. 

I think it's fair to say that the squad reacted poorly to our 1st defeat of the season. 

It was a surprising time to be offered a new contract. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2021. 

We lost the 1st game of this month to make it 4 losses in a row. I will be honest, I was starting to panic. Although we eked out a draw against Swansea Uni, I wasn't happy and opted to drop an AF and replace him with a RGA. It didn't matter that we didn't have a decent Regista at the club, that's what I wanted so that's how we set up. It paid instant dividends against West End in the Cup as my new Regista and a centre-half both scored a couple of goals each, and then we kept a clean sheet against Monmouth. 

We've stopped the rott, but the reality is that we weren't as good as our top of the table exploits suggested. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2021.

While I might be a little disappointed that we have  fallen away somewhat after our unbeaten run ended, the truth is that we are still HUGELY over-performing. We got to the Semi-Final of 1 Cup and are in the Semi of another, (where we will play Conwy who are in the relegation zone in JD Cymru North), and we are just a little off the pace in the league. We've conceded FAR too many goals, but 14 goals conceded in 3 games doesn't help things and anyway we have just kept 3 clean sheets on the bounce, including notably Barry who sit 3rd in the JD Cymru Premier. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2021.

An unbeaten month is great, but draws don't win you titles I'm afraid. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. Apr 2021.

A Golden Generation? We will see. 

At the moment I'm offering everyone contracts, (or non-contracts would be more accurate), but I've just had an interesting idea for this save. 

Let me show you what I'm going to do. 

I've added 2 new columns that we don't usually see. "CA" and "PA". The reason that I can add them is because I have access to the editor. Usually I wouldn't add them, but on this occasion I'm going to so that I can use it to dispel a few myths. 

I've nick-named all the the players in the order that I would usually do, (ranked by PA), in fact just hold on for a minute. What I usually do is rank them by PA and say that's what I've done, but that's not actually accurate. What I do is rank them by PPA (perceived PA), which isn't the same at all as PA. Let me show you. 

So the above pictures show the players ranked by PPA. 

Now let's rank them by proper PA. 

How different are they? 

Well quite a lot actually. The top of the new PA list is c, e, o, h, l, k, f. d and then a. So the player that we thought was the highest ranked by PA, is actually ranked 9th of 17 by PA. 

That's not at all surprising to me, but it might surprise a few of you. 

Let's look at the bottom instead. j, m, n & p are still close to the bottom, but look at where o is now. He's up there ranked 3rd. 

In the grand scheme of things though, the reports aren't that far out. There are only 3 players ranked 4.5 PPA and the other 13 players are ranked 5.0 PPA. Of these, the only 1 that's actually wrong is (21o) Dean Williams, (so not as bad as it might have been).

The other think that needs to be pointed out is the blatant inaccuracies.

Let's have a look at (21n) Sam Harrison.  His CA is 10 and is PA is 11. We know that now. It's fact. That being said, why does he only have 0.5 PCA and 4.5 PPA?  There is a single point between CA and PA, so how are there 4.0 stars between PCA and PPA? It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense because it's wrong. The star system is inaccurate. 

Anyway, now that we have discussed the difference between PCA & PPA, CA and PA, let's move on to the players. 

(21a) Kong (HKG) *.

He's top of the list, but he doesn't actually look great. 

(21g) Wayne Clarke.

This is the player who looks most likely to play for the Senior Team first. His attribute balance is just more effective than any of the other players. I really like him despite the fact that he came though ranked 7th. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2021. 

We had a great start to the season, but the truth is that we simply weren't anywhere near good enough to challenge right at the top. Champions Afan Lido have a completely different level of player to us. I'm delighted with how we did in the league and I'm happy with both Cup runs, (although it would have been nice to make the Final of the JD Welsh Cup. 

Developed Club Culture. 

This is what the old club culture was. I haven't been involved with the signings that we've made, (I've left it completely to the DoF). Because of this I think, (and because it was just favoured with 1 bar), the board have decided to dispense with it. 

Instead they have introduced two more areas of importance. Both of these are based on the way we have actually played this season, (which makes sense). They are taking their lead from me. 

Season Review. 

Best XI.

We've already lost 2 of the recent Youth Intake. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Other Welsh Clubs. 

TNS won the JD Cymru Premier League by 13 points. 

Swansea and Cardiff are still in the Championship. 

Newport Co were promoted via the League 2 Playoffs so will play in League 1 next season.

Wrexham were Runners Up in the Conference National so will play in League 2 next season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Progress. Jul 2021.

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2021. Pre-season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2021.

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2021.

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2021.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Preview. Dec 2021.

Of the 16 players promoted in the last intake, only 5 are still at the club after all 16 were signed to non-contract terms.  

[Jimbokav1971]

Job Offer #1. Dec 2021.

They are currently 11th in JD Cymru South. (We are 3rd). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov & Dec 2021.

Apologies. Forgot to post at the end on November. 

 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2022.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Pob lwc Jimbo.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Pob lwc Jimbo.

 

Diolch yn fawr iawn, 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2022.

Manager of the Month.

Our recent form has been great, and it's largely down to me managing to sign a TM to change our style in the final third. 

I've got his personalised instructions down as playing as a TM on both the left and the right, but for some reason he has played twice as an AF, (although his debut was my fault I think).

Either way, his most recent performance was as an AF, but the stats suggest that he performed well, (if we ignore the fact that he was permanently offside).

[Jimbokav1971]

March 2022.

Team of the Month. 

[DazRTaylor]

Very interesting re CA/PA of your youth intake.  It would be interesting to see this repeated at a club whose HoYD has 20/20 on JPA/JPP.

[turnip]

35 minutes ago, DazRTaylor said:

Very interesting re CA/PA of your youth intake.  It would be interesting to see this repeated at a club whose HoYD has 20/20 on JPA/JPP.

 

Here's what I did when I looked at my intakes at the end of my FM 19 save with 1860 Munchen, with a very good HOYD.

Column 1 = how the players were rated by my HOYD; Column 2 is how they actually rated, by PA; Column 3 is their PA

[Jimbokav1971]

12 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

Very interesting re CA/PA of your youth intake.  It would be interesting to see this repeated at a club whose HoYD has 20/20 on JPA/JPP.

Well I plan on continuing it for every Intake in this save so you never know. 

I've wanted to do this for ages but don't usually even have the Editor. This year I have the Editor to try and work out what was going on with the Facilities, (there was a big bug where the facilities that the game said you had, weren't actually the facilities that you had), but that's been resolved now anyway. 

11 hours ago, turnip said:

 

Here's what I did when I looked at my intakes at the end of my FM 19 save with 1860 Munchen, with a very good HOYD.

Column 1 = how the players were rated by my HOYD; Column 2 is how they actually rated, by PA; Column 3 is their PA

1. They are VERY good intakes. 

2. I don't think we should have a problem with a little inaccuracy. (I don't even think we should have a problem with a lot if inaccuracy actually). I just want everyone else to understand how it works. 

3. They are VERY good intakes. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. Apr 2022. 

So here we are ranked by PPA. 

And now here we are ranked by PA. 

Now there are a few things here that I should point out in mitigation. First of all our facilities are very poor, and with that we should expect our Intakes to be very poor, and because of the poor quality it means that there is a much smaller gab between the worst and the best player, and as a result it's harder to note the differences. The easiest thing to point out is that where as last year we had I think 3 players who didn't have 5.0 PPA, this year we have absolutely none. 

That being said, there are some significant inaccuracies here. 

(22l) have CA of 14 and PA of 15. That a big error. 

Likewise (22g) and (22n).

We don't have an awful lot to go on at the moment and I would expect that everyone would sign all players in these circumstances. As the margins become finer and as finances start to become an issue, I think that answer will be less straightforward and it will get more interesting then. 

Would everyone sign all players from this intake, or would some things be a turn off? 

[DazRTaylor]

20 hours ago, turnip said:

 

Here's what I did when I looked at my intakes at the end of my FM 19 save with 1860 Munchen, with a very good HOYD.

Column 1 = how the players were rated by my HOYD; Column 2 is how they actually rated, by PA; Column 3 is their PA

Intake six was mental.

[Thebaker]

I'm surprised by the single euro nationalities coming through.  Playing in the lower leagues of N Ireland and England its very rare to see that sort of nationalities come through, there are some dual nationalities.

I think the ass or HOYD make errors with the youth as either they have poor judging abilities or simply assume a pa is a certain amount greater than the ca when in fact its almost the same.

[Jimbokav1971]

15 hours ago, Thebaker said:

I'm surprised by the single euro nationalities coming through.  Playing in the lower leagues of N Ireland and England its very rare to see that sort of nationalities come through, there are some dual nationalities.

I think the ass or HOYD make errors with the youth as either they have poor judging abilities or simply assume a pa is a certain amount greater than the ca when in fact its almost the same.

Yeah, I was surprised by the Dane in the 1st intake and then even more surprised by the German in the 2nd intake. 

I completely agree that we should expect "some inaccuracies" in Day 1 Youth Intake reports, no matter what the level of staff, and yes the inaccuracies should increase as the level of staff decreases.  

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season Update. Apr 2022.

If we had won either of our last 2 games, we would have been crowned Champions. As it is we won neither and are crowned losers. 

I will admit that I was particularly gutted to miss out on promotion. Had we won either of our last 2 games we would have been Champions. We completely bottled it. Is this the cost of having such a young squad I wonder. 

Still, this year we are going to smash it. Right! RIGHT! 

Overall Best XI.

New Records.

[Jimbokav1971]

Pre-Season. Aug 2022. 

Usually when your own U19's beat the Senior team it's a bad thing. Here I'm hoping it might suggest that some of our youngsters are decent, are on the right path and could make an early impact. 

Aug 2022. 

The league campaign started off in decent fashion, but we lost the last 2 as 1st we had a player sent off after 11 mins, and then against Cwmbran we came up against an English striker called Tom Meechan (ENG) who looks FAR too good for this level and who smashed 4 past us. Unfortunately we can't try to sign him because he's not Welsh. Our centre-back Geraint Ifan scored a hat-trick in return, but still ended up on the losing side. 

I know it's early days, but we are already trailing by 4 points.

[turnip]

Jimbo, do you have a problem of your GK coming up to the halfway line for Indirect Free Kicks?

I've got my GKs set to take Direct Free Kicks and since then, I can't get the daft buggers to stay back when they're not involved.

[Jimbokav1971]

Check your instructions for where you are asking them to be for indirect free kicks, (so this means options 2, 3 & 4) .

I have my GK's take options 1, 2, & 4 but NOT 3, because it's too hard for them to get back in goal and we concede too many. Taking just 3 options means I very rarely concede, (although am conceding from long-throws at the moment which I'm trying to fix). 

If you don't have him set as an Indirect (Wide) taker and it's still happening, then have a look at the set-pieces - free kicks page and see where the GK is on the pitch. I'm hoping one of these will fix it for you. 

[turnip]

I had them set as "Stay Back", but for some reason they weren't.

I went with 'No Specific Instructions' and that seems to have sorted it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mine are set to stay back and it works fine. 

Very strange.

[Jimbokav1971]

Sept 2022.

Records. Parry * beat his own record. 

Poached.

This isn't something I have seen before, but I like it. 

Fixtures. 

We've been in decent form, especially when it comes to goal-scoring. Parry * scored 4 goals and then 3 in the next game. Caton * also hit a hat-trick when he was rotated in. GK Roberts scored 3 goals this month to bring him to 5 goals in 12 games this season. 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Job Interview. Nov 2022.

Penybont are 11th in JD Cymru South.

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2022. 

We're unbeaten in 8 games, but 4 of the 5 league games this month have been draws, and as a result we have dropped from top to 4th in the league and Llanelli are now 5 points clear at the top.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2022.

From 6 games last month, we have gone to just 1 this month.

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Preview. Dec 2022.

This looks good, but everything is relative remember, and we are still particularly poor right now. 

• A good DM, (we don't play with a player in the DM line and I don't anticipating that  changing until we start playing against the big boys in Europe, although I might make an exception for TNS)
• A good striker. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2022 - Jan 2023.

New Record. 

Mid-season break.

When you lose twice in 3 games to your U19's, it either means that the 1st team is not very good or the U19's are quite good or both. 

December. 

January.

The win against Bangor City is the 1st significant win of the save. They were Runners Up in the JD Cymru Premier last season and are currently again in 2nd place, (obviously behind TNS). Beating them is a big deal.

We've improved in the league, but are still 5 points adrift of Llanelli at the top. There is no promotion for 2nd place here. You either win or it's Groundhog Day.