[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]

There are loads of players who's contract is up and I;m looking to source replacements. 

It's not looking good at the moment and there is lots of work to do. (Work that I don't like doing). I'm determined though that I will have the squad sorted in time for pre-season so that we can take advantage of the other Welsh sides playing in Europe. 

We've had another change of board, but the expectation is still that we finish in the top half each season. I would like to think that we are well capable of this, but I am also aware that if we were playing in Europe this season then we would have nowhere near the depth to be able to do so. With that in mind, my plan is to effectively create a squad that would allow me to put out 2 different teams each week and I have a deadline of the end of this coming season to have that in place. 

On the plus side, with increased expectation comes a bigger wage budget and the Chairman has been brilliant in this respect. 

We are currently spending £5,177 per week and this was just short of the old budget with the budget being just short of £6,000. That has been boosted to £9,116 per week. Rather than going for real top end players, I am trying to flesh out the squad as a whole. If I have a budget left towards the end of the process then I might feel more able to bring in a more "marquee" signing. 

[DazRTaylor]

18 hours ago, Thebaker said:

 i meant £2 to £4 million. I haven't played in europe in fm20 so can't remember the money you get. With Carmarthen also doing well, are they likely to be the 2nd pro team or are some already pro?

They get £12m just for qualifying for the group stage.

[DazRTaylor]

Duplicate post.

Edited April 8, 2020 by DazRTaylor

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Summary. May 2031.

Overall Best XI.

The Cure (IRL) won the JD Cymru Premier Golden Boot which is quite extraordinary when you consider that when he arrived in October, we had already played 9 league games. Who wants to have a guess at this players real name? 

While I am at it, I suppose I should also show you his striking partner HRH. Again, would anyone care to hazard a guess as to what his real name is?

He hasn't had the same success in front of goal, but has still been influential since his recent arrival. 

Goal of the season? From a GK? Surely this is a joke? 

Manager of the Year, (despite losing in the Cup Final and choking in the Playoff). 

Ricketts set a new club clean sheet record, which was a surprise when you consider that he only joined in October, (having missed 19 games of the season in total) and us then qualifying in the top Group for the latter part of the season. I think it's fair to say that I expect him to beat this record again next season. He's a big improvement on what we had before in Rees, but he doesn't seem to be as good at scoring goals as Rees, which is obviously a shame. 

[Mr_Demus]

Robert Smith
 

[Jimbokav1971]

Around the ground. Jun 2031. 

Premier League. 

Arsenal won a quadruple, winning the league, Champions League, FA Cup and Charity Shield. 

Championship. 

Cardiff & Swansea are still languishing in the nether reaches of the Championship. 

I would love to be able to take over one of these in a sort of DoF role where I would just take an over-seeing role, go on holiday and let my Ass Man make the decisions. That is only going to happen if and when we have toppled TNS though, so there is a looooooong way to go yet. 

League 1. 

Newport County finished mid-table (12th). 

League 2. 

Conference National. 

Wrexham finished 12th. 

Champions League. 

Euro League. 

Euro League 2. 

[Jimbokav1971]

7 minutes ago, Mr_Demus said:

Robert Smith
 

 

 

And HRH?

Edited April 8, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

European rankings. Jun 2031.

The JD Cymru Premier moved up 6 places to 63rd. 

The most improved top flight division was Romanian First League which moved from 32nd to 26th, (a rise of 6 places). 

Reputation. 

[Mr_Demus]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

 

And HRH?

I had a look about the Bristol City U18 team, and found Prince Henry, so I guess it is short for His Royal Highness

[Jimbokav1971]

On 06/04/2020 at 21:44, Jimbokav1971 said:

Poaching update. Jul 2030. 

And now we are adding Rob Richards to the list. 

Poached. Jul 2031. 

[Jimbokav1971]

36 minutes ago, Mr_Demus said:

I had a look about the Bristol City U18 team, and found Prince Henry, so I guess it is short for His Royal Highness

Very good Sherlock. 

[AceAvenger]

1 hour ago, Mr_Demus said:

I had a look about the Bristol City U18 team, and found Prince Henry, so I guess it is short for His Royal Highness

This is the kind of attention to detail I have come to expect from FM players. Phenomenal.

Fantastic story Jimbo, amazing as always. KUTGW!

Edited April 8, 2020 by AceAvenger

[Jimbokav1971]

Transfers. Jul 2031. 

I've brought a lot of players in on purpose. I want to have a more settled base for future seasons rather than having to get a whole new squad in each season, which is how it feels this season. I've only managed to bring in a few teenagers though, (The DoF is just not recommending them), although in general the players are still "young".

Going down this list of incoming players below, the ages are as follows ; 23, 19, 23, 21, 21, 19, 19, 24, 28, 24, 20, 18, 18, 25, 23, 19. So there are actually more teenagers there than I remembered, (6 out of 16), and just 1 player aged over 25. That's exactly the sort of balance I'm looking for. 

We've paid actual cash money for our 1st player, paying Colwyn Bay £525 for Cirotto (IRL).

We've had a few cash bids for players, but not accepted any of them at this time. When we are talking £1,000 for a player, any player, if they are needed before the bid then the bid itself should be irrelevant. Our finances will be driven by European competition prize money for quite a while yet, and I think it will be a long time before anyone is paying serious money for one of our players. 

I said the above on 18th July 2031 so I can come back and quote it at a later date. 

There seems to be a lot of £0 value transfers flying about within the Welsh league and that's fine, but I'm going to try and see if I can get something more out of them. I know we might not have many people attending the match, but anything extra is better than nothing. Right? 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, AceAvenger said:

Fantastic story Jimbo, amazing as always. KUTGW!

Thank you very much. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Pre-season.

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2020.

The plan was to start off well in the early games and really take advantage of the teams playing in European competition and having to field weakened/fatigued early in the season. Unfortunately, despite getting off to a decent start in the Cup, we didn't win the opening game and then lost the next 2.

We're fine attacking. We have just been soft at the back. 

Our GK Ricketts opened the scoring after just 28 minutes of the season, and then scored a 2nd the following week.

 

[AceAvenger]

I'm always amazed at how many goals your goalkeepers score, my best free kick takers can't hit a barn door if their life depended on it. Do you concede any goals from your goalkeeper being so far up the pitch? Because if not, I might try the big fat goalkeeper goalscoring challenge.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, AceAvenger said:

I'm always amazed at how many goals your goalkeepers score, my best free kick takers can't hit a barn door if their life depended on it. Do you concede any goals from your goalkeeper being so far up the pitch? Because if not, I might try the big fat goalkeeper goalscoring challenge.

I used to concede quite regularly and I had to work quite hard at creating multiple layers of defensive lines to stop us conceding, especially from free-kicks that hit the wall. I can't remember the last time I conceded from my GK being in an attacking position but I'm pretty sure it was in my ScandiNordicland save. So that's 11 seasons here in this save and another season in the Joint Save thread where we haven't conceded in this way. 

Don't get me wrong, we regularly concede from attacking throw-ins, (I pile people forward and I'm rally hammering the long throws at the moment), and I also only let my GK take 3 of the 4 different type of free-kicks, (I stopped them taking the wide ones because I just couldn't find a way to defend it effectively). I'm pretty sure that one of the most recent times I conceded a goal from an attacking free-kick I mentioned it in whichever thread it was, (and possibly GIF'd it too). I wanted to show everyone that I do concede sometimes. Give me a minute and I will have a look and see if I can find it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

@AceAvengerI've had a look and I can't find where I posted it. I've checked my last 3 threads plus the Fat GK thread and even the General Discussion thread and I can't find the post. Sorry. When I next concede from an attacking free-kick or a penalty I will record it and post in here for you to see. You could be waiting a while though. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2020. 

Sorry, this also includes the 1st game of October. 

We were lucky against TNS but then again we have to be to beat them. All that matters is that we scored 1 and they scored 0. 

I wasn't bothered about the Nat MG Cup and played a weakened team. 

Cefn Druids beat us and we were a little unlucky but I paid the price for not starting a strong enough team. 

We're up to 2nd and although we had a sticky start to the season, the plan is still working. We are 9 points ahead of TNS, 13 points ahead of Afan Lido and Barry are the 3rd of the big boys and they are still a point ahead. I'm happy with that. TNS and Afan Lido are still going to be the threats come the end of the season. I'm not going all out to win the league this season, (although it would be nice), but I am definitely finishing in the Top 3 and qualifying for Europe. Top 3 is a minimum requirement now, even when we have a European campaign to contend with. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2031.

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2031.

We're not keeping as many clean sheets as I would like, but that's probably down to me continuing to rotate the squad so that everyone plays. As long as my 1st choice players are available for the big games against the likes of TNS and Afan Lido, then I think dropped points against the likes of Carmarthen in the opening game of the month is a price worth paying. 

[Jimbokav1971]

New contract. Dec 2031.

They have finally offered me a 2 year contract. Up until now it has just been 1 year at a time. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake preview.

It doesn't look good. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2031.

Yeah we dropped points at home to Cefn Druids, but we're still plugging away and it we win our game in hand then we go top and the gap between us and TNS will be 8 points. Afan Lido are having a torrid time after making it to the Euro Cup 2 Group stages and while I expect them to pull clear of relegation in the 2nd part of the season, they are obviously not going to make the cut. TNS haven't done as well as last season, (I will do a full European update shortly), and that would explain why they are better at this stage than they were last season. Nether Barry Town nor Cefn Druids have done well at all in Europe, so all in all it's been a pretty underwhelming season for the Welsh clubs.

[Jimbokav1971]

Welsh clubs in Europe. Jan 2032.

This is last years table. You know....... it wasn't until about 2 minutes ago that I realised that TNS didn't win the league last season. I just assumed they would and obviously never checked. Afan Lido were really good last season don't get me wrong, but I always just assumed that TNS would overhaul them. 

TNS actually completely imploded towards the end of last season, (despite beating us in the Cup Final). They only took 2 points from their last 4 league games and it's this that allowed Afan Lido to nip past them and become Champions. 

Afan Lido. I didn't realise you could drop from the Champions League into the Euro Cup 2, but now I know you can. While they should have beaten the Azerbaijani's in the 1st place, they did at least improve to make the Group Stage. Unfortunately they were given a tough Group that they were never likely to get out of, although you might remember that we knocked out Lechia Gdansk last season so.....

TNS. I think TNS would have beaten Neftci had they had Afan Lido's fixtures. Unfortunately for them I have a sneaking suspicion that they might not be playing in the Champions League again for a while. (Here's hoping anyway). 

Barry. SJK are Finnish and that's a poor result. Winning away and then losing at home is a shambles. On the plus side, crashing out early has given them an opportunity to concentrate on the league and they have made the most of it. 

Cefn Druids. That's a tough draw. Kayserispor are a decent team and they were always going to be up against it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2032. 

From an 8 or 9 point gap between ourselves and TNS, it's now down to just 4. 

I rotated the squad against Llanelli to basically give us the best chance of turning over Barry away at the weekend, but another red card through a spanner into the works. As luck would have it we played them again at the end of the month and we got our revenge, but that just serves for both of us to let TNS back into the race. TNS have won 9 and drawn 3 of their last 12 league games. They are really on a charge. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2032.

The Llanelli result was tough to take because we battered them, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. 

GK Ricketts was injured for the Cardiff Met Uni game so Jeffries came in to make his debut. He conceded 5 goals from outside the area, (surely a positional issue), 4 of them within the opening half an hour. he looked shell-shocked, (and so did I). he did keep a clean sheet in the Cup game though. 

It's getting tight at the top now and seems to be a 3-horse race with 6 games remaining. We trail Barry by 3 points and TNS trail us by 2 points, (but have played a game more). We play TNS twice and Barry once over the run-in. Everyone is dropping points though and it could be the Cardiff Met Uni/Bala/Llanelli games that make a difference. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Significant transfer. Mar 2032.

This bloke is good. I mean he's REALLY good. 

B+ my arse!

He's immediately worth £275,000

This bloke is going to fill his actual boots!  

[rodesire]

Are you kidding me?!  Did you just sign a championship/lower PL caliber player on free and 400pw?

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, rodesire said:

Are you kidding me?!  Did you just sign a championship/lower PL caliber player on free and 400pw?

I'm short a right winger in the squad and I keep going to the DoF to suggest one for me. There are a few on the player search screen who are decent after the "interested in transfer" option is ticked, but I'm not having much luck with them and they seem to want too much money.

When I saw Webb I was like OMG! 

And when I saw he just wanted £550, (which I couldn't actually afford), things suddenly got very serious. You will see I gave him some quite (relatively), hefty bonus clauses, and I don't think I have ever in my life agreed to 3 different goal clauses per season in any version of any FM ever. When he agreed, (it was last night), I got up and did a proper little dance around the room. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. Mar 2032.

Squad by PPA. 

Squad by PA. 

Squad by CA. 

There's really nobody worth showing you so I'm not going to bother. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Poaching Season. Mar 2032.

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2032.

Can you tell which game GK Ricketts (ENG) was available for again? 

Jeffries played 3 league games, kept 0 clean sheets and conceded 9 goals. 

No, I don't think we have choked by the way. I just think our stand-in GK is rubbish. 

3 league games, a Semi-Final and possibly a Final left. 

[AceAvenger]

18 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

@AceAvengerI've had a look and I can't find where I posted it. I've checked my last 3 threads plus the Fat GK thread and even the General Discussion thread and I can't find the post. Sorry. When I next concede from an attacking free-kick or a penalty I will record it and post in here for you to see. You could be waiting a while though. 

Thanks for checking Jimbo! Hopefully you don't actually concede any.

Webb looks like a real catch, I'm sure he'll score buckets of goals for you.

[Jimbokav1971]

55 minutes ago, AceAvenger said:

Thanks for checking Jimbo! Hopefully you don't actually concede any.

Webb looks like a real catch, I'm sure he'll score buckets of goals for you.

It's really annoying. I know for a fact I posted it somewhere. Maybe it was as long ago as FM19, but if it was then I have definitely conceded since then. I might have a look in my Brazilian/French save thread and see if I can find it in there. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2032. 

I don't think we have. At least I hope we haven't. We should have auto-qualified for Europe even if we don't win the Cup Final, (which I haven't played as I write this). 

We needed this after not playing in Europe this season. All the money from that 1st European campaign in already gone and we are in the red again. 

We lost the Cup FInal, but we still finished as Runners Up in the League and qualified for next seasons Euro Cup 2 as a result. 

Barry Town will play in the Champions League and TNS will play in the Euro Cup 2 for the 2nd successive season. We haven't exactly toppled them yet, but they certainly aren;t anywhere near as dominant as they should be considering how much money they must have. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Finances. May 2032.

Budgets for next season. Next season will be only our 3rd in this league. I think our budget in the 1st season was approx £5,000 per week. We're now at more than double that. 

Current spend. It gives us a surplus wage budget of £3,462 per week which is significant. I think the lesson to be learned from the signing of Webb is that if you hold off until late in a season, it's possible to sign players who really should be playing at a higher level, for a fraction of what they would normally ask. 

Because we didn't play in Europe this season, our finances have taken a hammering. We really need to be qualifying for the Group stages of something in the near future. We need a stable pot of cash behind us that will allow the board to refuse any offers made for out players. If we look at Webb for example, while he might be valued at £250,000. (down from £275,000 I think), if someone offers the board £10,000 I think it's likely that they will accept. We need to take that decision out of their hands by ensuring that there is always money in the bank so that they don't have to sell. So that it's not even a consideration. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Welsh Youth Cup. May 2032.

I don't think we should be winning this competition. We certainly shouldn't be winning it by this margin. What's it going to be like when our facilities are even decent never mind about good? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Update. May 2032. 

Overall Best XI.

Awards. 

Stats.

Vision and expectations. This seems a bit harsh. We have over-achieved by qualifying for Europe when actually the 5 years plan was just to keep finishing in the top half of the table. I don't mind them upping the expectations, (in fact it makes sense), but the importance shouldn't be "required". If I finish in the Top 6 but then don't qualify for Europe, then there is real danger that I'm going to get sacked I don't think. That's not how it should be. 

Records. 

The message above makes it sound like it is a club record, but actually it's a league record isn't it?

Actually, no, it is just a club record. A player called Marc Lloyd-Williams somehow hit 47 goals in 2001/02. I'm guessing that was when TNS had just started and they were absolutely smashing everyone. 

Actually no, again, he was a journeyman striker who played all over, but in 2001/02 he played for Bangor, although he did play for TNS a few years later. 

He is the JD Cymru Premier top goal-scorer of all time with 319 goals. That's 2 records that it's going to be a challenge to beat. 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Poaching Season. Mar 2032.

Another Youth player poached. May 2032. 

 No wonder all our intakes are rubbish if we keep losing so many players. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

International call-ups. Jun 2032.

International call-ups are great, but International call-ups for Academy products are brilliant. 

Jeffries is the rubbish GK who cost us the league title when Ricketts (ENG) was injured. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Players being poached. Jun 2032. 

If you look at the post 2 above this one, you will see a list of all the players that I have noticed being poached from our club. In the last month we have lost not 1, not 2 but 3 players to other clubs. 

That's quite a lot. 

[Jimbokav1971]

League Development. Jun 2032.

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup 2. Jul 2032.

Squad registration. I usually stick to a specific pattern when it comes to squad selection. 2x GK's, 2x DL's, 2x DR's, 4x DC's, 4x MC's, 2x ML's, 2x MR's, 4x SC's gives us 22 players and then I would have probably added 1 defender, 1 midfielder and 1 attacker or wide midfielder based on HG players. The problem here is that with such poor players coming through the Academy, we don't really have anyone at all now who is an Academy product and is capable of playing in the 1st team at this level. As a result I was only able to register 21 players. It's far harder trying to register 21 players than 25.

We were pretty unlucky to draw Scandinavians, (Finns), at the 1st hurdle. The 1st leg went ok and I was happy with the 2 goal margin, but the 2nd leg was far too close for comfort. 

The next round saw more Scandinavians, (this time Swedes), and I was delighted to win the away leg. I just assumed we would rock up and win comfortably at home and it didn't work out that way at all. 

As if 2 lots of Scandinavians wasn't hard enough, the 3rd Qualifying round sees us drawn against Motherwell of Scotland. We were lucky to only lose 2-1 away, but then we were brilliant at home and could have had 6 or 7.

You know, I'm more than a little peeved by the level of opposition we have faced so far in this season's competition. We have faced teams from Finland, Sweden and Scotland, and I have just seen that we will face an Austrian team in the next round. 

Let's have a look and see the teams of which Nations, other Welsh clubs have faced in recent seasons. 

Last season TNS faced teams from Lithuania & Slovakia.
Last season Afan Lido faced teams from Azerbaijan, Estonia and Bosnia & Herz,.
Last season Barry faced a team from Finland. 
Last season Cefn Druids faced teams from Lithuania and Turkey. 

We've had a bit of a raw deal haven't we?  

The 1st leg against the Austrians was a masterpiece of counter-attacking. 2-0 up before the break, we had a player sent off on 47 mins and I thought we might be in trouble. Instead we just picked them off as they tried to overwhelm us. We had a 2nd player sent off late on, but by then we had already slammed in 6 goals and what should have been the hardest tie of the campaign was actually the easiest. 

[Edited]

Finances.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[rodesire]

You are bleeding money hard!

Back to back group qualifications are huge!

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, rodesire said:

You are bleeding money hard!

Back to back group qualifications are huge!

We are, but well within the agreed budgets so as far as I'm concerned it has absolutely nothing to do with me. (Seriously). 

We didn't qualify for the Group stages last season, (or any season previously for that matter). TNS got into the Group stages of the Champions league, and someone else, (can't remember who), got into the Group stages of the Euro Cup 2, but we have only had 1 season in Europe so far and got knocked out in 3rd Qualifying Round (I think). (Actually it was the 4th Qualifying Round).

I like to build up a hefty cushion early in a save so that the board don't get involved in flogging players. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to sell players, but when the board step in all they care about is cash and I prefer to trade some cash in the here and now for the potential of big cash in the future, especially if I think the player is likely to continue to develop and might be sold again before too long. 

[deltablue]

Hopefully you can make it 3rd time lucky

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup 2 Group draw. Aug 2032. 

That is a tough group, but who cares right? I#m just here for the money and if I can, (do I get the opportunity to swap the whole squad now), I will be prioritising domestic games over European games and even if I can't swap the registration around, I will just play kids I think.

I don't really know anything about the quality in Euro Cup 2 groups, so let's educate ourselves. 

Cyprus, German, Irish and Ukraine. 

I think Barry have got a good group here. Greece, Scotland and Ukraine. Wow. I've just realised that means that Barry have qualified for the Group stages too. I will report on how all the Welsh clubs did in Europe at the end of the year. 

Slovakia, Turkey, Switzerland and Israel. 

Portugal, Kazakhstan, Turkey & Finland.

Switzerland, Moldova, Sweden and Holland.

Romania, Spain, Russia, Ireland.

Russia, Holland, Poland and Czech. 

I still think we got a tough group. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

11 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Hopefully you can make it 3rd time lucky

I must admit that I didn't really "go for it" last season. I was really just concentrating on making sure that we played in Europe this season. We are much stronger this season though so time for a proper title tilt.