[FM20] Irchester Utd. Tier 10. England. Home. Youth Only.

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2043. 

League 1. We're still doing well, but I think we are benefiting by either winning or losing games. We have only drawn 3 of 20 league games this season. 

Cup games. We've got Premier League Leeds in the 4th Round. We are at home at least so we will give it a go, but we would have earned significantly more by being drawn away. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Player Progress. All Time. Dec 2043. 

I'm not sure what made me look at this screen for someone this morning, but I did and it made me go and check a few more players. 

I'm personally of the opinion that most of us are pretty good at using individual bits of pieces of info within the game, but that almost all of us don't use everything that is available to us. I'm obviously highlighting this because it's something that I don't use and I think it's to my detriment that I don't use it. 

(39a) Harri (Pro) * is the best player at the club, (top when I rank them by CA stars). When I look at him I think it's clear that he's developed well physically, and his mental attributes seem to have developed well in terms of the specific areas I would want, but actually his technical attributes haven't developed as much as I would have hoped. Having said that, the area in which I wanted him to improve most, (technically), is finishing and that is +3, (and I would love it to pop once more).

The next screen is one that I don't really understand at all, (so feel free to offer suggestions/advice). 

His PA in the top right hand corner is listed as 5.0, (actually it's 4.0 but possibly 5.0 but you know what I mean).

This graph seems to show the tracking of CA and it starts at 3.5 before moving through 3.5, 4.0 is the high point on the graph and then 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5 and finally 3.5 again at the end. I'm looking at why his CA would have been considered higher in Mar 2043 than at any other time and basically I've got nothing. I initially wondered if there had been a transfer out at this time which elevated his relative CA, but there wasn't, and of course there wouldn't have been in March anyway. 

I'm not sure I have ever looked at this particular screen before, (more than fleetingly), but it's not clear at all what info it's trying to show me. 

If I want to look at an older player, (39a) Harri (Pro) * is only 21, then (35e) Neil Dunkley (L.Heart) * is the 2nd highest ranked player at the club, (aged 25). 

I play him as a DLP(s) and with that in mind I find it surprising, (possibly wrongly), that his tackling has dropped so significantly, (4 points). The rises are generally in line with what you would want for a DLP(s) and if anything the thing that surprises me most is the pace +6, but possibly that's as a result of the starting point being so low, (7). 

In summary I really like the "attribute tracking" screen, but for the life of me I can't work out what the progress screen is telling us at all. 

Maybe I changed staff about that time so the person compiling the report changed, and was better/worse than previously. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Length of contract. Dec 2043. 

In other news we are now able to offer 4+3 contracts. (4 year initial contract with an option for 3 more). 

[deez0r]

51 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Length of contract. Dec 2043. 

In other news we are now able to offer 4+3 contracts. (4 year initial contract with an option for 3 more). 

This is becoming a life saver for me!

[Thebaker]

DLP (s) does not train in tackling if set to that role in training - which is odd when you read the role description.  long term it might lead to a drop in tackling.

For the increase in mar 43, youth intake maybe. Poor one made his ability seem higher?

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

DLP (s) does not train in tackling if set to that role in training - which is odd when you read the role description.  long term it might lead to a drop in tackling.

For the increase in mar 43, youth intake maybe. Poor one made his ability seem higher?

Although I play him as a DLP(s), I actually train him as RPM(s), which although it still doesn't train tackling, does put more emphasis on physical attributes. 

With regards to the Mar 2043 increase, it's not judged against lower players though. It's judged against the best players, 

[Jimbokav1971]

15 minutes ago, deez0r said:

This is becoming a life saver for me!

I haven't caught up in your thread in a while. Need to fix that now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake preview. Dec 2043. 

• 3 attacking midfielders that we should keep an eye on? Never seen that line before, (THREE) 
• 1 of them is from Jamaica, and we got 2 through the intake last season.
• Still a Golden Generation. 

[TheMadMonk]

30 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake preview. Dec 2043. 

• 3 attacking midfielders that we should keep an eye on? Never seen that line before, (THREE) 
• 1 of them is from Jamaica, and we got 2 through the intake last season.
• Still a Golden Generation. 

Wonder whose the young Jamaican Attacking Midfielder from "Grange Hill"  .... must be Benny . If its big Alan I'd retrain as a Goalkeeper.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2043. 

League 1. We're still in the Playoffs and the reason this seems to be working is because we're either winning or losing for some reason and have still only drawn 3 league games from 25 this season. 

Cup games. I usually don't really care about this competition, but I went with a strong line-up in this game simply because they were an U23 side and I thought we could turn them over. We needed penalties, but a wins a win. 

[Jimbokav1971]

On 11/08/2020 at 23:36, Jimbokav1971 said:

1st fine of the season. Aug 2043. 

The very 1st game of the season and we collect our 1st fine.  Brilliant stuff. We won. 

 

On 12/08/2020 at 13:35, Jimbokav1971 said:

2nd fine of the season. Sep 2043. 

We won. 

 

On 12/08/2020 at 14:00, Jimbokav1971 said:

3rd fine of the season. Sep 2043. 

We lost. 

4th fine of the 2043/44 season. Jan 2044. 

I don't think the game can comprehend that you can have this many players booked so regularly. 

This fine should have been for £10k, taking our fine total to the season to £25k, but instead it's only at £17.5k. 

Edited August 13, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[_Ben_]

10 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

In summary I really like the "attribute tracking" screen, but for the life of me I can't work out what the progress screen is telling us at all. 

Same!

I used to have the progress panel on the overview for each player but it was so up and down that I couldn't understand quite what it meant. I do like the attribute growth one and it was something I used to do manually/export to Excel for before it's inclusion.

Edited August 13, 2020 by _Ben_

[Jimbokav1971]

Financial issues. Feb 2044. 

The board have just accepted this bid and I don't have an opportunity to either protest or negotiate the deal. 

Although it's only £725k up front, we will get just over £1M in £105k per 10 league appearances, and then £0.5M for both 10 league appearances and 1 International appearance. If he was English I wouldn't expect him to become a Senior International, but he's Welsh so there is every chance that we will get all these clauses paid out. Watford are currently 3rd in the Championship.

The only real frustration is that I think he's going to be really good and we could have got him back in on loan for the rest of the season and we should have got 50% re-sale rather than 40% profit. Now we are in League 1, (and Challenging for promotion to League 2), this deal isn't as good as it might seem. 

I think the most frustrating thing is that I really like this player and had invested a lot of game-time into him already. Despite only being 18, he has already made 65(5) appearances in all competitions. The fact that we also had him contracted for quite a while, (I think it was 18 months +3 year option), is particularly frustrating. 

Finances, (after the transfer).  After all that we're only just in credit. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Mr_Demus]

I just finished reading this (thank you, paternity leave). Excellent stuff.

 

Bit late to the youth intake party, but could it be that the game simply populates weirdly?

Portsmouth has 1.6 million people. 800k are men (made up numbers), 40k are between 15-19, 20k play football. Portsmouth are looking for players above X CA/PA and has a pool of 20k local lads. They will take the 14 who has a PA/CA of X+ and fill up with guys from the outside.

 

Irchester has 5k people. 2.5k are men, 125 are between 15-19, 60 play football. Irchester are looking for players above Y CA/PA and has a pool of 60 local lads. They pick up the 2 who has a PA/CA of Y+ and fill up with guys from the outside.

 

The game doesn't want to leave you with intakes of 2-4 players, so they buff the numbers like this. Only a theory of course.

[dllu]

I just noticed this, and maybe I overlooked something in the text, but why are there only 23 teams in League 1?

[Pompeyboyz]

19 minutes ago, dllu said:

I just noticed this, and maybe I overlooked something in the text, but why are there only 23 teams in League 1?

Due to the real life issue last season with Bury being expelled.  Edited databases end up not correcting it

[dllu]

1 hour ago, Pompeyboyz said:

Due to the real life issue last season with Bury being expelled.  Edited databases end up not correcting it

Yes, of course. Thanks.  

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, dllu said:

I just noticed this, and maybe I overlooked something in the text, but why are there only 23 teams in League 1?

 

2 hours ago, Pompeyboyz said:

Due to the real life issue last season with Bury being expelled.  Edited databases end up not correcting it

I hadn't noticed that and wouldn't have thought about Bury so thanks @Pompeyboyzfor the answer. 

Bury, Macc, Charlton, Wigan etc etc. It's a tough time at the moment for smaller clubs. Can't wait to get back watching games properly. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Mr_Demus said:

I just finished reading this (thank you, paternity leave). Excellent stuff.

Bit late to the youth intake party, but could it be that the game simply populates weirdly?

Portsmouth has 1.6 million people. 800k are men (made up numbers), 40k are between 15-19, 20k play football. Portsmouth are looking for players above X CA/PA and has a pool of 20k local lads. They will take the 14 who has a PA/CA of X+ and fill up with guys from the outside.

Irchester has 5k people. 2.5k are men, 125 are between 15-19, 60 play football. Irchester are looking for players above Y CA/PA and has a pool of 60 local lads. They pick up the 2 who has a PA/CA of Y+ and fill up with guys from the outside.

The game doesn't want to leave you with intakes of 2-4 players, so they buff the numbers like this. Only a theory of course.

That seems a perfectly reasonable explanation. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2044. 

League 1. We're 10 points behind automatic promotion now, but that was never really on the cards anyway. I would love to hang on in there and make the Playoffs, but that's not going to stop me giving 1st-team game-time to youngsters. 

Cup games. We gave a good account of ourselves, but Leeds are a mid-table Premier League club now and were just too string for us. Money-wise it would obviously have been better being drawn away.

I really don't care about this competition, (I told you previously that the only time I will try and win it is when and if our U23's play in it), but while we keep being drawn against U23 sides that I think we can beat, it seems not to. The good news is that we have been drawn against another U23 side in the Semi's. The bad news is that it's Chelsea U23's, but while they are obviously strong, they needed penalties to get past Bristol Rovers in the last round an Rovers are 7th in League 2 right now so maybe we do have a chance. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

On 11/08/2020 at 23:36, Jimbokav1971 said:

1st fine of the season. Aug 2043. 

The very 1st game of the season and we collect our 1st fine.  Brilliant stuff. We won. 

 

On 12/08/2020 at 13:35, Jimbokav1971 said:

2nd fine of the season. Sep 2043. 

We won. 

 

On 12/08/2020 at 14:00, Jimbokav1971 said:

3rd fine of the season. Sep 2043. 

We lost. 

 

23 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

4th fine of the 2043/44 season. Jan 2044. 

I don't think the game can comprehend that you can have this many players booked so regularly. 

This fine should have been for £10k, taking our fine total to the season to £25k, but instead it's only at £17.5k. 

5th fine of the season. Feb 2044. 

We won. 

This is our 5th fine of the season. It should have gone as follows. 

Fine 1. £2,500
Fine 2. £5,000
Fine 3. £7,500
Fine 4. £10,000
Fine 5. £12,500

Total. £35,000

Instead it's gone like this. 

Fine 1. £2,500
Fine 2. £5,000
Fine 3. £7,500
Fine 4. £2,500
Fine 5. £2,500

Total. £20,000

The game can't seem to comprehend that you can get 6 yellow cards for 1 team in 1 game on more than 3 occasions in a season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

On 11/08/2020 at 23:36, Jimbokav1971 said:

1st fine of the season. Aug 2043. 

The very 1st game of the season and we collect our 1st fine.  Brilliant stuff. We won. 

 

On 12/08/2020 at 13:35, Jimbokav1971 said:

2nd fine of the season. Sep 2043. 

We won. 

 

On 12/08/2020 at 14:00, Jimbokav1971 said:

3rd fine of the season. Sep 2043. 

We lost. 

 

23 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

 

4th fine of the 2043/44 season. Jan 2044. 

I don't think the game can comprehend that you can have this many players booked so regularly. 

This fine should have been for £10k, taking our fine total to the season to £25k, but instead it's only at £17.5k. 

 

12 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

 

 

5th fine of the season. Feb 2044. 

We won. 

This is our 5th fine of the season. It should have gone as follows. 

Fine 1. £2,500
Fine 2. £5,000
Fine 3. £7,500
Fine 4. £10,000
Fine 5. £12,500

Total. £35,000

Instead it's gone like this. 

Fine 1. £2,500
Fine 2. £5,000
Fine 3. £7,500
Fine 4. £2,500
Fine 5. £2,500

Total. £20,000

The game can't seem to comprehend that you can get 6 yellow cards for 1 team in 1 game on more than 3 occasions in a season. 

6th fine of the season. Feb 2044. 

We lost. 

This is our 6th fine of the season. I think they are making it up as they go along.

It should have gone as follows. 

Fine 1. £2,500
Fine 2. £5,000
Fine 3. £7,500
Fine 4. £10,000
Fine 5. £12,500
Fine 6. £15,000

Total. £50,000

Instead it's gone like this. 

Fine 1. £2,500
Fine 2. £5,000
Fine 3. £7,500
Fine 4. £2,500
Fine 5. £2,500
Fine 6. £5,000

Total. £25,000

We've paid exactly have of what we should have. 

We still have 2 months of the season remaining by the way. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2044. 

League 1. We're hanging on in there near the top mainly because we're not drawing games and are converting tight games into wins, (often late on). I mentioned in a previous post that we score lots of late goals and the reason is because we are basically rotating 2 whole different sides so we are starting in hugely better condition than the opposition. We scored goals in the 82nd,  85th, 87th and 92nd minutes this month. 

Cup games. This is astonishing, but we have somehow made it to the Final of the Leasing.com Trophy after we sneaked past Chelsea U23's on penalties. I looked at the other Semi and they were both League 1 sides but didn't pay too much attention to who they were. Let's have a look now and see who we will play in the final. (Anyone except AFC Wimbledon and Plymouth please). 

We will play Doncaster Rovers, (who sit 10th in League 1), in the Leasing.com Trophy Final. (This trophy is still an absolute abomination by the way, but it's an absolute abomination that we might just win). 

[Pompeyboyz]

10 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Cup games. This is astonishing, but we have somehow made it to the Final of the Leasing.com Trophy after we sneaked past Chelsea U23's on penalties. I looked at the other Semi and they were both League 1 sides but didn't pay too much attention to who they were. Let's have a look now and see who we will play in the final. (Anyone except AFC Wimbledon and Plymouth please). 

We will play Doncaster Rovers, (who sit 10th in League 1), in the Leasing.com Trophy Final. (This trophy is still an absolute abomination by the way, but it's an absolute abomination that we might just win). 

Consering our success in this cup, Portsmouth do not take it too seriously till the latter stages.  Last year when we won it, we played kids until the semi final and then sent out a near full strength side in both the Semi and Final, this year we did the same apart from putting stronger teams out a round earlier.  And we still have that second final to play yet 

[Jimbokav1971]

58 minutes ago, Pompeyboyz said:

Consering our success in this cup, Portsmouth do not take it too seriously till the latter stages.  Last year when we won it, we played kids until the semi final and then sent out a near full strength side in both the Semi and Final, this year we did the same apart from putting stronger teams out a round earlier.  And we still have that second final to play yet 

You still have the Final to play? 

[Goes to look at fixtures]

Oh, there isn't even a date set yet. Wow! 

[Pompeyboyz]

2 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

You still have the Final to play? 

[Goes to look at fixtures]

Oh, there isn't even a date set yet. Wow! 

yeah it was supposed to be the 4th or 5th April and I still have my ticket ready and waiting....not that I will be able to go when it happens.

And the FA have already set the dates for next seasons rounds too 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Pompeyboyz said:

yeah it was supposed to be the 4th or 5th April and I still have my ticket ready and waiting....not that I will be able to go when it happens.

And the FA have already set the dates for next seasons rounds too 

It will definitely get played because of who the opposition are. Can't be upsetting them now can we. 

[Pompeyboyz]

1 minute ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

It will definitely get played because of who the opposition are. Can't be upsetting them now can we. 

I think it should be a double header with the Community Shield

[Jimbokav1971]

On 13/08/2020 at 14:45, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake preview. Dec 2043. 

• 3 attacking midfielders that we should keep an eye on? Never seen that line before, (THREE) 
• 1 of them is from Jamaica, and we got 2 through the intake last season.
• Still a Golden Generation. 

Youth Intake day. Mar 2043. 

It was suggested as a Golden Generation, but that appears to not actually be the case. 

Despite that, and for a few different reason, I quite like this intake. 

• 2x 5.0 PA players is good. I'm always happy with 1. 
• (44b) Don (JAM) (Bal) 6'5" looks rather special even if I'm not quite sure where to play or how to use him. (Please note I had nicknamed him in error and he is actually 6'5" rather than 6'4".
• We get a new Nationality and (LIB) is pretty rare I think.
• After 2 players from (JAM) last season, we get another 2 through this season. 
• There are a couple of decent(ish) strikers in the intake. 

There are some negatives though. 

• We have not 1, not 2, but 3 players with a Casual personality.  That's quite serious. (It's like a Low Det Unambitious player to me). We often get messages telling us that a players has been impacted by the squads positive qualities, and I generally believe this to be Pro rather than Amb, (it's not Det), so maybe that's something that will resolve itself without too much work on my part. I tend to group Casual and Slack together, (hate them), but I can't really afford to just bin these players off, so if I don't have the players to mentor them, I will have to send them out on loan in the hope that other Managers can resolve these issues. On the plus side, 2 of the Casual players are quite low down the ranking in terms of PPA. 

Squad by PPA. 

Nations already represented by previous intakes.

New Nations represented in this intake.  Libya is quite a cool Nationality to get because I think it's pretty rare. I don't think I have ever had a Libyan player on FM before. 

(44a) Greg Gray (SCO) (Real). I'm not really sure what to make of him. He looks poor physically, (although I'm a big fan of the balance attribute in attacking players so I like that). Maybe I could squeeze him in as a WM or even a WPM? I don't particularly like him if I'm honest, but let's see what I can do with him over the next few seasons. 

(44b) Don (JAM) (Bal) 6'5". Well quite frankly he looks amazing. Someone else had a "Big" player through recently and there was a discussion about him playing left back or WTM. My initial reaction here was WTM, (because we are lacking a little on the left), but the more I look at him the more I think I should play him up front. If he plays wide then it will be in the ML slot rather than the AML slot, although for a player like this I might be willing to make manual adjustments to the tactic. He could even do a job at DLP, but I think that's a waste. He could basically play anywhere. at the moment I think between ML and SCL is most likely. He could play for us today. 

[Marios1999]

Pretty sure that's Lebanon tho, not Libya  

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, Marios1999 said:

Pretty sure that's Lebanon tho, not Libya  

You are quite right. Apologies. I just saw LIB and assumed it was Libya, but that's LYB I think. (Anyway, never had either). 

Thanks for correcting me. 

[Jimbokav1971]

I've just conceded from a Rabona cross. Not happy at all. I feel as if the game is complete disrespecting me. 

[-Jef-]

If I had conceded from a rabona cross I would not even mad but rather amazed.

 

Don looks really good. Is he gonna slot into your team?

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, rosque said:

Don looks really good. Is he gonna slot into your team?

There are signs that this intake was better than I 1st thought. 

1st they absolutely smashed the U18's 7-3, and that against a team who won most of their games this season.

Then (44b) Big Don (JAM) (Bal) 6'5" scored on his debut. I started him up front simply because (39a) Harri (Pro) * is injured and might miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. He's scored 19 goals in the league this season and 9 more in Cup competitions so he will certainly be missed, but maybe just maybe the youngsters will be able to step up. The rest of them are not all able to step up immediately, but I think there will be a few of them in contention by the turn of the year. 

[-Jef-]

4 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

There are signs that this intake was better than I 1st thought. 

1st they absolutely smashed the U18's 7-3, and that against a team who won most of their games this season.

Then (44b) Big Don (JAM) (Bal) 6'5" scored on his debut. I started him up front simply because (39a) Harri (Pro) * is injured and might miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. He's scored 19 goals in the league this season and 9 more in Cup competitions so he will certainly be missed, but maybe just maybe the youngsters will be able to step up. The rest of them are not all able to step up immediately, but I think there will be a few of them in contention by the turn of the year. 

It feels like there's a lot more to the quality of the intake than pa/ca stars. As I said already, the intakes I feel were underwhelming churn one or two players I can at least sell or after few loans can be a backup so something useful does come out of underwhelming intakes.

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2044. 

League 1. We've had a really good month, but it's no surprise that we failed to win the last game after (39a) Harri (Pro) * was injured having scored 7 goals in the 1st 3 games this month. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, rosque said:

It feels like there's a lot more to the quality of the intake than pa/ca stars. As I said already, the intakes I feel were underwhelming churn one or two players I can at least sell or after few loans can be a backup so something useful does come out of underwhelming intakes.

I'm basing the fact that I expect them to be challenging largely on how the (43) year group have developed. They seem to have really come on in recent months so I think our improved facilities is helping there. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2044. 

League 1. What an absolute shambles of a run-in. How on Earth we didn't qualify for the Playoffs i had no idea. I thought it was a done deal at the beginning of the month. Maybe it was a knock-on effect of losing the Final. What a shambles. 

Cup games. It was a close game with not much in it and they sneaked it. 

[RoguPL]

Giving it's first season in league1 it's still good result !! hopefully you can achieve it next season. 

How does old JFC doing in Valencia? Is he likely to move this transfer window now? 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Summary. May 2044. 

League 2. 

FA Cup. Obviously I would like to progress past the 3rd round, but I think you just have to accept it when you come up against a big Premier League side and Leeds are very much that in this save now. 

Carabao Cup. Who cares. And don't get me wrong, I really don't care, but at the same time I'm not actually trying to lose either. 

Leasing.com Cup. I've said it before and I will say it again, THIS TROPHY IS AN ABSOLUTE ABOMINATION, and no I didn't change my mind, but every time we were drawn against another U23 side I just thought to myself, "well we'll just beat them and then I will rotate the squad in the next round", and we kept winning and kept being drawn against another U23 side and suddenly we were in the Final. 

In hindsight I think I have to take this tournament more seriously while I'm still in League 1. I know we will have another chance to play in it with our U23 side if we get to the Premier League, but there is no guarantee that that's ever going to happen so maybe we should put more effort in now. The bigger reason to treat it seriously is the prize money, which added up to £229k this season for this trophy, (almost double what we earned from the FA Cup). What;s not shown here is that our Gate receipts are up this season by more than £0.5M and I think a fair portion of that relates to these additional Cup games and especially the Final, (where 40,069 attended). 

FA Youth Cup. What a shambles this was. Really really really not happy. 

We stayed in the U18 Div 3 South-West after moving last season. We only lost 2 games and scored over 100 goals. Things seem to be developing nicely. 

U18 Div 3 Cup. We won our section again, but Bolton have won the North-West section the last 2 years and are a string outfit. Just as Hull beat us in the overall Final last season, Bolton beat us again this season. 

Goal-scoring keepers. After selling (39c) Mendoza (COL) (Bal) * last season, (33e) Lee Ward (NIR) (Bal) was given a reprieve, offered a new contract and brought in from the cold. I really like him as an actual GK. He's just rubbish at scoring goals. He had a relatively good season for him, (only missing 3 of 9 penalties). but he didn't score any free-kicks. I know he's scored 65 career goals and that should be impressive, (and it is), until you see that he has played 416 appearances meaning that he's only scoring a goal every 6.4 games and that's simply not good enough for me. (I want it under 5 and closer to 5 games per goal). 

Overall Best XI. They've squeezed (36b) Dixon (IRL) (Det) * in at left back even though he plays either left or right midfield, and it's good to see (39a) Harri (Pro) * included too. (34c) Guy Bacon (Driven) * has been shunted into midfield to make way for him I think, and in turn has moved (27i) Steph Lewis (WAL) (NIR) to the bench. He never played in the middle of the pitch for us but has done later in his career. 

Awards.

(39a) Harri (Pro) * has become a key player for us despite his relative youth, and it's no surprise that he was missing during the run-in when we were poor. He's contracted for 2 more years and I will obviously be trying to extend it if I can. The reality is though that I might have to play him next season and then sell him if we don't get a big windfall from elsewhere. 

Squad by Appearances. 

Discipline. Our yellow card count is good (146), but our foul count is really down and is poor (807). Last season we were up at 900+ I'm sure. 

That's our 1st choice right winger and our 1st choice right back 1st and 2nd on this list. I think it's fair to say that we are "strong" on that side. 

We've really under-performed when it comes to red cards this season, but (34b) Sam Siddons (Pro) * who plays for Sheff Wed now is keeping an eye near the top of the table for us. He looks a hell of a player and one I would love to re-sign, but interestingly he doesn't actually have "dives into tackles" PPM, (because his aggression/bravery aren't great). He does have "marks opponents tightly" though, so maybe that's something I could think about adding in this respect. 

(34b) Sam Siddons (Pro) *. If we get promoted next season then I think I would look to sign him in the Championship, but I can't afford his £6.75k pw wages in League 1. I think he's possibly the best right back we have produced. Not amazing I know, but decent. 

Finances. I'm relatively happy with the financial aspect of things. Yes we have to sell players to stay afloat, but that's pretty normal and something I'm happy to do. We haven't had any "solidarity payments" at all this season and in the real World we would have. I've included the Income and Expenditure this season just for you to see what's what. The Youth Setup is currently costing us £2.8M per season and that's by far our biggest expense. I'd like to get to the stage where we were bringing in more cash through sames and solidarity payments, (and someone mentioned loan fees recently in the thread), so that it is almost as if the Youth Academy is self-funded and the rest of the club doesn't have to subsidise it, (although we a little way off that as yet). I could have sold more players and I could have accepted more clause offers, but as long as I keep the debt manageable and stick within budgets I'm fine with that. 

Income. 

Expenditure. 

Facilities. I would love to be able to afford an upgrade, but until we make a big sale or get a hefty clause drop in it's just not going to happen I'm afraid. I can't risk the financial security of the club just for an upgrade or 2. 

Transfers. Just the 1 sale this season with 1 player coming back in. 

(42c) Goodridge (WAL) (Driven) made 8 sub appearances in the Championship, but I don't think that's enough and for his development he needs to be loaned out and played more, (although he did also make 4(1) more appearances in Cups. 

We only have 1 clause available to sell right now and it is for the recently departed (42c) Goodridge (WAL) (Driven).

They will give us £1.8M for our clause, (which is only 40% profit rather than our normal 50% sale), but I really liked this bloke before he left and I'm sure the reports were that he had the potential to be a Premier League player, but now the scouts say only a Championship player.... I'm torn.... There's nobody else interested and he has 3 years left on his contract. I think I'm going to leave it for the time-being and hope that he develops some more. Watford have just lost in the playoffs to get into the Premier League, so that means he is more likely to play than if they were promoted. I think I will just keep an eye on him and not take that deal right now. 

Something that some of you might have noticed on the "Clauses" screenshot is that we have 10 clauses for a player called Aldo Kaja and you might wonder who he is. He is a player who was poached from our Academy, (by Notts County). He doesn't look all that, but of course we CAN re-sign him because I am classing him as a product of our Academy. 

Tracker. 

Records. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Poached. May 2044. 

I forgot to check for Aldo Kaja in this intake. He was 15 when he was poached in Jul 2041, but now in Mar 2044 he's only 16. This is very strange. 

I will be honest with you. I like tracking the players who are poached and I like checking their CA/PA, (which I did in my Ton Pentre save), but while it's fine checking the PA of Aldo Kaja for example, (because I basically know that his PA is going to be approx 51-60, (it's 65 so I think my system is 1 level out for some reason), I'm not sure it's going to make much difference. 

The 2nd player on the list, (who hasn't come through yet), is George Matthews and I would expect his PA to be 81-90 and we will go up 1 level to 91-100 and I would expect his PA to be 91-100 when he comes through. Because we already have this info, I don't think that it impacts the save too much. 

[Jimbokav1971]

21 minutes ago, rrozek93 said:

Giving it's first season in league1 it's still good result !! hopefully you can achieve it next season. 

Yeah, I'm pleased overall. It's just that we capitulated so badly in that last month. It appears as if losing the Final really knocked the stuffing out of us. 

[Jimbokav1971]

22 minutes ago, rrozek93 said:

How does old JFC doing in Valencia? Is he likely to move this transfer window now? 

He's doing rather nicely. 

I'm astonished that nobody is even interested in him. I keep thinking, "maybe that's his limit", but every time I check he has improved again. I know he is a "small" centre-back, but he's bloody brilliant. He's already capped 3 times for Spain and is now worth £24M and his minimum fee release clause is £97M. Can you imagine if he goes for £100M or something and we get 50% of that! 

He's contracted until 2048 and is getting paid £38.5k per week so they must have negotiated at some point, but in 3 years time when he has 12 months left on his contract he will be 24 years old and surely someone will be in for him.

If they offered me £10M for the 50% clause right now I wouldn't take it. 

If they offered me £20M for the 50% clause right now.... I don't know. I wouldn't want to take it bit that's a LOT of money and we really need it. 

Can you imagine if he saw his contract out and left on a free? 

Does anyone have any suggestions? Do Spanish clubs normally try to buy out clauses like this? If they make an offer, what should I be considering? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Clauses continued. May 2044. 

I know I did a section on clauses in the season Summary but I think it needs more depth. 

(33d) Jim Hanna (NIR)(F.Pro) *. We're not going to make much of this. 

(38c) McCormack (IRL) (Bal) *. This is going to be a nice little earner. He's valued at £2.2M and is a regular for Hull in League 1. He scored 10 goals in 27(3) appearances this season. There are lots of little add-ons here which we really help us. This is the typical sort of transfer that I want to see more of in the future. Not just a decent initial fee, but loads of regular add-ons being paid afterwards. 

(39b) JFC (ESP) (Perf) 5'10" *. We only have a 50% clause, but it could actually be the mother-load. If he leaves on a free I might just cry. 

(39c) Mendoza (COL) (Bal) *. He is at Barnsley who finished just outside the Playoffs in the Championship, so he has been loaned out to League 2. He played a full season so will still be developing, but the bloke ahead of him at Barnsley is with £6.75M. He needs to be sold for our man to get his chance. 

(40a) Sjoberg (Bal). He's made 2 appearances for Nottm Forest in the Championship before being loaned out to League 2. Forest have had a stinker though and only avoided relegation by 1 point which is a shame as he might have had more chance of playing had they been relegated. Hopefully he gets a chance with Forest next season

(40b) Gilchrist (SCO)(L.Heart). We lost a lot of the clauses when he was sold from Watford to Burnley, but every time Watford get a pay out, we get a 50% share of that I think. He's already made his Premier league debut. 

(40c) Paul Stovell (F.Amb). We've got very few clauses left after I cashed in what I could already. 

(42c) Goodridge (WAL) (Driven). This was a lovely little deal in the end. They have been paying us £100,000 per league appearance and he has already made 8, and we have 2 more of them left. Although it will end then, they will have to pay us £525k after 10 league appearances and that will do really nicely. The 40% profit I'm going to leave for a bit. We're going to probably get £725k early next season from this so I will keep the 40% in my back pocket I think. 

(HG44) Aldo Kaja (F.Pro). We're never going to get anything here. 

[Jimbokav1971]

The 2044 EURO's are being played in Switzerland & Austria. 

Look at the paltry fees we made from these players. 

£0
£68k and then we made good money on our 50% clause, (but not £22M good)
£0
£23k and I think we made £2.5M on a 50% clause there.
£0

The 50% clauses saved me twice, but that's basically 5 out of 5 where we've been screwed up front on the deal. 

He only scored 6 goals in 12(14) league appearances this season, but did manage to score 10 Champions League goals. (Man Utd lost to Liverpool in the Semi's on away goals).

[Jimbokav1971]

BOOOOOOM!  Jun 2044. 

    Are you allowed to gloat like this or is it considered rude? 

Balance. 

In all seriousness, I'm surprised that he left Valencia, (EURO Cup Runners Up), for Brighton. who have only finished better than 9th in the Premier League once in the last decade. Maybe Valencia needed to sell him and Brighton were the only club willing to splash the cash. I really expected him to go to Barca or Real at least, but if not then a Champions League English side. While I look at him and think he's amazing, (I'm biased I know), maybe his 5'10 height and 12 jumping is putting the big boys off? I would have thought he would have been amazing at real or Barca who don't have to defend much. 

I wonder if he will move again quite quickly once he starts performing in the Premier League? He surely can't stay at Brighton? 

Is this bloke as good as I think he is or am I blinded by love? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Jun 2044. 

If only I knew what to spend our newfound wealth on....

The Youth Recruitment takes about a month to "pop" and then the Youth and Training Facilities will be finished in December. Once they are finished we should be at 8.10.20.18 I think. 

[RoguPL]

10 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

BOOOOOOM!  Jun 2044. 

    Are you allowed to gloat like this or is it considered rude? 

Balance. 

In all seriousness, I'm surprised that he left Valencia, (EURO Cup Runners Up), for Brighton. who have only finished better than 9th in the Premier League once in the last decade. Maybe Valencia needed to sell him and Brighton were the only club willing to splash the cash. I really expected him to go to Barca or Real at least, but if not then a Champions League English side. While I look at him and think he's amazing, (I'm biased I know), maybe his 5'10 height and 12 jumping is putting the big boys off? I would have thought he would have been amazing at real or Barca who don't have to defend much. 

I wonder if he will move again quite quickly once he starts performing in the Premier League? He surely can't stay at Brighton? 

Is this bloke as good as I think he is or am I blinded by love? 

I called him out   

 

Congrats!! It will be enough for a while  

[Pompeyboyz]

Well, I would never have expected Brighton to be the destination....but what a payday.....and if Valencia took some clauses too, then you might be on for more in the future too

[Jimbokav1971]

9 minutes ago, rrozek93 said:

I called him out   

Congrats!! It will be enough for a while  

It's not just the money, (although it's obviously huge). What it will do is allow us to keep the bigger clauses for the better players we sell so we might get another one of these. I've had to sell all of these in the past and let's be completely honest here. The only reason I have never sold this clause is because the DoF never did a deal for it. 

If he had done a deal the chances are I would have accepted anything much over £10M. 

The other thing of course is that it allows 3 upgrades immediately and as long as we have a good season this season I will probably be able to get at least 3 more when they are complete. This in turn should again give us another little boost in terms of the players coming through. It really is good news.