Ceching You Out Posted November 20, 2021 Author Share Posted November 20, 2021 [dons Bob Barker costume] Who wants to play a game? Guess the final score of this game. Anyone? If you said 4-3 you're a crazy person, but you're also right. With all 7 goals coming in the first half. It also turns out, we're the 4 in that equation and Celtic is the 3 meaning we get our first Champions League victory proper and a bag full of cash: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 22, 2021 Author Share Posted November 22, 2021 Another round of... GUESS. THAT. SCORE! If you guessed 1-4, buy a lottery ticket because you're seeing something the rest of us can't. We leveled the score against Atletico Madrid shortly after the break in the third game and were briefly in a qualifying place for the second round! Then we nearly immediately lost the lead to a 30 yard smash and the game went. We headed to Glasgow knowing any kind of positive result likely was enough for us to drop into the Europa League but the gulf in talent put that softly to rest. Nothing else noteworthy to speak of in our group. Talent factory! Not sure there's much value in these outside of the specific player mention and the positional distribution. DC is the only place of need so we'll take talent that can play anywhere and retrain as necessary. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 22, 2021 Author Share Posted November 22, 2021 The cherry on our European adventures this year. Hey, I know that guy! One of our players finally takes this home. The assists number must be bugged though, because he's had tons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 23, 2021 Author Share Posted November 23, 2021 This will max us on all facilities after approximately 10.5 years in game. I would've taken the over on that for sure. Surely, the PPA is off here? Otherwise this is a bunch of great personalities with low potential and one of our more disappointing intakes. Deschamps (25B) has been on the fringes anyway, so happy to let him go. I'd hoped he might stick around in Andorra to give our peers a boost in Europe. First time this has happened. Now I'm deeply curious to see how he turns out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 24, 2021 Author Share Posted November 24, 2021 Last year of his contract and not going to resign unless the level of the squad magically rises a lot this year. Porto is sniffing around. Ultimately decided to keep him on the miniscule chance we see a lot of growth and/or amazing intakes, because the money is nearly irrelevant. Thought we'd royally screwed the pooch after a 2-0 defeat away, but then we evened it up in regular time and finished it off in extra. Our familiar Luxembourgish opponents Differdange up next. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 25, 2021 Author Share Posted November 25, 2021 Are you ready for... [audience cheers and chants along] GUESS. THAT. SCORE! This one is a doozy. 6-2 and we weren't on the good side despite the better xG. All but drops us out of Champions League. Woof. I do think we should be averaging out as Europa League Group Stage regulars going forward. Occasionally we'll end up in either the higher or lower competition, but I think we can reasonably target here every season. We're surprisingly in Pot 3 (and not too far from Pot 2 at that) so this is an okay draw. Fairly confident we can compete with Altach, Everton was a terrible Pot 2 draw, and Olympiakos was just about the easiest we could've gotten from Pot 1 (before even considering we snuck past them in a two legged tie last year). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 25, 2021 Author Share Posted November 25, 2021 Ugh, I misplayed this - in a large part because I misunderstood how Porto signing him while he was on a youth contract past the age of 17 would actually work. For some reason I had it in my head that he wouldn't leave until end of season, but that was clearly wrong. He was, uhh... good. Very, very good. As evidenced by the attention from Porto. Gallego (29G) wasn't quite as talented so I finally accepted one of the bids Al-Hazem kept throwing out. Contract expired at the end of the year, and although I had an extension option, I wasn't very likely to use it. Not even a four star prospect, middling personality, and youngsters only 1.5 stars behind him on PCA meant he was expendable. I've always been aggressive in blooding youth with higher ceilings, and honestly it's partially curiosity to see how he fares relative to Monforte (29A). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 26, 2021 Author Share Posted November 26, 2021 Three best players in the league even after Monforte (29A) left for Portugal, assuming this is the proxy for CA I've been treating it as. Let's go to the audience for today's episode of Guess That Score. What's this pleasant elderly contestant have to say? Contestant: Well, the last couple of these have been radically higher than expected so... [cacophony of the crowd yelling competing numbers]. Hmm 2-4? [disappointment buzzer] Wrong, 0-0 versus Olympiakos away and we were the 1.96. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 26, 2021 Author Share Posted November 26, 2021 I am Jack's utter lack of surprise. But still, nice to see we've become a consistent pipeline as intended. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 We continue to keep illustrious company here. Just ahead of Atletico Madrid and just behind Juventus - yes, that feels like the right spot for us in the world. Close to zero confidence in the quality evaluations here, which is convenient because I'd say we're already full of forwards and wide players but could use defenders. All right, let's run this bit into the ground. Guess that score. Left side team is about a penalty's xG ahead, so they're likely winners but it looks like a competitive game. [mixed messages buzzer] Partial credit! Everton did win, but it was a 6-1 demolishing after we took the lead 5 minutes in. Regardless, a win against Olympiakos in the last group game and good things could still happen. [game show] Did we pull it off? The score looks close again. And it was in the end once we managed to all but throw away a 4-1 lead [/game show] Beautiful sight that - a new record in Europe. We'll be playing in the Europa League knockout stages. Give us one of the 7 non-big 5 league teams. That's basically going to be our motto going forward. And we get... Excellente! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share Posted November 29, 2021 Twice on the trot our unheralded Carrasco (29E) has taken home the PotY award and it's hard to say he doesn't deserve it. Not even a smash and grab. We were slightly fortunate to draw in the first leg after a last minute equalizer shifted the balance of the tie. The home leg started with an early goal and then it meant not giving up two more; we pretty comfortably saw it out. This is not going to be pretty, although there were only 3 other non-big 5 sides left meaning odds were low we'd have drawn a competitive match up (AZ from the Netherlands, Valur out of Iceland, and the Danes from Copenhagen). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share Posted November 29, 2021 Well this is not great - only two players who may contribute if they reach their perceived ceiling. Personalities are questionable outside of the bottom of the barrel. Granted, if all the PPA are going off Santamaria (30A)'s five star ability then the bar is very high. Based off this calculator, he's around 140 CA which is roughly a good Premier League player. The rub is that we need a team at that level to challenge for our ultimate goal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share Posted November 29, 2021 After so nearly getting a 0-0 draw at home, we conceded off a one-touch finish from a cross in the last 5 minutes. In the away leg, we get a quick goal and the mind starts to dream... One more goal, even if we concede, would take us through. Tottenham equalize - no sweat, a fluky goal would still take us through. Then they snatch a goal quickly after the break and it's time to call a wrap on our deepest yet European adventures. And we set an unwelcome record in the process, hooray! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 (edited) FC Encamp Andorra 1st Division 2032-2033 Keep it quick now that you're grinding away. Went so fast last year that I forgot to even do a season end review. No real loss of information because SURPRISE we won the league. Only other noteworthy fact is the $2M "solidarity" payments we made to our competitors that I was unfortunately a little slow on. They didn't go through until the July window which meant it had little chance of an impact on our competitors' recruitment until after their European ties. This year - Super Cup, Cup, League. Knockout stages of Europa League for the first time and we managed to win one before Tottenham was a bridge too far. $1M in "solidarity" payments to three teams. I'll be looking this offseason to see if any of the three flip to Professional or see any bump in European fixtures. We really need our League Rank to improve since that and our National Team reputation are the two things we can improve that might help our intakes. Edited December 10, 2021 by Ceching You Out Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zethani Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 What criterion are you using to calculate the solidarity payments? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 3, 2021 Author Share Posted December 3, 2021 14 hours ago, zethani said: What criterion are you using to calculate the solidarity payments? That is a good question! My thought process for the first round of payments (in the season before last) was thus: get money into the hands of the teams finishing #2-4 (European places for Andorra) as soon as we could feel confident that sending out large enough fees to turn competitors professional (usually $1-1.5M in the bank after things like taxes) wouldn’t leave our bank account short of a healthy balance. I made a rookie mistake though - I didn’t recall that the money only goes through in a transfer window so I waited too long to do it. That meant payment went through in July after the new season had ticked over, eliminating any chance they’d turn professional immediately (which was the immediate point). With that error in mind, I transferred money to the very likely #2-3 spots in January. Atletic America had been replaced by Engordany, which wasn’t ideal, but ultimately I’m trying to improve their European results so felt a little daft to send money to a team that wouldn’t be there next year. Going forward I plan to follow this same pattern with as much as I can afford (which is determined by which Group Stage we reach that year). For what it’s worth, I’m into to July of the following year and none of the three have turned professional. I suspect it may have something to do with the realism pack I’m playing with siphoning off a larger part of transfer fees than usual. This may take more than I expected! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 3, 2021 Author Share Posted December 3, 2021 Nothing special here, but the real news is all 3 other sides advanced in the Europa Conference. That will likely be as far as they go but that single set of wins is precious for building our league rep. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 4, 2021 Author Share Posted December 4, 2021 Dominant over the North Macedonian side, leading to: 3-0 away was too much to overcome at home despite winning the xG battle. Didn't see it happen, but this feels like a bad draw for Europa League playoff. Let's see if we can beat these Danes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 5, 2021 Author Share Posted December 5, 2021 I guess I had no reason to worry? 2-2 away in a match we were the better side and then annihilation back in Andorra. Tough here but not much is expected. Third and into the Europa Conference is probably a decent outcome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 5, 2021 Author Share Posted December 5, 2021 Something a bit odd in the two-time reigning award winner (Carrasco 29E) not making the pre-season shortlist. Maybe it's limited to three from each team? These would be the best from our squad by CA if this calculator is correct, with our repeat winner just a fraction behind. Another interesting note - one of our previous players appears on the list for the first time. Good on ya, Martins 30J. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 6, 2021 Author Share Posted December 6, 2021 On 23/11/2021 at 15:29, Ceching You Out said: First time this has happened. Now I'm deeply curious to see how he turns out. Despite the message coming through as part of our class of 2032, I still haven't been able to find this guy in game. Odd and a little disappointing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) Last group game against the Irish side and it wasn't nearly as comfortable as it looked. We gave up over half a goal's worth of xG within the first 15 minutes (and created exactly nothing ourselves), but we managed to just keep the sheet clean through that period. In the second half we gradually took control of the game. So what does that mean? A fantastic group stage for us - the double over Shamrock Rovers, a smash and grab victory over Monaco to go with a draw, and narrow losses to Sociedad. It was all to play for in the final round of matches. We advanced with a draw or win, but a loss would've left us at the mercy of both the other result and aggregate head-to-head. Instead we advance out of Europa League group for the second year in a row. A fairly middling draw here. No power 5 representative, but no only just. We're playing with house money anyway. Edited December 8, 2021 by Ceching You Out Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 I am practically offended at this. We are the rightful talent factory for Andorra. BE GONE, MASSANA! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 Someone new! All hail Dominguez (31D), who won by virtue of being our backup striker that plays most domestic games and absolutely destroyed the opposition. I saw this pop up on a league screen and it made me do a double take. What a wild game we weren't even involved in. Very high xG and some exceptional finishing on top of that. I... can't even play guess that score. Somehow this was 5-2 to Sporting, including a goal five minutes into stoppage time that turns this from 'maybe' to 'doubtful' in the return leg. Felt like our keeper could've saved two of these. Uggggghhhh. We could've put ourselves in a great position here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 Not anywhere near advancing, despite putting up the vastly better xG (1.53 to .60). Woof. Hopefully this is inaccurate, because the less said about this the better. We may be hitting our ceiling without a big boost to league and/or our reputation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zethani Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 Do you have any feeder clubs out of Andorra at this stage in the game? P.S: Big fan of the Avenir Beggen campaign here, btw Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 10, 2021 Author Share Posted December 10, 2021 FC Encamp Andorra 1st Division 2033-2034 Keep it quick now that you're grinding away. Super Cup, Cup, League. Knockout stages of Europa League for the second time. $1M in "solidarity" payments to three teams (and a bonus $1M to Inter d'Escaldes) and I'll continue to see if any other club turns professional. The story of the season - Santa Coloma doing their best to get relegated. The finished the regular season bottom by a couple points and only confirm a second-to-last finish on the final day of the playoffs. Then in their two legged promotion/relegation tie against a second division side, they manage to just edge through deep into stoppage time after a red card. Makes me quite happy since I've thrown a decent amount of money their way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 10, 2021 Author Share Posted December 10, 2021 14 hours ago, zethani said: Do you have any feeder clubs out of Andorra at this stage in the game? P.S: Big fan of the Avenir Beggen campaign here, btw Thanks for following along and for the kind words! It will be hard to top the fun I had in Luxembourg, but I think this save is proving that enough has changed in FM that a Champions League might just be achievable from such undignified beginnings. That is a good question, not the least because it reminds me to request a feeder again. I've had roughly 3 feeders in the save so far, but the board has limited my options to second division Andorran sides that pretty quickly get promoted once I send a few players there. I imagine the shallow pool to choose from is coming from our league reputation still being low enough that we can't persuade any logical targets (Spanish, Portuguese, French teams) to be a feeder. I'd love to get a foreign side if only to shake up the possibilities in our youth intake (since my understanding is it would give us players based on the feeder's youth scores). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zethani Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 Club reputation has for sure something to do with the available feeder clubs. I guess as soon as you get above the threshold of 2.5/3, you should be able to get at least one. Regarding the link between feeder clubs and youth intake, I feel that very rarely they produce good newgens (or at least it appears to work this way in FM17, which I am still playing) even if your feeder has a higher youth rating than yours and it is at the top of the pecking order in their own country. For this reason, I often consider "fair game" to purchase players coming out of the feeder youth intake when doing a youth only save. Makes your talent pool less reliant on RNG without removing too much of the challenge, at least from my perspective. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 12, 2021 Author Share Posted December 12, 2021 Easy peezy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 12, 2021 Author Share Posted December 12, 2021 16 hours ago, zethani said: Club reputation has for sure something to do with the available feeder clubs. I guess as soon as you get above the threshold of 2.5/3, you should be able to get at least one. Regarding the link between feeder clubs and youth intake, I feel that very rarely they produce good newgens (or at least it appears to work this way in FM17, which I am still playing) even if your feeder has a higher youth rating than yours and it is at the top of the pecking order in their own country. For this reason, I often consider "fair game" to purchase players coming out of the feeder youth intake when doing a youth only save. Makes your talent pool less reliant on RNG without removing too much of the challenge, at least from my perspective. For sure. There needs to be some minimum gap in reputation between your club and a feeder so hopefully I'll get a non-Andorran option soon. That's interesting. I have very little relevant experience with feeder clubs on any modern version so I wonder if I'll see the same. I don't think I'd sign players from my feeder clubs in this save, but I like it as a house rule for maybe another save (along the lines of @Jimbokav1971's transfers of past players back to his clubs). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceching You Out Posted December 12, 2021 Author Share Posted December 12, 2021 (edited) Two goals in the last ten minutes swung the tie our way. Big win and puts us on the verge of a Champions League group stage we haven't visited in a few years. Within a whisker until Lefebvre (31F) picked up a second yellow immediately after we started ET. A shame it ruined a very even tie. Not too bad a draw for the Europa League. I think we have a decent shot at advancing. Edited December 12, 2021 by Ceching You Out Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now