[FM23] Out of Africa. (Spanish out of Morocco to be precise). We will start with Ceuta, but if things go badly I might end up at Melila.

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Thebaker said:

Federation 2nd was the lowest level playable last year in spain so Melila should be playable.

Yep, Melila are not only playable, but are also flying!

ps. There is a Spanish football club called Intercity! 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Thebaker said:

I had the filter blank and the parameters as wide as possible but in 4 months my scouts found no-one in sweden. I think it may be bugged along with that Keita transfer you had which seems wrong.

This is what it looks like now. 

But if I tick the "Any positions from Tactic" box then this is what it looks like. 

If I untick that and move across to my tactic on the right, (442 High Press Bal), then it shows as this. 

If I look at the new Standard Focus that my Ass Man or Chief Scout or whoever set up, then it looks like this. 

The problem is that I have paid such little attention to scouting in previous versions of the game, (or even the briefing in this one), that I can't work out of I'm just doing it wrong because I'm stupid, or if I'm doing it right and it's just broken. I suppose the answer is that whatever the correct way is should be clear one way or another. 

The Keita transfer fee thing did indeed seem strange, but I'm a little reluctant to call every little thing I don't understand a bug, simply because I don't understand it, (although you might very well be right). 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Thebaker said:

Wait until you get promoted and then look at the registration rules where you have to pay players a certain wage to be able to register them if over 19.

I had a little look at the registration rules for the 1st & 2nd tier, but didn't see that yesterday. The only thing I think I know about Spanish football is that every player has to have a minimum fee release clause in his contract. 

Let's look at the La Liga rules now. 

This is what you're talking about I think.  That doesn't seem too bad actually, but then again I was thinking that I wouldn't need to register young teenagers but it seems everyone has to be registered no matter what age they are. (I hate these bloomin registration rules!) We're still limited to 23 outfield registered players in La Liga, although a B Team should help with that problem, (youth development rather than squad depth if that makes sense). 

[Thebaker]

49 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I had a little look at the registration rules for the 1st & 2nd tier, but didn't see that yesterday. The only thing I think I know about Spanish football is that every player has to have a minimum fee release clause in his contract. 

Let's look at the La Liga rules now. 

This is what you're talking about I think.  That doesn't seem too bad actually, but then again I was thinking that I wouldn't need to register young teenagers but it seems everyone has to be registered no matter what age they are. (I hate these bloomin registration rules!) We're still limited to 23 outfield registered players in La Liga, although a B Team should help with that problem, (youth development rather than squad depth if that makes sense). 

The league below also has the same rules but slightly lower wages. Also the b team players can't play unless they are one of the 23.

Players under 19 didn't need registering if on youth contracts and so could play - i didn't offer any FT contracts until they couldn't play at 19/20.

[Thebaker]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

But if I tick the "Any positions from Tactic" box then this is what it looks like. 

 

 

 

The Keita transfer fee thing did indeed seem strange, but I'm a little reluctant to call every little thing I don't understand a bug, simply because I don't understand it, (although you might very well be right). 

The scouting is new this year and has been changed. My set up is like the one above with an age range of 15-50 and 1ss CA to 4 star potential, in 6 months i have 1 recommendation in the bottom league in sweden!

The Keita thing could be a signing on fee, maybe that is now deducted from the transfer fund which would be a brand new thing.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Thebaker said:

The league below also has the same rules but slightly lower wages. Also the b team players can't play unless they are one of the 23.

Players under 19 didn't need registering if on youth contracts and so could play - i didn't offer any FT contracts until they couldn't play at 19/20.

Yeah, but I offer FT contract to youth players so that they can't be poached. The problem with that is that I can't just sign a high PA youngster to a 5+3 deal and then keep him for 7 seasons and then sell him, because the min fee release clause will be set when he a teenager. I'm going to have to change my approach completely I think. 

Having said that, our facilities are so pish that I don't think we're in any danger of anyone nicking our youth players anytime soon. 

La Liga. Are feeder clubs for EU citizenship still a thing and if so is Belgium still the quickest at 3 years? I think I'm going to need 1 in the future. It turns out that Morocco and Tunisia are treated as EU so I will have to remember that. 

Segunda Division. 

3rd Tier. (Us).

4th Tier. (Melila). 

I don't really see the minimum wage rules being an issue at any stage during this save. If the player is good enough to be part of the 22/24/25 man squad, then they are well worth £950/£5,500/£11,250 per month. 

The small size of squads is an issue for me personally, (because it means I have to adapt the way I manage), but a B Team in a playable league will help that, and at the moment our Academy is rubbish so I don't envisage us becoming clogged with wonderkids anytime soon. I love to loan players out anyway and we have loads of active leagues for them to go and play in. 

We've currently got a 6.500 capacity all seater stadium at the moment and that is 500 over the minimum required for the Segunda Division if and when we manage to get promoted, so that's not an immediate problem either. One possible headache I can foresee is that our stadium is Council owned and we need an extra 8,500 seats to play in La Liga when the time comes because there doesn't seem to be much scope for expansion. 

[Thebaker]

i played in spain last year and found it hard to often loan players out to the right level, usually it was too low.  Young players often wanted a lot of money, almost as much as first teamers at times which considering you make a huge loss below La liga is an issue when you can't play the player (as you have 23 already) or get anyone to pay those wages on loan.

I think there may be a lot more african countries counted as eu - The line African, caribbean, pacific group of state nations includes most of the rest of Africa (except the Northern countries) as far as i could tell.

[Jimbokav1971]

21 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

i played in spain last year and found it hard to often loan players out to the right level, usually it was too low.  Young players often wanted a lot of money, almost as much as first teamers at times which considering you make a huge loss below La liga is an issue when you can't play the player (as you have 23 already) or get anyone to pay those wages on loan.

I think there may be a lot more african countries counted as eu - The line African, caribbean, pacific group of state nations includes most of the rest of Africa (except the Northern countries) as far as i could tell.

How many leagues/Nations did you have active in your save? I think that can change a save significantly. 

Yeah, I noticed the "All African" Nations when I did that last post. Very pleasantly surprised. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, Thebaker said:

The scouting is new this year and has been changed. My set up is like the one above with an age range of 15-50 and 1ss CA to 4 star potential, in 6 months i have 1 recommendation in the bottom league in sweden!

1.0 c silver star CA to 4.0 gold star PA? Is that really what you mean? That's a very low starting point. It doesn't seem right though. I will keep playing with it before I blame the game rather than my ineptitude though. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, Thebaker said:

The Keita thing could be a signing on fee, maybe that is now deducted from the transfer fund which would be a brand new thing.

I really did look for any possible explanations, but I couldn't find any. Nothing at all. If it happens again I will definitely report it. In hindsight I regret not reporting it yesterday. 

[Thebaker]

25 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

How many leagues/Nations did you have active in your save? I think that can change a save significantly. 

Yeah, I noticed the "All African" Nations when I did that last post. Very pleasantly surprised. 

the top 2 levels from the other 5 leagues and all portugal leagues. My non-eu players tended to be British, N and S american, don't remember many africans counting as non-eu and i scouted the bigger countries looking for cheap stars, usually the top 3 clubs in that nation generate them or just look at the u20's. Ghana and Ivory coast are always good if you can get the players early ( french clubs seem to snap them up)

[Jimbokav1971]

6 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

the top 2 levels from the other 5 leagues and all portugal leagues. My non-eu players tended to be British, N and S american, don't remember many africans counting as non-eu and i scouted the bigger countries looking for cheap stars, usually the top 3 clubs in that nation generate them or just look at the u20's. Ghana and Ivory coast are always good if you can get the players early ( french clubs seem to snap them up)

I think that makes sense then. 

I've gone much bigger, (which is the opposite to what I usually do). 

If I can't get players out on loan here, (with the aid of multiple feeder clubs), then it won't be for the want of trying. 

England might not be what it once was as a result of Brexit, (and that goes far beyond football), and my main reason for including them was to sign players produced there rather than for me to loan players there, (but maybe further down the line that might be an option). 

Belgium was added largely as a feeder option, (which I think has a short turnaround time for becoming Nationalized), but this isn't the issue I thought it was at all. 

Everywhere else was really just added to help produce the players In need and also hopefully provide a pathway to not only our 1st team, but also financial stability for the club. 

[Marazola]

Subbed! Always been intrigued on Ceuta and Melila as clubs there.

[Jimbokav1971]

14 minutes ago, Marazola said:

Subbed! Always been intrigued on Ceuta and Melila as clubs there.

Thanks. It's only come to my attention quite recently and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss out on. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Scouting. Dec 2022.

Scouting still doesn't seem to be working as intended, (ar at least not as I expected). 

I am at least getting some responses from Recruitment Focus that have been set up by our staff. 

We've got 1 Recommendation here, 1 near miss and I keep an eye on the "in progress" numbers too and as soon as I see an African I just add him to our shortlist. 

These are all the teenagers on the list. I don't care if they are interested in joining us or not because it's not about the here and now. If not now we might join together at some point in the future. 

This is the latest Recruitment meeting. 

53 Other Recommended Players. 

The only problem is I can't see where the recommended players are. 

There are 5 players on this 1st Focus. 

There are 7 players on this 2nd Focus. 

We only have 2 Focus so where are the rest of the 53 recommended Players? 

Oh I see. 

Except there are only 5 players there so I don't understand where these 53 Other Recommended Players are. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Scouting Update continued. Dec 2022. 

I've worked out where the 56 reports where. 

In the bottom left hand corner it tells me there are  reports. 

ALthough I like looking at the cards to make a decision, I also like looking at the list view to sift through them. 

These are the same reports, but in list form. 

Using the filters in the top right hand corner we can also see how the 

What I really don't like though is that I can't edit the view so I can't change what I can see. All I can see is this. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2022. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. Sanse were bottom of the table and we absolutely battered then with about 20 shots. They had 3 shots and scored 1 goal. We've dropped to 9th, but we're now 4 pts off the playoffs. We can't afford to drop 3 pts to the worst team in the league. 

Spanish Cup. A comfortable win against lower league opposition. 

Youth Intake preview. Well I look forward to this being a let-down of biblical proportions.  I need to wait for the editor to come out so I can report this again. Otherwise I'm unable to prove what I know. 

Goal-scoring GK's. We took 5 shots, 2 on target and scored 2 goals. 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2022. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. It was a tough month with away games against 4th placed R.Madrid B and 3rd placed Coruna, as well as a home game against mid-table Leonesa. 3 points was probably the most we could have expected from these games. We didn't play well in the away games though and if I'm completely honest we weren't great in the game we won. 

Spanish Cup. I thought we might have a chance here because although Alcorcón are well placed in the league, they're not in good form and I think had we had a home tie we would have won. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 3 shots, all 3 of them on target, but 0 goals this month. 

FInances.  The money situation is a little concerning, but there's basically nothing I can do other than try to get promoted. I'm not sure that things will be much better even in the league above. 

[Jimbokav1971]

 

[Thebaker]

4 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

Most of that bug report  is correct, however they may be classed as rivals due to the fact that your team is a rival for them but not the other way round, ive seen that before in my save.

[Jimbokav1971]

7 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

Most of that bug report  is correct, however they may be classed as rivals due to the fact that your team is a rival for them but not the other way round, ive seen that before in my save.

Very good point. 

I will look at that now and add it to the report. 

Merida rivalries. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2022. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. This is another rubbish month, the the opposition are placed 8th, 6th, 2nd and 1st so it perhaps was to be expected. We just need to take advantage when we play the weaker teams. 3 losses by a single goal is tough to take though. If we can start turning some of these losses into draws then it will have a knock-on impact to our morale and we might be able to build some momentum. At the moment we lose every time we play anyone even decent. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Just 1 shot, (on target), resulting in 0 goals. It's been a slog recently. 

FInances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Management. Mar 2023. 

Something that I do a lot in FM and I think is a significantly underused tool within the Community is "manage my squad" in terms of keeping them fresh and rotating them. I'm personally of the opinion that a fit good player is better than an unfit very good player, so in order to get the best out of your squad you need to not only rest the 1st Teamers, but also ensure that the fringe players are match fit. I've done this religiously over my last few saves and it's worked really well. 

It's easier to do that though when you have the games coming thick and fast, but when you only play 1 game per week it's much harder to rotate players in when the players they're replacing aren't particularly fatigued. 

Here you can see that we've largely played 1 game per week all the way the way through this season.

We've only played a mid-week game 4 times this season, (and 2 of them were Cup games), so there is much less natural scope for rotation than I experienced in Portugal for example, where the games game thick and fast right from the off. Obviously European fixtures played a part in that, but also a 2nd Cup competition and even just the normal fixture list. 

I was selecting the squad for the Cordoba game at the end of Feb and on a run of 1 win in 8 games, and playing against the league leaders, I decided that I needed to go back to basics and do what I have done in other saves. The 1st thing that I thought of was rotation, so despite the fact that the players had just had a whole week since their last game, I rested the whole starting XI against Cordoba. We lost 4-2 but it was far from a battering and teenager Bichi (NGA) popped up with 2 goals. We lost 4-2 with effectively our Reserves against the best team in the league so as far as I was concerned we hadn't really lost anything because we were never going to get anything out the game anyway. 

That takes is to the Vigo B game where I was able to revert to my 1st Team line-up, (who now hadn't played for 2 weeks). Vigo B were a couple of points above us in the league so if we could beat them then it would at the very least jump us over them in the table. In actual fact we hammered them and were really dominant in the early stages of the match, (scoring 3 goals in the opening 17 mins), and the game was as good as done. I think because we usually had a full week between fixtures, I hadn't been rotating players, (because the condition heart was full). The truth though is that a full green heart isn't always the same value and while it most certainly means that the player is fit to play, it doesn't mean that they are in absolute 100% optimum condition. I have absolutely no doubt that resting the 1st team for the Cordoba game paid dividends in the Vigo B game a week later and the added bonus is that it gives fringe players some much needed game-time. At the monent that's not hugely significant in itself, but if and when I manage to sign some decent youngsters, I'm going to need to expose them to 1st team football and this is the perfect way to do that. 

Anyway, this is probably too long a post for too small a thing, but I think it's important so thought I would mention it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Scouting (again). Mar 2023. 

We've just received this message about the end of a Recruitment Focus. 

There are a few things to pick up here. 

• We've got 6 recommendations (when we weren't getting any at the start).
• If I press the [Restart] button then nothing happens and it's a known bug that has been acknowledged by SI. 
• There are 6 recommendations, but there are only 4 shown on this page and it won't let me scroll down. When you click on the 6 recommendations in the top right corner it takes you to the following graphic where all 6 players are shown, but it's a click that I don't want to make. I know they show different info, but why don't I see all 6 on the 1st page then? 

On the above list, the 1st 4 players are easy to click on. I can just click on the player, move down to info, check his 2nd Nationality and then use the back arrow to go back and look for the next player. That's fine for the 1st 4 players, but then when I go to click on the 5th player Limones when I go back he's not on the list, (because it only shows 4 players), so I have to go and click on the 6 recommendations link at the top right and then scroll down to Limones and check his info and then when I press the backwards arrow it takes me to the Recruitment Focus tab of the Scouting centre, but this Recruitment Focus is no longer active now, (it's completed), so I have to 1st click on the completed tab and then scroll down to the 34th line to then click on the job I want and then I have to click on José Carrasco 6'2" (SELL) and then look at his 2nd Nationality. It takes me 51 seconds to check the 2nd Nationality of 6 players. That can't possibly be right. 

This is really poorly designed. 

[Jimbokav1971]

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2023. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. We were great against Vigo B, but Algericas battered the reserves and then Pontevedra somehow battered us and that shocked me to my core. We bounced back against Unionistas and led 2-1 in the 89th minute only to concede twice and lose. Absolutely gutting.  I'm seriously worried about relegation now. Ferro are unbeaten in their last 5 games and Badajoz & Pontevedra have both won 2 of their last 5 games. 

There are 8 games left and we need some wins to get us out of trouble. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 3 shots this month, 2 of them on target resulting in 1 goal. Personally it doesn't look like the deflected free-kick was on target and it should have gone down as an OG, (but who am I to complain). 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

 

[DavidBeckham]

You are progressing well in your save! Keep up the good work mate! And everyone loves a goal-scoring keeper! Looking forward to seeing you break Chilavert's goal-scoring record

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

You are progressing well in your save! Keep up the good work mate! And everyone loves a goal-scoring keeper! Looking forward to seeing you break Chilavert's goal-scoring record

Thanks very much. 

Chilavert doesn't hold any records though. 

Rogerio Ceni holds the real life record with 131 career goals, but my GK Ako obliterated that with 348 career goals in FM22. 

Edited October 24, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Apr 2023.

On the 1 side we don't have any youth players at the club at all, so whatever we get will allow us to at least have a non-grey U19 Team. 
On the flip side we have rubbish facilities so in truth I'm not expecting any players to be produced who are capable of playing at this level, (3rd tier in Spain). 

What Adequate, Adequate, Adequate and Basic equates to in terms of numbers is as follows.
* Assuming that nothing has changed from FM22.  

Training Facilities. Level 8 or 9 out of 20. 
Youth Facilities. Level 8 or 9 out of 20. 
Junior Coaching. Level 10 or 11 out of 20. 
Youth Recruitment. Level 3, 4 or 5 out of 20. 

Actually, that's much better than I was expecting. 

With that in mind, maybe we will get some players who might have the potential to play at this level. 

It's interesting that the 2 players at the top of the PA list are the only 2 non-Spanish players from the intake. 

(23c) Víctor is a player I don't particularly like the look of, (but it's early days yet). 

(23b) Escalona (VEN) looks like a pretty reasonable DL. I don't like his stamina & acceleration, but other than that there's lots to like. 

(23a) Kodermac (SVN) MR looks surprisingly decent for a 1.5 CA player. Still enormously limited, but I can see him making an impact at MR with some development. 

There are only 3 players that I won't be offering Youth contracts to. 

Low Det twinned with Unamb is just a waste of my time and effort so what's the point? 

Low Det on it's own doesn't have to be a problem, but twinned with low PA isn't a good mix. 

Removing these 3 players means that everyone in the Youth Team has a Det of at least 10. 

It's easy to do this when the players are rubbish, but not so easy where players such as (23g) Alemany look relatively decent. I'm going to try and play hardball with Det values in this save though. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake day. Apr 2023.

On the 1 side we don't have any youth players at the club at all, so whatever we get will allow us to at least have a non-grey U19 Team. 
On the flip side we have rubbish facilities so in truth I'm not expecting any players to be produced who are capable of playing at this level, (3rd tier in Spain). 

What Adequate, Adequate, Adequate and Basic equates to in terms of numbers is as follows.
* Assuming that nothing has changed from FM22.  

Training Facilities. Level 8 or 9 out of 20. 
Youth Facilities. Level 8 or 9 out of 20. 
Junior Coaching. Level 10 or 11 out of 20. 
Youth Recruitment. Level 3, 4 or 5 out of 20. 

Actually, that's much better than I was expecting. 

With that in mind, maybe we will get some players who might have the potential to play at this level. 

It's interesting that the 2 players at the top of the PA list are the only 2 non-Spanish players from the intake. 

(23c) Víctor is a player I don't particularly like the look of, (but it's early days yet). 

(23b) Escalona (VEN) looks like a pretty reasonable DL. I don't like his stamina & acceleration, but other than that there's lots to like. 

(23a) Kodermac (SVN) MR looks surprisingly decent for a 1.5 CA player. Still enormously limited, but I can see him making an impact at MR with some development. 

There are only 3 players that I won't be offering Youth contracts to. 

Low Det twinned with Unamb is just a waste of my time and effort so what's the point? 

Low Det on it's own doesn't have to be a problem, but twinned with low PA isn't a good mix. 

Removing these 3 players means that everyone in the Youth Team has a Det of at least 10. 

It's easy to do this when the players are rubbish, but not so easy where players such as (23g) Alemany look relatively decent. I'm going to try and play hardball with Det values in this save though. 

 

I've just tried to offer contracts to the 2 non-Spanish players and both fell through. They wanted £450 pw which seems high, but they just weren't interested in signing a 2+2 or a 2+3 deal and negotiations seemed quite far apart. Wasn't really expecting this. They are miles away from 1st Team football. What's the problem? 

I was considering just offering them Youth contracts but not even interested in that. 

(23a) negotiations broke down. 
(23b) negotiations broke down. 
(23c) Signed Pro contract. 
(23d) Signed Pro contract. 
(23e) Signed Pro contract. 
(23f) negotiations broke down. 
(23g) released.
(23h) signed Youth contract.
(23i) signed Youth contract.
(23j) signed Youth contract.
(23k) signed Youth contract.
(23l) signed Youth contract.
(23m) released.
(23n) signed Youth contract.
(23o) signed Youth contract.
(23p) released.

Something that has always interested me about managing in Spain, (where every Pro contract has to include a min fee release clause), is whether you could judge the PA of a Youth player based on the size of the min fee release clause he asked for. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2023. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. After the Ferrol game, (I was thinking more Feral at the time), I dispensed with our 442 tactic and just dropped the right hand striker back to DM as a (RGA). There are 4 games left and we're 5 points clear of relegation so we've got a decent chance of escaping the drop. The remaining games are against 19th. 15th, 20th and 6th, so we certainly have a chance. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 4 shots, 3 of them on target, resulting in 2 goals this month. 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2023. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. With 7 games of the season remaining I switched from a 442 to a 4141 and changed nothing else about the tactic. I like the tactic, (it's simple like me), and I like the way that it works, but I don't think that we've quite got good enough players at this stage of the save to make it work for us. Swapping to the 4141 has meant that we have won 5, drawn 1 and lost 1 of our last 7 games. Considering we had lost 12 of our previous 14, that pretty good going. We had favourable fixtures this month, Sanse (19th), R.Majadahonda (15th), Talavera (20th) and Linares (6th), and the only real surprise is that we beat Linares, especially when I picked so many kids (3) from the start. 

We only drew 4 games all season and the next fewest draws was Leonesa with 7. If we can turn just 3 losses into draws then that gives us another 3 points and the momentum/morale boost that not losing gives us, (I'm still assuming it's the same in FM23), is enormous. At this stage I'm now quite hopeful of the new season with this 4141 tactic. 

We were predicted to finish 15th so a 10th place finish is decent and all in all I'm delighted. 

We will lose some good players over the Summer, but we now have an U19 Team and I think I can use them when we're desperate just so long as they haven't yet turned Pro. Once they have turned Pro we need to not only register them, but also pay them more than £950 are they reach 17 years old. I should have thought of that when I was adding +3 clauses to their contracts. There is no point adding a +3 clause when I'm paying them less than £950 because I either won't be able to play them or will have to offer them an improved deal anyway. I'm starting to hate Spain! 

Goal-scoring GK's. 3 shots this month, 2 on target but 0 goals and Leandro 6'1" finishes the season on a very respectable 8 goals. 

In hindsight it's no surprise that Leandro 6'1" missed a penalty against Linares because he's unhappy. 

I'm not sure what promise I've broken. It's a shame it isn't mentioned. I'm sure it will tell me somewhere if I can just find it.....

It turns out that there are no promises outstanding, (which makes sense because I go out of my way not to make promises that I can't keep). I prefer to tell players the truth rather than lie to them because they eventually recover from being made unhappy by the truth but don't recover from being made unhappy by being lied to, 

I've actually found out what the problem us by clicking on him and talking to him. (Who knew!!!) 

I'm not sure what he's got the hump about. We didn't have a Youth Team before this Youth Intake and since then I have played 3 off the bench against R.Majadahonda and started 3 against Linares. I can't do much more than that because they're proper pants!!! 

Finances.  Money is a problem that isn't going away anytime soon. 

This is part of the problem. 

But considering this is our 1st season at this level, the board actually did really well to provide the budget they did. 

This doesn't make it easy to compete. 

Linares game. Linares finished the season 6th, and only missed out on the playoffs on the last day of the season because we beat them. When you consider that I started (23b) Escalona (VEN) at left back, (23d) de la Hoz ar right back and (23a) Kodermac (SVN) MR on the right wing, AND we missed a penalty, it's astonishing that we won. Maybe this changed new tactic is a winner. I was starting to get a little disheartened with our performances over the season but the last couple of months have really given me hope moving forward. 

New contract. 

(23d) de la Hoz. He came off the bench at right back and scored a really good goal. Astonishing!

(23c) Víctor. He came off the bench in the last game and grabbed himself an assist! 

(23a) Kodermac (SVN) MR. He actually looks decent(ish) and I was far less surprised when he grabbed an assist than I was by some of these other debuts. 

(23b) Escalona (VEN). He's probably the best player in the new group in terms of CA and how it's distributed. He looks to have the basis of a good game. 

[Sonic Youth]

Decent youth intake and end to the season 

It will be curious if the board decide to invest more and turn the club professional.

Do you have your post/pre-seasons planned?

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said:

It will be curious if the board decide to invest more and turn the club professional.

Are we not Professional? 

I think we are. If we aren't and I posted it I hadn't noticed. 

I know that some players were on PT contracts, but I assumed that was a hangover from the previous season in the league below. [goes to check]

Yeah, we're Pro now, but it's possible that we weren't at the start of the save and I just didn't notice and then  I didn't notice when we turned Pro. I don't think that's very likely though. 

Going off on a tangent and looking at out Rivals....

Algeciras finished last season 5th in our league, (and were promoted via the Playoffs). Not sure where the rivalry comes from because they were a big club in the league last season and we're tiny. Actually it's a local rivalry because Algeciras is just across the bay from Gibraltar so that makes sense. 

Melila we know all about. They are the other Spanish club in Morocco across the coast to the East. They played in the league below us last season and although they started like an absolute train, they only finished 4th and lost in the Playoffs Semi.  (Yes, I am taking this rivalry seriously right from the off!) 

Let me go back to the start of the thread and see what pics I posted. 

I've just checked and I don't think I posted a pic showing we were Pro or Semi-Pro either way, so I can see why you might of thought we were still Semi-Pro. Sorry about that.  To be honest, there was so much going on that I think it was sensory overload. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said:

Decent youth intake and end to the season 

Let's be honest, I've absolutely no idea how good or bad it is, but we didn't have any youth players before, and we do now so that in itself is a significant development. They have shown that however bad they might be, they can actually still come in and do a job at this level, (surprisingly), in a decent system. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said:

Do you have your post/pre-seasons planned?

I'm not sure what you mean. 

I'm not going to do a big huge in-depth post season update if that's what you mean. I think they take too much time when I would rather be actually playing the game and if something comes up that I think is interesting and I want to comment on then I post about it. 

If you meant more close-season strategy rather than an update, then yes, sort of. 

I was tempted to go in early for some key signings, (free agents of course), and we now have 114 player on our "African" shortlist, but actually, although I have made 1 significant signing, (from Burundi, and yes Burundi is in Africa because I checked thinking it was in Asia), my "strategy" if you can call it that is that I'm going to wait to see who has been released and who hasn't been picked up later in the window and then hopefully get a slightly poorer quality player but for a cheaper price. 

At the moment I've got a squad that could get us through the season without being relegated, (I think), but I perhaps need a central midfielder with some quality. We currently have 18 players in the 1st Team squad, (17 outfield players), and we can have 21 outfield players as a maximum, so in my head I'm thinking we want to sign 4 more players and that will leave nobody in the B Team that plays in an inactive league, (and I'm fine with that). We probably need another GK, (but he won't count in the 4 remember), but we definitely need a DM and a MC. I don't want to sign a DL because (23b) Escalona (VEN) is about the best youth player we've got so why block his pathway? Also, Lafarge (FRA)(MTQ) 6'1" can fill in on the right so no need for another right back. We already have 4 centre-backs so that's fine. Maybe 1 more wide player and a 3rd striker? It will basically depend on what's available for what sort of wage. 

GK. 

1st Team. Leandro 6'1"
B Team.
U19's. (23o) Roca 5'11"
Sell.
Loan.

DL.

1st Team. Josema
B Team.
U19's. (23b) Escalona (VEN)
Sell.
Loan.

DR.
1st Team. Ramazani (BDI)(BEL) & Alain García
B Team.
U19's. (23d) de la Hoz
Sell.
Loan.

DC.

1st Team. Télis (URU) 6'4" & Erimuya (NGA) 6'3". Ali Abdul Rahman (GHA) & Lafarge (FRA)(MTQ) 6'1".
B Team.
U19's. (23j) Ruiz 5'11" & (23c) Víctor 6'0".
Sell.
Loan.

DM.

1st Team. Keïta (SEN)
B Team.
U19's.
Sell.
Loan.

MC.

1st Team. Amar (FRA)(ALG) & Julio Iglesias. Jota
B Team.
U19's. (23e) Manuel & (23l) Soler. (23n) Muiños
Sell.
Loan.

ML.

1st Team. Liberto & David Alfonso.
B Team.
U19's. (23k) Álvarez
Sell.
Loan.

MR.

1st Team. Luismi & Aisar Ahmed.
B Team.
U19's. (23a) Kodermac (SVN) MR, (23i) Raúl MR & (23h) Vallejo MR.
Sell.
Loan.

SC.

1st Team. Pablo García & Gonzalez (SUI).
B Team.
U19's. (23f) Francisco & 
Sell.
Loan.

Last season our wage budget was £136,634 per month (£1.6M) and this season it's been increased to £155,306 per month (£1.8M). At the same time, although we now have a Youth Team which cost me more than I expected, (even after the warnings), by slashing the B Team we're now only spending £95,203 per month, (meaning that I have a whopping £60k per month to spend on just 4 players, (5 if I also include a GK). That would allow me to sign the real top end of players at this level I think. It just remains to be seen if they are available and if they're willing to play for us. 

It's risky waiting until later in the window, especially as we have the cash to spend, but we're overdrawn at the bank to the tune of £850k even before the start of the season so I'm trying to do my bit to keep our losses down to a minimum. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Scouting. Aug 2023. 

Although I'm really impressed that the scouts have found 114 African players, I've only just realised, (after responding to @Sonic Youth) that only 15 of them are currently available to sign on a free. That's not what I was expecting at all. If I need to sign 4/5 players and I'm limited to just these then I need to get cracking because there is a bid in for 1 of them already, most of them are wanted by other clubs and I haven't even got proper scout reports on about half of them. (But why don't I have a scouting recommendation if the scouts found them, because that's the only way they get on the list.........)  Maybe we had a scout report and it's expired or is out of date or something now.

GK. It seems madness to go into the new season with just 1 GK and 1 Youth GK. We had 2x 1st Team GK's and 2x B Team GK's last season, although Leandro played every minute of every game. 

There are no free agent GK's on the list. 

DM. There's only 1 player at the club capable of playing at DM at the moment so I think that's the most key signing I need to make. I don't even mind converting a DC or an MC into a DM if need be. 

Lillo (ESP)(ETH) doesn't look awful, (he doesn't look good either), but he can also play at centre-half, (and I like that). Although he's not suited to the (RGA) role, I think he could come in a dnjust do a job as a DM. 

The bids on Cissé (MLI) & Cham (GAM) are us asking for them to come in on trial. At the moment I'm completely blind. 

MC. The midfielders seem to be tha players who get fatigued/booked most, so I think we need more depth here, (and more quality). 

I had already offered a contract to Diallo (ESP)(GUI) and forgotten. Unfortunately there is someone else in for him too. They're in the league below so I'm hopeful he will sign.

Wide player. Although I'm happy with my 1st choice wide players, I'm not overly keen on their back-ups, so some more quality here would be great.

Simao (GNB) is a player I tried to sign earlier in the Summer but couldn't agree terms. Now I know how much money I have to play with, I think we can offer him what he wants. 

I've just tried again and I just can't get the deal over the line. He wants about £20k per month and I can only offer him £13k. We're really close but just not quite there. Will get him in on trial & hopefully that will encourage him to reduce his demand. I really like him. 

SC. (Actually, there was a big TM who was coming back from a serious injury, (ACL or something), and I would like to give him a go if he's available). 

Da Bumbag is the big TM recovering from injury that I saw earlier. I really like the look of him. 

Soga (CMR) is perhaps more typical of the type of player I was looking to sign up front. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Building. Aug 2023. 

I must have missed some players somewhere. 

It's just asked me to register players for the squad this season and we already have 19 1st Team players for a squad of 24, (but 18 outfield players out of a max of 21). So we're not looking for 4 players plus a GK. We're looking for 3 players plus a GK. 

The other thing is, this doesn't include any of the new Youth squad and I'm sure some of them have turned 17 and can only play now if registered, (I think). 

Actually, no, I'm wrong according to this. 

Oh no! I know why I'm getting confused. The best player in the Youth Team is the DL (23b) Escalona (VEN) and of course he's from Venezuela which of course is NOT in the bloomin EU. So if I want him to play then I need to register him, (and I do want him to play). That means that we're down to 2 players + a GK. 

Oh wait a minute, although (23b) Escalona (VEN) came through the Academy with just (VEN) as a Nationality (and no 2nd Nationality), he has since gained (ESP) as a 2nd Nationality so I no longer have to register him! 

Back up to 3 outfield players + a GK needed. 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Big(ish) bid. Aug 2023. 

I can't say no to this, but I also want more than they are offering us. 

Although he's a very good player for us, he isn't 1st choice striker and the bloke who is, (Pablo García), scored 25 goals last season. 

They're offering £67,000 + 25% profit and a friendly, so I countered with a staggered £250k + 25% re-sale value and a friendly. He will obviously need to play to earn us the money, but I think he's a good player and there is a good chance of that happening. 

I should have asked for more. 

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Are we not Professional? 

I think we are. If we aren't and I posted it I hadn't noticed. 

I know that some players were on PT contracts, but I assumed that was a hangover from the previous season in the league below. [goes to check]

Yeah, we're Pro now, but it's possible that we weren't at the start of the save and I just didn't notice and then  I didn't notice when we turned Pro. I don't think that's very likely though. 

Going off on a tangent and looking at out Rivals....

Algeciras finished last season 5th in our league, (and were promoted via the Playoffs). Not sure where the rivalry comes from because they were a big club in the league last season and we're tiny. Actually it's a local rivalry because Algeciras is just across the bay from Gibraltar so that makes sense. 

Melila we know all about. They are the other Spanish club in Morocco across the coast to the East. They played in the league below us last season and although they started like an absolute train, they only finished 4th and lost in the Playoffs Semi.  (Yes, I am taking this rivalry seriously right from the off!) 

Let me go back to the start of the thread and see what pics I posted. 

I've just checked and I don't think I posted a pic showing we were Pro or Semi-Pro either way, so I can see why you might of thought we were still Semi-Pro. Sorry about that.  To be honest, there was so much going on that I think it was sensory overload. 

I think I just assumed you were Semi-Pro because of the way you were talking about contracts. Don’t remember seeing it. Should have checked before posting that 

[Jimbokav1971]

Just now, Sonic Youth said:

I think I just assumed you were Semi-Pro because of the way you were talking about contracts. Don’t remember seeing it. Should have checked before posting that 

We definitely has some different contracts at the start of the save so I can completely understood why you thought that. 

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I'm not sure what you mean. 

I'm not going to do a big huge in-depth post season update if that's what you mean. I think they take too much time when I would rather be actually playing the game and if something comes up that I think is interesting and I want to comment on then I post about it. 

If you meant more close-season strategy rather than an update, then yes, sort of.

What you did basically, just playing and basic squad thoughts 

[Jimbokav1971]

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Pre season & Summer window. Aug 2023. 

Despite quite a conservative formation, we don't seem to have any problems scoring goals, (although the opposition was pretty poor). That being said, the 2 losses were against Cordoba, (who won our league last season), and Sporting U23's, (and we know all about Portugese Youth after my FM22 save). There were also 8 Africans in the Sporting squad that weren't in my shortlist before, (because they weren't in Spain. 

Finances. The £50k that we made from the Gonzalez (SUI) transfer has basically just been lost, because the board simply invested less than they would have done otherwise. 

Transfers. I miss the bar chart. 

In.

Ramazani (BDI)(BEL) is a really good player at this level and is a significant improvement at right back. 

Diallo (ESP)(GUI) will come into midfield and provide some much needed depth. He's had a very good pre-season too. 

Lillo (ESP)(ETH) 6'1" looks more like a centre-half than a DM, but it's as a DM than he's been signed. I might ask him to play less football than our other DM, but it should be fine. 

Soga (CMR) scored 5 goals in his 1st 2 games in on trial to convince me to sign him, and then went on to score 9 goals in 4 pre-season games in total. I like him.

De Baunbag (CMR)(ESP) 6'3" is a bit of a wildcard. There is absolutely no doubt about it. He's a great big oaf of a man, but he can't head the ball for toffee and also isn't very strong. He's recovering from damaged cruciate ligaments so I would expect his pace, acceleration, agility, balance & strength to take a little bounce as he returns to full fitness. I think his mentals are VERY good for this level and he might just actually play much better than he looks if I can just get him fit and get his physical attributes up just a bit. He's a "project" player for sure. 

Out.  

Gonzalez (SUI) is a player I didn't want to sell, but he wasn't 1st choice either up front or out wide so it made sense to let him go. SIgnificantly, he also isn't African. It will be interesting to see how many of the add-ons we get, (I'm quietly confident). Unfortunately, we're only going to make £8k from the friendly, (but it all counts right). 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[DaneBramage]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

Could it be the loyalty bonus? The figures don't seem to add up, but I was under the impression this was paid out over the course of the contract, coming out of the transfer budget.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, DaneBramage said:

Could it be the loyalty bonus? The figures don't seem to add up, but I was under the impression this was paid out over the course of the contract, coming out of the transfer budget.

It could well be, but like you said the figures don't seem to add up whatever it is. Fingers crossed they will come back with a response. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2023. 

Spanish Federation First Division A. It was a tough start to the season with games against Alcorcón, (finished 7th last season), Mirandés, (relegated from 2nd Div last season) and Coruña, (tipped to finish 1st this season). We were frustratingly hampered by injury & suspension but we were playing ok but without scoring. Against Lugo I dropped Pablo García, (who had been under-par in our opening games), and replaced him with new arrival Soga (CMR). The rest as they say is history as he scored 5 goals in his 1st 2 starts. Luismi hasn't played yet this season, (because of injury), and he will improve us upon his return. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 4 shots from Leandro in the opening month, with 3 of them on target resulting in 1 goal. 

 

Finances. 

Soga (CMR). The number of headers he's competed for in the last 2 games, (21 & 12) is interesting, and makes me consider even more the idea od slowly introducing De Baunbag (CMR)(ESP) 6'3" to the starting XI. At 6'3" and with 16 for jumping, he's surely going to cause havoc isn't he? 

[Jimbokav1971]

International call-ups. Oct 2023. 

Unavailability as a result of International call-ups is going to be a feature of this save even without taking AFCON into consideration. Most clubs at this level don't have many Internationals because quite simply the players aren't good enough, but because of the prevalence of Africans in our squad already, we're going to have more call-ups than most. 

I don't know what if any trigger there is at this level in Spain for a match to be called off due to International call-ups, but it's clear that 3 isn't enough. 

Diallo (ESP)(GUI) is playing for Guinea U20's in friendlies against Djibouti & Burkina Faso. 
Lillo (ESP)(ETH) 6'1" is playing for Ethiopia in a double header against Mauritius in African World Cup Qualifying.
Ramazani (BDI)(BEL) is playing for Burundi in a double header against Tanzania in African World Cup Qualifying. 

It's likely that the call-up for Diallo doesn't count towards getting a league game called off because I could probably have recalled him. I'm never going to refuse to release anyone for their National Team at any level. 

The way I see it, an International call-up for someone in the 1st team is just an opportunity for someone else. 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Jimbokav1971