[FM24] Lions Gibraltar - Build a Club and build a nation

[mpm2342]

NOTE: As it turns out, I am being very detailed at the beginning of the first season to show the process and interesting little events versus just a list of signings as an example, trying to get into the how and why things are going on. The level of detail will get lower as the save progresses as I don't need to tell you how something happened for the thousandth time . Hopefully you enjoy the detail and I would appreciate feedback / thoughts.Welcome to my attempt to build a club in Gibraltar.  I tried out a Gibraltar save with Glacis and enjoyed it through 3 seasons, so thought I would start over and share the journey.

Purpose of the save:

In game the ultimate objectives are listed below, but there are certainly many interim steps that will be captured:

• Take Lions to UEFA Champions League victory!
• Develop Gibraltar as a nation on a journey to the World Cup

In real life there are a number of objectives that have provided the motivation to start and share this save:

• Share with the community some of the tips and tricks that I use to build teams. The story will be told with a perspective that is more to what I, as the manager, am doing in the game rather than just results…. The journey is the fun part 😊
• Get feedback and suggestions for improving what I do
• Provide a diary of sorts of the journey for my reference
• Provide motivation to keep the save alive long term

Shout outs:

I want to recognize the people who have invested time and effort to build tools, tell stories and do research that has greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the game and are a part of how I play.

Thank You!

Jenna, The Female Football Manager (theFMM) https://theffm.co.uk/
- She developed an attribute spreadsheet that is the basis for my player ranking/filtering system.

Evidence Based Football Manager’s youtube series.
- Very insightful data analysis on how the game works

JoshDaly for the basis of my 4-2-3-1 very attacking tactic

FM Stag https://fmstag.com/statistics-what-does-good-look-like-in-fm24/
- Statistics analysis – what does good look like.  Great starting point, but context matters as an example the stats for an attacking fullback in a very attacking tactics should be measure differently than defensive fullbacks.

Skins I use (no hidden attributes):
- Sas24
- Narigon

Previous Gibraltar stories that made this an interesting idea:
@OlivierL – Little Britain in the Sun
An excellent all around thread. A great history of Gibraltar and some very cool pictures. I loved the story and the information, spreadsheets etc. provided, well done!

@deez0r, @James4293, @petermiller36 all started interesting Gibraltar saves on FM24 that gave me ideas and incentive.

Ground Rules:

• Attribute masking on, no editor and no hidden attributes like CA rating
• No use of player search or staff search
• Allowed to search scouted players
• Use job ads for coaching positions along with shortlisted
• Can shortlist staff suggestions and player suggestions from meetings, social media and emails
• Allowed to look at teams in nearby countries that are reasonable – for example a football coach in Gibraltar would know the squads of the Spanish leagues, so am allowed to look at those teams for expiring contracts.  Not allowed to go look at the Hong Kong league as that would not make sense.
• Matches are simulated through instant results with no match plan
• No major contract cheesing – pushing instalments out multiple years into the future and so on
• Allowed to offer bonuses for goals, assists, shutouts and stuff like that
• No reloads / do overs … If I mess up the line up for a match, shame on me – do it too many times and I should get fired 😊. If the best player gets a year ending injury … tough it out.
• No leveraging my knowledge from the Glacis save to go after specific players

• Probably some I am not remembering - will add as I encounter in game

I hope everyone enjoys it!

Edited February 2 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Introducing: Rock Freestyle:

Rock because, well, you know,
Freestyle as a nod to my boys who are competitive swimmers.

Key points to remember for Gibraltar:

• Need 5 homegrown players in the playing 11 at all times
• Homegrown at club becomes important when we make it to the European competitions

Will definitely have to focus on bringing 18 and under players in who will help with these.

Club Vision/Culture highlights:

• Sign players under the age of 23 for the first team
• Max one-year contracts for players over the age of 33

Great! The vision/Culture aligns with what we want to do. The save I played recently was Glacis UTD which has a board culture to sign Dutch players ... fun!

Starting tracking information:

Currently spending 1,547 p/w, so have 119 p/w to spend, unless I can get rid of some players. Probably not an issue as the more expensive players likely won't talk to us anyways.

Squad Info:

15 players in the Senior Squad:

25 players in the U23 Squad:

Lots of players to work with, so first thing I am doing is moving everyone to the senior squad until I sort out who should be playing, developed, moved to U23, kept hanging around to cheer the others and who should be turfed.

Primary Tactic:

Very Attacking 4-2-3-1. Priority for players is high pace, acceleration, natural fitness and work rate. Will also have a second tactic that will be similar but a balanced mentality. Tactic shown here with the suggested best XI (which I am positive I will change)

Analyzing all the players in the squad with the spreadsheet (don't you agree that a lot of the fun of this game is playing with spreadsheets forever ).

Notes on the rating scores (out of 100 if all attributes are 20):

55 is strong for this league, if the team is all at that level, should be able to win the league and let us have a chance in European competitions.  We have 3 players on the team with a 55 rating in any role with Shmelov looking like the strongest player we have as is apparent from his 5 star ability.

60 would make us dominate the league and start to win games in Europe. To compete with the big boys, the ratings should average 80. Greater than 70 will give us a chance against everyone in Europe.  Note, Fullbacks and GK ratings tend to average lower than the other positions, maybe just my ratings need tweaking or it is really hard to find good ones, either way when looking at the tables and ratings, keep that in mind.

The green highlighted names are at least accomplished at the position (could be training as well, would show as an orange T beside). The Blue highlighted names are Homegrown nation/club and the green/blue are both. This helps me pick the league squad versus cup matches.  I also turn off the position ability to see who has the potential to be retrained to a position.

Now to pick the starting lineup and identify needs starting at the back.

GK:
Pretty poor ratings here - definitely need to upgrade as I would like a rating around 50.  Valades has the better rating, but he is 34 yrs old and not homegrown. I would like to use the non-homegrown slots on players who bring the squad average up, not down. Hernandez is young (21), homegrown with a high potential rating! Looks promising, but on further review, his Work Rate is 4, Determination is 2 so is unlikely to see his full potential.  Will put him on the u23 team to see if we can get some development out of him.

Result: GK = Valades, High Need

CD:
For the right player, I change the role here to a BPD to give even better buildup from the back, Not surprising that none of the current players should do that and likely will be a few seasons before I can find one.  Shmelev is by far the best CD and he is right foot only, so goes on the right side. As he is only 23, he could be a player for us for a while. though he is on a  one year part time contract that pays him nothing and I am expecting him to not want to resign with us as he is much better than the current squad.  The other feasible choices are Payas, Breakspear and Hastings. They are all HGN, passable at best and all weak left foot - I would prefer my DCL to have some ability with their left foot

Result: DCR = Shmelev, DCL = Payas (HGN), High Need for a DCL

RFB:
Rumbo is the guy. Rating is lower than I would like, good pace, work rate and is HGN. Only issue is that he is 32, so will get worse and need replacing by next season. The backups aren't great either - Breakspear is probably it as he is HGN and can fill in at CD as well.

Result: RFB = Rumbo (HGN), upgrade nice to have

LFB:
Slim pickings. The best player who can play LB (Bossano-Anes) has a weak left foot, but he is HGN.  Best option is likely going to be to retrain Preston as he has a reasonable left foot, as does Olmos, but Olmos is older so will not retrain as well. Neither one is HGN, so not ideal. Alan Parker is another option who has a decent rating and would be ideal to retrain as there are better temporary options at his positions. He is 27, so likely will not retrain well, but is the likely choice if an upgrade can't be found because he is homegrown.

Result: LFB =Alan Parker (HGN), Moderate Need

BWM:
Good shape here. Ezequiel is strong with a good backup in Vera. They are both over 30, so reinforcements needed.

Result: BWM = Ezequiel

DLP:
Good shape here with Ruiz and a couple of soso backups

Result: DLP = Ruiz

AM:
4 players fairly closely rated: Cintas, Green, Consigliero and McGrail.  McGrail has by far the best potential and is a young homegrown player, so we will give him a chance.

Result: AM = McGrail (HGN)

RW:
Morales is the best, but Espinosa is homegrown, so will likely go with him either here or AF depending on performance and recruiting

Result: RW = Espinosa (HGN)

LW:
Yuch!  nobody can play with their left foot in this squad. As a left footer myself, I find that shocking, appalling and downright unacceptable. Changes will be made !!!!  Serra is at least proficient in the position, so gets it by default.

Result: LW=Serra, High need

ST:
Luisma is the best of the bunch with a soso rating so will get the nod

Result: ST=Luisma, strong need

Overall looks like a poor squad with a lot of needs. The lineup above has the 5 needed HGN players and likely would keep us from the very bottom of the league, but is not good enough or deep enough to do very much. Ideally, I'd like to make the playoffs in the first year and hopefully get a place in the top 3 to get unlock the European money next season. Highest priority needs are LW, GK and CD. After that we need to get better at a bunch of positions. Nobody is on an expired contract, so will have to try and shed salary by loans / transfers out.

Starting Club Staff:

Senior team squad allowed:
1 HC
1 AC
1 HOYD - TBH
2 Coaches - have 4, including 2 fitness coaches
1 GM - TBH
1 Chief Scout - TBH
2 Scouts - TBH
1 Head Physio - TBH
1 Physio - TBH

U23 allowed:
1 HC - TBH
have a player coach and a physio beyond allowed.

Definitely some work to be done to get the right number and type of coaches as well as formation style alignment.
 

Edited February 1 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Time to go deal with the staff situation. The squad is on break until the end of July, so have time to advertise and hire new staff,  I don't usually fire staff mid contract and like to develop staff that will grow with the club. An exception to that is when taking over a club as it can be reasonably expected that the new guy makes major changes, A primary goal is to stay budget neutral over the course of the entire season as we look to upgrade the quality. We are going to lose money, just hopefully not too much. Lets run down the list.

Assistant coach:
David Aguilar is too expensive £425 p/w and the wrong formation / style, so I am going to take the cash hit and let him go assuming I can replace him with a better fit and save money over the course of the year.  Over the year he would cost 425*52=£22,100.  He agreed to terminate the contract for £10K, which leave me £12,100 or £233 p/w for a replacement to stay budget neutral.
Job Ad placed.

Head of Youth Development:
Job Ad placed.

Coaches:
With only 2 coaches, I want them to be general coaches and the current coaches are not very good, so mutually terminating Guerrero (Fitness 5, wage £150), Rodriguez (Fitness 2, wage £150) and Jackson (GK coaching 3,1,3, wage £230). Yearly cost of those 3 is £27,560. Mutual termination costs total to £14,500 giving me an allowance of £278.  I am going to keep Hermoso around for now as he is not too bad and has decent Judging Ability and potential to assess trial players while we search for a new coach. When the results of the ad comes in, will reassess keeping him.
Job Ad placed

Recruiting Team:
Job Ad placed for General Manager and Scout. Will wait on the Chief scout ad until the scout is hired so I can get the best scouts first before they decide they would only want the Chief's hat (might happen anyways)

Medical Team:
Job Ads placed for Physio. will wait on the head physio ad.

U23:
Only allowed a HC, but have Parral as a player coach with ok attributes, but wrong formation. Will wait and see the response to the coach and U23 HC ads and if he is in line with the applicants, will offer him the Senior team coach job or the U23 HC job. If not, might just keep him around as an "extra" coach if I can afford it. 
Henshaw is employed as an U23 physio on £160 with a physio rating of 4. Will see what the response is to the Sr team job ad is before deciding what to do with him.
Job Ad place for U23 HC

Edited February 1 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Time to start improving the squad. Will ask for suggested free transfer targets across all the positions in the tactic. Since I don't have a General Manager, the suggestions are coming from the Chairperson: Alex Grech. Mr Grech (got to be formal with the Boss man) recommended 30 players to whom trial offers were sent. Of the 30 players, two are 18 - hope they accept!  If I can sign 18yr olds, they can become homegrown which would help a lot later.

Now onto squad / lineup planning. I need to update the spreadsheet to make the presentation more readable to post here and do the work, so stay tuned, will edit when done.

[theBlackPrince]

Love a good Gibraltar save, Hounds Dogs all the way for me (Not that I think they are playable anymore)! Will be following along!

[mpm2342]

3 hours ago, theBlackPrince said:

Love a good Gibraltar save, Hounds Dogs all the way for me (Not that I think they are playable anymore)! Will be following along!

Gibraltar is fun, I am expecting a few seasons to get on top of the league and then the long run to try and win in Europe.  Unfortunately can't play the Hound Dogs, they look like fun.

[mpm2342]

Had a staff meeting with the one remaining coach and he recommended 7 staff members for the open roles, some of them look decent for this level. I added them all to the staff shortlist to be compared to applicants once those roll in

Gomez is a possibility for Assistant Coach to keep an eye on.  Jeky Buhagiar is probably the dad or uncle of Daniel Buhagiar (27) the club director, so no way I am going to hire him as assistant

 

[mpm2342]

7 of the 30 trial offers were accepted and joined the club, including one who is 18. They are all important or stars according to the assistant report, so potential here.  I am going to embark on my attempt to convince some Spanish youngsters to come and play for the Lions. To do this, I will go through the squad listings for the Federation Second Groups with all players sorted by contract expiry date and age. I add all 18 and under players whose contract is expired or expiring June 30, 2023 to a shortlist and once that is done, I will start offering trials to them.  Found 41 players across Spain and Portugal who are 18 and under and either amateur or with an expiring contract. Of those, 2 joined us on trial.  I did not expect that, must be due to the game cycle and starting year, as I would expect a larger number than that across all of the teams.  We can work with 2 though given our limited budget anyways. Both have potential to be league standard players, so that is positive. I asked the chairman if he has any suggestions for free transfers for the roles specific to the tactic and that generated one more player on trial. Nobody wants to come and try out for a low reputation team in Gibraltar.... We have work to do.

We will use the suggested transfer approach when the new GM starts and at July 1 when contracts end.

[mpm2342]

As expected, nobody is interested in the players I am trying to get rid of. I will try to list them for loan now and see if I get any interest. There is £200 p/w to recoup if I can manage to get any portion back.  The national teams callups happened, so I offered trials to the Gibraltar players without a club: 4 on the senior team all rejected my offer, 4 on the U21 and 5 on the U19 team accepted the trial offer - 7 of them have the potential to be league standard. That's great news as I am going to need some cheaper players to round out the squad -  I am guessing I don't have enough budget to sign the shiny bright good players who joined on trial from the Chairman's recommendations.

Got nibbles on 2 of the players for loan offers - clubs offering to take them on loan for free ... I don't think so. I rejected the offers and relisted at 70% payment with the lowest possible playing time.... let's see what happens.

Things are looking up a bit. Got 4 loan offers for Juanje, the 22 yr old GK that range from 50% to 70% salary coverage, so one more team has joined the interest. I am going to reject them all and relist to see if I can get 90%. They all suggested playing time of Cup GK, so if I lower that again, maybe I can get them up. 3 offers for Seaton at 60%, will try the same thing. Juanje is interested in joining the teams, Seaton has no interest, so will be harder to move. I got an offer at 90% for Juanje that I accepted and indications are he will go. That will give me back 55 p/w into the wage budget. Accepted an offer for Seaton at 90% and pissed him off by trying to convince him it would be good for him. He is likely going to have to sit on the bench etc until he is ready to be moved, just have to make sure he doesn't upset the team dynamic which he hopefully won't as he is in the other category of the hierarchy.

The first 7 trial players now have their attributes revealed for analysis.  There are 3 who would be the best winger by a reasonable margin, so will see if they are affordable. NOPE. The most I can offer is 90 p/w and the lowest any of the 7 want is 190. There is no way to reasonable bridge that gap and none of they are in the must have category. Will keep them going on trials to see if their price demands come down later in the process.

Alright one more thing I remembered to try to reduce the available payroll is I have 3 youth players who each count £25 p/w against the wage. I checked one of them and to release would only cost £125, so  need to shift some of the tiny salary budget to the transfer budget and see what happens. Actually (sorry for the typing as I am thinking / planning) before any of that, I am going to shift scouting budget to transfer budget to release the 3 youths and then see what the result is:
Start:
Scouting budget: £3.9K
Transfer budget: £0
Available wage budget: £119 p/w
End:
Scouting budget: £2K
Transfer budget: £0
Available wage budget: £230 p/w

First season fighting for every penny is very enjoyable! I am now able to offer 130 p/w instead of 90. That will help as will the Juanje loan if it goes through.

 

[mpm2342]

Current state is we have a few hopefuls from the trials so far, but all are very expensive relative to my budget, so I am going to hold on offering contracts to any of them until I am sure they are the best option available.  I did approach the two 18 year olds from Portugal to see what they want, but they won't even talk to me ... why they came on trial in the first place must be to just tease the excitement level up a bit.  Interestingly, a significant number of the trial players are showing interest from the other teams in the Gibraltar league, so they are clearly checking out my roster, which reminds me to go check theirs for expiring contracts (nothing of interest found). If any of them start signing withing the league, I will take the maybe out of the title as the building of the nation would have started by making the league better

Which reminds me also about loans. With minimal scouting, loans become a bit of a leap of faith without full data, so I will wait until July when a lot of the movement settles and look for free loans from the GM suggestions and/or loan listed players from the league.

Yay! Juanje went on loan so our available wage budget is 290 p/w

Looking around for more potential savings and I am going to try and loan out 4 of the players who are targeted to the U23 team: Robertson, Grech, Duarte-Chipol, Martin.  Combined they have a weekly wage of £250 p/w, so that could free up room and get them at a club with better facilities - which would be pretty much any other club.

Applications have come in for Physio, Scout and Assistant Coach.
Physio, the best rating is a 5 and given Henshaw on the U23 is a 4, I will offer the job to him to save the money (he accepted for the same wage) and will post for head physio
Scout, a couple of ok applicants, but wrong formation, so I am going to leave the posting up and post for Chief Scout

Assistant Manager got two good applicants who fit the formation. This is critical given I sim the games, so the Assistant is involved. Moreno-Gomez is the choice. The bad part is that I had to offer £325 p/w, which is 100 over my budget. I think it is worth it and will save in other places, likely by not signing 3 to the scouting department since I stole most of that budget already

Applications came in for the HOYD. I am primarily focused on getting a good personality here who is also a style match. Only Dovey-Ping has a good personality, but is the wrong formation - decent backup plan. Will keep the job ad open. As an aside, Does anyone know what Plays mind games media handling indicates for hidden attributes? I searched but couldn't find anything.

Fantastic news appeared in the inbox as Seaton accepted the loan to Newton Aycliffe!!!

Available wage budget is now £354 p/w.

Applications came in for GM. None of them align to the formation, but I want to get one hired quickly for the free agency period, so am offering a one year contract to Carroll

Got a very underwhelming response to the U23 HC, so am offering the role to Parral as a player coach. This will cost an extra £10 p/w, but worth it to not hire another body.

[mpm2342]

The batch of young Gibraltar national team trials yielded one very positive result: Paddy McClafferty who has a 53.5 rating as a W(S) - almost 9 points higher than the Espinosa who was going to be used as he is homegrown, but so is Paddy, so this would be a significant upgrade.  Approached him and have an accepted offer of £30 p/w.  Europa FC want him as well, so hopefully he will come, but if they offer, he is likely to go there.

A few more things have been accomplished: Got applicants for the coach role with non very exciting, so leaving the posting up. Asked the new GM for suggestions and got 10 trials out of it with one 18 year old. No Gibraltar players though which is disappointing, so I am going to hire a scout so I can start a recruitment focus on homegrown players.

Next thing is I saw in the social feed that College '75 show loan interest in Peacock. Looking at him, he is a striker, so what the heck, I approached Mons Calpe to see if they would loan him out and they would loan him for free!  that best price of all.  Not much info on him, but finishing is 8-16, first touch is 10-16, pace is only 6-12... but enough there to take a gamble on a free loan.

Since it is now July 1, time to go look at the league rosters for any players who are listed for loan and add them to a potential loan shortlist to be examined.. unless one jumps out and demands to be signed.

Circling back to the U19 expiring contracts in Portugal and Spain, I see that 7 of them were released and are free agents, so they are now on trial with us.

Edited February 2 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

McClafferty signed with us.. That is great news as he will likely be able to play for a few seasons at least before needed to be upgraded,  Also great news is that Peacock join ed on loan and has a 51 rating as AF (A). Way better than the intended starter Luisma at 44.2 and Peacock is homegrown! High stamina, work rate and pace are ideal for the tactic I will be using. I am looking forward to seeing what Peacock can do ... he might challenge for the goal title given how aggressive we will be.

I signed another player off  the loan list without know everything about them because of their jumping reach as a CD. I love to have towers of defence and useful corner kick options. He turned out to not be good enough to be a starter, but with a 44.3 rating he will hang around the bench and play for the U23 in case of injuries, or until they get annoyed he isn't playing and recall him. Jumped the gun on offering to him, but a 50% hit rate on free loans is acceptable.

 

Edited February 2 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

The team staff is now almost complete with only one scout left to hire. I ended up hiring Dovey-Pring as the HOYD as nobody better showed up in the next round of applicants. It doesn't matter too much as with the facilities and youth ratings of the club, we are highly unlikely to get anyone useful through the youth system for a few years. I hired a coach who has the same formation preference and ok attributes from the first round of applicants as well.
All staff are on 1 year contracts, so we can re-assess at the end of the season. Developing staff and being loyal to them means I would not expect wholesale changes. The potential switch has to have significant benefits.

Set up the preseason friendly schedule as follows:
Nothing week one to focus heavily on physical.
Week 2 through 7 (very long preseason) put in a Cup on Sun / Mon against teams of equal or lower rep.  This way the team gets 3 days of practice, 1 match day (potentially 2 match days, though I will fully rotate the squad) and 2-3 days of rest.
Week 6 and 7 will focus on team cohesion and tactical familiarity.

Set up an U23 friendly every Wednesday to get that team rolling, but more importantly as a way to get extra match time if any of the Sr players need it.

Will start reducing the number of trial players and the number of changes as we get close to the start of preseason. Currently have very poor cohesion and average atmosphere as expected.

Edited February 3 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

The general manager came through with Craig Galliano who got signed. He is homegrown and our best LW, AM and LFB.  Came pretty cheap at £75 p/w.. Europa Point made him an offer after I did, so I went back and gave him 30 more per week as he will be one of the best players on the team. He would only go for one year, but I got the extension after 15 games and optional club extension by paying him a bit more.  Very happy with this signing. 

Just about to start preseason and the squad looks like this now:

Will play Galliano at LW as he  is competent there already.  The squad overall looks pretty good can still upgrade a few spots:
High priority - AM (or LW and move Galliano to AM)
Medium priority - LB and RB
Low priority - another CD and GK. 

I still have £250 p/w to play with and a bunch of potential free loan players to scout.  Will report back at the beginning of preseason.

[mpm2342]

Landed two more players from the scouts and new staff suggestions. Jay Key, an 18 yr old attacking midfielder / midfielder and Jack Endacott on loan as a LW.  Going to move Ruiz to a sub role as he is 32 and move Parker to the DLP role as he is younger and homegrown, so could last a couple of seasons for us. Galliano is going to play LB after all. Pace and stamina are so important to the attacking FB role.

The squad is pretty much set for the season at this point. Have a couple of loan slots to leverage, so will continue to scout the loan listed Gibraltar league players and see if any are upgrades. Otherwise, going to save the small amount of available wage budget for anyone special who might pop up or for a January move.

[mpm2342]

Mid way through preseason and I get the "lottery ticket" email:

It will likely not happen and if it does, the new owner will not likely want to put any money in, but there is a minuscule chance that a deep pockets swoops in and throws money around ... haha

[mpm2342]

Preseason is over now. Signed one more player to be a backup in the middle front.  He is a great ball distributor, so will do well in that role.

Managed to get team cohesion to average which should allow for a decent start to the season.

 

[mpm2342]

The season is underway.  We are spending right at our salary budget and the financial projection has us ending the season with a £230K deficit ... ouch. Hopefully as long as we stay compliant with the wage budget, they won't fire me
We have 25 season ticket holders, so that should help .. not.  Hopefully we can get some fans out and the projection is off a bit, but we will definitely be in the negative to end the year. Next season we can get rid of the inherited contracts and hopefully not have to spend as much.

First game of the season is in the books and the team executed very well coming out ahead on the scoreboard, but that doesn't really show how dominate the team was.  XG was 3.15 to 0.37 for us.  Will keep an eye on Valades in net because if he underperforms, might as well give the younger kid a chance since Valdes is 35 and Hernandez is 21. Neither one is going to be the long term answer, so the best performer will play.

Second game and another strong result. Nice hat trick from Key and great to see different scorers from the first game. The XG was 3.5 for us and 1.24 for College '75.  Will continue to rotate the GK until one does better than the XG. Parker got injured for 11 days to 2 weeks - fortunately Ruiz can step in and be just as good.  Endacott is only out for 2-3 days so won't miss the next match.

In the last match of the month we faced the big dog in the league, Lincoln Red Imps (love the name) and managed a draw which is a very satisfying result. The game was pretty even on the field as well with the XG 1.6 to 1.26 in our favour.

 

Edited February 5 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

October started off well with a narrow victory over Glacis.  We had most of the play and the XG shows that with Us holding a sizable advantage: 3.06 to 0.90.  Not happy with the state of our GK performance so far - might be a loan target in Jan

Second match of the month went very well (switched skins to show better info in the match popup). Great game all around. Finally a good game for one of the Keepers... will give him a run of play and see what he does with it.

Another draw and another game that we outplayed the other team. Our conversion rate is not good, will have to look for better shooters next season

14 Corners and 14 shots and only one goal. Time to put some training effort into set pieces.

October is now finished. We lost another £12K in the month with 2 home games... ouch.  We ended the month on top of the table and Jay Key leads the league with 5 goals. The surprise so far is Lincoln struggling to get into form.

Edited February 5 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

November started out with another victory made easy by Europa Point having a man sent off in the first minute.

Peacock is not playing well in the striker role. Will sit him down for a match or two to shake him up

Second and final match of the month we prevailed against Mons Calpe. Gave Valades another chance and he didn't do much to impress. Squad evaluation coming at the 10 game mark

 

 

[mpm2342]

November did not end as well as the injury bug hit hard. We lost Galliano for the first match of Dec and Paddy McClafferty out 5-7 weeks.  Should have enough depth to get by, but fingers crossed. REwinding time a bit, in mid Nov, the scouts brought Michael Negrette to ouir attention, so we signed him to a trial and he turns out to be rated higher (57) than any of our current wingers and he only wanted £45 p/w so I signed him near the end of Nov.  Now am over salary budget, but hopefully worth it.
 

First game of Dec is in the books and we lost another to injury in Jay Key out for 3-4 weeks. Our depth will be tested, but I will take a victory over one of the top 2 powerhouse teams in the league. Cintas came off the bench into the substitute ranks and score in his first appearance of the season.

Our youth intake preview came in and .... drumroll please ... it is bad. As expected, but one can always hope. It is going to be a while before anything good happens here.

Another game where the GK under performed. Hernandez was a on a little streak of good games, but this one was not very good with two of the goals coming from long range. 10 games are done which is have of the regular season, so I will do some number crunching to see how everyone is performing and progressing.

The league table at the halfway point looks like  this

Magpies have taken over first. We have yet to experience our first loss of the season and have managed to get some breathing room down to the last playoff spot which is the real goal this season - make the playoffs. This squad is playing well enough to have a shot at making one of the European qualifying spots. 

[mpm2342]

First question for analysis - which GK is playing better (better being a relative statement)

GK

Huge shout out to FM Stag for his work on what good looks like! 

Looking at the two, they both are not good on the XG prevented per 90, but Valades is particularly bad. He does have a better save percentage, which is one of the stats I like to look at. My conclusion is that I don't want either one of them to play but don't have a viable third option at the moment. Going to go with the experience, better reflexes (11 to 5) and save percentage and start Valades ... I am demonstrating a Fickle personality with these two, but they are not making me a happy manager.
GK is top priority for the Jan transfer window. Finding one on loan is tough, but will try.

CD
We have only played 2 central defenders - looks like Hastings was subbed off for 15 mins only.  Both are performing very well based on the metrics, so am happy. I could try switching Shmelev to a BPD from the CD(D) role, but I am more concerned with helping our GK at this time.

 

FB
We have had 4 players play full back with only 3 of them getting enough game time to generate valid stats

I haven't landed on which metrics are going to hit my top 5 for an attacking FB, so I left them as the base FM Stag ones and then also look at the W support and attack roles as well.  Sprints is very high on the list as they are responsible for some offence as well as getting back to help on defence.  The categories are really sprinting, passing/crossing and shooting / scoring (shots, XG, conversion rate).   You can see the impact of the role on the metrics. Rumbo and Galliano as the starters show well on the passing, sprinting and shooting stats so I am happy with them.  Galliano's sprint number jumps out and might be reflective of his lower stamina and work rate (8,8). If that continues to stay in the 13 range, I will put him on endurance training, I just hate to do that when he is already learning a new position - good way to get him annoyed and potentially higher injury risk.
Before the end of season stats report, I will decide what my top 5 metrics are for the FB (A) role. In the meantime, I am happy to take any thoughts from you!!!

CM
In the central midfield there have been 4 players take the field, Ezequiel as the BWM and Parker as the DLP are the primary starters.

Very Happy with Parker's play at the playmaker role. Not so happy with Ezequiel.  The BWM in my tactic is another role that I need to change the metrics for. We have averaged 56% possession rate, which limits the opportunity for the defensive players to have a higher tackle rate etc... I almost need to adjust the ratings by possession or change up the targets. Alternatively, maybe I don't need the strong, aggressive tackling machine in the tactic right now.

There is not a youth option worth playing, so I am going to ride with him for now and see if I can get a free loan in the January window to replace. Either way, he is gone at the end of the year. Will monitor his match ratings for the next couple of matches to decide for sure and give Ruiz a shot with a different role in that position.

AM (C)
Jay Key has been the primary AM (C), with Cintas playing 113 mins and Cabrera playing 80 mins in the position. Happy with Key's play and very happy to see Cintas playing well. That gives me room to give the 18 yr old Key some more rest to make sure I don't over play him once he is back from injury. It also tells me Cintas should be the choice to play over Cabrera.

Wingers
This position is killing it based on the metrics. McClafferty and Endacott are playing very well. Backups filling in admirably too. Plus we just signed Negrette giving us even more options for next season.

ST
Just two played ST. Not thrilled with Peacock. He has had chances, but is not converting them.  He has a 13 first touch and a 10 finishing, so should have more than 3 goals at this point in the season. Looking at his shot map, it isn't too bad, but too many long shots and too many missing the target. He is a loan play and gone at the end of the year, so will ride with him and hope he comes into form.

Summary of the analysis:
- try and find loans for GK and BWM
- Give Key more rest since Cintas is playing well.

[mpm2342]

The unbeaten run continues with a convincing victory over College '75. I forgot to switch the GK, so Hernandez got another match and did ok, but not great. Was awesome to see Peacock score a couple, hopefully that opens the flood gates.

I asked the GM for free transfer targets and he suggested a few midfielders as well as GK Jamie Robba who has played for the Gibraltar national team. Not sure I can afford him, but if he looks better than what we have, I will try.

Next up is the league leading Magpies and we managed a 0-0 draw. We did get a great game from Valades in goal as we were outshot.  Not a great game from the front 4, hopefully just a blip and not the start of a trend.

We finally lost a game. Lincoln beat us and the result reflects the play.  I hope that getting the injured players back to health and having Robba in the net will make a difference for the remaining games. Going to look for a striker on loan when the transfer window opens as I am losing my patience with Peacock... I had high hopes for him as a striker in good form should be collecting lots of goals in this tactic, but 6.2 and 6.1 ratings in the last 2 matches is not good enough. Will replace him with Cabrera while we search.

 

 

[mpm2342]

Bounced back nicely after the loss. Dominated the game and got an ok effort from Robba, the new GK. If the front 4 play like this, Cabrera has a starting slot for the remainder of the season.

 

Closer match with Man 62, but still in control. Robba played a great game, so far so good for the new keeper. 3 goals in his first 2 games for Negrette, happy about that signing. Shows that patience is a good thing in this game. I did my usual and spent too much and limited my options for later, but still managed to get a few upgrades along the way. Trying hard to shed some of the extra salary, but nobody is interested in our cast offs.

First round of the Rock Cup and squeaked out a victory in a game we dominated.  The attackers are playing well, but not converting... Ok if we keep winning. Negrette scores again, that's 3 for 3.

Another game and another goal for Negrette, he is making me one happy manager. Very dominate performance with great ratings for pretty much everyone. Looks like time to give Key a bit of a break.

We are on top of the League table with 4 matches left in the regular season and have booked a spot in the playoffs.

[mpm2342]

Two matches in a row against Europa Point. First up a league match where the team did there job. Nice to see Shmelev using his size on corners - the set piece training is paying off.

Second match was the Rock Cup Quarter finals. Sat Key to give him a rest and Peacock delivered as a substitute which is great to see. That could earn him some playing time.

Nice victory over Mons Calpe. I think Cabrera heard me talk about giving Peacock a start and responded with a statement. Ruiz is playing well and scored on a lovely free kick from long range.  Will see how he does in the role when we play one of the top teams.

Heading into a 3 week stretch with no games, so filled it in with a couple of friendlies and a cup in the middle week on Sun/Mon to keep as many training days as possible. Asked the GM for some trial suggestions to provide enough players to rotate and will report if any of them are useful.

[mpm2342]

The youth intake email came through and there are a couple of players with potential.

I have to be careful as we will not have much wage room, but I will offer contracts to Campbell (15 finishing) and Ruiz and let the rest go

[mpm2342]

Lost a game to Europa FC where Galliano was sent off in the first minute ... Karma.  The lads did well with only 10 men, so not upset about the loss

Next up was the Rock Cup Semi Final which was a wild game with goals back and forth and an ejection and two goals in extra time.  The final 3 goals for us came from subs, so having a strong bench paid off.

Final game of the regular season and a huge meltdown at the end of the game. Feels like we need help defensively, so I am going to put Ezequiel back in the starting lineup at BWM and see if that helps.

We finished tied for top of the league and qualified for the Championship group where the top 6 teams play each other with points carrying over from the regular season. Our primary goal is to finish top 3 and we have a 5 point cushion to Lincoln with 5 games to go, so we definitely have a shot.

[mpm2342]

The Championship group got underway with a positive result for the team. Need another couple of wins now!

Second match and same result. That is two shutouts in a row after putting Ezequiel back in the lineup. His ratings aren't great, but it sure feels like he is stabilizing the D.

On a different note, the board finally agreed to send me on a coaching course. They shut it down every time I asked all season, so this is big news.

The Rock Cup final did not go the way the team and supporters hoped as we lost 2-1. I did not start the best 11 as we have a league game in 3 days that is more important. Parker, Cabrera, McClafferty (Suspended) didn't start the game.  Looks like we carried most of the play, but just couldn't finish. Striker upgrade definitely necessary for next season.

Big match against Magpies for the top of the table. some trash talk from their manager pregame, so dished it back just for fun. Didn't matter as the game ended in a draw and looks like it deserves to be a draw.

Two games to go and we have clinched a top 3 and some European competition games next season which should inject some cash into the club.  Have a realistic shot at the title with games against the two big clubs to go. We have been pretty even with Lincoln and Europa FC all season, so fingers and toes crossed.

Tie with Lincoln keeps us in the hunt.  Game we should have won based on XG, but I will take the tie at this stage. One more match to go and a one point lead on Magpies.

Last game against Europa FC who have had the better of us through the year and we WON to take home the championship. The team really stepped up and dominated the game on all fronts.  Was not expecting this result this season.

Lincoln beat the Magpies in their final game so we ended up 4 points clear

Time to go celebrate !!!  

[mpm2342]

The end of season awards showcased the Lion's team

Recognition for Shmelev and more recognition for Parker

Awesome!

The final squad looked like this (love to see all the green connections) with only 3 players from the beginning - Parker, Shmelev and Hastings.

Edited February 8 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Financial/Board results from Season 1

• We were projected to finish with a £230K deficit and we are at (£186K) with the month of June still to go.  Probably finish right at (£200K)
• The board has me on track for the objective to work within payroll budget even though I ran over a bit for most of the season, Might be because the new budget for next season is higher than the spend?
• The board denied every request for improvements because of the financial situation and did not agree to a course for me until we made the Championship round. I kept asking, but it was a waste of time.

Thoughts from the first season

• The squad was primarily built from GM recommendations and scouting recommendations... getting a decent GM made a difference in the recommendations. Got a loan (Peacock) from watching the social feed and seeing another team interested. Picked up one important player from the Gibraltar National team (McClafferty)
• Keep asking the GM at regular intervals to see if new players pop up
• Be PATIENT !!  I could have had an even better squad, but put money out to players too early. They were still very good and served purposes, but better options came up later that I was not able to capitalize on
• Offer trials to everyone - you find some good ones when you least expect it.  Don't have too many on trial during the season or you will mess up your team ccohesion
• Keep checking - Shmelev would not even talk to me for the entire season until we made the Championship Round and then he agreed to a contract extension for next season... and at a reasonable price too
• Use the start ratings as a guide, but have a mechanism to rate the players. I swear by my spreadsheet derivative of theFFM's spreadsheet... make sure the players you sign fit your style of play, so don't just blindly follow the numbers. Load the view, print, copy, paste and you have all the players rated... it is easy - I ended up rating 110 players through the season.
• When your reputation is lower, some very good players will come on trial, but will either want way too much to sign, or won't talk to you. Keep an eye on them as often a bigger team will sign them and then put them on Loan.
• I made a mistake on one of the loan signings which didn't end up hurting us, but realistically I didn't need to do it - I should have been patient and waited to see the attributes and spreadsheet rating
• I tried a few other things to get players that didn't work at all, or only had limited success
  • At the beginning of the season, I offered trials to all the 18yr olds and under with expiring contracts in Spain.  Got a very small number to come on trial and none of them would talk to me
  • I went through the Gibraltar national teams looking for free agents and did get a few trials and signed McClafferty), but my reputation wasn't high enough to get too much from it ... very good strategy as the reputation improves, can go after better countries
  • I did find loan potential within the league from the Gibraltar squad listings, but didn't sign anyone
• Team cohesion is very important. Having enough players to keep everyone fresh and rotate is important
• Side benefit to all the trials is that it brings those players to the attention of the rest of the league and the other teams sign some of them which makes those teams, and therefore the league stronger.
• The club never got sold despite the rumour mill

 

Edited February 8 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

End of Season Analysis - Part 1

A number of things to be looked at relating to the team, progression, stats, need etc. but before I did that, I wondered to myself "self, just how good is this team and how do I measure that". So, off I went down that fun distraction for the last day

The obvious way to tell is by the record, but that's not good enough. What i wanted to know is how does the team/players stack up against the league and other leagues around the world just looking at their attributes. I loaded up a new database without attribute masking and put the Gibraltar League and all standard English leagues through my rating system. I then took the average of the top ratings for each role. I used half the number of teams as the benchmark for top, so for the Premier league it is the average of the top 12 ratings and for the Gibraltar league it is the average of the top 5.  I built the table selecting the roles for my tactic to use as a reference.  The analysis does not take into account position competency, so doesn't perfectly represent the leagues, but it is close enough for this purpose.

A couple of things to note.

• The Gibraltar league is above the Valdarama National League in rating, out of line with the position in the world league ranking. That make sense if you consider that the top 5 ratings are most likely to have come from the top 2 professional teams (Lincoln, Europa FC). Those teams have dominated the league for a while so are much better than the league as a whole, which shows up in the rating
• The Lions were horrible to start and got better, but not very close to the Gibraltar league. That really demonstrates how strong the effect of Cohesion, Happiness, tactical familiarity and tactics is on the match engine. There is no way the Lions should have won the league based on the attributes of the players on the team
• The rating system is subject to the maxim - Don't confuse accuracy with precision. This is because the attribute values we have to work with are 1 to 20, while in the game it is 1 to 100. This means a rating of 48 to 52 will display as 10. When looking at short time horizons, this can cause unexpected swings in ratings if a number of the player's attribute values are right at the border - one point moves can show misleading small improvements or declines in ratings because they cause the number we see to change. I use my rating system as a guideline to do further digging, not a rule. Once I have a player for a couple of seasons, the trend of the ratings is long enough to overcome the short term variability.

I won't show the chart going forward, but I will show the following graph at the end of each season to track the progress.

Edited February 8 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

End of Season Analysis - Part 2
Player progression, statistical performance and position review/needs:

As a semi-pro team with horrible facilities, I am not expecting much, if any progression until we can turn professional. We have some older players who I expect to decline.  The end of season squad looks like:

We had big rating drops from:
Note the comments about on ratings, the time horizon is short, so only the bigger moves will be talked about.

Age related drops

• Ezequiel -3
• Ruiz - 3.9
• Rumbo - 2

Not sure drops:

• Shmelev - 2.3
• Galliano - 3.8  Injury?

The rest were pretty stable with slight increases for McClafferty, Peacock. Key showed strong growth in attributes and his rating increased by 2.8, Happy about that.

 

Time to dig into the final statistics and metrics for the season and look at positional needs.
 

GK
Potential Upgrade

Neither keeper played great, Hernandez having the edge on XG prevented and Robba having the edge on save %. Robba's rating is in line with the Gibraltar league. He is 32 now and can be a good backup if I can find a better started.  Will look for a starter with ratings in the 53 - 55 range (VNL to L2)

CD
Strong Need - 1 Starter

We are good with one CD position - Shmelev. He had decent stats and match rating. He is also just below the range of ratings for the leagues we are chasing. Hasting is a good backup, but declining. Bossano-Anes has potential and a 43 rating. He actually improved ever so slightly last season without much playing time, but is unlikely to ever be more than a solid backup at his peak. Vera will be gone.  We need another starter.

FB
High need for RFB

Galliano and Rumbo performed well with strong match ratings and strong statistics (I updated the FB metrics to reflect the combo D, support and attack role).  Galliano is the starter at LB. He has a 5 star potential, but declined last season. I will assume that is because of learning a new position and getting injured, but definitely something to keep an eye on this season. Rumbo was steady and consistent for us, unfortunately is getting older and best used as a backup. Need to find a starter in the 50 rating range. Breakspear and Olmos are backups at best.

BWM
Urgent need

The two old guys who can't move are not getting the job done. Not happy with anything about the BWM role this past season. Both will be gone, so need a starter and a backup.

DLP
We are good

Parker starts, plays great and is the team captain, say no more.  We have additional backup options in Key and Cintas, so not need to do anything unless something falls in our lap.

RW,LW,AM
Starters great, need backup

Set at starters with Negrette, Key and McClafferty. Cintas is a decent backup at AM. We do need backups though

ST
Urgent Need

Cabrera is old and declining and Peacock is leaving off his loan. Wasn't happy with Peacock (or Cabrera) anyways.  Starting from nothing here, so need a starter and a backup

Next up is to start looking for trial players from:

• The national teams when they start playing shortly
• 18 and under players in the lower Spanish division with expiring contracts (didn't work first time, will try again)
• Scouts
• GM suggestions

[mpm2342]

Fast forward to June 30th when players and coaches contracts expire and we can really start setting the squad for the new season.  Gibraltar dropped 2 spots in the Club rank, but still have the 3 spots in European competitions... hopefully this season the teams can win a game or two. The Lion's reputation went up a bit which should help with signing players and the Lions made their appearance on the European club rankings. We got a healthy transfer budget of 70K which I reallocated to scouting and payroll keeping just enough in case I need to give signing bonuses or such. No need to pay transfer fees for players yet.

Over the month of June we added 5 players to plug some holes from a variety of sources.

Spencer Barber came to us by looking through the Gibraltar league for expiring contracts and saw that he was a non-contract, so offered a trial. The trail was accepted and he turned out to be a very good AM and an OK winger and DLP. He will be a very useful backup with potential to start as an AM.

Max Cottrell was found looking at expiring contracts and offering trials. Glacis agreed for him to come on trial and he turns out to be a very good BWM and solid backup at CD. He will likely start at BWM if I can't find an upgrade. He is consistent and loves big matches which is a strong positive.

Jack Thompson came to us through an Intermediary. They were looking to sell him, no way I was paying transfer fees, so I checked if they would loan him and they would ... for FREE!! Jack is our second best CD and our best Right defender. So he will start, just a question of where.

Corey Hurford was a top FA target for us last off season, but he wanted way too much to sign, so I watched him go to Lincoln. Sure enough, Lincoln put him up for loan this season.  Lesson here - If you can't sing someone, keep tabs on them because they will often quickly come available on loan. Most of the time, they still cost too much, but sometimes, it works. In this case. I am paying £20 p/w playing fee and £0 non-playing fee. Hurford will be a backup Striker (had him potentially as the starter until the 4th player on the list came along), the backup winger and 3rd on the AM depth chart, so a very useful player.

The most exciting siging for us is Kawe. I got an inbox item saying the Lions were pursuing Kawe and I was "WHO? Never heard of him"  just one of those random rumour emails. So I checked him out and the only stats I could see were Pace 12-15, Finishing 12-15 and Dribbling 12-15. That got me very interested. He was on £160 p/w and I figured it would be questionable if he would accept a transfer and he would probably want a lot more than that, so I checked the loan option and BRA was willing to loan him out for FREE !!!  Backflips and an offer quickly ensued.  The offer for real and the backflips just in my head so I didn't hurt myself.  After that, it was wait with bated breath as Kawe announce he no longer wanted to leave BRA, so I thought for sure he would reject the loan, but no, he came. And look at this guy! He is a prototype AF which is what I play in the tactic with a rating of 57.7 which slots him very nicely near the top 5 average for the league. Very excited to see what he can do.

On the staffing front, the board agreed to add another coach and we let Chozas Hermoso go as he was not good enough .

Edited February 11 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

The EUFA Champions League Champions Path First Qualifying Round has us drawn against Alashkert. Alashkert play in the Armenian top league and have a 2 star reputation. Armenia is 35th in the European nation club ranking and Alashkert is ranked 253 in the Europe club rankings, so on paper they should be better than us, but not by a huge margin.

Will report back after the first leg on how the game went and any additional transfer and staff moves. Setting up the training schedule to get the players in match shape and hopefully happy

[mpm2342]

July has been good to us. I went to my expiring contracts shortlist to see how many of the young Spanish players became free agents. There were quite few, so I offered trials to all of them and they accepted!!!  Getting the reputation bump, playing in the Europe competitions and them being free agents made the difference.  As I waited for their attributes to reveal, a number of them understandably  got bids from other clubs, however we did manage to sign one player from that group and one Gibraltar depth player:

Samu will be our new FB on the right side after training. Got a couple of other bids out for even better ones and if they sign, will send Samu out on loan. I love his speed and acceleration which is perfect for the high tempo tactic.

Mikey Yome is a solid backup across the front 4 positions. Consistent player, cheap, agreed to fringe player and provides extra insurance against injuries.

Onto the Cup matches. The first game against Alashkert was VERY surprising. I was hoping we could hang with them, but we really put a beating on them. Kawe was amazing, Parker is living up to the Captain role and just no words... didn't think this would happen.

Game two back at home with a 7 goal lead was hoping the momentum would continue with a victory and it did. Much closer game on the scoreboard and the match stats. Parker and Kawe scored again and played well.  The attacking group on this team are going to be a force this season.

The EUFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round has us drawn against Astana. Astana play in the top Kazakhstan league and are a much bigger club. Kazakhstan is ranked 29th in the European Club rankings and Astana is ranked 125th. This is going to be a challenge.

[mpm2342]

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round

The first leg is complete. There must have been a party or something that the Lion's squad was eager to get to as the parade of men sent to the dressing room was astounding. I have not seen a game with this much "colour" before. 8 Yellows and 3 Red cards.... 3 Red cards, wow!  Down 3-0 heading into their stadium, so things are not looking good to advance further.

Second leg in the books and the end of the Champions path for the Lions. Astana as just too good, but very happy for the team to make it to round 2 and collect some prize money. £85K for each round for a total of £170K. That almost gets us to a positive balance overall.

 

[mpm2342]

Next up is KuPS in the UEFA Europa League, Champions Path Third Qualifying Round

KuPS play in the Finnish Premier League. Finland is ranked 33rd in the European Nation Club Rankings and KuPS is ranked 197. Lower ranking than Astana, but still pretty strong.

Looking at the other Gibraltar clubs, Europa FC was knocked out in the second round of the Europa League and Magpies were out in the first round.

Signed a couple of players as well:
Aaron Alonso is a very good, young SK. I am probably going to loan him out for the regular season and play Robba and have him as the starter next season

Frankie Edwards will be the primary backup at CD and a solid starter if one of the first two goes down with an injury. Going to be tricky balancing the playing time commitments, but it's a short season, so it's doable

Also signed some players for the U23 team, but not going to show them as they are unlikely to make the main squad. If any of them progress well, I will post them at the end of the season.

 

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa League, Champions Path Third Qualifying Round

1st leg at home produced a draw. We had the edge in XG and possession, but not enough to feel bad about the score.  No real notable performances and a distinct lack of cards, so happy about the discipline.

Leg two away from home produces a win when we didn't play the best. It is nice to pull one out when behind on a number of the match metrics. Kawe got injured in the last match, but Hurford stepped in and did great with both goals. Very happy with the team. Another £85K and on to the next round.

 

[mpm2342]

Next up is one of the best named football clubs out there .... Knattspyrnufelagid Vikingur. Say that 3 times fast   Vikingur R play in the Icelandic Premier Division. Iceland is ranked 43rd in the European Nation Club rankings and Vikingur R is ranked 391. We should have a chance to play some close ones with them

First leg at Laugardalvollur Stadium, Love the name so much, just had to check it out. The stadium and location was fantastic and the game was pretty good too

We came out with a 3-2 away victory. Fairly even game overall puts us in a good position for leg 2 at home.

Second leg at home and, Vikingur R made the comeback, winning2-0 and knocking us out of the Europa League. It was a good run from the team.

We received another £85K and an additional £171K for being in the Europa league.  With a positive balance of £334,793 time to go ask the board for upgrades.

Whoa!!! Wait just a minute! Here I was happy to get into positive financial territory and then got this email:

Say WHAT?  Time to get some upgrades done and time to ask to turn professional.

And to top it all off, this email came in too:

Can you believe it? I have a personal assistant named James Borge!  Definitely moving up in the world

All kidding aside, I thought the European adventure was over, but no, 6 more games await with some potential victories could means some more £ on the horizon as well.

Oh Happy Days!!!!!

Edited February 13 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

The board approved (with some discussion) improving training facilities, youth recruiting and junior coaching. Big step to start getting better. Just put in a request to turn professional. The extra training will make a difference for sure, will ask to add more coaches and keep asking for upgrades every time it becomes available.

Next up is the Pepe Reyes Cup where we faced off against Europa FC and came out victorious after a hard fought battle including extra time.  A late goal by Kawe sealed the game for us.

Not the most prestigious competition as of yet, slotting in between some Irish cups. Hopefully as the league gets better, the ranking of the cup will get better which will give a boost to the teams.

Next up is the regular season.

[theBlackPrince]

Congratulations on a successful season and that Europe run and prize money will be absolutely huge to improve the club for the next season!!

[mpm2342]

We signed 3 more players before the transfer deadline, 2 depth players and one future star (I hope)

Marcos is 17 and has great Pace, Acceleration, first touch and passing - perfect for the DLP or AM roles.  The assistant report says he is close to full potential, but I have to (want to) believe that his physicals and other attributes can still be improved.

Bosio is homegrown and a backup for the BWM role. He won't see the field unless Cottrell gets hurt.

Hankins is insurance at the GK position in case one of the two main dudes gets really annoyed at me for not meeting their playing time expectations.

One of the benefits to the cup games is I have enough game statistics to look at player performance an adjust starters if needed

GK
This is pretty close with the edge to Alonso for the save %. Will try to balance both of them but the fact that Robba is homegrown gives flexibility for other lineup spots so they will likely trade off until one of them gets mad, then I will try to loan Alonso out.

CD
Shmelev and Thompson are the starters, but Edwards is making a case for playing time. Will likely have a rotation here to keep them fresh

FB
Galliano starts at LFB and Roman is playing and training to be the RFB - is already competent in the position. Rumbo just always plays well and is a leader on the team, so will be a regular sub and will get some playing time to give the 18 yr old some rest

BWM / DLP
Cottrell and Parker have player pretty much all the games. Parker is awesome. Cottrell, not so much.  The BWM role in the tactic did not produced good ratings last season either, so I might need to re-think that role.. will try it on support instead of defend for a bit and see what happens.

AM
Key has been the starter, but has the poorest metrics.  He is homegrown and the other two are not, so this position will likely rotate with the GK position to keep the 5 homegrown in the lineup. Going to rotate Barber and Hurford and see how they perform as well. Hurford is the backup ST, so don't want to make him full time AM.

Winger
Negrette and McClafferty are the starters. McClafferty has been great, but Negrette has been out performed by Yome. That will earn some starts for Yome and I will keep an eye on it to see if the trend continues.

ST
Kawe is the starter and doing just fine. Hurford got 2 goals in his one start, so not afraid to use him as required either. The stats as a striker likely made his AM stats look better than they otherwise would.

The position / role calculations has changed quite a bit from the end of last season:
There are reasonable homegrown options at every position except for ST and one of the CD. That will give us lots of lineup flexibility and hopefully resilience to injury as well.

The board agreed to turn professional at the beginning of next season!  Let the good times role and lets get the training facilities and coaching better to take advantage of it.

 

Edited February 13 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

The board agreed to add a performance analyst, an additional physio and an additional coach. These will all be helpful to develop players and keep them healthy.

First game of the season was a massacre. The score was inflated over the XG, but there were some sweet goals in this one. Jay Key scoring top corner from long range was my favourite.

We had a number of players on international duty and, as always when this happens, I check out the national team for FA. There were 4 of them who agreed to trials and one of them, Ethan Britto signed with us on a non-contract as a fringe player.  He will be our best LFB so will get some quality play time and gives me flexibility to use Galliano in other spots.

The injury bug hit us - Robba (GK) is out for 6-7 weeks, glad I have Alonso to step in. Negrette is out for 2-4 weeks and we have very good depth wingers, so that will be fine.

Second game and another positive result for us

Third game of the season saw us get defeated in a game we should have won. To make it worse, Yome was injured for 4-5 months.  Starting to test the depth at winger.

 

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa Conference League - Game 1

First game is against Zeleznicar from the Serbian First League. Serbia is 14th in the European nation club rankings and Zelenicar is ranked 315 in the club rankings. The fans and experts seem to think we have a shot in this game

The fans and experts were correct as we got a nice victory and to top if off, received £428K for the win. We are building a very nice bankroll this season with the current balance at £3M

 

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa Conference League - Game 2

Second game is against AA Gent from the Jupiler Pro League in Belgium. Belgium is 9th in the European nation club rankings and AA Gent is ranked 49th in the club rankings. The fans and experts seem to think we don't have a shot in this game, though it is above 10%

AA Gent was just too much for this team. Happy to not get blown out too badly

Edited February 14 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Back in the Gibraltar league, the Lions dominated Man 62 with a few backups in the lineup for playing time and to rest the starts for the cup.

A key game against our primary rival for the league prompted the best lineup to start and they did a fantastic job.  Very good game all around.

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa Conference League - Game 3

Third game is against VFB Stuttgart from the Bundesliga in Germany. Germany is 4th in the European nation club rankings and VFB Stuttgart is ranked 137th in the club rankings. Thought for sure their club ranking would be higher than that, but I see this the first time in a while for them to play in the European cup. The fans and experts seem to think we don't have a shot in this game. Going to switch to tactic 2 which is the same base as the very attacking tactic, but more conservative - hopefully to keep it close.

I am pleased with the result, but from the stats, especially XG, we could have won that game

Lots of yellow cards will cause us problems I'm sure.,,, Yep, Parker, Roman, Galliano and Rumbo will miss the next match against Bate. That's 3 of our FBs... grrr

Edited February 15 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Two more league games and two more victories. I rested a number of players for the Glacis match and it almost cost us as the game was closer than it should have been and closer than the stat line. The Mons Calpe game is more in line with what the starters can do.

Edited February 14 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa Conference League - Game 4

Fourth game is against BATE from the Belarusian highest league. Belarus is 47th in the European nation club rankings and BATE is ranked 205th in the club rankings. The fans and experts are tipping us to win this game.  We are short a few players, so hopefully can deliver.

Well, that wasn't pretty. Got soundly beaten and another flurry of yellow cards. At this rate, it is going to be hard to field a team . Disappointing to lose a game we had a chance in.

Edited February 15 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Two more victories and we have played 10 games or half the season.

Youth intake preview came in and looks dismal

Time for the mid year squad analysis.

Edited February 14 by mpm2342