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

[mpm2342]

The senior squad depth chart based on ratings looks like this. The only significant change is the growth of Jay Key who added a couple of points to his rating. Oscar Marcos has joined the club now and as a 17yr old, will definitely get some play time.

I'm not going to share all the stats at mid year as they are in line with what we saw earlier. The one that jumps out is that Robba is outplaying Alonso. As a homegrown, that will earn him more play time, but with everything context matters. Alonso played the big cup matches against the very strong teams and Robba played the league matches, so this may be false direction... we will see

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa Conference League - Game 5

Fifth game is against The New Saints (TNS) from the Cymru Premier in Wales. Wales is 50th in the European nation club rankings and TNS is ranked 214th in the club rankings. The fans and experts are tipping us to win this game.  We are short a lot of players, with only 6 subs available due to injury and suspensions, so hopefully can deliver.

Well, that wasn't pretty. The team got outplayed and also went down a man at the 62 min mark. We lost Parker for 3-4 weeks which will hurt our depth even more. Fortunately, Key is very strong in the DLP role. If this trend continues, will have to look at dialing back the aggressiveness of the tactic as we seem to have some "untidy" players when playing the way they are.. Robba did not have a great game, so I am going to assume that Alonso is the better option, as he is the younger option and could play for the club for a number of years, so giving him the opportunity makes sense.

[mpm2342]

Another league victory in the books and another Red card   the team played this one a man down for most of the match, so am happy with the outcome.

UEFA Europa Conference League - Game 6

Sixth game is against The Dynamo Kyiv from the Ukrainian Premier League. Ukraine is 15th in the European nation club rankings and Dynamo Kyiv is ranked 53rd in the club rankings. The fans and experts are tipping us to lose this game and that is definitely the likely outcome.  We have a couple of players back, but still only 8 subs. Going to dial back the tempo and see if we can escape without too many more suspensions or injuries.

Not bad. A loss, but not a blowout, not a crazy amount of cards and no injuries

We got an extra £34.77K after being knocked out in the league phase.

Edited February 15 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Continued league play with a loss to St. Joseph's which moved us to second in the league table.

The team rebounded with a win over Lincoln which is a nice way to go into a couple of week break over the end of the year. Hopefully I can use the break to get the team rested, healthy and ready to take on the rest of the season.

[mpm2342]

January has come and with it another transfer window. Before that, we defeated College '75 2-0, should have been a lot more based on the XG, but a win is a win.

The social feed highlighted two Argentinian squads releasing players, so I offered trials and three of them were reasonably priced and definite upgrades, so I signed them. That pissed off Shmelev, so he is transfer listed now. Diaz will step into the lineup in Shmelev's place and the other two will sub in and play as needed. Might not start this season, depending on balancing playing time commitments. I am trying to set up for the European early season competitions, so am ok to bring in more non-homegrown players, especially with all the injuries and suspension problems we had during this campaign.

[theBlackPrince]

Tough time in Europe but that money will always help to keep raising standards in Gibraltar! League looks to be going back to you once more!

[mpm2342]

2 hours ago, theBlackPrince said:

Tough time in Europe but that money will always help to keep raising standards in Gibraltar! League looks to be going back to you once more!

I was hoping we could achieve a bit more in Europe, but the suspensions and injuries killed our chance to make it through that round. The money has already helped improve facilities and add coaches. The league is really tight, Europa FC is playing great this season as well.

[mpm2342]

Update time on a number of matches played. The next league game was a defeat to Man 62 in a game we should have won.

We managed to defeat Europa FC who is our main challenger for the league title this season

Rock Cup quarter final went our way. Narrow victory, but the play looked to be well in our favour.

That's better. Solid game, no cards and a comfortable victory.

Another victory, but more yellows and a red. We now have enough depth to not worry as much about suspensions etc, but still don't like them

 

2 more games left in the regular season before the playoff round and it is very tight at the top where the Lions and Europa FC have put a lot of distance from the rest of the league. No relaxing for us as any slip up at this stage could hand the title to Europa FC. It might come down to the game against them in the playoff round.

[mpm2342]

We continued our winning ways against the Magpies in convincing fashion.

Rock Cup Semi-Final:
Lost in penalties. Should have been a game we won comfortably, but we underscored the XG and they over achieved. We get to face Lynx again in 3 days in the last game of the league play

Last game of the league went our way in convincing fashion. De Stefano has been a strong sub for us since his signing.

We made the Championship group in first place. Europa FC tied their final game to give us a bit of breathing room. Final regular season standings:

[mpm2342]

First game of the championship group was a nail biter that we held on for victory. Cottrell has been playing well lately, will be interesting to see the stats.  Up next is the key match against Europa FC

Second match should have been the toughest. I was a bit worried because we had been winning the XG battle, but only narrowly winning matches, so was prepared for anything in the match against Europa FC.

Wow, where did that come from and can we please save some of those goals!  The boys were scoring from long range all afternoon, some beautiful balls from outside the penalty area. We are in the drivers seat now, up by 6 with 3 to play.

Third match I rested a few players to get some of the younger players in and it almost backfired. Rojas had a horrible game and got the boot as well... back to the bench for him. We were fortunate to get a late goal to pull this one out. 6 up with two to play and a substantial lead in the goal differential guarantees us the league. Want to make sure to win it next time out.

Fourth match and we got the necessary result

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS !!!!

Final match of the championship round was a stellar comeback and a great way to end the campaign.

Time to dig into the off season. The board has approved turning professional earlier and with the expected club reputation bump, hopefully we can attract some good talent. Kawe has not wanted to talk to us at all. BRA is willing to sell him for free or loan him again, but he won't consider it. Will have to try again once the season rolls over and the above changes happen. He score 30 goals in 39 games across all the competitions, so would love to have him back for next year.

Final championship group standings:

[mpm2342]

Youth intake yield a few prospects who are unlikely to make the team, but I am hoping they may grow enough to benefit other teams in the league.  The ones I signed are:

Couple of GK with solid ratings for reflexes and handling. If their other attributes can develop, they may turn out ok.

Nothing much to get excited about with the next batch other than Parkinson having strong technicals, which seems to be the hardest thing to develop, so will keep an eye on him

 

[mpm2342]

End of season awards had the Lions well represented again:

We officially turned professional on May 25th and the board set the budget:

Salary budget jumped up a tiny bit, but holy cow, £716K transfer budget?  I don't expect to need to use much, if any transfer spending to improve the team, so that money will get moved to scouting to let us start scouting parts of Europe and to wage budget if needed.  Nice to have the funds there though if I can find a young star worth chasing.

We have also gotten room to hire more coaches and a sports scientist, so I have put ads out for those.  Haven't been showing the coaching hires / fires as every year there is a fair bit of turnover as our reputation improves.  As an example, I am getting applicants for a fitness coach role with 2 and 3 rating in fitness... they will only stay for one season and then a new one will come in, so am not getting attached to the coaches.

The season rolled over and Kawe is now willing to talk to us, so I have offered him a contract as BRA didn't want any money for the transfer.

Some more cash came in

• £90.67K from Europa Conf. League TV money
• £30.25K from coefficient ranking pool money

Edited February 16 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

End of Season Analysis:

Team average ranking on my spreadsheet ratings improved from 51.1 to 55.2.  As you can see below, we are now in the same calibre as VNN/S and VNN.

Central midfielders and fullback are lower than the rest compared to the leagues above us.  Good starting point for the in depth positional review looking at player progression, statistical performance and position needs
The ending squad looked different than the squad that played most of the season because of the three Argentinians who came on board in the new year. They will all be starters for cup matches and maybe league depending on homegrown numbers.

Major positive changes in Ratings:

Jay Key + 4.1 as DLP and +3.6 as AP from the end of last season.
Frankie Edwards +4 from signing - he is 19 and can become homegrown in 2 more seasons if I go get him. Time to spend some transfer cash and see if I can land him... (update) Colchester want 500K for him... too rich for this stage.
Aaron Alonso +2.1 from signing

I can't wait to see what growth I can get from them after training full time.

Major drops:
Yome -3.5
Bosio -3.2

Parker has stayed the same for the past 2 seasons - great player, but will become a useful backup next season. 

A deep dive into the attribute progression for Key and Edwards:
For Key, he has really developed his physicals - I had him on endurance and then agility individual training to help. You can see the two year growth below.  Key has 5* potential, so still room to grow.

Edwards grew well across the board and has potential to still grow (5*)

 

Edited February 16 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

POSITIONAL REVIEW

GK
Robba had better statistics than Alonso, but Alonso played the tougher matches. I think GK is a position to maintain a homegrown player as the difference in performance doesn't seem to affect the game. This position is up in the air for me at the moment.

CD

Hastings performs well statistically, but his physicals deteriorated over the year and I will be letting him go. Nothing really jumps out at me from the rest... Edwards and Thompson are loan players and will be leaving. Diaz and Rojas will be starters. I am going to try and get a homegrown CD in the mix to give flexibility and hopefully someone with growth.

FB

Roman played the majority of the games on the right and did very well. Galliano started the year at LFB, but was replaced by Britto.  Britto out performed Galliano, so will be the starter. Rumbo was a sub and got lots of minutes at RFB and did very well. Olmos played only at RFB and also did well. Either one of them is still a decent cheap backup option.

BWM

Cottrell played alreight from the match summaries, so I think my measurements are not suited to the way the BWM plays in this tactic. Overall happy with his play, but will grab a homegrown or 18 and under upgrade if I can find one.

DLP

All three of the DLP were very good. Parker is captain and homegrown, Key is homegrown, but mostly played AM and Marcos will be homegrown in 2 more season. Parker is older and not growing, so will phase him out in favour of the other two depending on where Key plays. Key will start either here or at AM because of his growth potential. Marcos has 4* potential, so will get some playing time, starts if we can.

AM

Marcos and Barber are not homegrown and Marcos outplayed Barber, so gets the nod for when Key plays DLP. We are in good shape with these 4 players for the 2 spots

Winger

Negrette was great and homegrown. De Stefano deserves to start. McClafferty will become homegrown in one year and will be a great backup/league starter

ST

was able to resign Kawe, so he is the guy.  We have Yenpariye developing who will move into the main squad and get starts and playing time as he will become homegrown in two years and I love his physicals - he has a 53 rating as a TF (S)..  could be an interesting twist to the tactic to play with.

Summary of needs / wants:

• homegrown or 18&U GK to backup or start
• homegrown or 18&U CD to backup or start
• depth at right FB (Rojas is alright there, but looking for an upgrade)
• homegrown BWM
• homegrown anywhere
• 18&U anywhere

Same routine as last season:

• check national teams and go after Gibraltar players
• 18&U players with expiring contracts in Spain, Portugal and France... allowing myself to go a bit broader since we played in Europe last season and the board gave me enough budget to scout western Europe.
• Get the scouts looking for 18&U and looking for homegrown players across our scouting area
• GM recommendations, keep asking and keep looking at the 18&U. 
• Will wait to do loans until July and use them to fill holes.

[mpm2342]

July has arrived and so have a few players and an update on where we stand. The nation club coefficients went up nicely, but so did a lot of the nations right around us, so Gibraltar is back to 50 in the nation club ranking, positioned well for a jump this season if we (and Europa FC and Magpies) can win a few games in Europe. The club turned professional and got a nice reputation boost along with an increase in value. The money we made last season in Europe made significant improvement in the clubs facilities and infrastructure... looking for that to start delivering rewards.

We signed some players in the month:

Ganet is a very strong BWM and will play in the European games always and start some league games if we can balance the homegrown numbers. Cortinhas and Pinto are futures with good potential who will train with the team, get some spot starts and develop(hopefully) as they start the 3 year journey to become homegrown. 

The draw for the first round of the champions path resulted in a rematch with Vikingur R. who we met up with last season in the UEFA Europa League competition where they knock us out. Their overview hasn't changed much other than their value increasing by 10.6M!  Still semi-pro and hopefully we can defeat them with us having a stronger squad this time.

Edited February 18 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

EUFA Champions League Champions Path First Qualifying Round

Iceland is ranked 31st in the European Nation Club rankings, a big move up from 43rd last season.  Vikingur R is ranked 222 another big move up from 391last season. They had a very successful European campaign last year... just checked their bank balance and they have 15.6M sitting there. 

Game one in their lovely stadium (pic in last season's storyline) is in the books and we come out with a victory and a goal up - different score, but same situation as last season. Great game by Kawe, but unfortunately he got hurt and is out for 4 weeks.  Time to see how the young Yenpariye can do.

Game two and we won!  We dominated the game and should have won by more than one goal, but I will take it for sure.

 

In other Gibraltar club news, Europa FC won their UEFA Europa Conf. League Path First Round against Bala and Magpies also won against Hibernians... great to see them collecting some cash and improving Gibraltar's ranking.  So far we have earned 2.000 points which is a great start.

Edited February 19 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round

The second round has us facing SK Slovan Bratslava from the Slovak First Division.  Slovakia is 26th in the nation club rankings and Slovan Bratislava is 102 in the European club rankings.  This is going to be a tough one to get past.

 

[mpm2342]

In other news, we signed 3 more players who were 18 at the time of signing, so will become homegrown at club for the European adventures.  Had to spend more than I wanted to but both CD players have great ratings (Morata 55.4, Sofikitis 54) which is almost as good as our current starters, so they will get lots of playing time and hopefully grow to their 5 star potential.  Tamargo is more of a depth player depending on how well he grows into his 4 star potential.  I moved transfer budget to wage budget to afford these signings.
 

[mpm2342]

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round

The second round was a very positive surprise.  We won 6-0 at home and then took the away leg as well. Did not expect that at all. Yenpariye got 4 goals in the 2 games and is playing himself into some more starts with the way he has filled in for Kawe

[mpm2342]

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Third Qualifying Round

The third round has us facing Ferencvarosi from the Hungarian Division 1.  Hungary is 24th in the nation club rankings and Ferencvarosi is 69th in the European club rankings. We should not have a chance in this, but the squad has played together for a while and is in good form, so maybe we have a chance?

First leg away from home and we won!  Amazing result in a game that was level on XG but we had the edge in shots and possession. Alonso got player of the match as he stepped up his game amidst rumours of us bringing in a GK on loan to challenge for his spot. We come back home with a one goal lead and a definite chance to pull this one out.

Back home and we did it !!!  Astounded that we managed to pull out the victory and move on to the next round. Kawe delivered and it looks overall like we had more shots and better chances with a significant edge in XG.  Some celebration on the Rock after this one.

We brought in two more players. An 18yr old GK on loan who I will try and sign after as he can become homegrown and he is almost as good as Alonso with a lot of potential.  We also signed Jamie Coombes as a backup winger / midfielder. He is an important depth player who is homegrown. I love his consistency.

Edited February 19 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Fourth Qualifying Round

The fourth round has us facing Kobenhavn from the 3F Superliga in Denmark.  Denmark is 12th in the nation club rankings and Kobenhavn is 35th in the European club rankings. We should not have a chance here. The vote says otherwise though and gives us a glimmer of hope.

First leg at home is in the books and we managed to force a draw with a late goal. Overall we were out played and out chanced, so not hoping for much when we go to their stadium

Second leg and an emphatic exit from the competition.  Kobenhavn is just too much for the Lions at this stage in the development of the club.

Fantastic showing for the club in the Champions League give us £4.28M to spend on upgrading the club along with another £2.91M for qualifying for the UEFA Europa League League Phase.

Our schedule was revealed and it looks pretty tough. We might be able to grab 3 wins from the list if things go our way and that might be barely enough to get a playoff game... either way potential for some more money and boosts to the rankings.

[mpm2342]

Pepe Reyes Cup

Two days off and the Gibraltar season kicks off with the Pepe Reyes Cup. Decided to give the main squad a day off and the backups and homegrown players some match time. It went well. We won the match, not as comfortable as with the full squad, but good to see the rest of the team step up. Once again Yenpariye shows that he is very capable as our attacker.  We have a couple of weeks off and then the Europa league and regular season gets rolling. I love watching the highlights with him as he is 6'3" and 211lbs, so looks much bigger than the rest of the players.

Edited February 19 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa League Game 1:

First up is Rosenborg from the Norwegian Premier Division. Norway is 11th in the Nation Club rankings and Rosenburg is 130th in the European club coefficient rankings. Their average salary is "only" £879 p/w, more than us for sure, but way less than the £10K that Kobenhavn spends. The poll seems to think we have an outside shot.  Kawe got hurt and is going to miss a few games, so time for the youngster to step up again.

Well, we came away with a draw, which at least gives us some points. We edged them on XG, but they dominated possession which rarely happens to us, so I think we are fortunate to get a result. As a bonus, we got £180K for the draw.

 

[mpm2342]

The regular league season has started and the Lions are off to a flying start with 2 dominate victories. Mixing the squad up to maintain the 5 homegrown players, deal with injuries and try to balance playing time expectations... going to be a challenge for this season, next season we get a number of players who become homegrown which will definitely help.

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa League Game 2:

Next up is Lazio from the Italian Series A. Italy is 2nd in the Nation Club rankings and Lazio is 26th in the European club coefficient rankings. We shouild have no chance in this game. Best bet is to try and keep the score down for score differential purposes. I don't know who they polled for the votes, but 18% think the Lions can win?  They are crazy.

We lost, but managed to keep it relatively close. We are just holding onto a spot in the playoff, so in a position to have a shot at it. Unfortunately, Jay Key got injured for 4 weeks. That one will hurt.

Edited February 20 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

We played a couple more league games winning both. Still mixing up the lineups a lot to manage fitness for the Europa League, injuries and homegrown. Fortunately we have a lot of depth this season to the point that I think our second team could win the Gibraltar league.

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa League Game 3:

Next up is Tottenham from the Premier League. England is 1st in the Nation Club rankings and Tottenham is 58th in the European club coefficient rankings. The voters don't give us much chance and I don't either.

This one was embarrassing with 2 send offs. How are we supposed to hold them off two men down .. sheesh.  On to the next one with hopefully better results.  We weren't going to win anyways, but that was a beat down.

Edited February 20 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

A couple more league games including our first defeat of the season to Europa FC. We bounced back with a good showing against Man 62. Juggling the need to have 5 players who are homegrown with the rest of the playing time commitments is hard. There are 3 legit homegrown starters and the rest are backups. The problem I am running into is the better players I signed are expecting to start more and when one of the 3 get injured, it becomes tough. I think I need to slow down picking up good foreign players until I can develop the homegrown talent more.... interesting dilemma.

UEFA Europa League Game 4:

Next up is Stuttgart from the Bundaslige. Germany is 4th in the Nation Club rankings and Stuttgard is 72th in the European club coefficient rankings. The voters actually give us a chance, but I don't. We are not ready for the top flight teams yet.

I am happy we scored 3 and satisfied we kept it somewhat close. Our next game is not any easier, but we close the Europa league with 3 games we could potentially see points from.

[mpm2342]

Two more wins in the Gibraltar league has us sitting on the top of the table.

UEFA Europa League Game 5:

Next up is LASK from the Austrian Premier League. Austria is 10th in the Nation Club rankings and LASK is 42th in the European club coefficient rankings. The voters don't give them a chance..... 83% win likelihood for us, that is crazy. I thought the polls were interesting, but this one feels so far off to not make it worth paying attention to.

And sure enough, they dominated us on the pitch.  not much to say about the game other than we scored.

[Prestige Worldwide]

I've decided to begin a save in Gibraltar and are glad I have read this first, looks exciting! Great work there

[mpm2342]

Two more wins brings us to the half way point in the Gibraltar League regular season. We are controlling all the league games except for the Europa FC game we lost. Six points clear of the rest of the field at halfway is a nice lead, hopefully we can stretch that out further before the championship round.

Looking at the players whose ratings improved the most from the beginning of the season

Jay Key: +2.5 as AP(A) and +3.1 as DLP (S)
Oscar Marcos: +2.5 as AP(A) and +2.9 as DLP(S)
Michael Negrette: +1.6 as W(S)
Aaron Alonso: +1.2 SK(S)
Alex Morata: +1 CD(D)

No major declines from any of the starters. The only change I am going to make is to switch Key and Marcos so Key is playing the DLP position.

Taking a look at the half way stats and the starters are performing well, so the lineups are in good shape.  Will report on the ratings and stats in detail at the end of the season.

[mpm2342]

UEFA Europa League Game 6:

Next up is Trabzonspor from the Turkish Super League. Turkey is 8th in the Nation Club rankings and Trabzonspor is 97th in the European club coefficient rankings.  Not sure we are going to stand a chance in this one either.

Nope, going down a man at the 7 min mark certainly would not have helped the team at all. No chance left of making the next stage, so have to hope for a result in the final games, though the next one is against RC Lens who is top of the table.  We have had a tough draw so far.

Edited February 20 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

46 minutes ago, Prestige Worldwide said:

I've decided to begin a save in Gibraltar and are glad I have read this first, looks exciting! Great work there

Gibraltar is a lot of fun. Getting to the top of the league is not too difficult, but Europe is proving to be a significant challenge as expected. Have to be patient to develop homegrown players and play homegrown players so they develop which means don't bring in too many stars / important foreigners.  That is one thing I have to adjust.

Glad you have enjoyed the thread.

Edited February 20 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

4 more league games and 4 wins. Lynx out played us, so we were fortunate to come away with the victory there. I mixed that lineup up too much I think.

UEFA Europa League Game 7:

Next up is RC Lens from the Ligue 1 Uber Eats . France is 7th in the Nation Club rankings and RC Lens is 194th in the European club coefficient rankings (that is going to take a big jump after what they have done this year).  RC Lens is top of the table in the Europa League, so will try and play more defensive and see what happens. Not sure we are going to stand a chance in this one either way.

The game was closer than I thought it would be as it took 2 late goals for them to win. Alonso got sick before the game, so we started the backup keeper.. probably didn't make a difference, but a couple of their goals looked savable. That result gives me confidence that maybe we are not that far away from being able to win a few in the Europa League.

 

Edited February 21 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

Second game of the season against the main challengers, Europa FC went better than the first one and we won comfortably. We now sit 10 points up with 5 games left.

UEFA Europa League Game 8:

Final game is against Sarajevo from the Bosnian Premier League. Bosnia and Herzegovina is 35th in the Nation Club rankings and Sarajevo is 338th in the European club coefficient rankings. This game looks more like one we should have a chance in.

Alas, it was not to be as we went down a man at the 60th minute mark up by a goal and proceeded to concede 3 goals the rest of the way for the loss.  Happy to have made the Europa League, but was hoping for a result or two.

[mpm2342]

Couple more victories in league play and the team is rolling.

Rock Cup quarterfinals time and we defeat College '75 quite comfortably to move on into the semi-finals

The January transfer window was uneventful for us. The only move we made was to loan out our 18yr old CD Sofikitis to Lynx. I included an optional transfer fee, so hopefully they buy him and he agrees to go as that would strengthen their squad for next season... trying to sign the young kids and farm them out to the rest of the league. Our scouts are finding lots of 18 and under players for us to look at when the season winds down.

 

Edited February 21 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

The injury and sickness bug hit the team and at one point we were down 8 players!  We had enough depth to field a team, but suffered on the pitch as well with two ties.

Youth intake this season is more promising for sure, with a few players who look decent. Pryce has a 15 finishing, but just ok stats other wise and Dodd looks reasonably balance. Don't think they will ever make the team, but maybe they can grow enough to help the league.

Djurgardens IF from the Swedish premier division are making transfer offers for Jay Key - I really, really don't want to lose him so am refusing. He is under contract for 3 more seasons, so I can hopefully hold him through this, but seems likely that I will lose him eventually. As a side note, at the beginning of the season, I made all the top leagues in Europe playable so they would get real players etc. to see if that made a difference in the European competitions. In a very unscientific way, it seems to have made it more realistic and now they are coming for my better players, which sucks, but is also realistic.

[mpm2342]

Rock Cup Semi Finals: We lost a close one to Mons Calpe in a game we should have won.

Final game of the regular season and a victory for us as we handled Glacis even after we went down a man.

The regular season final table has us with a 9 point lead heading into the Championship Round. With a 9 point lead and only 5 games to play, we should be able to take the league title. A lot of the injured players are coming back as well which will help the cause.

Ahead of the first game of the championship round, we held a team meeting and I picked the wrong motivational speech and completely tanked the team morale. There were already a few unhappy players - Key because he wants to leave and a couple of players who are pissed that I am not playing them, so  that probably didn't help. The first game was a tough matchup, but the team prevailed on the backs of 3 from Kawe who had a great game.

Second game and the result was a lot closer than the game looked to be from the numbers. 3 goals on 5 shots ... boo to that. We are still 9 points up with 3 to play, so a point in any of the next 3 and the title is ours. Kawe is injured for the rest of the season, so time to play the young guy again. Fortunately, we already know he can do the job from earlier in the year.

Third game of the Championship Round sees us clinch the league title!  A fine victory with a lovely header by Yenpariye to bring us level and then De Stefano won it late. Looks like we dominated the game from the shots etc. Something to look into at the end of the season to see what tweaks can be made as we seem to be allowing more than we should and not score quite as much as we should.

[mpm2342]

Two more games to finish out the Champions Round with both ending in victories.

Final table had us comfortably ahead.

We had a few players lead the league in ratings, goals and we dominated the assists category.

We received £539K for UEFA Europa League television revenue and £89.73K from the coefficient ranking pool money.  This will help offset the last round of facilities upgrades which were £1.5M each for the training and youth facilities.

Next post will be the season review of players, progression, stats and an early look at needs for next season.

Before we get to that though, the team collected some awards:

The board announced the initial budgets for next season and we have some money to spend!! Still not sure we will spend the transfer budget as our reputation and the league reputation is not high enough to get the really good players to come. I will try and sign a few of the homegrown stars / future stars to more expensive contracts to try and make them less attractive to the nasty, ugly, mean vultures out there... I mean the higher division teams that will try and take them from me.

Edited February 22 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

End of Season Analysis:

The team average rating improved, but at a lower rate than last season, improving from 55.2 to 56.7. The next "level" England League Two is at 60 average and we have one player at that rating - De Stefano and another who will be there soon - Key, so the other positions either need to grow or they will need replacing. I will refer back to this chart as I go through the position by position review. Basic idea is that imported players should be at or above the target as homegrown players will generally be below. I also need to get cracking on developing homegrown, though it is all connected as our youth setup is improving rapidly, but that will take a few years to impact the senior squad. Our reputation and the league reputation has to improve to attract better players, though I have a LOT more money to spend, so maybe I can buy some good players or look to loans as well as another means. I suspect I will be a few (2-4 more?) years before I can get the team above L1 range. It is tricky in that I do not want to take the best players from the other Gibraltar teams because we need them to perform in Europe to get the league ratings/rankings up to help us get better players.

The end of season squad depth chart is pretty similar to the end of last seasons. The major moves need to happen from now until the European registration window. This time, I will leave a few more spots open for new players, so I can keep hunting.

Major positive changes in ratings:

• Jay Key (again) +3.7
• Oscar Marcos +3.9 (Oscar will become homegrown in Feb of this season - BONUS)
• Michael Negrette +1.6
• Aaron Alonso +1.2
• Benjamin Rojas +0.9

Major Drops

• Yome -3.4 (second year on this list, so won't be around long)
• Hankins - 2.4 (this is likely due to not playing enough as I made a mistake bringing in Loic on loan planning to make him the future GK, but couldn't get him to consider a transfer and then couldn't balance the play time to keep him and Alonso happy, so kept Alonso happy, but that did not leave enough game time for Hankins)
• Diaz - 1.6 - this one I have to look into. He is 24 and his potential shows the same as his current, so maybe this is as good as it gets.
• Kawe dropped 0.9 ... he played in enough games looks like he has 1/2 star to grow, so maybe injuries got him  Either way, this is concerning

Interesting that I made a comment in last end of season review that said I can't wait to see what growth I can get from the after training full time.  The growth was about the same as the part time year!!!!   I am guessing I over worked them in training so that with all the European matches and heavier training and injuries most of the players didn't actually spend enough time training.... more digging and thought required.

[mpm2342]

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts)

GK - L1 target = 58.2
Hankins didn't allow a goal, but it was just in league play, so not a fair comparison, but it does show that GK is a position that needs a homegrown option to play in the league games to allow flexibility to have imports in other positions. That means I can't have an import with Star playing time expectations like Alonso is currently.  It is hard to tell how well the other GK played when they played very strong teams in the Europa League matches, but the average rating is not quite as good as I would like.

Alonso grew 1.2 to a 53.5 rating and he is just 20 with a 3.5 star current ability and a 5 star potential, so has a chance to get his rating to the target level. However, he will not ever be homegrown.  A new name did appear in the depth chart - Leighton McCormick from the youth intake this past season. He is only 15 with a 39.8 rating and a 1.5 star current ability with a 3 star potential ability. Would like to see the potential higher, but will see in a year or two - he is a Model Citizen and has 17 determination, so would love to see him develop.

Plan - default to playing Alonso and Hankins along with some time for McCormick in the "easier" league games. At the same time look for an 18 and under GK with a rating >55 and high potential. If we can find that, we will try and sign them and if successful, try and move Alonso on or loan him out for the remainder of the year. Will likely not resign Alonso, as he is on the last year of his contract, but if nothing else materializes, it will be a fall back.

CD - L1 Target = 64.7

Rojas played a fair bit of his time at RFB, so his stats will not be the same as the other CDs. Nothing jumps out at me from the Stats. Hastings said he was retiring and then wanted to be move to play part time and is now just unhappy... funny guy. He is out of contract at the end of June, so will not be around next season.

Rojas and Diaz are useful players, but as imports without potential to grow, they need to be upgraded. Morata and Sofikitis both have potential and both we become homegrown in two years, so they should take over the starting rotation from Rojas and Diaz.

Plan - Start Morata and Sofikitis and look for an upgrade to start in the rotation.  Will look into Frankie Edwards and see how he did in the year away as well as look for imports with ratings above 60 and potential to grow,

Edited February 23 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

FB - L1 Target = 60.8

Britto is the starter on the left side and Roman on the right. The stats for Diaz and Rojas are skewed due to them playing CD (75% CD for Diaz and 50% CD for Rojas). McClafferty was 75% winger, so his stats will be off, but not as much as the FB attack and the wingers support, so there is a lot of overlap.

Britto has a 54.4 rating, not the 60 target, but he plays very well and is homegrown. He has a 3 star current ability and a 3.5 star potential, so hopefully he can grow closer to the 60 rating, but he is the starter for the next year or two if not longer. Roman was the starter at RFB, is natural on both sides and will become homegrown at the end of this upcoming season. At a rating of 51.4, he needs to be upgraded, but will eventually be very valuable depth. He has 3.5 stars for both current and potential ability, so I don't expect him to grow. McCafferty is about to become homegrown and is a very useful backup as a winger and FB. Right now he is accomplished at LFB, but his right foot is very strong, so could train there as well.  He has 2.5 stars current ability and 3.5 potential. His FB rating is 50.4, so there is room for him to grow, but likely only to the mid 50's.  Tamargo is strong with both feet and had decent stats when he did play. His rating at FB is only 47 and I don't think he has the potential to become useful, so will try and loan him out and keep him in the league until he becomes homegrown and hopefully catches on with one of the other Gibraltar teams.

Plan - Britto starts. Look for an upgrade at RFB with potential with Roman starting until then and moving to backup if we find one. Develop McClafferty as FB and winger, keep Rojas around as backup CD and FB. Look to move Diaz out.

[mpm2342]

BWM - L1 Target = 67.2

 This is a tough one to judge the stats against a benchmark as we control possession, so defensive opportunities are more limited. For this role, I like to look at relative ratings and I really want the role to get the ball and get rid of it to someone else, not looking at them to run with the ball or score. Cottrell's numbers show he plays ok in the role I described. Ganet not quite as good, but adjusted for the fact that Ganet played all the tough teams, I would likely give him a small edge on the stats front... that shows in his average rating as well.

This position could use an upgrade. Ganet (58.5) was the primary BWM for the cup matches but Cottrell (54.5) played the league games to hit the homegrown quota. Rojas can play DM and has a decent rating (57.4). None of the three have potential ability to grow into and they are all a fair ways off the target rating. Ganet is at the end of his contract, Rojas would require retraining and Cottrell makes a decent backup as he can also play CD in a pinch.

Plan - Keep Cottrell as backup / league player, do not retrain Rojas, but have him as an emergency only player for this role and let Ganet walk. Urgent search for an upgrade - ideally homegrown, but that is unlikely, so look for anyone in the low 60s.

DLP - L1 Target = 64.4

Key played most of his games as AM, so his stats are skewed that way a bit. Parker has great numbers and Marcos as well.

Key (59.9) and Marcos (56.5) are both strong options with growth. They are also the primary options at AM as well. Parker (52) is an ok backup based on ratings, but he plays incredibly well. His high work rate and teamwork must have a large impact.

Plan - start Marcos and watch his growth to see if it continues. Marcos becomes homegrown in February which will help squad selection. Parker is the primary backup with Key as a third option. Look for a backup with potential for depth purposes.

Winger - L1 Target = 63.2

Negrette and De Stefano are the starters and they played very well as evidenced by their stats and their average match ratings. McCafferty is a solid backup and Coombes and Yome filled in well. Yome's age and deteriorating physicals show up in his sprints/90 metric.

Negrette (57.3) and De Stefano (60.4) are close to the target ratings, but their growth looks to be close to max. McClafferty (55.1) still has room to grow (1 star), so he also could get in the L1 range. Coombes is a useful backup to keep around and it is time for Yome to move on.

Plan - in good shape, get McClafferty solid play time for development. Look for younger players to come in for the future.

Advanced Playmaker - L1 Target = 62.5

Key played most of his games in this position his stats are good, his match rating is excellent. Marcos played here as well, but mostly in the midfield which explains his lower shot number - a bit, though Marcos has a low finishing attribute, so is not as suited to an attacking role. Barber played the third most and had decent numbers.

Key (59.2) is the starter. He will likely grow to the L1 level by the end of the season. Marcos (56.1) will play DLP, but can fill in if needed. Barber (52.5) is an ok backup, but the deep bench spots should be reserved for homegrown or potential future homegrown players.

Plan - start Key and look for depth options with growth.

Advanced Forward - L1 Target = 61.9

Kawe has the better conversion rate and Yenpariye is way better in the air. Looking at the non penalty XG / 90 and Yenpariye has the edge, likely due to his heading. Both played well though the AF role is likely not a great fit for either one of them.

Kawe (56.8) has 0.5 stars of growth potential, but declined a bit last season and Yenpariye (46.6) has 1 star of growth, so neither of them is going to get to the target in the AF role. Kawe's best role is P(A) where he is rated 60.8 and Yenpariye's best role is TF (S) where he is rated 53.2.

Plan - look for a future AF to take over. In the meantime change the tactical approach to leverage what these two are best at. P(A) when Kawe is in and TF when Yenpariye plays and see how that goes.

[mpm2342]

The end of year rankings and coefficients got updated and Gibraltar moved up to 42 in the Nation Club rankings. This is great as it now means an extra team gets to play in Europe to help collect money and improve the rankings.

Edited February 23 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

This email made my day!!!!

[mpm2342]

July has arrived and we signed a few players with one to help now and three 18 year olds for the future. Not all (if any) of the 18 year olds will make the team, but I am hoping I can bring them in and then farm them out to the other Gibraltar clubs to improve them.

The most important signing is Frank Angong a BWM with a rating of 63.4, much closer to the target of 67.2 than our current players. He is consistent, likes big matches and has solid work rate and determination. He will start the European and cup games and Cottrell will start the league matches. The best part of the Angong signing is that he only wanted to be a Fringe player... I won't complain about that as it gives me the flexibility to swap squads for league matches.

Luke Craggs is an interesting case in that he has solid attributes for CD, a 5 star potential in our strong club, but his technicals are horrible. It will be very interesting to see if he can turn into a serviceable player or not.

Barosi and Nunes are here to fill out the youth ranks. Barosi has a 4.5 star potential and will be sent on loan. Nunes only has a 3 star potential, so will likely keep him around to play on the U23 team and be emergency depth

Have offers out to a couple more players, one strong first team and another youth player... we will see if they pan out. I tried to get the top players to come, but they wouldn't join us. It is nice to have a couple of million in the transfer budget, but there are no players to spend it on who will come. I targeted the best of the players that I am aware of based on my rules and struck out. The scouts are hard at work to try and find more, but I expect we will play the year with this team and grow reputation again to get better players and repeat a couple of times before we are ready to truly compete.

[mpm2342]

I did get one very strong player in for a £74K transfer fee: Theo Golliard could be the starter in multiple positions as he is highest ranked as: DLP (60.6), AP (62.4) Winger (61.3) and AF (59.7). He is at my L1 target ratings for AP, but that is where Key will play, so Golliard will sub in at DLP and AP while he also trains at right Wing and Striker.  Happy to have him on the team as he is a very balanced player.

Signed a player for the future as well. Great physicals for 17, hopefully everything else develops.

Edited February 24 by mpm2342

[mpm2342]

UEFA Champions League Champions Path First Qualifying Round:

First up we play against Sutjeska from the Montenegrin First League. Montenegro is 49th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Sutjeska is 260th in the European club rankings.

First leg at home and we came away with a disappointing draw in a game we should have won based on the statistics.  We had a number of players suspended from last season, including all 3 of our right fullbacks, so that gave us a bit of an odd lineup. Hopefully the second leg goes better.

The next day after the game, my new right FB signed ... could have come a day earlier. Monveneur has strong physicals and is rated our best right fullback, so he will get a rotation with Roman and we will see who plays better.

Well, I was nervous heading into the second leg away from home, but I should not have been as the boys put on a show. That's how you do it!

 

[mpm2342]

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round:

Next we play against Larne from the Sports Direct Premiership in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is 39th in the Nation Club Coefficients and Larne is 208th in the European club rankings. The polls think we can win, I am hoping we can, their team looks slightly stronger based on attributes.

A draw keeps the hopes alive, now just need to pull one out in the second leg. It doesn't help that our top 2 strikers are injured.

Before the second leg, another player signing came through. This will likely be the last for a while as the team now has pretty good depth and I need to give play time to the ones I want to develop. Caldeira is a solid FB and will rotate with Romain. We now have a decent league squad and a better European cup squad with only one or two players who are going to give us grief over playing time.

Second leg is in the books and we pulled it out on the road with a fine game. A couple of late goals from the bench put this one away. Happy to see the deeper squad contributing.

 

[mpm2342]

UEFA Champions League Champions Path Third Qualifying Round:

Next we play against Slavia Prague from the Czech First Division. Czechia is 21st in the Nation Club Coefficients and Slavia Prague is 75th in the European club rankings, right in the middle of some premier league teams, so I am not expecting much.

Decent account from the team, but a step too far at this point in our growth. FYI, the second screenshot is the match summary I use when I forget to hit the simulate button.