danielgear

September 2026 September sees the start of the conference league group stages and the final run in for the league title race start. We're out of the cup, This may have been an error on my part, I was asked if I wanted to postpone due to call ups but I was confident enough in my squad, we should have won but a lack of a clear striker caused us issues infront of goal. 10 days later and full strength we beat the same team 2-1. PAOK are the strongest team in our group and they brushed us aside as we lost 3-1 in the opening game. Already facing at least a relegation playoff Maardu were easily beaten 4-0 before a draw vs Tartu which again we should have won. With 7 league games to go the title is in our hands, 7 wins and we will be champions.

Nomme have had two poor seasons back to back now. Tulevik seem to have swapped places with them

August 2026 A really busy month, 9 games in total and we're trying to qualify for European group stages and get back on top of the league at the same time. We started with a thumping 3-0 win over TJK Legion ahead of our game vs HJK of Finland. We dominated the first leg and came away with a 2-0 win before smashing Tallinna Kalev 4-1 in the league. A 1-1 draw in the second leg was enough to see us through and we were 180 minutes away from potentially making Europa League. We then beat Paide 1-0 in the league ahead of games vs the top 2. A tight affair vs Ferencvarsoi saw the first leg end 0-0. Then we beat top of the table Tulevik 2-1. The second leg was again 0-0 with nobody able to break the deadlock and we then went on to lose on penalities to knock us into the Europa Conference league again. We rounded off a busy month ended with a 1-0 win over levadia to take us joint top. A hard group PAOK and Maribor will offer us a strong challenge to make the next round. In the League we have done well to catch back up.

July 2026 We're back, again I've played further ahead and will do 3 catch up posts now, In July we start the Champions league qualifying stages and we're playing catch up in the league. We started off the month well with a 4-0 win over Maardu ahead of the first round of qualifying. Up first were Kukesi of Albania we brushed them aside with 6-2 and 4-0 wins to see us through to the next round. We then beat Tartu JK 1-0 in the league before our second round game vs Astana. Astana were too strong for us as they beat us 2-0, we had more shots but they were ;ate on when we started chasing the game. We then beat Nomme Kalju 2-0 before a 2-2 draw with Astana that knocked us into the Europa League Qualifying. Out of the Champions League but we have managed to close the gap to 3 points in the league

I understand your thoughts, I tend to approach it from a different angle, I try to develop a core of youth (in a youth development save) to be first team players then a sprinkle of 2-3 key players via transfers to elevate the standard. A 70/30 in favour of promoted youth players at all times. And when I sign the key players it’s always with 3-5 years planned in advance. As when youth come through aged 16-17 I’d want them to be hitting the first team as a starter by 21-23. So if I have a hot prospect at 16 say a Striker but I need one now I’ll either sign a 27-29 year old who could fill the gap for a few years or a younger player aged 21-24 who I feel could be a starter now and sell on for a big fee by the time the prospect arrives. I never want pathways to be blocked especially when they hit that crucial development stage where they need first team football at my club. At Lyon I think you should feel confident in being able to develop first team players rather than squad players, even just looking at their history.

Nice start Matty, how do you align your transfer plans with your aims to promote youth to ensure there is a consistent path to the first team?

Yeah I wouldn’t have an issue if they splashed the cash on foreigners as it should help the AI make it a challenge for me to topple them and like you said increase NYR. Narva are one of the founding members of the current format of the Estonian Premier League and along with Flora one of the two only teams to have never been relegated from it (according to Wiki) In real life so to see them in division 1 is a shock first time since the formation in 1992. Unlike Flora they’re much smaller, only 1,000 capacity stadium, think they had average attendance of around 120 in the game. They’ve also never won a title. So overall hopefully more of a challenge. I have seen there’s a new feature (new for me) to select to resign at the end of the season. I think it would certainly give the save a bit of a boost as so far I’ve steamrolled the league most seasons. Im also interested to see what the AI would do with an all dominating team with that much wealth in comparison to the rest of the league. As I’m way under wage budget. Think I’m using €15,000pw out of a possible €52,000pw

Overall I’d still like to focus on the development of the Estonian nation/Leagues. Whilst I’ve spearheaded that with Flora by getting Europa Conference League every season and two knockout stages, the other teams have failed to make the groups every time. Even now where 4 qualify (Flora +3) due to our increase neither of the others make a dent in qualifying. Ideally I’d also want to maintain the Estonian only transfer ethos (would be interesting to see how quick Flora move away from that with €5.5m in the bank) Ive created quite a gap between Flora on and off the pitch with the rest off the league. Even though this season we’re underperforming I’m still in the title race. My thoughts currently are this.. Finish the season in December, if I don’t qualify for knockouts, resign and wait for an Estonian Premier League job to come available. If I do qualify I’ll stay until knocked out then resign and wait. I’d still continue this season as normal hoovering up the youth talent etc. Narva JK are now in division 1 and I think they’re an interesting prospect. If they stay down this season I’d likely target them as an option and have a year in division 1, I’m sure they’d want 6 time league winner Mart Poom as their new manager??

Been having a long think this week about what to do at the end of the season. Wondering if I should look to drop down to another Estonian team to try and topple Flora and hope the foundations I’ve laid at Flora can keep them going and challenging domestically and in Europe. Be interested to know some thoughts

Great to see you back Shrew.