Jtomsett11

Interesting to see if that high potential CB amounts to anything - his mental look great but his defensive attributes and pace are going to need to see significant improvement.

May 2038 part 2 Ahead of our match against Atletico Madrid, we had a massive boost in that Barcelona and Sevilla dropped points. Could we do our part? Deportivo 2-3 Atletico Madrid No. We really should have won this game. Arsenijevic was in fine form for us, but we shipped goals very easily as their two man strike force found a lot of space and Balikwisha took advantage to level twice before Fati scored against the run of play. A gutting loss and one I really thought would end our title charge. That's our first choice AML, second choice AMR, both backup AMR/L/Cs and our second choice DMCL out. It's not getting any easier! Next up, Real Sociedad. Deportivo 4-1 Real Sociedad We bounced back in style here. Carrasco smashed home to start the win, but the penalty really, really helped settle nerves. Garner then smashed home after great work from 16 year old Ramirez after Sociedad got one back to worry us, before Mara slotted home as Carrasco's stint on the right wing earned him 2 goals and an assist! Relief! Remember, our last two games are away at Barcelona and Celta Vigo. If we win our next game, Celta Vigo and Sevilla will be out of the race, but Barcelona would still be able to catch us if they win. They face Rayo Vallecano by the way, with our very own Escabros playing for them. Deportivo v Mallorca A win was a must. Fondevila was just superb here. We struggled in the first half and I really thought it wasn't going to happen. Fondevila managed to slot home just after half time before he returned the favour to Arsenijevic who drilled home from the edge of the area. Imaz and Scholl added the gloss to the victory. We've set ourselves up perfectly for the last two games. Right? At the end of the game, I saw the last bit of text mentioning 'Champions'. I quickly checked the scores from around the other grounds. Incredibly, Escabros sealed a victory for Rayo Vallecano, meaning Barcelona cannot catch us! An audacious chip to seal us the title! I haven't yet played the final two games of the season, but this feels like a huge achievement. 2 title wins in four years, but this time we also went to the semi finals of all the competitions we entered, playing a huge number of games and surviving a horrendous run of late season injuries. Champions!

Sevillano May 2031 I like to keep an eye on my loan players, and one who has really caught the eye is Sevillano, who we signed for £8.5 million in the summer. I had a plan to replace Gordon with him this summer and he's looking like he could be our next superstar. There's a lot of development still needed, but he's looking like a very solid player and one I'll be very happy to incorporate next season.

May 2031 first week I decided to play the first week before looking at the other sides and working out the points we're likely to need. Deportivo 4-1 Espanyol When we went 1-0 down, I thought the worst, but Mara equalised with a brilliant volley and Gordon then scored from a brilliant through ball from David who is starting to look like he fits in nicely. Espanyol made it easier by going down to 10 men, and that allowed space for Fondevila to score and then win a penalty, which Mara dispatched. First team debuts for Asin, Martin and Ramirez as we simply don't have the numbers right now. That wasn't made easier by this news. He's out for the season in a month where we have 7 games in the remaining 24 days. Damn it! Deportivo 2-0 Villarreal Thank god for the home games this month! I think without the run of home games and our injuries, we'd be dropping points left right and centre. Instead, Garner's deflected effort broke the deadlock and then David got his second assist in 3 days to set away Agirrezabala to seal the points. We're back top, with games in hand on our two closest rivals. If everybody wins their games to 35 games we'd be on 86, with Sevilla on 78, Celta Vigo 79 and Barcelona 81. These are the run ins. Celta Vigo I think Celta Vigo will struggle to beat Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and us, but that game right at the end could be crucial. They can end on a maximum of 88 points, but I'd expect them to be on 81 or 83 when they face us at the end of the season. Sevilla I think they'll win all 3 of these and finish on 87 points. Barcelona 3 away games that could test them, but I think it's likely that they'll be on 83 points when they face us. Deportivo We will play a scratch team against Arsenal. I think we should win the 3 home games to take us to 89 points. However, if we did that, and lost to Barcelona and Celta Vigo and Barcelona win all of their games, we will lose the title on head-to-head. We need to win the next 3 home games (if Barcelona win all of their next 3) and then take a point again Barcelona or Celta Vigo to win the title.

April 2031 We ended up with just the 7 games this month, but I show May as well to show how tough it's getting. Arsenal, Espanyol and Villarreal is 3 games in 5 days. We've been absolutely decimated with injuries as well, but this run in is turning out to be one of the most enjoyable I've ever played. Barcelona 1-0 Deportivo (Barcelona win on away goals, 2-2 tied) I was fuming after this one. I looked at the rules at half time but couldn't see anything about away goals and was getting ready for extra time. We should have scored at least the goal needed to win this tie, but Carrasco missed a few chances (to be fair, brilliant goal keeping) and we therefore went out. We played the first team as well so to lose this one unexpectedly is frustrating. Those who are eagle eyed will have noticed David made his debut for the first team; he looked a little out of his depth but then again, Barcelona away is a tough introduction. Deportivo 2-0 Real Madrid That's how you do it in the Champions League!! We absolutely bossed this game with our second team, but had nothing to show for it until Oca turned the tie on it's head from a poor 0-0 to a well deserved 2 goal lead. Firstly, he won the ball back in midfield and played a beautiful pass curling past and around the defenders for Carrasco to finally finish, and then he arrived late in the box to smash home from Imaz. Two brilliant moments right at the end of the second half. Rayo Vallecano 0-0 Deportivo Ah yes, the post- Champions League come-down game. At least we didn't lose this one, but we had our defence to thank for it. Remember, this is the first team as well! We should, could, and nearly did lose this. Another injury, just 3 weeks but he's out of some key games. Real Madrid 0-4 Deportivo I can't quite believe this was the result. Again, the defense was supreme; Settineri had the best game of his career for us with some fine saves. At the other end, we were lethal. Arsenijevic drilled home a cut back, we scored two corner headers and then Rubio slotted home as he replaced Fondevila. Fortunately, he only had a dead leg. The Arsenal draw saw a number of fixture changes and biggest among them was the moving of the away game against Barcelona to the penultimate game of the season; we now finish away to Barcelona and then Celta Vigo. That's tough! Valencia 0-3 Deportivo This was tough. Valencia gave us a good game, and I was relieved when Sosa managed to squeeze an effort home at the near post before Carrasco and then a Banjac corner goal gave us the three points. We're riding our luck slightly in these away games at the moment; 6 out of 7 games this month have been away and the league games have been the hardest. Real Betis 0-1 Deportivo Another really, really tough game. Okay, Betis did not test Nikolic too much apart from one brilliant save, but equally they always looked dangerous. Luckily an Imaz smart finish after good work in the box was enough to win the game and give us 7/9 points for the month. Arsenal 4-0 Deportivo Ouch. 3-0 down after 14 minutes with Arsenal having an xG of 0.30 at that point. We were taught a lesson in this game. Arsenal scored brilliant goals and just overpowered us. When we did get forward, our two decent efforts weren't as clinical as them and to be honest that's us out of the Champions League for this season. We've made it to the semi-finals though which is very impressive. The big cost is injuries to two left wingers, while Oca is also injured. Bearing in mind we face Espanyol in two days, our normal second string line up is missing 2 DMCs, our AMC played for the first team and our backup AMC played 89 minutes of this game while our first choice AMC is still injured, and our backup AML and first choice AML is injured leaving just one AML available for both teams. We're going to be very short for the next two games and it's probably going to necessitate a call up for some 16 and 17 year old's from the B team! League table It's so bloody tight at the top, I think I need a separate post to work out the possible points total and run-ins for each team.

March 2031 Youth intake It's an interesting intake in that we have 3 or 4 players of a very good level of potential, and maybe 2 more of first team potential. One of those Aranda we will not sign due to his personality - low self belief. Therefore, I'm only likely to sign the top five, plus Fuente. The attribute analysis backs that mostly, apart from Sola and Izonritei who score quite highly for wingers but when I take a look at their profiles it's for areas like work rate. I'm not sure what Quindimil is yet in our team as we don't really have playmakers. I may train him as an inside forward. He looks really good when you consider he's also accomplished or natural in 4 positions which costs a lot of CA. Fuster is a bit more of a classic inside forward but he can't finish (although he is composed). He's not as impressive as Quindimil. I post De La Feunte because he looks great even if he has limited potential. Apart from his tackling he's pretty well rounded. What a weird striker. He'll suit our pressing forward role to be fair, it's just a really interesting attribute distribution. The more I look, the more I like him though. Does he really have a weakness? Well, he's a righty on the right which isn't great. I think I'll train as an AMC and see what happens.

March 2031 We won 13 matches in a row up until the Bayer Leverkusen game, after which we had a mini wobble, but we seem to have righted the ship with progression in the Champions League and a solid win in La Liga. Lugo 1-4 Deportivo A good start to the month. Carrasco scored from a brilliant cross from Imaz early on and then doubled the lead fortuitously as the ball bounced off him and in. We then conceded as Nikolic was caught off his line, but really Cuellar's finish was delightful. Fortunately, they picked up a red card and that put paid to their brief hopes and an Imaz header and Fondevila driven effort saw us take the three points. Deportivo 3-0 Las Palmas Easy peasy at home. Well, that's what a 3-0 scorelines suggests, but really we struggled for the first 40 minutes to break them down. In the end, Agirrezabala cut in from the left hand side of the box, beat his man and smashed home and then it was a brilliant header from Vidovic and then lovely dinked finish from Imaz to seal the points; Fondevila delivered an excellent cross for the former and superb through ball for the latter having already assisted the first; a brilliant performance from him. The game wasn't without it's negatives, as Basic is out and is unlikely to ever play for us again as I plan on releasing him at the end of his contract. We may try to survive with 3 midfielders for a bit, but we do have David in the B team who could be promoted (as was the plan for next season). Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Deportivo Bayer Leverkusen have a brilliant squad, so our performance here was remarkable. We really should have been more than 1-0 up, but with Carrasco misfiring and Mara still injured, we used Fondevila up front, and while he scored a great finish past the keeper when one-on-one, he also missed two chances I think he should have scored. We paid the penalty literally, as Fondevila (of all people) handballed and Udogie slotted home to keep them in the tie. Granada 1-0 Deportivo The theme of missing chances continued here. 13 wins in a row, then a draw and now a loss. To be fair to Granada, they were actually very impressive and at this point of the month I was really quite worried. Deportivo 3-1 Bayer Leverkusen Wow! An xG of 4.73 might be one of the highest I've ever had in a competitive match, let alone the Champions League last 16. The fact we only scored three suggests we're still lacking that clinical edge. Carrasco scored twice but he missed a hatful of chances, and the late Imaz goal was a huge relief as I knew then we were safe. Deportivo 3-0 Racing Santander We scored 3 lovely goals here. Sosa did really well on the left, but when he cut back onto his unfavoured right, I was not expecting a superb cross for Mara to deftly head home. Fort then drove forward on the right and exchanged the ball with Gordon in a lovely one-two before sending in a pin-point cross to Fondevila who nodded home, before Arsenijevic set Mara free with a lofted ball over the top and he finished superbly. We also missed a host of chances which seems the norm for us this month. League table I hate playing catch up, as when you do drop points you feel like you're throwing it away, as other teams pick up more points simply by playing more games. We're second, but it's all to play for. If we win our games in hand and assume everyone else does, we'd be on 73, Sevilla 68, Barcelona 67 and Celta Vigo 66. We face Barcelona and Celta Vigo (that's our final game of the season) away, so it's a slight advantage to us, but it could all go wrong with our busy schedule ahead of us. April Flipping heck, what a month this is going to be. And what happens if we make it through in the Champions League; we've got 5 games in May so if we went all the way in every competition, we'll play 17 games in two months (I know, big if!). I think we'll keep the first team for the weekends and second team for the week games as it's so tight in the league and I'm doubtful we'll win the Champions League.

February 2031 debuts and contracts Enrique had a poor first half of the season, but he has been really good recently, and the big chance seemed to be me giving him a new contract. I suspect he'll be bought at some point so upping his minimum fee release clause was also good. One debutant of note, for the B team rather than the first team, is Ramirez from the 2030 intake. He has 3 goals in his first 3 games, and I'm really excited about him. He's versatile and apart from his teamwork, he has no obvious flaws. He's taken to La Liga 2 incredibly well and will be getting a lot more game time between now and the end of the season.

February 2031 This might be the best month of this save so far. Our progression in the cup completely threw my team rotation as we ended up with the first team playing at weekends so the second team had to play an in-form Barcelona. Despite that, we win all 7 games and concede just twice. I've adjusted tactics this month, throwing caution to the wind and playing our more offensive tactic with wing backs. It seems to be working! Almeria 0-3 Deportivo We struggled a little to break Almeria down, but the penalty which Carrasco scored gave us a little breathing space and then Gordon played a great through ball over the top and Carrasco finished nicely to seal the 3 points. It was great to see Enrique score as he starts to get over his poor first half of the season. Deportivo 2-0 Las Palmas Mara being injured means we're having to rotate up top, and that definitely blunted us here. Despite that, stand-in left winger Agirrezabala showed his value once again with another goal and then Arsenijevic sealed the victory with a penalty. If Carrasco or Mara had been up front, we'd have hit more. Deportivo 4-0 Celta Vigo A derby in the cup, what's not to like? We were sensational here. Imaz opened the scoring with a goal that reminds me of Salah, cutting in from the right of the box and curling the ball beautifully into the top left hand corner. Sosa pounced on a rebound to send a great cross in for Enrique to score and then Carrasco scored twice, the first a complete accident as he was just in the way of Enrique's shot (delivering again) and then he scored a delightful chip from Garner's lofted through-ball. The rating of the wing-backs here really showing the impact of our shift in tactics with both bombing up and down and getting an assist each. Deportivo 2-1 Barcelona I've only just realised now that this was just the first leg. Still, it was an excellent come back. Rotena gave away the penalty and I thought, "here we go again, conceding a penalty in a big game". However, he then made amends with his first goal for the club from a corner and as the subs made the difference. It was Vidovic who delivered the perfect corner, but he then went one better with a lovely drilled finish from a tight angle as Arsenijevic's through-ball started to drift wider and wider of the six yard box and with two defenders closing in. A beautiful way to take an advantage into the second leg. Deportivo 2-0 Real Madrid A few games ago, Real Madrid lost unexpectedly, and it was our man on loan, Escarbros, who did the damage. Therefore, we came here with Madrid slightly off the pace. A win would give us a huge advantage. We played well in the first half, but it was in the second half as I brought on 5 substitutes at once, that we really started to turn the screw. I thought we weren't going to do it, but we flooded forward on the counter on 79 minutes and Agirrezabala bundled home after a defender blocked a shot/ attempted pass. Two minutes later, another sweeping move saw Fondevila slot home - I genuinely jumped up off the sofa at that goal! A stunning result! Athletic 1-2 Deportivo This message came up just before this game, and I thought it would curse us. For large parts of this game, we were terrible, and it was only really the efforts of one man that earned us the victory. We went behind as Williams scored a header at point-blank range from a knock-on at a corner and it was only a brilliant free kick from Vidovic that saw us level at half time. I made a big error in praising the group and they reacted really badly; morale was low for the rest of the game. Despite that, one man wasn't bothered. Carrasco had a big slice of fortune in that he played a poor through-ball, but it bounced off the defender and he was able to play in Vidovic who made no mistake to win us the game. Arsenijevic is out for a bit, but Agirrezabala is chomping at the bit for more involvement so this isn't a huge problem! Deportivo 4-0 Sevilla Sevilla were top before this game. Our second team annihilated them. Gordon went on a brilliant run and when tackled, he checked back and set Agirrezabala free. He had a lot to do, but continued and then fired a superb effort in across the keeper from just inside the area. Mara then nodded in after Scholl had had a headed effort saved from a corner; not to be denied, he scored from another corner late on and in between Seiwald scored a classy goal after good work from Koliada to drag defenders with him to the byline before he passed to Garner who set up Seiwald. League table Look at that! What a month! Madrid are at least 9 points behind, Barcelona at least 5 and Sevilla at least 3, with potential for 6 if we win our game in hand. 11 games won in a row in all competitions. Our fans are still not completely happy . March 2031 It's Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, which I thought sounded an easy fixture, but they have quite a few world class players. With that in mind and the relative quality of our opposite in the league, it may be that after the Lugo game the second team play weekends.

Thanks @jonathanclaire, really appreciate the kind words! It was such an epic journey for me and one of the most enjoyable saves I've ever done. I'll load it up next time I report on my current save (I less ambitious Deportivo save as game time and posting time seems to get squished every year - that's teaching and having kids for you!!). From what I remember, Geddes had a fine run at Rangers. I think the lack of Jersey born lads was one of the reasons I fell out of love with the save as it lost its uniqueness for me.

January 2031 transfer window and contracts I very rarely enter the market in January for first team players unless we're doing really badly or I lose a player. We did have a lot of interest in players such as Bella-Kotchap, but no bids emerged. Despite this, with his £34.5 million release clause representing pretty good value, I'm sure he'll be off at some point. He wants quite a lot of money to renew and I'm not sure whether cashing in might not be the best option in the summer. With that in mind, I made a move for the end of the season. He'll be 31 when he joins, but boy is Van Hecke a decent defender. He's miles ahead of our next best defender in terms of his technicals, and I can see us getting two good years out of him. For a free transfer, that's great. Bella-kotchap is 29 now, so if interest continues we now have a really good signing coming in to help with this role. We did receive a number of interesting offers for players. Now, there's a lot of money being offered here, but all three players are doing well for the B team, are tied to decent contracts and have 4 star potential. Whether they all make it or not is another thing, but we have other B team players who I think I'd rather sell. Contracts There's quite a few contracts I need to take a look at, but two first team players I wanted on better minimum fee release clauses were Koliada and Fort. Fort is earning £13k more a week but his minimum fee goes up from £28 million and his value is now £33-£36 million. Koliada signs for 5 years and also has a very high minimum fee release clause. I think this lad is going to be world class, but I might be wrong. Finally, I also cashed in on and old transfer clause. Vallejo is out of contract in the summer and isn't getting game time, so this makes sense. Not sure why the Baggies agreed to it to be honest!

January 2031 We started the month really poorly and grew throughout the month, although there were a lot of second half goals required for the 4 wins. Atletico Madrid 1-1 Deportivo We went behind early on, but grew into the game and Seiwald scored a wonderful drilled effort in the second half from the edge of the box. We then had multiple chance to score with Carrasco missing an absolute sitter and then Mara doing the same after his disallowed goal. A draw here is really a good result, but it's always frustrating not to win when you feel you should. Deportivo 1-2 Real Madrid The second team played here and to be honest they were outplayed for large parts of the game. We won this competition last year, but this year I want to focus on the league, then Champions League and then the Copa del Rey, so I wasn't too upset by the defeat. Laporte scored a 25 yard strike and then Araujo lobbed Settineri after a brilliant move and although the penalty got us back in the game, we couldn't do any more. Mallorca 2-2 Deportivo This result really sucks. We started well enough, Vidovic finishing after a great through ball from Seiwald, before Carrasco finished a similar chance. He then missed a penalty, and from the resulting play Mallorca got back in it and then scored late on with a sucker punch Padilla assist. We should have won 4-0 minimum and instead went away with just a point. This game might prove seriously costly come the end of the season. Ponferradina 0-3 Deportivo Finally a win, but boy did we work hard for it. Agirrezabala was the one who made the difference, coming on after a very drab and poor first half devoid of creativity on our part. He set up Carrasco to finally open the scoring, scored a brilliant 20 yard drilled finish himself and then set up Scholl from a corner. We're through to the 4th round! Inter 0-1 Deportivo Back to the Champions League and a really tough game. Garner scored from 25 yards after being set up by Seiwald and from then on we defended resiliently and largely kept Inter at bay. This is a key result as we needed this win if we were to stand a chance of finishing in the top 8. Deportivo 3-0 Getafe We really struggled to get going here and I had to adjust the tactics quite a bit to try and overcome a sluggish start again lacking any creativity. Again, Agirrezabala coming on helped hugely; he came on after 50 minutes and while he didn't set up the first, he just moved the ball about more quickly and created things, making space for Oca to pick out Gordon for the first goal, then assisting the second from a corner and working hard to help Gordon win the ball back for his second of the game. Mara was injured in this game so Carrasco will probably play the next few games. Deportivo 2-0 Lazio It feels like we're not able to play well for 90 minutes this month. The first half wasn't great, so I demanded more at half time and Imaz turned it on to provide for Enrique to score (a rarity this season) before he scored himself with a lovely bent finish around the keeper as he cut in on a crowded box. Champions League table This is the table that looks good. This is the one not looking as rosy as last month. February I think the first team, having played against Lazio to ensure our qualification without the play-offs, will rest against Almeria and perhaps against Las Palmas too so they can then play the next three games in a row. The last game of the month will be no walk in the park either! 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th in one month. This will really dictate where our season goes; if we end February within 3 points of top spot we will be well in with a chance I feel.

December 2030 youth intake preview This looks really positive, especially when you consider we have much better players at the club now. We don't use wide midfielders, but can always adjust position, and with two handy wingers as well we maybe have 4 decent potential players coming through.

December 2030 performance analysis Goalkeepers Nikolic is overperforming his expected goals conceded, preventing 0.16 goals a game, while Settineri is currently letting in too many goals. We expect that though, as Nikolic is the more senior goalkeeper and experience seems to count for something in goal. Nikolic has become a really reliable, top quality keeper. I've stopped using the keepers for goals at the moment. Outfield players Central defenders I find the centre back data hard to fathom sometimes. Why is Scholl so low in his tackling success for example? Or Banjac so poor at winning headers? I don't notice these things in-game highlights. All 4 CBs have a positive average rating which is nice. It's a shame that Rotena is nearly at the peak of his development as I was hoping he'd displace Banjac. Bella-Kotchap remains our best defender arguably statistically and ability wise; he's on a lot of money and entering his 30th year and with a £35 million release clause I'm convinced someone will activate it in the window. Full backs Edu and Koliada stepped up to second choice RB and LB respectively, and it's interesting to see how they stack up to Fort and Sosa. Edu seems to win the ball back less than Fort, but beyond that he's doing just as well, and actually creating very similar numbers of chances. Koliada seems slightly less effective than Sosa (who has had a very good season) and I think annoyingly the fact he's tiny (3 for jumping) really knocks his average rating. His dribbles are up higher than anyone else in the squad though, so he's a very attacking full back and with his potential, I'm pleased with the start he's made; remember, Edu had played quite a bit of first team football last year so it's a bigger step up for Koliada. DMs Garner has had the best season, with 6 assists and the most progressive passes, 3 goals as well as a decent pressing game, but I've also been pleased with last season's signing Seiwald who finally has some assists with 3 and the highest open play key passes. Basic keeps banging in the goals and doing a decent job, much better than early on in the season, while Oca's numbers don't look particularly impressive but I do like his contributions to our game when he plays. Attacking mids Agirrezabala, Arsenijevic and Enrique are the AMCs we've used this season, and arguably our starter Enrique has significantly underperformed. He's been unlucky that he hasn't recorded more assists, but Agirrezabala is producing many more assists and goals and Arsenijevic is also contributing more goals. Inside forwards Imaz and Vidovic have had a really big impact so far despite the latter's slow start. They have the highest average ratings, and 9 and 8 goal contributions respectively. Interestingly, from less minutes, Gordon also has 8 goal contributions while Fondevila has 7 assists which puts him top of the assists. Rubio has had a bit part role with just 1 start, but 3 goals is a decent contribution relative to his time. No problem from our inside forwards! Strikers There's also no problem with our strike force. Carrasco's xG looks higher, but he has taken a number of penalties and missed at least a couple from memory, so his 15 goals is pretty decent from 13 starts (18 total appearances). Actually that's excellent isn't it, I think Haaland in real life has made me think again what 'decent' is and I'm being harsh on him. Mara has 12 goals in less minutes, but 4 of those did arrive in one game which always helps. It's so annoying he's unhappy and has been for over a season due to broken promises as I'll probably need to sell him at the end of the year despite him being an excellent backup.

December 2030 I have thoroughly enjoyed this game month! 18 goals scored in 5 games; we are absolutely purring. Dropping points at home to Porto isn't the best result, but we probably were always going to drop something somewhere with 5 games in 15 days. Real Sociedad 1-4 Deportivo Real Sociedad are no mugs so to beat them 4-1 at their own place is excellent. The manner of the win was also superb. Carrasco scored twice in quick succession as we responded superbly to going behind, but it was Vidovic who stole the show with a superb finish from another Seiwald assist having already set up Carrasco. He then set up Arsenijevic with a mazy run and cross and we saw out the rest of the game. Deportivo 7-3 Real Betis We played the B team here and boy did they deliver. Mara got 4 goals, Agirrezabala got 2 assists and a goal and Gordon also scored and assisted as we once again responded like a disturbed hornets net to going behind. Note, first year top youth prospect Yusuf scored against us; he's on loan to Betis and scored a beautiful individual goal. Normally, conceding 3 goals isn't something I'm pleased about, but when you score 7 you can't complain! Villarreal 1-3 Deportivo We've picked up a few more injuries, and we're very light at CB now. The winter break should sort us out though! Enrique still wasn't fit, so Agirrezabala started again and he scored (another brilliant Vidovic assist) and then set up Garner who responded (again immediately) when Villarreal equalised. This is another great result as I didn't really expect to beat both Sociedad and Villarreal away. Carrasco sealed the deal. Deportivo 2-2 Porto The only blip in the month; another Champions League dropping of points when we probably deserved all 3. They scored from a corner and a screamer, so sometimes these things happen, especially when your defenders are running on empty. That point sees us see end the year in a good position in the Champions League. We probably need at least 1 win from our final two games (away at Inter and home against Lazio) for direct qualification. Deportivo 2-0 Celta Vigo Another injury at CB saw us start Rotena and Fort in an previously - unused centre back combination. This was probably our toughest game of the month. Vidovic opened the scoring, continuing his fine recent form, but then we toiled and it was only in stoppage time that we sealed it with a brilliant Gordon finish. League table We've gone top before the end of the year. Our superb month and a Barcelona loss sees us just 1 point clear, but it's really tight, with 4 points separating the top four. January There's a minimum of 7 games here, but if we win the Supercopa Semi and the Copa del Rey third round I think we could end up playing 9 games. I think the second team play the games in the week and first team at the weekend. Loan player insight Escabros is on loan to Rayo Vallecano and until recently he's been pretty poor. However, 7 goals in three games has taken my attention. He's probably a bit below the standard required up front, but I'll keep an eye on his development for the rest of the season.

November 2030 Another month with 1 loss, but this time I feel a lot happier with the 4 wins and overall it's a quality month. Deportivo 5-0 Lugo We did win 5-0, but we struggled to break down Lugo and the first two goals were screamers rather than intricate moves. It was good to see Vidovic and Seiwald making contributions, the former as it was his first goal and best performance for us so far, and the latter because he didn't have a single goal or assist when signing for us last year! Tottenham 1-2 Deportivo That's two games where we've ridden our luck in the Champions League now and two wins pulled off against Benfica and Spurs. This time, Mara scored superbly early on after nicking the ball off a defender and then Scholl headed in a corner. Even though Spurs got one back they couldn't find an equaliser. Espanyol 1-2 Deportivo To say we lacked control in this game would be an understatement. We owe the win to Vidovic, who scored from the edge of the box early on and then was instrumental in getting the ball into the box for a pre-assist for our second. Espanyol grew in confidence and should have scored before they did, but we did well to hold on. We have picked up a couple of injuries. It could be worse as we do have cover at AMC and Edu is getting more time at RB. It did get worse a few days later. We are definitely light at CB, but this does arrive at a good time as I've had complaints over playing time. I've been able to change the agreed time for both Bella-Kotchap and Sosa but I need to play them more in the meantime, so Bella-Kotchap will play every game while Rotena is out. Deportivo 1-0 Rayo Vallecano Incredibly, this game only finished 1-0. We missed a penalty and a hat-full of chances, but Carrasco did score to give us another three points. Deportivo 1-2 Bayern I played the reserves as we'd won the first 4 games of the season and actually we deserved to win here and were just unlucky. This probably makes up for our lucky wins against Benfica and Tottenham. League table Our three wins on the bounce and some dropped points from our rivals sees us up to second place. A great position to be in with 4 games to go this calendar year. Some tough games to play but we'll see how we perform! Deportivo Fabril We started off La Liga 2 on fire, but we went on a woeful run that saw us drop right down the league. Fortunately, we've finally won after 7 games without a win leaving us in 13th.

So close now! Fingers crossed for the last two games as it's been quite the effort to get Union to this stage! It's a more enjoyable read I think when success isn't instant though!

October 2030 Most months where you win 5 out of 6 games should feel really successful, but we shouldn't be losing to Racing de Santander. Well, at least I feel that we shouldn't, especially as it was our well rested first team playing. I've got it into my head that we may drop points to the top 3 (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla) but beyond that we should be winning every game. Perhaps that's too much to expect. We're actually not playing brilliantly at all, so losing wasn't a huge surprise. The new players, Vidovic in particular, and some of our backup players, Basic for example (despite contributing goals) have been looking rusty and giving the ball away quite a bit and it's not helping us at all. Benfica 1-2 Deportivo This was completely smash and grab. We never looked like we'd get back in the game, but Garner headed home from a cross and then Carrasco snuck in just before the keeper from a through ball to seal all three points. Probably a huge result as with our home games we should now qualify for the play-offs at the very least, and stand a decent chance of the top 8 places. Deportivo 3-0 Granada We played much better here with Imaz showing what he's capable of. Despite missing a penalty (one of two we missed in this match), he completed a hat-trick with a header, screamer and brilliant dinked finish past the keeper. He also scored another offside goal as well! Las Palmas 0-1 Deportivo Imaz sealed us the second lot of three points in a row with a lovely finish through the keeper's legs from Garner's clever through ball, but to be honest this one was tough and we never felt completely in control. We gave the ball away a lot; it doesn't feel like our full backs and our wingers are on the same page yet so the sooner that happens the better. Bodo/Glimt 0-4 Deportivo An easy win with a brilliant free kick from Basic being the highlight of the game. He's looking quite slow and off the pace when I bring him on as a sub (which is worrying as Padilla who I let leave in the summer excelled in this sub-role) but when he starts he plays well and his free kicks added a good number of goals last season. Arsenijevic had 2 goals and an assist here; he's a superb second choice AMC. Racing de Santander 2-1 Deportivo Nikolic performed pretty poorly in this game, as it was his poor decision to come to collect a corner (he missed the ball) that left Bravo an open net to finish into. While Carrasco quickly equalised, conceding had thrown us and we just didn't quite look like we were going to win. To make matters worse, Tomeo finished with pace and accuracy from outside the area, but again I feel Nikolic should have done better with his positioning. A loss here feels hard to take. We had decent chances; we just didn't take them. Deportivo 3-1 Valencia I was really worried after the Racing game that we'd drop points again with the second team, but they did me proud here. Basic scored twice, one free kick which settled our nerves and then a deflected shot which essentially sealed the game. That third came after Gordon had scored a spectacular effort from an Oca lay-off. We did concede, which was annoying, but just taking the three points feels good enough after a loss. With a game in hand on Athletic, at the moment we look the 4th best side in the country. Barcelona drew 3 games in a row which is why the defeat to Racing feels so irritating; win that and we're right up there. November There's nothing in November in La Liga that should cause us too much concern, but I said that last month. 9 points from 9 has to be the target. I'll probably play the second team against Tottenham, but I may rotate - as long as we beat Espanyol - and play the first team against Bayern because we may need a point or a win from that game. I can make that decision after the international break. Contract renewal I don't normally put in the contract renewals of B team players, but David's had to be renewed due to strong interest from Spurs and Napoli and a release clause of just £8.5 million. He has a long way to go, I definitely fancy him to play in our first team in the future (although his potential dropped as soon as the new contract landed). Takeover talk It all appears to be over now! I'm sure it'll appear again in the near future if it's been squashed now.

October 2030 takeover news This came up in the news and I don't really remember any news about it previously. This is definitely a recent development but I've no idea when it happened! Looks like we'll be sold, but I have no further details currently.

September 2030 We may have only won 50% of our games so far this year, but the three we haven't won were away at Madrid, Sevilla (both draws which I think are excellent results) and home to Barcelona (the only bad result as we lost this). Real Madrid 1-1 Deportivo I played this quickly having loaded up my laptop to play 1 game and then shut the laptop again. This seems to be causing my laptop to do something that then corrupts the file as I've had this problem twice recently (never before) having played one game quickly (usually my daughter wakes up from a nap!). On play through original, we drew 1-1 despite being down to 10 men for most of the game. Imaz also scored an incredible individual effort, dribbling from his own half to score. Luckily the backup save was after the previous game, so we lost just the one game. Usually when I replay a lost game, I like the result to be the same as I feel cheated otherwise, either positively or negatively. In this case, the replayed games went: win, win, win, loss, loss, win, loss and I nearly gave up, but eventually I did get another draw. No wonder goal for Imaz though Deportivo 3-0 Kobenhavn This game looks a stroll, but we really struggled in the first half and it took two subs and a revitalised Gordon to start off the goal scoring. He set up Arsenijevic to put us ahead and shortly after he played through Agirrezabala to finish smartly before Scholl nodded a corner down to the lurking Carrasco to seal the 3 points to start the Champions League campaign off nicely. This was a must win if we want to qualify (we do) so I was quite relieved. We did lose Vidovic late on, which means Rubio and Agirrezabala will have more opportunities; we're well covered up top. Deportivo 3-0 Athletic Club A very routine and comfortable win which saw Carrasco bag all three goals. The first involved Bella-Kotchap playing a superb ball over the top and the second involved Carrasco nicking the ball off the keeper, before he scored a tap in at the far post after Gordon crossed the ball over the two centre backs. Sevilla 2-2 Deportivo This felt frustrating at the time due to the xG, but when I look back and subtract the penalty, it's probably a very fair reflection of an even game. I went for the rotated team despite the importance of the game, so when we consider that the team did really well. However, when Fondevila set up Gordon to score a superb 25 yard piledriver, I really thought we'd hold on to our 2-1 half time lead. It wasn't to happen, and a draw away to Sevilla isn't a bad result. 6th, but we've only lost points to the top three and two of those games were away. October 4 very winnable league games and one tough Champions League game and one very winnable one. The first team will play the weekend games.

Cunningham looks a perfect striker until you see his pace - can't see him working as your central striker? Shame as the rest of his attributes look great! BTW for what it's worth, the birth places definitely seems like a bug, but is it one caused by the edited database rather than the game itself? I.e. these clubs are so low the game has some default setting for birth of newgens?

August 2030 Deportivo Fabril After much loaning and trimming, the B team looks like this. I wanted Crespo gone for some money, but he'll play out his last season rotating in when others are unfit, as will Lavin. We've started the season pretty well (2 wins and 1 loss), and Oliveira has started really well. Alende has also picked up two assists; I'm really hoping both can develop significantly this season.

August 2030 Frustratingly we lost our progress after a 2-0 win over Almeria, so had to replay and won 3-0. However, as you can see, the big game of the month was a frustrating one for us as we went down at home to Barcelona. Deportivo 3-0 Almeria In the original game, Oca scored after Scholl scored from a set-piece, so it was nice to see our young DM scoring the opener here, arriving late in the box to slot home from Fondevila. Then it was all about Mara who continued on from a great season with 2 goals, as assist from young RB Edu also welcome. Getafe 0-3 Deportivo Another convincing win. This time it was Carrasco who did the damage, his first after a parry from the keeper; I'm not sure he knew anything about it! The second followed a lovely through ball from Imaz, who already looks a decent signing. His second assist, another through ball for Mara to grab his 3rd of the season. All good so far! Deportivo 0-2 Barcelona I don't know if it's in my head, but we concede a lot of penalties in the big games. The penalty here after a shove from Seiwald put Barcelona in front, and then Costa performed brilliantly in goal for them to keep us out. Lamia sealed the three points for Barcelona in what is a huge disappointment for us. We played well which I told the boys, but they didn't agree with me; hopefully that doesn't affect morale too much as our next game is away to Real Madrid! September It's too early for the table as most teams didn't play their third game until September 1st. We've got a huge month in the league with two tough away games. We could easily be stuck on 9 points from 6 games if we're not careful (assuming we beat Athletic Club which is not guaranteed). Our Champions league group looks tough. Out of our home games, it's only really Kobenhavn and Lazio that are ones you'd put down as wins. Bodo Glimt should be 3 points but again it's tough away games. I'd be happy securing the 10-11 points needed for the play-offs this season, especially as we usually play our second team in the Champions League. Transfers and finances We sold a couple more players. Ludewig has played a vital role in our transformation, but Edu is ready to take over now and this brings in £1million for Fabril plus takes his £26k a week wages off the bill. Colley maybe played one or two first team games ever, but I show you him as he's worth £6 million at Benfica so maybe that 25% transfer clause will come in handy one day. He was down to the last year of his deal so I just wanted to get him gone! We've got a long way to go before we're really up there. We do have a new stadium in the pipeline which is probably going to be needed if we're to generate income enough for our wage allowance to increase to allow us to compete in the long term. With that in mind, our last three years of 1st, 3rd and 2nd are brilliant. The increased TV money has allowed for record spending this year so it is all looking positive and the club continues to grow.

Is it just my imagination or have you brought through quite a few AMCs recently of decent quality? Was that the previous HOYD preferred formation as I'm aware you've recently lost the unambitious one? Thinking about McGrandles in relation to your formation he does seem something of a waste; I'm using a 4231 currently and he'd fit right in!

Mcgrandles looks really good! Lots of 9's too!