Virtual Male

Season 14 2037/38 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Premier League (Past Positions) - Another strong start to the season saw us sitting in the top 6 for a few weeks before there was a bit of a reality check but we came back into some form and sat between 9th-14th for the rest of the season. A couple of results at the back end of he season saw us close the season in a comfortable 9th position. The Emirates FA Cup - Another year of nothing happening in either cup competition, exiting both at the earliest opportunity. Carabao Cup - A really disappointing result against a lower league opponent, not overly bothered at this point though. Squad The starting squad has developed well over the season with some of the players even being rated as Premier League quality players by my staff! They should carry on the same path next season so I'm hopeful that will lead to another quite comfortable season next year too. Robert Jones - The star of my team and currently refusing to renew his contract so I've got a big decision to make over the summer. Keep Jones for another year and face the possibility of losing him for nothing in a year or look to cash in on him and take what I would expect to be a fairly sizable transfer fee even with him not having long left on his contract. Alun Duckett - A tweak to the formation left Duckett playing as a pressing forward this season and he seemed to be a big fan of this change! Another 13 league goals this season but he was much more involved in the overall build-up play and his 7.10 average rating reflected this. Youth Intake (Preview) An incredible youth intake preview lead to what is looking like a very good intake with 6 4.5*+ potential players coming into the club, some pretty good personalities in the higher potential players too so I'm hoping they'll be able to get up towards that potential ability. Lee Williams is one of the stand out players both in terms of ability and also because he's Gibraltarian, a new flag is always welcome! Josh Gruffydd - Looks like he'll be the pick of the bunch in the coming years though, fairly solid attributes for a 15 year old and a model citizen too!! I think he might be the first to come through at the club since I started the save. He's going to spend a few years in the youth teams to develop into hopefully a player that can be an important part of both the Merthyr and Welsh national teams. Transfers & Finance - Not much on the transfer front again this year, just a few loans out that didn't really do much and a couple leaving at the end of their contracts. £150m in the bank now and the board aren't allowing me the opportunity to upgrade anything at the moment so it's just going to sit there for the foreseeable future I think. Other - We had 2 players in the NxTGN 50 this year so that proves we're on the up in terms of youth development I suppose. I also managed to convince the board to allow a Stadium Expansion bringing the capacity up to nearly 8,000 seats... Still nowhere near what we need though. We'll be playing in the Millennium stadium in Cardiff while the work is being carried out..

@XaW you're flying through the divisions!! I'm always jealous of the variety of nationalities you get in your intakes, are you doing anything special or is it just a case of crossed fingers?

Season 13 2036/37 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities Competitions Premier League (Past Positions) - It's a bit difficult at the top isn't it! We got off to a great start to the season winning 4 of the first 5 games and I foolishly thought what's all the fuss about? I then got 6 points between the beginning of November and the middle of March, A run that included some less than motivating results like a 7-0 loss to Newcastle and 10-1 to Chelsea. A bit of an easier run in saw the team pick up a few much needed wins to drag us out of the relegation zone and into 15th place at the end of the season. Honestly, I don't really think we deserve it but I won't say no to another season in the Premier League, I need to sort the defence out though, we conceded 50 more than the team that conceded the 2nd most goals! Still, at least the 116 scored against us wasn't a league record. The Emirates FA Cup - Another 1 game FA Cup run, I didn't pay it any attention. Carabao Cup - Another short one, I played a heavily rotated team to keep my better players fresh for the league. Squad - A lot of player development again this season given the higher level of competition, we're still well out of our depth and I think we only have 1 player that is actually the right quality for the league. Something must be working though for us to stay up, hopefully the development can continue and next year will be slightly easier. Robert Jones is our stand out player, clearly has more ability than anyone else on the team and is refusing to even enter contract negotiations, so not ideal! He had a solid year with 17 G/A in 34 league games, he's got 2 years left on his £300p/w deal so I'm hopeful we can get him to talk with us this season but if not I'll have some thinking to do nest summer. Youth Intake (Preview) A fairly promising preview followed by what looks like a pretty good intake, A couple of much needed fullbacks and a DM that has something about him and all good personalities too! I think there are 3/4 players in this years intake that will find themselves in the first team in a few years and will likely stay there for a long time to come. Lamine Mendes (2037YP9) has already been improving massively and has been called up to the Senegal U18's over the summer so that's really promising. Ben Davies is probably the pick of the bunch though, one of the much needed full backs and not far from getting into the rotation of the first team as a right back, I think I'll let him play a season with the youth groups before he moves into the senior team. That could all go out of the window though, we'll see. Transfers & Finance - Not much to talk about with transfers, a few out on loan to either try to develop them a little or just so they stop complaining about not getting game time. The bank balance is looking really healthy now thanks to the massive Premier League TV deal so just over £80m in there now, It shouldn't be a concern from here on out unless the board decide to so something ridiculous. Other - On the back of out newly found riches I got the board to agree to a few things, We'll be a level 1 academy soon which while I'm not really sure what it actually does in game I'm sure it's a good thing. We also upgraded our training facilities at the start of the season before some technological advancements meant we had to do it all over again at the end of the season. They're also expanding the stadium by a little over 3000 capacity but only 750 of that will be seated, every little helps though. Something that I have noticed this season that doesn't make sense to me is the board have been putting pressure on me because they're disappointed I'm apparently not using the clubs youth system to develop players.... I'm not sure they've been paying attention for the last decade plus of the clubs existence!! Is this something anyone else has been experiencing? Or are my board just talking nonsense?

I've been lurking again for the last week or so and getting caught up on what's been going on since I burnt out of my save a few months back. Some massive completions and @XaW deciding the challenge isn't hard enough for him in its standard form! I'm getting back into my Merthyr Town save in their first Premier League season. I'm just hoping to not get embarrassed every weekend, This Newcastle game is definitely one to forget.

If you're not a fan of keeping clean sheets then give it a whirl. I assume it's something to do with the central attacking mid and one of the strikers being offset, I could well be talking nonsense though.

@Brentmeister I don't think it's anything special... Just a pretty standard 4-2-3-1 to start but then I sold my only competent right wing so moved to a kind of wonky 4-2-2-2. No special player roles or instructions either. If you can see a reason it's working that I've missed that's be good.

Season 12 2035/36 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities So, I'm going to start this update with something I'd usually put at the end but if you guys are anything like me I'd end up just glossing over a paragraph of text at the end of a post without much reading actually taking place. I'm finding this save quite hard to stay invested in at the moment and I feel silly for even saying that because it's for completely the opposite reasons people usually drift away from these saves, I'm struggling because there hasn't been any real challenge since my relegation from the VNL. Since then I've been promoted every year all the way into the Premier League now and it just doesn't feel right but I can't sandbag can I? I've a feeling that the shape and tactic I've been developing over the last 4/5 seasons is breaking the match engine in some way and players are vastly outperforming their abilities, I mean Frankie Thomas shouldn't be anywhere near a game in the Championship unless he's paid for a ticket but here he is with a fairly respectable average rating from 14 games this year . He's a VNN player on a good day right? Anyway the point of all of this is just to say that this might be the last update for a little while until I'm feeling this save again.... I just miss the pain I think Competitions Sky Bet Championship (Past Positions) - I don't understand what's happening anymore, 2nd place in our first season in the Championship means five successive promotions now. 78 points only just scrapes the play-offs in almost every season in this save until this year but here we are heading off into the Premier League, I really don't know how this has come to be. The Emirates FA Cup - 90 minutes of the Fa Cup this year, 4-1 loss to Newcastle. Carabao Cup - Continued to not care about the Carabao Cup in the slightest exiting in the group stage again. Squad We're very top heavy now, we've got a Premier League quality attack and a defence that's League 2 on a good day. Luckily there's some potential at the back coming through but it's felt like that's been the case for a number of seasons now and I'm still playing the same guys because of a lack of development. Robert Jones became our first official Wonderkid this year and made his Wales debut! He's got a couple of years left on his contract but I doubt I'll get to keep him until the end of it and will probably be forced into a sale before then, Sam Haggett had another solid season up top bagging himself 17 league goals on our way to automatic promotion. I'm hoping he can manage to hit double figures next season, we'll need it if we have any hope of survival. Youth Intake (Preview) - Probably one of the best previews we've had in a few years and it left me a little disappointed when the youth intake came around. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad intake, it isn't. Just I got my hopes up and wanted more. Richard Lloyd is apparently the main man from this years intake, he's coming through in a position that I need some more players in due to a sale so he'll be in and around the first team at some point in the near future. I'm much more interested in Lim Yong-Jae though, a big Korean center back who's got a little bit of potential is everything I could have asked for really, he's going to be training with the first team with the hope that he can make his mark before too long. Transfers & Finances - A couple of big sales this year. Llion Davies kicked up a massive fuss in the new year and it was spilling over to the rest of the team so a deal with Portsmouth worth up to £10m saw him heading to the south coast. Mike Cox-Davies was much less planned out but LAFC threw £18.5m upfront with another £1.5m in clauses that will be met and I really couldn't turn that money down. All of that left the finances in a good place with about £7m in the bank but with the Premier League money coming in next season we should be pretty set from now on unless something goes horribly wrong. Other - The board we're very co-operative this year again allowing the training facilities to be upgraded twice and the youth facilities to be upgraded twice too! We moved up a youth category too, we're category 2 now. I got my final coaching badge too. The stadium needed some love with the promotion so we're getting undersoil heating fitted and a few thousand seats put in. Bingo Card - A handful of things got marked off this season so we're up to 29/100.

Who needs all that Hollywood money anyway?

Season 11 2034/35 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Sky Bet League One (Past Positions) - I was hoping for a largely forgettable season and for the first half of the season that was looking likely as we bounced around between 10th-18th, A serious injury to my only competent right winger in early December meant some tactical changes and we started playing a wonky 4-2-2-2 that I really didn't like the look of but it seemed to work as we climbed up the table and into the play-off spots. In what could possibly be the most entertaining play-off games in history we managed to beat Luton 9-4 over two legs before heading to Wembley to face Preston, that game was a goal fest too ending 5-3 in our favour! So it's the Championship next season, I don't think that the team has the quality to survive but I've thought that the last few seasons too and look how that's gone. The Emirates FA Cup - A lucky run in the FA Cup saw us getting drawn against lower league opponents all the way to the 5th round where we faced eventual Premier League champions Tottenham Hotspur who made light work of us. Carabao Cup - Out early against Wolves EFL Trophy - Really disappointed with this, we should have been able to get out of the group at least but in the end didn't pick up a single point. Squad The team is looking okay, I guess. A little light in places but most positions have someone coming through that has a fair amount of potential, could have really done with another season in League 1 but I can't really complain about getting promoted can I. Alun Duckett was one of the main reasons that we did as well as we did this year, he ended the season as the leagues top scorer and I'm hoping that he'll be able to score enough to keep us up next season. We scored a lot of goals as a team this season and broke the leagues scoring record by a distance this year and we needed to since we conceded the 2nd most goals too. Ryan Astley League One Player of the Season! I know I talk about him every season and even though he doesn't actually look that good he just keep preforming well, 36G/A in 39 league games leaves him within touching distance of hitting 400 league appearances and 200 league goals for the club, further cementing himself as a club legend. Youth Intake (Preview) - what looked to be a decent preview ended up being a somewhat underwhelming intake, maybe I've just been spoilt in the last few years though. I think a number of these guys could go on to become squad depth players but it doesn't look like anyone has the potential to play a huge part in taking the club forwards. Jordan Evans looks to be the pick of the bunch, not a great personality but fairly well rounded so hopefully he'll be able to develop well with a little mentoring. Transfers & Finances - Sam Jones (2029YP1) became the clubs biggest sale when the chairman made a decision for me, it ended up being a good deal for us though and all of the optional fees were quicky met meaning the full £10.5m was received. The other out was David Gregory (2033YP2) who left for Brighton for £2m and 50% of future profits, this was a sale I'd have really rather didn't happen but when 16 Premier League teams are bidding on a player from League 1 there's not much you can do apart from take the money. I'm hoping that since he's gone to a lower mid-table team he'll be moving on again sooner rather than later and with a current value of £32-£40m we're in for quite a payday. The finances are looking fairly healthy now, I don't expect that to remain like that though since facility upgrades are starting to get more expensive now and the wage bill is inflating as we go through the leagues. Other - We put the transfer income to good use and upgraded both the youth(1, 2) and training (1, 2) facilities twice! The board also agreed to send me off for my next coaching badge, only 1 more to go! Bingo Card - I think I got another 5 marked off this season, mainly due to the sale of Sam Jones topping £10m. 23/100.

The January window is going to be eventful.

@XaW Solid first season and a good intake too! Very jealous of the variety of nationalities you've got coming through though, pretty much exclusively Welsh at Merthyr.

Season 10 2033/34 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Sky Bet League Two (Past Positions) - The pre-season preview had us in 9th so I knew we could do something this season but I wasn't expecting a 2nd place finish and a 3rd consecutive promotion! We spend the full season in the play-off spots and a good run towards the end of the season saw us climb into the top 3 and secure automatic promotion with a game to spare, League 1 here we come. The Emirates FA Cup - A mega run in the FA Cup this year going all the way to the 5th round before getting knocked out by Wolves. We even managed to get the better of Premier League Aston Villa in the 4th round. Carabao Cup - Out in the first round. EFL Trophy - Didn't get past the groups, only getting 1 win in the 3 games. Squad Everyone played really well this season with the exception of Frankie Thomas (2025YP8) who's cover for the fullbacks and well out of his depth at this level, but he's a team leader so he's just going to hang around for a while I think. Our defence is starting to lack quality a bit and there's not been much coming through the intakes in the last couple of years so fingers crossed it doesn't cost us in a higher division. Wales games are starting to cause us a little bit of a problem now because we're having 16-20 players getting called up the the various age levels and some of the youth games overlap with other fixtures so we've been left a little short at times, I know I shouldn't complain about that because it means we're doing something right but it's still a little annoying when it happens . Sam Jones - He's been our starting keeper since he came trough the academy 5 seasons ago and had another solid year. He's been getting called up to the Wales senior team but hasn't managed to get on the pitch for the yet, surely only a matter of time for him though. Robert Jones - He's not even 17 for another 7 months and he's making something happen every time he plays, 23 G/A in 2200 minutes means he's made a goal contribution every 95 minutes. I truly believe that the sky's the limit for this guy and with half of the Premier League after him I think it'll be a struggle to keep him around. Ideally I can get another year or two at a push to see how he develops but mainly so his value will shoot up. If he kick up a fuss and force a move over the summer I'll make sure there's a % of future fee clause included in any deal. Youth Intake (Preview) A good preview and I think an even better intake this year! With 6 players that have 4.5/5* potential could this be Merthyr's very own class of '92?? Most of them will see some minutes in the coming season, Lewis Powell will be the one that I'll probably be looking to the most since he's not far off the first team already and will hopefully go on to be a mainstay at the back for years to come. Transfers & Finances - Again, nothing really that important on the transfer front. A number of players dropping a division or two to get some first team football on loan and hopefully develop, I even got a whopping £2.1k loan fee for one. Unfortunately, that loan fee income didn't make much of a dent in the losses for the season that stand at a touch over £1.3m and completely wiped out what we'd been saving up for the last decade. My plan going forward is just to not look at this tab so I can't worry about it then right? Other - At the end of the season we saw the Training Facilities downgraded due to technological advancements, it still leaves us with 'adequate' for both youth and training facilities and I can't see the money being available for further upgrades for a while, unless we get a crazy offer in for someone. Bingo Card - The promotion saw us tick off another box to take us to 17/100

As long as you've got a save from before the leagues become active you should be fine to go back and take them away if any issues crop up.

@HanziZoloman I'm the same with youth set-up cost. Spending more in 2 months than we did in a full season last year.... Oh, the joys of going full time. The only way out I can think of is player sales and hope for a future sell on %

They're not no, I backed it up just before I added them.... From what I've been able to find out (and been told by someone who seems to know what they're on about) it doesn't appear to be a common issue, but definitely worth creating that extra 'just incase' save before you add them as pending.