Cuomo10

Overachievers in the CL too...

With the extra revenue comes a higher tax hit of £200k, But some new sponsorship deals soften the loss a little and then this helped nicely Some recognition...

End of Season We won all of our final league games, keeping clean sheets in each and retained the title. We finally made it past the quarters but we lost out to Birkirkara in the Semi's in a game where we didnt really play well which was disappointing. A host of solid performances across the team as a whole. Goals throughout and some strong defensive displays. Spiteri continued to shine and is developing well. A true squad effort this season, especially during the first half when juggling the Europa Group stages and a lot of fixtures. With some decent youth players showing positive signs, the future continues to look bright and with some good looking players from the latest intake I am hoping to develop some more. We received £83k for finishing 1st, £12k more than last season. I decided to request improvements to both our youth and training facilities. The board accepted both and we take the next steps with improving the club as a whole. We've now turned professional and hoping this helps maintain and sustain our players with their future developments. I will now be looking to improve the quality of the backroom staff.

Youth Intake Not too bad with some decent potential that I hope I can develop with now going Pro a little more. Im wanting to improve the youth and training facilities but not sure how much the next level is and dont want to blow a big chunk of our money just yet. I know that if we make the CL qualifiers we will get some decent revenue so may just pull the trigger on training facilities first. We've got a couple solid looking CB's, one with low determination and one with a decent rating. We also have our first non Maltese player come through the intake and Im quite happy its a keeper as Ive been looking for another one and may be able to utilise Cardinalli

Jan & Feb 27 Almost a flawless couple of months and we maintain our 11 point lead. Since the last update Birkirkara have won all of their league games and are our closest challenges but with 4 games left to play in the league, the title is almost ours. A lot less rotation has been required since the turn of the year but I've been giving some game time to a couple of youngsters. A lot of good ratings across the starting 11 and the new CB pairing has worked well. We have been relentless going forward and Barbs has reached his highest tally in a season with 25 in 31 (24 in 31 last season). Hammett has done well since partnering up with Barbs with scoring 11 in 13 starts. Been really impressed with Spiteri this season and im hoping that the 17 year old will continue to develop as we go to a pro status and can start training full time. My subs and squad players have contributed and the 3 youngsters that I have been giving a little more game time to are Caruana, Camilleri and Chircop. Farrugia is a big part of the first team but Grech and Spiteri have performed better.

Nov & Dec 26 A really busy couple of months which really stretched our squad in terms of players becoming jaded and having to manage player resources. Pleased to say that we came out on top. In Europe, we lost our 2 remaining away games but beat Ludogorets 1-0 at home. The defeat away to Vitesse in the final group game meant that we finished bottom of our group. We've been solid in the league and remain unbeaten and we are now unbeaten in our last 29 league games. We have an 11 point lead at the top and it is now in our hands to make sure we do not blow this lead and retain our title. The frequency of games will lessen as we approach the second half of the month so we have a great chance to start our best 11 as often as possible. We smashed Birkirkara 6-0 in the Maltese Super Cup and then put another 3 past them in the league 3 days later. The domestic dominance swing has happened very quickly as we then beat Hibernians 3-1 away a few days later. We are through to the next round of the Cup and I have my sights set on getting further than the quarters for the first time. Back to the 4-4-2 for our domestic games and its been consistent. Anton Borg has been quality since bringing him in and our defensive performances have been very strong. Bjorn Zarb has hit 20 and unfortunately doesnt seem to be improving much more than his current ability. At the start of the season he was 5*PA; this has decreased to 3.5 now. I made the decision to draft in another CB that, Aidan Vella, who looks very strong so far. Midfielders have performed well, especially in the middle and Spiteri is still our stand out player of the season so far. Barbs is doing his thing and has bagged 17 in 25 games As you can see, there has been a lot of rotation and has been very much a squad game more so this season due to the additional games in Europe. Im scouting the market to see what additional quality I can add to the team. Centrally I am happy, but at FB and WM positions I could do with an extra player or 2.

Thank you, we've got a great foundation now and we need to try and become the dominate force in Malta now. Turning pro will be a massive help

Sept & Oct 26 An excellent start to the league season with 8 wins and 1 draw in our first 9 games. Both months have been fixture heavy, more than what we are used to and we have had to rotate a lot to keep players fresh and allow players to rest where needed. The Europa league hasnt been too bad. We picked up a win at home to Vitesse and lost narrowly to Ludogorets but Legia dominated against us as we lost 3-0 to them at home There have been some good performances but none more so than Spiteri who is averaging 7.44 and has contributed to 8 goals, scoring 5 and assisting 3. I picked up another CB in Anton Borg as I need another option at centre back and he has done well but was signed too late to make our European squad My subs and rotated players have put in some steady performances. Andrew Chircop is RB from last seasons intake and has done well when called upon Our finances currently sit at £5.2m and this seasons European run has set us up really well for the future. We're on the right tracks to begin our domestic domination and another big step is the club turning pro ready for next season

Not a bad draw all things considered, im not expecting too much but we could put up a fight at home

Europe... Right, where do I begin!? We had an excellent run in the CL qualifiers beating TNS and putting in 2 exceptional performances to knock Kobenhavn out. We were unlucky against Odd and fought well during the 2 legs. We made a sweet £1.4m and earned a tie against Sheriff in the Europa League. A 2-0 home win helped us progress as we lost 3-2 away but have secured a place in the Group Stages. We've been given an additional £2.6m for reaching the group stages and it's a quite remarkable achievement and still can quite believe it. We've played one league game which was at home to Hibernians in a game where we won 2-1 and already gain an advantage on them. We made no signings but I did try and being back Steve Borg who was a youth product of ours who was a 2nd year, A rated, player, however he chose Balzan over us. From the Kobenhavn game onwards, I dropped both wingers to form a 5 in midfield and it's working really well against the sides Ive faced in Europe all of whom have a better rep than us. I am looking to move them forward again during league games but will adopt this during the Group Stages. Barbs and Spiteri have been our star players so far with good contributions from Deguara and C Grech. Some good talent in this team but I still feel I lack depth in areas. I'm going after players but the situation of not being able to offer a full time contract is starting to become annoying. I am not sure if it is a bug as other Semi-Pro teams can offer them but I cant (I've posted this in the bugs forum). Hopefully the additional revenue can push us to become Professional.

First job offer from Italy. The strange thing about this is that this is the local side to where my dad was born (near Napoli). Ive declined it, respectfully

Hi I am playing a save in Malta through a downloaded add-on to activate the league. I am Semi-Pro status and only able to offer non-contract's to players despite having a wage budget and a good sum in the bank. Is this some sort of bug and if/when I turn professional, will this still be an issue?

End of Season We did it! In style too by winning our final 3 games. In 8 seasons we have managed to work our way out of the 4th tier of Maltese football all the way to the best in country. Now its all about maintaining that and to be the dominant force domestically and slowly try to become more competitive in European competitions. We finished 12 points above 2nd place and were extremely strong at the back. This season has proved that our youth products are more than good enough to compete and winning the title is evidence of this. A lot of years ahead of this crop of players and they will only get stronger. Our back 5 have been solid. 17 clean sheets in 26 league games and a back 5 that for the most part of the season has been all products of our academy. We have a talented midfield and Clive Grech is the stand out player. 14 goals and 5 assists and he will only continue to grow. Barbara continued to score and led the line well all season. 24 goals in 31 is his best season for us and he too will only improve. There are other players who are on the fringes and Farrugia and Borg will feature a lot more next season. Cini is good cover at CB and Degabriele and Hammett are other forward options. However, I need a little more depth in the squad as I have no real cover at full back. Centrally and out wide we are fine but I may look to another option up front if I can find the right type of player. With winning the league and playing in the CL qualifiers it may be a little early to expect the better calibre of players to become available to me, but I will not rule out signing a player if my scouts are highly recommending them We've earned £71k for finishing first but we are spending £50k across youth coaching and recruitment. We're fine at the moment as we have £722k in the bank but it is now key to ensure that we continue to qualify for Europe otherwise we could have some issues. We still have sponsorship and TV revenue to come in which should be around £200k+ and the revenue from the CL will certainly help depending how we do. Id really like for us to attract more fans through the gates to increase revenue this way but this seems like it could be a slower slog. We have 61 season ticket holders and this has only been increasing by around 3 a season, but lets see what the league win can do for our rep

Feb & Mar 26 A solid couple of months again and a huge win against Valletta who are our closest rivals. We approach the last 3 games with a 9 point advantage over them and barring an absolute disaster history will be made for Mdina Knights. A really strong season where we have lost just once and been really dominant all season I made a change to the formation where I have dropped one striker into a CM role and pushed both wide men forward into wing positions. Performances have still been strong and there have been some excellent contributions across the whole side. Barbara continues to score and he has reached his highest tally in a season with 3 games still to play, 50 in 72 league games. Clive Grech has been excellent and seems to have taken more new to his new role as an attacking CM. Bugeja has also been excellent and has made some massive improvements this season. Youth Intake A couple of decent prospects but some low determination ratings across a lot of them.

Dec 25 & Jan 26 We continue our relentless pursuit of the title by going unbeaten in 6 and winning 5 of these. We hammered Hibernians 4-1 and also beat Birkirkara during this run and I cannot get over how poor both have been this season. Hibernians could go down as they are 2nd bottom! We continue to be solid at the back keeping another 4 clean sheets and show our potency when going forward in a couple of these games. We currently have a 9 point lead over Valletta who have a game in hand over us, with 8 games to we are in a very strong position and will be disappointed if we let this lead slip. So long for a good cup run this season as crashed out at our first hurdle. We now have 10 starters from out youth academy and some extremely strong performances across the team this season. Both Grech's have been immense this season with their contributions and Barbara continues to impress adding 7 goals in his last 7 games. Steve Zammit has impressed however both his CA and PA has decreased over the past couple of months. He has been performing well so Im not allowing it to put me off but Malcolm Borg who came through last seasons intake is pushing him for the ML role. The lads in defence are improving and keeping things very tight at the back During the Jan transfer window, we have lost Buttigieg and Buhagiar to Qormi which surprised me considering their league position to ours and it wasnt like they werent getting any game time. Its been difficult finding a partner for Barbara who is consistent. It may be time to drop a striker and play with an AMC which would allow me to let Spiteri get more game time I got a little carried away and increased both Junior coaching and youth recruitment, the expense is now £50k a month. In the long run, if I can continue to qualify for Europe on a regular basis then it wont be an issue. I am also hopeful that if we can hold on and win the league, the CL revenue may help us to push for professional status which will start a whole new chapter for this club