[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Barnet’s unreal season became decidedly real. After a 4-0 start with lots of goals, the Bees were 1-2-3 and the scoring dried up. Still, 10 games into the season they are in a EURO Cup spot. That probably will not last, but the lads should enjoy it while they can.

 

October was fun for awards, though. Our £33 million man won some recognition, as did one our loaned-out prospects and the team’s boss.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

I wish FMT19 tracked the attribute changes for staff members. I know Monty’s general manager has improved by 1 in Man Management only because I looked at an old save.

Having said that, I think Monty needs a new GM. His judging of player potential and player ability is 12 and 12. That seems mediocre for the Premier League. I have looked at other GMs in the league, and some have similar abilities, but none of them are at teams in the top half of the table.

And having said THAT, I wonder if there is an upward or downward tendency in the accuracy of GM’s assessment of players. The higher their attribute for this, the more accurate their assessments. But do they tend overrate or underrate players?

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Before last season Barnet spent more than £30 million on several players to upgrade the team. It worked in that the Bees managed to avoid relegation. It did not work offensively, as the team struggled to score goals. They scored 3 goals perhaps twice. 

The Bees lacked a star, a key player around which to build the team. So Monty spent more than £30 million on one player, young right winger Luke Richards (Barnet’s first wonderkid), hoping that such a man could make the players around him better. Perhaps he could inspire better play, but also, practically, he could attract the defense’s attention and give other players freedom to operate. Monty paid a premium for him: he was valued at £24 million, but Barnet paid £33.5 million.

Richards was coming off what in the United States we would call a “rookie contract” — a player’s first professional contract that typically locks him into a relatively low salary for the first few seasons, even if he is a star. Richards went from about £750K per year to more than £3.5 million.

Needing some depth on defense, Monty purchased a veteran player, Ben Godfrey from Southampton for £9.75 million.

 

Did it work? At least through the first four games — yes.

In his league debut for Barnet, Richards was the Player of the Match, scoring two goals. However, the desire was for him to lift other players — and that seems to be working so far. Striker John Waters cost nearly £10 million to acquire last year, but he scored one goal all season. Against Crystal Palace, playing alongside Richards, he scored two goals. 

Granted, the first four games were not against top-of-the-table teams. Barnet probably beat them last season. But the increase in scoring was much celebrated.

And as for tactics, all four games were played in 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 gegenpress.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

 

Springtime in London and Barnet survived another season in the Premier League, improving its standing by flipping its results from the previous season. The Bees’ first year in the Premiership ended 13-9-16; their second season ended 16-9-13. And they moved up two places in the standings — 11th to 9th.

Of course Barnet was again one of the most profitable teams in the league. The improved standing meant increased prize money, and the team secured some lucrative sponsorships. Up from less than a million pounds last year to nearly 14 million.

Some of that money will be spent on improving the team’s youth facilities — a 2 million pound renovation is planned.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

For perhaps the second time this season, Barnet won two games in a row. This came when a frustrated Monty switched formations from his usual 4-2-3-1 control possession to 5-2-3 gegenpress. He gave up on scoring more. That doesn’t seem to be in the books for this season — the Bees have scored 3 goals only twice. So he decided to keep the other team from outshooting his team.

But those two wins secured Barnet from relegation. With 8 games left in the season, the Bees have as many points as all of last season.

And the board rewarded Monty with a Premier League-sized contract. Monty will start shopping for a penthouse apartment to buy.

 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

I normally do not discuss an individual game, but...

The second half of the season started just as the first half did -- with a game against Wolverhampton. However, the game ended in a 1-1 draw this time, which felt like a victory, since the first meeting was a 2-0 thumping. The Wolverhampton striker, Michael Obafemi, was unstoppable in that first match, scoring a brace and running circles around our defense. Barnet was outshot 18-1 in that first game, and the Wanderers won possession 56%-44%. This game looked like a repeat of that game after Obafemi scored 13 minutes in, despite instructions to mark him and shut him down. So Monty pulled Wesley Fonguck back from his midfield defensive position to halfback, and he gave Fonguck the assignment of marking Obafemi specifically. This meant Fonguck was frequently out of position, but Obafemi had few shots on target after that and he scored no more goals. Barnet was outshot only 17-8 and won possession, 51-49. So that worked.

 

One complaint Monty has had this season is the lack of leadership or heroics. There has been no player who stepped up and carried the team, who had some dramatic influence on the outcome of a match. But in the 95th minute against Wolves, down 1-0, we had some key plays. Johnny Mitchell was a substitute at right back, and he secured possession and quickly go the ball to Mark Harkin, a playmaker in the center, who then passed to Jack Harrison, who was cutting inside from his left wing position. Harrison was playing at about 50% at this time because of a gashed lower leg, but he was not subbed out because Monty had used all of his substitutions. Despite that limitation, he ran into the penalty box, pulling the goalkeeper toward him, and then drove the ball toward the far post. Perhaps that will inspire the team for the second-half campaign.

[[FM20] Fort William FC (and beyond) - A mountain to climb]

Nice work. I have a 19-season save at Ross County, so I actually recognize some of these teams, which is pretty good since I live in Los Angeles. 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

 

At the mid-season point, Barnet sits in 8th place, 5 points out of EURO Cup contention. So you think Monty would be happy, but he isn't. His team has played with little enthusiasm and at times with little intelligence. The team's defense is good, allowing 22 goals in 19 games, but its offense is terrible -- just 20 goals. The striker he spent 6.5 million on, Conner Warren, has scored no goals in 13 league games. The AMC he spent 7.5 million on, Mark Harkin, has been more productive: 5 goals in 11 games, but just 1 assist. Yet, somehow, the team has won more games than it has lost. Barnet has beaten nearly every team below it on the table. Its losses have been to Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, and Wolves. Barnet cannot expect to be beating teams like that yet (although the Bees did beat Tottenham).

Honestly, Monty does not know how to fix the broken offense. His team may simply not be fast enough to outrun defenses, and his midfielders may simply not be good enough to get the ball into the opponent's half after possession has been won. 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1, and 4-4-2 have not produced much. Perhaps 4-3-3?

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Hootie, Fleming has skills. For me he played inconsistently on defense.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Barnet spent £36.55 million on players who most likely will replace current starters. That means moving current backups off the roster in many cases, either through transfer or loan.

Monty needed to fix just two things: offense and defense. Oh, and the midfield.

His first goal was to fix the offense. Barnet could not score multiple goals. We won too many 1-0 matches and lost 2-1 matches.

So we picked up a striker, Warren, for £6.5 million. He is compared with the former #2 striker. He will play in rotation with Theo Mendes, who scored 11 goals for us last season. Stott will either ride the bench or get loaned out.

We also bought a new attacking center midfielder, Harkin (£7.75 million) , to supplant Payne as the starter.

 

Monty was not that unhappy with the left wingers, but the GM put in a bid on Periera (£4.2 million) and Monty decided to let it go through. He probably will take minutes away from Jack Harrison.

We needed more help on the right wing than on the left, but no opportunity presented itself. So we are moving Rhian Brewster from striker/winger to winger only on the right. He probably is not truly a Premier League-quality player, and we may need to shop at that position next season.

At  midfield, we bought Stannard (£8.5 million), who will probably be taking minutes from our only original Bee, Fonguck.

 

We needed to be stronger defensively in the corners, so we bought two fullbacks: Kalinowski (£6.5 million) and Gibson (£3.1 million). Gibson already has replaced Fleming, who was loaned out to Fulham.

One change is that, as a team, we got better at jumping reach and heading. So we should win some goals on corners this season. We scored very few that way last season.

Now we face the same problems as last year -- integrating new players into the team and dealing with all of the whining that will ensue.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Barnet survived. Facing several top-of-the-table teams at the end of the season was made worse by having five first-team players out with injuries. We held on to 9th place for a few weeks, but then fell to 11th. We were promoted with Stoke and Rotherham, and we finished one spot ahead of Stoke. Rotherham is going back down.

A report late in the season indicated Barnet was one of the most-profitable teams in the league, and with the prize money for finishing 11th, we may have passed Rotherham, who finished last. We ended the season with 64 million in the bank. The three newly promoted teams were the most profitable, which is probably not surprising. We came in with the smallest budgets; we realized the biggest percentage increase in revenues.

Our salary budget this season was about £28 million. Next season it will be about £41 million, with a transfer budget of about £40 million.

We have a ton of players out on loan. Some were loaned for development purposes and some were loaned to reduce the overcrowding in the locker room and to keep the players fresh in case we needed to recall them. A few have their contracts expiring this year and they will be let go; some will be transfer listed. We need to spend some money on players who can score. Our goal production was pretty bad.

 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

The good news is moods are improving among the players. The bad news is we cannot score any goals nor win any games as of late.

The good news is our early-season form has kept us safe from the relegation zone so far. The bad news is half of our starting lineup is injured.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Monty is exasperated with his players. He has guided them to the Premier League. Many of them are making more than they ever have in their lives, and possibly more money than they ever will again. They are in the top half of the table. They play to a sold out arena every game. And yet the highest morale rating on the team is “fairly okay.”

More than one player has gone to the press to complain about playing time. Monty never responds to those public demands. No response is effective. If Monty tells the player to prove himself, he complains that he has nothing to prove to Monty and he should be starting more games. If Monty tells him he hasn’t proven himself when given the opportunity, he says, “Well, I don’t think that helps anything.” Besides, whining to the press has traditionally been the fastest way to the transfer list for Monty.

Wesley Fonguck is the only Bee remaining from Monty’s original roster. He has climbed from the Vanarama National League to the Premier League, where he appears on national television. And yet he whines about playing time.

Fine. Keep it up, Bees, and Monty will cut your ass. Then let’s see how you like playing for Wycombe.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

 

October in London and the leaves are turning. Monty reminds himself to get out and see the city, to enjoy his good life and to not let the pressures of the Premier League dominate his life entirely.

One thing he thinks of in his strolls about town are the youth players he picked up when Barnet was still climbing and how they have become first-team members. He picked up Mark Blake on a free transfer when he was released from Chelsea, and Richard Lewis joined Barnet the next year after being released from Manchester City.  They now rotate with veterans in the left and right fullback spots.

 

 

Both players are progressing, but both indicate slight declines in determination. Is that simply a matter of playing time? They are getting 20+ matches per season. Or is that improved through mentoring?

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

 

Ten games in and we are definitely enjoying a home field advantage. We even beat Tottenham in Barnet. (I imagine they will exact their revenge when we visit their stadium.)

Despite the success, we still are trying to find some good team chemistry, which is being hampered by injuries to major players. Veteran players resent diminished playing time, and new players need more minutes on the field to integrate with the team.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Hootie, I should have been more mindful with who I added. I was letting the GM call some shots here, though I did reject some of the players he tried to sign. 

I am a few games into our first Premier League season (4-2-2 so far), but I have a save at the end of the previous season, and I might experiment with keeping my roster pretty much unchanged — spend all of my money on one or two truly superb players. See what happens in that multiverse.

I cannot complain about the record. We have lost only to Chelsea (3-1) and Man City (2-0). I am very frustrated with our offense; just 7 goals scored in 8 games. But then our defense is doing well; just 7 goals conceded in 8 games. I hope our offense picks up once two of our best players from last season are back from pre-season injuries. With the number of players we added, I am getting to know a new team actually. 

Good news for Monty. He got a raise.

This more than doubled his salary. He asked for the Euro Cup bonus for grins. Since it is so unlikely, the directors had no trouble including it. 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Off-season was busy releasing, buying, loaning in and loaning out players, as we attempt to adjust to the Premier League. With that has come expected morale problems, as our regular starters fear they are being replaced on the roster. 

Monty and his general manager spent a lot of the new owner’s money and brought in quiet a few players. They spent less than was allotted for transfers, but they went well beyond the original salary budget. They are still scrambling to get some players loaned out so the locker room does not become too crowded and to keep developing players who would get less playing time in the new circumstances.

The biggest acquisitions were probably a midfielder and a striker.

We tried really hard to get a star striker on loan, but no one was interested in playing for Barnet. Monty finally settled on Mendes, partly because he beat Barnet badly last season.

The general manager brought in some veteran players who are older than Monty would like, but they have Premier experience, so that should help.

This will be a challenging season, trying to avoid relegation, blending new players into the team, and keeping everyone happy. 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

 

We stumbled a bit in the last few weeks. After spending much of the season in a promotion spot, Barnet fell to third place for a few days. But a victory over West Ham put us back in second place, and a victory in the final game of the season secured a small margin above Crystal Palace.

We had the best defense in the league. We won close to same number of games as last season, but we converted games that we lost last season into draws this season. Stoke dominated the Team of the Season roster, but we placed two defenders on that list: our goalkeeper and a center back.

As the season ended, Kleanthous was negotiating with a London investor’s consortium to buy the team. It was the same investor from the earlier failed attempt. Unbelievably, the deal was sealed for just £24 million AFTER promotion was secured. Barnet will receive £96 million in TV money alone in the coming season. How does that deal make sense?

Meanwhile, Monty hurried down to the betting parlor to collect on his 350-1 bet on Barnet’s promotion. His £1,000  is now £350,000. Perhaps he will buy a nice condo.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Most of our games are soggy affairs this time of year, but Barnet has been coming out on top for most of them. So Monty is not complaining.

He won the Coach of the Month Award for February.

 

And most of one Team of the Week consisted of Barnet players during that stretch.

And as the season enters the homestretch, Barnet and Stoke remain atop the table.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

The second half of the season started with drama.

Starting left winger, James Hardy, who had a stellar season last year, was injured and will miss 5 to 6 months. The rest of the season. Fortunately, Rhian Brewster can take his place instead of playing at striker as I had been using him.

The second bit of drama was Kleanthous looking to sell to a local investor. That dragged on a bit, and Barnet was going to be embargoed for the transfer window. I was surprised to see the takeover speculation mentioned the team's debt. Yes, Kleanthous borrowed £30 million to build the new stadium, but with the expanded ticket sales -- and our continual sellouts -- the team was managing the loan payments. The debt did not seem to be a problem to me.

When interviewed about the takeover, Monty said he would love for Kleanthous to stay.

Fortunately, the deal blew up before the transfer window opened. Not that we were going to do much business.

The third bit of drama was interest from Premier League teams for a couple of our young players. To keep them, Monty had to toss the salary budget out the window. He is now spending about £500K over the budget, £7.3 million total. But 30 games into the season, Barnet is still fighting with Stoke for first place. If we win promotion, no one will be concerned about the current budget situation.

 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Much to everyone's surprise -- including our own -- Barnet finds itself atop the Championship League at the midway point.

 

 

Although we began conceding more goals in November and December, we maintain the best defense in the league. And although our scoring feels uneven, we have the second best offense in the league.

Our much-anticipated showdown with Stoke ended in a hard-fought draw, 1-1. It was a difficult match, with strategic substitutions and changing of tactics throughout. We tied the game late, and only after Stoke was a man down because of a red card.

 

Our left fullback Brandon Fleming is the highest rated player in the league, and our starting goalkeeper, Will Mannion, is among the top rated players.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Kleanthous is 60 years old, and I guess he wants to enjoy an early retirement. He wants to sell the team.

Perhaps he senses we will not make it to promotion and wants to sell the team at its peak? Or perhaps some deep-money folks sense promotion is coming and want to buy the team before that happens?

The team is not overburdened with the debt from the new stadium. We are turning a profit this year and the stadium is selling out. So debt does not seem to be a motivator.

 

 

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

Stadium name update: Apparently in FM Touch you cannot edit things such as stadium names. Oh well...

[[FM19] Nothing Toulouse - Back To The Glory Days [FINISHED]]

Carambau, I imagine your club is very profitable. If the takeover was hostile, the new owners may just want to drain the club’s profits. But it was probably a matter of the old owners wanting to cash out and the new owners wanting to expand the potential of the club. (Not that the game considers these real-world nuances.) Have you had a stadium expansion or a new stadium? In one of my saves, I finally got a new stadium when I got new owners.

[Barnet: How High Can They Go?]

IRL has been busy. Not much time for imaginary football.

Five games since the last report -- and Barnet remains in first place. Our defense remains rather stingy! Our offense is kind of stingy too, with a third of our goals coming in one game.

Was checking various issues with players. Saw that Rhian Brewster wanted a new contract to reflect his ability, though he was not complaining about this publicly. So I renegotiated his contract, and then saw the report that he was no longer wanting a new contract. D'oh. Too late. I had offered him the raise already.