TheLutterworthFox

2040/41 Season Another incredible season, our 16th league title was expected We also managed to win all the three other domestic trophies, only the second time we've done this in the save. A relatively easy win in the League Cup against Bala We needed extra-time to beat Dundee in the Challenge Cup but eased to a 3-0 win. And in the Welsh Cup we absolutely battered Haverfordwest!! In the Champions League we once again had an amazing run but only managed to make the Quarters. A decent run again though with some brilliant wins including beating Barcelona in the League Phase and getting past Dortmund in the Last 16, this was the first time we ended in the top 8 of the League Phase as well, absolutely brilliant! The good news is the other Welsh teams are also improving. Of the 5 teams, 4 qualified for the League Phase. Cardiff Met Uni went out in the League Phase of the Europa League, Bala Town went out in the Conference League but Llanelli managed to end in the top 8 of the Conference League and went on one of hell of a run, getting all the way to the final where they eventually lost to Manchester City! Insane!! What this has done is massively bump up our co-efficient, we started this season in 12th, next season we will move up to 10th and that means a guaranteed league phase spot in the Champions League!! Player performance-wise it's been the season where the kids have really come to the fore! Andy Langford, who spent last season on loan at TNS came in this season and has been a revelation, he came through the 2036 intake and has massively improved, he ends this season as the clubs top scorer and player of the season! 37 goals in 33 starts! It's also been an incredible season for Winger Gary Morgan who ends as the clubs young player of the season, top assister, highest average rating and most POTMs. But the biggest news was he ends as the Welsh Young Player of the Year ahead of Langford and Harrison, the future is bright! We've also started seeing more Barry players get Wales call-ups, I decided to leave two season ago as I really wasn't enjoying the international side of FM. Well this season Morgan and DM Wilmot both got callups! It's nice to see them getting the recognition they deserve Here is the Best XI for the season. 5 academy players in there!! Now we come to the annual youth intake and my word, just when you think things can't get any better we get a 5* intake with 6 elite talents!!! Not all of them are amazing but these 2 lads look like stars. Absolutely incredible! Now we look forward to next season and it will be more of the same, players will leave and I will look to either bring the kids in to fill the gaps, signing will be made, mainly bringing in younger players on free's but if the right deal comes up then I have the funds to spend. Nearly £40m! The bank balance looks really healthy now, just over £80m, a £5m profit on last season, this season we've chucked nearly £10m on upgrading the youth and training facilities after they dropped in the Summer. We've also spent around £5m more on transfer fees than we recouped. Still the bank balance is heading the right way, you never the council might eventually let me build a new ground!!! Total domination! The rep is still stuck at 3* though, even if we are the 22nd best team in Europe, we are still some way short of Cardiff, who after having a tycoon owner (now left) have massively improved and now sit at 4* rep, they are still bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship. It's just nice to see everything slowly improving, unlike my Gibraltar build a nation where a massive TV deal 5 seasons in completely changed the save and made things much easier, this has been slow going, gradual improvements but it's good to see it paying off and even more-so now that the other Welsh teams seem to be improving and doing better in Europe! Lets keep it going!

2039/40 Season Another season down and as expected it was as dominant as ever domestically. A 15th straight league title but only our 2nd unbeaten season, not bad seeing as I heavily rotated! We also won 2 of the 3 domestic trophies lifting both the League Cup and Welsh Cup. But it was the Champions League where things got slightly crazy!!! Our best run so far has been to the Last 16, this season we went even further!!! All the way to the Semi Final!!! It was an absolutely incredible run, our highest points tally in the League Phase alongside out joint highest finish of 12th. We did get easier ties than usual in the knockouts but to get past Roma, Brentford and Porto was insane. We then came up against PSG and our run was over but what a journey and just over £60m in prize money! An absolutely incredible season overall and things continue to improve. The League rep is now up to 16th, just shy of the English Championship, the co-efficient is also rising quickly, this season we have been helped by the fact both TNS and Bala qualified for the Europa League and Conference League respectively, both of them also got out of the League Phase but lost in the playoff round. The best season so far and we end with record high of 11.8 points. We will also move up to 12th in the co-efficient ranking, this removes a Conference League spot but adds a 2nd Europa League place. Player performance-wise it's once again been a great season for a couple of the academy lads but once again it was Steven Allan who won the player of the season award. He's now into his 13th season at the club and has become, not only the record league goalscorer for the club but also the record league appearance holder. Stunning! Academy star Gary Morgan ended as the clubs young player of the season, he also won the Welsh young player award And our signing of the season went to GK Vahe Minasyan, signed from Reading for £8.25m, we needed a new star keeper after losing Oakley Sherring and this guy fitted the bill, 23 clean sheets in 40 games! And here's the Best XI As you can we switched to a 424 this season, mainly in the domestic games and due to the fact we have so many good Strikers! And here is the whole squad. As you can see there are numerous academy lads in the squad who played their part this season, DMs Kennedy and Wilmot, CB Harrison alongside RW Morgan played nearly all the games, next season the likes of RB Pierce and LW/ST Owen will get a lot more game-time as they seem to be improving rapidly. With our massive prize money gained this season our bank balance ends on £73m, a £37m profit from last season, as you can see the prize money is needed just to keep the bank balance stable. We are getting bids in for some of our players but the offers are rubbish compared to how important they are to the team. Now to the youth intake and yes we had another sensational one, we actually had 4 elite talents but only 2 of them look good enough to make an impact in the first team. Ryan Roberts - Attacking Midfield Now obviously we've moved away from the 4231 but if this lad comes in I may have switch back, he looks amazing! Paul Stokes - Right Back Again really good, he does need some work on this mentals but he could be a useful player in the future. And finally, bad news again with regard to the ground, for the 3rd time the local council have blocked it! This is driving me mad now, we cannot continue to play in a 5k stadium, it does not bring enough money in and every time we play in Europe we have to go to Cardiff! It's driving me mad if I'm honest!

2038/39 Season Apologies for lack of updates, got so engrossed in this season that I didn't want to stop, so here is an end of season update! As expected we claimed another league title, the 14th in a row! Probably the most dominant one yet even if we did end with our lowest points tally in 7 seasons. 25 points clear of the chasing pack! In the other domestic cups we went out of the League Cup in the Quarters and the Challenge Cup in the 4th Round but we did manage to win another Welsh Cup. A tight game against TNS but we well deserved to win. In Europe it was another decent season, we once again qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League and managed to get through the playoff round where we were given one of the toughest draws and succumbed to defeat against Manchester United Some really good wins though including battering Celtic away and Rangers at home! The other Welsh teams once again pretty much failed with only TNS getting through the qualifiers of the Conference League, they did manage to qualify for the knockouts but lost to DInamo Zagreb in the playoff round. Overall though decent enough and it should be enough to rise another place in the co-efficient to 13th, the highest of the save so far. I'm absolutely loving this save so far, everything is still on the rise even if it is real slow going! Our reputation has also increased to 3*, this means that only Cardiff have a higher rep than us (3.5*), Swansea are on 2.5*. Player performance-wise it's been nice to have a few more academy players break through this season, both Winger Morgan and Defensive Midfielder Wilmot broke into the first XI and have performed really well, especially Morgan who has been a revelation. 15 assists and 9 goals over the season, his improvement has been incredible, he is now wanted by quite a few English clubs, fingers crossed I can hang on to him. Wilmot also had a solid season even if his average rating doesn't show it. 8 goal contribution from DM in 26 starts, he has also improved massively and is also a wanted man, I turned down a bid in the Winter of just over £1m from Leicester, hopefully he can stick around. Player of the season once again goes to AM Tudor Mendel-Idowu, 31 goals is just incredible! And the signing of the season goes to Right Back Graham Lewis, signed on a free in the Summer from Rotherham, he has been top quality with 15 assists from 37 starts. And here is the Best XI Some brilliant peformances. Now we look forward to another season, more of the same to be honest, I need to continue to improve the squad but also try and help the other Welsh teams improve even if I am finding that a real struggle, clubs are beginning to improve their facilities and we've even has two clubs build new, but small ground. Bala Town moved into the new Maes Tegid Stadium in 2033, a 1,756, 504 seated ground, Pontardawe Town moved into Ynysderw Park in 2028, a 1,000 capacity, 250 seated ground. So not amazing if I'm honest but it's something! What we need is these clubs to start building up their squad, money has been spent but nothing spectacular. So once again it's down to me to try and ship players out, either permanently or on loan to the other Welsh clubs, something I've struggled with in the whole so far. As for my squad, a few players will leave with Summer when their contracts expire, the main ones being LW Waters and Defenders McAllister and Malham, I'm hoping I can keep transfer costs down if I need to replace them, hopefully some of the kids can step up, I have enough of them!

Thanks for the kind words and spending time reading the thread, means a lot to know you're enjoying. The other Welsh teams are really annoying me now, I keep throwing money at them but they do nothing with it, plus, like you, they are all letting me down in Europe!

2037/38 End of Season Another season down and our 13th straight league title! Unfortunately though our unbeaten season ended with 3 games to go, I did mess around with the team, gave the kids a go and we fell to defeat to TNS. A really good league campaign overall. We also lifted the Welsh Cup, only just though. We managed to win but went down to 10 men a third of the way through the game! Another trophy lift though! In the Champions League we managed to get to the Last 16, we beat Roma in the playoff round before being battered by AC Milan A decent run though, a good boost to our co-efficient, next season we move up to save-high position of 14th in the rankings. Academy star Craig Harrison was one of our best performers this season, he came through the 2035 intake and is now an integral part of the side, from central defence he managed to score 13 goals, not bad! Now for the youth intake and it wasn't great this year, no elite talents, a few top talents but only one player that stands out. Central Midfielder Conor Potter comes in, he needs some work and he will need to retrain as a DM to fit into the side, a good base though, he could become a solid first-team player in the future. With regard to the players loaned out this season here are the players that averaged over 7 during their period away. Kirk William by far the best performer, expect to see him and a few others in the first-team next season. Charlie Mawford is one of those, he ends as the Cymru South player of the season with Newtown, a great season with 23 goal contributions in 31 games. Not bad for a free transfer signing from League Two Walsall! A really good season, this Summer will be more of the same, I need to keep improving the side but also trying my hardest to help the other Welsh clubs out, whether what I'm doing is working is another story! I'll continue to loan my players out to other clubs in Wales to see if it helps them, especially those that are in the European qualifiers, the problem is I need these clubs to actually bid for them! I need to make sure I improve the first XI this Summer, we have £25m to spend, a new Striker is needed as is a new DM and CB.

September 2037 to January 2038 Domestically it's been another dominant season bar one result! We got knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the 3rd round to Inverness, that has been our only defeat of the domestic season so far, so we still have the chance of winning three domestic trophies. One trophy has been ticked off and that's the League Cup. Only just though as we needed penalties to win the game. In the League we're 8 games away from a 2nd invincible season. Still need a few wins to claim another league title but it's 99% in the bag. In the Champions League we've a really good League Phase, some cracking results. After 5 games it looked like we were going out, queue 3 amazing results including a win at the Emirates against Arsenal, one of the best wins of the save so far. We did FM them slightly but defensively we were brilliant. That win sealed a playoff spot and 14th place in the League Phase. So a brilliant first half of the season so far, one thing we've struggled with is goals from our forwards when Steven Allan doesn't play, the kids just haven't done it so I've dipped into the transfer market to bring a new forward in. In comes Japanese international Shinichiro Minagawa from Hiroshima for £3.5m, a top quality player who, attribute-wise is better than Allan. Performances wise our best player has been Tudor Mendel-Idowu, he's been playing as the Mezzala in a midfield 3 and has been incredible, 20 goals and 13 assists in 33 starts, not bad! With regard to the players out on loan one player has really stood out and that Right Winger Kirk Williams, signed last season from Wrexham for £400k he's had an amazing season at Cymru South side Pontardwe with 12 goals and 13 assists overall, he may be one to come into the first-team next season.

Pre-Season 2037 Apologies for lack of updates lately, been away and just taking a break whilst being pretty ill at the same time! Its been another busy Summer bringing in younger players on low fees to then send out to other Welsh clubs, I've also decided to chuck all my transfer budget to a few of the Welsh Premier clubs to try and improve their finances and hopefully help them improve their facilities or turn professional. Out of this massive list of players there are three that will be in the first-team this season. Leonardo - Striker Signed for just over £1m, he is a young and talented and will provide good back-up to Steven Allan Jonathan Rowe - Winger A bit of experience was needed and Rowe fits the bill, signed for just over £1m Jason Haines - Winger A top quality signing on a free from Chelsea, we really needed more option out wide. And here is the list of players I've sent out on loan. LOTS!!!!! It'll be interesting to see how these all do. We also say goodbye to a few first-team players. All of these had fallen out of favour, not massive fees but there was no point in keeping them about, taking up space in the squad. Result-wise it's been another really good start. Another breeze through the Champions League qualifiers. Batumi and Shamrock were dispatched with ease, we then faced APOEL in the final qualifying round and smashed them in the first leg, this meant I could rotate for the second leg, we lost the game but we were never in trouble of going out. It looks like a decent set of fixtures, we should be able to do enough to get a playoff spot. The good news is TNS also managed to navigate the qualifiers in the Conference League, beating some decent teams along the way. They were the only ones, with Cardiff Met narrowly missing out of a Conference League spot, losing in the final qualifying round.

Its been pretty easy to be honest, mainly because I've relied on the intake/academy players who come in at 16. I'm not sure I've had a single season where I've had too many players.

The next best thing I guess, a 600 seat increase in capacity, we can get it to a maximum of 5k before it's max'ed out

And for the third time the council blocks the new ground AGAIN! Fuming! I can keep improving the squad but without a huge increase in our revenue we will never EVER be able to invest in the club properly. I'm not sure what to do now as this is getting really annoying!

2036/37 Season Review Another title win! That's now 12 in a row, it wasn't as easy as previous season though, we only clinched the title with 3 games to spare! A season of contrasts, we have our best Champions League run of the save but only end up with two domestic trophies and end with our lowest points tally for 6 seasons. A title win is all that matters though and I have spent the season rotating the team to give some of the kids a chance. Overall though everything is still improving, the league rep is up to 23rd, our co-efficient is slowly climbing again, and because of ours and Holywells runs in the Europe we will move back up to 15th in the co-efficient rankings for next season, meaning an extra spot in Europe for the 38/39 season. Above is the current squad, some really good performances this season and it's nice to see a good mix of older, non-Welsh players and academy lads who are more than holding their own. Keith Kennedy is one of those players who's come in this season and been really good, even in Europe. 38 starts, 11 sub appearances, 6 goals and 8 assists with an average rating of just over 7. Not bad, he is also improving rapidly so I expect him to be even better next season. Financially we're also looking really good as we end the season with just over £60m in the bank, helped by £40m in prize money and £12m in player sales. This Summer it will decline though as I will be chucking money at the other Welsh clubs, stupidly high fees for half-decent players to try and give the clubs with no money the cash to be able to turn professional and improve their squads. The board have given me the budgets to do this as well. So their are two aims this Summer, the first is to throw money to Welsh clubs, the second is to bring in young players who cost nothing or very little to bring in, send out on loan or give game-time to, to then look to sell for a profit.

2037 Youth Intake + Champions League Results Firstly, for the first time in the save we got past the playoff round of the Champions League!! And we did so in style against a quality Roma side. A cracking draw away before a stunning display at home! Into the Last 16 and we were drawn against Real Madrid and as expected it was a step too far. We got absolutely smashed! A good run though, our best so far in the save and a nice chunk of prize money to boot, unfortunately Holywell went out in the playoff round, losing the FC Copenhagen. Now to the youth intake, the preview has it as a 2.5* intake with the best rated position a "C". I've seen from the past intake that a "C" is pretty good so I expected at least one decent player and that's exactly what we got. It actually ends up a 3.5* intake with 1 elite talent and 1 top talent. Mike Pierce is the "elite" talent and he looks pretty good. Does he need work? Yes, but overall he looks really good and will go straight into the first team as my back-up RB. The "top" talent is another right back!! Again he look OK, good aggression and determination, I like the fact he can cross and has decent pace, my thoughts are I may retrain him as a RM or RW.

December 2036/January 2037 A solid few month with a couple of defeats towards the end, unfortunately the defeat to Larne means we can no longer do another domestic clean sweep. We did however lift the League Cup once again Steven Allan the match-winner! This lad is a legend of this save. The league is still going well, we're 7 clear of TNS with 2 games in-hand. We've also got into the playoff round of the Champions League, 13th is our highest finish in the League Phase so far in the save. Holywell, the only other Welsh team in Europe did amazingly in the Europa League to qualify for the playoff round after ending 20th in the League Phase, Some really good wins there!

September to November 2036 What an incredible few months it's been! Yes we've lost a couple in the league but just look at the Champions league games, 5 matches, 3 wins and a draw with only a single defeat to Spurs!!! This included an 8-3 win over Ajax! Just insane! The knockouts are so close in the Champions League, we're also still on for another domestic clean sweep! Now for some other pieces of news and firstly we welcome back an old face. Johnson Fernandes moved it Rangers 3 seasons ago but it didn't work out and he was released in the Summer, I couldn't leave him without a club so he rejoins us on a free transfer. We have some records news as 2025 intake star Aled Carroll breaks the record for league appearances for Barry Town! What a legend! Finally, I just want to look over if any of the loanees have done well and there's two lads smashing it at Newtown, one of our affiliate clubs Firstly is Right Winger Kirk Williams, signed from Wrexham in the Summer for £400k he has been immense for Newtown with 9 goals and 5 assists from 16 starts with an average rating of 7.53! Another Summer signing, Daniel Walsh has also been banging them in for Newtown, signed from Liverpool for £50k the Striker has only made 5 appearances but has scored 5 goals and averaged 7.43. Here's the whole list of loanees, some brilliant performances!

July/August 2036 Its been a very busy Summer!!! I was chatting to someone on Twitter earlier today and I realised I had totally neglected the "building a nation" aspect of this save. I had spent so many season concentrating on Barry that I forgot to think about the other clubs. One thing was mentioned was loaning my players to other Welsh clubs so I went mad, signed a shed load of players with the view to loaning most of them out to try and improve, firstly, the player and secondly, the club they're going to. A lot of new signings but actually only three of them will be in the first-team this season, the rest will go out on loan. Jurica Basic - Striker Ricky Dhaliwal - Full Back Dave Dean-Maher - Central Defender Like I said the rest will go out on loan, here is the full list of players heading out. Only a couple of them heading outside of Wales. As you can see a lot of players heading to my two affiliates Newtown and Pontypridd, both in the Cymru South I will report back throughout the season to see if anyone is performing well. There have also been some notable player sales. Four key players leave totalling around £10m. Bellingham asked to go, Asare and Tezgel both asked to leave after the bids came in and Oboavwoduo spent last season moaning about lack of game-time. Some big losses there but we still have enough in our first-team to dominate domestically. Time for like of Harrison, Kennedy, Warren and Morgan to step up from the academy and become the superstars they were meant to be! Result wise it's gone really really well so far. Another great start and we easily qualify for the League Phase of the Champions League. A decent set of fixtures, obviously the two English team games will be impossibly and AC Milan is a guaranteed defeat but the other, well I'm confident we can do enough to get into the knockouts The other Welsh team in Europe also did pretty well. Cardiff Met Uni didn't though as they lost in the Conference League 2nd Qualifying Round. TNS did really well but eventually lost to Sturm Graz in the final qualifying round. Holywell did amazingly, they progressed through all the qualifying round, eventually beating Swiss giants Basel in the final round to get into the Europa League proper! Incredible!

2035/36 Season Review Another fantastic season, yes we lost a few games in the League but I've had real fun domestically playing some of the academy lads, just to see who is up to the job, more on them later! 32 points clear of 2nd place!!!! That's 11 titles in a row now, I think you can say we are the dominant team in Wales. The big question though was could we complete the domestic clean sweep for the first time in the save? Well the league is won, the League Cup was won earlier in the season, we just have the Challenge Cup and the Welsh Cup to go. In the Challenge Cup we faced Dunfermline and absolutely hammered them! To be honest it should've been more than 4! Another one down, now it's just the Welsh Cup to go. In the final we faced Cymru South Winners Haverfordwest, a game we really should be winning and we did just that! Relatively easy! And with that we have done it, the domestic clean sweep of all 4 trophies!! What a season, it's just a shame our Champions League run was pretty poor, our worst League Phase for a good few season with only 4 points from the 8 games, we need to improve on that next season. Now to some of the key players, once again I'm not going to speak about the usual suspects, instead I'll go through a couple of the academy lads who got some game-time this season. Firstly is defender Craig Harrison, he came through last seasons intake and has been an ever-present this campaign, 32 starts, 16 sub appearances, he's chipped in with 4 goals as well. He's only 17! I mentioned Richard Warren in a previous update, he had a brilliant first full season in the main squad with 14 goals in 22 starts. He isn't great compared to the rest of the squad but, compared to the Cymru Premier he is a top quality player! Right Back Lewis Proctor got a lot more game-time this season domestically, he is now a Thai international as well! He's been at the club since 2032 and this is the first season he's really had a chance, he's not amazing but, like Richard Warren he's more than good enough for domestic competitions. He made 19 starts, scored twice and averaged over 7. And here is the whole squad, anyone with a (Ixx) after their name is an academy player. The I stands for Intake, the number is the year they came through. The future is bright! At the end of the last season I mentioned I was worried about the finances, not the bank balance but the fact we were due to fail FFP. After numerous player sales, the Champions League money and the Winter sale of Darren Jones, it means we more than passed FFP. We do still need to keep qualifying for the Champions League proper, we are losing around £1.5m a month at the moment without the European prize money, this is due to high player wages but also due to the fact our revenue streams are awful, a small ground and therefore little gate receipts, it would also be nice to see a new TV deal come into the league, I had this in my FM23 Gibraltar save and it really helped improve every team in the League. Whether that'll happen is another story! With the finances looking good the board have given me crazy budgets for the Summer. That's a doubling of wage budget and nearly £18m to spend on transfers. We actually end the season with £38m in the bank, a £10m profit season-on-season, you can see how important those player sales (£20m) and Champions League prize money (£16.7m) is, if we didn't have that we'd have lost nearly £27m!!!!!! The new ground is massive now, we need to improve our incomings, only I can do so much. The next 12-24 months is going to be huge for this save, for the third time I've asked for a new ground, the board have agreed each time but the last two times the council blocked it. We have another 12 months before the third decision, if it fails again I will be seriously considering whether I stay at Barry or not!

2036 Youth Intake We had a preview that was interesting, an "A" rated DM but did it come to fruition? YES IT DID!!! We actually have 2 elite talents, so on paper they are rated highly, but do they look as good as their rating? Paul Wilmot - Defensive Midfield Pretty good but not World-beating, I like the Bravery and Determination but his first touch, stamina, strength and pace worries me. He needs work but he will be in and around the first-team to get some game-time and get mentored by the more experienced players. Gary Morgan - Right Wing Now I like the look of this lad, I've said it before, I always look for 4 attributes in my players, Bravery, Determination, Work Rate and Natural Fitness, he has it all! Now we need to work on his composure, anticipation and dribbling. Like Wilmot he'll be straight into the first-team squad.

December 2035/January 2036 Firstly transfer news and I have some bad news to bring you. My star CB Darren Jones has left the club. I got a massive deal for him, especially as the bids started at £1.5m! £8.5m up front, around £1.5m of addons and the big one is 50% of next sale! It's sad to see him go but he wanted the move, it'll be interesting to see how he does. With him leaving I needed to bolster the ranks, in comes 3 new players. Matias Fernandez - Central Defender - Free Transfer My replacement for Jones, top quality and all for no money Aidan Hulse - Left Back - £1m from Blackburn A really good deal for a new LB, we've only had 1 natural LB in our squad so this lad was very much needed. Tudor Mendel-Idowu - Attacking Midfield - £2m from Anderlecht A bit of experience added to the squad, a really good player who offers versatility. In other news, we have an interesting youth intake preview. It's the first time in 5 or 6 season we've had an "A" rated player, I am excited to see how good the player is, Darren Jones came through in 2033 and in the preview he was rated as "C", he was amazing so this lad could be incredible! Result-wise it's been OK, we've lost another league game but our shot at the clean sweep is well and truly on. Unfortunately our Champions League campaign has ended at the league phase, some really poor performances. The good news is Bala Town qualified for the Conference league playoff round! As I said, the domestic clean sweep is still on, we have already won one trophy as we lifted the League Cup. 1 down, 3 to go!

September to November 2035 A really good few months Domestically we're smashing it, we did lose our first league game in 41 to Cardiff Met Uni but overall it's been really pleasing as I've played some of the academy players. The only blip really has been the Champions League, we lost to Rangers and drew Brugges, so far we've only won one game and that's not going to be good enough to get to the knockouts. I mentioned before I'd been giving the kids a chance and one of those has been Striker Richard Warren, he's played 8 league games and grabbed 8 goals, really good!

July/August 2035 Its been a Summer of stability, the thought of a new job never came about as nothing came available but actually, after an hour or so of thinking, I decided to stay. I also decided to sell a load of players, mainly as bids came in and I had to say yes, all sold for a profit, some important player but with us losing so much per month I needed to sell them to help with FFP, even though I knew, if we qualified for the Champions League money wouldn't matter. Midfielders Richardson, William and Kato all leave, Kato sold for a small loss in the initial fee but he wanted to leave, we also let star RB Brook, LB Budrys and GK Pahor leave. Brook is the big loss but he asked to leave last Summer and I managed to keep him about for another year. So the plan with signings this Summer was to keep transfer fees down and I did exactly that. Stefan Simko - Right Back - $425k from Chelsea A young, highly rated right back joins from one of Englands big boys. He needs some work on his technicals but I think he could be a star. Justin Oboavwoduo - Winger - Free Transfer He popped up on a scouting recommendation and I had to snap him up Juan Carlos Cardozo - Central Defender - Free from Nacional Another scouting recommendation, another top quality, young player. Solomon Asare - Defensive Midfield - Free from Hibernian Another really decent looking player at no cost. Rocco Vata - Winger - Free from Stoke A player I've signing on FM before, he can play out wide or up front and offers good backup options in both positions. Paul Roberts - Attacking Midfield - Free from Everton One for the future, he has really good attributes to play as the man in behind the striker. I may send him out on loan this season. Nariaki Aiba - Goalkeeper - £850k from FC TOkyo The most expensive signing of the Summer, again he is young and is a look towards the future. So just over £1m spent, £10m brought in, the finances are looking really healthy now and we now no longer failing FFP, we are projected to lose a lot of money each month, that's due to wages but also to the fact our revenue streams are just rubbish! Now to the results, this season we entered the Champions League in the 2nd qualifying round but once again eased our way into the League Phase for another season. A really good start! A bit like last season really, there are 3 or 4 games there that we have a chance of winning. The good news though is, for the first time in the save, we have two teams joining us in the League Phase of a European competition as TNS qualified for the Europa League and Bala Town got into the Conference League, this is huge for the co-efficient!

2034/35 End of Season Another season down, our 10th league title in a row and eventually we end with the invincible season!! A brilliant end to the season and just look at that goal difference!!! +99!!!! Player-wise I could easily go through the same players as every season, Allan ended as top scorer, Waters most assists, Brook player of the year but it's getting a bit repetitive, so let's look at two players, both whom came through the academy, who are doing an amazing job. Firstly is superstar CB Darren Jones, what a season he's had, a staple in the first XI, constantly performing and also bagged a few goals. This lad has everything in his locker to take him to then top, the big question is, will that be here? Secondly is Aled Carroll, now 26, he's been a consistent performer since breaking into the side in 2025. He is now only 35 appearances short of the club record for most league appearance! He isn't rated very highly but he is a massive player and always performs to the best of his ability. And here is the whole squad. As you can see there are a lot of academy players in the squad, some not rated very highly but that's because our best player are so good, most can do a job in the first XI if and when required. Now we come to the finances and we end with a load of money in the bank. Just over £28m in the bank, a £9m profit this season, helped by £31m of prize money from our Champions League run, you can see how important that is to the finances and it's needed more than ever because, once again, the local council have rejected our new ground application. I'm not going to lie this is absolutely gutting and is making me wonder why I'm bothering staying here, if we can't increase our ground capacity we cannot bring money in, we need to improve our revenue streams and this is more prevalent now more than ever because, we're failing FFP for European Competitions. By around £3m, now I can look to sell players which will help it out but the idea is to keep improving the squad, not decimating it!!! I really don't know what to do, if we can't increase the revenue streams coming into the club then we cannot improve, if we cannot improve then the other clubs in the league can't improve as I can't help them increase their finances, something I've not been able to do over the past few season because I chucked loads of money at other players and, also, if I sign players from other Welsh clubs good enough to be in my first team squad then I take away those clubs best players and that doesn't help either. The ground is so needed and currently I cannot see a time where it will actually happen, this is a killer for what I'm trying to do and is making me want to resign from Barry and look to take over another Welsh side and try and build them up, the big issue so far in this save is Barry are the only team qualifying for European League Phases, no one else has done bar Cardiff Met Uni 3 seasons ago. because of this the Welsh co-efficient has dropped 4 places, meaning we only get that 5th European spot for a single season before it goes back down to 4 spots. Maybe it's time to leave and try and help another club progress in Europe, Barry are set now, they should have enough in them to qualify for a League Phase of a European competition without me in charge, will I miss the club? Hell yes but the ground issue has taken all motivation I had and maybe a change is needed to keep the save fresh. Thoughts?

I haven't mentioned Wales for a while as, well to be honest, there's been nothing to report as we haven't done that well......... But this has just happened!!!! 20-0 away from home!

2035 Youth Intake It's happened again! I really can't understand these intakes, the preview was 1.5*, rubbish, with the best player rated at a B, everything else was D or E, this is what's just come through....... A 2.5* average intake but there are two top talents and one of them highly rated!!!! WOW WOW WOW! Another incredible central defender! Alongside Darren Jones, who came through the intake two seasons ago we have a central defensive partnership to last years!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!! 6 foot 7 inches tall at 15 years old!!!! WOW, this lad is something else, does he need work? Yes, but stick him up front and lump it to him, I may have to switch to two up top!!!

Champions League Playoff Round And as expected we lost! We are doing so well that I kinda expected to give them a better game, it just shows you how far we've still got to go! I feel like I'm a little stuck at the moment, I can't really improve the team anymore than it currently is, not unless we get a huge influx of cash to go out and spend £10m+ on players, something which I don't really want to do, or we get an increased reputation which means better players want to join us who I can look to sign on frees or pre-contracts. I'm really hoping the new ground goes through at the end of the season, that should give us a bump up in money at least but I'm sceptical it will happen after the last ground got cancelled by the council. Not long to find out though!

Champions League and Player Sale News I forgot to mention in my previous post we lost one of our key players close to deadline day. Winger Simonetti, signed two seasons ago for £1.5m leaves to join Celtic for £3.5m up front with £875k of addons. A good deal but it's a huge loss and I had no time to bring a new player in, time for one of the kids to step up! We've also had the playoff draw for the Champions League and we have one of the tougher draws. Atletico Madrid will be a hard game, I'll be shocked if we get through it. Finally, it only took one more game but the league title has been won for 10th time in a row, we did it by beating TNS 4-0 away from home! Nice!