mpm2342

Fast forward to the end of June and Gibraltar slightly improved it's rankings in the Nation Club coefficient thanks to our strong run and the club improved a lot to 29 in the European club rankings. Gibraltar has not made any significant improvement and the HC is still there. I will likely abandon the build a nation part of this if I can't get the HC gig. The league moved up 7 more spots which has been helpful in getting players. Our club ranking improved a little bit, and we stayed at 2 stars for reputation. No additional upgrade for the youth facilities has come available to request. We have a very healthy cash balance and the board gave me a generous transfer and wage budget that I will not be able to spend. Scouting budget is re-upped at world, so don't need to adjust. Signed a couple of players and signed Merino for 2.5M at the end of his loan. He is a model citizen and good enough to play, so will be key to help develop other players personalities over time.. Jimmy Deniau is our new DLP. He has a rating of 71.2 and a great personality. Signed him for 8M Metzler is our new LW with a rating of 72.4. Signed him for 1.9M The current situation looks like this. Updated Current Season recruiting needs based on the Championship target: GK Gap: 0.6% - We are good CD Gap: 0%, 1.1% - We are good - opportunistically look for another backup FB Gap: 1.3%, 0.3% - We are good BWM Gap: 0.4% - We are good DLP Gap: 2.1% 1.5% - We are good Winger Gap: 1.5%, 2.1% 2.8% - Continue to look for an upgrade for RW - not urgent AP Gap: 0.6% 1.2% - We are good - Junyent moves here from DLP with the signing of Deniau ST Gap: 2.1% - Now the "worst" position, but Muller has a ton of potential, so am not going to replace him and we are good - opportunistically look for a young backup

Upcoming Season recruiting needs based on the Championship target: GK Gap: 0.6% - We are good CD Gap: 0%, 1.1% - We are good - opportunistically look for another backup FB Gap: 1.3%, 0.3% - We are good BWM Gap: 0.4% - We are good DLP Gap: 2.1% - Need an upgrade to pair with El Azzouri - Urgent Winger Gap: 1.5%, 2.1% - Look for at least one upgrade - - Urgent AP Gap: 0.6% - We are good ST Gap: 2.1% - We are good - opportunistically look for a young backup. Only a couple of urgent needs. Next season we will switch to the Premier league as a target.

BWM - Champ Target = 71.0 The BWM stats aren't great with our tactic, so I lean towards the match ratings to give additional insights. Blasco started, Edwards was played in league matches to see if he would develop. I started to play Lambert more towards the end of the season when it was clear Edwards wasn't developing. Blasco played well enough as did Edwards and Lambert. Blasco's rating is pretty much at target. Our new project will be Pizarro now that he has had a year of training and is showing good development, so he will get a chance this coming season to show if he can keep growing. Plan - Blasco is the starter and at target. Pizarro to get 20'ish starts - we have El Azzouzi and Lambert/Edwards for depth. DLP - Champ Target = 69.7 El Azzouzi was the starter with Chirivella as the main backup. Junyent got 8 games and Muller filled in on occasion as well, but mostly played ST, so didn't include his stats. Stats wise, they all played pretty well with Juyent's stats skewed from playing mostly at AM. Junyent is the best DLP, but is our starter at AM. El Azzouzi was the primary starter to see if his growth would continue, but he didn't grow much. Too early to give up on him, but I expect there to be options to bring in at or above the target rating. Chirivella has started to decline due to age and won't be back unless he signs on as a fringe player. Interesting to look at El Azzouzi's development. He still had a number of attributes increase by 1, but not the ones that affect the rating much. Further support to the argument to keep him around. Plan - Find an upgrade and start El Azzouzi until then. Winger - Champ Target = 69.6 I am analyzing LW and RW together as all the top players can play both. Vincent and Marek were the starters, Holcroft, Abid and Juninho got a lot of play time as well. All the wingers played very well in the support role, so no action required based on the statistics. Vincent showed a nice development burst last season. Holcroft's growth continued at a bit of a slower rate, so we will give him playtime again to see if the growth returns. Vincent had progression in a lot of attributes last season - maybe he is a late bloomer and will grow again Holcroft's had attribute growth across the board, hope that continues. Plan - start Vincent and Marek with Holcroft to get league time to further his development. Try to find a winger at target rating to replace Marek. Advanced Playmaker - Champ Target = 68.4 Junyent and Merino played most of the matches. Merino had good stats, but Junyent's are outstanding. He is doing it all, scoring, assists. Junyent declined slightly in rating but I think he may have played too much along with injury. Hopefully that trend changes next season. He is above the rating target. Merino is a loan, so won't be back. Plan - Start Junyent and try to find a good backup option. Meireles is proficient here, so can backup ST and AM. Advanced Forward - Champ Target = 68.2 Muller was the starter and scored 42 goals!!!!. Meireles scored 24 goals as well. Both of them have very good stats with Muller better in the air and Meireles better dribbling. Muller had nice growth and if he does it again, he will make it to target. Meireles recovered a bit, but that is just likely the ratings "wobble" from attributes being right at the rounding point. Plan - Start Muller with Meireles as backup.

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts) I have again been messing around with ways to show player progression by position to try and not miss any up and coming youngsters in the lower teams. GK - Champ target = 62.9 Rojas Fedorushchenko is our clear starter. He played all the tough games and did quite well this season. Sidibe played a lot of the domestic games and continues to improve statistically. The worrisome save percentage from previous seasons was much better this season. Santos was a new signing with high potential to develop as contingency in case Rojas leaves. Rojas grew very nicely last season and is close to the target rating, so a bit more growth and he will be there. Fedorushchenko grew nicely with a one point jump in a few attributes. He should now make the target rating and we will see how much he can develop. I have him on GK Reactions training to see if we can boost his reflexes. Sidibe is still growing very well with his scouting report saying he is close to full potential. Interestingly, that is what Rojas' report said last season and then he had a nice development year, so we will see what happens. He has become homegrown now, so will definitely be our backup for a long time as it frees up another spot on the European rosters for an import. Plan - Start Rojas. Give Sidibe playing time to grow and if any playtime is left, give Santos a match or two. CD - Champ Target = 69.2 The numbers from the central defence are getting better. Puljic in particular had a good season statistically. Puljic, David and Albiach were basically a 3 man rotation with Fredricson and Morata getting some filler time. Puljic had the best numbers with David and Albiach close to each other. Puljic is at target with slight growth. David grew nicely and should hit target this coming season. Albiach had a bit of growth and is in a good spot to be the primary backup again. McNeil is ready for the 2 backup role to get some playtime and see if the growth can be encouraged. Plan - Start Puljic and David with Albiach ias primary backup. McNeil is ok as the 4th backup as well. Left FB - Champ Target = 65.8 FB seems to be a position that generates good match ratings in our tactic. Konate was the starter with Leyland and Chiab as the primary backup this past season and all three of them having good stats with Konate having the best. Leyland continued to develop and his scouting report says he could improve significantly, so will definitely keep him playing to see how far he will develop. He plays both right and left FB, and will be the primary backup this coming season. Kept Chiab around as a contingency plan as Leyland is likely to end up as the right FB. Konate is above the target rating, so don't need to upgrade this spot. Loving the growth from Leyland he had 24 starts evenly spaced through the season, which helped him be rested enough to train as well. Plan - start Konate with Chiab as backup and Roman as contingency. Make Leyland the primary backup at RFB. Right FB - Champ Target = 65.8 FB seems to be a position that generates good match ratings in our tactic. Biten Valere was the starter with Leyland and Waidner backing him up. Biten Valere had a good statistical season, so no reason to change. Biten Valere improved slightly and is above target. Waidner declined a bit and Leyland developed a lot. Not much happening with the youngsters. Plan - start Biten Valere with Leyland as the primary backup.

End of Season 9 (31/32) Analysis: The team average rating improved by 1.7, improving from 65.7 to 67.4 moving us closer to England Championship level(68.1 average). The season over season growth rate for the squad has been very consistent at around 1.7 per season or so as you can see from the chart lower down. I think that is directly correlated with the growth in the club reputation driving the quality of player we can see and who is willing to join the club. Our scouting staff is now well developed so we are getting broad visibility. We do have a few players now developing very nicely for the club which may help get a boost to the rating growth. Based on the growth rate, we will surpass the Championship target by the end of this coming season. That should make us competitive, with an outside shot to win the Champions League. This past season, we made it to the Quarterfinals and had a decent showing against the eventual winners PSG a result in line with the squad quality assessment. Reminder that the rating for each of the leagues below is the average of the top 10 rating for each position across the entire league. The appropriate top 10 average for the positions in my tactic are then slotted into the chart and averaged across the 11 ratings. Only a few teams in each league would have a player in each position that ranks in the top 10, so by using this as a target, it provides a measure of when the raw attribute ratings of the team would position it near the top of the league being compared against. We all know that cohesion, morale, happiness etc. gives the human manager the edge, so when my team hits the rating for one of the leagues, I would expect it to be able to win, or at a minimum compete to win, the league. I have seen that team can successfully compete with most of the teams in a league above their rating. This means that once I can get the Lions to the ENG Champ level, we should be able to compete in the Champions League. We now have four positions at / above the target: Left Fullback, right fullback, left central defender and attacking midfield. Blasco's rating declined slightly, so BWM dropped a bit under the rating. Rojas at GK should develop to, or past, the target this season. We have high potential players at DLP and AF, so they could also develop to the target.. Looking at the graph of ratings growth and I find it interesting that it has settled into an almost straight line of growth. The majority of the end of season squad is signed on for the upcoming season as well. The only exception is Merino at AP who is on loan.

UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals: For the quarter finals we are up against Paris SG who play in the Ligue 1 Uber Eats. France is 5th in the nation club rankings and PSG are 2nd in the club rankings. We played them in the league phase and managed a draw, but realistically, we should not have much chance. Well, that wasn't pretty as we were soundly beaten. Back home for the second leg and managed a victory! Too little, too late, but a nice way to finish off the competition. We were still outplayed which shows there is more work to be done.

UEFA Champions League Round of 16: We drew A. Madrid who play in the Spanish First Division. Spain is 2nd in the nation club rankings and A. Madrid are 14th in the club rankings. This should likely be a defeat for us, given their ranking and players. First leg at home and I will take a draw for sure. We took home a victory away from home and move on!!! Both games were relatively close on the stats page too.

UEFA Champions League Knock Out Play Off Round: We drew Celtic who play in the cinch Premiership. Scotland is 6th in the nation club rankings and Celtic are 18th in the club rankings. This will be a tough one, but we should have a chance to keep it close and maybe sneak away with a win. First match away and a glorious result! We had the better chances and XG even though it looks like they had more of the ball and shots. Great game by Rojas helped for sure. Second game back home and we lost, but move on on aggregate. Another close game shows we belong at this point in the competition. We also got £8.23M for playing in the Knock Out.

Youth intake preview is in and looking gloomy.

UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 7: Next up are RB Salzburg who play in the Austrian Premier League. Austria is 10th in the nation club rankings and RF Salzburg are 17h in the club rankings. Based on my estimate that we are capable of playing with anyone ranked 20 or below, this will be a tough one, but one we have an outside shot at. I would be thrilled with another draw to keep up unbeaten in the league phase. Wow! We pulled out a victory. The team is getting very close. The match statistics align with the outcome and were slightly in our favour even with going down a man in the 76th minute. Rojas is on fine form in goal for us and is attracting offers from premier league teams - so far he has not gotten upset by me blocking the transfers. UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 8: Next up are Bayern who play in the Bundesliga. Germany is 4th in the nation club rankings and Bayern are 4th in the club rankings. I don't think we have a chance in this one, but hopefully can keep it close. We are in the top 8 right now, but need points from this one to stay there, so are likely playoff bound. We lost, but it was a very respectable showing from the lads.

UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 5: Next up are Galatasaray who play in the Turkish Super League. Turkiye is 12th in the nation club rankings and Galatasaray are 44th in the club rankings. We played them a couple of seasons ago and lost, we should have a good chance of a victory in this game. No victory, but I will take a draw. Pretty much guaranteed to make it through the league phase now. UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 6: Next up are VFB Stuttgart who play in the Bundesliga. Germany is 4th in the nation club rankings and VFB Stuttgart are 56th in the club rankings. We played them in our early years in the European competitions, so they will be a good measure of how far we have come. We should have a good chance of a victory in this game. Another draw, No losses so far, which is pretty amazing.

UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 4: Next up are Paris SG who play in the Ligue 1 Uber Eats. France is 5th in the nation club rankings and PSG are 2nd in the club rankings. We should not have much chance in this one, hope to keep it close. Interesting that Pep Guardiola moved over to PSG for this season. Nice! Thrilled to get a draw and even more thrilled because we went down a man and still got the late equalizer. We have 3 wins and a draw for 10 points so far. Pretty much guaranteed to move on from the league phase now

UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 3: Next up are Young Boys who play in the Swiss Super League. Switzerland is 23rd in the nation club rankings and Young Boys are 53rd in the club rankings. We should have a good chance to win this one. Good win and from the looks of it, well played by the squad.

UEFA Champions League League Phase - Game 1: First up is Man UFC who play in the English Premier League. England is 1st in the nation club rankings and Man UFC are 21st in the club rankings. They have better players than us for sure, but we should be getting close enough to make it competitive. What a game from Rojas and what a late comeback for the team. Very happy to take a win here against the flow of the match/stats etc. We deserved to lose, but our GK pulled this one out for us.

Love the concept and the story so far. Good luck with the save and settle in for the long haul to build up the reputation of your team, league and country!