[FM13] Turning the Roman Empire into Més que un Club

[JackJCFC]

If he earns it definitely, no favouritism from me. Well, maybe a little favouritism from me

The fact your putting him on the bench for a cup final suggests some heavy favoritism

[Bracken]

The fact your putting him on the bench for a cup final suggests some heavy favoritism

Well Ake and Cahill are injured and may be out for the final, so it's between him and Devonshire, so not too much favouritism really

[Bracken]

May 2015

Fixtures

We started off with a nice 3-0 over QPR, but it would've been 7 had FM not crashed when I first played the dang game. It also left me with Mikel and Wallace out for 6-8 weeks, and Cahill and Ake missing the rest of the month. So despite a good win, it could've been more and the injuries could've cost us more than the win was worth. The West Brom game was a lot better than the scoreline suggests, we should've won easily, Baker missed a penalty but made up for it with a cracking goal, we completely dominate but couldn't add to it, and then JT ended up scoring an own goal somehow, meaning we drew the game and City secured the title without even playing. Really disappointing as I wanted to keep the pressure on them, but they would've won it with the next match anyway, so I guess it didn't matter too much.

The FA Cup Final

The stats in this game really hide the domination we showed. Here's something which I think gives a better overview of the game:

Chelsea Shot Positions

City Shot Positions

This demonstrates that we really were the better team, we restricted them mainly to long shots and put a lot of pressure on so that they missed with most of them, but we were really let down by our composure in front of the net. It could've been so much more comfortable, but in the end we held on, and we made sure that City ended with just the title to show for their season, and secured my first FA Cup trophy of the save, so at least we haven't ended the season empty handed on the domestic front.

The final game against City was really pleasing, we defended solidly and the Captain, Leader and Legend that is JT popped up with the winner. I like to think we showed in that game that although we lost out this year, we're coming for them next season, and we'll be taking our title back.

The League Table

Well, overall it was a pretty interesting season. A four point gap isn't shameful, we were fighting until right at the last, but this year it just wasn't quite enough. The relegation battle wasn't particularly exciting, I'll take a look at the three teams that've been relegated to see if there are any players worth picking up, but I don't think they have too much. The surprise package this year has certainly been Stoke, who held off the challenge from Tottenham to get a place in next years Champions League. Finally, Messi may have to face a wet Wednesday night at the Britannia Devonshire certainly helped them in the first half of the year, but in December his appearances dried up and they brought in a new centre back at the start of January, so instead he came back to claim a FA Cup winners medal with us. Still, a tremendous season for them, will be interesting to see where they go from here.

So next up will be the season reviews, they always take a pretty long time to type out, and this one'll probably be bigger than the last too so if you're looking for some bedtime reading, it'll take a while but I'll have something soon

[B.W.G]

Next season will be your season for the title!

[ajcardall]

I've just read through 95% (I skimmed some parts - I focused heavily on your end of season updates regarding ins and outs, and the squad ethos you're building), and this is one of the better career updates going right now. Your attention to detail is astonishing - you clearly put a lot of thought into all your decisions - kudos. I never expected reading a big club career would be as interesting, but you've got a fantastically original idea and are implementing it extremely well.

I look forward to reading more. This has actually inspired me to take a similar approach in my current game!

[iHeadHunta x]

Shame not to win the league but will be fighting against next year no doubt!

[smgers]

Unlucky with this season Bracken - at least you won the FA Cup.

As strange as it may seem it can sometimes be a good thing having the season you've just had. Gives you a chance to reassess the squad and will make everyone hungrier for success next season.

Have to say though you have done extremely well for your first three seasons considering that you haven't made any huge changes to the playing squad. You've done really well bringing through the youth players and have resisted the urge to splash the cash on superstars which is a tempting thing when you are one of the top sides.

[Bracken]

Next season will be your season for the title!

Hope so, they should be hungry for it at least!

I've just read through 95% (I skimmed some parts - I focused heavily on your end of season updates regarding ins and outs, and the squad ethos you're building), and this is one of the better career updates going right now. Your attention to detail is astonishing - you clearly put a lot of thought into all your decisions - kudos. I never expected reading a big club career would be as interesting, but you've got a fantastically original idea and are implementing it extremely well.

I look forward to reading more. This has actually inspired me to take a similar approach in my current game!

Thanks very much mate, the end of season stuff covers most of it anyway so I doubt you've missed much by skimming (and probably preserved your sanity ). Good luck in your save

Shame not to win the league but will be fighting against next year no doubt!

Yeah it's disappointing, but sometimes a kick is what they need, and hopefully this will be a good motivatin next year

Unlucky with this season Bracken - at least you won the FA Cup.

As strange as it may seem it can sometimes be a good thing having the season you've just had. Gives you a chance to reassess the squad and will make everyone hungrier for success next season.

Have to say though you have done extremely well for your first three seasons considering that you haven't made any huge changes to the playing squad. You've done really well bringing through the youth players and have resisted the urge to splash the cash on superstars which is a tempting thing when you are one of the top sides.

I think it's definitely true about using it as motivation, and it has given me a few insights into my squad and tactics that should help me to improve them next season. Thanks a lot for following along, I am considering one significant purchase next season, but I'll wait and see the exact shape and size of my squad before I commit to that, it would definitely only be the one major signing as I'm going to keep my finances in order as much as possible.

First review post of the season coming up!

[Bracken]

Season in Review – 2014/15

World Champions Again and FA Cup Winners, but Runners Up in England with work to do and a team in transition

The Barclays Premier League

So for the first time under my reign we failed to win the title. All credit to City, they had a great season and deservedly got the title. Our big problem was just too many draws, we drew more games than anyone else in the top five, and despite losing the fewest matches in the league this year, those draws killed us. It was a tough season, fixture congestion didn’t help but as a big club we should be able to deal with it, and this year we just couldn’t. While our goal-scoring was pretty solid, we conceded too many for my liking and that’s the main thing I’ll be addressing over the summer. I’m disappointed not to have made it three titles in a row, but it’ll make us all the more determined to come back and win it next season.

Premier League Stats

We had another good year in the individual statistics for the league this year, but there’s certainly room for improvement. Mata didn’t have a great year, as demonstrated by his lack of presence in the Assists and Key Passes tables. What these stats really show is that our central midfield is working well, and Lukaku is almost carrying the team up front, but my three behind the main man didn’t have great years. Hazard was the pick of the bunch, getting a good number of Assists, but Mata and Oscar need to produce more. I’ll go into it later on in more detail, but it might be time for some tactical tweaks here and there. One thing that’s really interesting is that despite our slightly poor defensive record, Cech won the Golden Glove award, which shows that the problems at the back we had came in a small number of games. If we played well, we kept clean sheets, if we didn’t, we conceded usually two or three goals, and that’s something we’ll need to sort out next year.

Premier League Awards

Footbal Writers Player of the Year: Romelu Lukaku

PFA Player of the Year: Eden Hazard

PFA Young Player of the Year: Daniel Sturridge

Barclays Golden Boot: Romelu Lukaku

Barclays Golden Glove: Petr Cech

Baclays Premier League Goal of the Season: Yannick N’Djeng

Barclays Manager of the Year: Roberto Mancini

Team of the Year

A good solid season in the awards, though I missed out on Manager of the Year this time round to Mancini, which is fair enough really. We managed four players in the Team of the Year, which isn’t bad, interestingly Azpilicueta made it in there, something I’ll deal with later in a tactical deep-dive.

The UEFA Champions League

Winner: Celtic

Runner Up: Benfica

Well there’s a winner I didn’t see coming! Celtic manager to knockout Man City in the semi’s with a 5-2 aggregate win, Tony Watt doing particularly well with a hat trick over the two legs, and even though they haven’t brought in too many players, they’ve become a really solid squad. Having knocked us out in the Quarter Finals, Benfica managed to get past Real Madrid in the semi-final (which made me feel a little better about the loss) and then fell to the mighty Scots. Our performance was ok in reaching the quarters, it was always going to be tough to retain our trophy. I am still disappointed at losing to Benfica, but their performances against Real proved that perhaps I simply underestimated them and they did, on balance, probably deserve to get through.

UEFA Champions League Best Player: Dede

UEFA Champions League Top Goalscorer: Romelu Lukaku

UEFA Champions League Team of the Year:

Well clearly City had some great performances in the CL this season, they really are quite a team now and will take some beating next year. Surprised that Celtic didn’t have any players in the Team of the Year, despite winning the cup! Lukaku was top scorer and so earned his place there, but it’s disappointing that as holders we only had one representative in there this year.

The FA Cup with Budweiser

Winner: Chelsea

Runner Up: Manchester City

Took us three years, but we’ve now cracked the club and have won all the domestic silverware on offer. A real rollercoaster of a ride to the final, with the Semi-Final against Tottenham being a good example, with us eventually getting the win 4-3 after extra time. When we got to the final we had a few players out injured; Cahill, Ake, and Mikel were amongst them, meaning that my son got himself a place on the bench, and even an appearance in the last few minutes to sure up the backline, and Chalobah started his first final for us. We played extremely well and should’ve won by more, but we were hanging on in the last few minutes and they even had a goal disallowed for offside. Still, delighted we’ve finally won this one.

The Capital One Cup

Winner: Southampton

Runner Up: Arsenal

A great achievement for Southampton, we were again knocked out by the runners up in this competition, but I’m always happy when Arsenal lose

The Community Shield

Winner: Chelsea

Runner Up: Liverpool

We ground this one out a bit with a 2-0 win, but it was a solid start to the season and set the tone for our early part of our season, before the inconsistency really set in.

Other Competition Winners

nPower Championship: Reading

nPower League One: Sheffield United

nPower League Two: Plymouth

Blue Square Bet Premier: Lincoln City

Blue Square Bet North: Kettering Town

Blue Square Bet South: Dover City

Clydesdale Bank Premier League: Celtic

Danske Bank Premiership: Linfield

Airtrcity Premier Division: Dundalk

Corbett Sports Welsh Premier League: The New Saints

La Liga: Barcelona

Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen

Serie A: Napoli

Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain

Eredivisie: Ajax

SOGAZ Prem’er Liga: Anji Makhachkala

Jupiler Pro League: Anderlecht

Liga ZON SAGRES: Benfica

FIFA Club World Cup: Chelsea

UEFA Super Cup: FC Porto

UEFA Europa League: Inter

UEFA NextGen Series: Manchester United Reserves

We brought home the Club World Cup incredibly easily this year, taking apart Al-Sadd in the final with no problems. However, the Super Cup was more challenging, and while we should’ve won we were punished for sloppy finishing and poor composure at the back.

Slightly irritated that United won the NextGen as I was hoping we’d be the first to get that in the UK, but we’ll have a go again next year if we qualify.

Next

Next up will be a 2012/13 First Team Performance Review, looking at some of the first team's stats. Then there will be other posts, though not sure how many/which content will make it in yet. I’m indecisive

[Bracken]

First Team Performance Review – 2013/14

A look back on the performances and development of the first team, through the eyes of some of the stats.

Performances

I’ll take a look back at the first team’s performances this season, again looking at our ‘top 5s’ in terms of goals, assists, key passes and average ratings, but also looking a little further into our defending, and looking at how we can solve the problems of last season and build going forward.

Attacking:

Here’s a look at some of the key stats about our attacking play, how I feel about them and what I’d like to improve.

Goals

Too reliant on the strikers. That’s the main takeaway from this area. While it’s fantastic that Lukaku and Keast are scoring so many goals and have these fantastic ratios, we need to make sure that the other players are chipping in too, and this season they haven’t been. So we’ve got a challenge going forward, and that’s how do we keep the strikers scoring goals, hopefully somewhere near the ratios they’ve been getting this season, but also ensuring the burden of goal-scoring is spread amongst the team. 16 from Hazard isn’t a bad return, but I want to see something close to that coming from Mata and Oscar too. Ramires grabbed 10, which is good enough for me, but Oscar was only on 6 and Mata on 8, I’d like both to be getting at least double figures. These are the two roles I think need the most work, so I’ll be looking to see what I can do here to make sure they’re pulling their weight in goalscoring terms. If possible, I’d like to see the Deep Lying Playmaker grabbing a few more too (Baker got 3, McEachran and Frank just 1) but that’s not a priority and I don’t want to compromise the discipline that’s necessary in that role.

Assists

Hazard was again the main man in the assists chart, with Mata coming in just below. These numbers are fairly solid, and while I’d like to see more from Oscar, he sort of gets away with it because he links so well with Azpilicueta, and the right hand side is an area that we get a lot of assists from as we have thirty from Oscar, Azpi and Rambo combined. If we could get the same number of assists from the left back spot, then our flanks would be very well served creatively. Assists are a tough stat to judge really, as if we’re scoring goals then we must be getting assists too, I’m not too bothered by the concentration of assists, it’s who’s getting the goals that I’m more concerned with.

Key Passes

What I’m most impressed here is Lewis Baker’s number of Key passes. Having not started too many games, he managed to do very well in keeping the ball and using it well. I’m also pleased with the number made by Lukaku, showing that despite being the main man up top, and not getting too many Assists, he is getting involved with player and helping the team creatively. A little disappointed by the number made by Oscar and Ramires, that right-wing role is definitely the one that needs the most work.

Defending:

I haven’t been too impressed by our defending this season, so I’m going to take a bit of a dive into some of the stats here to work out exactly what it is that’s been wrong. I’ve done a lot of looking around, but these three stats should show help illustrate my conclusions.

Mistakes

Well Cesar, this is interesting. Apzilicueta lead the way with by far the most mistakes this season, but strangely had no mistakes leading to goals. Mata making mistakes isn’t a big issue as he’s far enough forward, but with Luke Shaw also up there on the mistake front, it’s possible that the full back roles need to be looked at a little, as both players have very good attributes and shouldn’t be making so many mistakes. JT’s mistakes are again understandable, he’s aging and his role involves driving out from the back, without pace he’s often liable to be caught out, but hopefully that’ll be solved with the pace in our younger CB’s coming through. Chalobah is young and still a little rash, so I’m not too worried about his role as Mikel makes very few mistakes, it’s more a case of Chalobah still learning than anything else.

One thing that’s really interesting is that the players who’ve made the most mistakes aren’t the same as the players who’ve made mistakes leading to goals:

Mistakes Leading to Goals

Obviously not a big concentration here, Bertrand being the only player to have cost us more than one goal. I’m not exactly sure how this stat is calculated in the game, as I’ve seen more individual errors than those accounted for here, but if I’m to believe these statistics then the problem doesn’t seem to be individual mistakes as much as I thought, so there must be some other cause of the defensive problems we’ve had.

Tackles Per Game

Well look at that. Our central midfielders are offering fantastic support and shielding to our backline, demonstrating that we’ve got these boys set up very well. I find it interesting that no Full Backs are in the top five here. I wouldn’t expect any of the Centre Backs, as they’re a last line of defence and shouldn’t get too many tackles, though the Stopper would be expected to get more than the Covering player. But I would expect my Full backs to be getting in a few more tackles, and this is the area I think I’m most lacking in that should sure up the defence. So that’s one thought that’s going on right now, I think there will be a lot more information coming from the Style update this year which will cover these problems in more detail. But first, the rest of the stats:

Average Rating

So the two obvious candidates head this list, but number three shows just how well our development strategy is going. Luke Shaw had a terrific season and is now certainly our first choice left back, he’s been much more solid than Bertrand, and even though I think the role needs work, the players are clearly the right ones. The more aggressive Centre-backs also had good seasons, though Devonshire’s rating isn’t over too many games. Anyway, we actually had nobody with a rating below 7, with all but Blackman, De Bruyne and Ashton well above 7.1

The Squad

* Note, Lampard’s stats have seem to have been cleared, I think I know why but will explain later, I’m sure you’ll be able to guess anyway

Here’s the main first team squad of the season, youngsters obviously got their fair share of chances too, but this was my main squad. I’m pleased with most of, though not all of, the squad, we had overall pretty good balance to the squad with a lot of different types of options. There’s also a good selection of stats for you to peruse at your leisure.

So those are the stats. My plan for the rest of the post-season update looks something like this:

- Style Evaluation: This will sort of double as an autopsy for the season, looking at what went wrong

- Ethos Update: Looking at any changes to the club Ethos

- Development Update: Looking at Youth and First Team player development

- Club Development: Looking at finances, facilities and staff changes

- The Son: How is having a son in my game going to affect us going forward?

Some of these posts may be combined, but that’s the plan, so I’ll crack on!

[Bracken]

The Autopsy of 2014/15

A look at the Style of the team and where and how we went wrong this year

Intro

So this is my autopsy/Style update for this season. In a way, I’m almost glad that we’ve had a few problems this year, as it’s shown me a few issues within my tactic and formation, and these issues only really come to light in the bad times. So, while this may end up being a lot of text, I’ll try and break it up with any images that I find instructive if I can. So, I’ll start where I think the bigger problems are, which is at the back.

Problems at the back

It’s not really about the numbers here. I know we didn’t actually concede too many goals, we had a fairly solid record (though not quite as good as previous years) and obviously our results were pretty solid overall. However, there have been issues, we’ve given away more shots than I’d like in most games, and I’m going to look at how and why, and see if we can fix that.

Tactics Faced

So here’s a little summary of the tactics we’ve faced this season and how we’ve fared (it’d take too many screenshots to show how we’ve done against each and every tactic used against us) and I think it’s a pretty good summary really. We’ve done very well against teams with narrow midfields (5-3-2, 4-1-2-1-2 etc.) and we’ve found it tougher against teams with a lot of width (4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-1-3-2 etc.). So that’s a solid indication of my theory that the problem lies in the wide areas, particularly in the full back spot.

Assist Positions Against Us

This shows that I’m partially right in the problems at the full back area, we’ve conceded 9 goals coming from our right back area, but only 5 from the left back spot. Is this because we’re strong at right back? Not really, Azpi is probably the better player. So, why are we having more from the right back spot than the left back? The answer is because there are more right footed players than left footed. This sounds odd, but I’m convinced it’s the answer and I’ll explain why later. The fact we’ve conceded the same number from the area outside our 18-yard box isn’t insignificant, but that covers a pretty big area and a lot of different goals. So, let’s look at the next stat:

So it’s passes and cross that are our main source of problems (which really covers pretty much everything ), but that doesn’t tell the full story either. 10 goals from crosses would make you think that perhaps the issue is that full backs aren’t stopping the crosses coming in, and we’re losing not quite dominating the aerial battle in the middle, but that’s not quite true:

We’re rarely conceding headers – only 4 in 50 games. We’re letting in a lot more on the floor. So the problem isn’t with us dealing with crosses, it’s the kind of crosses and passes that are coming in and how we can stop them.

The Typical Goal we Concede

So, from looking at the stats (and mainly from just having played through the season) this is the goal that’s been our problem. It comes in a few stages:

1. My Full Back shows the opposition winger onto their weaker foot, as instructed by my assistant, forcing them inside

2. The Winger cuts inside, causing my Centre Back (often the Stopper) to go out and face him, leaving his striker unmarked.

3. The winger crosses/passes the ball through to the unmarked striker who scores.

Obviously this isn’t every goal, but some variation of this has happened a number of times. Sometimes the winger will simply shoot, usually from outside the box, which isn’t usually an issue unless there’s a rebound, but when they pass the ball through or cross it over, the strikers often have a fairly simple finish. So the key to stopping this, is preventing the wingers cutting inside. Having just looked back at the review from last season, it seems I said something similar then but wasn’t sure how to stop it, but now I think I do.

The Solution: Push Them Wide

My assistant Steve Holland is usually pretty good at most things, but I’m starting to think one of the issues is his pre-match opposition instructions. One of the things he almost always tells the players to do is to show wingers onto their weaker foot. What this seems to mean however, is rather than showing them onto their weaker foot, is showing them inside, regardless of their preferred foot. Remember how I said there were a lot of right-footed players about? Well that explains why we’re conceding goals coming from that side, we push players inside onto their right foot and they punish us either through passing, crossing or just a direct shot. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that by showing them inside, we put our full backs into using their weaker feet to tackle, causing just more problems.

So instead, I’m going to have my full backs push the wingers outside, forcing them to attempt to get crosses in. The stats show we’re generally pretty dominant in the air, so we shouldn’t fear too many crosses, we just have to try to put the ball in the air in the box. So my two recommendations which I think will have an effect will be:

1. Show players outside onto their outside foot (right wingers onto their right feet, left wingers onto their left feet)

2. Have my Full Backs close down players a little earlier, ensuring they don’t have time to cut inside and push us into a corner. I’ve seen too many runs starting from deep coming right the way across the pitch to almost the other full back spot, which just causes chaos, so starting the closing down a bit earlier should help stop this.

They’re two pretty simply steps, but it’s often these subtle differences in FM that make the difference between a solid tactic and a great tactic. It won’t solve all my problems, I’m sure there’s more to look at, but I think it’ll be a start and I’m going to trial it next season and see how it goes.

Sharing the Burden Up Front

So as you’ll have seen by now, we rely a lot on our strikers (mainly Lukaku) to get us goals. Our strikers scored over 50% of our goals last season, which isn’t a problem exactly, but with the attacking talent we’ve got, the others should be getting more goals.

Assist Locations

Unsurprisingly, most of the assists come from the left hand side from Hazard. What’s interesting is that on the left hand side, most of the assists are from one player, whereas on the other side those numbers are from at least three players (Azpi, Oscar and Ramires). Other than that the assist locations don’t tell us too much, other than the fact we’re very good at creating things from within the opposition area which is nice.

Tweaks ahead

In all honesty, I’m not exactly sure what I’ll change around. There will certainly be tweaks to the right-wing area, probably the AMC, and possibly to the Striker as well just to improve his creativity. My guess is that I’ll prevent the right winger from roaming quite so much, increase the Through Balls from the Striker and allow the Attacking Midfielder to run with the ball from deep a little more and maybe even take long shots. Still, I’m not certain on these yet and they’ll definitely need a bit of testing in pre-season, so I’ll report back on these a little more once it’s done.

Overall Style Update

Despite the problems I’ve discussed above, I’m still very pleased with a lot of things around the style I’m looking to create. The transition between defence and attack is fast and utilises the strength and power of my team. The central midfielders provide a fantastic engine to the team, making a lot of tackles and using the ball very well. And my strikers have been performing superbly. So overall, there are a lot of positive here. If we can improve the defending to the levels of the first season, and bring back the attacking flair and distribution of the second season, we’ll be back to our very best and become very difficult for anyone to match us.

[Crazy Billy-Jay Jones]

Loving the detail in your analysis, and having every player scoring at least a 7 rating is pretty awesome!

I wouldn't think it would be too long before you're dominant in pretty much every competition going. Fantastic work.

[Bracken]

Loving the detail in your analysis, and having every player scoring at least a 7 rating is pretty awesome!

I wouldn't think it would be too long before you're dominant in pretty much every competition going. Fantastic work.

Cheers mate, that's definitely the long term aim, but we have to make sure we do it in the right way, that's almost more important than the results to me

[ShortSharpShock]

Great in-depth analysis of your thinking behind tactical changes. You should be able to eradicate the right-back issue with a couple of tweaks.

What role do you have Romelu Lukaku playing?? The boy is a beast!!

[Bracken]

Great in-depth analysis of your thinking behind tactical changes. You should be able to eradicate the right-back issue with a couple of tweaks.

What role do you have Romelu Lukaku playing?? The boy is a beast!!

He's a slightly edited Target Man with Support duty, but to be honest I think whatever role I play him in he'd scored bucketloads, he's just insane

[DBurns]

Haven't posted in a while but I'm fully caught up now. Fantastic progress you've been making but as others have said its maybe a good thing you haven't been too successful in that there is still challeneges to overcome whilst still being in transition as you mentioned.

Any big transfer plans for this summer?

Good luck with season four mate

----

Any chance of that screenshot of Wallace mate? I'm upto the first league game in saves with both Chelsea and Newcastle, unsure who to continue with.

[Bracken]

Haven't posted in a while but I'm fully caught up now. Fantastic progress you've been making but as others have said its maybe a good thing you haven't been too successful in that there is still challeneges to overcome whilst still being in transition as you mentioned.

Any big transfer plans for this summer?

Good luck with season four mate

----

Any chance of that screenshot of Wallace mate? I'm upto the first league game in saves with both Chelsea and Newcastle, unsure who to continue with.

Thanks mate, no problem I'll get the screenshot up in a mo.

[Bracken]

Any chance of that screenshot of Wallace mate? I'm upto the first league game in saves with both Chelsea and Newcastle, unsure who to continue with.

Here he is, he's at 2 stars of a 3 star PA. He's been ravaged by injuries for me (fractured skull, dislocated shoulder and a couple of hamstring injuries) but I think it's he's been unlucky rather than a problem with injury proneness

Wallace

[Bracken]

Ethos Update

The Changing of the Guard is beginning, can we retain our values?

Here’s a quick look at how we’re getting on in terms of my quest to make the club a professional, loyal club, somewhere players want to play for the fans, for the club, for the shirt and for each other.

Professionalism

So we’re still a Highly Professional squad, which is great and is exactly what I wanted when I started this save. The big challenge actually hasn’t been getting here, the challenge is going to be keeping things this way. As players age and retire, I need to make sure the replacements maintain this professional nature, so that’s my main aim right now. We’re doing ok for the moment, most of the players coming through have some sort of Professional personality, but the problem is that my squad’s average age is coming down, so we have fewer and fewer tutors, making it more difficult to shape my youngsters. I could go out and bring in a tutor or two, as I did in the first season, and that’s something I’m considering right now, but I haven’t found anyone yet that I feel would match the description I’m looking for.

Loyalty

Well first up here’s the big news:

So this is the reason Lamps’ stats were wiped from the screenshot earlier on. It’s a shame he’s going to retire on a season we didn’t win the league, but at least we got an FA Cup to send him off with, and he made an appearance in that final too. Still, it’s the right time for Frank to step down, he’s behind McEachran and Baker in the pecking order now.

It seems pretty fitting that a player with such an outstanding record with regards to injuries and fitness would become a great fitness coach, and his mental coaching is hardly surprising either. He’s been offered a deal as a Coach among the first team (he wasn’t interested in the U18’s which is fair enough) and I’m hoping he’ll accept in the next week or so. So that’s one more name that’ll be joining my ever-growing staff of Chelsea legends.

Here’s a look at the Club’s favoured personnel:

I’ve underlined all those players that are still at the Club in some capacity or another, which shows the progress we’ve made in terms of Loyalty so far. I’m now an Icon along with Lukaku which is great, I expect Rom to make it to Legend sooner rather than later. The fact that young Bryan Keast has made it to Favoured Personnel is interesting, I’m not sure when that happened but it’s always nice to see.

Challenges

The first challenge to Loyalty we have is Ashley Cole, who is going to be leaving the club this summer. Despite being a club Icon and having served us so well, his attitude has been pretty poor this season, he wants to leave and he’s eating up massive wages. So it’s farewell to Ashley, it’s a shame it had to end this way, but it’s his choice and he can have his way. I just hope the fans understand.

The other issue is that I’ve got two players, Cahill and Mikel, who have now been with the club for 4 years and 9 years respectively, yet I have players who are better than both and neither are great tutors. On any other save, I’d be getting rid of both (I probably would’ve gotten rid before now in fact) but this time I haven’t because of the qualities of the club. My sense right now is that I should let Cahill go and keep hold of Obi Mikel. Even though Mikel isn’t going to be first choice, as Chalobah is really growing into his role and his pace gives us another dimension that Obi lacks, but Mikel is heading into his 10th year at the club, and that’s most definitely loyalty-territory for me, so he’ll probably be sticking around, but with a reduced role. My guess is he’ll want a new challenge or get unhappy with his reduced role, but I hope not, and hope he can stay. He may not be a great tutor, but his experience could be very valuable to us going forward.

Finally, and this may sound ridiculous, I may have an issue at some point with Lukaku. He’s a sensational striker and fits in brilliantly with my philosophy, but I’ve got homegrown youngster Lewis Lincoln who is tearing up the reserves right now, and I’m not sure exactly what to do about that. It may be a case of switching formation and using both of them, but for now it’s definitely something that’s in the back of my mind. I’m thinking that it may be I’ll rotate the two at first, and then perhaps move to a front two when Mata retires, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Next

Next up is the Club Structures review, looking at the coaching staff, the scouting, the facilities and the finances, before I’ll round this whole update malarkey off with a post about Player Development and then finally move onto next season! Oh, and by the way, there’s some big news in the next bit

[Bracken]

Club Structures Review – 2013/14

A big new development shows we’re moving forward

Here's a quick look at some of the underlying fundamentals of the club, the things that go on in the background, and how they're progressing as the save goes on

Finances

As a result of sales, prize money and some trimming of the wage bill last summer, we’re now in a very good place financially. We’re making minor losses most months, with profits in some months and massive profits at the end of the season through prize money, we could even break even just through placing decently in the Prem, which is a nice achievement.

Then we got this at the end of the season:

Those new deals are a really nice boost, showing our reputation is improving and we’re moving towards becoming a really stable club.

Staff and Facilities

Stadium

So if you remember last season the board applied for planning permission for a new stadium and were refused, so instead expanded The Bridge to 43000 seats. This was a nice boost, but if we’re to become really self-sufficient, we’ll need a little more. I decided that s the finances were in such a great state, I might as well put in an ask:

Thank you Roman

Well the name is hardly imaginative (I wish I could change that), it’s certainly no Zola Park which I’ve had before, but I’ll take it. 58k seats is a great improvement, and I’m hoping that could be expanded further if we’re successful, I’d love us to be in an 80 or 90 thousand seater at some point, but I’m willing to be patient. Still, the move is a massive achievement and comes earlier than I expected due to the improvement in our financial situation. We’ll need to now watch the finances carefully in the next few years due to the cost of the new Stadium, but it shouldn’t be a big problem, and we’ve not got a big platform to build on. Onwards and Upwards!

Coaching Staff

Well my policy of hiring our ex-players has left us with an unfortunate, yet predictable, problem, which is that we’ve got a pretty big staff right now. A large part of that is the scouting department, which I’m going to take a hard look at over the summer and see if I can trim it a little, or at least rejig it somewhat so I’m not doubling up any assignments, then I’ll look at the coaching staff and see if I can reduce it while maintaining quality, personality and loyalty to good club servants and former players. It’s not a big problem, and with the new stadium we an probably carry a fairly large squad, but still it’s something to look at.

My Position

So I was a little worried that with the failure to meet expectations in a few competitions this season my position might be under threat, but so far there’s no sign of that. My position is still Very Secure, and the board are pretty happy with most aspects of my management. I’d like to get back to my former status as Untouchable, and the only way to do that is consistent success, starting by bringing back our title.

Next

The final post in this season’s review is going to be Player Development Update, then I’ll have one more post I’ll want to do over the summer break, but that’ll be a while before that’s posted, and you’ll have to wait and see what that is. Firstly I’ve gotta do the development update, and that’ll take a while.

[Lenzar]

I'm surprised it let you move stadium.

Don't Chelsea HAVE to stay at Bridge to keep the Chelsea name?

[Bracken]

I'm surprised it let you move stadium.

Don't Chelsea HAVE to stay at Bridge to keep the Chelsea name?

Bit complicated that, the club can move and keep the name as long as they agree the move with the Chelsea Pitch Owners, who own the name Chelsea FC and a few other things, so they'd have to agree the move with them as well as sorting out the freehold to Stamford Bridge, but I don't think that's coded into the game thankfully, would be a bit complicated to put in I'd think

[Animosama]

Other than your son are there any relatives coming through the game such as a brother,son for staff member, players, other players, other staff , other managers etc ?

[iHeadHunta x]

Loving these updates still!

[Bracken]

Other than your son are there any relatives coming through the game such as a brother,son for staff member, players, other players, other staff , other managers etc ?

None that have caught my eye, doesn't mean they're not there, I just haven't spotted any so far, but if I do I'll let you know

Loving these updates still!

Cheers mate, last one of the season is coming now!

[Bracken]

Player Development Report – 2014/15

So here’s the final big post of this season and it’s a look at how the younger players in my squad have been developing this season. I’ll start with the First Team, then the Loanees (there were a lot of them this year) and then the few youngsters who remained at the club.

First Team Development

Jamal Blackman (Goalkeeper) has come along fairly well this year. He hasn’t had too many appearances but has done well whenever called upon and has never complained about being a backup. He apparently still has a star of potential to grow into, so he could become an excellent backup in the years to come, next season he may find himself as third choice, but I’d really like him to remain here as our permanent understudy, sort of the Steven Harper of Chelsea if you will. He’s a Model Professional, so at worst he’ll be an excellent tutor, so let’s hope he stays for quite some time yet.

Now our undisputed first choice, Luke Shaw (Left Back) has come along brilliantly again this season. He’s a superb asset going forward and at the back, and his Pace and Stamina mean he’s more than capable of doing both jobs all day long. I focussed mainly on his Tackling and Crossing this season, and both are now very solid. He’s at three and a half stars of a five star PA, so he still has some way to go, I’ll probably focus on his Positioning and Crossing again this year, perhaps his First Touch as well, but really he’s already fantastic and any more development is just a bonus.

My son’s future defensive partner,Scott Devonshire (Centre Back/DR), has also had a good season of development. He spent the first part of the season out on loan at Stoke, and started well but then faded, so I brought him back in January since when he’s had a fair few games and is coming along nicely. I focussed on his pace again at first as that was his main weakness, but now with my son in the academy I’m going to try and turn Devonshire into an aerial monster, so that together him and my son will form a fantastic partnership of strength and speed, each complementing the other. If it works out, it could be the best partnership I’ve had on FM, and both would be homegrown and English. He’s currently at two stars of a five star PA, plenty of room to grow.

A less promising story is that of Nathan Ake (Centre Back/DM). Ake has performed decently in his outings this year, but he hasn’t developed as much as I would’ve liked. He’s just not going to ever be physically good enough for my team at centre back, and I’ve already got three superb defensive midfielders, so I’m not sure what role I can see him at in the future. I’m undecided if it’s time to let Ake go, as while he is homegrown and I’d like to be loyal, his opportunities will probably be even more limited next year and that’s not fair on him. It’s a shame, I’m sure he’ll be a good player for someone, but I don’t think it’s going to be us. Currently at two stars of four star potential.

Ready to take over as first choice, Nathaniel Chalobah (Central Midfield/DC) has had a very good season and looks to be well on his way to becoming the beast I wanted him to be. I focussed firstly on his Tackling this year, followed by Marking and then some role training, and it’s worked brilliantly. He’s also now a natural at Central Midfield, and with twenty Determination, a Professional personality and good Influence, he’s an option for future captain. And like Luke Shaw, he’s only at three stars of his five star potential, so he’s got some room to become a real monster. He’s made his England breakthrough too, and should become a regular member of their squad next season if Rogers knows what he’s doing.

The man who’ll be competing with Chalobah for that midfield spot for years to come is Lea Ashton (Central Midfield/DM). Lea’s also made hims England debut, he’s a more cultured, less physical version of Chalobah. I focussed first on his Pace, which has come along quite well, and then on his Tackling this year which hasn’t yet improved as much as I’d like, but he’s still coming along nicely, his mental attributes could be really impressive in a few years. I’ll keep the focus on tackling in the coming season until it’s up to 15, then I’ll think about changing his focus. Lea is at two stars of his five star PA, and as Model Professional (thank you Frank) I’m sure he’ll make it.

His attributes may not be outstanding, but Josh McEachran (Central Midfield) has played very well this season and is really ready to take over from Frank now. I focussed on his Tackling this year, but that’ll change to his Passing next time out as twelve is high enough on the Tackling front now. Two and a half stars of a four star PA, Josh hasn’t got too far to go, and I’m certain he’ll get there. My only slight disappointment is that he didn’t manage to take on Lamps’ Model Pro personality. He’s Resilient, which is still good, but I would’ve liked another Model Pro.

My favourite development story of the save so far is Lewis Baker (Central Midfield//AMLCR). I didn’t have hugely high hopes for him when I took over as I’ve never seen him become anything special in my last saves, but he’s great for me. I love either footed players, and Lewis’s versatility makes him a real favourite of mine. He’s another who’s been focussing on his Tackling, but once that’s up to twelve I’ll change that to a more attacking focus, but really I’m not bothered if he doesn’t develop at all more, he’s already real competition for McEachran, and a great future tutor with another Model Professional personality. Currently at two stars of a four star PA.

Gael Kakuta (Left Winger/AMCR) is a solid if unspectacular member of the squad. What I like about Gael is that he’s worked hard to improve his deficiencies (last season Passing, this season Finishing) and he’s made himself into a solid squad member. He’s at two stars of a two and a half star PA, so hasn’t got too much room to grow, but I don’t see him leaving any time soon.

Always in Romelu’s shadow, we have Bryan Keast, my Scottish terrier. I’m really pleased with Keasty, and the fans are too with him being in their Favoured Personnel. I focussed on his quickness, and his Pace and Acceleration have improved nicely, so while he’s not physically excellent, his mental attributes more than make up for it. I like him a lot, but the fact is in the end he’ll probably be moved on when Lincoln develops fully, unless I move to a two upfront system. He’s at two stars of his three star PA

Last but obviously not least, my main man Romelu Lukaku. Not much really needs saying, I had a fair few focuses for Rom this year, his Finishing, his Technique and his First Touch all had some attention and all improved pretty well, meaning Lukaku is basically unplayable on his day. He’s now up there with Messi and Ronaldo as the superstars of world football. He’s pretty much already at his PA now, but that doesn’t matter, as I really don’t need him to improve him anymore, he’s already simply fantastic.

Loanee Development

We had a lot of players out on loan this season, as the Regen Class of ’13 came through to be ready for first team football. Here’s a selection of some of the best.

Niall Selby (Goalkeeper) – Norwich City – Season Long Loan

Well thank you Norwich! This boy is now something really, really special. Definitely my future number one, and I’d think the future England number one too. He has such a superb distribution of attributes, probably the best I’ve seen for a Goalkeeper. It looked like he be in a relegation battle this year, but after Hughton was sacked, Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola took over and lead them well away from the relegation zone, with Selby playing a vital role in that. If Franco ever wants a player on loan from me, it’ll be a definite yes, as he’s demonstrated with Chalobah and Selby he’s brilliant at developing them. Also, how do you know when a Goalkeeper’s going to be awesome? When he’s dubbed this Selby will be in my first team squad next year as Cech’s backup and will get some league games too, with Blackman as number three. He’s at two and half stars of his five star PA already, so he’s definitely ready to step up.

Billy Britton (Right back/DC) – Everton – Season Long Loan

Billy’s another great success story showing the loan market can be a great way to develop youngsters. He’s really pushed on this season as a regular member of Everton’s first team, even keeping Seamus Coleman out of the team for long periods. Billy has now got solid all-round attributes and I feel pretty comfortable having him in my first team squad. Backup right back has been a problem for me, with neither Todd Kane or Wallace really impressing me, and I’ve always had Britton as one for the future, I think that future is probably coming up pretty soon. Only at one and a half stars of his five star PA, if he makes it the whole way he’ll be immense.

Keiran Crossan (Centre Back/DL) – Vittesse Arnhem – Season Long Loan

Annoyingly the market wasn’t there for Keiran at the start of the season, so I had to resort to sending him off to Vittesse for the year. However, it’s paid off pretty well and he’s developing into a solid, if unspectacular, centre back. I’m not sure what the future holds for Keiran, his lack of physical presence and his poor Concentration worry me, so they really need to improve, however there’s just something about him that I like, so he may find a place in my squad pretty soon, we’ll have to wait and see. Currently two star CA out of four star PA.

Todd Kane (Right Back) – Brentford – Season long Loan

Ah Todd, you just never made that leap that I hoped for. I wanted Todd to find a place in my first team, and I see now my major mistake was not retraining him. He doesn’t have the attributes for a Full Back, and no matter how hard I tried, he was never going to, but the more I look at him now the more I think I could’ve made use of him elsewhere. Instead, I’ve probably ended up lumbering him with a career as a decent but unspectacular Right Back for someone else. It’s a real shame, and I’ll learn lessons from this, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be. Sorry Todd, I hope to find you a good career with someone else in the summer.

Bartomeu (Centre Back) – Sporting Gijon – Season long Loan

Bartomeu got some great experience playing in La Liga with Sporting. Whether he’s going to make it as first team material I’m not sure yet, he’s definitely lacking something in the physical department, though his mentals and technicals are solid enough. He’s also shown he can handle pressure, he played over fifty games in Spain and came out with a creditable 6.8 rating for a lower-mid-table team. I’m not certain what to do with him next season, so I’ll look at the market for him out on loan next year and decide from there. Currently two out of five stars.

Richard Hendry (Central Midfield/DM) – Huddersfield – Second-half of Season loan

Richard got some good experience on loan at Premier League Huddersfield in the second half of this season, and it’s really helped him kick on in his development. He played very well in his time there and got a lot of game time. He even managed to claim a Young Player of the Month award too which is very promising. His biggest issue is the players standing in his way – Chalobah and Ashton. They’re both young, British and already first-team ready, so he may never make the breakthrough for me as he’s lacking in some key attributes (notably Concentration, Teamwork and Marking). Next season will probably see another loan move for Richard to improve on his one and a half star CA to his four and a half star PA.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Central Midfield/DM/AMC) – Watford – Season Long Loan

Ruben has pushed on a lot this season, his attributes are slowly becoming a lot more rounded, and while I’d almost written him off a while back, he might still work his wat into my team. Next season will be a huge year for RLC, whether that’s on loan or maybe as a utility midfielder, I haven’t quite decided yet. Still, he’s coming along nicely. One and half stars of his three and a half star PA are filled.

Glenn Wakeford (Central Midfield) – Leeds – Second-half of Season Loan

I really like this boy. He’s got a bit of everything; he could easily be a DLP or a BWM, and I think he could be a really good utility midfielder in the future if RLC doesn’t make that role his own (using a lot of abbreviations here ). Next season will probably be another loan, hopefully to a Premier League team this time out. He’s at one and a half stars of a four and a half star PA, so plenty of room to go yet.

Gary Pettigrew (Attacking Midfielder) – Hull – Second-half of Season Loan

Gary is coming along very nicely. He played extremely well at Hull, grabbing the Player and Young Player of the Month a couple of times, scored four goals and got a rating of 7.71! He’s only at one and half stars of his five star PA, so it may be time for him to step up to the first team, but I’m not sure yet. It could be he’ll get another loan deal next year, but either way, he’s going to be some player eventually.

Islam Feruz (Striker) – Blackpool – Season Long Loan

Islam made it into double figures for the Championship side, and he’s progressing fairly well. Feruz is one who really suffers from the way I like my strikers to play, if I played with a poacher he’d probably already be amongst the first team, but I’m not sure he’s going to make it as he’s not the kind of striker I need. I’m not quite sure what to do with Feruz just yet, but I’ll have a think about it over the summer and get back to you.

Other Loanees

I had a lot of other players out on loan such as Joe Harkin, Thomas Kalas, Kenneth Ormeruo, George Saville, Dion Conroy, Giulio Ciabatti, Andreas Christensen, Jordan Houghton, Cristian Cuevas, Michael Mockler, Bertrand Traore, Lucas Piazon, John Swift, Thorgan Hazard, Alex Kiwomya and John Keef. These are players who are unlikely to make it into my first team, but I want them to develop and get good careers at other teams. I honestly couldn’t go through every one of them and let you know how they’ve gone, but Christensen and Ciabatti are probably the standout and most likely to get into my squad at some point. The rest will be leaving at some point, and I’ll let you see them and know my reasoning behind their departures when they do.

Youth Team Development

Team Performances

English Reserves Group B

First Phase – 2nd

Secnd Phase – 2nd

English Under 18s Group 1

First Phase – 1st

Second Phase – 1st

Final:

NextGen Series – Didn’t qualify

Some great performances and achievements from my young team this year, and my U18’s manager did a great job, earning himself a wage rise and a new long term deal. We didn’t have a huge squad after January as a fair few players left on loan, but the players did really well and the manager kept them in good shape and good morale. I was annoyed we weren’t in the NextGen this year, I’m hoping our consistently good finishes in the U18’s and the Reserves will get us there next year.

Youth Player Development

Here’s just a quick look at a few of those who really stood out in the Under 18’s and Reserves this year

Rob Terrace (Goalkeeper)

Not quite as good as Selby, but still an excellent young British keeper. I like that he offers some different things from Selby, some really solid mental attributes and different strengths physically mean that he could provide some competition for him in the future and give us a different option between the sticks. A loan move or two will do him some good.

Michael Rowbotham (Sweeper/DC)

Here’s something weird. I don’t like one-footed players. I really don’t like centre-backs with poor jumping. Yet there’s something about Rowbotham that I like a lot. He’s Welsh, and I don’t have any Welsh players coming through yet, he’s got great Work Rate and Teamwork, and he’s got a good Professional personality and good Determination. So despite having a lot of draw backs (and only a three and a half star PA) I like this boy and hope he’ll develop well over the next few seasons and I’ll see what happens with him.

Bastian Schuf (Left Back/DC)

Bastian has been with me for two years now, and he’s turning into a very capable young player. I’ve retrained him to play at Centre Back as he lacks a fair few attributes I like in my Full Backs, and I think he’s got a future with this club. He may not be British, but he’ll be homegrown at the club very soon, and he’s a good left-footed option for the future. He’s at one and a half stars of his five star PA, so he’s going to be a good one. A loan move beckons for Bastian.

Manfred Vermuelen (Sweeper/DC)

Another who despite his low Jumping and Strength, I’ve just taken a liking to. He was only a natural Sweeper, so I had to retrain him to fit in, but fit in he has and I think he’s got a good future at the club if he continues to improve and work hard. Probably a loan deal coming for Manfred too.

Graeme Bracken (Centre Back)

Obviously my son hasn’t developed much since he came into the game in March, but one point on his Heading isn’t bad for just a month or so. He’ll be in the youth team next season, with probably the odd first team appearance in easy cup games or maybe one or two League games, and he’ll develop well I’m sure. I’ll keep him in the Youth team just because I don’t want to show him any favours that other players wouldn’t get, despite the face I really want to rush him through still, I know it’ll be better for his development if he stays where he is for now as I don’t want him to perform badly in the first team and hinder his development.

Keith Derry (Right Winger/ST/MC)

Keith played predominantly Reserve team football this year, with a few appearances for the First Team as well. He’s slowly improving his technical attributes, which he definitely needs to do, but he’s physically fantastic and I’m sure he’s going to offer me a great option in the future. He’s at two stars of a five star PA, so he’s quite well developed. He’s also injury prone, which is a worry, but he needs to get some first team football next season, whether that’s with us or with someone else on loan I’m not sure yet.

Lewis Lincoln (Striker)

This boy’s pretty fantastic, and is definitely going to find himself in the first team fold pretty soon. I’ve focussed on his Jumping which just hasn’t gotten where I want it to yet, but he wins his fair share of headers anyway, so it might not be a big problem. I’m undecided whether to just promote him now or loan him out, I’m leaning towards a loan but I’m not set yet. He’s at one and a half stars of his five star PA.

Next

So, that’s it for my season review. These seem to be getting longer and longer, which is just crazy Anyway, I’ve got one idea for another post which will be about taking a step back and looking at the future of my team, including a look at how my son will feature in that.

Someone’s suggested I start a Wordpress blog, I’m not sure if other people would be interested in reading that, but it’s something I’m considering, partly just to get used to using it which could be a good skill to have for the future, but if other people would be interested in that then let me know and I’ll post the details here. It’ll contain some of the same stuff as here, and some other stuff like Scouting, Development, Training etc. and other things I haven’t always gone into on here.

Anyway, onto next season!

[DBurns]

Some fantastic development of players, particularly Shaw, Chalobah, Devonshire and Britton. Schuf looks like he could be a solid CB, Lincoln looks like he is going to be something special and obviously your son will make it alongside Devonshire in the heart of the defence.

Regarding Hendry, what about retraining him as a RB? You’ve always struggled with a backup for Azpi and he already has decent Crossing, Marking, Tackling and Positioning attributes whilst being good in the air and competent physically meaning he wouldn’t be exposed by the opposition left winger for back post headers. All you need to work on is his Bravery and Concentration (which should improve with age anyway) as well as possibly his Dribbling depending on how you play your full backs. He could be a solid defensive full back.

[Bracken]

Some fantastic development of players, particularly Shaw, Chalobah, Devonshire and Britton. Schuf looks like he could be a solid CB, Lincoln looks like he is going to be something special and obviously your son will make it alongside Devonshire in the heart of the defence.

Regarding Hendry, what about retraining him as a RB? You’ve always struggled with a backup for Azpi and he already has decent Crossing, Marking, Tackling and Positioning attributes whilst being good in the air and competent physically meaning he wouldn’t be exposed by the opposition left winger for back post headers. All you need to work on is his Bravery and Concentration (which should improve with age anyway) as well as possibly his Dribbling depending on how you play your full backs. He could be a solid defensive full back.

You know what mate, that's a great shout. I've already got Britton who I'm hoping can fill that role, but it definitely wouldn't hurt to have another option, so that's something I'm now really considering, thanks a lot for that, could be a real problem solver

[DBurns]

You know what mate, that's a great shout. I've already got Britton who I'm hoping can fill that role, but it definitely wouldn't hurt to have another option, so that's something I'm now really considering, thanks a lot for that, could be a real problem solver

Not a bother mate. He is too good of a player to be third choice or to sell so you may as well retrain him where he is going to get some more game time.

[Brizza]

Lovely update. Interesting that Selby grew one cm taller while he was in Norwich. Also, Devonshire's determination increased whilst at Stoke. Did they tutor him? (Can you even do that to loanees?)

[hibees2]

Can't believe Celtic in the Champions League, outrageous!

Being Rangers/Scotland in my current save, developing Scottish players will be key for me to prolong the game, so seeing Keast bang them in for you and have ridiculous stats is pleasing. If only he was in my game

I'd be disappointed if you let Feruz leave, purely because we need him to be our saviour IRL! Haha.

Great posts as ever, massively insightful and something we wish we could all input into our games.

[Bracken]

Not a bother mate. He is too good of a player to be third choice or to sell so you may as well retrain him where he is going to get some more game time.

Yeah he is, I definitely want to find a way to use him somehow, and right back might be perfect. Thanks again

Lovely update. Interesting that Selby grew one cm taller while he was in Norwich. Also, Devonshire's determination increased whilst at Stoke. Did they tutor him? (Can you even do that to loanees?)

The Determination increase came from me tutoring him with JT when he get back from his loan, but Selby growing taller was all about Norwich. They must've been feeding him something funny

Can't believe Celtic in the Champions League, outrageous!

Being Rangers/Scotland in my current save, developing Scottish players will be key for me to prolong the game, so seeing Keast bang them in for you and have ridiculous stats is pleasing. If only he was in my game

I'd be disappointed if you let Feruz leave, purely because we need him to be our saviour IRL! Haha.

Great posts as ever, massively insightful and something we wish we could all input into our games.

Thanks a lot mate, I may have found a way to have a role for Feruz in the future, but I'm still in the early stages of planning for it so it'll have to wait yet. Keast is great, works his socks off which is always great to see, and the fans love him.

[Bracken]

So I'm not sure anyone will be interested (or if I'm even allowed to post this here?) but I've started a WordPress blog about FM, just covering some stuff that doesn't really fit in here but is still mainly based around my save. There's a post up about Squad Building and Future Planning which is heavily based on my current save, if anyone's interested it's here:

http://playingbetweenthelines.wordpress.com/

[DBurns]

That WordPress blog looks fantastic mate!

Just skimmed through it for now but will take a closer look at it later. Shows the level of detail you've put into future planning and buying youth in this save

[Bracken]

That WordPress blog looks fantastic mate!

Just skimmed through it for now but will take a closer look at it later. Shows the level of detail you've put into future planning and buying youth in this save

Thanks a lot mate, really appreciate all the support.

Finally going to get cracking into my next season now

[Bracken]

Meant to post this before with the Season Review:

My Goal of the Season 2014/15

[video=youtube;q27t2X1oMfU]

Cracking goal from young Lewis Lincoln, and an important one it was too.

[CornishGas]

Great posts as ever. Lewis Lincoln and Ruben Loftus-Cheek look especially promising, but I think it's just because I love the name "Ruben Loftus-Cheek". He sounds like a Robert Webb sketch show character. Gary Pettigrew clearly needs a full season at Bristol Rovers to fully realise his potential. ¬_¬

[b101]

Awesome to see you develop players that the AI never touch such as Chalobah and McEachran, and the Wordpress blog looks fantastic. The amount of thought you put into this is excellent, and I'll definitely try to incorporate some of that detail into my own long term planning. Keep it up and (deep breath)... Come on the Blues!

[Bracken]

Great posts as ever. Lewis Lincoln and Ruben Loftus-Cheek look especially promising, but I think it's just because I love the name "Ruben Loftus-Cheek". He sounds like a Robert Webb sketch show character. Gary Pettigrew clearly needs a full season at Bristol Rovers to fully realise his potential. ¬_¬

Haha, it is a great name isn't it? I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do with RBL just yet, but I'm sure I'll find him a place somewhere. Garry has just gone out on loan, but sadly not Bristol Rovers

Awesome to see you develop players that the AI never touch such as Chalobah and McEachran, and the Wordpress blog looks fantastic. The amount of thought you put into this is excellent, and I'll definitely try to incorporate some of that detail into my own long term planning. Keep it up and (deep breath)... Come on the Blues!

Thanks very much mate, just put another post up there if you're interested. And always nice to see some support for the finest team in the land

[ramie]

Great stuff in here Bracken, I have only read up to post 32 but have bee inspired to do a similar thing with Chelsea.

I did attempt a Chelsea save earlier in the year but was put off by the vast number of players they had, hopefully I will be able to manage it better this time around.

[Bracken]

Great stuff in here Bracken, I have only read up to post 32 but have bee inspired to do a similar thing with Chelsea.

I did attempt a Chelsea save earlier in the year but was put off by the vast number of players they had, hopefully I will be able to manage it better this time around.

Thanks mate, good luck with the Chelsea save, hope it goes well for you.

I haven't been able to play too much due to trying to get the blog up and running, however I'm going through pre-season now and hope to have a post up here later today or tomorrow.

[Bracken]

Pre-Season 2015/16

The beginnings of a transition

I definitely see this season as something of a transitional year. After failing to retain the title last year, I know I’m under pressure, but with John Terry on the decline and Lampard and Cole finishing their time playing for the club (for two very different reasons) this season is definitely something of a transition. The squad has a lot of young players in, many of whom are in their first full year as first team members, and so there’s going to be a bedding in period for certain. Hopefully they’ll surprise me, but if I’m honest, I think it’ll be tough to get the title back this year.

Expectations

The board expect me to win the title this year, and as I say that’s going to be tough. They also want the Final of the FA Cup and Champions League, talk about easy to please right? It’s going to be very difficult, I think we’re more likely to be second in the League again, and the other two are just unpredictable, but I think quarter finals of the CL and semi-finals of the FA Cup are realistic ambitions.

This is also my last season at Stamford Bridge. It’s a shame it’s going to be a transitional one, as I’d love to see the old place off with a bang. Hopefully we’ll be able to put on a show, but it’s going to be tough. Here’s how I’ve prepared.

Transfers

In:

Again this season I resisted the temptation to splash the cash, and only purchased a few youngsters to add some bodies to my youth team. The most significant is probably Francesco Carbonaro (Centre Back/SW), as while I’ve bought him mainly as an investment to sell on for a profit later, the idea is to use him as a kind of Devonshire-substitute in the youth teams, so I can see how my son plays alongside that kind of Stopper. As for the others. Jamie Charles (Defensive Midfielder probably has the greatest chance of making it into the first team.

Total Spent: £6.75m on 8 youngsters

Out:

Kevin De Bruyne – Real Madrid for £24.5m plus a sell-on percentage

This wasn’t a transfer I was desperate to make, but they wanted him pretty badly and he kept demanding a new contract on crazy wages whenever I rejected a bid, so in the end I sold him. He’d been a solid if unspectacular performer for me, so I didn’t have too many qualms about letting him go, it’s a good price and he’s leaving the league so I shouldn’t have to worry about him haunting me too much.

Gary Cahill – West Bromwich Albion for £12m

The time was just right to move Gary on. I have Devonshire coming through who’s already as good as him in my eyes, plus he’s a lot younger and on much lower wages. The price was pretty good for a player soon to be thirty, and he’d never really cemented himself as a regular at the club. Still, he leaves with no hard feeling and I hope he does well for the Baggies.

Wallace – Granada for £5.75m plus a sell-on percentage

I would’ve liked more for Wallace, but it was time to let him go and hopefully he’ll move for big money in the future and give me a nice bonus there. I have young Billy Britton ready to take his spot at right back, and with him not being British or having been at the club for a long time, I didn’t feel bad about selling. He had a serious injury out on loan which probably did for his development really, and his injury proneness over the season was something I could do without.

Ryan Gauld – Blackburn Rovers for £4.5m

Guald never really developed in the way I was hoping, he’s a decent enough player but was never sadly going to make it into my team. Still, a £4m profit after two years of development, a lot of which was spent on loan so I paid none of his wages, that’s not a bad investment I think

Nathan Ake – Norwich City for £4.2m plus a large sell-on percentage

I definitely should’ve got more for Ake, but I needed to clear space at the Centre-Back department, and Ake doesn’t have the Jumping, mental or technical attributes that I’d need to consider him a real potential first-teamer. He had a decent season last year, but he’s gone to join a good club managed by a Chelsea great, so I don’t feel too bad about letting him go. Hopfeully he’ll move again for a large fee in the future and I can earn a nice little extra amount.

Ashley Cole – Released

Ash is gone, and sadly not on the best of terms. I was really disappointed with his attitude last year, and it was just time for him to leave. So we part on less than friendly terms I’m afraid, but it’s all his doing. He’s currently considering an offer to goin Zola at Norwich.

Lucas Piazon – Watford for £550k plus a sell-on percentage

A tiny amount for a player the club signed for a big offer, but I’m hoping I’ll earn more if he leaves again. His development was hampered by a lot of injuries, and his wages and poor attitude (he kept asking for a new contract despite hardly playing) meant he had to go. Hopefully he’ll do well with the newly promoted side

Kenneth Ormerou – HSV for £3.2m plus a sell-on percentage

Another player who’s suffered from my wealth of young Centre-backs, he’s moved to a good club where he’ll be a regular, so I don’t feel bad about it.

Todd Kane – Sheffield United for £1.3m plus a sell-on percentage

This one hurt as I really like Todd Kane in real life, but in the game he’s just not good enough and I’d rather see him doing well for a Championship team than struggling and being found out against higher opposition. It’s a real shame but it had to be done, I really hope he does well there, and maybe regular football will prove me wrong and I’ll go back and buy him back. Somehow, sadly, I doubt it.

Others

A number of other players have moved on for minimal fees with sell-on percentages. They include Tomas Kalas, George Saville, Bertran Traore, Cristian Cuevas and Thorgan Hazard. They’re all players who haven’t developed to the level I expected of them, and so will ply their trade elsewhere in the hopes I can earn a little cash from their sell-ons. Kalas suffered massively from injury, while Saville just has a very low potential. Traore suffered from a poor attitude and resistance to tutoring, coupled with his ineligibility in the first season, while Cuevas and Hazard are nowhere near as good as my other options.

Total: £75m

Loans

One thing I’ve been really pleased about this pre-season is the number of quality loan deals I’ve been able to line up for my youngsters.

Gary Pettigrew (Attacking Midfielder – Season long loan to Southampton (Premier League)

Having had a short term loan to the Championship in the back end of last season, Pettigrew is now ready for a shot in the top league. I’ll be following his progress closely, as he could well become a backup for Juan Mata either later this season or next year. He’s going to be a first team regular according to Southampton

Keith Derry (Right Winger) – Six Month loan to Newcastle (PL)

Delighted with this loan deal, as Derry wasn’t likely to get much of a chance this year, but I want to see how he gets on playing in the Premier League as a right-winger. Luckily, the Newcastle deal has given me the chance to see just that, as he’s going to be a valuable player and they’ll be playing him wide-right, so this deal seems perfect to me.

Gary Macbeth (Right Winger)– Season Long loan to Swansea (PL)

Gary is the greatest competition to Derry for a possible future spot a right-wing, so I’m delighted to be able to compare the two as they both perform in that role in the top division. Hopefully he’ll get a good experience and I’ll be able to make my decision in the summer.

Lewis Lincoln (Striker)– Season Long loan to Reading (PL)

I’m not sure if I’ll let Lewis stay there for the whole year, but he’s going to be a first team regular for Reading, and at 17 to have him playing regular top divison football is going to be a big bonus. They’re going to have a very tough season, but hopefully he’ll perform well and get some vital experience. I’ll definitely be reviewing this loan in January to see how it’s going and if I want to recall him

Naswaf Ghulam (Striker)– Season long loan to West Brom (PL)

Another striker plying his trade in the top division this year, I’m hoping Ghulam can push on here as he hasn’t improved much since his arrival. While he’s unlikely to get a first team place for me, I’d like to see him improve and increase his value so that I can make a healthy profit.

Luca Fornasiero (Central Midfielder)– Season long loan to Stoke (PL)

Champions League team Stoke have taken Luca on loan for the year, he’s another who may not make it for me, simply because I’m going for mainly British players and have a good few central midfielders, but the experience can only help, and they did well in developing Devonshire for a few months last year.

Andreas Christensen (CB), Martin Smith (LB), Glenn Wakeford (CM) and Peter Nixon (ST/AML) – Season Long deals to Celtic

That’s right, four of my players have all joined the Scottish and European Champions on loan this year. They’re not my feeder club or anything, Celtic just wanted to borrow some of my best young talent, and I’m more than happy for them to do so. I love the idea of them all playing together up in Scotland, hopefully they’ll develop well and maybe form some close bonds that I can make use of when they return.

That’s all the loans I’ve got in the Premier League, as well as those four up in Scotland which is great. I’ve also got players in La Liga, the Championship and the Dutch league, but I’m not going to go into detail about each. Safe to say, I’ve made full use of the loan market this season as it’s paid dividends so far.

Contracts

Despite the transfers I’ve made and the loan deals I’ve taken, my wage bill hasn’t decreased by that much. It’s down certainly, but not hugely, mainly because I’ve had to sign some of my first teamers to new deals, including Mata, McEachran and Oscar. The two attacking midfielders both got pretty massive wage rises to take them to over £100k p/w, which isn’t something I enjoy doing but it’s necessary. Luckily this should be the last big contract for Mata, though I’m not looking forward to Oscar’s next deal in a few years, and positively dreading Hazard’s extension which will be worked out in the summer. Still, they were deals that needed to be done, and I think I got the best out of them that I could.

Tactical Shifts

I’ve made a few tactical changes this year to the team. Some of them are to do with future planning, and are covered more thoroughly in a blog post here. Others are to try and increase the performances of the team. I wanted to try and get a more even spread of goals, even if that means Lukaku getting less than he has previously. So while the roles are still the same, and most of the instructions have stayed the same, I have made a couple of tweaks, mainly to increase the presence of the attacking midfielder in the box. I’ve also stopped using Lukaku as a Target Man for the team, that’s still his role, but it may mean he’ll see a little less of the ball. Ideally it should help us tighten up at the back and improve the goal scoring of the three players behind the striker, but I guess we’ll see.

The Squad

So here’s my squad for the coming season. You’ll notice that Islam Feruz is now in the first team fold, he’ll be providing cover a the Left-wing Inside Forward role, with Kakuta moving inside to provide backup to Mata. Selby comes in as second choice goalkeeper, with Blackman now the number three, while Keiran Crossan comes in as a backup Covering Centre-back, with Devonshire playing understudy to JT. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same squad as last year.

Friendly Results

So as you can see the results were very encouraging, albeit against pretty weak opposition. I would’ve played some more difficult games, but I accidentally picked the wrong date for my pre-season to begin so I had to focus more on fitness and morale than on testing out my tactical switches. Still, some very good results and performances have given me something to build on for next year.

Conclusion

So that’s pre-season, I don’t think there’s anything else to cover; now I’m back to the monthly updates for the season.

[smgers]

Good luck with the season Bracken - still amazed that you have resisted the urge to splash the cash! You're doing well with the players that you have though.

When you say this is your last season is that because your contract is up or have you decided to leave the Bridge no matter what at the end of the season?

[Bracken]

Good luck with the season Bracken - still amazed that you have resisted the urge to splash the cash! You're doing well with the players that you have though.

When you say this is your last season is that because your contract is up or have you decided to leave the Bridge no matter what at the end of the season?

Oh no, not my last season, just the club's, we're moving into Chelsea Stadium (so imaginatively named) at the end of the year. I'm here for the long haul don't worry about that.

To be honest I just haven't seen anyone who'd make me want to splash out, I feel that the squad is pretty strong, and going out and buying anyone would just harm the chances for my youngsters, so I'm going to persevere with this squad and this approach unless things are going wrong by January.

Should have an August and maybe September update later on today

[Bracken]

August 2015

Fixtures

So let's start with the positives. We started off with a really well fought win against City in the Community Shield, while the possession and shot counts were fairly even, it doesn't really tell the full story as we were fairly dominant and could've won by more. So a great start there. The next three games were brilliant, my only disappointment is that we haven't scored more as we easily could have, we just wasted a few too many chances. I'm delighted by the number of chances we've been creating for the whole team, the shots have been coming in from everyone, not just Lukaku, which is great to see. I'm also pleased that despite this, Lukaku is still getting chances and getting goals. Then we have the defence, which has been superb, using the opposition instructions to show players wide rather than inside seems to have really made a difference, our centre backs are easily capable of dominating in the air, so even on the odd occassion a cross does make it past my full back, we've dealt with them. Three clean sheets, nine goals, a fantastic start.

A top-of-the-league-style start don't you think? Well, here's the bad news:

Manchester City Results

I've never seen a run like this from an AI team. I know the games haven't been the toughest, but those results are just insane. I thought our start was good, but we'll need to up our game if we're going to beat City to the title this year if they can keep up this form. It makes that win in the Community Shield all the sweeter.

The League Table

So we're in second, level on points but well behind in goal difference. I'm going to need someone to do us a favour if we're going to topple City this year, that run is just insane so far.

UEFA Champions League Group

A real tough group we've been drawn in, Dortmund and Atletico will really give us some tough matches. We should beat Plzen, but other than that this group could go to anyone.

Next Month

September gives us our first big games of the year in the league against Everton away and Manchester United at home. We've also got Newcastle at the Bridge in the cup, with and we kick off our Champions League campaign against Dortmund at home and Plzen away. Going to be a tough month, and we'll need to keep up our excellent performances if we're to stay in touch with Manchester City.

[iHeadHunta x]

Great start to the month, city on fire and will be hard to stop.

[ShortSharpShock]

Solid start to the season and some big transfer fees received. How are the clubs finances looking now??

[AK22]

This is still a brilliant thread, keep it up! Just a shame it's about Chelsea

Great news on the stadium front too

[Bracken]

Great start to the month, city on fire and will be hard to stop.

Cheers mate, they're definitely the team to beat right now.

Solid start to the season and some big transfer fees received. How are the clubs finances looking now??

Finances are in a very good state now, over £100m in the bank balance and only making a slight loss in most months, with the prize money and TV money more than making up for it.

This is still a brilliant thread, keep it up! Just a shame it's about Chelsea

Great news on the stadium front too

Haha thanks mate, really enjoying your thread too

[Bracken]

Some Unfortunate News

I wasn't expecting this message. It came right at the end of the transfer window, with just a few days to go, and I was really disappointed, but I do understand. Ryan's been a fantastic servant to the club and I would love him to stay, but I've seen this message before and my experience is that I'd be able to make him happy for a little while, but he'd want to leave again soon enough. So I've decided, it's best to let him go. I don't want to keep him against his will, and it seems to be more loyal in some ways to let him go than to make him stay. So...

I feel that £18.5m is a pretty great deal for a player that wants to leave, is second choice in his position, and is the wrong side of 25. So goodbye Bertrand, you've been a great player for us, good luck at Southampton/

Next

Should have the September update ready soon enough, may even get the October one up tonight as well, having a bit of a session right now