[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

[Sheriff7]

All the best wishes  from me too mate.. 

[BoxToBox]

All the best mate, hope you're in a better place soon.

[Dexter_Morgan]

look after yourself delta and hope to see you back when you're ready  

[deltablue]

On 08/06/2018 at 21:13, ManUtd1 said:

Hope all is well for you and yours, man -- and that we'll see you again soon. 

 

On 08/06/2018 at 21:44, Jupjamie said:

Wishing you all the best, Delta. Hope everything works out for you okay.

 

On 08/06/2018 at 22:50, Deisler26 said:

I hope things get better for you soon dude. You have plenty of support here if you need it. 

 

On 09/06/2018 at 00:30, Sheriff7 said:

All the best wishes  from me too mate.. 

 

On 09/06/2018 at 00:46, BoxToBox said:

All the best mate, hope you're in a better place soon.

 

On 09/06/2018 at 15:36, Dexter_Morgan said:

look after yourself delta and hope to see you back when you're ready  

Thanks guys. I am feeling a lot more stable this week, though I'm still not going to rush back into business as usual. I was planning to at least play the save a little 'casually' (not having to worry about the time between updates) but unfortunately my FM laptop has decided to enforce my 'withdrawal' after just one match this morning. Thankfully it was a comfortable win (since FM can be a little therapeutic when it's going well) given we started the season poorly enough (we had 3 times as many red cards in the first 2 matches as points, with board expectations of a title challenge meaning we have to climb up the table pretty quickly) not to be able to afford many more slip-ups for a while, hence feeling some pressure in-game as well, especially since it would be tough to take another failure after Mexico and how it ended at Gillingham.

Whenever I have a big windows update on that laptop, FM13 stops working (and just that specific version for some reason, not 11, 17 or 18. Never happened on any other machines either) and I have to un-install and download it off steam all over again (though the files thankfully remain intact and I back up the save anyway), this being something like the 4th time this has happened. I also have a policy of splitting big downloads like this over multiple days but thankfully it should just take a few more hours or so to complete when I do the second half tomorrow.

[BoxToBox]

Great news! Take it easy now.

[Deisler26]

Good news, fella.

Welcome back!

[deltablue]

On 13/06/2018 at 18:17, BoxToBox said:

Great news! Take it easy now.

 

On 14/06/2018 at 02:25, Deisler26 said:

Good news, fella.

Welcome back!

Thanks again. It's odd that I get more comments for not playing than playing though I'm ready for an update but it's not what I hoped it would be.

[deltablue]

Nov 2056

That didn't go well. I was going to play on 'privately' for a bit but I guess this is worth an update. I was a little worried by the board expectations of a title challenge, especially with such a radical squad overhaul. Nordstrom and the Belarusian defender Mikhailov were the only inherited players featuring regularly though Vorobjov might have been another if it hadn't been for multiple injuries and Marcio making a big impact in his place.

The pressure was on from the start after two sendings off meant we failed to get an opening day win over Utrecht, with another not helping as we lost at PSV, though I was expecting that anyway. We did manage to string a few more wins together to get up to 6th pretty quickly but that was as good as it got as we kept falling short against the decent teams, aside from that 4-0 hammering of Feyenoord. I do get very emotionally involved in my careers (as you can probably tell by the hundreds of words you all have to sit through in each post) but I was able to take a position of 'if it happens, it happens'.

It's a similar situation to Gillingham, with expectations getting ahead of the development of the team. I had overhauled the team with a lot of young players (and aside from a few terrible defensive displays, most players have performed well enough, very well in a few cases) and just needed time for things to come together. Even Gillingham was far from the first time that's happened, and while I'm not a fan of the 'arcade-y' ideas you get in GD I definitely see the appeal of an 'unsackable' option.

It didn't help that Gillingham got promoted the first season after I left with pretty much the exact same side I build (as well as having taken them up that far in the first place) and have been comfortable in the Championship in the 1 1/2 seasons since. Undoubtedly something similar will happen here as while I couldn't make things click soon enough (and another manager might), it feels like I should take partial credit.

The Europa League group campaign was a great example of things just not quite coming together. The first game against Olympiakos was us go 3-0 down after a terrible first half only for Marcio to grab two after the break. We then ruined any chance of a comeback with 2 more goals conceded but came close to a draw anyway. We took the lead against Chelsea and while I expected an equaliser, we didn't deserve to go on and lose and could easily have snatched a surprise winner ourselves. Gladbach 'FMed' us in the first half of the 3rd game, though the second half was more even, but we at least managed a point in the return, too late to avoid being knocked out already.

Still, it's an FMCU cliche (and definitely not worth all the times people add 'for a change' to it) about careers with a mixture of success being more interesting than those that all go well, and this makes it a hat-trick of sackings. I've already achieved quite a bit which helps take the pressure off, though the trophy cabinet is still far too Milan-dominated. In some ways these unemployed spells help move the game forward a little bit. My long-term saves are always at least partly about seeing everything change and develop over the years, like doing a 'holiday' save in the slowest possible way (and not spending a single day on holiday).

[deltablue]

Chapter 8: In Djurgarden of Eden

Thankfully I didn't have to wait long to find something new. There were 9 clubs I was interested in after being fired and those initial applications were all I needed to make. Brighton were the early favourites as an a decent Premier League club, and it seems odd that they stand out in that regard, given they are a PL club now but I'm still not used to thinking of them as such, and they certainly wouldn't have been in this version. They were actually the first offer to come in but I decided to delay a week because I wanted to wait on Djurgarden first, which proved to be a good decision when their offer arrived...

Yep, over 9M transfer budget (and 16M in the bank) in Sweden?Don't mind if I do. There's also all that wage budget room (especially with 4kpw as a limit for an individual player, so it can go very far indeed). They have a 42k stadium and at 40M their value is almost double of second placed Malmo and almost 4 times champions AIK. Contrast to Brighton who were maxed out on a wage budget of 950kpw or so which I know from experience with Ipswich is about the highest a club like that can realistically get it to, so maybe not so much financial wiggle room there. The fact that I would be joining at the end of the season and not in the middle was another thing in the Swede's favour. They also have quite a successful history.

They're not short on titles but they have been off the pace in the past 5 years, having just finished 4th in the league and 5th the year before. The expectation is merely to qualify for Europe, which means the pressure isn't on in the way it was at Heerenveen and my final Gillingham season. The team isn't much better than you'd expect, which is actually notable partly because of their financial situation, but also because of the quality that I've become used to seeing in other leagues, though that's mainly Eastern Europe, not Scandinavia. With all that money available I felt able to ask for a youth facilities upgrade (as it was only average, compared to 'top' training facilities), but I also found a good young defender (though his heading needs work) in the youth team already...

Sweden might well come to my rescue for the second time in the career, and appropriately enough I'll be facing Limhamn Bunkeflo (who turned into yo-yo club but are in the top flight again right now) in the Premier Division. It will be the first time I've faced a former club, though that's an incredibly rare occurence anyway within a specific career. I definitely hope to add quite a bit to the handful of non-Milan trophies in the cabinet.

[BoxToBox]

2 hours ago, deltablue said:

 

Jesus, he looks great!

[raz4la]

When you sign players do you focus on determination? I'm still on page 1 on this thread and I noticed that most of the players you have signed has pretty high determination and I thought it was pretty interesting.

Edited June 17, 2018 by raz4la

[deltablue]

23 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Jesus, he looks great!

I hope that given the relatively low level that he's still able to develop nicely and end up being a very good player for us at least. It helps that he's roughly first team level already.

5 hours ago, raz4la said:

When you sign players do you focus on determination? I'm still on page 1 on this thread and I noticed that most of the players you have signed has pretty high determination and I thought it was pretty interesting.

Not always, I definitely do look at determination for young players in particular but even then there have been a couple of exceptions that looked exciting enough as they were, which is just as well as they don't tend to really develop. It's not something I necessarily think about all the time as a strict requirement for new signings but it is often in my mind.

[deltablue]

AFCON 2057 - Tunisia

It feels odd that this is the 23rd AFCON of the save! Morocco won 3 out of 4 tournaments from 2017 to 2023 as well as having been beaten finalists at the World Cup after that but they've only made one African final since. I think they even failed to qualify once. However their long dry run ended with a win against South Africa, a team who have made a handful of finals but not managed a win in this save yet. By contrast, Egypt and Algeria both failed to make it out of the group stage having been the two finalists last time.

[deltablue]

Winter 2057

This felt like a window where very little happened despite a bit of evidence to the contrary, though the incoming column was already slightly padded by a transfer that had already been arranged of a defender who was essentually close to retirement. Money was certainly no object but the availability of players who were good enough definitely was, though that in some ways shows how relatively strong the core of the team was already, though we definitely needed a good keeper as a high priority. It was still disappointing seeing so few gems to potentially unearth from the smaller teams and leagues like I've become used to.

Although we were restricted to scouting in Europe, I had my eye on agent reports from elsewhere. Having failed ot get a Chilean full-back the first deal made (though the last to arrive, literally on the day of our first league match) was a Costa Rican right back from his native country. Even with all that money available I wasn't going to spent it too freely and the first fee was a mere 190k on a left-back from Helsingborg, who marginally became our new first choice as well as the only player to arrive before February.

Things moved a little quicker after that. I was on the hunt for a few forward and after a few maybe's again went outside of Europe for a Venezualan. Looking further we definitely needed him as we had little depth beyond a Ghanaian forward who was now 31, so made a second Swedish signing (which helps given we need 9 homegrown players in a matchday squad) as free agent. In the meantime we had sorted out the goalkeeper issue. I had made a mistake at the start by not going for a German free agent on the grounds that he was asking  for a little more than I could give him, though I could easily have adjusted the budget (and eventually did so later) to resolve that issue. It was Africa that came to the rescue in the form of Magdy (and I keep calling him 'Magby' in my head) as an Egyptian keeper who looked as good as anyone else I could find.

That was almost it, with the aforementioned Costa Rican yet to arrive, but later on (just in time for the first cup match) I finally saw my scouts throw up a Brazilian defender in Romania, not only suited to be the BPD (always a very specific role to have the right player for) but also being good in the air, giving me a final deal of the window. That gave us a team at least equal to any one else, though AIK and Malmo both had some players on a similar level to ours so we weren't clearly the strongest in the league, but I still had high hopes that we could soon be successful.

While waiting for the final deal to finally go through we had the cup group stage. It wasn't a tough group, with a trip to First Division South team Oddevold followed by home games against Husqvarna (not one of the bigger Premier Division teams) and Landskrona in the First Division Elite. Perhaps there were some cobwebs to dust off (as well as low tactical familiarity)as we played very well without grabbing the convicing scorelines we should have but I can't argue too much with 3 decent wins to start off with to take us through with a 100% record, and Orgryte at home next gives us a strong chance of making the semi-finals at least.

Signings

[raz4la]

Why are you playing one of the older versions of the game? Don't like the newer ones?

[deltablue]

16 hours ago, raz4la said:

Why are you playing one of the older versions of the game? Don't like the newer ones?

I do play them a little bit (and I have a minor FM18 career thread, maybe doing something similar for FM19) but it's true that I prefer this one more. There's also the fact that I like the idea of a continuous save going as far into the future as possible (with all the 'evolution' in the game world that comes from it) rather than only managing a limited number of years and feeling the need to 'reset' each year so sticking to one version and save in the long-term makes sense for that reason.

[Dexter_Morgan]

I thought Holland would be perfect for you so shame about your sacking. Hope this spell in Sweden isn't as frustrating as the time you were at Sirius (sp?) 

Edited June 18, 2018 by Dexter_Morgan

[deltablue]

On 18/06/2018 at 16:19, Dexter_Morgan said:

I thought Holland would be perfect for you so shame about your sacking. Hope this spell in Sweden isn't as frustrating as the time you were at Sirius (sp?) 

I'm surprised anyone remembers that It wasn't too bad but it was very chaotic at times. As it happens I was looking through old backup folders on my external hard drive and found screenshots from past careers (otherwise long deleted), including the least impressive (but very dramatic) promotion season of all time...

 

[deltablue]

June 2057

That hasn't quite gone as well as I expected it to. The league season started positively enough with a couple of wins, but then we were held against Hammarby and lost to Orgryte in the cup. While that was the first of only 2 defeats in 15 matches in charge so far (and just a single loss in the league after 11 games), wins have proved hard to come by as well. I'm not actually too disappointed with some of those draws, given we had a few matches away to the stronger teams in close succession. That doesn't just cover Malmo and AIK, but an Elfsborg side currently top and unbeaten, and even my former side Limhamn Bunkeflo who have had a strong season so far. I'm calling the latter match the 'Delta derby' even if no one else is.

The troubles come with a few poor results against other teams as well, especially a susprise (and frustrating given we had the upper hand for a lot of that match, especially in the beginning) against Orebro of all teams. Not exactly the fixture you'd expect as the one we lost. On top of the tougher games covered above that left us with a lot of points dropped early on and leaving us much worse off in the table than I hoped. However hopefully things can improve a little from this point, especially given how close we are to a few teams above us (as well as more comfortable fixtures on paper which should help get more wins in the bag).

I seem safe for now (having worried about a 4th sacking in a row), in fact despite being a little off the European qualification pace the board don't see things that way and my league confidence rating is currently 55%, which I don't get but I'll happily take it after what happened at previous clubs. Hopefully that means having enough time to see things start to improve, and no longer having to worry about that side of things.

Away from the league we start in the Europa League. I had some great campaigns with AIK on FM10 (reaching the Europa League and Champions League at least once each, beating Dortmund and Bayern on the way, as well as a 4-0 hammering of Benfica) but they had been a relatively decent team for years. Sweden is just a 1.5 star league right now, roughly alongside the second divisions of nations like Bulgaria and Slovakia (as well as the Greek C Division) so getting past a couple of rounds is the most we can realistically expect. We start off against HB of the Faroe Islands, which should be easy enough, with the Slovaks of Nitra afterwards, which looks like a fairly even match-up on paper. In terms of coefficient ranking, Sweden lies in 35th, just above Albania and below the Republic of Ireland and Iceland so it would be great to do our bit to improve that.

[deltablue]

Aug 2057

We thankfully took advantage of a relatively easy run of fixtures to quickly improve our situation. We were still dropping points to the smaller teams (including Helsingborg who were bottom at the time) but 10 points from 4 matches in July was enough to get us up into 3rd already (and we've spend a bit of time in the heady heights of 2nd after that), despite (or maybe because of) Chavez being away at the Gold Cup then getting an injury (though only for a week) as they lost the semi-final. He hadn't been that good (at the start of the season I had to keep taking him off due to looking complacent) and when he complained eventually about not playing enough (probably not taking into account his international absence) he didn't care when I pointed out he hadn't performed well enough to keep his spot, so he can just get lost.

Things got a bit messy after that, as we still could only draw against weaker teams while having to face the stronger teams again. Hammarby was a big win but on the flip side we registered a second and third league defeat of the season against Malmo and Elfsborg, both unlucky. In the first match a stoppage time equaliser was ruled out, and in the second we looked like good value to finally end their unbeaten run despite two minor injuries and two major ones but a late red card on top of that was more than we could cope with. The Europa League defeat to Nitra was disappointing as well as we were hopeless in Slovakia then fell apart after Paez put us back into the tie.

Even if we do manage to secure a top 3 finish it would hardly be a notable or impressive season, even with that 4-4 draw with AIK boosting our the goal columns a little. It would still be a decent start and a small improvement on the previous couple of years but it would just be as part of an inconsistent pack behind Elfsborg, who really are running away with it right now. Hopefully we can eventually set the league alight but it's definitely not happening at the moment.

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2057

This was set to be an unusually interesting competition. Mexico (winners of 6 of the last 7 tournaments, because we're just that awesome) would be away as it was a Confederations Cup year, as would the neighbourinos to the north as hosts of the World Cup next year. The two B teams were in the same group but while the USA came top, they ended up facing (thanks to Chavez's Costa Rica winning their group) and losing to Honduras while Mexico managed to get further with an easier time against Surinam.

In the absense of the usual 2 suspects, Canada finally took the title after being runners-up no fewer than 8 times in the save without success (as well as having been semi-finalists a handful more times). Honduras had won a few times, as well as reached some more finals, but despite going ahead they couldn't get a 4th crown. Canada still look like they're going to struggle to make World Cup qualification (even with the USA's absence in the hex opening up a slot for someone else). You win some, you lose some.

[deltablue]

One more thing...

I almost forgot the big summer signing I made. The rules in the league requiring 9 homegrown players in a matchday squad means that when it comes to non-homegrown players (not necessarily the same as distinctions between Swedish and foreign) it's a case of either being first choice or being out of the squad (and probably on the way out altogether). One Slovak defender who was on the 'losers' list in that regard was sold early on for 1M, and I had already sorted out the signing of a decent young Swedish player at the end of the season from Limhamn Bunkeflo (sorry guys, I still love you really). 

I didn't really spash the cash that much in pre-season, so had plenty left over for a big signing or two. In July my Easter European scout unearthed a Montenegrin defender at Obolon who would definitely be first choice. The problem was that an injury meant the transfer was cancelled (which always annoys me, I mean they're obviously going to get better). However the August window was still a couple of weeks away from being open an I knew I could make a move in time later on. I was a bit of an idiot in making the same 2.5M opening bid (though the original deal would have ended up being a bit more) which was accepted right away this time, so maybe I didn't need to pay quite that much though given the relatively small difference with his base value (which was 1.8M or something) I was unlikely to have saved that much. 

[deltablue]

Uh-oh, my FM laptop appears to be dead. Thankfully I finally remembered to back up the save file recently enough that I think it was after joining Djurgarden (but certainly before the season) but it'll be harder to play on here. Firstly it's been held together with tape for over two years (which is why I got the other one in the first place even if I never needed to transfer to it full-time) and secondly it probably won't be able to handle the save very well (not without a massive league cut at least), especially as one of the advantages of having a laptop to use almost exclusively for that purpose was that it could devote as much of its power as possible to the game.

[BoxToBox]

Oh no!

[deltablue]

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

Oh no!

There might be some hope. I think the problem was caused by some water. I usually store my laptops (even the 'dead' ones) by the side of my bed (on a box that acts as an 'inner bedside table'), and I'm used to resting glasses and mugs on there, which was never a problem before aside from occasionally having clean it up a bit. Unfortunately my big glass tankard developed cracks from falling off a few times and I decided yesterday I wasn't going to use it anymore as I suspected it had started to slightly leak. The laptop did seem surprisingly wet in places (especially underneath) when I took a closer look and it's hard to think of another reason why. I'm currently trying the 'rice' trick to see if absorbing the moisture will work, and I really hope it does because it would be a pain to have to buy another already.

[BoxToBox]

Here's hoping it works out for you!

[deltablue]

The news was slightly good this morning. I seem to have had the right idea as I can now turn it on (previously nothing happened when I pressed the power button) but the screen still isn't working. Since the lid was closed it couldn't get dried out properly (and was actually slightly wet when it wasn't before). Hopefully that can be sorted out as well, though since a cardboard box with a couple of holes near the bottom was the only thing I could find to fit it in, I've got a heck of a lot of rice to clear up off the floor whatever happens.

[deltablue]

For some reason it isn't even switching on now, so I'm not far off signing the death certificate for it. I'm just not having the best luck with laptops in recent years, this being the only one of the last 3 that's survived more than 2 years (despite not being in the best condition). Looking around I can get a replacement with a processor that can go to 4Ghz (the last one was 3.1, which is actually slower than I remembered it being) for a similar price (£800 is what I'm used to given the ideal power requirements) that should handle FM surprisingly well. I'm holding off for now (just in case I don't need to). I might just try playing on this one sometime anyway as the spec difference isn't that big (and I played most of the FM16 career on it), this save file is bigger but hopefully nothing a little league trimming won't fix).

[deltablue]

I lost slightly more than I realised. I loaded up the backed up save file today and it takes me back to autumn 2056 at Heerenveen, a couple of months before I was sacked (I thought I might have made it to Sweden). However given I was backing the file up once in a blue moon it's lucky I did so just a couple of weeks or so ago, or about a year in game time, while the Finland save is completely gone, as I wasn't using that laptop for anything else I wasn't backing it up monthly like I do this one. I was away for a couple of days last week but am trying again to save the other laptop. If I can't I'll play on this one as even though the processor is of a slightly early generation it has the same max power of 3.1Ghz. I only got a second one in the first place because I though this one would soon break completely, but it seems to still be lasting fine after over two more years.

I'll just need to lose a few leagues and keep an eye on heat levels. Given most laptops are made to be slim and light so I went for a Thinkpad for physical durability under the circumstances (and it was still in near-perfect condition after 2 years) with lots of extra power and RAM for FMing but otherwise it wasn't exactly the quickest or smoothest in terms of how it ran (at first I even had to wait a minute or two for the browser window to open, though it got better), in fact this save was slowed down more by 'freezing' than the actual processing speed limitations, so that will help as well. It just doesn't seem worth spending over half my bank account on another laptop so soon, especially as I don't really need to have one I can travel with for the time being.

[BoxToBox]

Here's hoping you can get the first one fixed, but at least you have options. Losing a year would annoy me, but it's certainly a far better result than losing everything!

[deltablue]

On 03/07/2018 at 11:05, BoxToBox said:

Here's hoping you can get the first one fixed, but at least you have options. Losing a year would annoy me, but it's certainly a far better result than losing everything!

It's always a blow to motivation when I lose progress on anything, be it a game same, a word document or anything else. In theory I should have backed it up regularly, in practice I virtually never did so I'm lucky it wasn't a lot worse, and I should be better about that from now on. Unfortunately it looks like no luck on the laptop, but that's ok. Previously I'd only loaded the save up on this one for a little test but I've started getting into the habit of playing on anyway. It helps that things seem to be going better than before so far this season so it might work out at Heerenveen this time, or at least I can enjoy a longer stay. Since the save file was from after the Swedish youth intake day, Trygg still exists and while he didn't seem quite good enough to sign for a Heerenveen side already packed with excellent young players (and I did consider it), I'll still try and follow how he does.

[BoxToBox]

Here's hoping you have a better time of it at Heerenveen then!

[deltablue]

12 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Here's hoping you have a better time of it at Heerenveen then!

Unfortunately things still aren't quite working out smoothly on the technical side of things. I played a month or so without any issues but having tried to finish off October for an update the game keeps crashing on the pre-match 'line-ups' screen. It seems like I can holiday past it (and I was already set to shed a few leagues between November and January which may help in the longer term) but having not holidayed a single day on the save it would seem like a very unsatisfactory way to do things, even in the short-term.

[BoxToBox]

Damn, what if you got an Instant Result skin, just for that match? Or would that feel the same as holidaying?

[deltablue]

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

Damn, what if you got an Instant Result skin, just for that match? Or would that feel the same as holidaying?

It's not just that match (which was a Europa League match I knew we'd probably lose anyway). I experimented with a lot of things (including a laptop restart) and having gotten past that match by holidaying, the same happened for the following match. Either way it wouldn't seem like I was playing 'properly' if I had to do it too much. I can at least theoretically progress the save as it's only happening 'in-match'. Maybe I'll try and see if it's different with another team as my next experiment, a way for the time-line to 'correct' itself as it were.

[deltablue]

OK new laptop ordered after all. Aside from the issues with FM (and holidaying past a point where a handful of leagues had been removed didn't help), this laptop itself is prone to driver crashes (even when it's restarting from another crash) sometimes. It sort of happens in phases were it goes weeks without one then gets a handful in a short space of time. It doesn't seem to effect the laptop much thankfully but it would be a pain to happen while trying to play. It's a reminder that at 4 years there's only so long it'll last before something fails. It's my second-longest lasting laptop in regular use (I have one from 2006 that still works, not that I've tried it in a couple of years), with 6 being my record, and it's always good to have a working spare in case of emergencies.

I've gone for more modest specs than I was planning but did manage to save something like £200. 8GB should still be enough (though I might have shelled out for 16GB last time) and while I'm not pushing the boundaries to 4GHz as I was initially looking at doing, 3.4 is still a bit of an upgrade on 3.1. So it should still be all I need it to be without being as expensive as I thought it would be when I first started to look for another. There is no way I'd let this be the end, not for a while longer I hope.

[deltablue]

Oct 2056

Given there's a bit of a wait right now, I thought that I might as well make some sort of update. The 'alternate timeline' starts from the cup win against Roda onwards. At that point it looked like the season was starting to get under way after a disappointing draw at the start against Utrecht then an expected defeat at PSV meant we needed to quickly climb up the table (with pre-season expectations of a title challenge, though I just wanted to be close enough to the top). However it quickly spluttered originally, 6th or something being the highest we got before form dropped off again while this time we've kept the momentum going, admittedly avoiding any more genuinely tough games so far.

One of the things that makes this pleasing was that originally (and unsurprisingly) this looked like yet another case of a young team cobbled together quickly needing more patience than I was ever likely to get, so it would be fantastic to overcome this on the second go. Again going back to the original timeline, the team kept on stumbling after I was sacked (in a months time) and only managed to climb up 2-3 places from 9th before the end of the season, with a massive gap to the teams above. That makes a refreshing contrast to Gillingham who went up almost immediately but haven't had the chance to put in a good Championship season again yet.

Europe saw a stumbling start as we needed penalties to beat Belenenses first, then only just managed a win at home to Shamrock in the next round, though I know from my Gillingham transfer dealings that the Irish league doesn't seem to be that bad a level right now, or at least Shamrock aren't. I had sold a player to them for 1M not long ago. Admittedly the vast majority of that was in very spread out installments, but still. There was also the recent summer signing of Nash as a quality young keeper (not from Shamrock) demonstrating the potential quality to the found there, at least occasionally.

The group was always going to be tough, especially as we found ourselves torn apart and 3-0 down in the first half against Olympiakos (who I had hoped we'd have some chance against). It ended up being a great game (even if it was played over a month ago now) as Marcio came on for his debut and quickly got 2 goals back for us (on his way to a hat-trick), though it's a pity two more Olympakos goals soon after that made it 5-2 and ended any chance of a come-back, though we came close anyway. That caused a shift in goalkeeper policy as Nordstrom (solid and reliable before that point) was poor enough that I gave Nash his first run, much earlier than I predicted.

Unfortunately due to a lack of homegrown players (and the fact that he was expected to have to wait a lot longer for his turn) the Irish keeper was one of a few who had to miss out on European registration (and the previous second choice is one of a handful of homegrown squad players kept around for that reason) so Nordstrom was back in for Chelsea... and immediately played his way out of the team again. How considerate of him. It's still nice to be able to see a good early return already from such a promising young player, especially one with massive potential to be a bargain at just 60k.

[deltablue]

OK I'm back in business. New laptop arrived yesterday, FM is installed (essentially the only thing I've done so far) and the save seems to be working fine.

[withnail316]

Welcome back, DB.

[deltablue]

1 minute ago, withnail316 said:

Welcome back, DB.

Cheers, though I only played the one match so far to see if it worked. The main issue is that despite it being the same size as the 'dead' laptop, the in-game screen is far too 'blown-up' so it doesn't show anywhere near as much on screen as I'd like (and I have tried the interface options). There's also the fact that paint has now been 'retired' but hopefully I can still find it or something similar for screenshots.

[dllu]

17 minutes ago, deltablue said:

There's also the fact that paint has now been 'retired' but hopefully I can still find it or something similar for screenshots.

I use this combined with the Office Picture Manager which works fine for me, but I'm sure there are better alternatives out there:

https://www.irfanview.com/ 

Edited July 24, 2018 by dllu

[deltablue]

On ‎24‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 19:22, dllu said:

I use this combined with the Office Picture Manager which works fine for me, but I'm sure there are better alternatives out there:

https://www.irfanview.com/ 

Thankfully it turns out I still have it after all.

[deltablue]

Dec 2056

The way there's a lot less room on the screen (which is the same size, everything just shows bigger) is going to be a pain sometimes in future. Thankfully everything fitted this time.

Anyway things have been going reasonably solidly, though still not that great. It didn't help that the autumn schedule was very busy (though it took a while before I needed to keep swapping players in and out for a rest before each match), and we lost quite a few midfielders to injuries in a short space of time around the start of November, though they're just all back now. We at least managed to hold steady in 5th and within very close range of 3rd, at least until the most recent few league matches but that did involve facing the top two. Thankfully we've now finished playing PSV(who are fighting for a 13th title in a row!) in the league this season already, though unfortunately not Ajax as that was a rearranged match from a lot earlier. 

The first Gladbach game was the one I couldn't get past before and given we got beaten heavily in the original timeline (and I didn't expect things to go much better this time either) managing to get a draw in both matches against them, and actually getting a win against Olympiakos after that. When the draw was made it looked though, and we were set for an even tougher time after losing in Greece to start off with so this was about the best we could have realistically hoped for, especially as we managed to finish above the Germans (surprising since they were genuinely very strong at one point in the save). In the final game against Chelsea we seemed to be able to hold out for around half the match than collapsed badly. I wondered if that left us with the most goals conceded in the group stage but Zeljeznicar took that 'honour' with 22 conceded (to our 18) thanks to a 9-1 defeat in their final game away to Larisa, with Bilbao and Pescara as their other opponents in a far more generous group!

The cup seems to be the main source of interest right now. We failed to make the quarter-finals last time after a disappointing defeat to NEC, but this time we managed to overcome AZ in the last 16 and we're set to face... NEC. It was a relief to get through given we conceded early on after a first mistake by Nash, who has otherwise looked like a solid and dependable keeper already, in contrast to Nordstrom's Europa League nightmares. I didn't expect to use the 18yr old Irish keeper for another year or two at the start (which is why he didn't seem worth registering as a second non-homegrown keeper for Europe given I had to leave few players out) but he's staking his claim to be a regular already. As it happens Nordstrom's contract us up at the end of the season and I don't feel any particular need to renew it. 

[b101]

Haven't been on the site for a while due to me not buying the game for the last few years, but this seemed a good thread to pop back into and see how you're doing. 2056 is pretty impressive and it's some career you've had. Hope you are still enjoying the save!

[deltablue]

3 hours ago, b101 said:

Haven't been on the site for a while due to me not buying the game for the last few years, but this seemed a good thread to pop back into and see how you're doing. 2056 is pretty impressive and it's some career you've had. Hope you are still enjoying the save!

Hi b101, great to see you back on. I actually got a year or so further before suffering laptop failure and only resumed from a slightly older backup last week. That means that this season has already lasted many weeks in real time. 

I had been going through a rough patch in the save, and in fact originally I had been sacked (for the 3rd club in a row) by this point and was trying to get back on more solid ground in Sweden.

It's nice to have another chance at Heerenveen though especially with all the young talent I've been bringing in. Hopefully I can see this team develop. 

[deltablue]

AFCON 2057 - Tunisia

These things are going to be a bit less convenient to do now 4 groups and a last 16 tree don't fit on a screen anymore but I'll adjust. Anyway the main team to mention is Nigeria, at least in-part because I was tracking their progress to see when I'd get Eboh back from international duty. They managed to make it out of their group despite losing two of their games, and made it through to the semi-final after beating Cameroon. That meant that having lost their semi, they faced a 3rd place playoff and were defeated there as well, meaning that managed to have a 6-match tournament despite losing 4 of those matches.

Algeria had won 2 of the previous 3 tournaments but faced a shock early exit on a 1-goal goal difference margin to Mali. Instead it was Morocco who came home triumphant for the first time in a surprisingly long time given how strong they were in the past, while hosts Tunisia made a rare final, again surprising given the level of talent they sometimes have.

[deltablue]

May 2057

There weren't really any surprises for the rest of the season. We beat NEC in the cup to make the semi-final as I hoped but there seemed to be a certain inevitability about facing PSV (away at that) afterwards and it's no surprise that we were comfortably beaten. We made a slightly sluggish start back in the league (following on from our poor results before the break) but soon started to rack up the wins to comfortably repeat last season's 4th place, getting us into Europe while avoiding the playoffs. That was pretty much the minimum expectation this season, as well as being just enough to survive not making a title challenge.

Unfortunately they somehow expect the same next season as well, making me regret not taking one of a few brilliant job offers (including Lyon) in the close season. The top 3 look too far ahead, and while we only lost once to any other Dutch club after early November, it never went well when we faced the big boys. I still feel the sack hanging over me, but I don't see any reason not to give it every chance, especially as I've got the makings of an excellent team, and even if I can't hold on to some of them I still like the idea of acting as a (potentially profitable) footballing academy in the long run. 

It was never going to be easy, given I'd spent my first two window replacing most of the squad already, and with young players. In fact that was why things didn't work out last time, as they did not match too well with the immediate progress the board wanted. I'm not quite done yet either with 5 deals already in place set to go through this summer, including an underage Brazilian from last summer's feast of deals who will turn 18 a couple of weeks before the end of the window. Not that there is set to be a lot of activity otherwise, with the bar being set so much higher now and a budget of just under 2.5M (which is the most I've paid so far for anyone). However we ended the season with around 10M in the bank so the money (and the spare wage budget) is definitely there to put quite a bit more into that, even if will still only go so far.

Hopefully the team will be able to improve next season as everyone finds their feet a bit more. I'll avoid gushing too much over specific individuals, though at least a little mention should be made of Nash, who already looks like a good No.1 at the age of 18, Sivero, who was just 17 for most of the season but still did well enough as a decent squad player and got his first couple of Swiss caps, and Sandro who just seemed a great fit for his role from the start (aside from at least one moment when he wasn't so much a ball-playing defender as ball-losing one) and joined Pereira on the 5-man young player of the year shortlist. 

Star Player: At 22, Christano was one of the older 'young' signings, as well as one of my first. He wasn't really much better than average at Siroki Brijeg in Bosnia, getting 43 goals and 12 assists in 191 matches spread over 4 and a half years, but in just a year and a half (and 57 games) with us he already has 25 goals and 15 assists. It's still not spectacular but he's comfortably good enough to make him an important member of team, probably for years to come. 

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Summer 2057

8 signings made for a nice quiet summer, though to be fair only 3 deals were actually made in the window Wanderson was a player whose move was already pending but he needed to turn 18 first (which he managed to do in August) and I had already made a few moves in January to sign players for nothing at the end of the season. Van de Voort stands out on the basis of literally being Dutch. The local talent just isn't there in the way I hoped it would, leaving us short on homegrown players (even having to keep a few around on that basis alone) until some of the younger signings earned that status in a year or two. He's hardly a token Dutchman but he's more a useful squad player than anything else. 

Canals was an interesting one, as player who I knew could be very good if I used him the right way, and having decided to go for him in any case, I think I'll try and make a defender out of him, to defeat the Huns, and all that. Up front, I must admit that I may not have gone for Slavic if I'd seen Gokceler first, as someone far more ready for action, but it still didn't hurt to still have the Croatian on board. That also left me free to try and offload Vorobjov, who had been our top scorer but was also our highest earner and someone I thought (wrongly) I could get a big fee for, but that just shows how limited he was beyond the short term. The Belarus defender Mikhailov was in the same boat as a risky sale of high performing player who we still needed to improve on.

The first actual summer deal was de Stefani as a better replacement for the departed Mikhailov than Vallejo would have been. If there was one gap in the squad it was for a second wide man. Miguel Luiz and Valdez were both functioning in that role while also being the alternatives to Eboh, giving me 3 players where there should be 4, with Toledo as another young Argentine to hopefully be able to fill in, especially as Valdez is better suited for the central role anyway. Finally there came Hemmingsen, who I must admit was very much a case of 'Well, why not?', given we already had 5 forwards, with Slavic as the young one for the future, so Nunes' stay turned out to be very short as he was already turning into a 'never will be'.

Signings

 

[BoxToBox]

Looks like some top business!

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2057

You have to feel sorry for Canada. They finally came out on top in the tournament that was 'lost', so their wait continues. With the USA hosting the World Cup next year, both they and Mexico fielded their B teams leaving the door open to someone else, and that turned out to be Costa Rica, who not only haven't won before, but were making a surprisingly rare appearance in the final, denying Honduras (one of just 4 nations who seem to dominate in terms of making the final, along with the North American trio) a 4th title win.