[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2053

It's not always easy to pick out points worth mentioning with the international tournaments, to the point that I'm probably getting quite a decent bit of mileage out of talking about there not being much to talk about. This is especially true of the Gold Cup which boils down to 'Mexico won', or 'Mexico didn't win', unless we get a big shock like the USA being knocked out by St. Lucia, which I can't believe I'm still finding reasons to mention.

This was a case of 'Mexico won' though not surprising given they weren't up against the full USA team. Despite winning their group, a knockout path to victory of Jamaica, Honduras (who have won a few times) and Costa Rica wasn't the easiest (and they were all in the Hex), especially as it took extra time to win the final but judging by the match stats, if they hadn't been so poor with their finishing they probably wouldn't have needed it.

Costa Rica have barely appeared on the radar, this being only their second final appearance. They've made the World Cup a handful of times, they've been bottom of the group all but ones (and 3rd the other time) so it's probably not surprising they've not really been mentioned before.

[deltablue]

Summer 2053

Since I can only approach players in England with a month left on their contracts, I haven't really used that market as often as I usually would. However last season I remembered about how much earlier I could pounce on players in Scotland and dived right in, especially given this was before the financial situation improved. Scotland (and to a lesser extent Ireland) has proved a regular source of good value players so it's not surprising that it continues to do so.It was probably just as well that I did given that when pre-season actually arrived, extra reinforcements (after raiding Linfield for another free signing) proved hard to find, especially sticking to a tight budget.

Even with quite a bit of money in the bank I wasn't keen on spending too much of it or the extra wage budget, after all a majority of my time at Gillingham has been spend deep in the red so it's not surprising I want to avoid getting back into that situation. That means that I'm not going to spend fees (especially 100k+) lightly or boost the wage allowance, which actually left us with the lowest wage bill in the division. Then again this entire career has been spend defying the wage spend table (yes, even Milan to some extent) and the whole point of going to somewhere like Gillingham next was to try and succeed with strict financial constraints.

The big problem came when Sunderland swooped in and triggered a 400k release clause in Bannigan's contract that I didn't realise he had. This is unsurprising as a) as an advance deal it was made before putting this career on hold, in other words as far back as Christmas, and b) if anyone triggered it, 400k would have been lovely at the time anyway. That along with the sale of Chandler actually gave us around 2M in the bank but only reluctantly did I accept the need to splash out on a replacement in the squad, ending up paying 200k which wasn't too terrible a cost.

I felt we were in a good enough position (even if injuries helped contribute to a situation at the start of the season of having the 33yr old Gallen in defence alongside 3 18yr olds and a 17yr old) not to really need loans this time but with little Stokes as the starting right-back I allowed a deadline day deal for Crabb from Brighton to fill in for a while.

We still ended up only registering the minimum 9 players because so many players were young enough not to need registration, such is the extent that young players have been the way to go, especially when we were in a far worse financial situation. That may not help much with the board raising the bar to the playoffs, though being way under the wage budget (and having taken them up quite a bit already) means I can probably survive being quite a bit off that without much difficulty. I still feel confident our time will come even if we're not ready (especially with a lot of new players as well)

Signings

[deltablue]

Dec 2053

The Gillingham train has been on quite a rollercoaster this year. We won the first game, which is always nice, but couldn't build on it. It didn't help that we had injuries during and/or after all of the early games, even if it's not been quite so bad since. The big problem was that we seemed incapable of scoring goals so I upped the creative freedom (having toned down a few of those options to turn around our bad start last year) and while I didn't expect anything immediate from a trip to AFC Wimbledon (3rd at the time and even 1st for a bit after that) but we were able to start a strong run to surge up the table and close in on the teams above us in what was looking like a very tight league this year.

However we ran out of steam, and we were actually only briefly in the top 6 before losing to Plymouth, but still close enough to anyone else that it seemed like if we continued as we had been we'd easily get back and even keep pace with the top 2. Unfortunately didn't happen as things got worse all over the pitch. In defence, we lost cohesion, up front we (and Murray in particular, who I had such high hopes for after last year's 'breakout' season) became the kings of 'close but no cigar', to the point that the Priestfield goal frames lost a few years of their working lives. However it wasn't all one way, as there were at least a dozen 'that should really have gone in' moments from the opposition as well.

The midfield was the biggest mess. Allen was injured for a bit (and couldn't stop getting sent off either), Orlik had been an average at best replacement (though he had been gradually improving, Bowen soon picked up his own injury, Morrison couldn't play in the position yet and Oseni, brilliant though he is (his goal against Colchester was a 35-yard free kick) has never had the fitness to be fresh for multiple matches in a week, which probably explains why he decided to give himself a rest by getting sent off against Boston. Aside from that everything was fine. Even when that situation improved the damage had already been done.

Fed up of the slide, I changed a few things again to back to what they were before last season (which had been so successful before) and again seemed to have a big impact, from the Bath match in the Paint Pot. As the gap to the teams above us still wasn't that big we closed in again but a tougher run from Shrewsbury onwards (which we might have won if I hadn't messed up a substution, putting Barnes on the right where I'd become used to seeing him play, rather than for a complacent Smith up front) stopped us in our tracks. Those few away games I can understand. The way the defence completely fell in afterwards (especially against Bath) I could not.

Such was our luck that we even missed a penalty against Coventry, and though we snuck a win at last anyway, a gap had opened up leaving us severely trailing the top 6, and with a very unhappy board (at least regards this season, other factors keep them 'satisfied'). We have the talent to do a lot better but clearly not the consistency (probably partly due to severe inexperience) or a settled side after the last few years. It's definitely worth being patient but after dropping to 15th 2 years ago and not doing much better at the moment there's still some frustration ahead.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Good to see you are sticking with the club but I can tell in your writing you are getting a bit frustrated with it. That spell after the first game where you didn't win in 7 and score in 6 of them must have been really tough to take  Not that it'll make you feel any better but I think things like that are an FM 13 thing,  especially where no matter what you do you'll have a really bad run no matter how good you are because I have the same happen in my save every year and i've just had to put up with it and accept it so don't think it's just you On the plus side there's still 18 games left and 5 points to make up isn't such a huge gap to make up so hopefully you'll have a better run after xmas  

Edited March 24, 2018 by Dexter_Morgan

[deltablue]

1 hour ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Good to see you are sticking with the club but I can tell in your writing you are getting a bit frustrated with it. That spell after the first game where you didn't win in 7 and score in 6 of them must have been really tough to take  Not that it'll make you feel any better but I think things like that are an FM 13 thing,  especially where no matter what you do you'll have a really bad run no matter how good you are because I have the same happen in my save every year and i've just had to put up with it and accept it so don't think it's just you On the plus side there's still 18 games left and 5 points to make up isn't such a huge gap to make up so hopefully you'll have a better run after xmas  

I'm only really frustrated with the most recent run, as I was feeling genuinely positive about it before. I couldn't really go into detail anyway since covering such a big period would have meant that it would have probably been far too long a post if I'd said much more Funnily enough when I was playing my first FM13 career there seemed to be a sense that the game threw in a bad season every so often but that hasn't really happened recently as I get better with tactics. Just this season multiple adjustments (admittedly just reversing last year's changes) did provide a short-term improvement so while I'm not inclined to do so yet again so soon (if I had a idea about what to do, beyond reinstating the BPD as that might work with Massey) that's shows I can do something as long as I know what.

I'm no stranger to the short-term effects of having a lot of young players in the squad, especially with a lot of new players in a short space of time as I've had to rebuild the squad on a tight budget. We did manage to pull off a pretty good season last year but I guess it was premature to expect that to be the norm already especially with another dump of young players, though unless I lose a few more players the squad should be more settled from this point, with the finances also stable in the short-term. It would be a shame to leave now since a future promotion to the Championship would feel like far more of an achievement than taking them back up to League 1 would be, and I can see it as a case of 'when' not 'if' so I see myself missing out if I gave up too early. Besides this is just the sort of long-term challenge I wanted post Milan and having reached the top I can afford to be more patient.

Unfortunately while the gap is just 5 points, we've now played one match more so it's a little misleading. The fixture list isn't that kind either (Birmingham away is next) so it would be hard to build on the Coventry win. At least the schedule will ease off. It's interesting how sometimes the fixtures sometimes get packed a little more early on in the English lower leagues (which has been the case since the BSP). Finland seems especially bad for it in my experience of the other save. We had a couple of international weeks off due to getting enough call-ups which was a nice rest but it did mean extra matches right when we didn't need any.

Anyway it's good to see this still gets some interest though I'd play it still for myself anyway I don't want to throw away all that progress either in terms of the actual career but also with the progression of the wider game world.

[Dexter_Morgan]

At least you have an idea of how to fix it and as you say a lot of young players in at once doesn't help (I've been reluctant to make lots of changes most years myself because of this) having a season like this may actually be better for you long term anyway as the kids get a season to get used to the system and hopefully push on next year whereas a promotion would have meant another bunch of changes yet again and all the frustrations that come along with it.

 

[deltablue]

On 24/03/2018 at 13:06, Dexter_Morgan said:

At least you have an idea of how to fix it and as you say a lot of young players in at once doesn't help (I've been reluctant to make lots of changes most years myself because of this) having a season like this may actually be better for you long term anyway as the kids get a season to get used to the system and hopefully push on next year whereas a promotion would have meant another bunch of changes yet again and all the frustrations that come along with it.

 

I've just been checking a few things out specifically. We've brought in 20 players (not including loans) in the past three summers while making 3.5M transfer profit (and even that would have barely been enough to stay out of the red by itself, with cup money playing a far bigger role in putting us in a decent financial position right now). Half the squad is under 21, and only 4 players are over 24, one of whom is about to retire (though he's still very good). I think that in itself explains why things aren't coming together right now (and probably won't for at least a year or two) though hopefully from this point things should be more settled leaving the current squad to bed in and develop.

[deltablue]

Mar 2054

We continued to struggle in the league for a while, dipping as low as 18th in January. We were struggling to fire (note the narrow margin of most of the wins even when we started getting them) and couldn't hold onto leads when we got them. I was amazed when the improvement in form came, at least the impact of it. After the Rochdale win, a 6 point margin to the playoffs seemed relatively close though that was immediately brought back to 9 after losing to in-form Colchester. However looking back it's our only defeat in all competitions since January and only the 2nd in the league since the new year taking us close to the play-offs again. Finally getting a big win over Kettering was a great way to mark my 500th match at the club.

The run-in isn't too bad either. We do have to go to Newport (who look like finally turning their financial superiority into promotion) but are also at home to Port Vale and Crystal Palace, with a trip to Doncaster as the last match. The situation is actually slightly better than in the screenshot as while the first of those 4 games was moved to the JPT final, in the meantime results went enough in our favour that a win in the catch-up Port Vale game would put us 8th, one point off 6th. I thought our improved form (thanks to a minor tactical change just before Bristol Rovers) would be always be too little, too late but but maybe not.

The cups were already providing some relief. Championship Hull seemed like the worst of both worlds as an FA Cup 3rd round draw, one we'd almost certainly lose and get almost nothing from. To my surprise we won and got a relatively big trip to Liverpool. They were actually bottom of the Premier League at the time of the draw (though comfortably moved clear of trouble) but were easily too good for us.

The JPT South Semi-final draw had thrown up a trip to Newport, easily the one draw we didn't want, but similar to Hull we managed to win (despite going behind) to provide a bright spot in a frustrating run of league form at the time. Brentford were in the bottom half of League 2 but we were still struggling when we played the home leg and were lucky to get a 0-0 draw. We improved enough to win the second leg but even taking the lead with an away goal (Murrays 50th for the club already, and he's still just 19) almost wasn't enough. The offside flag saved us in stoppage time just seconds before we clinched it. Grimsby await in the final giving is a chance to save our season, even if our playoff chances have improved considerably in the meantime as well.

[deltablue]

JPT Final 2054

Grimsby seemed like an easy final on paper, even lower down in League 2 (just above the relegation zone) than Brentford had been in the previous round, and their team certainly seemed much weaker. In the end it was quitely comfortable. We had 61% possession, 11 shots and 4 on target compared to their 4, none on target. I was aware that a better team might have punished our lack of ability (or even urgency) to get another goal, as indeed has happened a bit in the league this season, but it was a pretty effective job done and that's all that matters.

Gillingham's recent-ish time in the Championship helps make them look like a bigger club than they are, as evidenced by the fact that even with a wage bill that will always be near the bottom we can't really push the finances much further. I actually remember when they got relegated in 2005 I told to a Gillingham-supporting friend at school (who actually went on to play in goal for Aston Villa in a Sevens tournament in Hong Kong, when they needed one at short notice) that at least in League 1 he could look forward being much further up the table, but he really wasn't optimistic about that and was proved right.

Trophy-wise a 4th Division (as it would have been then, League 2 now) title in 1964 is the best they've managed with just a few earlier Southern League and League Cup wins that pre-date that. I added the BSP to that 6 seasons ago but that's all they've won in-game so the JPT win is still a surprisingly big deal for a tin-pot (or rather paint-pot) cup. However that means that if I do get them back up to the Championship at least (which I think I can with a bit of patience) than it would feel like a genuine achievement, and if I could pull off a miracle after that and give Kent a top-flight team at last? Well lets not get ahead of ourselves.

[deltablue]

It just occurred to me that for once I have a club in FM that I could commute to since I sometimes get the train in to Canterbury on the Dover line (though it's still a bit of a trek to the local station) and could just continue onwards to Gillingham. I think Priestfield is right by the station if as well if I remember (though I don't go to London that way any more). 

[Dexter_Morgan]

Hopefully you can make playoffs this year, it's certainly doable. Well done on the JPT 

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Hopefully you can make playoffs this year, it's certainly doable. Well done on the JPT 

About that...

[deltablue]

May 2054

League 1 giveth, and League 1 taketh away. It seems to be a pattern that either things are going badly and suddenly go well, or look promising then drop away. I actually remembered that our blunt attack meant that the easier games we had left could be anything but and so it proved as we drew blanks against both Port Vale (at least one we had to win, possibly both) and paid the price at the other end. We managed to take the lead at Newport after all that even if a deflected show meant it didn't last long, and equalised at Doncaster but the latter slipped in a winner any way and our playoff hopes had already been mathematically buried after Crystal Palace.

In the past we've had a lot of goals at both ends but not this time. Our young defenders have already been very solid (either hitting the ground running or quickly improving after poor starts) and while Crystal Palace was a genuinely weak display, otherwise I'd had relatively little to complain about for a while and we ended up with the 4th best defensive record in the division... paired with the 3rd worst attacking one. Murray was the closest we had to reliable goalscorer but just 11 league goals was still nowhere near good enough.

Even with 1.3M in the bank I know it will only last as long as I let it (and maybe not even then) so I'm reluctant to spend (or to change the squad much at all, as I consider the investment phase to be over for now) but if I can find someone potentially good up front that would cost up to 200-250k I might well go for it. Otherwise we just need the current team to fi...

OK scratch that. I'm not 100% surprised as my position was very insecure at the end of the season, even though the axe fell just after the play-off semis which was odd timing indeed (I though it would be after the season was completely finished, if at all). However when we were doing worse earlier in the season with 0% confidence for the league I seemed safe. Nigel Adkins also provides a real life example of this happening and we did very much underachieve based on this year's expectations so as harsh as it seems it doesn't feel completely unrealistic.

However I still don't see my time at Gillingham as a failure. I still managed over 500 matches in charge, left them 51 places higher than I found them, got them out of the red twice (and was still having to work on a tiny budget even by the standards of the league), gave them arguably their biggest trophy win (certainly their only professional cup win), had that memorable giant-killing of Arsenal just last year and put together a team full of young talent that gives them a bright future either on the pitch or by putting them in a far stronger financial position through sales.

While it's hard to see me returning to any club, this something I see as unfinished business and I'm not ruling out the possibility of taking the reigns again if the right moment comes and continuing what I started.

[deltablue]

So what next? This career has been a little different from my previous ones in that I've had a bit more of a plan of what I want to do at each particular step. In the past I may have had ideas but it all came down to what popped up that appealed to me at any given point.

After Norway I needed to bounce back so went to Sweden, doing something I wouldn't usually do (taking over a relegated club) because I needed to bounce back. Having gone all the way to the Premier Division, staying there would be the best I could hope for so it was on to Turkey where I could and did progress a lot more. Milan was all I had in mind after that then as I was thinking of leaving Italy, I wanted to go somewhere far smaller where I could perhaps work to take a club up through the ranks as a long-term project. The Gillingham journey may not have been as complete as I hoped but it still provided the experience I was hoping for at the time.

It would be nice to go for a decent provincial club somewhere, but that would probably be in one of the bigger European leagues. Aside from Turkey I've spent the entire career in a big European nation (England and Italy) or Scandinavia, and since I've been working to maintain as big a set-up of leagues around the world as possible (not easy with the database size fluctuating independently of the number of leagues loaded so sometimes I need to remove a few nations than a season or two later feel like I have the capacity to add a couple back) I think it's time to head much further afield. After Milan I might have been willing to go a lot smaller in Asia or South Africa, but now I think it's going to be somewhere in Latin America, with the 'Provincial European Club' likely coming after that.

Currently all the leagues are either in pre-season of a mid-season break (especially as there's a World Cup on) so it might take a bit of time to opportunities to start to appear. Once I have a new club I'll switch to a year on the Finland save (though not reveal it until I come back to this one afterwards).

[deltablue]

World Cup 2054 - Italy

I don't know where to start with this one. Usually it's at the end, but this time I'm going for the beginning, or even before the beginning. The first notable thing was the absence of Wales, not just reigning World Champions but European Champions as well. They finished a mere 4th in their qualifying group behind Sweden, Israel and Romania.

The group stage threw up France and Germany in the same group, with hosts Italy and Argentina in the 'next door' group so even through all went through, they then faced each other in the next round. England went out after finishing bottom in a tight group beneath Morocco, Mexico and Russia while the Spanish did go through but behind Slovenia (who are actually pretty strong), as did the Dutch behind Seef Efrica, which must have been quite a boer. So far, so interesting.

The South Africans turned out to be the surprise package. China weren't the toughest opponents in the next round but then they knocked out hosts Italy then Brazil to reach the final. They have a decent enough side but lack top quality players, hadn't tasted continental success for some time and had only once made it out of the group stage in this save. Morocco had already beaten them to being the first African side in the final but while their recent record is poor (this being their first finals for 12 years, as it was for South Africa actually) they bounced back to a quarter-final appearance this time.

Colombia were the other team of note. They were another decent but unexceptional team who hadn't achieved much since they won in 2022, making the quarter-finals the following two times but the most recent World Cup (a second round exit) had otherwise been the only time they made it out of the group stage. However they managed to reach the semi's this time after knocking out the Netherlands and France, beating Brazil in the 3rd place playoff (which is incidentally the closest the Brazilians have gotten to winning).

That leaves us with winners Croatia. That was nowhere as shocking a finalist as South Africa given they often do well in international tournaments on various versions. They also have a strong team. When I had Milinovic at Milan he was their standout player and he started his international career with two failures to qualify (and missing out on the Euro's in between), and they went out in the first round the following time after leaving out Milinovic due to the fact he finished the season with an injury (though he would have been fit before the first match). They do have some more genuine stars this time, but I saw something interesting while looking at their best player...

He's a bit of a physical/aerial lightweight but he's insanely talented otherwise, and he plays for Vozdovac Belgrade, who had just finished 4th in the league (and are 5th at the time of writing, in late October)! I'm used to middling leagues (or at least a few clubs, like Bulgaria and CSKA Sofia earlier in the career) sometimes having far stronger teams than you'd expect but this is quite an extreme, and they have a few other really good players as well.

The World Cup has been a delight so far this save. Maybe not to the sort of FM-er who likes results to stay 'realistic' but it's great if you do like all sorts of possibilities to be thrown up as a refreshing change to an increasingly rigid status-quo in real life, and I'm very much in that camp. Here is a recap...

11 tournaments, 10 different winners, and Wales being the only team to have won twice. 5 other nations have made the final, Italy being the only 3-time finalists, and Morocco and South Africa as as African representatives on that list. Long may it last.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Shame about your sacking Delta as it seemed that you was willing to stay as long as it took to get them in the Prem at least. Looking forward to seeing where you end up next

[deltablue]

38 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Shame about your sacking Delta as it seemed that you was willing to stay as long as it took to get them in the Prem at least. Looking forward to seeing where you end up next

Well, maybe the Premier League would have ended up being a step too far, with even the Championship feeling like dizzy heights to reach, but once I got there it would have been interesting to have a go for a while and try and take that last step. I may have left if I felt I had hit a glass ceiling but having reached the League 1 playoffs twice in the first 3 seasons in the division (and looked like potentially making it 3 in 4) this definitely didn't feel like that point.

I have a new club now (as I was always planning to do before switching back to Finland for a season), and it was always going to be an especially big leap. Eidsvoll to Gillingham via Malmo, Izmir and Milan (a bit of a mixed bag of places to say the least) was 3301 miles in total. Going to Latin America is more than that combined wherever I went. I tried for a few major Brazilian clubs (Botafogo, Cruzeiro and Santos) but despite two of those three being 'flattered' by my interest it still wasn't enough. Colo Colo was available as well at one point but they were reigning Chilean champions and favourites, which is a shame because otherwise that would have been brilliant.

I ended up at a club that isn't even in a top division, but that just gives me the chance to add yet another promotion to my record. I'm currently on 6 , and I was going to say without a single relegation but I forgot about Norway. It's still true to say that when I haven't been relegated yet after getting a team promoted.

[deltablue]

Chapter 6: Down Mexico Way (Queretaro)

Mexico, a country most people know a little bit about, but few people know a lot about. I'm hardly an expert myself but I probably know more than many with my personal experiences. In general people know Mexico City (vaguely), Cancun, the Aztecs (often thrown together with the Mayans and even the Incas), Acapulco (which is actually ridden with crime and violence), and maybe Tijuana. Veracruz and Oaxaca some highly recommended though I haven't been to either myself. Not everyone is a drug lord (don't ever mention drugs and cartels to my dad if you value your life, or use the term 'Central America') or dozes against a cactus with a sombrero and poncho, even if it's insane for wearing such a costume to be considered 'racist'.

Of the famous sites, Chichen Itza is perhaps the one people are most likely to know by name, though there are many others particularly in that area, and I have to admit that while they're interesting sites, they're also similar enough that once you've been to a couple there's not actually that much new to see anywhere else. Palenque, is another good one, handily located near the route we used to take from Mexico City to the Caribbean Coast and a regular stop-off. A friend of mine from university was also based there as part of her studies to be a monkey researcher. There's another near Mexico City with a long a complicated name I can't even hope to remember, famous for a long central avenue with a massive temple of the sun halfway a long and a temple of the moon at the end.

Mexico has a similar federal structure to it's northern neighbour, with 31 states and a 'federal district' (which is literally what it's called in Spanish). As covered a while ago in the quiz thread, the largest is hilariously called Chihuahua of all things, with Tabasco being another. Confusingly there's a state called 'Mexico', and even more confusingly, it contains part of Mexico City, especially as many states share the same name as their capital, much like the country itself. That applies to Queretaro, where I am now in game, though technically the city's full name is 'Santiago de Queretaro'.

Geographically, the city is a couple of hours drive north of Mexico City, at least at the speed my dad drives, amidst semi-desert hilly terrain if my memory serves me well, though it has been 5 years and that was only the second time I'd been there. It is home to one of my aunts, as well as one of my many cousins, though from another aunt, making it odd that I've managed a second club in a row from a place I've actually been to. Maybe I should go for a hat-trick in Scotland next.

The club is probably best known from when Ronaldinho was there, and it's a shame the FM13 version of the kit is pinstripe style instead of proper blue and black stripes. Just as I was bound to go to Mexico at some point, Queretaro was always near the top of potential destinations. In fact they were one of the few clubs I was following closely when it came to potentially leaving Milan, though Gillingham became available first. So what's the situation I inherit? Well it looks like this...

Not great as you can see. The club were in the First Division for years before dropping down 4 years ago, and they're haven't been doing a great job of getting back up. It doesn't help that a few of my key players are out injured for a while. There is a little bit of money in the bank (around 500k) and a stadium with a capacity of around 38,500. Even this season the home crowd has been 20,000 and 25,000. The transfer budget is minimal at 27k, though I guess that's to be expected mid-season, but I do have 7kpw spare of a 46.5kpw wage budget that might come in handy. Annoyingly the transfer windows are really short (though there are a couple of months more in summer for overseas signings) so I have to have my scouting sorted beforehand.

So what's the format?

This could take a while, though if you're familar with Latin American leagues you know what to expect. The season has two stages (and we're almost at the end of the opening stage) with playoffs at the end of each featuring 7 teams, as the winner skips the quarter-finals. At the very end of the season the two stage winners playoff to win the league, and in this case claim the only promotion spot. There's just a single relegation place as well which is great, especially as it's decided on 'average points' and since we're bang in the middle of that table, that's not really a worry, not in this division anyway.

There is a cup which annoyingly features a group stage where you play each other twice, taking place early in the season. I'm not really a fan of domestic cups with group stages and I've encountered them quite a bit in the past few years but it depends on the timing and format. Finland is great for pre-season competitive action (as well as Sweden but the latter is right before the league starts), Greece only involves playing 3 other teams once so it doesn't get in the way too much, but Turkey was really frustrating (especially as that one was the worst of both worlds in terms of taking up a lot of what would have been the winter break as well as causing a bit of fixture congestion with league games when that resumed) and so is this.

The foreign player rules are restrictive but at the same time nice and simple. You're allowed 3 foreigners in this division and 5 in the First Division, that's all there is to it. No complications about foreigners allowed on the pitch (with or without a standard squad limit as well, again Turkey I'm looking in your direction), nationalities that provide exceptions or any homegrown quotas either for a matchday squad or at all. I actually like the restrictions as it allowes a focus on developing Mexican talent (which is hopefully a decent well to tap into) while also getting a little boost from a few foreign stars, at least in the First Division as the current squad is all Mexican and I don't expect many foreigners to even be available. 

[deltablue]

Nov 2054

I decided to go ahead and complete the final couple of matches of the opening stage and it was clear there was a lot to do. For one thing there were hardly any staff at the club, just a single scout, head physio, DoF and HOYD, with no Ass Man or coaches. The squad was small and I had to promote some youngsters to fill a few gaps, but even then there were still a lot of players in their 30's, including a first choice keeper who is 35 and about to retire, though at least I'll be able to free up a lot of budgetary space.

Certainly on the pitch it was underwhelming as we were outplayed in the first home game against mid-table though on their way to finishing the stage with 3 wins in a row) Curtidores. We managed to fight hard to equalise after going behind but the keeper dived for a shot which ended up being deflected into the path of a Curtidores player who took advantage of the exposed net. We were better at a bottom of the table clash at Veracruz and could easily have gone on and won after taking the lead but too many chances went wild and we had to settle for a draw.

It will be nice to start at least partly afresh in the closing stage, hopefully with being able to squeeze in a new signing or two. It will help that our star left-back will have returned from injury so we should hopefully be in a stronger position. In particular we're in need of a right-back, at least one midfielder, and maybe another forward, which gives me a few positions to prioritise as I sift through all the scout reports and agent approaches in the next month or so. Definitely there's so much to be done and not much to do it with, but sometimes I feel like I wouldn't have it any other way

[Dexter_Morgan]

Interesting choice delta, good luck and looking forward to seeing how you do 

[deltablue]

16 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Interesting choice delta, good luck and looking forward to seeing how you do 

Thanks, though it might be a short stay if things don't get a lot better in the closing stage. Oddly enough the multi stage season seems to mess up the board expectations, which are given as 'reaching the opening stage' or for both halves of the season, making no sense. It should be fun if I can survive beyond the short-term though as something a little different from my usual European experience.

[deltablue]

Winter Transfer Update

It was hard to know what to do with the contracts that were up for renewal. The aging players provided a great opportunity to free up so much budgetary space but that would require being able to replace each one. We had a first team squad of 22 but that was after quite a few players were added from the youth teams (6 were on the 9pw youth contract) and not all of those looked particularly good even in terms of potential. Squad depth was most definitely a romantic fantasy. In the end most were re-signed with only a small wage rise, which was all I felt like agreeing to in any case.

With the short transfer window I needed to work quickly, and as it turned out I managed to get everything done before it opened. I actually had a head-start since there was already a veteran defender set to come in as a free agent. It wasn't a high priority position, he was 32 and on a far higher wage than I'd prefer but such defensive reinforcement was always welcome.

It was much more important to get someone new in on the right. I mentioned we were missing our key left-back due to an injury but we had no one at all on the other side, causing the deployment of a woefully poor youngster. The back-up left-back wasn't completely useless and could play both sides but he was busy filling in. Anyone of vaguely first-team quality would be a big help and Infante (who still had quite a bit of potential) was just who I was looking for, meaning we'd look so much better in both positions when the Closing Stage started.

Up front we didn't look so bad but it was pretty inevitable someone would catch my eye. In return for bringing in Echeverria as yet another free agent I found someone I could off-load to justify the move on a budgetary level, managing to get 210k for him (though most was in installments over 2 1/2 years) as well as saving over 3kpw wages. The odd one out was Nagoli in midfield, costing a bit of money (40k) from his native Zimbabwe and filling up one of the 3 allowed foreigner slots.

As it turned out once all those deals went through I'd calculated it perfectly, pretty much maxing out the budget exactly (200pw spare with everything put into the wage budget) so that ends our transfer activity already. However while decent squad depth was always going to be something I'd have to wait a while to realistically achieve, I'm very happy with what I've managed to do so far to improve the team and I'm optimistic that we'll see clear improvement in the Closing Stage, not that it could get much worse after finishing bottom with just 2 wins (neither under me) in the first half of the season.

Signings

[deltablue]

OK this is stupid. I'm in serious danger of getting sacked already, not because of our performance in the Closing Stage, but because of how we did in the Opening. I was only in charge for 2 games of that. Sure, we didn't do very well in those 2 games but hitting the board expectations (which I've translated as 'reach the playoffs') was mathematically impossible when I took over. We still could have finished the stage quite a bit higher but that was still surely a 'we're not going to judge you this season' situation on the basis of how late it was in the stage alone. 

[deltablue]

Feb 2055

A trip to Toros Neza wasn't the easiest way to start the Closing Stage but a brace from new boy Echeverria was gave us a promising win, set up both times (in very different ways) by his partner Flores. Those are actually his only goals so far with Flores proving to be our main man, even though he himself is threatened by the 17yr old Lozano (the scorer against Tampico Madero) who is looking very promising indeed.

We couldn't quite build on that against Correcaminos after they were gifted an early goal and we couldn't turn pressure into a winner after equalising, but we still looked better. The draw against Jaguares was fair enough but the defeat against Tampico Madero was more disappointing as our first 'weak' performance even if it was against the team who were top at the time. What was especially disappointing was their second goal was a penalty while we were denied a second of our own through a controversial offside.

Wins against Dorados and Leon on either side of that defeat help put us in a decent playoff position, which is pretty much all that can be asked of us so far. It's still really annoying about the board reaction to the Opening Stage, which only came up after the Closing Stage started. Aside from the 'arrived too late to be fairly judged' arguement, there's also the fact that finishing bottom was interpreted as 'bravely fighting against relegation'... except we were in no danger of relegation (and wouldn't be relegated after just the first stage anyway) so such simplistic and linear performance calculations really shouldn't apply and I really shouldn't be 'very insecure'.

One positive came from the youth intake. We had a couple of good defenders but one suffered from being very poor at tackling and not having anywhere near as high Determination (and remember water is nothing to an engine with it, and yes I've just made a Thomas the Tank Engine reference) as the guy whose egg I'm backing instead, and who could be quite a star...

[deltablue]

Apr 2055

I've come to the conclusion that this isn't the most interesting of leagues, at least not the main part of the season. You're either in the playoffs (which merely requires being 7th out of 16) or you're not. Maybe if you're trying to compete to be top (which at least allows you to skip a round) there's that but other than that the only excitement is if you're fighting for a place.

A win over Morelia followed by a decent draw at Santos Laguna put us in a decent position, which is just as well ahead of a defeat to La Piedad. That club provides a good example of how quickly fortunes can change in this league, as they were 14th at the time (so I really wasn't happy at the defeat) but seemed to do a lot better from the point on. 3 wins after that made a playoff place pretty much secure and we even touched top, and while we faced 2 narrow defeats afterwards a commanding win over Veracruz (with the emerging Lozano starring) was enough to be 3rd.

However now it's gets interesting. This isn't a part of the world to manage in if you don't like playoffs, and I happen to have a bad record in them this career. Aside from my handful of failures at Gillingham, there was also my first season in Turkey (which I know seems like centuries ago now) and only once did I even make it past the semi-final. However that will have to change if we're to go up at any point. We started with a quarter-final stage instead of a semi-final, and even if we somehow win that there's a further tie between the winners of the two stages.

In other news, Gillingham got automatic promotion in their first season without me, which I didn't really want to see because it would make me look bad. Aside from loan deals there were only a few transfers in and out, not changing the team much at all aside from the keeper, and clearly my successor managed to make the core of young talent click surprisingly quickly.

However that makes it interesting given my desire to potentially return and as things stand they'll be in a decent position when I do, maybe a decent League 1 team at the very least. In fact I almost hope that's the case rather than seeing them an established Championship team as it means I can tick off one of the promotions I missed.

[deltablue]

AFCON 2055 - Egypt

The year before, South Africa became the most surprising of World Cup finalists, and that's saying a lot in a save with Wales winning twice. Unsurprisingly that didn't seem to improve their continental fortunes as they won their group then went out to Tunisia. Morocco were quarter-finalists at that World Cup and did a bit better, only narrowly losing to eventual winners Algeria, who have now shared the previous 4 with the Ivory Coast. The final saw them beat a slightly wasteful Egypt side who were hosting for the second tournament in a row. It definitely seemed to still be an eventful match from the Algerian's perspective anyway.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Done well to be that close to the top considering the position the club were in when you took over 

[deltablue]

Asian Cup 2055 - Japan

Well that's a bit of a surprise. Japan have dominated Asia almost completely. The South Koreans won the 2nd and 3rd tournaments of the save but Japan have won 6 of the 7 since, and the previous 4 and even when they failed, only South Korea had managed to beat them. That changed this time around even though they were hosts, with Australia beating them in the group stage to take top spot, leaving the Japanese to face and lose to the Saudi's in the quarter-finals.

In their absence the South Koreans won again, with a single win for China being the only break up of the duopoly. There have been a bit more variety with the runners-up and it was Australia who took their second silver medal, 16 years after the first.

 

[deltablue]

6 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Done well to be that close to the top considering the position the club were in when you took over 

Yes, well about that...

[deltablue]

Playoffs 2055

That went well. Our first playoff opponents turned out to be the last, but it didn't have to be that way. We pounded away in the first leg only for a stupid own-goal to put us behind. We quickly equalised which put us on a good position ahead of the home leg, especially as in the case of a tie, the team with the better league record goes through rather than there being away goals or extra time, which I rather like.

Unfortunately they managed to make fools of our defence twice and despite the young star Lozano (already our league top scorer) managing to equalise after the first time, my poor playoff record continues. That meant I knew what was coming...

My short reign in Queretaro ends the same way it started, with a 2-1 home defeat against Curtidores. As mentioned above the board actually judged me for finishing bottom of the Opening Stage after just 2 matches, and they treated it as a relegation as well. I don't know what would have been enough to save the situation but an early playoff exit was never going to be it. Clearly the confidence system has a few flaws when it comes to seasons with two halves.

I was planning to stay in Latin America but that's easier said than done. After this and the Gillingham sacking I need to rebuild my reputation somewhat. Racing had been stuck in the Argentine Second Division for a few years and they rejected me, as did the Chilean Everton. They're still flattered due to my base reputation for the most part but the level you last managed at definitely plays a factor, which is why I got nowhere with the big Brazilian clubs last time, and clearly I need quite a bit of success to to have the freedom to pick and choose.

There's no rush and I'll still keep trying a bit longer before lowering my sights more. I'll be patient for the right opportunity, even if it's back in a smaller European league again. Something promising is bound to turn up eventually.

[deltablue]

Copa America 2055 - Uruguay

This is Argentina's first win in 3, though they've otherwise been dominant enough (only Brazil have even won 2 otherwise) that it isn't a big surprise. Venezuela aren't really surprise finalists either since I remember when I beat Arsenal with Gillingham they had an insane Venezuelan forward and have another very good one at Sparta Prague of all teams. In contrast Brazil continued to struggle, with just a single win over Honduras U23 as they went through as a 3rd place team before losing to Venezuela.

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2055

It was a mostly easy win for Mexico among a full field of contenders. Canada got yet another second place but at least managed to score a win over their neighbourinos to the south on the way. Guatemala were the only team with no points as the whipping boys among a 3 way tie of Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. It was a better tournament for smaller Caribbean sides as Barbados were 2nd in their group (over Jamaica and Cuba) before 'only' losing 2-0 to Mexico while St.Vincent picked up a win.

[deltablue]

New Club

My patience paid off eventually, in November. I had success being approached by St.Truidense in Belgium but they were already challengers (with some recent titles) which ruled them out, but it did show that I could get a good club in a decent league after all, and with resources to work with (which was always going to be vital right now as I needed a good chance of getting some success on the board again) though that could potentially apply to teams relatively big enough in any number of leagues. I won't be able to go into details until later tomorrow but for now it will be enough to reveal where I am now...

[deltablue]

Chapter 7: Lord of the Peat (Heerenveen)

Heerenveen are arguably one of the better known of the smaller provincial Dutch clubs (if you're of a certain age), managing to become an established top flight team with a regular European football (at least for a spell) while being able to develop notable players like van Nistelrooy, Janmaat and... Georgios Samaras. OK. The town is home to the fastest lowland speed skating rink in the world, which may not seem like much of a claim to fame but bear in mind that the population is just under 30,000 (50,000 for the entire municipality) so while we're not exactly talking Castel Di Sangro levels of being really small, there's only so much you can reasonably expect. It was founded in the 16th century by a few lords for the purpose of digging peat for fuel, hence the name of the town. 

The club was founded in 1920 and plays at the Abe Lenstra stadium (the second of that name), named after a legendary local-born forward from the 40's and 50's, who was also a Dutch international, scoring 33 goals in 47 appearances. He moved elsewhere at the start of the professional era but was already 33 at the time having alredy had a brief player-manager period, and while stats are vague his wiki page lists a record of 523 goals in 500 matches for the club. Even if that's not entirely accurate it's easy to see why he's clearly very popular. The current stadium itself has a capacity of 26,100, which is actually pretty good for a town this size, and the first match it hosted was also (Brazilian) Ronaldo's first match in Europe.

The best the club have managed in the league is a 2nd place finish in 2000 (having only made the Eredivisie for the first time 10 years earlier), and it's probably that decade where they gained the most prominence. They haven't matched that in-game with a single 3rd place finish a few years ago being their only top 3 finish since. However there's still quite a bit to work with. The club are in the Europa League (and expected to qualify again this season), though are unlikely to progess with just 3 points from 4 matches (and a 4-point gap to overcome in the remaining 2), as well as being in the 4th round (last 16) of the cup. Thinking ahead a little bit, PSV have won 11 titles in a row and present a formidable challenger if we're in a position to aim for a first ever title.

There's 5.6M in the bank and while projections have to be taken with a pinch of salt, we're actually expected to make a bit of money and increase that to 7.2M at the end of the season. That's despite being 10kpw over a 200kpw wage budget meaning I'm not in a position to try and make use of a transfer budget of over 1M. However players leaving at the end of the season help make it easy to free up quite a bit of room going forward. We already have some good players already, and I have high hopes for being able to get the occasional promising youth player as well.

Key Players

 

[Dexter_Morgan]

I reckon this club is exactly the sort of club you need, not too big but lots of potential to grow and you should be able to attract fairly decent players straight away 

[deltablue]

4 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

I reckon this club is exactly the sort of club you need, not too big but lots of potential to grow and you should be able to attract fairly decent players straight away 

That's just what I like best, and when Heerenveen came up I was particularly excited about potentially being able to do something with them. As it happens it's started very well indeed.

It helps that I have a pretty good starting hand already, not something I'm used to when arriving at a new club. The main exception is the lack of a left-back. I don't mean a good left-back, any left backs at all. There is a retiring Iranian central defender who can play both sides (and actually is still pretty good) but he doesn't really qualify, and another 'central defender who can play wide) in the U19 squad is the only other player at the entire club who play in that position. How is that even possible?

You're also right about the quality of players I can attract, though being able to afford more than a couple is another matter. We can't spend more than 1-2M or 10kpw lightly. Thankfully FM13 is great for free agents (and I've already signed one) but even they will eat up the budget pretty quickly and I could overdo in grabbing more than we need (or who aren't quite good enough to improve the team) if I'm not careful.

I'm currently in December trying to arrange some deals with quite a few players I can sell both to raise quite a bit of money and cut the wage bill quite a bit (adding more budgetary flexibility), ready for when the window opens. One or two might need direct replacements which is risky since the left-back must come first but it helps that the first few weeks of January are part of a winter break. At the moment it looks like I should be able to do quite a bit and I'll make sure to show off the new signings.

[deltablue]

Dec 2055

Things started well enough with 10 points from the first 4 league games, even if the draw against IJsselmeervogels was disappointing, as was the fact that it was only enough to rise 2 places in the league. We also kept our Europa League hopes alive with a win in Lisbon, cutting the gap to just a single point. However we failed to take our chance against Spartak in the final match as things started to go downhill. That was followed by a cup exit against NEC, a match we really should have expected to win, and a first league defeat in 8 at Fortuna Sittard of all teams, dropping us back down to 7th.

However now I get to go shopping, and I've spotted a few very good players indeed I can get so I'm looking forward to it.

[deltablue]

January Transfer Update

I must admit that I went a bit crazy trying to raise as much as I could to get in a few players I really wanted, including a couple of sales I wouldn't have made otherwise. However I did manage to raise around 13M (though a couple of those payments were really spread out so we haven't got that much in reality), including a player who actually hasn't left yet because the departures were annoyingly staggered due to transfer windows opening (so I didn't have as much to work with when the window opened as I planned). That also means we didn't need to try and sell him in the first place but thankfully he was one of the clearly dispensible players going.

In terms of newcomers, I started early with an Indonesian free agent, probably my first to add to Moradi being my first player from Iran at Bucaspor and The Zimbabwean guy at Queretaro. He was theoretically good enough to be first choice but his debut was marked by an intercepted backpass to let Ajax equalise, and his only other game was NEC. Hopefully he proves to be decent eventually. The left-back problem was almost immediately solved by parent club Hamburg sending someone, right after I made a bit for someone which I was immediately able to withdraw.

The first two proper signings in January were both Brazilian, which should be surprising. The only restrictions we have is that we can't play non-EU players under 18, though they won't really be able to arrive until that age anyway. The new right back Jefferson Severino won't be the last excellent young player with relatively low release clause I grab from Brazil.

Once those signings were here there were two more I wanted who pretty much arrived as a pair as well. They ended up almost being like for like replacements for the players I sold to get enough budget together. You'll all be shocked to discover that one was a young Brazilian, with the other being a Romanian with a 'Professional' personality that bodes very well for the future. All the signings were at or at least near the top end of what I could afford on any one player but they should prove to be worth it.

There is actually one more but he won't arrive until the summer. A Nigerian midfielder in Bosnia was very much on my list and available for just 1M but as soon as the window opened, clubs came in to take advantage of his expiring contract and I followed suit, eventually winning the race. It would have been great to get him now despite his physical shortcomings (though not being a complete lightweight) but we weren't in the position to spend 1M we didn't need to.

Signings

Future Signing

[deltablue]

This is still active, and I have played a few more matches but while I have been trying to get back into it it doesn't help when things aren't going as well as they should and while it may sound strange sometimes it can get a bit much. The Finland save is the one on hiatus rig now but it's definitely not finished. There's just no point in trying to split saves right now.

[deltablue]

Apr 2056

I must admit to not being optimistic at the start of the year. 10 points from my first 4 league games in charge had only slightly taken us up the table before a small slump going into the winter break (though only one defeat was in the league). We then started 2056 with a few tough fixtures and I was worried we'd end up too far off the European qualification pace, especially as it would be hard to take another failure after Gillingham and Queretaro. We somehow beat Twente and Groningen (who were competing with us in the table at the time) in rather lucky fashion before losing at PSV (heading for a 12th title in a row) and Feyenoord. Utrecht at home should have been easier but we stumbled for a 0-0 draw.

There were plenty of problems. The new signings weren't clicking, I had added 6 of them to 7 summer signings so it was an un-gelled squad, and they were still young and inexperienced. Jefferson Severino was 19, Achim was 18, Pereira was also 19, Izzel Aslan (who soon got a serious injury which meant we didn't get much out of his loan spell anyway) was 20, and even Christiano was a relatively young 22. The defence was a mess, Vorobjov had gotten a decent number of goals but he wasn't reliable enough and with the exception of a single goal from his fellow Russian Stichikhin was the only forward who had gotten on the scoresheet at all. It looked like another case of things not coming together quick enough.

That changed when I decided to tinker with the tactical settings, going for a more rigid (and therefore simpler) style among a couple of other things, and immediately saw it pay off, though the 5-0 initial win over NEC was deceptive as they actually threatened enough for our Swedish keeper Nordstrom to get an 8.2 rating. Our run involved critical wins over AZ (who had previously been 6 points ahead in 5th) and Volendam to close the gap considerably on both and we even briefly passed the latter into 4th (a big ask not long before) after the win over NAC Breda.

Unfortunately we looked like stumbling after that, losing to Ajax (putting us on the receiving end of a '6-pointer) before barely grabbing a draw at Ijsselmeervogels and having to turn things around in what should have been a comfortable home game against Fortuna. Even then we were probably reliant on a win to stay ahead of Ajax (though we would have still faced the European playoffs) and Volendam were 3 points ahead. I didn't even look at the goal difference situation because I thought 4th (avoiding the playoff) was all but sewn up for them. As expected, we needed to beat Zwolle, and eventually managed it, but I was surprised to see our lead taking us above Volendam as well giving us 4th (for the 3rd year in a row!) and automatic European qualification after all, which seemed deserved after a pretty good record of 38 points in 22 league matches so far.

Hopefully we'll get some prize money after the league is done and dusted since we're currently losing high 6-figure sums a month (even touching 1M). The wage bill of 206kpw (still just the 6th highest in the league) provides the main chunk of that and a few retirements (among other things) will get a few unwanted high-earners off the books but it won't make a massive difference by itself, and I'll probably need to keep selling and raising money in order to spend. We need regular European football (which will be fun to experience again by itself) at the very least to help keep things managable.

Thankfully I've already found out that even though I usually have to splash out 2-3M at a time, I can still get in some very good young players for that money, and while I've never been one to want to sell unless I need to, it's hard not to see a lot of players as potential investments this time around who I can sometimes see a big return on (and have throughout the career, even at Milan where Gomes is still my record signing and sale of the save at 16M and 40M respectively), and I'll probably take the opportunity to sell players if I can get a replacement in for far less, in a way I wouldn't try and do so much otherwise. Hopefully I won't have to sacrifice too many players that way but it might still work out both on and off the pitch.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

European Winners

CL

EL

Having gradually seen the talent pool spread a lot more widely thoughout the game as the save has progressed starting with Bulgaria and CSKA Sofia in particular (but my Heerenveen early signings also demonstrate the point) all the way back to early Milan years or even when I first started encountering them at Bucaspor I was wondering if that has had an impact on European competition and the answer is unfortunately not.

It's more been about which teams from the big nations have become strong European regulars (like Betis and Newcastle, both of whom I faced and beat in CL finals with Milan), and unless you're talking about Southend (or maybe Forest) they're not that out of the ordinary in the Europa League. Hamburg being recent Champions League winners (and Granada a while before that) are perhaps the only real noteworthy results, along with Marseille making a couple of finals. Even beyond the big leagues PSV and Celtic aren't as much of a shock as EL finalists as most other Scottish and Dutch teams would be, or if they happened in the Champions League.

There was one surprise on an individual level though. I recently took a look at the hall of fame (where thanks mostly to Milan I'm 10th, just below Morgan Schneiderlin) and saw a very surprising name just a couple of places below me. This manager had somehow ended up at Arsenal and had been responsible for 4 of their early CL wins, as well as a few Premier League titles (where they still otherwise had to play second fiddle to Man City at the time) and a handful of other cups. The manager in question... David Moyes!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Good first season in the end delta, those last 3 months or so was very good form 

[deltablue]

3 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Good first season in the end delta, those last 3 months or so was very good form 

Thanks. It was so nice to see things click for the first time in a while. We also managed to get a bit of money put back into the bank after the season finished, taking us to 4.5M but that will only be a short term fix. It'll be an interesting challenge having to keep a strong eye on the financial situation, especially given the standard near the top of league (and even in some areas of the existing team) is pretty high.

Thankfully I have already made an early start on the summer transfer activity. The amazing Eboh is arriving on a free from Bosnia (see above about the talent from smaller leagues) and my scout in the UK and Ireland earned his pay by coming up with two signings. The first is a 17yr old keeper signed for just 60k from Wexford who is definitely a potential first choice (though even I wouldn't try and make him such right away)  and the other is a fringe Arsenal defender since we really need to improve in central defence) whose contract is expiring. 

The big decision to be made is over our Portuguese winger Almeida. He's very good but his 19yr old Dutch deputy Bakker isn't that far behind, and put in a few very good displays last season. However I might be able to get 10M+ for him which would be huge. There is a big risk in that doing so would weaken us a little on paper and some of the money will have to go on a replacement in the squad, but there are still a few more players we definitely need to get and if that's the way I'm able to afford them, that's just the way it has to be. 

[deltablue]

Euro 2056 - Poland/Ukraine

After Wales failed to qualify for the last World Cup as holder, I couldn't resist seeing if they managed to avoid a repeat as reigning European Champions. They did but only pipped Greece to an automatic qualification place on a better head-to-head record (and actually had a slightly inferior goal difference) but ended up having a pretty good tournament in the end.

The Dutch were in a group of death (which it seems we can still get even with this Euro format) with Italy, Portugal and Russia and ended up being the big losers. France also faced an early exit but the Bosnia team that qualified ahead of them were pretty good and made it through to the semis in the end after beating Portugal (who have never done well in this save) and Russia.

Turkey were the other country who did well though not at first. Their group had a very familiar (and dangerous) feel to it as they faced Greece and Wales, the three of them having also been in the same qualifying group together. You could forgive Finland for feeling overlooked. Turkey only scraped through in 3rd but then beat Germany, Serbia and Austria to make the final where they were easily beaten by a Spanish team returning to winning ways.

The Turks can sometimes produce some very good players (they were the team I famously beat in the World Cup final with Mexico that time) and seem have a good crop again now judging by a few players on my radar this summer (though sadly a little out of my price range). Austia were clearly no slouches either as they won their group then knocked out Italy and reigning World Champions Croatia.

[deltablue]

Summer 2056

Do you guys think I signed enough players? Believe it or not since we didn't have anything in the bank at the time the provisional budgets were set I only had a 500k transfer budget to start with. I knew I'd be able to add quite a bit to that with sales even before getting into being able to offload players who were had been or were going to be directly replaced by newcomers. I really hope all the new signings (especially with a lot of youngsters) doesn't hinder us too much, especially as the board expect a title challenge (which I hope means I can get away with 3rd or something) and not merely European qualification. Still I didn't expect to be able to stretch things as much as to spend around 12M, going crazy in the transfer market and picking up new toys like it was my birthday tomorrow. And as it happens, it is.

I already mentioned a few early signings, back when I was taking what I could get. Eboh was already set to arrive from January, and my scouts threw up Nash as a potentual future No.1 along with Anderton (a very rare English signing at a foreign club) to help reinforce the defence if need be. Those 3 players in for just 60k in total seemed like a very good start indeed.

Left-back was the first of a few priority positions, as last season we were mostly reliant on a retiring Iranian who was far more a centre-back. Parent club Hamburg sent us someone on loan but he didn't last long before getting injured. I had anticipated being able to still use him in the European playoffs but we managed to avoid those in the end. There were quite a few candidates but going for Marin as a free-agent wasn't as easy a decision as you'd imagine given the relatively high wages he'd ask for, and having rejected Elias as being too risky for a first choice, he was soon in as a squad option instead. Hopefully just having proper left-backs will be a big boost.

Another priority was midfield depth, as we had almost no one beyond Pereira and Eboh and I'm expecting the latter to be at the AFCON. At first that was set to be Miguel Luiz, from the Nigerian's old club Borac (making great glorious nation of Bosnia) then I notice he'd be a good replacement for Almeida in the right instead (allowing me to sell the Portuguese winger, though not quite for as large as sum as I hoped I could grab for him), with Valdez already lined up for the midfield, along with Caetano giving us depth in the other slot as well.

With a surprising level of squad depth being achieved already, that mainly just left us thin up front, which was badly exposed at the start of the season. Vorobjov went off injured (and would be out for a few busy weeks) in the first game against Belenenses in the Europa League, followed by his replacement Sitchikhin getting sent off (when we were already down to 10 men after an earlier red) in the opening league game. Christiano remained available but started the season slightly short of full fitness after a pre-season injury and struggled to cope.

I was definitely eyeing one forward, maybe even two though that would contribute to the squad being a bit 'heavy'. Having already decided to go for Nunes for an estimated price of under a million so was shocked when I made the bid when I noticed Porto had set an asking price of just 170k. It's true he's not that great but it was depth I was after rather than a starter so at that price, why not? Sandro was the last of the signings I felt I needed to make, originally to help our defensive options (having already gone for yet another Brazilian who would arrive in a year) but he also had the qualities to give us a proper ball-playing defender.

I still wanted to do something with the money left over (having made so many signings already, one or two more wouldn't hurt), and being able to get in Sivero from Switzerland as someone already looking about as good as Tiago (which is surprisingy the case for a lot of the younger signings compared to the players they're replacing), allowing me to sell the Brazilian (which I nearly did in January anyway) and thereby allowing me to get in Marcao, who had been on my radar during the earlier forward hunt, and maybe should have been the one I got in the first place instead of Nunes, despite being more expensive. That makes him the 3rd player of the summer signed from Sao Paulo and you can just imagine the reaction of their manager when his secretary informs him that I'm on the line again after yet another player.

All things considered I'm delighted with how it's gone. I've already managed to get together a squad I'm happy with for now, though hopefully not at too much of a short-term stability cost (which could actually see me fired when coupled to the expectations). It's true these aren't the best young players and maybe we have a few too many but it also means we have plenty of options if not everyone works out, as well as far more depth and versatility then I thought I could manage all over the pitch.

Financially we're up to a reasonably healthy 9.5M in the bank, though we'll see how long that lasts especially as I actually increased the wage bill a little bit. A better Europa League run than our group stage exit will definitely help a lot but we're arguably still getting so much more value for money with a much improved squad that should help us realistically aim a bit higher once everything settles down.

Signings

Future Signing

[deltablue]

Europa League Group Draw

Ow! We perhaps made heavier weather of the qualifying rounds than we should have, and while we still made it through, we were bottom seeds. We definitely need to start improving on that, but it won't be easy with groups like this which isn't far off being CL standard.

[deltablue]

I'm going to take a little break from my careers and FMCU for a while, not that I've been particularly active anyway recently. I've not had the best of times in the past month or so and a bit of pressure in the save is only adding to that, so I need to step back and give myself some recovery time.

[ManUtd1]

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

[Bedese]

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

[Deisler26]

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