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Lowestoft Town FC - End of Season 2023/24
20th in Sky Bet League One

    Final League Table | Squad 1+2 | Transfers | Schedule 1+2+3 | Awards | Season Review |Finances
Best Eleven

Lookback:
    YEAH! We made it. It was the expect hard season but with a bit of luck and some teams even worse than ours we managed to stay up.
    My whole "restructing" project wasn't that successful though. I didn't manage to sign many of the players that I wanted and decided to rather keep my cheap squad.
    Nevertheless I signed 8 players during the first transfer window (3 on loan) to reshape my first team.
    Additionally I decided to drop the Attacking Midfielder from default tactic and switch to playing an defensive midfielder.
    This also meant that my captain and promotion hero Bernardo Rosa would be getting less and less play time this season. He already was playing above his level in League Two and his contract won't be extended even though he's favoured personal.
    No major cup runs this year - at least on the income side.
    In the Carabao cup I managed to knock out Bournemouth (CH) and Crystal Palace (PL) before losing to Sheffield United (PL).
    Checkatrade Trohpy I didn't care about ... managed to advance from the group phase to get knocked out by AFC Telford via penalties.
    In the FA cup we got some minor teams in the first 2 rounds ... then Wigan from League One away - the one that got us the most money from the gates.
    We managed to draw Liverpool in the 4th round but unfortunatley at home .. also unable to draw them - no big money for us. Even though TV money and gates were still decent.
    The league went as to be expected. We went to the bottom of the table pretty much with the 2nd game. But we always managed to stay close to the line.
    Since that was the case I invested around 350k (transfers + salary) in the squad in the winter.
    Those 4 signings were real difference makers in the end - specially since I could play a 4-1-4-1 finally. Previously I was lacking any capable wingers.
    The reason we stayed up was a 7 game unbeaten run with 5 wins at the very end of the season. However since we lost the final 3 games it was nerve racking situation. Specially since we managed to lead 2-0 at 4th placed Accrington and still managed to go down to 10 men and lose 2-4.
    I really hope that we get better sponsors for next season ... the 50k/annum that I got this season hardly makes any difference.
    The first half of the season I spent ~700k in wages per annum, after the winter transfers it went up to 1 million. Still the 23th placed in wages is paying 1,5 million.
    Oh and upgrading the youth facilities already paid off! We signed Aaron Green (Defender Left) and already used him in the first squad.
    
Outlook:
    I'm happy to stay another season in League One. But currently it's very difficult too somehow get some financial space to do crazy things. My wage budget has been fixed to 2.5 million but I don't know how I'm supposed to not get bankcrupt with that.
    Goals for the next season are to stay up - continue to rebuild the squad and hopefully get a good financial opponent in the FA cup.

 

Season	League		Position	FA Cup		FA Trophy		Top Scorer		Most Assists		Highest Rating
												
2018/19	Vanarama North		19th	2nd Qual Rd		1st Rd		Jake Reed (18)		Lewis Taaffe (11)		Eze Ebuzoeme (6.99)
2019/20	Vanarama North		5th	1st Rd		3rd Qual Rd		Tom Hitchcock (34)		Anthony Cook (15)		Bernardo Rosa (7.23)
2020/21	Vanarama National		19th	4th Rd		1st Rd		Daniel Griffiths (27)		Rachid Tiah (11)		Lezion Cela (7.06)
2021/22	Vanarama National		1st	4th Qual Rd		1st Rd		Daniel Griffiths (21)		Daniel Griffiths (21)		Marcus Dinanga (7.44)
2022/23	SkyBet League Two		3rd	4th Rd		1st Rd		Offrande Zanzala (29)		Daniel Griffiths (27)		Offrande Zanzala (7.40)
2023/24	SkyBet League One		20th	4th Rd		3rd Rd		Offrande Zanzala (16)		James Norman (11)		James Norman (7.12)

 

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1 hour ago, XaW said:

Not quite sure how this happened, but I'll take it!

8y0q82A.png

Ouch! 

Which roles are you using on your midfield and attach when using 433? I tried 433 in a game in FA Trophy - Ended up winning 4-3, but I think it had a lot to do with the roles I used. Switched because I was in a bad streak with my default 442

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13 minutes ago, KVJ92 said:

Ouch! 

Which roles are you using on your midfield and attach when using 433? I tried 433 in a game in FA Trophy - Ended up winning 4-3, but I think it had a lot to do with the roles I used. Switched because I was in a bad streak with my default 442

I switch around a bit, but I've noticed that Mezzala often works well for the MCR and MCL, but not against top teams. The MC is defensive often just CM - D. The attackers I switch around to suit the player. The one in the middle is often sit a bit lower than the others, so a DLF or a Trequartista would work well. I don't have any who are very suited to a Trequartista so I often use a DLF in the middle and the two wider ones are often just Advanced Forwards unless I feel the player have a more suitable trait I want to exploit. My normal one against most teams are:

  AF-A DFL-S AF-A

  MEZ-S CM-D MEZ-S

FB-S  DC-D DC-D FB-S
	G-D

Then I just switch around on the TI's to try to get the team to play as I want. It's been working all the way from the bottom, though I have switched roles depending on the players and opposition. I do tweak a lot in each game though, so the way I play at the end of the match often looks nowhere near what I start with.

This is not a suitable way to play if you want to keep a clean sheet though, but I'm horrible at defensively solid tactics, I always go for the "I can score more than you" mentality, so I concede a lot, but I rely on scoring more than my opponent. Last season my goalkeeper had 4 clean sheets in 44 matches. He conceded 94 goals in those matches...so yeah, not good defensively.

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28 minutes ago, XaW said:

 


  AF-A DFL-S AF-A

  MEZ-S CM-D MEZ-S

FB-S  DC-D DC-D FB-S
	G-D

Then I just switch around on the TI's to try to get the team to play as I want. It's been working all the way from the bottom, though I have switched roles depending on the players and opposition. I do tweak a lot in each game though, so the way I play at the end of the match often looks nowhere near what I start with.

This is not a suitable way to play if you want to keep a clean sheet though, but I'm horrible at defensively solid tactics, I always go for the "I can score more than you" mentality, so I concede a lot, but I rely on scoring more than my opponent. Last season my goalkeeper had 4 clean sheets in 44 matches. He conceded 94 goals in those matches...so yeah, not good defensively.

I also play 4-3-3 at home  but mine isn't so effective as i have bbm and an AP instead of the mez's. I also have a DF and TM up front with AF or P depending on the player. This is combined with more closing down, normal tempo and direct passing.

I'm guessing you have little closing down and lower tempo for that formation. I would think that formation is too open and attacking, but then i'm struggling in VNL and your team is in the premier league :D

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2 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

I also play 4-3-3 at home  but mine isn't so effective as i have bbm and an AP instead of the mez's. I also have a DF and TM up front with AF or P depending on the player. This is combined with more closing down, normal tempo and direct passing.

I'm guessing you have little closing down and lower tempo for that formation. I would think that formation is too open and attacking, but then i'm struggling in VNL and your team is in the premier league :D

Well, yes, it is too open and attacking, but I've tried to make a more defensive version, the two matches I played with that a couple of seasons ago I lost 6-1 and 5-0. So I stick to what semi-works for me. I'd rather the match end in a 5-5 draw than lose 5-0. I'm not a tactical genius of any kind, so when I find something that kind of works I tend to stick with it. Then slowly try a tweak or two. As I said my last attempt to create a more defensive versions was a disaster.

For what it's worth I don't claim this will work for anyone else. I've rolled with this tactic for a lot of seasons now and the players I have bought have been buy because they will fit into this tactic. I have had possibilities of better players, but I didn't think they would fit in, so I didn't try to sign them. That is also why I spent £80m on the striker I felt would fit perfectly. For what it's worth his stats this season is 25 games, 16 goals and 14 assists, so I'm getting what I payed for! :D

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Margate season 2019-2020

Overview:

About as successful as i could have hoped, although perhaps going out to Macclesfield in the FA Trophy was a bit dissappointing as we'd thrashed them 5-0 a couple of weeks before. The league was great, we hit the front early doors and didn't really let up, spent most of the season well clear at the top and ran out winning by over 20 pts and beating the league record for wins and points scored in a season. FA Cup was decent, we beat Sheffield Wednesday away from home but unfortunately Drew huddersfield in the next round at home so the gates were dissappointing and we lost 1-0. Didn't bring in enough money for the board to splash out to improve our training grounds or facilities which is a shame. Although they have allowed me to pretty much consistently go on training courses so I'm now studying for my Continental B.

Margate_%20%20Competitions_zps8ffzpf3o.p

Frankie%20Knuckles_%20My%20Profile%20Pro

Squad:

As i said before, picked up a lot of talented youngsters as i couldn't seem to entice any experience and the kids did me proud, i think there is still potential in the team to keep me in League 2 next season with only a few additions. The three standouts for me were Jordan McEneff, Jonathan Panzo (who everyone is trying to poach off me) and a real prospect in Diako Lindstrom.

Jordan%20McEneff_%20Overview%20Profile_z

Diako%20Lindstroumlm_%20Overview%20Profi

Jonathan%20Panzo_%20Overview%20Profile_z

Margate_%20Players%20Players_zpsonj0oezp

Finances:

Everything looks pretty decent, didn't spend a penny on transfers and was miles away from my wage limit. Spent a fair bit on scouting at times over the season and that had quite a squeeze but overall the board and I are pretty satisfied.

Margate_%20Finances%20Summary_zpsrgbyt90

The future:

Hopefully going pro before league 2 - and then i guess probably spend next year in a relegation dogfight.

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not going pro until 2021... we have to run the full year in League at Semi-pro :(

Surely that can't be right, in previous editions announcing going proffessional before/during pre-season usually means immediately going pro doesn't it?

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1 minute ago, tremor said:

not going pro until 2021... we have to run the full year in League at Semi-pro :(

Surely that can't be right, in previous editions announcing going proffessional before/during pre-season usually means immediately going pro doesn't it?

Had the same in my game once going to L2 - It did however, upgrade to pro at start of season.

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1 minute ago, tremor said:

dunno, but says on the progress bar completion date may 2021 and we're currently in May 2020.

Unless they are going to decline the promotion to keep us in the VNL for another year... which would be a freaking travesty!

when it gets to the league reset date you should go pro automatically. it wont happen untill then

 

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12 minutes ago, tremor said:

Thanks, I have logged it on the bugs forum anyway, but it is frustrating that I can't start offering pro contracts yet in an effort to snap up the recently released youth talent. 

Fingers crossed anyway 

Let us know if it happens. im sure it happened like this this to me on previous FMs

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3 hours ago, tremor said:

not going pro until 2021... we have to run the full year in League at Semi-pro :(

Surely that can't be right, in previous editions announcing going proffessional before/during pre-season usually means immediately going pro doesn't it?

I'm a few games into my first season in League 2 and still semi-pro. Assumed we would turn pro instantly at the turn of season but never did so had to request it. Going pro at the end of the season. Managed to sign a few decent players so shouldn't have too much trouble staying up. Fingers crossed.

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XaW - Marine - 2028/29

Marine_F.C.logo.png

Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances

During the summer we moved into our brand new 14k stadium. Of course we are filling it up every game and we are working on an expansion, but it won't be done until the next season is done, so a while to wait before it's done. I brought in a couple of players this summer, and some of them even failed to get a work permit. I did accept the transfer anyway since they are good enough to play for their countries and the work permit should be possible to attain after a while. I'm trying to loan them out to places that don't require the same permits in the mean time. I also bought a player for the grand sum of £80m, but I only did it because I were pretty sure of the success. And a success it turned out to be! The season started pretty tough though, with our hard schedule were we met Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd and Tottenham within the first 7 matches. A point here and there, but we were certainly not at the top after this run of hard opponents. When we got through the hardest part of the season we started to win some matches again and climbed up the table. Going into the Christmas time we went on a mini run of 6 wins in a row and made a stand against the other teams when we suddenly were part of the fight for European spots. We had a drop in form around February and fell a bit back, but climbed up again with a great March month. With a few matches left we were in a three way fight for the 4th place against Arsenal and Leicester with us on 58 and both Leicester and Arsenal on 57. In the penultimate game we beat Wolves 4-2, and after the game I noticed that BOTH Leicester and Arsenal had lost! This meant we had secured the 4th place as our won with a game to space. The final win against Burnley was just for show, but we still won it. We are going into Champions League next season! I did not expect this so soon, but I'll take it!

I'm working on our facilities still, and finished an increase this season and got another approved. Hopefully this will mean our players will develop even better than before. I'm also setting up a network of clubs around the world and getting youth agreements with them to make sure we also can get foreign players in even with the hard Brexit.

In the FA Cup we went on a great run where we beat Fulham, Liverpool, Coventry, Brighton and Middlesbrough to get to final! Here we lost Arsenal and ended as runner-up. In the Carabao Cup we beat Derby County, Wolves and Brighton before losing to Man Utd in the quarter final. Also worth noting is that our U23s won the Checktrade Trophy this year.

My best players this season have been our £80m purchase Bruno Vieira, South Korean striker Park Min-Suk and Australian playmaker James Vlazlovski.

DCF3gP1.png

@Warhawk and @HighFlyingDwarf: Tagging you guys for updates!

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lqoOv4M.png

Tycoon takeover? Sure I guess, but we don't really need it to be honest...

gVT2P54.png

Not exactly the grand spender. Those 2 million will do nicely with the 50 we already have... Now, let's see if this one is as kind as the last one why agreed to everything I asked.

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image.jpeg.5f008be743e8123d34adb09cbf65325f.jpeg

Hereford FC - Premier League - 2028/29

So season 3 in the Premier League didn't quite go as smoothly as I would have liked. I started with my 4231 formation and was hopeful we would do well. We started off OK reaching a high point of 8th before we hit a slump and dropped right down the table to 17th. At this point I feared the worst and with 7 games to go I abandoned the 4231 experiment and I decided to go back to the narrow 433 which got us here in the first place. We then won 4 of our next 7 games and finished in 14th just 4 points behind 9th. The last 2 seasons I have gone backwards since trying to change around the tactics to play a more stylish brand of football. I'm going to go back to the 433 and hopefully break into the top half next season. 

League Table


Past Positions

Cups - Early exits. I would like a nice cup run soon. A final would be nice to reach.

Squad - I still lack strength in certain areas and hopefully I can improve that this summer. I will also look to ship out some deadwood and bring in the correct players for a 433 again.  

Finances - Massive profits this season as I didn't go mad on transfers. 

Transfers - I almost made a profit on transfers this season with a £3m net spend.  Sutcliffe was my most expensive signing but his performances as a winger have made me decide to go wingerless again! He is somehow wanted by Arsenal and Liverpool so if I can get a good offer I'll let him leave.   

 

Key Player Profiles:

James Garner - My youth gem had the highest average rating this season! 2 goals and 2 MOM's in just 9 appearances for a 15/16 year old. 

Dave Sutcliffe - £26m spent on this guy. 5 assists and 3 goals from the wing wasnt good enough. Still one of the better average ratings however.

Joao Rodrigues - Top scorer with 14. I need more from my main striker. Did have Wolfsburg sniffing around in the winter. 

Next Season Aims

Mid table/Top half finish. Maybe a cup run to a final

Other News

The new stadium is to be expanded again and we now have a presence in China as we partnered with Quanjian. 


Career Overview

Season          League                      League Finish     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19         Vanarama South              9th               FA Cup 2nd round  
2019/20         Vanarama North		    3rd	 	      Lost in playoff final
2020/21         Vanarama North		    1st	              Champions and FA Trophy Winners
2021/22         Vanarama National           1st               Champions, FA Trophy finalists & FA Cup 3rd round
2022/23		Sky Bet League 2	    1st		      Champions  
2023/24         Sky Bet League 1            4th               Lost in playoff final
2024/25         Sky Bet League 1            1st               Champions, FA Cup round 5 & Checkatrade Trophy winner
2025/26         Sky Bet Championship        1st               Champions
2026/27         Premier League              11th              Survival
2027/28	        Premier League              12th      
2028/29         Premier League              14th

 

 

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9 hours ago, Thebaker said:

I also play 4-3-3 at home  but mine isn't so effective as i have bbm and an AP instead of the mez's. I also have a DF and TM up front with AF or P depending on the player. This is combined with more closing down, normal tempo and direct passing.

I'm guessing you have little closing down and lower tempo for that formation. I would think that formation is too open and attacking, but then i'm struggling in VNL and your team is in the premier league :D

It's quite interesting to see the variations used - I tweaked mine after a run of two wins in nine

       DLF-S P-A DLF-S

      AP-A DLP - D Car-S

DFB-D DCB-St CD-Co DFB-D

                 SK-D

Basically I'm playing this home and away with TI's tweaked and using OI's.

 

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6 hours ago, wicksyFM said:

Let us know if it happens. im sure it happened like this this to me on previous FMs

Yep, like you said as i rolled through the 24th of June and got the yearly scoreboard i automatically went pro and it is now showing as completed on the board info page. Happy days :)

Still logged the bug though as it is pretty misleading

Now starts the process of offering new contracts to everyone...

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11 hours ago, XaW said:

I switch around a bit, but I've noticed that Mezzala often works well for the MCR and MCL, but not against top teams. The MC is defensive often just CM - D. The attackers I switch around to suit the player. The one in the middle is often sit a bit lower than the others, so a DLF or a Trequartista would work well. I don't have any who are very suited to a Trequartista so I often use a DLF in the middle and the two wider ones are often just Advanced Forwards unless I feel the player have a more suitable trait I want to exploit. My normal one against most teams are:


  AF-A DFL-S AF-A

  MEZ-S CM-D MEZ-S

FB-S  DC-D DC-D FB-S
	G-D

Then I just switch around on the TI's to try to get the team to play as I want. It's been working all the way from the bottom, though I have switched roles depending on the players and opposition. I do tweak a lot in each game though, so the way I play at the end of the match often looks nowhere near what I start with.

This is not a suitable way to play if you want to keep a clean sheet though, but I'm horrible at defensively solid tactics, I always go for the "I can score more than you" mentality, so I concede a lot, but I rely on scoring more than my opponent. Last season my goalkeeper had 4 clean sheets in 44 matches. He conceded 94 goals in those matches...so yeah, not good defensively.

Thanks! Might try this - although I like to keep a cleansheet, so might have to figure out what I want the most :p 

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Hereford United

2021/22 Season

After the pain of missing out on promotion last season I took a gamble and signed these three on free transfers.

5a22062eb86c3_DJBuffonge_OverviewProfile.thumb.png.081a726c1c76658d7682413b0268df04.png

5a2206c198188_JackRoles_OverviewProfile.thumb.png.0bb646d0102c61349ad52eecc41c0234.png

5a2206e35dfa0_AxelAndrsson_OverviewProfile.thumb.png.d7404fa318fa429bbb81d477d5319d3a.png

The season started brightly then we hit a bad run of form picking up too many draws, so the formation was tweaked and the season ended up like this

5a2207556bb61_VanaramaNationalLeague_OverviewStages-3.thumb.png.da7628003d616e9c599366d18b44c5ce.png

And we won the FA Trophy again

5a22078d82bb1_AFCWimbledonvHereford_MatchReview.thumb.png.6d3addeefaedcbffc1ddc0686b68fbf6.png

Top Scorer 

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Highest Rating

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The revised aims are now going to be - don't get relegated and massively cull the fringe players.

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Good to see new people starting this challenge every day :) Good luck guys

quick update for me. managed to get a few hours spare and now picking up some form in League Two (Season 4)

Fm1.png.8a4f28c7e2436ad47987c92cc9664941.png

Playoffs and auto promotion are still on the cards if we can keep it up!

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Bad news is, 6 injuries in a week.  OK news is, the longest is only 5-6 weeks and 3 of the 4 players who were injured in our game a week ago (we were able to handle the Newcastle U21s in the Checkatrade fairly easily in spite of it) are already back.  Great news is, we're now in the Carabao Cup semifinal after beating 3 Premier League teams in a row - Sheffield Wednesday away, Leicester at home, and Newcastle away.

Man, Newcastle must HATE us right now.  I mean, Sheff Wed and Leicester were probably the better performing team in those matches, but at least we were relatively close statistically.  Our win over Newcastle was grand theft in the first degree.

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Lowestoft Town FC managed to go to the semi finals in the FA cup!

Great cup run so far ... even though financially it's not that great since we played a lot at home. In the league we at the bottom half but relegation shouldn't be in the cards (9 points clear with 8 games to go)

 

2D3940195C7CBA1C4D91F9F2178E65D29AD64037

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Season 2018/19 Review

vF1HsL6.png

Tonbridge Angels FC

Season Review: Took a while to finish my first season due to health and work reasons, but I finally did. Gotta admit that this FM is probably one of the most difficult version for me to adjust to. The scouting overhaul is a nightmare for LLM but I guess it is more realistic (or so they say). Also, Tonbridge has a very thin-looking squad with players that generally do not fit in my kind of tactics. Defenders' average pace and acceleration of 6?! Tried to get more players as the season goes but it's really difficult getting consistent players or ones that are good to me. Nonetheless, managed to avoid relegation and hope to have an easier time next season.

Board expectations:

Vanarama National League South: Fight against relegation

Media prediction: 21st

FA Cup: Third Qualifying Round

FA Trophy: Third Qualifying Round

Results:

Vanarama National League South: 13th | League Table | Player Stats | Team Stats

FA Cup: Fourth Qualifying Round

FA Trophy: Third Round

Season Summary:

Transfers

Finances

Key Performers:

Jamie Smith: Wish I had him from the start. Only got him mid-season to shore up a really slow defence line (I don't like to play deep). Quickly became indispensable in my defence line. 

Harry Smith: Nope, not related to Jamie. He was kind of my gamble. Didn't have enough midfield and I had brought him to the club for a trial. Before the scouting ended, I took a leap of faith to sign him and he was great for most of the season. Turns out he can be quite inconsistent, but well, he did the job for me more often than not.

Shama Bako: Can you believe that we didn't have a single natural striker at the club when I took over?! Brought Shama in due to the emergency and he was quite good. Still inconsistent but managed 33 goals in the season operating as the sole striker. Good enough for me.

Youth Prospect:

Not worth mentioning.

Next Season's Goals:

1) I tell the team "Mid-Table", but I'm hoping for "Top-Half".

2) Priority goes to my defence line, then I'll see whether I can replace my left midfielder, and right raumdeuter.

Year   Division          		Position   FA Cup		     FA Trophy		Notes
2018   Vanarama National League South   13th	   Fourth Qualifying Round   Third Round           
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