[FM19] Derby County - Director of Football Challenge

[Stuniverse]

19 minutes ago, JaytheGreat said:

He has all the money to bring in atleast 3 quality players, which should contain atleast 1 GK and 1 CB. This offseason is make or break for Igor, and there's no excuse to not bring in multiple starters.

Quality players in the right areas are exactly what we need, @JaytheGreat. Let’s see what magic Igor can perform!

[JaytheGreat]

4 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:

Quality players in the right areas are exactly what we need, @JaytheGreat. Let’s see what magic Igor can perform!

Apparently you have to get rid of  your most valuable player before he can get started. It would have been a lot less stressful to have just accepted the Leicester job. 

[Stuniverse]

23 minutes ago, JaytheGreat said:

Apparently you have to get rid of  your most valuable player before he can get started. It would have been a lot less stressful to have just accepted the Leicester job. 

I think Leicester’s problem is an aging squad who are declining in ability. Jamie Vardy is no longer the striker he was.

I’m currently reviewing the player reports from my coaches (Stefano Eranio’s opinion is the one I trust the most) so that I’m prepared for the recruitment meeting with Igor which we’ll have at some point before the players break up for their summer holidays).

According to Stefano, quite a lot of our squad are Championship or League One standard which makes it even more of an achievement keeping Derby County in the Premier League this season. And, like Leicester, my older players appear to be on the decline now.

Based on Stefano’s assessments, I think we have less than eleven players of current Premier League standard.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

11/05/2020

Dear Diary,

I've just had a post-season meeting with my coaching staff, where I informed them that all this media speculation about the Leicester job was rubbish and I had no intention of leaving the Rams. They all seemed pleased, but not surprised, to hear that.

Overall, we're all in good spirits and delighted with the fantastic job we've done this season keeping our beloved Derby County in the Premier League. The enormity of our achievement was highlighted when we discussed how many of our squad we thought were actually Premier League standard at the moment and who we thought could reach that standard in the future.

Primarily guided by first team coach Stefano Eranio, we concluded that only seven of the current squad were Premier League standard; three of which are on loan this season and there's no guarantee we'll get them back next season: Domingos Quina, Harry Wilson (loan), Mason Mount (loan), Tom Lawrence, Jack Marriott, Alfred N'Diaye (loan) and Max Aaarons.

Players who we think could reach Premier League standard are: Facundo Colidio (loan), Mason Bennett, Max Lowe, Jayden Bogle, Luke Thomas, Louie Sibley and Tyree Wilson.

Our Chief Scout, Joe McClaren, also popped his head into the meeting to say that if we're serious about going after Watford's Will Hughes then he has a relegation release clause with a transfer fee of £18.25M.

I now feel suitably prepared for my meeting with Director of Football Igor Stimac.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Tajerio]

Seems a pretty decent budget.  If you had control of signings, I'd advise biting Leipzig's hand off for Quina, given his poor teamwork, bravery, work rate, and player traits--but it's hard to have confidence in Igor to bring in someone who can bring the ball through midfield like Quina can.

Also, at that price I'd be really tempted to get Hughes.  Shame his passing stat isn't a little higher, but he's a really solid all-around midfielder.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Tajerio

[Stuniverse]

6 hours ago, Tajerio said:

Seems a pretty decent budget.  If you had control of signings, I'd advise biting Leipzig's hand off for Quina, given his poor teamwork, bravery, work rate, and player traits--but it's hard to have confidence in Igor to bring in someone who can bring the ball through midfield like Quina can.

Also, at that price I'd be really tempted to get Hughes.  Shame his passing stat isn't a little higher, but he's a really solid all-around midfielder.

All good points, @Tajerio. Yes, if I had control of transfers in and out I know what I’d be looking to do, but that’s not how this save works. Quina was, arguably, my best player last season (so credit to Igor for signing him) but with him being one of only four permanent players my coaching staff rate as EPL standard I want to keep hold of him. That decision isn’t mine to make in this save though.

Igor probably could do a lot with the money for Quina, but would he?

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Irobinson69]

Seems a decent enough transfer kitty @Stuniverse Mine was similar after season 2, though had to adjust it to have more wages.

@JaytheGreat is right. Should easily be getting 3 key players in for that budget. There are usually plenty of young backup players from the big 6 that aren’t playing and are usually listed for around 10m. Angus Gunn and Jack Butland were both listed for around 12m at the same stage in my save (though that was pre winter update).

[JaytheGreat]

@Irobinson69 makes a great point, I know you don't want to use transfer target too often but if Gunn or Butland are available you need to try and pull the trigger. I have no faith in Igor to get you the caliber of GK your going to need.  

Edited May 12, 2019 by JaytheGreat

[Stuniverse]

@JaytheGreat and @Irobinson69, Jack Butland would meet my criteria of ‘connection with the club’ as Derby loaned him in real life during the 2014/15 season. 

[Stuniverse]

Derby County 2019/20 - Season Review

Derby County Awards

Annual Youth Set-up Audit

Derby County Best 11

Derby County - Results 2019/20 season

[Irobinson69]

Odd that Harry gets player of the year and doesn’t make your team of the year??

[Stuniverse]

27 minutes ago, Irobinson69 said:

Odd that Harry gets player of the year and doesn’t make your team of the year??

Yes. Indeed. Good spot, @Irobinson69, I hadn’t noticed that myself. Yet Wilson is in the Best 11.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

14/05/2020

Dear Diary,

We had some surprising news today, fantastic news actually, that Jack Marriott had been called up to the England squad by Gareth Southgate. Jack was delighted when I told him.

Well, in school terms, today was the last day of the summer term before we broke up for the summer holidays. We had a team meeting and the players were all in a good, positive mood, looking forward to a rest before returning for pre-season training on 29/06/2020 giving us five weeks of pre-season. We discussed our goals for next season and we agreed that we could avoid relegation next season. As far as I could tell, every single player was in agreement with that.

I let those players who are out-of-contract know that Igor Stimac would contact them before the end of June to either discuss a new contract or let them know we'd be releasing them. I also spoke to the loan players and they all spoke positively about their time here which was good to hear as, hopefully, Igor will look to bring some of them back again next season.

Next I had a meeting with Igor (Director of Football) and Joe McClaren Chief Scout. The meeting went well, I think, although you can never quite tell with Igor as, in his words, "things get lost in translation" although he seems very fluent in English to me, and his English is 1000% better than my Croatian.

We went through all the out-of-contract players and I made it clear that I was happy for Igor to release all of them, including Tom Huddlestone. We also discussed the contracted players and I was clear on which ones I thought could be part of our Premier League future and which ones couldn't, and I confirmed that with the exception of Richard Keogh and Andre Wilson (as we need the CB cover) I was happy for the players I didn't think were Premier League standard to be transfer listed.

Igor explained that he'd already tried to offer Mason Bennett a new contract but that his agent said Mason was unwilling to discuss a new contract due to his lack of playing time this season.

The only player Igor verbally disagreed on was Kevin Rodrigues, but I made it clear that I saw more in Max Lowe and would be looking to give Max as much playing time as possible next season. We also discussed the loan players and I informed Igor that I'd like him to try and get Mason Mount and Harry Wilson back next season.

It was about this point when my captain Richard Keogh knocked on the door and asked if he could have a word. He explained he thought he'd achieved all he could here and wanted to leave for a new challenge. I asked Richard to give us five minutes and then Igor, Joe and myself discussed his request. Igor thought we could go after Chris Smalling so I called Richard back in and told him that he'd been a fantastic servant for the Rams, that we appreciated everything he'd done for the club both on and off the pitch, and Igor would look to find a new club for him over the summer. Richard seemed pleased.

Finally, we discussed transfer targets. Joe, bless him, mentioned Will Hughes and his £18.25M relegation release clause. Igor agreed. Igor also added Chris Smalling to the list and I asked if we could look into the availability of Jack Butland.

After that, I caught up with owner Mel Morris. Mel said he was delighted that I'd reaffirmed my commitment to the Rams by denying any interest in the Leicester manager's job.

There's much work to be done in the summer and it looks like Igor will need to be busy and industrious as our current squad looks very lightweight once the loan players return to their parent clubs.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[JaytheGreat]

Well Will Hughes and Chris Smallling are a start for sure. 

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 18 May 2020

RETURN OF WILL HUGHES - NOT HAPPENING

RamsFanzine understands that former Derby County Academy graduate Will Hughes has rejected the opportunity to return to the Rams. Derby County offered £18.25M, which Watford accepted as it met Hughes's relegation release clause, but Director of Football Igor Stimac has been unable to agree personal terms with Hughes.

It is unknown, at this stage, whether this ends Derby County's pursuit of Hughes or whether Stimac will try again.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 19 May 2020

RAVAS TO RETURN HOME TO SLOVAKIA

RamsFanzine: Derby County Director of Football, Igor Stimac, has confirmed the sale of Henrich Ravas to Slovak First Division side FK Poprad for £8.5K.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 20 May 2020

BUTLAND FUTURE UNCERTAIN

RamsFanzine understand that Stoke City accepted a £7.25M bid for Jack Butland from Derby County. Unfortunately for the Rams, Butland's agent informed Igor Stimac that his client was unwilling to enter into contract negotiations ahead of this summer's European Football Championship.

With Stoke City willing to sell the 27-year old goalkeeper, Butland's future appears uncertain... at least for now.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 28 May 2020

SMALLING SET TO JOIN DERBY

RamsFanzine Derby County Director of Football Igor Stimac has confirmed the signing of Manchester United's 30-year old centre-back Chris Smalling for a fee of £12.5M. The former England international will join Derby County on 9 June 2020 until the summer of 2023.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[JaytheGreat]

I don't love the price but he is an instant upgrade at a very weak position, and should have 2 or 3 good seasons left in him. Welcome to Derby Chris Smalling!

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 24 May 2020

EAGLES SOAR INTO PREMIER LEAGUE

RamsFanzine - Crystal Palace defeated Aston Villa 3-1 in the Championship play-off final today to earn the right to play Derby County in the Premier League next season.

Crystal Palace will be joined in the Premier League next season by Champions Burnley and runners-up Fulham. The Eagles play-off victory means that all three teams relegated from the Premier League last season have bounced straight back at the first time of asking.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 4 June 2020

DAVIES SET TO RETIRE

RamsFanzine: Curtis Davies has announced his intention to retire from playing football on 13 July 2020.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 13 June 2020

WELCOME BACK HARRY AND MASON

RamsFanzine: Director of Football Igor Stimac today confirmed the loan extensions of Mason Mount (Chelsea) and Harry Wilson (Liverpool) until the end of the season. Both players will be joining Derby County for a third consecutive season.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 19 June 2020

MALONE JOINS ROBINS

RamsFanzine: Director of Football Igor Stimac has sold left-back Scott Malone to Bristol City for a fee of £1.5M, which could rise to £1.9M.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 21 June 2020

PRODIGAL SON RETURNS HOME

RamsFanzine: Derby County Director of Football Igor Stimac was delighted to announce the return of 25-year old midfielder Will Hughes to the Rams on a fee of £18.25M. Hughes has signed a deal until the summer of 2025.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 23 June 2020

RAMS SKIPPER LEAVES

RamsFanzine: Derby County Director of Football Igor Stimac has sold Rams captain Richard Keogh to Shrewsbury Town for a fee of £85K, which may eventually rise to £110K.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 24 June 2020

UNITED KINGDOM LEAVES EUROPEAN UNION

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 24 June 2020

DERBY COUNTY'S PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES 2020 / 21

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 30 June 2020

DERBY COUNTY RELEASE NINETEEN

RamsFanzine: Derby County Director of Football Igor Stimac confirmed that the club have released 19 players at the end of their contracts. The highest profile players released were: Curtis Davies (retiring on 13 July 2020), Tom Huddlestone, Craig Forsyth, George Thorne, Ikechi Anya and Kyle McAllister.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 1 July 2020

RAMS SIGN NEBYLA

RamsFanzine: Derby County Director of Football Igor Stimac announced the signing of 19-year old midfielder Sebastian Nebyla from West Ham for £1.6K. Nebyla has signed for the Rams on a one-year contract.

[Stuniverse]

Game date: 2 July 2020

LOPEZ SIGNS FOR THE RAMS

RamsFanzine: Derby County's Director of Football Igor Stimac today announced the signing of 25-year old goalkeeper Pau Lopez from Real Betis for a fee of £12.75M. Lopez, who has four U21 caps for Spain, has signed for the Rams until the summer of 2024. Lopez has a basic command of the English language and our sources at the club say Lopez will be doing an extensive language course.

 

[Tajerio]

Great to see Mount and Wilson back.  Besides that, some solid buys there but Igor can't have much left in the kitty.  How're things looking for depth?

[Stuniverse]

5 hours ago, Tajerio said:

Great to see Mount and Wilson back.  Besides that, some solid buys there but Igor can't have much left in the kitty.  How're things looking for depth?

@Tajerio, I think Igor would be pleased with your response and I agree with you. For me it’s lovely to welcome back Mason Mount, Harry Wilson and, of course, Will Hughes.

Your assessment is also spot on. I’ll do a more detailed response in my next Diary update but, basically:

* Transfer Budget - Igor has slightly over £7.5M left

* Wage Budget - Igor has taken us over budget by about £31K based on current spend and £58k based on committed spending (I’m not quite sure what the difference between the two is).

* Depth wise - I’d say our starting 11 is an improvement on last season. Our back-up 11 I need to assess properly, but it’s younger, with more potential to improve. Our weakest area is CB where we have Chris Smalling and Andre Wisdom and that’s about it, we’re then down to an untested kid (Lee Buchananan) and a transfer listed midfielder who can also play CB (George Evans).

Edited May 13, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

Game date: Saturday 4 July 2020

DERBY COUNTY PRE-SEASON PLANS

RamsFanzine: Derby County will begin their pre-season schedule later today when they visit Burton Albion (League 1). On Monday they fly out to Los Angeles, U.S.A. for their training camp, where the Rams have arranged four matches. Back home again, Derby County have two high profile friendlies at Pride Park against Fiorentina (Serie A) and RB Leipzig (Bundesliga).

There's also a couple of away friendlies against Real Union (Spain) for the Steve Bloomer Trophy and Belper Town, which Stuniverse will probably use to take a closer look at the U23s.

[Stuniverse]

04/07/2020

Dear Diary,

We've been back into pre-season training for five days and all the players have reported back fit and raring to go. I'm very happy with the transfer business Igor Stimac has done so far and think I currently have a stronger starting 11 than I had last season. But there's more work to do please, Igor.

I can't complain with the work Igor has done so far. He's brought back Harry Wilson and Mason Mount (both on loan) and Will Hughes, athough it didn't look like we'd be able to meet Will's wage demands at one point but Igor found a way to get the deal over the line. Igor also did everything he could in pursuit of Jack Butland then, once Jack and / or his agent played for time, Igor moved for Pau Lopez, who looks a significant upgrade on Orestis Karnezis (no offence Orestis, you did great for us last season). Igor also delivered on his promise that he could get us Chris Smalling which, given Chris took a significant wage cut to come here, is no mean achievement. I like that Chris would rather play football here, than sit out matches at Man Utd collecting a huge wage packet. There's also been progress on the outs with 19 players released and transfer listed Richard Keogh, Scott Malone and Henrich Ravas moved on.

After speaking to my first team coach, Stefano Eranio, he reckons we have nine players that are Premier League standard at the moment (an increase on the seven we had last season):

On the financial side of things, Igor has slightly over £7.5M left in the kitty, but he's taken us over our wage budget.

Mel Morris (Owner) approached me out of the blue to ask if I thought we should increase the wage budget for physiotherapists so I said yes. I also asked if we could increase the amount of transfer revenue Igor could retain and Mel agreed to increase this from 75% to 90%.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Stuniverse

[karanhsingh]

Good signings there, Will Hughes looks great. However worried that your midfield maybe a little unbalanced without a DM.

By the way, how do you set up a meeting with the DOF in the game? I cannot seem to do it.

[Stuniverse]

Hi @karanhsingh, thank you I’m delighted Igor was able to bring Will Hughes back home as it looked like we wouldn’t get him at one point.

You can’t set-up a DoF meeting in FM. It just sounds better from a narrative perspective.

There are a number of things you can do though to let the DoF know what your thoughts are or what you would like the DoF to do. Although that doesn’t mean the DoF will do what you want.

For example:

* Setting transfer targets for transfer - I did this for Hughes and Butland

* Setting transfer targets for loan - I did this for Mount and Wilson

* Setting transfer status - from Key Player to Not Needed. I set Not Needed for most of the players Igor released, although he extended the contract of Mitchell-Lawson despite me setting him as Not Needed.

* Transfer Listing players - I did this for Keogh, Malone, Ravas and others that are still at the club currently

* Ask DoF to negotiate contract renewal

All of these options, and there’s probably others I haven’t used / found yet, are the equivalent (for me) of sitting down and having a meeting with the DoF. As long as you don’t actually make the offers, accept bids, offer players to other clubs, offer contracts, etc. you remain in the hands of your DoF. Rodrigues is a good example as Igor doesn’t agree that Rodrigues should be transfer listed (and I am thinking of removing him from the list as I have no cover for Lowe currently).

[karanhsingh]

OK thanks I understood! Keep up the good work 

[Sysiphus]

Well done staying up and great summer so far! Hopefully you'll get the depth you want in the remaining days of the transfer window.

[Stuniverse]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I’m busy doing FM Derby Researcher end-of-season research and updates so don’t worry if there’s no posts on here for a couple of weeks. I’ll resume the save as soon as I can. Many thanks to everyone who’s following my DoF save, I appreciate it very much.

If you click to Follow at the top of the thread then you should get a notification when I start posting again.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Irobinson69]

Some good transfers in there.

Happy with the keeper? Seems very good in my save after he moved to Monaco. Shame you couldn’t get Butland for 7.5m, would have been more money free for a much needed CB to partner Smalling

I guess you’re hoping for a defensive minded midfielder and a new LB too? Any of your youth intake looking promising?

Good luck with the updating, and looking forward to following you in season 3.

[Stuniverse]

1 hour ago, Irobinson69 said:

Some good transfers in there.

Happy with the keeper? Seems very good in my save after he moved to Monaco. Shame you couldn’t get Butland for 7.5m, would have been more money free for a much needed CB to partner Smalling

I guess you’re hoping for a defensive minded midfielder and a new LB too? Any of your youth intake looking promising?

Good luck with the updating, and looking forward to following you in season 3.

Yes, Igor has done well so far, in my opinion, but we’re light in some key areas with little left in the kitty to do much about it. Maybe it’s time for Igor to bring in some more loans but whilst we still have money in the transfer budget we’re over on the wage budget. I wonder if the AI takes both budgets into consideration or whether I should maybe adjust some transfer budget into wage budget?

You’re right, CB is the immediate area of need.

[ssestig]

Liking the career so far and hopefully Igor can sort you out with what you need for the forthcoming season.

[Felio]

My congratulations on an nail-biting series. I do like the fanzine reply style, and it was nothing short of breathtaking to have it come down to goal difference two seasons in a row!

[Irobinson69]

Ah yes forgot it was twice on goal difference - @Stuniverse lives on the edge clearly

Not sure if your particular DoF challenge affects it, but I’d recommend adjusting the budgets in case Igor thinks he can’t bring anyone else in. If I run out of salary budget, it severely limits what salaries I can offer, even if there are millions left to spend on transfers.

Sounds like you need a couple of cheap buys - anyone you fancy transfer listed or on a Bosman? Or anybody you are looking to sell that could generate a few million?

 

[Stuniverse]

5 hours ago, Felio said:

My congratulations on an nail-biting series. I do like the fanzine reply style, and it was nothing short of breathtaking to have it come down to goal difference two seasons in a row!

Thank you @Felio. I like the style too so I'm glad it's working for you. Thanks for reading.

Yes. Two seasons in a row decided by goal difference - a fact that passed my by completely as season two was a long, hard one.

[Stuniverse]

5 hours ago, Irobinson69 said:

Ah yes forgot it was twice on goal difference - @Stuniverse lives on the edge clearly

Not sure if your particular DoF challenge affects it, but I’d recommend adjusting the budgets in case Igor thinks he can’t bring anyone else in. If I run out of salary budget, it severely limits what salaries I can offer, even if there are millions left to spend on transfers.

Sounds like you need a couple of cheap buys - anyone you fancy transfer listed or on a Bosman? Or anybody you are looking to sell that could generate a few million?

 

Thank you, @Irobinson69. I think I will adjust the budget as I have similar to you in my saves when at or over wage budget.

I don't like to look too close at who's available as it adds to the frustration of DoF challenge. I prefer not to know and it's rare I ask for a player to be scouted. Igor is in charge of scouting.

There's only three players on the transfer list of note - Bradley Johnson and George Evans (neither will command big fees). Plus Kevin Rodrigues (Igor doesn't think he should be) but I'm thinking about taking him off the list as Max Lowe and Rodrigues are my only established LBs.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Stuniverse

[Stuniverse]

21 hours ago, ssestig said:

Liking the career so far and hopefully Igor can sort you out with what you need for the forthcoming season.

So am I  @ssestig. Cheers.

[Stuniverse]

On 13/05/2019 at 12:20, Sysiphus said:

Well done staying up and great summer so far! Hopefully you'll get the depth you want in the remaining days of the transfer window.

Thanks, @Sysiphus. I'm hoping Igor can add some depth to our squad too.

[enigmatic]

Good signings to improve the squad but I'd worry what might happen if you lost a centre back to injury. Assume Keogh was well past it.

Probably reasonable for you to set a centre back your scouts like or an ex-Derby one as a transfer target, although the game really ought to be smart enough to make Stimac sign one anyway.

Edited May 16, 2019 by enigmatic

[Stuniverse]

2 hours ago, enigmatic said:

Good signings to improve the squad but I'd worry what might happen if you lost a centre back to injury. Assume Keogh was well past it.

Probably reasonable for you to set a centre back your scouts like or an ex-Derby one as a transfer target, although the game really ought to be smart enough to make Stimac sign one anyway.

You’re right @enigmatic, that is my biggest worry right now as I only have Chris Smalling and Andre Wisdom, and then I’m looking at the youngsters or playing someone out of position like maybe transfer listed George Evans.

Richard Keogh was declining, but not to the same extent as Curtis Davies. My plan was to use Keogh as back-up but he came to me and said he needed a new challenge. As our captain, and an influential player, I didn’t want to risk upsetting him and it spreading and unsettling the squad so I agreed, Keogh took that as being transfer listed, and Igor did a deal to move him on.