Final Straw

[rdbayly]

I think I’m done.

I decided to give the winter update another chance by moving clubs on my long term save. I left Leeds and took the Spurs job. They were 18th in November and I managed to haul them to a credible 8th place finish.

Everything collapsed in the days following the FA Cup final. My keeper broke his leg the night before and Anthony Martial (my only signing and best performer) ruptures his ACL in the final after I’d made all 3 subs. I lose 2-0 to Arsenal which compounds our misery.

Now I’m thinking to myself not only do I need to rebuild the squad, I need to replace Martial. Hope I get a decent transfer budget...

The very next day the board announce, out of nowhere, they are going to expand (our brand new) stadium by 15000 seats at the cost of 95m.

This wipes out my transfer budget and leaves me with an impossible task to meet their lofty expectations.

I tend to give the game some slack in terms of what could be feasible, but there is no way on earth any board would expand a brand new stadium. Especially as we are already 500m in debt from its construction.

The concrete is still wet FFS.

[Overmars]

I love it. The disagreements with the board actually give me more game immersion because it feels so realistic. Consider it a great challenge to overcome and go prove everyone wrong by finishing Top 4 under budget constraints.

[Etebaer]

Loan some Players - usually there are allways good ones to grab and overcome the situation til you have the transferbudget back.

You need to agressively do that though bcs the really good loans are sought after and better you get more Players than you need but to miss the ones that are existential to your team - enable the terminate loan Option and everything is fine.

[XaW]

That does sound rather Spurs-esque though. I mean, Spurs could have fought for the title this season if they had gotten in 2 or 3 key players... I doubt Poch were happy with zero money for transfers this season.

[rdbayly]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

That does sound rather Spurs-esque though. I mean, Spurs could have fought for the title this season if they had gotten in 2 or 3 key players... I doubt Poch were happy with zero money for transfers this season.

Indeed, but Poch knew full well in advance that their new stadium would seriously impact on short-term transfer budgets.

I've taken them over a few years down the line, and to expand a brand new stadium at a cost of £95m when the club is already in £500m of debt is farcical. Look at the state of this:

Quite how I break into this top 4 based on last season, is to the say the least, challenging:

 

[RandomGuy.]

I enjoy stuff like this. I'm Leipzig, finished 3rd last year, have over £150m in the bank, transfer budget of £80m and wage budget of £250kpw.

I cant offer wages higher than 80k a week. Led to losing out on players to both Bayern and Dortmund. 

[sporadicsmiles]

I guess the owner is just an idiot. They do all have different personalities in the game, so maybe he has really bad with money as his. Did you even sell out your new stadium regularly?

What are the board expectations for the following season? If they are not too high, just use the squad you have, blood some youngsters, and achieve them. Then you can build from the following season. Or else, just leave and find a new job!

[Filke]

Nothing in this game surprises me.

[MrPompey]

I seem to recall Gazza (for spurs) rupturing his ACL in the opening minutes of an FA Cup final and NOT receiving the red card that everybody saw he should have received

Portsmouth IRL recently over the course of the last few weeks have had:

 - One player smashing heads with a fellow player, losing / smashing 4 teeth with one tooth left in his team mate's head

 - One player pulling his hamstring when moving house 

- One player nearly severing his finger in a door

You couldn't really make this up and to be honest if this happened first in FM you would have said its impossible

Given Portsmouth's history of late (last few years excluded) nothing IRL would surprise me so to see it happen to some extent in FM kind of re-assures me that SI may have got it right

[rdbayly]

14 hours ago, MrPompey said:

I seem to recall Gazza (for spurs) rupturing his ACL in the opening minutes of an FA Cup fina

A terrible moment of idiocy that wrecked his career. He never had the same turn of pace afterwards. I can handle the injuries and just put it down to bad luck, it's just this illogically timed stadium expansion I'm finding hard to rationalise.

My solution to the financial problem was to sell to buy. There were an abundance of players in their 30s on ridiculous wages, from whom I extracted maximum value to fund key signings:

Have to get Champions League this season. The game is finally feeling like a proper challenge for the first time in the save. 

[gavinski33]

My GK fell over a cone or something and broke or sprained his wrist. I'll have to see if I've still got the news item, it was first time I remember seeing that like.