I do have a question. On scouting, what dictates which players appear on the cards list you see vs 'Scouted' in the players tab?
The Scouted tab seems to have everyone, but it seems a bit random what shows on the cards.
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I do have a question. On scouting, what dictates which players appear on the cards list you see vs 'Scouted' in the players tab?
The Scouted tab seems to have everyone, but it seems a bit random what shows on the cards.
Oh and another one, when I'm praising/bollocking players for their showing in training, how do I do that? I know the option to praise the top performer comes through the news item in the inbox, but how do I do the rest of them?
If it helps, I utilised Sargent as a false 9 and Dowell as a mezzala attack, both on the left centre. They complimented each other well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Click on a player and then 'discuss' I think it's called. You can then praise and warn as you see fit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
You can only discipline a player for a poor performance that is 6.5 or less. When doing the code of conduct at the start of the season, I have all the first two columns as fine 1 weeks wages, and the second two columns as fine 2 weeks wages. Your manager's level of discipline will be up at 20 in no time and you'll be a strict disciplinarian.
Cheers Scouse, the option to praise wasn't there yet as I'd started a new game.
FM22 is free on Prime Gaming in Sept
Great spot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raoul Duke
Melilla Season 1 2021/22 - Pre Season Intro
Welcome to Melilla, a coastal city in Northern Africa, population 86,384.
https://i.postimg.cc/13B9VVQX/Map.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/Dw9cs0PV/vista-...-la-ciudad.jpg
And home to UD Melilla, who play here:
https://i.postimg.cc/8CnfW0S7/Stadium.jpg
The city also has a massive fence, which stretches 11km and is 6m high.
https://i.postimg.cc/7ZwKQfTg/melilla.jpg
Apologies in advance to anyone who already knew this (I didn't until yesterday), but the reason for the fence is that while Melilla is located in Africa, it's actually an autonomous city of Spain, which also means that Unión Deportiva Melilla, while based in the continent of Africa, play professionally in the fourth tier of the Spanish football pyramid.
https://i.postimg.cc/PrsHJzBT/16492.png
The board want mid-table, but we have a very good striker and central midfielder for this level, along with some defenders who look half decent so I'm aiming for the playoffs, which would be top 5. I've had a look and the promotion system in the Spanish third and fourth tiers looks utterly incomprehensible, so unless anyone knows how the hell it works we'll be learning together as we go on that one.
We have no money, well £25k in the bank, but we're spending £25k a week on wages (which is over budget by £2k p/w) so I doubt that will last long. Due to the financial and wage situation I can only offer wages of £220 a week to both prospective signings and anyone already at the club, which is a bit of a bugger, but in the case of the latter a nightmare as all but two of my players have contracts beyond June 2022.
Oh and we have this guy, who on name alone should be enough to spear an African themed assault through the tiers of the Spanish pyramid:
https://i.postimg.cc/zX8JpFpp/Ali.jpg
Game on and I'd love this one to last.
Melilla Season 1 2021/22 - Mid Season Update
Unsurprisingly only having a wage budget of £220k did hamstring somewhat in the market, but I managed to get two players in on free transfers, one of which would feature in the first team due to the gaps we had in the squad in midfield.
Also employed some staff, including this legend.
https://i.postimg.cc/7P5JJWkF/Mid-Season-Geremi.jpg
Onto the finances and the situation is absolutely horrific, with this the state going into January:
https://i.postimg.cc/rwPvssNX/Mid-Season-Finances.jpg
We're currently hemorrhaging £100k a month of losses, so I'm pretty sure we'll be £1m in the red come the end of the season and no idea how we recover any of it.
Still, on the plus side we are absolutely smashing the league:
https://i.postimg.cc/FFTGNqxw/Mid-Season-Table.jpg
Target is now to hold on and go up automatically.
Melilla Season 1 2021/22 - End of Season Update
Our great start just kept on going and we secured top spot with five games to go to take us to the 3rd tier of Spanish football.
https://i.postimg.cc/pT2JwY8R/League-Table.jpg
With that the board gave us a new wage budget, a £12k increase on the current level, which meant we could actually renew some contracts.
https://i.postimg.cc/QNzcmr6X/Budgets.jpg
Our finances however are still absolutely fucked.
https://i.postimg.cc/m2MVFDbx/Finances.jpg
Plan for the summer is to keep about 11/12 of the players I have if I can, let the rest go and bring in 6/7 youngsters to supplement the first 11. If we're ever going to get out of this debt we need to find one who can command a decent transfer fee.
Youth intake was pretty good, with two players good enough for the first team squad, including this one.
https://i.postimg.cc/Ghc9vgRc/Youth-GK.jpg
:cool:
Melilla Season 2 2022/23 - Mid Season Update
So the summer window came and the plan worked perfectly, with all the players I wanted to secure on new contracts the rest left and it enabled me to make six signings and a couple on loan.
The board wanted mid-table which seemed a bit steep, but on closer inspection there's little difference in quality in the sides in the third tier vs. that of the fourth apart from one key distinction, the B teams and we'd have to deal with Villarreal's, Real Madrid's and Barcelona's.
Still, with the dynamics in the club purring (thanks Scouse) I was reasonably hopeful of a top five spot and the playoffs with it. This proved well founded as we had a very good first half of the season:
https://i.postimg.cc/B6L9LVJQ/Fixtures.jpg
Barcelona B are bastards and the other two B teams are a nightmare to play, but the other sides are pretty manageable. A nice win in the cup over La Liga 2 side Tenerife as well.
Table looks like this:
https://i.postimg.cc/yN2p5Yzs/Table.jpg
We don't have enough in the tank to overhaul the bastards, but a playoff spot in the first season would be lovely and if we avoid the B teams I'd fancy my chances.
The finances are still fucked but the board did do this
https://i.postimg.cc/1XXgqPfV/Running-Costs.jpg
So we're now only £1.3m in debt.
That takes the save up to date and with a fair wind should be able to complete the season tonight. Ending the bank holiday weekend with a place in La Liga 2 would be cracking.
Oh and I'll whack some of HEROES that have taken us this far up soon.
https://i.postimg.cc/zG42VX26/1-Romero.jpg
Club captain and Melilla stalwart, clocking up over 250 games in his ten years here.
https://i.postimg.cc/rstKyjDv/2-Devine.jpg
Brought in over the summer on a free having been released by Man Utd. Cracking wing back for this level but always fucking injured.
https://i.postimg.cc/mg3V2NMz/3.jpg
Picked up on a free in the first summer window he's developing really well and owns the ball winning midfield spot in the side. Always nails it in training. I think I love him.
https://i.postimg.cc/Pq9MS3n7/4.jpg
Goalscoring and assisting monster threat from midfield, his output has reduced a bit in the third tier, but still one of the first names on the team sheet and another who was here before I arrived.
https://i.postimg.cc/NFfLmtPv/5.jpg
Former Bayern youth product we picked up this summer. Normally starts as an IF, but can do a job at striker as well. 13 goals in 18 games this season so far.
https://i.postimg.cc/8k9VhDYd/6.jpg
Signed just before I joined and has weighed in with 37 in 52 for me so far.
Playing as Derby and got Dane Scarlett for relatively cheap early on. Anyway he had a £150 buy out in his contract which after a load of pissing about with low ball offers City activated. I went straight out and got Moukoko from Dourtmund for £40m which I think is smart business.
But my poxy board have now pocketed the £150m, not given me 1 pence of it. Shambles.
24/25:
https://i.ibb.co/R7BvdFW/Table.png
https://i.ibb.co/m4Z0Vp3/Schedule.png
https://i.ibb.co/W2TXcZS/Squad.png
A disappointing season in the end in many ways, dropping to 6th after finishing runners-up last season. I was well and truly found out at the end of the season, which will serve as a wake-up call as I was on auto-pilot. Still, Champions League semi-finals wasn't too shabby before the inevitable defeat to Liverpool.
As I say, that end of season prompted me to have a re-think and I spent a bit of time coming up with three or four different tactics - a centrally solid gegenpress, a basic vertical tiki-taka, a three at the back patient possession and a couple of diamond efforts as they suit(ed) my players.
I signed Aaron Ramsdale and Dominic Calvert-Lewin...
https://i.ibb.co/C0BDbcC/Calvert-Lewin.png
https://i.ibb.co/H45j2N2/Ramsdale.png
...and decided this would probably be my final season with Norwich. As two experienced, elite level (but realistic) players for my Norwich team, they felt like the missing pieces to the jigsaw. I could carry on managing Norwich and maybe in five years' time or so finally have enough to win the league, but that isn't really the purpose of this save. If I want to win ten league titles and ten domestic cups in ten different countries, then I'll need to think about moving on. Norwich are now a four-star continental side, and with my reputation now at three and a half stars, my stock is high enough to get a 'bigger' job. As I say I would have waited until the end of the season, but in the back of my mind I knew a job may come up around November time that appealed, and that's what has happened. I'm only interested in either four-star teams with a bigger budget, or four and a half star teams that can improve my reputation, and that's one came up.
I haven't actually accepted the job yet as I'm just about to load the game back up (does anyone else save and quit whenever they get a job offer?) so updates to follow...
Melilla Season 2 2022/23 - End of Season Update
Season done and it was a good one that turned a bit bizarre.
https://i.postimg.cc/HnngrTPn/Table.jpg
We made the playoffs fairly comfortably, but were pipped for second by Real Madrid's reserve side on the final day, which, well, I didn't really know what that meant as there are two groups at this level and looking at the previous season's playoffs I could get anyone from my group or the other. Anyway, the game said my playoff semi was in 9 days but couldn't yet tell me who we'd got.
9 days came and went and nothing happened, there was no sign of the third tier Spanish league playoffs. Another week went by and still nothing. Finally the game advised me that I would play Bilbao B on the 28th June in the semi-final and face Castilla or someone else in the final if we made it, but no idea when. Which was potentially a bit of a problem as I had 11 players with expiring contracts on that 30th June, none of which I could renew due to our awful financial situation.
Playoff Semi-Final
Toggle Spoiler
Yev with the cliffhangers :drool:
Melilla Season 2 2022/23 - Third Tier Playoff Final
So having clinched a MASSIVE draw come victory against Bilbao B in the semi-finals our reward was Real Madrid Castilla in the final three days later. My players were fucked having just played 120 minutes, to make matters worse Madrid's semi was inexplicably over a week ago and to make matters even worse I had 11 contracts expiring a day before the final.
Contract expiry day came and went and unbelievably we only lost two players, the rest were on month to month contracts and would be available for the final. That was the only good news however, as everyone was still knackered and we were facing a side that in one player (Reiner) had an estimated transfer value ten times that of my entire squad. On top of that they had Nakai, Iglesias, Gutierrez, the list just went on.
So the question is, do miracles happen?
Toggle Spoiler
Melilla Season 3 - 2023/24 - The Finances
If this game ends up being a long term and successful one it's nice to look back at how poor we once were and at this moment in time, still are. After the playoff loss the board increased the wage budget to £42k p/w, which is lovely, but we couldn't afford to pay the £35k p/w we had previously, so unless they fancy putting their hands in their pockets (which to be fair they've become accustomed to doing) we've no chance of getting out of this debt shitfest until we either a) go up to at least La Liga 2 or b) sell a gem for some cash. Problem with b is that I don't really have any, but no matter. My good standing has led them to finally accepting my request for an affiliate and if we hit the motherload of Barca or Real that would be lovely, but it won't be in time for this window. Mainly because I forgot to ask before it closed. :moop:
I'll go through the better season 3 summer signings later, but in the meantime, this is why we are £1m in debt:
https://i.postimg.cc/PxQPHt97/Finances.jpg
We simply can't afford to run wages as such a high percentage of our turnover and I'm not sure why the board are letting us - Player wages alone were 95% of all income in the first season and 45% in the second, but that includes £1.7m the board invested to keep us afloat (it's just under 80% excluding it), without that I'm guessing the administrators would have been called in.
As above, I either need to find good players to develop and sell (not a sniff from anyone so far of any note) or go up at least one division but probably two. Life in the basement tiers of the Spanish pyramid is simply not sustainable.
:drool:
Congratulations on promotion.
Scouting every single player they have now in the run up to the January window. :drool:
Juanmi Counago has earned his paella tonight :cool:
Very well timed too as this has just happened.
https://i.postimg.cc/85XGvHXT/Budget.jpg
Which given the state of our finances is fair enough, but we're now £6k p/w overspent.
Melilla Season 3 - 2023/24 - Mid Season Update
The summer window was a very busy one with 7 players released (including Ali Ali Al-Lal, quite sad about that one) and 9 new arrivals. Highlights below:
https://i.postimg.cc/g030FkbF/1-Iliev.jpg
Released by Inter he looks good enough for the first team already and is only 19. Big things expected.
https://i.postimg.cc/DfrYJVnv/2-Canno.jpg
Former Liverpool youth player who isn't quite ready for the first team, but any sort of development could see him smashing the shit in this league.
https://i.postimg.cc/zf3GvShN/3-Aguilar.jpg
Bar the youth intake, Aguilar becomes my first newgen signing. 4 and a half star potential and already a cracking dribbler, he could be one to watch.
https://i.postimg.cc/tJFhfHRB/4-Vitek.jpg
Released by Man Utd, we snapped up this mountain of Czech Linden to become our first choice keeper.
https://i.postimg.cc/rmrn83Fr/5-Bueno.jpg
And saved the most exciting until last. Thought we'd lost out on the Wolves reject when a host of Championship clubs came in for him, with the lad initially rejecting joining the PROJECT (even on four grand a week) in favour of Watford. However, Brexit came to the rescue and he was denied a work permit, leaving him high and dry and only Melilla interested, this time for two grand a week.
3 star ability, four star potential and on a two year contract with an optional further three. Oh and a £2.5m release clause too. I think this may be the first actual proper player we've signed, with a properly robust deal too. Lovely stuff.
It was also time to freshen up the backroom team, making a couple of signings that people had apparently heard of.
https://i.postimg.cc/gjDtLR9y/Davids.jpg
No idea who he is, but he has amazing hair and the deal was done.
https://i.postimg.cc/0NsXkxB1/Aguero.jpg
Same with whoever this is, but he spoke Spanish and that will do nicely.
As we now had an actual squad, with 23 players in total, albeit a fair few of them not ready for the first team and with club atmosphere high and fresh from a third place finish, I was hopeful of winning the league this time round, especially with none of the obscene B teams in it. We started excellently then it all fell to shit a bit as we pissed about settling on a first X1.
https://i.postimg.cc/fyKTrHdG/Results.jpg
Form has been much better of late and we haven't lost in the league since October, albeit there are a few too many shitty draws in there. Leaving the table at the halfway stage like so.
https://i.postimg.cc/XNZR11fd/Table.jpg
I'm not quite sure when the board revised their expectations to a playoff spot, but they have and we did come under a bit of pressure during the bad run. Still, with Barca B and Real Madrid whatever gone, this league is absolute bilge. As an example, Hercules were slumming it with us in the fourth tier in the first season and have led it for much of the season so far. All in all, if we don't win it, particularly now having hit a bit of form and with the motherload of all affiliates secured, I'll be annoyed. Which reminds me, I've got a plane to catch to Barcelona. :cool:
The trip to Barcelona turned out to be full of sick/the most disappointing turn of events in all of human history.
I could only find one player Barcelona were happy to let play in the third tier (Demir) and for some reason Barca wanted eight grand a week in contribution for him. If I get to La Liga 2 it should be happy days, but until then we're on our own.
As we head into May with six games to go we're in the hunt to win the title, but still need to claw back some points.
https://i.postimg.cc/FHy5PzJ2/Table.jpg
What perhaps might tip things in our favour is that our last six games are pretty kind:
https://i.postimg.cc/BnKDR9SW/Fixtures.jpg
Is FM quicker these days or are you just smashing the back end off this?
Smashing the back end off it, although it runs pretty quick on this new laptop, which helps.
https://i.postimg.cc/433wSv47/Table.jpg
Three fairly comfortable wins, but Villarreal will just not drop points - with winners in the 88th and 89th minutes in their last two matches. :moop:
Playoffs secured. With 3 games to go (and as they have a better record against us) they'll need to draw twice or lose a game, even if we win all three for us to take it.
https://i.postimg.cc/pLjqbVKx/Results.jpg
La Nucia you absolute heroes.
It's now in our own hands.
https://i.postimg.cc/mgW79YFf/Table.jpg
Shitting it. Getting out of this division would be huge.
Game 37
https://i.postimg.cc/6QM0CMZb/Game-37.jpg
We hit the woodwork four times and had a 94th minute winner ruled out. I felt sick.
Somehow though Betis did us a favour and although Hercules won we're still top by virtue of the head to head.
https://i.postimg.cc/WbdQzJBP/Table.jpg
All goes down to the final day. A three way shit off to get out of this hell hole.
https://i.postimg.cc/rs0QV5Kn/Fixtures.jpg
Ok, I fucking hate B teams.
https://i.postimg.cc/ZKwLy7h9/Table.jpg
Playoffs again. If they're in June this time it'd be nice.
Pique in the mud.
I've got a nice little save brewing with Kaiserslautern. The epitome of a fallen giant.
I had a good look at them before choosing Melilla, looks like a cracking game to do. Germany has fuck all restrictions as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Manc
Melilla Season 3 - 2023/24 - Third Tier Playoff Semi-Final
https://i.postimg.cc/RZVXs3BD/Semi.jpg
No idea where to start with this one. Facing yet another B team in a crucial game Aimar was running rings round us and scored a ridiculous goal to take the lead, we equalised but having conceded again I really thought we'd lost it until club legend (well he should be) Hernandez equalised on 89:55. Knowing holding on in extra time would be enough (due to Spanish rules) I thought I'm fucked if I'm making the same mistake as I did in the last league game and when ex Liverpool youth Cannonier scored his first goal for the club there were Garygasms all over the shop.
Racing in the final (yep, another B team), but we did finish higher in the league so a draw in 120 minutes will be enough.
Melilla Season 3 - 2023/24 - Third Tier Playoff Final
Toggle Spoiler
First season in the top flight finished.
https://i.imgur.com/T8KKMU8.png
Toggle Spoiler
Melilla Season 4 - 2024/25 - La Liga 2 Mid Season Update
Money Stuff
With promotion secured the board immediately updated our budgets.
https://i.postimg.cc/hPNsNPb0/Budgets.jpg
A modest increase, but our first ever actual transfer budget!
This then happened, which I count as one of the greatest surprises I've ever had in CM/FM.
https://i.postimg.cc/KjkL5BVh/TV-Rights.jpg
:cool:
Even if we spend all of that wage budget we'll only hit £2.9m, which I think means that our finances are finally sorted. It'll take a while as the money drip feeds throughout the season, but I'm reasonably confident we'll be in the black come the end of the season, for the first time since the save started.
Transfers
With the playoffs played at a reasonable time this year and that budget announced immediately afterwards we could actually renew contracts before they expired. Nonetheless it was time to let some more shite go and two players left the club. 7 players joined on a free (putting us in a position to loan some of the younger ones out) and one player was signed to join when he turns 18 in two years - Potentially the best player this club has ever witnessed and by an absolute mile. Some of the better ones joining:
https://i.postimg.cc/x8Bmp5N3/1-Mus.jpg
Released by Liverpool, and snapped up by the fenced city. Looks pretty promising even if he does have a few horrific stats in key areas.
https://i.postimg.cc/y88Jh2GC/2-Djalo.jpg
Let go by Benfica and fits perfectly into the attacking cm role in our side.
https://i.postimg.cc/RCTVPXKS/3-Marvel.jpg
Deemed not good enough for Real Madrid, the quite excellently named Marvel becomes the second African player in our squad.
https://i.postimg.cc/m2FpL6jR/4-De-La.jpg
Another player released by Madrid, tried to get him in on loan last season so figured I may as well sign him this.
https://i.postimg.cc/kXzHmdd7/5-Abda.jpg
And then there's this chap, who with stats like that at 16 and 5 star potential looks like he could be an absolute world beater. Only downside is he doesn't join for two more seasons so is sat in my U-19 squad on trial until then.
Results
https://i.postimg.cc/MKSDbKxM/Results.jpg
Overall very happy with that but there have been 2/3 times when it looked like we were massively out of our depth. I've also had to be hard with the handful of players that are still here from the start, in that they mostly just aren't good enough for this level, including fan favourite striker Iker Hernandez. Which is a shame, but nothing gets in the way of THE PROJECT.
All of that leaves the table like so at the halfway stage:
https://i.postimg.cc/PqYJ4hdJ/Table.jpg
I don't think we've got enough in the tank to make the playoffs as we just don't score enough goals, but 10 or so more points to secure survival and I'd be delighted. The Barca affiliate deal continues to be the most disappointing thing ever, but there are a few very promising looking kids from Premier League clubs interested in joining on loan, so if I can get any with no wage contribution I may well go down that road.
Oh and the £1,300 minimum per week wage in order to be able to even register anyone in this league is an absolute ball ache. There should be a news item advising you of it in flashing lights as soon as you get promoted.
The club that came to my attention and eventually prised me away from Norwich were...
https://i.ibb.co/tH0VWw2/Club-info.png
Atletico Madrid feel like a natural progression from where I was with Norwich. As I mentioned in the last post, I wasn't winning the league any time soon with the Canaries, and had pretty decided it was time to move on. Atletico are a 4-and-a-half-star club with a worldwide reputation, and a club that, whilst not the best in their league, should be challenging for the title. So a perfect fit in many ways. Rater frustratingly, the Man United job become available shortly afterwards, and being the same level of reputation as Atletico, I probably could have got that. Instead, it went to Alfred Schreuder, who is the same level as me (now four-star rep). If you're interested, Pochettino went to Norwich which is a great coup, and a step up from me in terms of reputation.
https://i.ibb.co/1LRTz70/Club-vision.png
My aim is simply to win the Spanish League and Copa Del Rey as quickly as possible, and then probably move on. With that in mind, I'm not massively focussed on youth, although I naturally try to sign young players anyway, and with it being part of the vision it's definitely something I'll look into. Set pieces and high tempo football is easy, and even though I generally set up quite expansively, we have a cracking defence and big reputation so I don't envisage the defensive part of the vision being an issue. The main problem is direct football, but I'll look into it.
https://i.ibb.co/RpmyfbQ/Squad-November.png
This is the squad when I arrived. It's pretty unbalanced, with no natural left-footed left back, three natural right backs, two of whom can play inverted on the left, and only one natural wide attacker.
https://i.ibb.co/HtqJFw0/Lemar.png
This being him. The thing is, he's fantastic. He's already played for me as a left-winger, attacking left back, shadow striker and inverted right winger. We have Rodrigo De Paul who is naturally a central player but can also play wide, and that's more or less it. We also only have one natural striker and he's average. There's the fantastically versatile Marcos Llorente, but I don't like giving him a position as he's required to fill in anywhere we happen to be short, then we've got some excellent but ageing central midfielders and a strong core of centre backs.
With all that in mind, I ended up creating/trialling around six different shapes. The narrow 4-3-3 I predominantly used at Norwich is out the window, but it did leave us exposed when we were the underdog so it might not be the worst thing.
https://i.ibb.co/hKDcP4y/4-3-3-false-nine.png
https://i.ibb.co/mX6bFXL/4-4-2-diamond.png
https://i.ibb.co/VBddvc9/2-3-2-3-wide.png
https://i.ibb.co/JBLT6Vt/3-4-2-1.png
The traditional 4-3-3 at the top is my go-to as it's my favourite formation and we have the players, just about. It just means an asymmetrical shape with an inverted wing back and winger on the left, and an orthodox wing back and inside forward/inverted winger on the right. The diamond accommodates our lack of wide options, the three at the back gives more game time to the plethora of centre backs (and will be used against good sides who play two up top), and the 2-3-2-3 is something I'm aspiring towards in the future.
https://i.ibb.co/CzYYj4j/Schedule.png
I've been in a couple of months and these are the results. Bayern were too strong and the Barcelona game was a glorified friendly.
https://i.ibb.co/yhjjzz4/Hudson-Odoi.png
https://i.ibb.co/h8VvYdz/Traore.png
My signings. Both training to be false 9s to give me that option in the future, and Hudson-Odoi was a cheap option to provide cover on the wings too.
I'll have some decisions to make at the end of the season. There are some ageing but high quality players on massive money which you may have seen earlier.
Marcos Llorente - £425,000
Thomas Lemar - £325,000
Saul - £300,000
Jan Oblak - £250,000
Rodrigo De Paul - £240,000
Koke - £220,000
Nobody at Norwich was on much over £100,000, though the wage budget is double at Atletico. Oblak, Koke and Saul have already kicked up a fuss about a player I wasn't playing...there will be some big decisions in the summer.
That 3-4-2-1 shape is aesthetically pleasing. I'm sporting a 5-2-2-1 which hurts my eyes and brain.
I'm honestly gutted that Marvel has a low leadership stat. He'll never be captain now :moop:Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
It is sad, I find leadership on a good player a very hard combination to find.
In other news I've hit salary cap problems. Well I say problems, problems caused by a really annoying implementation of it.
Melilla Season 4 - 2024/25 - La Liga 2 End of Season Update
https://i.postimg.cc/T1gTRNJQ/League-Table.jpg
First season in La Liga 2 done and we finished a very creditable 7th. I'd have been happy with anything more than staying up so pretty pleased with that. It should offer a platform to build on....but more on that later.
https://i.postimg.cc/RZHZSRvW/Budgets.jpg
We finished the season in the black due to the tv money and budgets were increased again, which was nice.
https://i.postimg.cc/R01fF9vJ/TV-Rights.jpg
TV money for next season has also gone up, so I guess to some degree it's based on where we finish.
This is the P&L for four years in, it's taken four seasons to get out of short term debt, but we've done it:
https://i.postimg.cc/kgdC7dGb/Finances.jpg
£7.3m income is light years ahead of previous seasons (even if we deduct the £0.6m of investments), so finally, we are a viable commercial operation, with a £1.8m profit. :chief:
I've started playing CM03/04 again recently. An absolute classic.:cool:
Is that the one where a CAM scored 120 goals a season? :D
The DIABLO tactic :drool:
Melilla Season 5 - 2024/25 - La Liga 2 Summer Window Update
Right strap yourselves in as a fuck ton happened here, some very good, some good, some bad and some downright annoying. I blame myself, Miles and the Spanish FA for the downright annoying stuff, probably in equal measure.
Players Out
After a 7th placed finish in La Liga 2 some clubs of almost repute had started to court our players. As usual we released some players (three to be precise) and another load went out on loan. Annoyingly I had to do the latter myself as Edger Davids went rogue and started accepting stupid offers. But, the absolute motherload was hit when we sold two players (or at least I thought it was, more on that later). The two in question?
First up was Bueno, who started agitating for a move.
https://i.postimg.cc/JhjvKTLC/Bueno-Transfer.jpg
I didn't want to sell him but we have another very good left back and the opportunity to finally get an actual transfer budget was too good to turn down. Granada stopped short of activating his £2.5m release clause, but £1.8m in cash money and 50% of next sale will do very nicely. But the best was yet to come...
https://i.postimg.cc/XJRghWc2/Djalo-Transfer.jpg
Porto came in for him and seemed very keen to negotiate forever, but having secured a £2.8m offer from them I pushed it one step too far and they withdrew. Djalo was pissed and I needed to decide if that was worth risking the dressing room harmony or whether it was worth actively trying to cash in. I decided on the latter and offered him out for his £10m release clause. A couple of shit bids from no mark clubs arrived, but with them also came another form Porto. £5m up front and still negotiable. I asked for 50% of next sale and the £5m and the deal was agreed. That then gave us over £4m to spend on players, I was in dreamland (but that would be short lived, more on that later). First off and while things were still looking very rosey I spent some money on these three:
https://i.postimg.cc/ydMwTwJK/Player-1.jpg
£350k from Serbia.
https://i.postimg.cc/XNDZnLRb/Player-2.jpg
£275k in from Real Madrid.
https://i.postimg.cc/kgyRPC9j/Player-3.jpg
£1.1m minimum fee release from division rivals Badajoz.
I also decided to press the flesh on the loans and a few came in as well, plus I still had £2m to spend and the plan was to finally get a very good striker with it. Well, that was the plan until I noticed something...
In order to complete the two highest paid transfers above I had to syphon some transfer budget into wages. No problem I thought, we have shit loads of cash and transfer space, so we did it and ended up increasing the wage spend to £80k per week, which was all covered by the increased salary budget.
I then pissed about registering the players ahead of time as I wanted to make sure how much squad space I had left to use etc. and that was when I noticed it. Having gone to click confirm the squad registration would not complete and I was presented with a box saying I was over the salary cap. On closer inspection we were well over it. £80k p/w vs. £57k allowed and I hadn't even bought the striker yet. Fuhuhuck. Four things sprang to mind here:
1) I'm an idiot. It is there in the squad registration screen but for some reason I hadn't mentally acknowledged it, even though I submitted a squad last season. My defence is that we were so far underspent in previous seasons it just didn't register.
2) What the fuck are SI doing? In a game that is weighed down with the minutiae of absolutely everything, the only place that makes tangible reference to this salary cap number is the squad registration window and even then it's buried between how many goalkeepers, outfield players, non-EU and kids you're allowed. Moreover, there's absolutely no reference to how it's calculated, when it is calculated, when it changes and how I can influence it. It's just a single number.
3) I get salary caps. I mean I think they're anti-competitive, but whatever if you want one to guard against financial mismanagement of clubs by cowboys and you think the collateral damage it does elsewhere is worth it then that's your call Spanish FA, but if you're going to introduce one why do you also run a fucking minimum wage policy, of £1,300 a week, in the second fucking tier? If I want a squad of 25 players for the season (which isn't a short one at 10 months and 42 games in length) that's nearly 60% of my cap taken up by the minimum wage. Now I know that's only my wage cap and other clubs will be higher, but it strikes me that both a salary cap and a minimum wage just fucks small clubs.
4) On the point of when it changes, I'm guessing it didn't take into account my player sales and if it didn't that will be accounted for next season, which means the damn thing will be up and down like a whore's drawers. Worse still, if it's based on retrospective revenues is my cap for the first season in La Liga proper (should we get there) going to based on what we earnt while in La Liga 2?
Anyway, back to the here and now I was left with having to cut £23k a week out of my squad. I tried loaning out new arrivals but that just annoyed them as they'd been promised prominent roles in the squad, so the only recourse left to me was get rid of all of the older players and all the loans and go and find loans that would be free (but utterly bizarrely the loaning club would need to be paying them at least £1,300 a week). So that is what happened. We now have a squad with only 20 players in it, 3 of which are on loan and annoyed that they're not playing where I said they would be as I had to lie to them to get them for nothing. The whole process has left a £2m transfer budget doing nothing, 4 players on loan I can't play, nuked the harmony in my dressing room, reduced the average age of said first team squad to about 12 and upset Sean Dyche.
Season Expectations
42 games of misery, 50 Team Bonding sessions, 50 community outreach programmes, RSI from missing the praise option in the discuss tree for the nth time and hopefully, at the end of it all, survival.
Can you not activate a lever? :D
Season eines is coming to a close in Germany and I'm bricking it.
Activate a lever?
Bartha style.
Oh I see. I could, but I really want to take a fenced city on the continent of Africa to the European Champions League.