Close but no cigar…

I knew I had a chance going into the final day of the season, but I also knew I’d have to win all of my remaining matches to have a realistic chance of winning the league. I managed to thump Monobrow 5-1 and I dominated Humberside but only came away with a 2-1 victory. But the match away to Seeks is where my season finally stumbled to a halt. With 5 minutes left in the match, Aissiti whipped a perfect cross into the box right onto the head of Julio Baptista 2 yards from goal. He headed over the top. Two minutes later, he did it again. Some things just aren’t meant to be. My congratulations go to Alex Leeman and his side Eagle Warriors who put together a brilliant season to edge me to the title. Roll on next season!


Transfer News

A couple of transfers in and out of The Anchor have occurred since I last updated. The first saw the lightning Mexican Enrique Esqueda head for pastures new. He had great stats and had performed admirably in the second season, grabbing a goal every other game. Unfortunately, he’d mightily struggled this season, managing less than one in 3 while often playing as the lead striker in my team. His contract was up at the end of the season and he was demanding a £12,000 pay rise – in other words, he was on his way out of the club.

After contacting a lot of people about a deal, I managed to secure a swap for a young striker with a great future, Julian Kipre. In a real baptism of fire, two of his first matches were in the Gold Cup Quarter Finals as the lead striker in my formation. In 2 legs he had a hand in all my goals, scoring twice and winning a penalty for Baptista to convert. Blessed with both pace and aerial ability, I’m looking forward to seeing good things from the young African.



Another player shown the door was Slovenian legend Samir ‘Sammy Hands’ Handanovich. He’d performed well enough over the fourth season, but he’d not been exceptional. A few big errors in cup and league games had also cost me matches and points. Although on a reasonable wage of 13,500, I realised there were cheaper options available to me. As he was never going to be locked next season, I secured a straight swap for Brazilian shot-stopper Helton. Give his recent real-life gaffs, this may come back to shoot me in the foot, but it’s freed up a fair chunk of wage for use in the upcoming wage auctions and he’s got good stats.



Other players shown the door were Romanian winger Copil, Argentinian striker Villa, Turkish defender Kacar and Finnish shot-stopper Bahne for a combined fee of around £900,000. Further exits are likely, with a deal seeing Argentine ‘keeper Navarro leaving the club expected to be confirmed later today and legendary left-back Pernia on borrowed time and in transfer auction.

With wage auctions about to hit top gear this evening, I expect a few additions to the squad before the next season begins. Chief priority is a new left fullback for the coming season, although I’m lined up a list of targets in other positions that I’ll be having a look at this evening.

Team of the Season

GK – Handanovich

DR – Nelson
DL – Pernia
DC – Caceres
DC – Onouha

MR – Dani Alves
ML – Aissiti
MC – Johnson
AMC – Julio Baptista
AMC – Moreno

ST – Guilherme



Player of the Season

A few contenders for this, but the two big new arrivals at the start of the season – Aissiti and Johnson – really added an extra dimension to The Blues’ game. It was the latter who really came to the fore, however. Chipping in with goals and assists, Johnson was put simply the complete midfielder. He’d score a crashing volley at one end before running the length of the pitch to make that vital tackle which earns you a point. More than that, he acted as the engine for the entire team, picking the ball from defence and launching virtually every attack. Put simply, he’s indispensable, and because of that, my player of the season for season 4 is Michael Johnson.




Youth Team of the Season

GK – McIntosh

DR – Camara
DL – Benedetti
DC – Bellomo
DC – Eduardo

MC – Moreno
MC – Herreros
MC – Rozhkov

ST – Allotey
ST – Anghel
ST – Kipre

Youth Player of the Season

My youth team hardly set the world alight this season, but it was such an improvement over last season it’s unbelievable. I’m now touching on the edges of a top 50 youth ranking, which is an improvement of almost 100 places since the start of the season. The three strikers present in my side have been good if not great, but they’ve not been in my team long enough to be considered for this award. Similarly, Artur Moreno has been fantastic but only in short bursts. When considering the entire season, only one player really comes to mind and that is Endika Herreros. The Spanish winger and centre midfielder as been a star in my side and I’m hoping he’ll progress into really quite a good player over the next few seasons in my youth teams.

Last day...

Things couldn't be tighter at the top. Eagles is three points ahead with 2 games left, against FC Zurich and AFC Carpathia. I have three games left, against a severely depleted Monobrow, Seeks and Humberside. Three wins out of three won't guarantee me the title, but it'd give me a great shot - need to score a fair few goals as well. My only hope is that Barry Welch of Cartpathia can nick something and mean that three wins in itself would be enough.

In other news, I'm out of the Gold Cup. Having made it to the semi finals, I faced COYS and my team fell apart in the first leg, losing 6-3 (buting coming back from 5-0 down and down to 10 men..). The second leg was a different matter and with 20 minutes to go I was leading 3-1, needing one more goal to secure my place in the final. It wasn't to be - as I pushed further forward, Pato sneaked one at the other end to secure an 8-6 win for COYS over 2 brilliant legs.

I also managed to swap Esqueda for a young striker with immense potential. I'll try and post something here over the close season.

A big win for Beaulieu...

A huge win against Eagle Warriors saw my side open up a 10 point gap at the top of the Premiership. A tight game saw a host of chances spurned by the Eagles, who clearly missed the injured Leandro Lima. After losses to Los Benditos in GW Cup and FC Census in Prem Cup, I'll be going all out for the league over the next week.

Some thoughts on my teams, wage auctions and finance.

Having read back through that previous update I realised it was short, rushed and rubbish. I therefore decided to write a new piece to post in its place, with an update about how things are going.

The World Youth Cup had put me in a tough group, from which I qualified at the expense of some very good youth teams (including Yinka’s top 10 side SE1 UTD). Over the last few days though, I was really brought back down to earth. My side was clearly outclassed by John Odie’s Southside United in the knockout stages and the gap in rankings (70 to 30) was clearly evident as I went down 2-0.

Next came the biggest reality check for my young side so far. Facing the imperious Bohemians FC – the #1 youth side in the world – we were destroyed. Having grabbed a draw vs Yinka and even beating Copehagen Wonderboys, I was hoping for something a little closer. What followed was a systematic destruction of my side, with wonderkid Fausto Rossi on the left wing put simply, not just a class above, but two or three. He got a hatrick as my side trudged off the pitch having lost 6-0 – my worst defeat at any level. Of course, not everyone can be near the top, but clearly there is work to be done. At senior level, things are going better. Eagle Warriors are still charging forward with breathtaking pace, but miraculously, my side are keeping in touch. We’re now 2 points behind with 2 games in hand and a record of 14W 2D 1L from 17 games. It’s unbelievable to consider I’m not top by a mile considering I’ve only dropped 7 points from a possible 51.

There were three or four potential wonderkids up for auction last night. I was surprised at how low each of these 5 star potential youngsters went for – two at £7,500 and one at £7,000. This is a real measure of the progress made under the impact of stadiums, as previously kids this good could have gone for £40,000 a day.

I decided not to bid on any of these high potential youngsters until I get a true measure of my projected finances. At the moment, I have most of my team ‘unlocked’ with regard to contracts in order to artificially increase my financial projection. This is due to the fact that the projection only takes into account the stadium that is built, rather than the stadium that is being built. With my corporate boxes arriving in 4 days time and 26,000 Astilla seats arriving a day or two after that, I should have a much better picture of my finances by this time next week. I’m currently sitting pretty in my financial projection on almost £1m, but with the game thinking I’m dumping almost £130,000 a day in wages, that’s not a surprise. My wages have bloated to an unsustainable £260,000, which will probably be increased by approximately £15,000 to £275,000 in the next round of contract extensions. With wage tax this means my daily outgoings would be around £300,000, which is probably sustainable given my total income, but in my mind is wasteful. I’ve already lined up a couple of exits from Beaulieu FC towards the end of the season, which will both slightly reduce the wage bill and simultaneously add to the war-chest, but more are sure to follow as I look to trim my senior squad.

Transfers

The big deal saw Beaulieu FC stalwart Nedum Onouha depart the club. having joined shortly after it's foundation, he'd been a key member throughout seasons 1, 2 and 3. Unfortunately, I decided this deal was too good to turn down bearing in mind the need to keep as many locks as possible free. He departed for COYS1 with Romanian legend Mirel Radoi and £850,000 moving the other way.



Also joining the club are two hot prospects. Anghel is a speedy young striker and Campbell is hopefully a long term solution for the left back problem. Both were secured at wage auction considerably below what Beaulieu were willing to pay.

Market Value

This has been an issue a lot of people have been up in arms about, recently. A previous update (either 1.0.1 or 1.1.1 - I forget) introduced the hard-coded rule that you could not sell a player via private transfer for less than half market value. I've encountered problems with it in many different situations, but here's just two:

- I had some decent enough squad players, AF 40-60k, market values ranging from 600k to 800k. I wanted to sell two of these - I spent the whole day trying to find a buyer, at any price. I ended up offering both of them to any 3 star potential youngster I could find, to no avail. The long and the short of it - noone wanted them. Miracously I managed to find a buyer - I settled on a price of 400,000 for both, a brilliant deal for me considering I was contemplating releasing them. In steps the game - that deal isn't good enough for you, you can't sell them for that price! I went to the mods to try and find a way around the deal, explaining I, as the selling party, was ecstatic with the deal. Unfortunately, I was told that nothing could be done and I'd have to come up with a 'fair' deal. Market value, and the ascociated code enforcing 50% minimum price, had stopped me doing what was a brilliant deal.

- I've wanted to swap quite a few players for other players. In the new financial climate, trading players for players is the new currency. Unfortunately, every time you sign a player, there is a 100% profit tax based on what you signed them for - in the case of wage auctions, their aquisition fee - which decreases over the next 28 days. This results in you having to pay a percentage of the difference between aquisition fee and market value. With market value still so massively inflated above aquisition fee (in most cases, this is still 5-6 times aquisistion fee), it makes players you buy on wage auction, or cheaply in transfer auction, unsellable and unswappable for the first month of their two month contract.

I'm not saying in the second situation that something is wrong, just that it just further compounds the problems that exist within the transfer market currently. It's hard enough trying to buy or sell players from the 300-500 active managers in the gameworld without further imposing that you can't buy or sell someone, realistically, within the first month of signing them.

In other news:

Beaulieu FC got knocked out of the All Evening Cup in the third round to Huntstown Villa. Two corner goals (grrr) and a deflected long range strike didn't tel lthe story of a match in which Beaulieu FC had the significantly better chances. There's also been movement on the transfer front, which I'll post up tonight when I can grab some screenshots.

Stadiums (or the mistaken belief in investing in stadiums)

After a gruelling period where my financial projection has resembled a cliff, the first of my two stands has now been completed and the first elements (a paltry 3 advertising boards) have been completed. Within the next week and a bit, I should have most of my stadium built, which should see my income sizeably increase.

I’ve so far managed to pay off around 8.5m of my stadium, with the final 2m due out over the next 6 weeks or so. With my projection (hopefully) going to look more than healthy after my seats are finally built, I decided to have a look at upgrading one of the other basic stands in favour of a 2-Tier Stand with corporate and advertising provision.

After some playing around, the shortest period of time I could make any investment break even over was 100 days. That’s 100 days + build time, meaning that any investment wouldn’t even break even for another 4 seasons, give or take a week. Admittedly, if you’re playing a long term game over 10 or 20 seasons, that investment seems a good bit of business. But considering that my new daily income will be touching on 290k (not including media money or minimum prize money), is it really worth investing that amount of money for such a poor overall payoff? This brought me round to thinking about other ways of making/investing your money within the game.

Competitions – an easy one – entering competitions, especially DYM competitions, can result in an easy profit. But with new rules considering the balance of prize money and minimum time for competitions to run, this is a game and time-heavy option. Yes, teams can quickly turn £50,000 into £100,000 using DYM competitions, but this isn’t an answer to making huge amounts of money due to the competition prize money tax imposed at the end of every season. A small amount of money can be gained through these means, but given the amount going out in wages every season, it’s negligible after the first couple of seasons.

Stadiums – As discussed above, provide an increase to your daily income. Unfortunately, it takes at least 3 seasons for any investment I could make to break even, so this option is seemingly aimed solely at those playing a very long term game.

Players – pre-stadiums and taxes, money simply wasn’t worth having. It was far better to invest this in players as quickly as you physically could, because, put simply, inflation was so rampant as to leave your money comparatively worthless within a week, if not a few days. All of a sudden, with stadiums coming in, everyone wanted money and people sold players until no-one wanted players anymore. However, this situation won’t remain indefinately – money will flow back into the game eventually, especially as peoples stadiums are completed. In my personal case, I’m expecting a 3-4m increase in my projected balance, a whopping figure some of which I’ll have to spend in order to avoid tax.

Therefore, is buying players such a bad option? Case in point – I spent £68,000, £3,000 a day and £30,000 signing on fee for a player. He was never going to be good enough for my first team and I loaned him out to a fellow AEFA side lower down the divisions. Here he starts every game and has seen his value rocket. I have paid half his wages, but this could be considered to be doubled as I am (just) over the £250,000 a day threshold for wage tax. Over 28 days (the period of time required for the automatic sell on percentage to reach 0), my investment could therefore be considered to have cost £182,000. If I sell him for half market value, a good deal for both parties for considering how well he is playing and something the other party has indicated he is interested in doing, I stand to make £348,000 profit on an initial investment of £182,000. In effect, I will have roughly doubled my money within a season – as opposed to the 6-8 seasons this would take by investing in stadiums. Moreover, by investing in youth at £10,000 initial cost, £200 wages and £2,000 signing on fee the margins are dramatically increased as well as having the bonus of having them locked for the foreseeable future. Of course, this depends on selling players, but over the next 3 or 4 seasons, this, in my humble opinion, is guaranteed.

It seems odd to advocate the buying of players at a time when the market is dead and everyone else is selling, but if you take a medium term view and invest wisely (no OAPs, no huge wages and no tat) it could be the best way to increase your bank balance.

Mid-season update

I’d guess we’re about halfway through the 4th season in Saunders and things have gone pretty well so far. Beaulieu FC are still in the running for most of the major competitions, which is a nice change considering our usual tendency for early exists (despite usually getting incredibly tough early fixtures in knockout competitions).

The Premiership has gone very well, indeed. I avoided playing matches for the first week or so while the one man win-machine that is Dani Alves was injured. Since then we’ve gone from strength to strength, with a record of 11W, 2D 1L from the first 14 games. This puts us 1 point and 1 game ahead of surprise contenders Eagle Warriors and is especially impressive considering Caceres picked up a 5 match suspension.

Eagle Warriors goals have mostly come from the immense, towering, Brazilian striker Jo. However, a former fans favourite is running the midfield in the form of Leandro Lima. An initial pick for the Beaulieu FC squad, the Brazilian maestro switched allegiances shortly after the second season had begun, after an immense first season, for a hefty fee. He’s gone from strength to strength in the mean time and is really powering their title charge.

The Premiership Cup – a competition open to all members of the premiership – has gone well too. A record of 6 wins and 2 losses from our group stage saw Beaulieu FC easily qualify for the quarter finals with an impressive 18 points, where other top sides, such as Toon Town and AFC Carpathia, fell short. Hopeful of a good draw, this could be the first cup competition our side has managed to win.

The All Evening Cup has also gone well, despite only squeezing through on penalties in the second round after Dani Alves got himself sent off. The third round is due to be played this evening, another tough draw in the form of Huntstown Villa, with Workshop Wednesday awaiting the winners.

The Gold Cup - the FML equivalent of the Champions League – has also seen some good results for the Blues. We were dawn in a tough group alongside 3 other top 50 teams (including the worlds’ #1 youth side), but being a consistent member of the top 5 ensured that we were always likely to progress. A record of 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss (conceded when both Dani Alves and Nelson were injured) was enough to see us through to the last 16.

Here we were drawn against the impressive Toronto FC – home of Saviet, Walcott, Danny and Modric. Fortunately, the latter two were injured for both legs of the tie, tipping the odds in our favour. Beaulieu FC managed an impressive 3-0 home leg victory, but looked to be crashing out when down 4-0 at half time in the second leg. Issiati stepped up to the plate and scored a crashing strike in off the post, before winning a free kick which Pernia converted, leaving the final score 4-2 to Toronto FC, 5-4 to the Blues on aggregate. With many great sides left in the competition, nothing can be taken for granted, but I’m glad to have made it to the quarter finals – the furthest I’ve made it in any UFFA competition so far.

As previously outlined, the youth competitions have seen a marked improvement over last season. A period of mixed results has seen us slip down the projected final positions, but we’re still comfortably mid-table at both U19 and U21. Qualification from the AE Youth Cup and World Youth Cup has also been achieved, although tough draws will probably see Beaulieu FC’s involvement end here. Never-the-less, it’s an impressive turn around for a side who scraped to finish 18th in the AEFA U21’s last season. With the youngsters generally being 19 or under, they’ve still got a couple of years left at this level in which to improve and I’m hopeful 3 or 4 of them might have the required potential to make the step up to the first team in the coming seasons.

There’s still a long way to go and a lot of good sides left in the running in all the competitions, but Beaulieu FC are still in with a shout for all of them, and you gotta be in it to win it!

A focus on youth… (2)

Moreno is young and has bags of ability. A straight swap for Guana may again seem a steep price, but to get a player of this quality on low wages for a player not able to get into the starting lineup is a bargain.




Allotey is a top young striker with a very high potential. A high pricewas paid - a straight swap for Monteiro - but considering Monteiro wasn't going to be locked and was either stinking up the RW or sitting on the bench, the deal looks a lot better.

The team have been doing very well, currently sitting top of the U21s and second in the U19s (by virtue of games played, admittedly), with qualification for the world youth cup and the AE youth cup looking assured.



My youth ranking has steadily improved as well, with my kids doing well against most teams, including teams who previously thumped them and teams currently in the top 10 of the youth rankings. Senior rankings are thrown in as well, with my side currently sitting in 4th.

A focus on youth…

Throughout the three season history of Beaulieu FC, it would be fair to say that the youth team has been an afterthought. During the first season, when I had two extraordinary U21 players in Caceres and Guilherme, I didn’t manage to create a youth team until right at the end. This was a golden period where my youth peaked at ranked 18th in the world with Guilherme overpowering at that level.

As players aged, my youth teams powers dwindled and they drifted out to ranked 150th. A mediocre group was broken up only by the odd flash of talent – Bjorn Sigurdsen was a shining light for two seasons before his depature and Danny Welbeck was the sole catalyst in lifting my U21s from the bottom of the youth leagues up to the bottom of the also-rans last season. With both of those star strikers gone, I was set to disband my youth team in a drive to reduce wages to get one last world class star into my team. I had a player in mind and had proposed a deal subject to a reduction in my wages, but someone gazumped me at the last and forced me to re-evaluate my priorities.

I looked around the Gameworld and I’ve started to see the emergence of a new set of teams near the top of the rankings. Down Is The New Up have always focused on youth (although having Aguero upfront really does help), but after 4 seasons the youngsters are starting to turn into world class players. Another team, Bernanrd Mendy Football Club, disappeared for 3 seasons, but now has a team full of 4-5 star potential players and I fully expect him to rise up the rankings shortly. And you only have to look to Toon Town and Bohemians FC in the AEFA to see the benefits of having a strong youth side.

There are obviously pros and cons to a long term strategy such as this. Without youngsters who are already world class, it’s difficult to maintain a challenge on both the senior and youth fronts. It can also be very expensive – in the past top quality youth have gone for well over £30,000 a week. The top price paid was for an English wunderkind, Gavin Phillips (a Gerrard-like box to box midfielder), who ended up on a wage of £60,000 a day. However, with the tightening of finances imposed by the introduction of stadiums and signing on fees, people are being far more sensible with their wage auction signings. World class players are going for their wage demand while youth are rarely seen to go for over £10,000.

Therefore, I decided to put together a youth team with the idea of picking a bunch of 17-18 year olds and letting them develop over the next couple of seasons. Early signs have been promising, with a record of W7, D3, L4 in the U21 league and a qualification place for the knockout stages of the U21 cup seemingly assured. The lads only managed 8 wins in 44 games last season, so the improvement is already immense. There are no superstars in my youth side as of yet, but every single one has a good level of potential. I’m looking to add to both the depth and the quality of my youth side by exchanging some of my peripheral senior players for good young prospects.

And another one bites the dust…

This past week has seen the loss of not one but another two high profile teams. Espen had decided he’d taken his Scandinavian only side as far as he could, amazingly into the top 10, and after losing out on Skejlbred, decided a fresh start in the new world Metgod was what he wanted. On the flip side Tom Hughes of Hughes Control completely lost the plot, spouting racist and offensive materiel in the Help lobby when he realised he didn’t have the cash needed for a stadium and he was going to go bankrupt. Just 20 minutes before the start of the season, he decided to jump ship rather than battle on.

I fear that there will be more top ranking teams falling by the wayside by the end of the next season. I already know of one manager who hasn’t built a stadium at all – he’s invested everything into one last season, one push for glory, before he seeks pastures new. I see quite a few sides who are clearly not prepared in any way shape or form, and Saunders will lose a number of players before the real impact of stadiums is seen. On the up side, we had a large influx of new players during the off-season, so we’re still one of the most populated and active Gameworlds.

In other news, Marko’s Magicians have managed to sign Luca Toni – free after Marc Thom’s departure. As last seasons’ top scorer in the AEFA Premiership, he’s a top addition to an already good side and should ensure that Mark’s side are there or there abouts come the end of the season. I’m yet to play any league games, but so far no side has really raced out of the blocks so the league is there for the taking.

Finally, if you like what you’re reading, make sure to give me a good rating at http://www.footballmanagerlive.com/community/fan-sites.php. It’s currently somewhere around page 3.

The competition

With Marc Thom’s Theatre of Dreams exiting the Gameworld, a gap has been left to be filled at the top of the AEFA Premiership. Here’s a look at some of the other contenders for the title…

Monobrow City

Alun spent the third season playing with a Welsh only side, managing survival only by the narrowest of margins. This season the full team is back, with Dzeko and Foti leading the line, Ramsey at CM, Bale at LB and the monster that is Adler between the sticks. The only question mark over the coming season are the finances, as Monobrow are known to be dangerously close to being insolvent ahead of the switch to stadium based income (See my earlier post with regards to stadiums and future projection to understand why).

Toon Town

Arno Nel’s side have snuck up the Gameworld rankings into the top 20 and are a financially sound, low wage team. With the impressive Frederico Laurito and Xisco upfront and young wonderkid Osvaldo on the bench, this young side really have matured over the last two seasons. Beaulieu FC have had the better of the results in recent times, but this side is definitely not to be underestimated.

Rice ‘n’ Furry FC

Any side featuring a front pairing of Cassano and Quagliarella is to be feared. One of the most prolific front lines last season was backed up by a solid midfield and defence. Again, question marks over Toto Trans’ finances create a large hole in their title challenge, with rumours that Cassano is up for sale.

AFC Carpathia

Barry Welch’s side may be an odd pick for a title challenge, but they’ve been in and around the top half for two seasons in a row. He’s bought wisely over the last couple of weeks to strengthen his squad without blowing his wage budget and he’s got a nice stadium on the way. Defoe upfront backed up by Valbuena, Rameriz and tactical ability ensures his place among my pick for the title contenders

Bohemians FC

A side who have been in the bottom half of the table for a while may be a very unusual place to expect a title challenge, but I’m picking Derek Tobin’s side as the dark horses for the coming competition. An emphasis on producing great quality youth has seen Bohemians near the top of the youth rankings for a long time and his players are starting to really come of age. Fausto Rossi on the left wing is deadly-effective and Mutu upfront bristles with threat. A recent friendly saw Beaulieu FC emerge with a 4-4 draw, thanks only to wonder-goals by Guilherme, underlining the attacking prowess present in Derek’s side.

There are, of course, other serious contenders like Marko’s Magicians, Huntstown Villa and so on – those are just my pick of a few of them. :)

The Team (Season 4)

The comings and goings at The Anchor have been extensive, but the core of the first team remains the same. I would post up all the transfers, but there have been so many ins and outs, as well as ins then outs, that it’d take all day. So without further delay, here is the Beaulieu FC team hoping to retain the AEFA Premiership title for the coming season:


GK - Samir Handanovich

Rogerio Ceni was about to turn 39 and it was clear that I was going to need a new keeper sooner rather than later. When the Slovenian shot stopper became available in auction, I decided he was the man to fill the legendary Brazilians shoes and managed to secure him to a 2 season contract.


DR – Nelson

Dani Alves was immense at right back for the first three seasons, but I was very short of cover in defence. Nelson was a player I had wanted for a long time, but was always priced out of a move. When I saw he was available at wage auction, I made him my number one priority and I’m looking forward to seeing him in the blue and white shirt of Beaulieu FC.


DL – Mariano Pernia

Following the sale of Zambrano, Guardado had ‘enjoyed’ a very poor season at left back. This wasn’t helped by my very attacking formation, with the full backs providing both the only width in my team and the only defence down the sides. Pernia is no spring chicken, but he’s got enough pace about him to hold down the left wing on his own. More importantly, I’d never had a brilliant free-kick taker – with 19 freekicks and good PPMs, Pernia is worth a couple of points a season in the extra goals and assists alone.


DC – Martin Caceres

Martin has blossomed into one of the best defenders in the game, especially considering his relatively low wages. He’s a monster in the air, with brilliant, rounded technical skills and amazing mental abilities. He’s pretty quick, too.


DC – Nedum Onouha

Onouha started his Beaulieu FC career at right back as I judged his aerial ability, or lack of, would be a severe hinderence to the team. I moved him inside to CB during the second season and he’s gone from strength to strength. With some of the best physical stats in the game – he’s lightning quick AND good in the air – he’s added very solid mental abilities and very good defensive technical skills. He recently got the extra half star reputation to become World Famous and he’s truly formed what is arguably one of the best defensive partnerships in the Gameworld.


MR – Dani Alves

I always wanted to deploy Dani Alves further forward down the right wing, where he can truly damage the opponent. With the signing of Nelson, I’ve been able to release the one man whirlwind and his performances have been nothing short of match winning in pre-season. Along with Nelson, forms perhaps the best right wing in Saunders.


ML – Ismail Aissati

After losing Guardado, I was looking for someone who could play both the left wing and centre-midfield. Aissiti was available in transfer auction and I decided that he was the player my team needed. Very, very pricey at 4.5m (including agents fees) when cast against a backdrop of wage auctions and world class free agents, but he’s been a revelation down the left wing. I eventually plan to move him centrally, but that will involve more signings, a tactical change and yet more players left out of the team!


MC – Michael Johnson

After Roberto Guana succumbed to a 2 week injury, my need for a new CM became more pressing. After deciding I wasn’t going to play with 3 strikers in the coming season, I was touting around Welbeck when the owner of Johnson showed interest, offering some of his other players. I eventually proposed a straight swap, which was of interest to both parties so the deal was done. I’ve given him more liscence to roam forward than Guana and he’s not disappointed as he’s been a revelation in midfield, acting as the anchor at The Anchor and neatly linking the play.


MC – Julio ‘The Beast’ Baptista

Put simply, the man is a monster in this game. Bought prior to the market crash for 7.5m, he was one of the main reasons my team pulled through at the end of the season and won the title. In season 3 he’s averaged 0.4 goals per game from midfield, with almost that many assists and has added that extra dimension to the attack that has turned losses into draws and draws into wins.


FC – Enrique Esqueda

The Mexican wonderkid came to life in the first half of the second season, but his form died towards the end. He’s going into the second year of his two year contract and there is every chance the next few weeks will be his last opportunity to impress. Possesses blistering pace and great mental attributes, but lacks a little in technical ability that sees him spurning a fair number of chances.


FC – Guilherme

Guilherme has had a mixed third season. He peaked in the second season and really set the world alight with one of the highest goals per game in the Gameworld. But despite scoring for fun most of the time, in the league the goals dried up for the talented young Brazillian. I think the 4-3-3 system didn’t play to his strengths, but he managed less than 0.5 goals per game and an average rating of less than 7. Better things are expected of him this season, as a good cup run is long overdue.


Bench

A strong bench includes Nicholas Navarro (GK), Felipe Monteiro (MR/MC), Emmanuel Villa (ST) and Roberto Guana (MC).

Stadiums: A Retrospective View

Over the last few weeks there has been a seismic shift in Football Manager Live. I obviously can’t comment from the perspective of a new Gameworld, but from the perspective of one moving into the 4th season, the effect has been astounding. Heres my stadium, followed by a few thoughts…

My stadium, “The Anchor”:

I redeveloped just two of the four stands. I erected a 3 Tier Mercantile Type I and filled it was Astilla seating, resulting in a capacity increase of 26,400. I also invested in an 3 Tier Ospitalia Type II, complete with two Flauta corporate boxes and 4,000 Di Lusso seats.

Total cost was just under 10.5m, with 7.5m paid upfront and the rest over the subsequent 8 weeks.
Projected stadium income is 223k.

The Transfer Market and Bankruptcy

Firstly, its effect on the transfer market has been nothing short of destructive. The amount of money that has been sucked out of the game is, put simply, unreal. This has resulted in no-one having any money to spend on players what-so-ever, with most trying to sell any player on anything approaching big wages for next nothing.

This has meant people like Theiry Henry being bought for £1 on a transfer auction, and players of the calibre of Luca Toni, Julio Cesar, Franco Semioli were not even receiving bids at the end of contract wage auctions. There are currently over 400 players available who are either high potential (greater than 4 star) or have an acquisition fee of over 50,000. There are several really great players who people just simply put, cannot afford. That doesn’t even include all the players who are available on wage auctions in the coming days.

The worst part of it is this makes it almost impossible to refresh your squad to keep ahead of the locks. I’ve done my best to keep my squad new, young and most importantly, ahead of locks, but it’s not been easy and this was greatly helped by the financial compensation. With players going for less than their acquisition fees in transfer auctions, I honestly can’t see when the market is going to pick up, as people seem to be getting into worse and worse financial problems rather than things getting better.

We’ve already had a couple of high profile exits from the Gameworld due to the paucity of several managers and the complete lack of options available to them. Some say they bought it on themselves by not planning far enough ahead, but even then it’s harsh to see so many people who just underestimated both the cost of the stadiums and the complete death of the transfer market. I was just fortunate enough to get a good understanding of how much it was going to cost and get ahead of the curve regarding sales.


Building Time

This was a personal annoyance of mine, but proved to be an issue with managers near the top end of the Gameworlds. The income switchover was scheduled for 28 days after the ability to start building your stadium was introduced. Unfortunately, to build the biggest stands with appropriate seat types takes a lot longer than 21 days. My biggest stand is taking 44 days to build with the seats – but I had to spend 3 and a half hours trying to work out what my financial projection was going to be given what I’d built. Someone on the forums said this and it struck a chord: We’re paying for a game, not a maths exam.

Stadiums and Financial Projections

This is another personal sore point, but one that is affecting a LOT of managers, whether they know it or not. The financial projection for the next 28 days is coded to project what you’ll make based on what the stadium you have BUILT will produce, not what you have building. This results in so called ‘Graphs of Death’ where the financial projection simply bombs after the income switchover. With drastic cost-cutting and the removal of auto-rebids and auto-extends, I’m currently sitting at -£800k – not a good situation to be in!! SI are looking at introducing a new patch, 1.1.2, ASAP to fix this issue, but it’s not looking good right now for a great number of managers, myself included.

Corporate Fans

My stadium will currently hold 35,000 people, of which 2,000 are corporate fans. Those corporate fans are going to bring in over 50% of the income. I understand that corporate fans bring in a lot of cash, but is one Flauta corporate box really equivalent to 26,400 fans?? I don’t know if this will be adjusted in the future – if it is, then a LOT of people will be out of pocket, as this was quickly identified as a quick route to a high daily income.


Overall, I feel like I saved enough cash and prepared wisely. Despite all of this, SI have made it almost impossible for me to stay afloat unless I had about £20m in cash before the switchover!! I’ll probably be financially fine, but it’s going to be a lean few weeks for Beaulieu FC!!

Controversy

The whole of Saunders was talking about a deal I made and the moderators subsequently punished me for. I swapped Guardado (crushingly disappointing in Season 3) for 3 hot prospects – Neymar, Aaron and Fabio da Silva. This was generally considered a fair deal, even by the mods, but as the other manager was known to be leaving, all players involved were released.

After much talking in the lobby and in the forums, the moderators approached me and agreed that the punishment had been harsh and I was due financial compensation. This in itself was difficult as the market has absolutely died, so to put a figure on what a player is worth was very difficult, but we eventually came to an agreement.

Everyone can make mistakes, and I respect the moderators in Saunders for taking the time to talk the problem through with me – so let this be a lesson learnt – if you know someone is leaving, don’t do any deals with them whatsoever!

Season 3 Roundup

First of all, I have to apologise for my lack of updating. The season got very, very busy very quickly and resulted in me not really having enough free time to blog.

Secondly, an update on how the season went – after the disastrous start my side never looked back. However, it looked like we’d thrown it away with some iffy results at the back end of the season.

With 3 games left each, Marc Thom’s Theatre of Dreams had to play the bottom three while I had to play Andersens, the irrepressible Maffe and my personal bogey team, Neil Baldwins’ Workshop Wednesday.

Marc miraculously managed to drop 2 points from the three games, meaning I ONLY had to win all 3 remaining games. After downing Andersens 4-2, it looked like I was down and out against Maffe when none other than Felipe Monteiro popped up with a 94th minute winner. The match against Workshop Wednesday was a tight affair, but I always looked in control and managed a somewhat surprisingly comfortable 2-1 win to claim the AEFA Premiership crown.

The team has undergone some dramatic changes and is looking very strong ahead of the title defence in the 4th season…