Football Manager 2010 SG talk

[Brian Shanahan]

I've played through to December and frankly at the moment I've no energy to play through to Christmas (as witnessed by my lags in play times).

Results continue to be fairly good, except we lost on penalties in the FA cup to Bournmouth in a 2nd rd. replay. We're through to the Jonstons paint Semis (away to Brentford), and we're 4th in the league 5 off the leaders and 4 off promotion.

But the finances are really killing us. For November, despite picking up £110k for the cup game (bums on seats) we lost £62.5k, and the story is even grimmer in normal months. I think we'll be forced to sell our better players in January.

I also applied for the Leicester, Empoli and Xerez jobs as they came up, but because our reputation is still only regional we got none of them, losing out in each case to unemployed former players (who start with higer reputations naturally). I also applied to the Samdoria and Catania jobs on the off chance (both in Serie A) but no luck there either. So a combination of no money and bad luck on the job front (IRL we'd be a shoo-in for the Leicester job, with 3 consecutive promotions, and 2nd in the league below the job at the time).

Anyway some screenshots:

Form has been very patchy, with us grinding out results and conceding some very late equalisers or being lucky to get goals ourselves. Shrewsbury was a very bad result, probably the only team with more restricted finances than us in the league, and frankly only a lower table Division 4 squad, and been beaten 3-1 and played off the park. Conversley we desevered to get our rear ends handed to us by Carlisle but they never took the chances, and our forward trio (especially Mick Owen) were on song for the 90 minutes.


As regards the Congo, it is very difficult at times, as you know we won the first match easily and then I sent out an experimental team against Morocco.

After that we had the Algeria game, which despite having more chances and possession we lost due to the forwards encountering a top goalkeeping display by Boulemdais (despite the 6.6) and our two centre-halves having some bad errors. Despite this, but as predicted, we had enough points to go through as a best placed runner up.
In our last game we played Angola (50th in the world to our 80th), a shocking first half display left us 2-0 down. But some hairdryer treatment and 3 half time subs (admittedly Fudje was carrying a knock) and an inspired performance by veteran forward Maboulou (with two goals) saw us rescue the draw.

Next game is in March and there are five friendly slots available in the calendar year. We won't be getting out of the group unless we're lucky though.

Final note on Congo, our current captain is a 36 y.o. CB who's nowhere near the squad, my mistake, sack him in January.
[url="http://www.mediafire.com/?7n3cw9g567589xb"]
The Save.[/url]

[Ichabod]

Well, the things ought to get better soon. I don't have anything to back my statements (besides hope ), but I'm feeling lucky!

Can't we sell some of the "not extraordinarily good players"? Angus is one that comes to mind. Ratten too. We kind of overdid ourselves with sign ups. We have a very big squad right now, so maybe if we go on a offering to other clubs spree we might sell some players that are not the key ones.

I'm sure TT will think of something :neenernee!

P.S.: Don't get promoted this year, because I don't want to be relegated in the next one!

[Brian Shanahan]

Well, the things ought to get better soon. I don't have anything to back my statements (besides hope ), but I'm feeling lucky!

Can't we sell some of the "not extraordinarily good players"? Angus is one that comes to mind. Ratten too. We kind of overdid ourselves with sign ups. We have a very big squad right now, so maybe if we go on a offering to other clubs spree we might sell some players that are not the key ones.

I'm sure TT will think of something :neenernee!

P.S.: Don't get promoted this year, because I don't want to be relegated in the next one!

Financially the only way we're going to survive even short term is by selling the bigger players. Most of the players in the second tier level won't go for much, those that are valued highly are not being played to get the exposure needed for a sale, and those we can sell would be around the £10-£50k mark, not nowhere near enough to keep us going, as we're losing c. £100-150k per month. I had a look at a few of the clubs after passing on the save and Shrewsbury have a budget of £34k per week (at the bottom end) while Charlton (at the top) are on a budget of £98k per week. We neither have the budgets to really keep up with the top teams, nor the resources to keep a hold of our best players long term.

There are two options with the team, either sell the marketable players for a few million, and get decent replacements (thinking long term consolidation), or keep them and hope on a big pay-off with promotion (and hopefully winning the league) then leaving in May for more stable clubs (of course it would doom AFC long term). I actually think the second one is the best, throw it all in and risk everything for a massive (hopefully) reward. Playing safe would only get us a mid table position this year and struggles down the line, without putting us in a position to get a bigger spot soon, whereas a Div 2 promotion would possibly bump us to a national reputation and get us a proper club of that level.

[Twinkletoes89]

Righteo, seems were in a little bit of a pickle enjoyment wise. I shall have a look and see if I can work some magic.

[Brian Shanahan]

Righteo, seems were in a little bit of a pickle enjoyment wise. I shall have a look and see if I can work some magic.

On the field we're doing well if somewhat prouchy in spots. But of the field we're rapidly advancing up that creek you go when you lose your paddle, or are being chased by a defective golem.

[Twinkletoes89]

Current brief thinking is making a big push to win the JP Trophy if I can. I think that may boost our reputation and is possibly more likely to happen than another promotion.

[Brian Shanahan]

Current brief thinking is making a big push to win the JP Trophy if I can. I think that may boost our reputation and is possibly more likely to happen than another promotion.

Promotion is still possible, but to do it will definitely kill the finances IMO. I think we'll actually get more reputation boost from going up through the playoffs than 2nd, as I remember reading the promotion playoffs count as a trophy and come with a reputation boost.

Whatever happens I think our best bet is to go all out for promotion, ignore the finances, and even if there is nothing quit out of the Wimbledon job in May, as we'll only stagnate as is.

If we wanted to take Wimbledon all the way what we should have done was spend 5 years in Division 4 wheeling and dealing, getting our finances and facilities up to a decent league standard before pushing for a climb up the ladder, i.e. being more methodical.

[Twinkletoes89]

Promotion is still possible, but to do it will definitely kill the finances IMO. I think we'll actually get more reputation boost from going up through the playoffs than 2nd, as I remember reading the promotion playoffs count as a trophy and come with a reputation boost.

Whatever happens I think our best bet is to go all out for promotion, ignore the finances, and even if there is nothing quit out of the Wimbledon job in May, as we'll only stagnate as is.

If we wanted to take Wimbledon all the way what we should have done was spend 5 years in Division 4 wheeling and dealing, getting our finances and facilities up to a decent league standard before pushing for a climb up the ladder, i.e. being more methodical.

I agree that pretty much come rain or shine we will not be at Wimbledon long after the end of the season.

Playoffs will effectively count as a trophy - but it will be bloody hard work if our squad decides to go inconsistent on us.

On the last point, we probably should've done that - but it would have been less interesting and would you have ever turned down those players in the BSP?

I think the summary for this job would be - it was fun while it lasted!

[Brian Shanahan]

It was fun while the money lasted you mean.

[Dantski]

It was fun before Brian went bankrupt! :neenernee