Ho ho!
Football Manager 2020 Pre-Purchase is now available on Steam.
"Everyone's got an opinion. Do something with yours."
Clever.
I won't be happy until the game models fan-interaction by having a entire YouTube channel of screaming idiots declaring I should be fired after every disappointing performance.
(And I actually rather enjoy AFTV)
Will this Google Stadia thing re-vamp the FM Live! experience?
Season 1: Unemployed - May 2019
What Color is My Parachute?
I start out the month applying to any vacancy that looks remotely within my reach. My current reputation is .5 stars out of 5, so I mainly find myself applying to jobs in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Ireland, and some of the lower leagues in England, France, and Italy.
Things start out badly. I publicly declare my interest in a job at Cittadella, in Serie B in Italy. I get denied an interview and their fans publicly laugh at my job application on social media. Bastards. After that, I keep my job applications tighter to the vest. Most places don’t grant me an interview, but as the month rolls forward I get interviews with two teams from the Bluefin Sports PIL in Northern Ireland. It’s a .5 reputation league, pretty much as low as I can go in the game given the leagues I’ve set as playable.
I get rejected by one club, but offered a job with Annagh Utd. It pays only 300 pounds per week, and they are essentially an amateur club. I have no idea, however, if this is the best job offer I’ll get. I delay a couple of times, but push comes to shove and I need to make a decision. I decide to go for it and take the job, but in the course of negotiating salary I manage to push things too far and they walk away from me.
Back to the unemployment line, I quickly get more interviews, two of which are very interesting ones from the National League South, the same level I was at with Nuneaton Boro. One is from Woking, who finished 8th last year and would represent a big step up in finances and expectations. Another is from the Concord Rangers, who are lower in expectations and financially insecure. I’d jump at either of these jobs, but actually find myself hoping I get the Concord job. I’d like to try something exactly like Nuneaton Boro again.
But as May draws to a close, I’m still unemployed and the season looms closer…
Well, you're getting interviews at least. The end of the season usually sees a plethora of firings in all divisions, so just keep cool. It's definitely worth getting in early though - from memory the lower leagues in England start a week or two before the higher tiers, and you want time to pick over the players who have been released at season's end.
I'm just wondering if the online element of FM 2020 will be independent VAR...where your game is interrupted by a replay from Godzilla Blitz's game with the information that the ref has awarded a penalty - do you have enough evidence to overturn the decision?
With a countdown timer of 2 minutes. Because that's what fans the world over want, of course.
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - Preseason 2019
Let’s Go Waling!
Any hope surrounding the interviews at Concord and Woking gets summarily extinguished by rejection emails from both organizations. Those rejections are quickly followed by several more, and several more, and I’m more and more reminded of what it was like trying to get dates in high school. As things drift to the back half of June, I realize that I can’t afford to be picky. At last, a club steps up with a job offer: MBi Llandudno, in the 1-star reputation Welsh Premier League. Desperate for income, I take the job.
Last season Llandudno expected to finish mid-table, but fell to 9th out of 12 teams in the Welsh Premier League. With that performance, their manager got fired and here I am. I must say I’m not thrilled to be here, but I won’t tell my players that. This place is clearly a step down. Average attendance is about 250 fans per game. My pay, once 800 pounds per week with Nuneaton Boro, is now a mere 230 pounds per week. Honestly, I’m kind of dreading managing this team for the next year. But I’ve got to suck it up here, get good, and then move on.
I’ve made the big time, clearly.
On a positive note, financially we appear to be in better shape than Nuneaton Boro was. Either that or the chairman isn’t concerned about money. We’re currently about 30k pounds in debt, but our projections for this season have our debt soaring to 150k. But I guess that isn’t my problem at the moment, because the board has given me an 18k transfer budget and a 3k per week salary allotment, and they don’t seem concerned in the least about our impending financial problems.
Squad-wise we’re a mixed bag. We’ve got a number of areas to strengthen, in particular our midfield, which is a gaping hole of nothing. We lack depth everywhere else, and many of our players are mediocre at best. After going through the roster, I end up with a list of ten signings I’d like to make: 1 striker, 2 center mids, 2 left mids, 2 right mids, 1 central defender, 1 right defender, 1 goalkeeper.
In the course of July, I’m able to sign seven players and make good progress toward our goals. We make strong acquisitions at right defender, goalkeeper, and central midfielder, then get a decent signing at right mid. Outside mids must not be a thing in Wales, though, as we can’t find a decent left mid to save our lives, and even the right mid we signed has quite a bit of development to do before he’s going to be someone worth watching.
As we head into our season opener, I’m excited about our defense, as we have a strong back four and an outstanding keeper. Our midfield is still a work in progress, and I’ll want to pick up three more players to strengthen this area. I’ll also still need one more striker to give us depth. But all in all, I’m very happy with the signings we’ve been able to bring in. We still have money to spend, and the squad appears much better than a month ago.
Board expectations for the club are mid-table, but I’m aiming for top six (out of 12 teams) by the 22-game mark in the season. At that point the league splits into two sections, with each team playing the other teams in its section two more times, for a total of 32 league matches. Being in the top six by the split will guarantee us a playoff spot for a chance for a Europa League qualifying round spot. Given where the team ended last season, that’d be a nice outcome.
Llandudno! I used to go there on holiday sometimes as a kid. Good luck with the pronunciation!
There are some famous "how to pronounce" sites around that completely mess this up. Most get the phlegm-filled "Cl" to open, but some even screw that up going for "lan-dud-no."
That "Ll" on the front is kind of a "hCluh" sound, the "dud" is more "did" and the "no" is kinda of "noh" and the stress is on the middle syllable.
If you get fired from Llandudno, there's always Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Llandudno! I used to go there on holiday sometimes as a kid. Good luck with the pronunciation!
There are some famous "how to pronounce" sites around that completely mess this up. Most get the phlegm-filled "Cl" to open, but some even screw that up going for "lan-dud-no."
That "Ll" on the front is kind of a "hCluh" sound, the "dud" is more "did" and the "no" is kinda of "noh" and the stress is on the middle syllable.
If you get fired from Llandudno, there's always Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Ha! Thanks! I had no idea. I was going totally with the "lan-dud-no" approach. There is a video for it too:
That seems right on target with how you said to say it.
And yeah, that second place is really a place, eh? That's both amazing and somewhat scary. I mean, how does a place get a name like that? Who would ever think, "Oh, yeah, great idea! Let's go with that!"
Imagine getting lost there and tryig to call someone to pick you up?
"Where are you?"
"I'm in......... y'know, what, I live here now. Nevermind."
You're almost making me want to give Football Manager another crack, after falling out of love with it because it has become bloated with feature creep.
You're almost making me want to give Football Manager another crack, after falling out of love with it because it has become bloated with feature creep.
I can hear you, for sure.
I'm not at all ready to dig into the revamped training elements of the game. Looks downright tedious to me, but maybe that will change when/if I play around with it more. I do really enjoy the human side of team management features. I feel like they've done a good job of capturing the emotions of teams, with issues like leadership, cohesion, morale, etc. There are still places where it feels artificial, but every version I play feels more refined, and there isn't a sports sim out there that comes close to what they are doing with the genre in this area.
I do feel pretty comfortable just turning much of the stuff I don't want to mess around with off, though, to keep the things I'm paying attention to more manageable.
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - August 2019
A Thunderous Start
We roar out of the gate. 11 minutes into the season we’re up 2-0, and that sets the tone for the month. We win our first three league matches, pick up a Nathaniel MG Cup match win, and only miss a perfect month by giving up a last second goal to end with a draw in our last match. The three wins and a draw have us in second place in the league table. It is a glorious start.
The star of our show so far is striker George Harry, a man with two first names. With five league goals in four games he’s leading our team and playing well beyond the level our coaches expect of him. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the season.
Despite all the good news, in all honesty things are not as good as they look. There are 12 teams in the Welsh Premier League, and there is a large gap between the very strong top four teams and the league bottom feeders. The only strong team we’ve played so far ended in our draw. While it’s good we’ve been picking up wins against mid-table and weaker teams, our real tests are yet to come. We’ll have to have success against some stronger teams if we’re to get in the top six by the league break.
There are other issues to address as well. Three starters got hurt toward the end of the month, so we’ll be at less than our best as we start September. Also, despite our good run, the players simply don’t respect me yet. In all our pregame talks, they barely listen. While our locker room mood is good, I’ve clearly got work to do winning their hearts and minds.
Looking to September, our biggest test is right in front of us. On September 7, we play The New Saints at their home stadium. The New Saints have won the Welsh Premier League eight years in a row and dominate Welsh football. They are far and away the biggest, toughest, and best team in the land. A draw or win in this match would be a huge statement for us. But playing on the road, with three starters hurt, the odds are surely against us.
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - September 2019
Black and Blue
Things get real for us in what turns out to be a grueling, injury-ridden month playing against some of the best teams in the league.
We start out with a PK victory in the next round of the Nathaniel MG Cup to advance to the quarter finals. Up next is perennial league champion TNS. They pummel us 27-3 on shots, but thanks to a gift own goal on one of our corner kicks, we come out of the match with a 1-1 draw! In both matches we pick up injuries or suspensions that leave me patching together a starting 11 in our last three matches.
Takes a licking but keeps on ticking
Moving forward, we draw against a mid-table team, then collapse under the weight of our own bandages, as we get knocked out in the quarter finals of the Nathaniel MG cup by a second place Druids team, then finish off the month getting a 3-0 drubbing by 1st place Cardiff. More injuries pile up in these last three matches, and by the end of the month our locker room looks like a hospital ward. When the dust settles, we find ourselves limping along in 5th place in the league.
Adding insult to injury, Finley Hazell, our newly acquired central midfielder, gets all bent out of shape that I haven’t kept my promise of improving our midfield. He demands a transfer. (This is despite my signing three midfielders after I signed him. Jerk face.) His attitude is crapping all over team morale, so I cave in and arrange a January transfer out. We’ll have to figure out a way to replace his talent in January; our already weak midfield won’t hold up under the strain.
We do have a bit of good news. At the end of the month we sign free agent Liam Thomas, a 27-year-old striker who looks to be an immediate upgrade to our attack. This could be very helpful, as George Harry’s production fell off a cliff and he picked up a knock to boot.
All in all, the month proved that we’re nowhere near ready to compete against the top three teams in the league, but finishing in the top six might be within reach. Strengthening our midfield would appear to be the most direct way to make steps forward. Go Seasiders!
It the words of Taylor Swift, Look what you made me do.
This is attempt five or six to get absorbed by FM2019. I was always into this game for the career stories - the tales of players I picked up as kids, nurtured and watched mature all the way to retirement - and it feels like at some point that game stopped being that and moved instead to a match tactics simulator.
That isn't the grand sweep I prefer but you never know, maybe the Spartans are what I've been missing.
This is attempt five or six to get absorbed by FM2019. I was always into this game for the career stories - the tales of players I picked up as kids, natured and watched mature all the way to retirement - and it feels like at some point that game stopped being that and moved instead to a match tactics simulator.
That isn't the grand sweep I prefer but you never know, maybe the Spartans are what I've been missing.
Nice! I've always wanted to visit North Korea! 
That's an interesting observation about how you used to play the game and how it's morphed over the years. I remember when I first started playing, about 15 years ago, I played it like a stock simulator. I'd be buying an flipping players like crazy, and you could make gobs of money with it. With all the money you could buy even better players, and so on so forth. Pretty soon your club would be just flying up the system. It was really fun.
And then it all changed over a few versions as they put in mechanics that shut that route down. It took me a while to adjust to that.
I wonder if the picking up players and keeping them until retirement is the same sort of thing? I feel like the current game has some of that element, but it feels much harder now with the scouting limitations and impact of club prestige to find a potential star before other teams do and hang on to him? I feel like I can get players who might make the jump up a couple of leagues, but not stick with me for multiple jumps. But maybe that's more possible with a bigger club now? Like perhaps an Ajax or something could pull it off?
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - October 2019
Settling In
We seem to be settling in to our place in the league, as we beat two teams below us in the standings and lose to two teams above us in the standings. The six points over the month see us nestled in 5th place.
On the whole, I feel like we’re doing okay, but our mediocre midfield is a problem. On that note, I spend a lot of time during the month scouting and looking to sign midfielders to bring in on January 1, when the transfer window will reopen. The work pays off toward the middle of the month. We sign Tom Creamer, who looks to be a good replacement for the disgruntled and soon to exit Finley Hazell. Even better, we sign Creamer for about half of Hazell’s salary. I’m still looking to bring in two more central midfielders though. A nice rotation of three strong midfielders would do wonders for our performances.
As we have settled into a starting lineup, we’re leaving more players without playing time, and we are starting to get a few players discontent. I’m forced to put two of our backup goalkeepers on the transfer list, and our backup fullback will likely be next. So far their discontent hasn’t impacted the rest of the team, and the players are slowly but surely coming around to respect my leadership of the team.
It’s probably worth talking about our finances a bit, as our projected massive loss for the season seems to be coming true, and I’m starting to think it may impact our long-term prospects. I asked the board to let me do coursework for my National B License, but the club denied my request due to “lack of funds.” A license course only costs a few hundred pounds. Yikes. I’m staying well within board budgetary limits, but our debt has doubled to 66k pounds. Honestly, though, I can’t help it if our board is stupid and can’t do basic math. If finances start to play a bigger role it’d definitely lead me to move on at the end of the season, even though I’m having quite a good time managing this team now.
Looking forward, we’re at the halfway mark of the first chunk of the season. We’ve got 11 more games before the league splits, and our immediate and pressing goal is to be in that top six at the split. That’d guarantee we’d meet board expectations for the season, and if we can bring in three solid midfielders in January, we might be able to hold onto 5th place, or possibly even make a push to 4th, which would be a fantastic result for us. Onward!
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - November 2019
Decidedly Meh
We start out the month with a frustrating 0-0 home draw against mid-table Barry. Things pick up after that with a crushing 3-0 win in the Welsh Cup Third Round, and a convincing 2-0 win over last place Aberystwyth. After that things slide downhill, as we lose 2-1 in a crucial match against 6th place Bala, then end the month with a 1-0 loss against 1st place TNS. The 4 points from league play drop us down to 6th place, a mere point above 7th place Barry.
On a somewhat of a positive note, our general manager suggests we look at three players who could improve our team, and we manage to sign two of them. One of them, Striker Jamie Lucas, looks to be an improvement up front for us. The other, central midfielder Jonathan Royce, appears to be less brilliant than we expected. Both were cheap, however, so no great loss if they don’t work out.
As we head for the cold winter months, I feel generally anxious. Since our strong start, our play has been mediocre at best. We’re slowly drifting down the standings, and look less and less able to score goals and generate chances. On the defensive end, we’re making just enough mistakes to cost us matches. I’m hopeful we can snap out of this funk, as we’ll need some strong performances to hold onto 6th place. Unless we sharpen up our game, we look to be heading for the bottom half of the league before the split. We’ve got to get our mojo back.
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - December 2019
Slip Sliding Away...
Another frustrating month of leaving easy points on the table. We start out with a 1-1 tie at home to 7th place Carmarthen, then lose to 2-1 on the road to 1st place Cardiff Met. We bounce back with a 2-1 win against 10th place Haverfordwest. The low point comes when we end the month in an aggravating 2-0 loss against 11th place Bangor City, in a match where our captain commits a foul in the box to give up a penalty, then 2 minutes later picks up a second yellow card to get himself booted from the game. Down a man, we have no answer and go on to lose 2-0. 1 win, 1 draw, 2 losses, another 4-point month.
If there’s any consolation, it’s that the other teams clustered around us aren’t having much success either. With three games to go before the league splits, we’re in 7th place, just one point behind the 5th and 6th place teams in a group of four teams tightly packed and fighting for 5th and 6th place. We have a match in hand to boot.
A 6th place finish would be huge for us, guaranteeing we’d meet board expectations. If we dip lower, it might be hard for me to get a new job at the end of the year, and with our finances so bad now, I’m not sure I want to be around here for another year. This is a pivotal stretch of three games for both the club and my floundering career. We have got to get 6th place.
On a potentially bright note, as we celebrate New Year’s Day of 2020, the transfer window opens. We add two more central midfielders and lose Finley Hazell, our best central midfielder, to the New Saints. These reinforcements might help, but it’ll take a bit of time for them to get in match condition.
Looking ahead to January, we’ve got three big matches that’ll end the first half of the season. So many possible outcomes, but the key is that we’ve got to step up our game. The difference between finishing 6th or 7th is immense, and it looks to be coming down to the slimmest of margins...
Well that's a thing.
FM being FM I can't say I wasn't nervous when they made the score 5-2.
Well that's a thing.
FM being FM I can't say I wasn't nervous when they made the score 5-2.
That's a thumping! Nice work! How's the season going?
It's going well. We're predicted to finish fifteenth, but we're currently second after eight games with a 6-1-1 record thanks in part to the ridiculous goal scoring coming out of our midfield.
At one point when the team had scored 11 goals one of those had come from a forward, one from a defender and the other nine from midfield.
Our Vice Captain in particular has a habit of scoring and scoring spectacularly. In the first game he had a penalty saved and tapped in the rebound, but the other five goals he has so far have all been ~25 yard thunderbastards.
In one game I'd started him on the bench for a rest and he'd come on in the second half with us trailing 1-0. Within ten minutes he'd set up one goal and smashed in another from about 22 yards and I was dancing around the room. Then our opponents scored on 90+3 and 90+5 to beat us.
It's still our only loss.
Since then one of our forwards has finally woken up and scored two hattricks in a three game spell, to become the team's top scorer, which is good because my experience is that midfield goals are not a sustainable resource in FM.
Wow, that sounds like a nice start! That goal is a banger. Do you know a good place to learn tactics/formations for the game? I don't want to just download and use good ones that others have made. I feel like I need to understand how to set them up in the game better in order to do better.
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - January 2019
Yes!!! 6th Place, by a Whisker!
Holy crap that was close! We start out the month against Bangor City and quickly go down 2-0. Things stay that way for the next hour. But with 15 minutes to go, George Harry wakes up and scores two quick goals to get us a 2-2 draw and a valuable point. In our next match, we play the 3rd place Cefn Druids to an inspired 0-0 draw. Coming into our last match of the year, we’re in 6th place by one point. If we win our last match or 7th place Carmarthen loses to the nearly invincible 1st place Cardiff Met, we’ll end the first half of the season in 6th place, guaranteeing that we can go no lower in the standings for the rest of the season.
Fortunately, we bring our A game. By half time we’re leading 2-0, which is a good thing because Carmarthen is on fire, leading against Cardiff Met 2-0 as well. We must hold on in the second half for the win and we do so, cruising to a comfortable victory by completely shutting down the opposing attack. We successfully end the first half of the season in 6th place by a single point in the standings!
This is now the best of all worlds. We’ll be playing the best teams in the league, so expectations will be low. I’m thinking I can just treat these upcoming months as a chance to develop some of our younger players and build for next year. If things go really well, we might even be able to slide up to 5th place. Pressure is totally off. Such a relief!
Our next match isn’t for three weeks, a cup match against the New Saints, so we schedule some friendlies, move some of our surplus players out, and search the transfer market for something to improve our team. We end up signing yet another central midfielder, which probably was dumb, but he looked significantly better than our other midfielders. Turns out that was just a lie, as his ratings drop down a lot once we get him in the clubhouse. Oh, well.
We are seeing some locker room turmoil as well. Both our keepers are still upset. Our backup isn’t happy because he’s not playing and I haven’t moved him on. Our starter is upset because I sold Finley Hazell. I’ll have to see if I can sort this out next month.
You're almost making me want to give Football Manager another crack, after falling out of love with it because it has become bloated with feature creep.
It the words of Taylor Swift, Look what you made me do.
This is attempt five or six to get absorbed by FM2019. I was always into this game for the career stories - the tales of players I picked up as kids, nurtured and watched mature all the way to retirement - and it feels like at some point that game stopped being that and moved instead to a match tactics simulator.
That isn't the grand sweep I prefer but you never know, maybe the Spartans are what I've been missing.
Nice! I've always wanted to visit North Korea!
That's an interesting observation about how you used to play the game and how it's morphed over the years. I remember when I first started playing, about 15 years ago, I played it like a stock simulator. I'd be buying an flipping players like crazy, and you could make gobs of money with it. With all the money you could buy even better players, and so on so forth. Pretty soon your club would be just flying up the system. It was really fun.
And then it all changed over a few versions as they put in mechanics that shut that route down. It took me a while to adjust to that.
I wonder if the picking up players and keeping them until retirement is the same sort of thing? I feel like the current game has some of that element, but it feels much harder now with the scouting limitations and impact of club prestige to find a potential star before other teams do and hang on to him? I feel like I can get players who might make the jump up a couple of leagues, but not stick with me for multiple jumps. But maybe that's more possible with a bigger club now? Like perhaps an Ajax or something could pull it off?
Have you folks tried the Touch version yet? The slimmed down version seems like the best way to emulate the older versions of the games, possibly.
Unfortunately morale is still super important with the touch version, but you've virtually no way to affect it like you can in the full game. It can lead to some Dwarf Fortress-level death spirals.
Do you know a good place to learn tactics/formations for the game? I don't want to just download and use good ones that others have made. I feel like I need to understand how to set them up in the game better in order to do better.
The official FM forums do have a tactical subforum, (you can only see it once you sign in), and there are usually very good, very long tactical booklets there by the community.
For non-FM content you can check out sites like zonalmarking.net, or Tifo Football on Youtube.
I know I said this higher up, but at the lower level your team's tactics aren't a magic wand. It's possible to find a silver bullet down there, but for the most part your players will be one-trick ponies at best and so you're better off finding your best group and giving them the simplest instructions.
At Blyth I am playing the most vanilla of 4-4-2 systems with literally zero individual instructions.
My AssMan shouts at me because I play "Cautious" so he wants four outfield players set to defensive and I only have three and you can see I'm happy to put players in roles that aren't their first choice, but after that I leave them alone.
The most "tacticky" thing I've done this season as Manager came after our starting RM broke his ankle. Wrightson is a good replacement, but he has the individual trait of "runs inside with the ball."
I did have my Pressing Forward on the right hand side, but if he dropped deep to press and Wrightson cut inside they'd end up standing on each other's toes, so I switched the forwards to put the pressing player on the left instead.
Also, I had been playing a DRC at DR who was more naturally a central defender who stayed in place. With Wrightson cutting inside from MR that would have left me with no offensive outlet on the right, so I shuffled to send that player back to the bench and put an actual fullback in at DR who gets forward a bit more naturally.
I would perhaps suggest switching to the 2D match view or the very high Data Analyst camera and either setting highlights to extensive or even full match. Then every now and then when one of your players picks up the ball hit the spacebar to pause and think about what that player can do with the ball.
Is there someone to pass to? Is there an obvious hole? Is the player looking at three defenders and can only punt it long or lose the ball?
Do the same a few times when your opposition win the ball and then also when they've had the ball for a few seconds and are trying to work into your defence - do you see any obvious gaps?
Thanks Mr. Bismark! That's super helpful. I'll check out some of those resources and watch more of a couple of games. I bet if I watch more than just the highlights I'll see some things that need fixing.
Have you folks tried the Touch version yet? The slimmed down version seems like the best way to emulate the older versions of the games, possibly.
I haven't. I really like the depth of the full game now. The seasons take longer, but I don't find there's anything tedious that I can't turn off.
I did try the Touch version of OOTP a few years ago, however, and really enjoyed a bunch of seasons with that.
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - February 2020
Hammered
Uff, what a month. A cup match and a league match against the powerhouse that is The New Saints. A league match against 1st place Cardiff Met, and a league match against 3rd place Cefn Druids. We get crushed in all four matches by an aggregate of 10-0. These teams are significantly better than us.
Obviously we’re still in 6th place, but 5th place Barry hasn’t done much better so they are still within striking distance. The rest of the field is too far away from us at this point. I’m just hopeful that our locker room can stay positive despite the losses. Our happiness after reaching 6th place has faded in the face of all the losses and unhappy keepers. I’ve got to keep this thing together…
Season 2: MBi Llandudno - March 2020
From Hammered to Hammer!
What a difference a month can make. We start out with a 5-1 thrashing of 4th place Bala, follow it with a 3-1 victory over 5th place Barry, get crushed as usual against The New Saints, then rebound for a 3-1 victory over 2nd place Cardiff Met. The 9 points rocket us up to 4th place in the standings, tied with Bala on points but ahead on goal differential.
We’re firing on all cylinders at the moment. New central midfielder Tom Creamer has added stability to our core, and a rotation up front of George Harry, Liam Thomas, and Jamie Lucas (the striker we added during the transfer window) have been a joy to watch. Our team is starting to gel, and the locker room morale has gone way up with it. Even our main keeper is somewhat happy again.
Toward the end of the month, I get “untouchable” status from the board, who are thrilled with how we’re performing and how high we’ve climbed in the standings.
The ever present dark cloud, however, is our financial situation. We’re 85k pounds in the red, and it grows by 5-10k every month. There just isn’t enough income to sustain these expenditures. As much as I’m having fun building this team and would look forward to seeing how the players develop over the next couple of years, without money we’ll lose all this momentum. Unless we get a sudden infusion of cash, I think I’ll have to not renew my contract and look for work elsewhere. I’m hopeful that I can get a job back in England after this run.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here. We still have three matches left. We can’t get 3rd, but 4th place would be a fantastic spot to finish, as it would guarantee us a home game in the playoff for the Europa League qualifying match. (I think the 3rd through 7th place teams qualify. 3rd, 4th, 5th, and the winner of a 6th vs 7th match play a knockout tourney.) If I understand things correctly, getting that match could potentially solve all our financial problems with a huge influx of cash.
Time for the stretch to the finish!
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