[FM16] Being a Bala (Bala Town in Wales)

[Borman]

A couple weeks ago, my computer had a dump and I lost almost a whole month of game time in my Gibraltar because of when the game would autosave. I didn't feel like going back and playing through it all again, and the beta was out for 16, so I decided to go ahead and pick it up. I didn't want to get my save started in the beta just because I'm weird so now that the game is out of beta, here we go.

I picked Bala because I had a good save with them last year so I know the squad fairly well. Also, the Welsh Premier League is pretty bad, even though there are some awesome Welsh players out there. Bala finshed 2nd in the league last season qualifying for the Europa League (if I'd have realized that when I started the game I'd have played them) it was their first time in continental competition and... well, they lost 3-1 on aggregate with a 1-1 draw at home helping out the finances.

Tactic-wise, I'm going strikerless. Its something I've always enjoyed doing, and couldn't do in Gibraltar because I couldn't adjust pitch size due to every team using the same stadium. This is going to be our main tactic going forward.

We've looked good in preseason, with three 3-0 wins, and a 3-2 win. The guys are starting to gel, I'm just hoping guys like Kieran Smith and Meilir Williams grow into their roles. Smith has all the skills to be a great inside forward, he just needs to get comfortable.

I've only guy I've brought in so far is Declan Carroll, who looked a lot better when I was scouting him, but still should be an acceptable backup for the attacking mids.

Our best player and captain is Mark Jones. The CAM makes some brilliant passes and can score from range.

 

[goblue96]

Striker-less formation....you damn hipster.

 

[Bdub]

I am so old fashioned I run a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 depending on if I am playing at home or away.

 

[Borman]

Gotta start this update off with the bad news...

Our best anchor man in the defensive midfield blew out his knee in the 3rd or 4th game of the season. A couple weeks later, he notified me that he'd be retiring in January due to his injury. Really unfortunate, as we only had one other player that was comfortable at all playing that position at the start of the season, and none that are any better than serviceable. I'll be looking to sign a new player there in the winter transfer window.

As for the league, its going alright.

We're sitting in 4th right now at the halfway point of the first part of the season. 4th has a chance at Europa League depending on the outcome of the Welsh Cup. The results have been a little bit up and down, especially depending on injuries, but its an interesting look.

The highlight game was, in fact, the highlight. TNS is the only professional side in the Welsh Premier League, and we came out and parked the bus with a tactic I'll show you later. Keiran Smith scored early and we managed to block out everything they threw at us to get a big win. Llandudno was a tough loss in the 90th minute. Captain Mark Jones has been out lately with an injury, as well as Kenny Lunt. Both might be back for my next game.

As you can see, Smith has been the lead dog in front of the goal for me. He's cooled a little bit lately, but I have faith he'll find his groove again. Ian Sheridan has been... not as good as expected. Mike Hayes may end up overtaking him on the right side.

Also, here is my parked bus tactic.

It'll probably only be used against TNS, in Europe on the road, and maybe the odd road game in the league.

 

[Borman]

Striker-less formation....you damn hipster.

I am so old fashioned I run a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 depending on if I am playing at home or away.

I've actually stuggled to get a basic/common formation to work, especially a 442. It might be becuase I never played soccer and never really had any interest in it until I started playing FM, so I've kinda taught myself how it works and don't have an understanding of the basics. Strikerless is definitely a novelty, but I've definitely found it effective with the right guys. Really enjoying it so far.

 

[Bdub]

Key is to be able to create tactics that work best for the team you have. This game has taught me a ton about tactics and my understanding of the game. There are some amazing threads on the FM forums that taught me a lot as well.

 

[Borman]

We've reached January, and now the league splits into 2. The top 6 teams play each other twice, while the bottom 6 play each other twice. Here's where we stand.

We're third, with Aberystwyth being the surprise leader of the league. TNS are the only professional team in the league, but have a new coach in former Airbus UK coach Andy Preece. TNS's old coach got a job in the Vanarama Conference, but I don't remember what team. We were predicted 7th in the preseason, Aberystwyth was 8th and Llandudno was 9th, so this has been quite the crazy season. I feel like if we can keep getting results against TNS, we'll definitely have a chance at Europe, and maybe even the Championship if Aberystwyth cool down a little.

In the January transfer window (which is still open, but I don't think I'll be doing any more business), we've brought in a new Anchor Man:

Crowther comes to us from Connah's Quay. He's on a pretty big wage, but he is better than Valentine was before he was hurt, and only 23 years old, so he has a good future. And he can play further forward or back if necessary.

Stats wise, Kieran Smith is still our leading scorer, although he had a long quiet stretch. He's now out with a sprained ankle. He'll be out for another month. Declan Carroll has great games and then bad ones, that is something I hope we can steady. Mike Hayes has stepped in at right attacking mid and played decent, but its still a position I'd like to shore up if I can find the right player. Sheridan is going to be repacked as a shadow striker in our new tactic that I'm working to try to hold teams out defensively when we play on the road.

This is still a bit of a work in progress, and I may move the midfielder forward and have a 4 man line at the top.

 

[Borman]

Well, this is on hold for the time being, maybe forever. I cracked the screen on my laptop, so I saved this game to the cloud (so I thought at least) and figured I'd be able to load it on a different laptop. Just pulled out my old laptop, and I don't see it. Save might be gone. I was in 2nd place with one game left too.

 

[Bdub]

Damn that sucks. Start up new save with a different team.

 

[Borman]

I will start something up, but I probably won't post about it until I get my laptop back from the warranty. I can play it on my desktop, but I prefer not to. (Its set up as my sim racing rig, so its not easy to play) I should have the laptop back by Christmas though, so I have a little time to decide what I want to do.

 

[Borman]

So, I got my laptop back today, and contrary to what I was told my old laptop was repaired and my memory was not cleared so I have my Bala save back! So... end of season update coming tonight or tommorow. Only have one more game left to play.

 

[Borman]

Well, we have officially finished second, going to the Europa League. Port Talbot signed former Bala head man Colin Caton and he lead them to the Welsh Cup title which brings a Europa League spot to them, and TNS won the European Playoff to get them the 3rd Europa League spot. Aberystwith never slowed down and were phenomenal all season.

Kieran Smith remained our leading scorer, even though he continued to struggle through the end of the season. I still have faith in him to get things stablized, as he has all the tools to be very good in this position. Mark Jones was pretty easily our best player throughout the season, coming in tied for the most assists, even though he'd miss a few weeks at a time due to injury. Pearson's high pass completion percentage is a bit misleading, as he really only played when others we injured and is probably our 4th best center mid at this point, maybe the 5th. Jones also scored goal of the season in the Welsh Premier League for a 35ish yard ball put into the top corner. I'd record it but I can't seem to find the button to do it.

As you can see, Jones had 6 seperate injuries, although none lasted longer than three weeks. This list doesn't include Ryan Valentine, who was our top DM and our 2nd LB who retired after blowing out his knee in November.

Our sponsorship money more than doubles with back to back Europa League apperances, going up to 80k per year. For reference, we recieved 18.75k for finishing second in the league. This sponsor money and European money is going to be what we need to improve the squad and the facilities moving forward.

As for our youth intake, I mostly kept guys who looked like they had something for the future, with a couple guys who had a good personality to see if they could surprise me and contribute eventually.

IF Nick Walker is the best player of the bunch, in a position we really needed help. He also has the worst hair. As you can see at the bottom of his profile, he made 2 starts and came off the bench twice more for the first team near the end of the season, and scored a goal for us in his first start. He's going to be given a lot of time in the team next season, but his main problem is injury proneness. If we can keep him healthy most of the time he should develop very well.

IF Steve Cassidy is another player who fills a need well, although he doesn't have the current ability of Walker, has the potential to be just as good. As Cassidy is right footed, he'll train on the left side and may get a shot at the first team if Kieran Smith has a cold stretch as he did this season. Cassidy isn't as injury prone either, but lacks consistency and tends to break the rules.

CM Aaron Jardine is another player that may be looking at a small amount of first team playing time, although he lacks determination, is super laid back, very inconsistent, and seems to lack concentration. He has some talent, and some potential. We'll see if we can sell him on for... I don't know, a couple hundred bucks maybe.

CB John Maxwell is a 6'2 16 year old with 13 jumping reach, 11 marking... and a 2 for heading. If we can teach him to use his head, figuratively and literally, he'll be great. Otherwise... eh. He's worth a shot.

There are 2-3 more but they are worse than these guys and are here mostly as cover just in case we have injuries, and photobucket is being an asshole at the moment and I can't be arsed to bother with the rest of the guys. I'll update again next with some signings and the Europa League draw.

 

[Borman]

Europa League Time! And we have Botev Plovdiv of Bulgaria. I don't have that league open, so the amount of scouting I can do is pretty minimal. I do know they have a batch of Brazilians that seem like they are pretty good, so I doubt we'll get far. I arranged a friendly before the first leg was even drawn, since we had the team in pretty early. I was going to give everyone 45 minutes in that game, just to try to get some legs back under them, and it backfired as both Keiran Smith and Mark Jones went down with injuries. Jones has a Gashed Leg and will miss both games, but will be ready for the rest of the preseason, while Smith has a torn hamstring and will be gone for 3 months.

Here's the fixture schedule just so you can see the odds on the game, being 13-2 at home and 10-1 (for now) away. We're going to get stomped, but if I understand the rules page properly we'll take home over 100k, and that'll do wonders for the bank accounts, and hopefully I can get that money reinvested in the squad, hopefully in the form of improved training facilities.

As for transfers, the window is still open and there is a little more business I want to do, but as of now we have 2 new additions to the squad.

CB Alex Evans comes in from Goytre of the Crymru Alliance, which I think might be the 2nd tier of Welsh soccer. We didn't really need to strengthen our center backs, but with his ability and youth, I really couldn't pass. He'll start for us from step one.

GK John Danby is a signing I didn't expect to need to make, as Ashley Morris was an absolute freak of nature in goal for us last season. Unfortunately, as of right now we are 3 days from his contract expiring and he refuses to negotiate with us because he doesn't feel we are playing at the level he wishes to be at. If he changes his mind, I'd love to have him back, but I think Danby can do the job for us. He has the tools, and hopefully he can pull us through. His downside is that he is on the wrong side of 30, but he should have enough in the tank to allow us to develop a youngster for the future.

I'm going out into the home leg with this lineup. Ashley Morris is registered and will play if its allowed, as the first leg falls on the last day of his contract. I don't have him set to release either, so he might end up sticking around on a month-to-month contract. I think thats up to him though, and I doubt he wants to keep playing here. We'll probably park the bus in the away leg, whether we are winning or losing.

Who am I kidding? We'll be losing.

EDIT: I take back the bit about Morris playing. He left in the morning of the first leg. Darn.

 

[Borman]

As expected, we got destroyed. Surprisingly, the board expectations were to "not be outclassed". I'd like to know what it takes to get outclassed, as the confidence bar stayed at 50% for the competition. Not that I mind.

Also, good to see Steve Cassidy getting on the board. Yay for youth making an impact.

We're rich! Not only did we get 107k for showing up, we got another 214k for losing. Unfortunately, our chairman is a bit of a tightwad about it now, as he won't upgrade training facilities for relay the pitch yet. Maybe if I wait a month or so he'll change his mind.

We did bring in one more player as well...

LB Sean Smith is an improvement at left wingback, and is young enough to improve with a good amount of playing time. We were really lacking depth here, and now we have 2 guys here with the ability to start in most squads. I'm pretty happy with the situation here now.

 

[Borman]

We are at the halfway point of the first part of the season, and this league is turning into a 3 horse race. Well, realistically its a 2 horse race, but I don't see anyone really catching up with us for 3rd. We are on a 9 game undefeated streak at the moment, including 2 victories at home against Aberystwith and TNS. Barry is newly promoted to the Premier League, and are playing out of their minds. I really don't know how, as we went on the road and beat them 3-1. We also have 2 of the highest average ratings in the league with Mark Jones and Meilir Williams.

Meilir Williams is currently our leading scorer, which is a huge surprise. If Williams gets another 5 all year, I'm completely ok with that as long as we are getting the goals from others. Kieran Smith has been injured for a good portion of the season, so his stats aren't where you'd expect them to be. As long as he stays healthy he'll be fine.

Havordfordwest County hit us before we got our confidence back after the Europa League and took us out of the Word Cup in the first round. We were expected to get to the semi-final, and the board was very disappointed, but our recent unbeaten form in the league seems to have gotten that off their brain.

This was our final signing before the season. He was the goalkeeper for Havordfordwest in the Cup game that we were shut out in. He is 21, and is decent enough to play for us right now. He'll be getting a few games this year, and if he continues to be as good as he has been he'll be our top guy next season.

 

[Borman]

We have reached the 22 game point which splits the league in half. We went on a 15 game unbeaten run, but it still only keeps us in 3rd, only 3 points behind TNS and 2 behind Aberystwith. This is going to be an incredibly tough run in, but if we can find results against TNS and Aberystwith and can win the games we should against teams like Port Talbot we have a shot at being the champions. Mark Jones is the only Bala player remaining at the top of the league charts, with his 7.58 average rating being second. As expected, Meilir Williams is kinda falling off the pace. His recent performances, have been more in the 6.9 rating range, and has only added 1 more goal in the past 11.

Mark Jones has been our best player, easily as the stats show. Kieran Smith has come back and been distinctly average. Steve Cassidy has gotten more playing time recently because of it, although he's really not ready for this level. Mike Hayes may get a shot during the final stage just for the sake of it, as I'm really getting tired of this position bringing me nothing when everyone else is playing well.

Our defenders have been above average this year, Alex Evans has come into his own, playing really well lately. Will Bell hasn't been as good, but still solid, while Irving has moved from the right wing to the middle when needed.

The stats show everything when it comes to why I'm prefering Liam Matthews to John Danby these days. Matthews has admittedly played against mostly weaker sides, but I don't feel the difference between the top and the bottom of the league is that huge to explain the massive difference performance between the two. Matthews is the man of the future as well, so he will likely start a lot of the games coming down the stretch.

The January transfer window is open as well, although it doesn't seem likely that I'll bring anyone in. A lot of the guys I've scouted either aren't willing to come or are too young to be ready for the first team, and not worth giving the kind of contract necessary to sign them.

 

[Borman]

So... damn... close...

One point short. While second still isn't bad, its 3 years in a row that we've finished second. We really need to get over that hump before we become the Buffalo Bills. TNS get Champions League of course, with us getting Europa League due to finishing second. Rhyl get Europa League through the playoff, and the winners of the Welsh Cup get the final spot. That team is non-Premier League side Afan Lido. We actually lost to them in the semi-final, and it wasn't a horrible team we put out there. Mostly young guys that would come off the bench for us in League games, with a couple regulars thown in. This will make an interesting dynamic, especially if they are coming up with that money.

A couple players actually won awards for us as well, which I think can be a sign that we are edging closer to the top of the league.

Mark Jones won player of the year in Wales, and Meilir Williams won Young player of the year. Williams didn't match his production from earlier in the year, but he did add a goal in the final game of the season when the pressure was on so that made me feel better about him.

Liam Matthews started the vast majority of the games in the championship round, and continued his stellar showings. I also like that he holds more saves than he parries, although Danby had an even better ratio on that front, Danby also allowed twice as many goals per game. Danby will not be renewed.

Mark Connolly is lumped in with these guys, he played right back 5 or 6 times this year so I guess he counts. Alex Evans was a huge addition last offseason, as he had the best year of our center backs even though he was the only player on the team that consistently had trouble with yellow cards. Irving had a great year defensively on the right, while Sean Smith and David Thompson rotated pretty regularly on the left. Thompson proved to be the better defensive option, with Smith offers more going forward, which is exactly what I had in mind when I signed him. Crowther is our DM, but his Anchor role leads him to be more defensive based, so he fits into this list, and performed faboulously.

Keiran Smith came back from his injury to score 11 goals to lead the team, but he was wildly inconsistent. Jones and Williams tied for the most player of the match awards. I was very happy with the amount of time I was able to play Nick Walker and Steve Cassidy as well. They weren't super, but good enough for being 16 or 17 years old.

Our youth intake was pretty damn crappy this year, which lead to my Head of Youth getting canned in favor of a new one. I only kept 4 guys this year, and only two are worth showing.

CB Kieron Smith will get confused with the attacking player of a similar name. (Kieran vs Kieron) He was hyped as best in class, and I think he can be decent, but I'm not sold he can get into the main squad.

CM Gareth Taylor doesn't have the highest recommendation, but he has a couple things I like to see. Hard worker, high determination, professional mentality. Good decisions for such a young player as well. Probably the only guy of the intake that has more pros than cons on his scout report. May not be much, but is worth a chance if only for having a good mentality.

 

[Borman]

We drew FK Qababa of Azerbaijan in the first qualifying round, losing 3-0 away before...

We actually won a match. That'll help the coefficients some, I'm sure. It'll be good for our confidence too. Downside being that Mark Connelly got hurt, but he'll be back only a week or two after the Welsh season starts. Nick Walker got a lot playing time, as well as center back John Maxwell.

We brought in two new players...

Macauley Southam is a good young center attacking midfielder I'm looking to train up to be next in line after Mark Jones retires. Jones is turning 33 this year, and won't have long if we keep playing him up front where the physicality of the game is high. He'll move back to the center of the pitch more often, giving soon to be 39 year old Kenny Lunt some time off too. Jones will probably make a more permanent move back when Lunt retires.

Cameron Clarke is a young goalkeeper brought in on an amateur contract to back up Liam Matthews. Spending minimal money on my backup keeper is good, especially since Clarke is a good enough to do a job if Matthews does happen to get hurt. He'll play cup games, maybe the odd game in the league. Its a good deal in my opinion.

 

[Borman]

Halfway through the first part of the season, its a 3 horse race once again...

TNS beat us at home, I think becuase I picked the wrong tactic. We started out crazy hot, but have struggled a bit in recent weeks. Still usually picking up victory, but its not as comfortable as before. We just aren't taking our chances like we were early in the season. We've allowed the fewest goals in the league thus far, and that has really been our calling card the past few seasons. It'd be nicer to score a little more, but really we are in the top half of goals scored too so I really can't complain.

Matthews has started every league game. Clarke played the cup game and was alright considering he was surrounded by mostly second team guys. Matthews has just been fantastic though. Clarke may get a start against Ton Pentre or somone in the second half of the season just to see how he does, Pentre has been newly promoted and isn't a huge risk for starting the backup keeper as it shouldn't backfire. It shouldn't...

I don't think I've really gotten into how good John Irving is on here before, but he's good. He completes quite a few passes to contribute to his high average ratings, but is also a natural center back and tackles as such. He makes more tackles than Will Bell, who is one of our top 2 center backs. Bell is the leading interceptor though, he's much better cutting out the low passes, while Evans is more aerial. Evans has made more mistakes this year, which is starting to worry me a little.

Mark Jones and Mark Connolly are the leading scorers thus far. Kieran Smith was injured in the preseason and just came back recently. I'm starting to worry about his passing, as he's really not completed a good percentage. Nick Walker started on the left most of the time Smith was injured, and if he can get more shots on target I think he's going to be very good. Still not quite there, but he's only 18 so he's got some time yet. Southam scored 2 in the first game of the year, but has been cold since then.

 

[Borman]

I'm pretty disappointed with our performance leading into the league split. We are still in second, so I guess I shouldn't complain a whole lot, but its still frustrating to see us so far behind TNS already. Its going to be insanely difficult to catch up with them. I guess second would still be acceptable.

Matthews has been as good as you can expect for how the team has played in front of them. He's only made 75% of his saves, which is a bit of disappointment as well. Clarke started cup games, and... eh. I'm getting at least what I paid for out of him.

Mark Connolly doesn't really count, he's only played right back once this season. Defensively... I don't know what to say. Alex Evans has generally been his usual, great tackling self. He's made a lot of interceptions for us too. But he's also made some bad mistakes in some bad spots, making 4 mistakes that have lead directly to goals. That's really not helped, considering our offense has been terrible. Bell has been decent too. The thing that jumped out from the stats at my first look was Gethin Quinn. He has a very small sample size, but that sampling has been pretty good. His only problem is his appoximately 50% pass completion. He is a center back, so I don't expect a very high number, but 50% isn't going to keep you in the lineup long. If he can get that cleaned up, he'll be solid.

Our attack has been really cold lately, but for a while it was fun to watch. Mark Connolly has scored more for us, which was something I was expecting from him before but it never quite happened. Mark Jones has been his usual great self as well. Kieran Smith may be finding his way out of a job, as Nick Walker has been equal, if not better, than him this season. Steve Cassidy isn't far away from being ready either. Macauley Southam scored his 2 goals early, but was then injured for a stretch and just hasn't gotten rolling since he came back. Hopefully he turns around, as he's a pretty big part of this teams future and I really want to trust him.

 

[Borman]

So, we managed to get second place. TNS had the league wrapped up with almost 2 months to go. They get Champions League for the 2nd year in a row, while we come in 2nd for the 4th year in a row. Unless we manage to get a huge signing in the offseason, or some other small miracle, I think we are going to have to turn professional before we can really overtake the already professional TNS squad. We get Europa League again, as do Aberystwith and Port Talbot. As far as I can tell, Afan Lido didn't really get anywhere with their Europa League money they made last year, unless they make the jump to the premier league next season I'm really going to be sad they took money away from other clubs in Wales.

Liam Matthews played in goal in all the games we really cared about. He was solid, and was actually named to the WPL team of the year. That said, he only stopped 76% of the shots he faced in the league, which is actually a drop from last season. Hopefully he can continue to improve, as he was tipped by our coaching staff as one of the guys who impressed in training the most this season.

While we were very solid defensively this season, there looks like there will be a shakeup here in the offseason. Our top man in the middle Alex Evans, apparently doesn't like me and won't even meet for contract negotiations, even though there is nothing of note in his profile that would explain why. That sucks, as Evans is key to our back line, but hopefully I can find someone to fill the role. Anthony Stephens is also not going to be renewed, although this time its our choice. He just doesn't tackle well enough for us, and we want to get Gethin Quinn and John Maxwell more involved with the first team. As you can see, Quinn has been a tackling machine in his few games on the main roster, and while his passing leaves quite a bit to be desired, his pass completion percentage is closer to Evans and Bells than I had thought. Quinn may well end up as our 3rd option CB next season.

As for our wingbacks, numbers say it all. Sean Smith took more playing time from David Thompson this year, as he develops into a more well rounded player. Irving on the right is a stalwart and may end up back in the middle depending on what kinds of players my scouts can find me.

Mark Jones continues to be the rock of this team. 13 goals is the most from any one player since I took over, and quite frankly, he's the main creator of other players goals as well. Nick Walker has edged Kieran Smith in nearly equal playing time this season, and while I was high on Smith's potential early in the save, he just hasn't pulled through, and will not be back next season. Walker and Steve Cassidy will mostly play there, although Mike Hayes will still get the occasional appearance, maybe more if Cassidy ends up on loan, which is something I'm hoping to be able to do. Southam was a disappointment for the most part, but the fans still like the signing, and he'll probably get more playing time next year. Jones is going to step into a player/under 19's coach role, and as one of the legends of the club, I'd like to keep him on in some capacity for as long as possible.

As for the youth intake... it was interesting.

RAM Nathan Davies has some of the best potential we've had recently. He's more of a pure winger, but thats ok as we've played Mark Connolly in that role of late and its gone quite well. Downsides are, of course, he is unambitious, inconsistent, and is fairly susceptible to injury. Its rare when our youngsters don't have that, unfortunately.

AM Ryan Wellman ranks right there with Davies as far as talent. Able to play across the attacking midfield, he have some options for Wellman. Right now, I'm thinking that playing him as in inside forward on the left will be where he ends up, but we will see. He is also unambitious, but is also a rare sight in that he is fairly consistent, and also isn't particularly injury prone. We'll spend more time trying to tutor the unambitiousness out of him than Davies because of that.

CM Jamie Morris gets his foot in the door due to his 10 passing and 12 vision at age 16. He is also on inconsistency train, but has a decent enough personality to try to make something of.

CB Kevin Llewellen is 6'5 176 lbs at 16. Almost all I needed to see. He needs to improve his marking before he'll even come near the first team, but with a little work he may get his shot. It helps that we've been able to promote some of the previous options at center back into the main squad to make room for him.

CAM Phillip Johnson is the start of a list of guys we made a bit of stretch to sign. Johnson is here because he has 12 finishing, which might be the highest on the roster already, as well as the fact that he is fairly ambitious. His mentals aren't there, and neither is the ability to pass like we need him to, but if we can develop him into a guy off the bench that can grab a late goal once in a while it'd be worth the investment.

LB Josh Ellis and GK Tom Reynolds are guys we brought in because of great personalities, and a couple decent attributes. Ellis' determination is far superior to anyone else in Bala Town, and he is the first true fullback I've kept in our intakes, so he'll get every chance to use it. Reynolds is let down by his one on ones, but is a fairly ambitious youngster and we hope he can develop well.

 

[Borman]

I didn't plan to show the Europa League draw until I had played and had it wrapped up, but I feel like I might actually have a chance to win this round that I'm actually going to do this.

We've drawn Havnar Boltfelag of the Faroe Islands. They are a semi-professional team, just like ours, and the Faroe Islands are just... they don't have a good league. Neither does Wales, but I think we have a shot.

Alex Evans did end up leaving the club, as did Anthony Stephens. I signed a 19 year old who was trained at Newport Co in League 2, hoping he'd be a guy for the future, even though we couldn't scout him as he was out of our scouting range. July 1st, he came into the squad and we saw what we got.

Jake Young was not quite what I had hoped for when I gave him 13.75k per year. That said, I'm not going to complain. He looks like he'd be a decent option at center back, and he's also a quite solid defensive mid, which is a position that we don't have a ton of options. He'll probably end up playing there more this season.

That left us still with a big hole at center back though. I quickly looked through who I could bring in. I didn't see any center backs that would match Evans, but I saw that Aberystwith let go of this guy...
David Pipe is a 34 year old right back who spent most of his younger days in League 2. He spent the past 2 seasons in Aberystwith being productive, and looks to have a good year this year. I don't plan on keeping him around after this season, as I'd like to find a younger option, but he'll do for now, as John Irving will move back inside to play center back as he did the first season I managed the club. He's very good there and should keep the middle solid.

I'm going to just edit this post with results so that I don't spam the hell out of the thread.

First leg we went away to the Islands and came out with a 1-1 draw. Pretty disappointed we couldn't get the victory as we really dominated the match in my opinion. That said, we are headed home for the next leg, and I'd be really upset if we couldn't get the W there. Kenny Lunt gets to stay in the squad for these, as he loves to play in the important matches, and is one of the few players in the squad that does.

We're through! They aren't kidding when they say that Kenny Lunt likes big games, as he scored one goal all last season, and he's scored two in the Europa League at age 38.


In the second round, we have FC Midtjylland of Denmark, so we'll get killed. I'll show how that went and maybe some other stuff in a seperate preseason thing.

 

[Borman]

So Midtjylland defeated us 9-1 on aggregate. Nothing surprising here. We made a lot of money in Europe this year though, and now our finances look like this...

Yup, we've gotten a million dollars into the club. With this money saved up, I'm hoping to convince the board to let us turn professional. Unfortunately, I had just asked at the end of last season, so it may be a couple more months before I can make that request again. If they don't allow it, I'm going to dump the money into the training and youth facilities, as both have been neglected since my first season as I've been hoping to save up enough to turn pro and attract some foreign players.

The media still predicts us to finish 6th. This may be because of the departure of Alex Evans, or maybe because I keep our wages so low in efforts to save as much as I can. Either way, I expect us to finish 2nd again. I don't think we can catch TNS, but we should be able to handle everyone else.

We also made one more signing. Not a big one, but Ilias Doumas should provide a little extra backup for us at center back should anyone get injured. He is also on an amateur contract, so worst case scenario, we get nothing, which is exactly what we paid for.

 

[goblue96]

Semi-pro battling against pro never ends well for semi-pro.

 

[NML]

In the past, $1m was the amount you needed to turn pro. Fingers crossed it works out

 

[Borman]

I got the ability to ask to go Professional again on November 1st...

They denied it again. We had $1,020,000ish in the bank at the time, too. Thats frustrating, because every time I've asked to do anything other than adding a coach once, its been turned down. Our pitch condition has been at 0% for over a year, and I've asked to have it relayed twice. No go. This board sucks. I want a new one.

This season has been pretty crazy, as we started out with 2 losses then had 5 straight draws before winning 3 of our last 4 and getting a draw in the other game to finally move up into the top half. Rhyl were in first for a stretch, but they seem to be slowing down. As long as we can keep our good run going, we still have a chance at our usual 2nd place position.

Liam Matthews plays a lot. He hasn't been as good this year as he has in years past, only stopping 71% of the shots he faces. Realistically, I want 80, and he has been 75% or better since he signed. Hopefully he can get it turned around. Tom Reynolds has gotten a cup game and will likely get one more. He seems like he's coming around a bit, but his one on ones are still a big weak point.

Our defenders got off to a slow start as well, as Irving got used to playing center back again and Pipe got settled in. Now that everyone is comfortable, we are really playing pretty well. Crowther has been dropped back into the center back spot sometimes, allowing us to bring in Jake Young at DM. Ilias Doumas was released shortly after this was captured, as he was frustrated at a lack of playing time. On an amateur contract. Listed as a backup. Whatever.

Southam got off to a slow start, and I was starting to think about giving up on him, but he got on a hot streak while Jones was injured for a couple weeks. Now that he is back, Jones is starting at CM with Southam as the CAM, and its going alright. Southam might be cooling off a bit, but its nice to see him finally getting back on the board again. Connolly hasn't been as good lately as he was last season, and I'm starting to wonder if he needs a game or two out of the squad. Walker has mostly played on the left, and has been merely alright. Kieran Smith did get to start a few games when Walker was injured and Cassidy was stinking up the joint and got a couple goals. He stayed in the squad until he cooled off, but it didn't take long. He makes the bench now once in a while, but doesn't find the pitch often. Davies and Wellman got their playing time in Cup games, and might get another game or two yet as well.

 

[NML]

Man, that sucks about the board. Especially the pitch conditions - I'm surprised more of ur team isn't injured.