Football Manager 2023

[Goku de la Boca]

Lost the first game vs @Dan

Second game incoming.

[Goku de la Boca]

Second game was a bloodbath. Can you believe I made CL semi's with these  @Dan

[Goku de la Boca]

Got my revenge on @Dan  

[Dan+]

On 18/02/2023 at 20:53, Dan said:

2026 season

Another weak start albeit not quite as bad as last years, where it's obvious the ambition is about staying up again. We develop a strange knack for winning away at Tromso and Brann - both were won at last season in surprise circumstances and both happen again. We start to look in trouble but we have another very good second half of the season and secure a very unexpected 8th placed finish. Lots of the youngsters signed from the lower leagues are incorporated into my reserve side with a couple of them stepping in for first team action. We can't rely on our youth team at all currently. We don't spend a penny on transfers this year.

The sad thing is we aren't really generating any incoming money either. Lykke from Nordsjaelland is another coup from us though, a really good goalkeeper who I'm amazed they've let us have for nothing. Our hands are a bit tied until we start taking some proper money for our players though. We generate virtually nothing in revenue.

2027 season

This was the season where I thought rather than simply scraping by, we were actually beginning to recruit some better players and this was mainly fuelled by our first serious sale of significance, as Glauber Serrao left for Hertha Berlin for £3.5mil - puts into perspective us not all that long ago being happy to raise £75k for Peder Brekke.

The real substantial moves coming in were Oliver Asthorsson, a young Icelandic winger to replace Serrao, Vilmar Velasco on a free (young CB prospect) but a signing that in time would prove so crucial was the biggest one on there, our club record broken to bring in rivals' Tromso's striker Elias Aarflot. It felt a bit of a gamble, but time will have this down as a masterstroke, and a huge error from Tromso. But more to come.

The departure of Andreas Stuen for £425k was another sign of the success of my new policy of gutting the 3rd/4th tiers of Norway for their talent. Stuen was a steady prospect but we got good money on that deal all considered. Lohoues was another signing with a good story - I searched for a player I can't even remember the name of, accidentally clicked on 'Claude Lohoues' and discovered what was actually a pretty bright Ivorian prospect being chased by a couple of bigger clubs, we landed him for a bargain price.

As usual we started pretty badly, and as usual we were dumped out of the cup fairly early, winning just 3 of our opening 11 games and going on an absolutely barren run in front of goal, with not only 0 scored in four games, but an accumulative xG for totaling less than one goal. We needed a rethink.

It all turned somewhat on our trip to Aalesund where a more attacking, direct 4-4-2 came in and we won 1-3. This prompted a run of 7 straight victories and the form of Elias Aarflot was frankly incredible. In those 7 games alone he scored 11 times, 9 games in a row, as we looked to emerge as shock title contenders. It all came crashing down in a shock 0-3 defeat to Stabaek and we never quite recovered, without fully tailing off either though and in a display of real, real savagery, we beat Tromso away in the penultimate weekend in a game that would cost them their first ever league title. Sadly though, no European qualification for us but Aarflot did take the golden boot with 23 goals in 27 games. A roaring success.

[Dan+]

15 minutes ago, Dan said:

2027 season

This was the season where I thought rather than simply scraping by, we were actually beginning to recruit some better players and this was mainly fuelled by our first serious sale of significance, as Glauber Serrao left for Hertha Berlin for £3.5mil - puts into perspective us not all that long ago being happy to raise £75k for Peder Brekke.

The real substantial moves coming in were Oliver Asthorsson, a young Icelandic winger to replace Serrao, Vilmar Velasco on a free (young CB prospect) but a signing that in time would prove so crucial was the biggest one on there, our club record broken to bring in rivals' Tromso's striker Elias Aarflot. It felt a bit of a gamble, but time will have this down as a masterstroke, and a huge error from Tromso. But more to come.

The departure of Andreas Stuen for £425k was another sign of the success of my new policy of gutting the 3rd/4th tiers of Norway for their talent. Stuen was a steady prospect but we got good money on that deal all considered. Lohoues was another signing with a good story - I searched for a player I can't even remember the name of, accidentally clicked on 'Claude Lohoues' and discovered what was actually a pretty bright Ivorian prospect being chased by a couple of bigger clubs, we landed him for a bargain price.

As usual we started pretty badly, and as usual we were dumped out of the cup fairly early, winning just 3 of our opening 11 games and going on an absolutely barren run in front of goal, with not only 0 scored in four games, but an accumulative xG for totaling less than one goal. We needed a rethink.

It all turned somewhat on our trip to Aalesund where a more attacking, direct 4-4-2 came in and we won 1-3. This prompted a run of 7 straight victories and the form of Elias Aarflot was frankly incredible. In those 7 games alone he scored 11 times, 9 games in a row, as we looked to emerge as shock title contenders. It all came crashing down in a shock 0-3 defeat to Stabaek and we never quite recovered, without fully tailing off either though and in a display of real, real savagery, we beat Tromso away in the penultimate weekend in a game that would cost them their first ever league title. Sadly though, no European qualification for us but Aarflot did take the golden boot with 23 goals in 27 games. A roaring success.

2028 season

Suppose now we've probably hit a point where we need to be gunning to qualify for Europe. We have finished higher than our previous season in every season bar none since this save started, so why not?

Seemed to be a bit less of interest in the lower leagues this year but we did add a few more Norwegians who I expected to start in the form of Baccay, Blikstad and Silseth. Gaston Gutierrez was the pick of the signings though, a creative mezzala from Chile. Experienced Ruben Gabrielsen joined midseason on a free, as well as the return of Peder Brekke as a squad option. Velasco was this seasons sale of significance - a loss for sure as he'd been largely excellent for us, breaking into and keeping his place in the team far quicker than I envisaged before Porto came knocking, but we did at least keep him here for the season. Gerard Jean Baptiste was a bit of a test - decent report coming from the lower leagues of USA but he joins us that young that we might actually be able to have him become a home grown player in three years time, which is a big help.

We don't start as badly this year, once again we're away from home on the opening day and produce a dramatic game at title favourites Rosenborg, going ahead, 2-1 down in the 90th minute with 10 men, but miraculously getting a 2-2 draw.

The first real blow is being dumped out of the cup in the 1st round by 3rd tier Gjellerasen. An absolutely dismal result and a real blow given we're at a point where I think we can challenge to go on a run in the cup, but not this year.

We go on another fantastic run of 6 wins in a row, once again fuelled by the brilliance of Elias Aarflot who scores 12 goals in 7 games, but Molde end our run. We bizarrely then go on a run of 9 unbeaten, but draw 7 of those 9 games. We finish quite strongly though and end up finishing 4th, which means Alta will be playing in Europe for the first time in our history.

Aarflot hits 21 goals this year, fewer than last season, but he bags the golden boot for a second year running. He's been a truly inspired signing and the bigger clubs are starting to circle. We are the leagues entertainers, outscoring everybody else quite considerably and only losing 4 times all season. Good times are here.

[Dan+]

7 hours ago, Dan said:

2028 season

Suppose now we've probably hit a point where we need to be gunning to qualify for Europe. We have finished higher than our previous season in every season bar none since this save started, so why not?

Seemed to be a bit less of interest in the lower leagues this year but we did add a few more Norwegians who I expected to start in the form of Baccay, Blikstad and Silseth. Gaston Gutierrez was the pick of the signings though, a creative mezzala from Chile. Experienced Ruben Gabrielsen joined midseason on a free, as well as the return of Peder Brekke as a squad option. Velasco was this seasons sale of significance - a loss for sure as he'd been largely excellent for us, breaking into and keeping his place in the team far quicker than I envisaged before Porto came knocking, but we did at least keep him here for the season. Gerard Jean Baptiste was a bit of a test - decent report coming from the lower leagues of USA but he joins us that young that we might actually be able to have him become a home grown player in three years time, which is a big help.

We don't start as badly this year, once again we're away from home on the opening day and produce a dramatic game at title favourites Rosenborg, going ahead, 2-1 down in the 90th minute with 10 men, but miraculously getting a 2-2 draw.

The first real blow is being dumped out of the cup in the 1st round by 3rd tier Gjellerasen. An absolutely dismal result and a real blow given we're at a point where I think we can challenge to go on a run in the cup, but not this year.

We go on another fantastic run of 6 wins in a row, once again fuelled by the brilliance of Elias Aarflot who scores 12 goals in 7 games, but Molde end our run. We bizarrely then go on a run of 9 unbeaten, but draw 7 of those 9 games. We finish quite strongly though and end up finishing 4th, which means Alta will be playing in Europe for the first time in our history.

Aarflot hits 21 goals this year, fewer than last season, but he bags the golden boot for a second year running. He's been a truly inspired signing and the bigger clubs are starting to circle. We are the leagues entertainers, outscoring everybody else quite considerably and only losing 4 times all season. Good times are here.

2029 season

Don't forget that our season runs March/April to October/November, so it's out of kilter with the continental competitions and our European campaign will start quite late into the season.

We're starting to turn a bit of money over now, but we do remain with the fundamental issue in that we generate virtually nothing via ticket sales or sponsorship and it's coming almost entirely from transfers, which is OK, but we need a bit more to progress against more illustrious opponents in Norway, let alone Europe. It's criminal that we're about to enter our fifth year of playing 5 hours from home. Top tier football still hasn't been to Alta.

We also now have a situation where players are starting to demand improvements to our facilities as they're terrible - and I totally agree with them, but the board simply don't have the money to fund it. Our only option is a European run, but then we're going to have to do this before we lose all of our key players and in Aarflot, he's massive because he's not only a prolific goalscorer, but he's Norwegian too. Replacing him becomes doubly hard. It would almost be more convenient if he was foreign.

Savkovic came in to replace Velasco. Duran was a major coup on a free from Venezuela. The majority of our signings were future prospects - although we were forced into breaking our transfer record to sign Giuliano Mino, a goalkeeper, more on that to come.

We come through another challenging opening few games unscathed but once again we're dumped out of the cup in embarrassing fashion, this time by recently relegated Sandnes Ulf.

We don't lose a game until our 14th game of the season though, although we then lose the two after it so it becomes less impressive. Hardly the ideal preparation for our opening European game away to Dinamo Batumi of Georgia - a game we astounding end up winning 1-7. We have three rounds of qualifiers to get through just to get to the Conference League groups.

The next round is against Czech Republic's Banik Ostrava. We go through in dramatic circumstances, beating them 2-0 at home, losing 3-1 away but our 1 was in the 90th minute, and amazingly getting a 120th minute winner in extra time. We are handed a tie with Vitoria Guimaraes which I imagine is likely to be the end of the road - especially after my board sell goalkeeper William Lykke to Rayo Vallecano with no time to get a replacement registered.

We put in a very good display in Portugal but lose 1-0. The home leg, we were exceptional, genuinely beyond what I thought we were capable of, but we lose it on penalties after winning 3-2 - disappointingly my backup keeper ends up missing a penalty, saving one from their striker, and experienced striker Helmersen misses the crucial one. It's gutting.

We have a mixed finish, lots of goals at both ends, the new keeper, Mino, has an abject opening 10 games and I'm considering cashing in already. We finish 4th again, so the first time ever we don't improve on last years position, but we get another crack at Europe.

Aarflot takes the golden boot for the third year running. He has been a miraculous signing.

[Dan+]

5 hours ago, Dan said:

2029 season

Don't forget that our season runs March/April to October/November, so it's out of kilter with the continental competitions and our European campaign will start quite late into the season.

We're starting to turn a bit of money over now, but we do remain with the fundamental issue in that we generate virtually nothing via ticket sales or sponsorship and it's coming almost entirely from transfers, which is OK, but we need a bit more to progress against more illustrious opponents in Norway, let alone Europe. It's criminal that we're about to enter our fifth year of playing 5 hours from home. Top tier football still hasn't been to Alta.

We also now have a situation where players are starting to demand improvements to our facilities as they're terrible - and I totally agree with them, but the board simply don't have the money to fund it. Our only option is a European run, but then we're going to have to do this before we lose all of our key players and in Aarflot, he's massive because he's not only a prolific goalscorer, but he's Norwegian too. Replacing him becomes doubly hard. It would almost be more convenient if he was foreign.

Savkovic came in to replace Velasco. Duran was a major coup on a free from Venezuela. The majority of our signings were future prospects - although we were forced into breaking our transfer record to sign Giuliano Mino, a goalkeeper, more on that to come.

We come through another challenging opening few games unscathed but once again we're dumped out of the cup in embarrassing fashion, this time by recently relegated Sandnes Ulf.

We don't lose a game until our 14th game of the season though, although we then lose the two after it so it becomes less impressive. Hardly the ideal preparation for our opening European game away to Dinamo Batumi of Georgia - a game we astounding end up winning 1-7. We have three rounds of qualifiers to get through just to get to the Conference League groups.

The next round is against Czech Republic's Banik Ostrava. We go through in dramatic circumstances, beating them 2-0 at home, losing 3-1 away but our 1 was in the 90th minute, and amazingly getting a 120th minute winner in extra time. We are handed a tie with Vitoria Guimaraes which I imagine is likely to be the end of the road - especially after my board sell goalkeeper William Lykke to Rayo Vallecano with no time to get a replacement registered.

We put in a very good display in Portugal but lose 1-0. The home leg, we were exceptional, genuinely beyond what I thought we were capable of, but we lose it on penalties after winning 3-2 - disappointingly my backup keeper ends up missing a penalty, saving one from their striker, and experienced striker Helmersen misses the crucial one. It's gutting.

We have a mixed finish, lots of goals at both ends, the new keeper, Mino, has an abject opening 10 games and I'm considering cashing in already. We finish 4th again, so the first time ever we don't improve on last years position, but we get another crack at Europe.

Aarflot takes the golden boot for the fourth year running. He has been a miraculous signing.

2030 season

The Eliteserien arrives and oh, what do you know, Alta have an away game, for the 6th year out of 6 at this level we start with an away game and for the 6th year out of 6, we don't win, we're beaten at Lillestrom who are for me the best team in the league. They've essentially replaced Bodo and have a really decent side now. Bodo have really squandered everything which is incredible given the financial dominance they had. Rosenborg, Molde and Brann are the other teams of interest.

We bounce back by thumping Tromso and it turns into a pretty bright start, but we're infuriatingly bad at holding onto leads and are pegged back from 2 down on multiple occasions.

We broke our transfer record in the summer and for the first time ever paid £1mil - bringing in Serbian centre half Filip Mecikukic. A gamble but he was seriously talented and I thought had a higher ceiling than any player I've ever had here. Serrao has largely flopped in Germany.

We're going pretty strong bar an astounding collapse at home to Brann where we lose 2-5 from a goal up - they have our number at this place.

In the conference league, we are paired this time with Croatian side Osijek in the first of our three qualifying rounds. We lead 4-1 at half time in the home leg, Aarflot running riot as per, yet inexplicably throw the game away despite Osijek going down to 10 men. It's yet another game where a goalkeeping sale has shafted us though - with Mino, much improved this season, wanting a move back to Argentina and I can't really be bothered sticking with him. We really paid the price as well, and we're beaten 2-0 in Croatia to send us packing to a disastrous 6-4 loss on aggregate. I feel it's my first real error in judgement but I do also believe we were remarkably unlucky, albeit complacent.

The sale of Gaston Gutierrez to Montpellier really does make me wonder where I'm going, and if we've hit a bit of a brick wall. We're having a negative net spend every season yet I really am starting to feel that we're pissing in the wind. Players don't want to stick around here because the facilities are crap and the board never have the money to improve them. Going out to Osijek was a real hammer blow in this regard - the only hope we had was if we got to the group stages but it wasn't to be.

So we're left with the remainder of the 2030 season to play. Out of the cup but going fairly strong in the league again, and nobody is really taking charge of it.

Was it the resilient nature of the squad? We bounced back from the Osijek blow sensationally and hit some amazing form, new goalkeeper Visar Qorri looking a bargain at £250k and the gap of Gutierrez being plugged by the backup players. I had rethought my tactics somewhat and we stopped being so open against everybody, and it has worked.

It's becoming apparent during this run that the league title is there for the taking.

We do it.

It went down to the final day but our draw at Viking, as well as Molde's loss at Rosenborg meant we were champions of Norway. From the third tier to champions in nine years. I'll take that all day. Aarflot takes the golden boot yet again and all of a sudden, we have a passage into Champions League football. This is what could be totally transformative for us. We have climbed this mountain, but I want to see us really mix it with the big boys.

[Dan+]

36 minutes ago, Dan said:

2030 season

The Eliteserien arrives and oh, what do you know, Alta have an away game, for the 6th year out of 6 at this level we start with an away game and for the 6th year out of 6, we don't win, we're beaten at Lillestrom who are for me the best team in the league. They've essentially replaced Bodo and have a really decent side now. Bodo have really squandered everything which is incredible given the financial dominance they had. Rosenborg, Molde and Brann are the other teams of interest.

We bounce back by thumping Tromso and it turns into a pretty bright start, but we're infuriatingly bad at holding onto leads and are pegged back from 2 down on multiple occasions.

We broke our transfer record in the summer and for the first time ever paid £1mil - bringing in Serbian centre half Filip Mecikukic. A gamble but he was seriously talented and I thought had a higher ceiling than any player I've ever had here. Serrao has largely flopped in Germany.

We're going pretty strong bar an astounding collapse at home to Brann where we lose 2-5 from a goal up - they have our number at this place.

In the conference league, we are paired this time with Croatian side Osijek in the first of our three qualifying rounds. We lead 4-1 at half time in the home leg, Aarflot running riot as per, yet inexplicably throw the game away despite Osijek going down to 10 men. It's yet another game where a goalkeeping sale has shafted us though - with Mino, much improved this season, wanting a move back to Argentina and I can't really be bothered sticking with him. We really paid the price as well, and we're beaten 2-0 in Croatia to send us packing to a disastrous 6-4 loss on aggregate. I feel it's my first real error in judgement but I do also believe we were remarkably unlucky, albeit complacent.

The sale of Gaston Gutierrez to Montpellier really does make me wonder where I'm going, and if we've hit a bit of a brick wall. We're having a negative net spend every season yet I really am starting to feel that we're pissing in the wind. Players don't want to stick around here because the facilities are crap and the board never have the money to improve them. Going out to Osijek was a real hammer blow in this regard - the only hope we had was if we got to the group stages but it wasn't to be.

So we're left with the remainder of the 2030 season to play. Out of the cup but going fairly strong in the league again, and nobody is really taking charge of it.

Was it the resilient nature of the squad? We bounced back from the Osijek blow sensationally and hit some amazing form, new goalkeeper Visar Qorri looking a bargain at £250k and the gap of Gutierrez being plugged by the backup players. I had rethought my tactics somewhat and we stopped being so open against everybody, and it has worked.

It's becoming apparent during this run that the league title is there for the taking.

We do it.

It went down to the final day but our draw at Viking, as well as Molde's loss at Rosenborg meant we were champions of Norway. From the third tier to champions in nine years. I'll take that all day. Aarflot takes the golden boot yet again and all of a sudden, we have a passage into Champions League football. This is what could be totally transformative for us. We have climbed this mountain, but I want to see us really mix it with the big boys.

2031 season

This is the last one for now as I'm actually in 2032 so no more clogging up (though I hope you've enjoyed the read!). We have a bit more wiggle room in the transfer market but we don't enter the Champions League qualifiers until August, so the real money will take a while to come in.

We don't actually do all that much business in the off season, instead continuing to sign younger prospects to loan out with a view to either selling, or gaining them home grown status - so specifically loaning them to Norway.

We're finally given a home fixture on the opening day, is that our reward for winning the league? Though it's against Molde so it's not great, and we don't win it either.

We actually don't lose a game until a long, long way into this season. Not until August in the reverse fixture which is also against Molde, we go down 4-1 in a pathetic display. We're pushing to retain the league and we're still in the cup too.

We then make a gamechanging sale as Mecikukic has half of Europe after him, we eventually agree a club record £7mil sale with potentially substantial add ons relating to a future sale to Liverpool.

The Cuba/Stefansson sales top things up very nicely, another £5mil or so received for two players who weren't key, and only cost us a combined tenth of that. We're finally in a good place financially, and finally, we get the improvements to the facilities I asked for - meaning that around eight players and now happy to stick with the club. I was happy to dish out this promise to players because I think if we can't meet it it's totally fair they are sold to somebody better, and we've become great at making profit on players.

The massive news however is Alta are going home. In 2033 provisionally, we will return to our hometown. Tromso is no more. A new stadium is on the way.

We draw Djurgarden in the Champions League which is a funny tie. All the hopes and dreams and we run into another bloody Scandinavian side. I shalln't complain though as it's a fairly kind draw, and they're having a pretty bad season. We progress 3-2 on aggregate and we're into the league phase! Which has replaced the group stage. There are now 36 teams, all in one table, with each playing 8 fixtures of varing difficulty - the top 24 go through, the top 8 getting a bye to the last 16.

We're given this fixture list:
Anderlecht (h)
Dortmund (a)
Arsenal (h)
Rennes (a)
Basel (a)
Bayer Leverkusen (h)
Real Madrid (a)
Juventus (h)

Some incredible ties, Alta are going to the Bernabeu!!! I look at them and think we're going to get flogged but there are some games we can take points in, and each point in this phase is worth £800k, on top of the £13mil TV money we receive. Alta are flush all of a sudden. We become the first Norwegian side at this level in four years - and nobody since Bodo in 2024 have won at this level.

The league isn't so interesting this year, we finish 4th - the real takeaway is we develop a bizarre knack for coming back from 2 goals down, managing it four times in the second half of the season, and Aarflot takes the golden boot yet again, albeit with only 18 goals.

So the Champions League...

I don't consider a top 24 place realistic at all. We've defied the odds to get here, but this is something else altogether, but I do wonder if we can take points off Anderlecht and Basel.

Sadly my hopes are dashed on the opening day when Mecikukic, now on loan from Liverpool elbows an Anderlecht player in the face and our ten men eventually succumb to a 0-3 loss. A real shame. Followed by a 5-0 spanking at Dortmund.

I have a rethink and bring out my old tried, tested and much loathed 4-1-4-1 system which is simply about compacting the middle and breaking with 3-4 players. Amazingly it takes Arsenal until the 88th minute to beat us 1-2. We're on 0 from 3, but the Arsenal game gives me real encouragement.

We go to Rennes who are also struggling and Aarflot gives us an early lead, before then being given a red card in the first half for a stupid challenge. I fully expect a collapse but some poor finishing and some astoundingly good defending against the odds means Alta take away a famous victory from France. To do it with ten men, this team is just amazing. We receive £2.4mil for the win.

We have less success in Switzerland, but another solid performance means we get another point, 0-0 draw but in all honesty Basel were terrible, they've massively declined and I feel we could've won it.

We then repeat the trick of Rennes against Leverkusen. I don't know whether it's the conditions helping us here, but Leverkusen are hopeless, legitimately second best and we beat them 2-1 courtesy of Alex Duran's double. We're on 7 points from 6 games, have another £5.6mil in the bank and astoundingly have an outside chance of progression.

These hopes are dashed by defeats to Real Madrid (4-0) and Juventus (0-2) - but amazingly we finish 25th, ahead of AC Milan and Atletico Madrid, which in itself is just astonishing. We have a wage bill smaller than League Two Peterborough United! I'm not somebody to wave the white flag and celebrate moral victories, but we have overperformed amazingly in my opinion.

Our squad is totally comparable to Rakow Czestochowa in standard and wage budget, which puts into perspective our performance. The only thing that gets me a bit is that I think if we'd been a bit more ambitious at Basel, we'd have possibly gone through!

The final point of the season is our second trophy. We beat Rosenborg in an amazing cup final from 2-0 down. The Aarflot/Duran partnership is unstoppable for anybody at this level and time and time again, teams show no answer to it.

---

So to summarise

2022 - promoted to the second tier
2023 - narrowly survive in the second tier
2024 - promoted to the top tier, have to move to Tromsdalen
2025 - finish 11th following late season run
2026 - finish 8th following an even stronger run
2027 - finish 5th
2028 - finish 4th and qualify for Europe
2029 - finish 4th again, knocked out of the 2029/30 Europa Conference League 4th round qualifier by Guimaraes
2030 - win the league, knocked out of the 2030/31 Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifier by Osijek
2031 - finish 4th, knocked out of the 2031/32 Champions League League Phase (25th placed finish with 2-1-5 record), win the Norwegian cup, announce substantial facility improvements including agreement to move back to Alta

---

It's a lovely pass time. My ambitions now are to go on proper European runs, fuelled by a sustainable transfer policy and a substantial improvement to our academy. We're in the Europa League in 2032/33 due to our cup win and are one double header away from the league phase. Lets see where it takes us.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

Good to be reading these @Dan. I don't know why, but the part I found funniest was when you asked for loan fees big enough to make sure the Christmas meal and all piss ups are sorted for the year. 

[Dan+]

1 hour ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

Good to be reading these @Dan. I don't know why, but the part I found funniest was when you asked for loan fees big enough to make sure the Christmas meal and all piss ups are sorted for the year. 

Profit is profit I don't really look at the fees at all for loans out to be honest, only really bothered if they're going to be playing or not, any fee I get is a bonus.

Think my whole system of cherry picking from the 3rd/4th tiers is coming to an end as there's very little of use to us there now, though one of my first team players throughout this save has been a player signed from a 3rd tier side on a free so maybe I'm not giving it enough credit. I'm hoping now we start actually producing good players. If Tromso can keep doing it, no reason we can't eventually.

[Goku de la Boca]

Smh no post match presser on the battle of Lod

[Dan+]

On 20/02/2023 at 16:34, Goku de la Boca said:

Second game was a bloodbath. Can you believe I made CL semi's with these  @Dan

These games were comical as well. I don't think we played well in either game but we got through both. We seemed to score out of very little each time rather than play particularly well. Will take it though.

Chaves was frankly a waste of 10 minutes

[Dan+]

1 minute ago, Goku de la Boca said:

Smh no post match presser on the battle of Lod

That timing.

[Dan+]

On 22/02/2023 at 02:17, Dan said:

2031 season

This is the last one for now as I'm actually in 2032 so no more clogging up (though I hope you've enjoyed the read!). We have a bit more wiggle room in the transfer market but we don't enter the Champions League qualifiers until August, so the real money will take a while to come in.

We don't actually do all that much business in the off season, instead continuing to sign younger prospects to loan out with a view to either selling, or gaining them home grown status - so specifically loaning them to Norway.

We're finally given a home fixture on the opening day, is that our reward for winning the league? Though it's against Molde so it's not great, and we don't win it either.

We actually don't lose a game until a long, long way into this season. Not until August in the reverse fixture which is also against Molde, we go down 4-1 in a pathetic display. We're pushing to retain the league and we're still in the cup too.

We then make a gamechanging sale as Mecikukic has half of Europe after him, we eventually agree a club record £7mil sale with potentially substantial add ons relating to a future sale to Liverpool.

The Cuba/Stefansson sales top things up very nicely, another £5mil or so received for two players who weren't key, and only cost us a combined tenth of that. We're finally in a good place financially, and finally, we get the improvements to the facilities I asked for - meaning that around eight players and now happy to stick with the club. I was happy to dish out this promise to players because I think if we can't meet it it's totally fair they are sold to somebody better, and we've become great at making profit on players.

The massive news however is Alta are going home. In 2033 provisionally, we will return to our hometown. Tromso is no more. A new stadium is on the way.

We draw Djurgarden in the Champions League which is a funny tie. All the hopes and dreams and we run into another bloody Scandinavian side. I shalln't complain though as it's a fairly kind draw, and they're having a pretty bad season. We progress 3-2 on aggregate and we're into the league phase! Which has replaced the group stage. There are now 36 teams, all in one table, with each playing 8 fixtures of varing difficulty - the top 24 go through, the top 8 getting a bye to the last 16.

We're given this fixture list:
Anderlecht (h)
Dortmund (a)
Arsenal (h)
Rennes (a)
Basel (a)
Bayer Leverkusen (h)
Real Madrid (a)
Juventus (h)

Some incredible ties, Alta are going to the Bernabeu!!! I look at them and think we're going to get flogged but there are some games we can take points in, and each point in this phase is worth £800k, on top of the £13mil TV money we receive. Alta are flush all of a sudden. We become the first Norwegian side at this level in four years - and nobody since Bodo in 2024 have won at this level.

The league isn't so interesting this year, we finish 4th - the real takeaway is we develop a bizarre knack for coming back from 2 goals down, managing it four times in the second half of the season, and Aarflot takes the golden boot yet again, albeit with only 18 goals.

So the Champions League...

I don't consider a top 24 place realistic at all. We've defied the odds to get here, but this is something else altogether, but I do wonder if we can take points off Anderlecht and Basel.

Sadly my hopes are dashed on the opening day when Mecikukic, now on loan from Liverpool elbows an Anderlecht player in the face and our ten men eventually succumb to a 0-3 loss. A real shame. Followed by a 5-0 spanking at Dortmund.

I have a rethink and bring out my old tried, tested and much loathed 4-1-4-1 system which is simply about compacting the middle and breaking with 3-4 players. Amazingly it takes Arsenal until the 88th minute to beat us 1-2. We're on 0 from 3, but the Arsenal game gives me real encouragement.

We go to Rennes who are also struggling and Aarflot gives us an early lead, before then being given a red card in the first half for a stupid challenge. I fully expect a collapse but some poor finishing and some astoundingly good defending against the odds means Alta take away a famous victory from France. To do it with ten men, this team is just amazing. We receive £2.4mil for the win.

We have less success in Switzerland, but another solid performance means we get another point, 0-0 draw but in all honesty Basel were terrible, they've massively declined and I feel we could've won it.

We then repeat the trick of Rennes against Leverkusen. I don't know whether it's the conditions helping us here, but Leverkusen are hopeless, legitimately second best and we beat them 2-1 courtesy of Alex Duran's double. We're on 7 points from 6 games, have another £5.6mil in the bank and astoundingly have an outside chance of progression.

These hopes are dashed by defeats to Real Madrid (4-0) and Juventus (0-2) - but amazingly we finish 25th, ahead of AC Milan and Atletico Madrid, which in itself is just astonishing. We have a wage bill smaller than League Two Peterborough United! I'm not somebody to wave the white flag and celebrate moral victories, but we have overperformed amazingly in my opinion.

Our squad is totally comparable to Rakow Czestochowa in standard and wage budget, which puts into perspective our performance. The only thing that gets me a bit is that I think if we'd been a bit more ambitious at Basel, we'd have possibly gone through!

The final point of the season is our second trophy. We beat Rosenborg in an amazing cup final from 2-0 down. The Aarflot/Duran partnership is unstoppable for anybody at this level and time and time again, teams show no answer to it.

---

So to summarise

2022 - promoted to the second tier
2023 - narrowly survive in the second tier
2024 - promoted to the top tier, have to move to Tromsdalen
2025 - finish 11th following late season run
2026 - finish 8th following an even stronger run
2027 - finish 5th
2028 - finish 4th and qualify for Europe
2029 - finish 4th again, knocked out of the 2029/30 Europa Conference League 4th round qualifier by Guimaraes
2030 - win the league, knocked out of the 2030/31 Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifier by Osijek
2031 - finish 4th, knocked out of the 2031/32 Champions League League Phase (25th placed finish with 2-1-5 record), win the Norwegian cup, announce substantial facility improvements including agreement to move back to Alta

---

It's a lovely pass time. My ambitions now are to go on proper European runs, fuelled by a sustainable transfer policy and a substantial improvement to our academy. We're in the Europa League in 2032/33 due to our cup win and are one double header away from the league phase. Lets see where it takes us.

2032 season

It's all gone a bit mad now. Now we have actual money to play with, plenty of players who other clubs want to get their hands on and a fourth European campaign ahead of us, we're operating on another level to where it was before.

I'm not wanting this heavy a turnover every year but I think it was inevitable this year given the money we came into. We broke our transfer record three times and even had somebody demanding they left Rosenborg to come here, a sign of progress if I've ever seen it! The tricky bit is managing foreign squad places. The rule in Norway is you're only allowed 9 non-home grown players in your squad, so by home grown if you signed a foreign player at 18, three years later they do count as home grown.

It's tough though and the most effective way to do this I think would be to ensure that you try and have squad fillers as Norwegian and your star players as foreign. There will be the occasional brilliant Norwegian, which ticks two boxes but the problem is they become virtually irreplaceable if you lose them and if you do you're almost certainly going to become weakened.

The bulk of those signings are prospects but I believe most can make an immediate impact. The real picks are Anda from Tromso (he's exactly what I describe as before, I think he'll become a top player but will make replacing him very hard), Johana, Matheus and Bogdanovic. We had another change in goalkeeper as I signed a long term target in Peder Hoel Lervik - ht's not a key target but somebody I'd tracked a while, though more on him to come.

We're away at Tromso on the opening day and win a basketball game 1-3, our first ever opening day win at this level which is pretty mad. We win our opening five games before going and losing 4-2 at newly promoted Bryne, a game I put almost solely down to the referee who wrongly sent a defender off in the 9th minute.

We would not lose again for another 13 games as we took a comfortable lead at the top of the table and remained in the cup. The comeback kings were at it again, with 2 goal comebacks at Valerenga (2-0 down, won 2-3), Lillestrom (2-0 down, drew 2-2), Tromso in the cup (3-1 down, won 3-4) and at home to Bodo from 2 down despite having 10 men. We looked great. Then August hit.

We were drawn in the Europa League play-off to face Rangers. A cracking tie and a great test of our resolve. One we would ultimately fail. We lost at Ranheim just before a first leg at home which we dominated, going 1-0 up, then 2-1 up, before inexplicably crumbling and losing 2-4. Goalkeeper Lervik having a nightmare. We are cursed with goalkeepers in these play-offs - we so often are let down by them and the truth is Lervik's been a huge disappointment, totally unreliable under pressure and not really good enough. An error from me to buy him, he's backup standard.

We yet again are stunted by Bryne after having a 4th minute red card, drawing 1-1, before going to Ibrox in what I felt was pretty hopeless. Duran has a brilliant game but another Lervik horror show puts us out of a tie that we've largely had the better of. A total headloss in the away leg picking up 9 yellow cards and yet another red. Discipline is a serious problem for us in Europe. We play on the edge but we border on stupid.

I blast the officiating in the press conference as the match report gives the referee a rating of 3.8 - which is incredibly bad, and implies huge bias towards Rangers.

This really does start to become a bit of a theme as we lose our next league game to Valerenga, a team who are just so annoyingly good at getting a result here, another game we're reduced to 10 in the first half. It's getting silly now yet once again the match report and referee rating point towards a biased performance from the officials. Club record signing Matheus makes his debut against the team we bought him from, Rosenborg, and we're abject and lose 2-0 - Lervin awful once again. We're in danger of our whole season unravelling as our 9 point lead at the top has been totally wiped by Lillestrom.

We draw at home to Stromsgodset, yet again I read "the referee will not have been popular with Alta fans" - what can you actually do? We're an abrasive team and I think that brings more positives than negatives, but we are being shafted by referees and my goalkeeper at this point. We go then to Lillestrom in the cup semi final, I've no hope at all but we pull a surprise win out of the bag and set up a repeat of last years final with Rosenborg.

Our conference league fixtures are drawn, only 6 in this rather than the 8 you play in the other competitions. Significantly easier fixtures on paper than the CL, to be expected - Kairat Almaty (h), Lyon (a), Lugano (a), TNS (h), Elfsborg (a) & AZ Alkmaar (h). I want a top 8 place and a place in the last 16.

The Lillestrom win wasn't pretty but it seemed to springboard us as we went to Sandefjord and absolutely hammered them, it only ended 0-2 but it was as comprehensive a beating for 90 minutes as I can remember. We beat Kairat Almaty in similar fashion, but only convert the one chance, but it's enough, 1-0 win.

The real crunch game in the title battle with just 4 left is another game with Lillestrom. I'm impressed by recent performances so decide to take it to them. We go 2 down early on but make the most astonishing comeback I think I've seen and somehow win the game 7-2. One of those mental games where everything just flies in. A statement and a half.

We go into the final day, having won our other games needing a win at Brann to secure the title. Lillestrom are at Kristiansund who are fighting relegation. We only manage a draw meaning Lillestrom take the title with a win, but they somehow go and lose to 10 men. We have another league title.

We hit some real heights at times and we've done it with a frankly sub par goalkeeper so the future is bright. The club is in a great position and ready to tackle the elite again in 2033/34.

The season does actually end a little sourly though. We have some fantastic results in Europe, we stick 7 past Lugano away and thrash Elfsborg 1-4 as well, but we're destroyed 5-0 at Lyon, only manage a 3-2 win over TNS and then on the final day of the group stage somehow slip from 4th to 9th by losing 0-2 to AZ Alkmaar in what I call Lervik's last hurrah. A game we absolutely dominate from start to finish yet somehow end up losing by just enough to ensure we go into the play-off round rather than the round of 16, meaning we'll hit a seeded side in the last 16 should we get there. It is utterly infuriating. Luck hasn't been on our side one bit.

I want to win the competition but I do reluctantly accept as well it's very unlikely. I don't think we'll take Lyon, Valencia or Man Utd over two legs though I think we could push anybody else.

We then drop a clanger in the cup final, we go 2 down but there's no miracle this time. Rosenborg get their revenge and we are denied the double. A good season with a sour end.

2033 will be different - it will consist of two European campaigns, the first season to do so given we have actually made the knockouts. These league phases haven't been kind to us!

---

So to summarise

2022 - promoted to the second tier
2023 - narrowly survive in the second tier
2024 - promoted to the top tier, have to move to Tromsdalen
2025 - finish 11th following late season run
2026 - finish 8th following an even stronger run
2027 - finish 5th
2028 - finish 4th and qualify for Europe
2029 - finish 4th again, knocked out of the 2029/30 Europa Conference League 4th round qualifier by Guimaraes
2030 - win the league, knocked out of the 2030/31 Europa Conference League 2nd round qualifier by Osijek
2031 - finish 4th, knocked out of the 2031/32 Champions League League Phase (25th placed finish with 2-1-5 record), win the Norwegian cup, announce substantial facility improvements including agreement to move back to Alta
2032 - win the league, lose the cup final, lose the 2032/33 Europa League play-off to Rangers, finish 9th in the Europa Conference League League Phase (record of 4-0-2)

[Dave]

I didn't realise the bulk of the new features that have been filtered through in the last couple of years were already on historical fifa manager games. Miles is mugging us right off.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

On 06/04/2023 at 11:32, The Palace Fan said:

I didn't realise the bulk of the new features that have been filtered through in the last couple of years were already on historical fifa manager games. Miles is mugging us right off.

Probably been like that for a while. I remember a while back when EA were saying about weather affecting games and seeing the players pull shirts. Things that ISS and Pro Evo did years before.

[Pyfish+]

Getting back into FM again lately with a new Grimsby save. Annoyed that I've only got FM on Game Pass though so when the next edition comes out, I lose all my progress!

[Whiskey]

On 06/04/2023 at 11:32, The Palace Fan said:

I didn't realise the bulk of the new features that have been filtered through in the last couple of years were already on historical fifa manager games. Miles is mugging us right off.

I haven't got into a single save this year, it's an absolutely shite edition this time around - fuck all has changed and it's a massive cash in. 

Not a chance I'm buying 24.

[Dan+]

On 06/04/2023 at 11:32, The Palace Fan said:

I didn't realise the bulk of the new features that have been filtered through in the last couple of years were already on historical fifa manager games. Miles is mugging us right off.

Become very much like FIFA in that regard. I sort of agreed with Zealand's idea of making it a subscription rather than every year though with updated squads.

I've had a crack with Leicester, actually gone surprisingly well for once. But there was a challenge I quite fancied the look of and I reckon I'm doing it.

 

[Pyfish+]

I did the Secret Shirt one last season. Didn't last long as I HATED the save. It was with Club Tijuana in Mexico.

[Dan+]

44 minutes ago, Pyfish said:

I did the Secret Shirt one last season. Didn't last long as I HATED the save. It was with Club Tijuana in Mexico.

I did Mexico as part of the pentagon and found it a strange league albeit quite fun as well. I didn't like that stupid Mexico/USA cup though, absolutely pointless when their Champions League pretty much becomes an equivalent.

I wish I'd finished the pentagon but the laptop was just too slow in the end. Maybe have another go on 24.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

Not really worth a topic on its own, but this should be interesting.

https://www.eurogamer.net/football-manager-to-reinstate-mason-greenwood