SR67 - Comments

Our good form rolls on maintaining our lead at the top of the table. James Forrest's impressive form has resulted in speculation from Real Madrid and others.

 

I also brought in Roberto Gagliardini at a snip from Inter as he was transfer listed, this likely ends my transfer buisness for the window, possibly a few players going out on loan.

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Myenty Abena look like he might just prove to be a bargain who I can flip for at least 25x what I paid in two or three seasons. He is the no-nonsense defender we need. 

UPDATE SCREENSHOT WHEN FACEPACK INSTALLED

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We've had a good start to the season sitting comfortably top, two points ahead of Motherwell in 2nd. James Forrest is leading the goals chart with 5 goals so far. I'm finalising a deal for another CB for £200k.

He's had a good start and looks a great prospect.

Mads Roerslev replaces Hatem Abd Elhamed to provide competition for Jeremie Frimpong. At a net cost of £500k and similar wage demands this is one building for the future. Tony Ralston has also went out on loan to Falkirk.

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I think we done well to get a good bit of money in here. Bitton has been at the club for too long and is at the peak age for selling, Ntcham is a great player and great in FM but rumours of him wanting away and not being in my XI made £10m seem like very good business.



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I've still to add to the coaching team but the recruitment and analysis side of the of the club. Pre-season went will picking up some wins over some decent sides.

The former St Johnstone captain signs for £500k + add-ons. He falls under CatS as one of better CBs in Scotland, he was up against Stuart Findlay and Declan Gallagher in my shortlist. It came down to JK vs SF but he just edged it as DG was 29. I'm still. keeping an eye on Findlay as I do need a left footed CB.



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Griffiths was my first significant sale with a few loans going out, including you Karamoko Dembele going to Livingston after singing a new deal. The sale has made significant transfer budget available for us to strengthen at the back.



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Ajeti - CatB - got off to a good start IRL and I feel he's been harshly treated. He performed well in the Swiss league arguably a higher standard than Scotland. Started with pretty much scoring in most of his first 5 games. He's the long term replacement for Edouard who will be subject to bids.

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Another from real life signing. He fits firmly into CatS with potential to be a bargain CatA. He's the player I'll probably build the squad around, I want my squad to be very physical the playmaker is the exception. He is allowed to stroll around pinging passes.
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Cheers. That line was supposed to be cropped, I’ll sort that today.

I'm going to work in some real life events to fit my narrative. Mo Elyounoussi is obviously my CatL signing for this season, one I'm happy with and will look to sign dependent on performance and cost at the end of the season. This mens that as he will be the only loan Shane Duffy and Diego Laxalt will sit in the reserves as if they are not at the club.
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The suggested club philosophies fit around my model of squad building so it should be easy to meet these targets.

To Do Week 1
1. Assemble backroom staff
2. Decide who has come to the end of their cycle from CatB
3. Settle on a tactic with the remaining squad players

Transfer Strategy
Player Profile
Essential Attributes: Composure, Off-the-ball/Positioning, Work Rate
Desired Attributes: First Touch, Passing, Tackling, Technique, Strength/Acceleration, Stamina

Category A – The Core
Age Profile: 25-31 dependant on position
Transfer Fees: Up to £15M once per season
Wage Budget: One “Blank Cheque” and the rest around £25-30k p/w
Selling: These are the guy who I don’t really want to sell, happy to see out their contract past their peak selling years.

Category B – First Team Ready
Age Profile: Typically, 21-25 years old to see their best years at the club.
Transfer Fees: Up to £10M
Wage Budget: Should be around the mean wage for the first team ~£15-20k p/w
Selling: This category of player I’d like to get around 2-3 years out of and ship on for a profit. The occasional one may break into CatA but ideally this is where I like to keep it fresh.

Category C – Talent Vacuum
Age Profile: U21
Transfer Fees: Up to £500k + add ons
Wage Budget: Up to £3k p/w with clauses on rising after 15 first team appearances.
Selling: They won’t be sold until at least 21 barring exceptional circumstances. The loan system will be utilised to run down contracts if they don’t make it to the first team.

Category S – The Filter
Essentially clubs in Scotland should not be selling down south without us having first pass. These should be the guys who stick around for most their career if they are successful.

Category L – Loans
We should not really rely on this market. It’ll be reserved for that player just out our reach or the one with world class potential just needing a season of regular football to make it. This will be limited to one per season.

With recent going on's at Celtic the sadist in me decided to finally buy FM21 and prove that literally anyone (including an idiot with a keyboard) could do better than Neil Lennon this season.

So here's a tale of what could have happened under an unknown CEO, from an unknown club, from another universe.

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Back after a short break. We seem to be really struggling against the top sides. When you look at the wage budgets you understand why. I don't think we'll land a playoff spot as a result but we are not ready for the Premier League anyway. Another year in the Championship would probably be good for the squad.

I managed to sell on Aiden McGeady to Shamrock Rovers. I will still be contributing £7.5k p/w to his wage until the summer. This should still save us over £200k overall so good business for us.

I tried to be as statistical as possible when making the decision here as they were both very good potential signings. It came down to it and I had to make the decision. In the end, I went for Colid Dagba. Although he worked out around £500k more over the 3-and-a half-year deal he looked like the best value for money. He has had more assists and has better passing, tackling, fouls etc. stats. He is prime age for singing too. He has two contract life cycles in him before I'd be looking to sell him to recoup some of the investment. I'd likely be looking to sell Gullermo Cotugno during the initial contract.

I have identified a weakness in the squad. Though Conor McLaughlin was one of our top performers last season he only made 3 assists. Compare that to Denver Hume who got 15. He has not been performing with the step up despite taking home close to £10k p/w with bonuses. He's a full international and at 29 this might be my last chance to cash in on as his deal ends in the summer. 

He's valued at £350k so I'm going to set an asking price of around £300k and see if it stirs any interest. I have identified two potential replacements. My first choice is Colin Dagba who has been performing consistently for PSG 2. It's no slight on him that he can't get in the superstar laden first team. His assets look good - this is what is making him my preferred option over Guillermo Cotungo.

We should have had the perfect month. We conceded 3 injury time goals - I'll have to address this going forward. Had we not conceded them we would be sitting in the play-off spaces. Overall it was a good month, hopefully, we can kick on from the back-to-back wins.

Overall results have been decent considering we just came up and pretty much still have the same XI. The Norwich result was disappointing considering we lead the Premier League side 2-0 at one point, throwing it away in the 2nd half.

The board takeover went through and we have a healthy £16m balance - shame they are going to blow around £10m on two terrible deals. Josh Dasilva is very versatile and young, other than that he had a poor season last season and will be our highest-paid player. Abdou Harroui is another that fails to wow. The outlays far outweigh the benefits. Frustrating.

DNA Score Formula
Average of 9 mental stats divided by 18 + Average (first touch, passing, technique, stamina) divided by 20.

I set out at the start to minimise the number of transfers. At first glance, it looks like I haven't, however, I'll break it down. Dominic Samuel was on loan last season so doesn't really count as change, other than him only Stephy Mavididi and former academy graduate George Honeyman were brought in for the first team. Alan Forrest, Calvin Miller and the three from Man Utd were brought in to play in the u23 side with the view of promoting them if and when they are needed. They all look like they could be good Championship players at the very least. The four final signings were brought in on very low wages mainly as tutors but I'll probably play them in the cups too.

I set myself the target of keeping wages below £180k p/w this season but it was impossible. Were spending £216k p/w currently. I'm still contributing £9k p/w to Grand Leadbitter, not great but better than £15k p/w. A lot of contracts are expiring at the end of the season so that will be more manageable.

The wage bill is going to take a hit this year with Aiden McGeady returning from loan on £20k p/w at 34 meaning he'll be impossible to sell/loan. Grant Leadbitter is on £15k p/w, another that will be impossible to shift. Pretty much anyone highlighted can be sold if a good offer comes in, although I want to minimise the change.

I'm looking to bring in 3 first team players and about the same amount of younger players to act as back-up/step up next season.

We didn't make it easy for ourselves