Mong Skacel - Comments

Our best ever chance for promotion and we threw it away. Too many silly results in the last few weeks. Agonising. Two 60 point seasons in a row is a great sign but fuck me, we need just that little something extra to push us over the edge.



Fuck knows what I'm doing squad wise. Want a wee break for a few hours before I start to look at things. This game is giving me headaches. Chaves have a wagebill about seven times that of our own and we came within three points of upsetting the applecart. Gah.

Tremendous. Hoping to have them both back for the last day. Hopefully we'll still be playing for something come then.

This is the closest I've ever been to promotion. We've slipped up many a time in recent week, we should really be a few points clear. But fuck it. Dare to dream. I have Oliveira Barrio next at their place. Huge game.

Back to back defeats leave me five off the pace with seven to go. Fuck me its tight. Its doable, certainly doable.

Grand start but fucking Chaves. I abhor them, right wee bogey team for the past decade.

Made it my mission to slowly creep back into your life. Starts with the odd Facebook conversation, then I return to my former haunts and it all ends with an invite to your wedding.

Fell fucking 1-0 in ET, only raised fucking 14k. All hopes for profit this season are gone with that result. Time to focus on promotion for the season.

For the third year in a row we sell bang on 312 season tickets. What comes first, new season ticket holders being born or old ones dying?

MAYHEM. The Mirandela fax machine has never been so busy. One in, three out. Wage bill sitting at 1.1k a week.



Brought in purely cos he's cheap as sin and can cover me at DR, DL, DMC and MC.



Promoted to play backup down the wings and through the middle. Should get his fair share of sub appearances.

Drawn a second league team away from home in the cup, not ideal. A good cup run would do our finances the World of good. The team we've drawn are predicted 10th out of 22 teams so they aren't mugs.

Needless to say my largest ever victory and a crowd of nearly 2,000 showed up for it. The cup run begins.

One year contract. Awful quality. Want rid of him next year.

Struggling like mad for an Ast Man and scouts of note. Ast Man is a must purely for the player search, a second scout is a necessity and I'm not bringing one in for the sake of it.

A few years ago I brought in a coach with decent JPA/JPP, did it incase I couldn't find a solid Ast Man one day and I could just promote him. Tried to do it. Cunt wanted £400 a week. His coach wage is only £40.

Youth players are trying to kill me with their wage demands, seeking wages worth five times more than their current youth contracts. Fuck that. I'll not go beyond £40 for a player signing his first professional contract. You never know how the cunts are going to develop, especially as this level.

Roundup of contract negotiations:

Moura -> Wages down by 15 quid to £75 a week, appearance fee down, promotion bonuses.
Ingles -> Wages up by £35 to £40, appearance fee down, promotion bonuses.
Moutinho -> Taken the decision to release him, was on £90 and averaged a low seven all season.
Olexienko -> Moutinho's readymade replacement at LB, wages up by £30 to £70, appearance fee down, promotion bonuses.
Fernandes -> Releasing him as he only made 3 sub appearances all season. £30 gone.
Cassama -> Gonna try and keep him on his non-contract which is £20 a week
Chula -> Gonna release him and replace him with the young AMR, ST that has came through
Gomes -> Top quality AML, wages up £35, appearance fee down, wages now at £75.

Overall I am happy with my business. Gonna try and bring in a backup DL on about £30 a week and overall that should save my £30 a week from last seasons wage bill. May or may not look to add to the squad a bit more, will see how we shape up in pre-season.

I probably could have been stricter in negotiations but I'm happy enough. Appearance fees are down and the wage hikes are minimal. Still learning as we go.

This is what I have missed about careers, getting it all down and giving myself a bit of vision. The vision of the last 30 years has always been in my head but typing it up and seeing it infront of you gives clarity. Updates will be a bit sporadic following this Monday so I want to get as much in place as possible before then.

Currently going through contracts, will update yous once I'm happy with my business. Shouldn't be too long.

June 1st. 50k in the red. Bit down heartening. But we continue the cost cutting. Staff cuts will take place, sadly player wages will rise, need a cup run.

Will healthier finances benefit me in the long run? Well hopefully new Chairman won't need to take out huge loans which add to our debt. Want to try and make us a debt free club. Currently sitting at 550k, costing me 3k a month. Due to be paid off in twelve years time.

If a new Chairman comes in and takes out a loan then there isn't much I can do to reduce the debt. If I'm seeing no improvement within five year with these financial cuts then I will revert to trying full on for promotion. If I see slight improvement then I will continue with the cost cutting.

60 point season and we still couldn't fucking pull it off. Highest points total I've ever had and would have been good enough for promotion in two of the last five seasons. WE NEED A 70 POINT SEASON.



Four first teamers (Moura, Inglais, Moutinho and Gomes) are out of contract this summer. Gonna be really difficult to keep hold on Gomes on a decent wage. Wages are currently 1.1k and I still haven't made a profit, if I'm to keep these players then the wage bill will obviously creep towards 1.5k but I'm not going to break the bank.

It'll come into consideration but Qualifying games will have a much bigger bearing. There ain't too much you can do.

Got this years youth batch, only an AMR, ST is of any note so I've signed him onto a contract.

League wise there's four to play and we're ten off the pace, sitting in fourth place. The teams above us are the three teams with the highest wage budgets.

Halfway stage. Going strong, should be a lot closer to first but we've fallen to some stupid late goals. I'd be more than happy to finish in and around our current position come the end of the season.

Went down 3-1 but it raised 42k. Takes me to minus 5k, projected balance for the season is now minus 14k. Lets see how this accurate will be.

Tough third round draw, already came through two rounds and was hoping for a run to make some money as we always get good crowds for the cup games. Will take a lot to come through this.

League wise I'm sitting on 11 points after five games. ON COURSE FOR A 66 POINT SEASON.

Wee bit disappointed, hopefully attendances and season ticket sales don't drop too drastically if we underperform this season. Like I say though, the quality is in the squad, the depth ain't but the quality is.

A risk? Yes. Has the wage bill ever been so low? No. Will we get promotion? I wouldn't bet on it.

Started the season with a 2-1 away win. Media have us finishing 8th which is my highest ever predicted finish. If we don't get struck down by injuries we could finish in and around 8th. If lady luck decides to pop into Mirandela we could win promotion.

For the most part I've accepted being in the red and I've had to because of the lack of income. But now that we have a potential source of income in the form of gate receipts I have to try a new approach. Squad quality will suffer but if we get lucky we could nab promotion one year. I don't know what the next few seasons hold, but over the next three to five I'm hoping to eventually be constantly be in the black. That right there is my five year plan, be in the black all year round.

I've learned over my 30 years that the longer you keep a staff team together the higher the staff wage bill. At the end of this season my scout retires and I will be letting my Ast Man go. Both are high quality, both are on £150 a week. Lets say I can get in a scout on £30 and an Ast Man on £40, I reckon I could pull a £30 Ast Man but lets be safe. I'll be saving 4k a year.

Transfers wise I'm just making a few cuts, shipping out backups and bringing in some cheaper backups. Have seven contracts up for renewal so that will be interesting. Currently trying to come up with a wage structure to try and adhere to but its gonna be tough. So far I have this;

One player on £150 a week(max £200)
Three players on £100 a week
Five players on £75
Two players on £50
Eleven players on £30

That will give me a squad of around 22 and a wagebill of around 1,300. Obviously giving myself some room to move with that. Will things work out to this plan? Probably not. But I have no precedent to go off. This is just educated guessing.

Have a look at the graphs of the countries around you if you can, see if they fluctuate too.

Just put my U in AS level Math to use. I'm looking to ship out my AMR who is on £180 quid a week (averaged 7.42 last season) and my £110 MC who only started one game. I've agreed a contract with a new AMR who has a two star CA and four star PA, £45 quid a week, £30 an appearance. Current AMR has £55 an appearance. The MC has £60 an appearance, I'm looking to replace him with this new MC I got in the youth batch.

All in all I'll save about 13k/14k a season if I go through with it all. And I think I will. Sure its a risk but attempting to make a profit really has piqued my interest. And 13k is a start.

Looking at these finances excites me, I could feasibly start making a profit. I might cut the squad down a bit further and fully incorporate those two youngsters I signed. If attendances continue to rise I can start making a small profit. The only thing that worries me is squad turnover, every three years I could be looking at practically a whole new squad if my current players demand too much.

I'm gonna have to start paying closer attention to contracts too, rein it in a little on the bonuses and add ons. May even start to actively look to sell some players, currently only six of my players are actually valued at anything. Aye squad quality may decline but in the long, long term this could be very beneficial.