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Huzzah! We made a profit in June! We made just over £81,000. The cash infusion by the Chairman plus the new kit sponsor money helped that immensely. In looking at the various tabs I noticed in the Expenditure tab that there is a line item for “Director Emoluments” and that figure last season was £14,057. I mean…he is the Chairman after all?
On 8 July we get an email saying that we’ve only sold 129 season tickets so far and another 100 are expected. That is bad news. Last season we had 250 season ticket holders. Oh boy.
Still Untouchable but down to only 80%.
As the lads come back our squad’s “Dressing Room Atmosphere” is still Very Good and “Managerial Support” is still Excellent.
If memory serves me correctly, I should have a team meeting foisted upon me when the team returns but that doesn’t happen. I then try to hold a meeting (from the Dynamics tab) but am told there is no suitable reason. I hope I get an opportunity to talk about season expectations. (I wonder if this means the database is broken. I suppose we’ll find out.)
Daniel Duckett moves up to the Influential Player level on 10 July. Excellent, cuz I have no idea how much longer I’ll have O’Donnell. A week later our starting left central defender Robert Carroll moves up to Influential Player, which is great cuz Day is going away. I wanted to shit-can him already but things really haven’t played out that way. The same day as the Carroll news he complains that there’s not enough depth in the defense. Message received! O7
On the transfers front Tranmere (Conference National) ask if they can take U18 midfielder Bill Taylor on trial. Three minutes later Macclesfield (also Conference National) make a transfer offer of £0 for Bill. This is going to be the state of affairs until late September. And the final tally is...
Player, Number of Offers, Highest Offer:
Bill Taylor, One, £0
Steve Pearson, Four, £4,500
Daniel Duckett, One, £1,800
Robert Carroll, Three, £1,500
Ben O’Donnell, Thirteen, £17,250
Dean Rice, Two, £0
Declan McNulty, Four, £0
On 1 July I get an email from my Press Officer that a bunch of teams released some players so naturally I send my scouts out to take a gander.
On the new player front, I realized pretty quickly that I needed at least one more central midfielder for the U18 teams. In the process of looking for one I found two that I like, but one of them is good enough to start for us in the Seniors.
I still have my dreams of Mezzalas and this guy excels in that department. Bonus: He’s got experience at all three Core positions. He signs with us on 24 July.
This guy is kind of like Noah and he signs with us on 19 July and goes into the U18 team.
I also need a second AML in the Seniors but I’m having problems finding one. Then this guy shows up in a scouting report:
I can’t believe all those Naturals and Accomplished ratings! He’s like the ultimate sub! He trained at Liverpool in his youth and must have been one of those released kids I told my scouts to take a look at. He has no negative personality traits and is Level-Headed when handling the media. I’ll take a stab.
Whomp, whomp. He chose Tranmere (Conference National) and their £925/week offer.
I abandon my search for a back-up left winger as I remember that Nixon can play AML and Jones can play ML. I might still try to bring in another DC because of Carroll’s complaints. I really need to dump Day, which becomes more difficult on 31 July when he moves up to Highly Influential. Drat! I waited too long.
On the first of every month I update all the player deets in my spreadsheet. One of the items I enter is a player’s current assessment on their playing level. Kemar Kirkpatrick is now rated as “very well-suited to Championship football.” Amazing. He’s gonna ask to leave real soon I bet. Another holy-moly with him is that his mentoring is going great; his Determination is up to 18 by 31 July.
Not really development but every player saw his Value decline by half when the team came back, except Rory Collopy who went from £45 to £230. My theory is that on 1 July we entered a new contract year and years remaining is part of the maths of determining Player Value.
Our starting right midfield, Terry Barlow, is now deemed a “Potential League One Talent.” Then I get notice that our right winger Steve Pearson is now a “Good League Two Talent”.
You’d think Jack Daniels would give you higher Bravery and not be Balanced.
This is generally how I run my friendlies this far down the pyramid: start with three walk-overs, get a little tough competition for three matches, take on a heavy to make some money, then close out with a bunch of patsies.
A pretty good month. We made a bit of dosh, £12,568 to be exact, thanks to that West Ham sellout. (Half the crowd came in from East London.) We found some good talent in the midfield with each already having the makings of a Core player. We’ve won all our matches and only Rae is stinking up the joint. There are many callers for our players and luckily O’Donnell is the only who is unhappy for not being able to flee.