|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 19, 2020 15:06:53 GMT
RTS Widzew Łódź - Save Preview
So after a few little stop start ideas and 7 years in Asia, I've decided to come back to Europe for a new challenge. And so that brings me to here, Widzew Lodz, in the Polish II Liga (3rd tier) Widzew Lodz are one of Poland's larger historical sides, having been originally formed in 1910. The club fell on hard times in 2014/15 when, despite being owned by one of the richest men in Poland, they found themselves bankrupt. The club were bought out by a group of local businessmen, reverted back to amateur status and started in the 5th tier of Polish football, down in the regional tiers. Two quick promotions and a 5th place finish in their first season in the third tier and here we are, on our march back to the top flight of Polish football. The club play their home games at the brand new, 18,000 capacity Stadion Widzewa and have good training and youth facilities, alongside average academy coaching and youth recruitment. So the board expectations are fairly high, all things considered. Realistically, they expect us to be in the Ekstraklasa within 4 seasons which is probably about right. We have a decent squad and good facilities, and we are so far fairly comfortably winning this league, but the 2nd tier will be a decent step up but they expect us to at least make the playoffs in our first season. No pressure. We're heading in to mid October with £1.4m in the bank, 16,000 season ticket holders and about £1.1m in sponsorship money per year, so whilst we're losing money we do have the infrastructure at the club in place that means I don't have to worry too much. We'll need to keep the wage budget in check, but I should be able to pick up some released Ekstraklasa youngsters and any good performers from lesser teams given our reputation, and hopefully supplement these with players from our own youth system. I haven't thought too much about any significant milestone style goals for the save, but there are a few things I can think of... - Get Promoted to the Ekstraklasa
- Qualify for Europe
- Win the Ekstraklasa
- Have a player called up to the senior Poland squad
- Focus on Eastern European signings
- Win the EL/CL with a team of Eastern Europeans?
I don't know, it's something to aim for. There'll be other things that pop up, I'm sure, but we need to focus on the promotions first and foremost.
|
|
|
Post by chaodck on Jul 19, 2020 16:32:37 GMT
This looks like an interesting save mate. I really haven't seen any good Polish newgens in my save as of right now but it might be a thing of me not looking correctly as I'm sure there's talent. Looking forward to this.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 19, 2020 19:50:51 GMT
So we're just a bit ahead of the midway point now, and the games are starting to spread out a little, so it's a perfect time to recap. (The top tier has a winter break now, we don't, but we do have a game every fortnight or so, with the odd friendly in between) As expected, we've been pretty dominant throughout the season, there was only one slight blip which was coincidentally the first session I played after posting my first post in the thread, where we lost 1 and drew 3, but we've won 3 league games and put Lechia out of the cup since then, so I'm fairly confident we've recovered. Individual Player Performances: HERETo be honest, and you can see from the above link, we haven't really had one player that stands out as being particularly fantastic except maybe Mateus Mozdzen, but the whole squad have been consistently good enough, and sometimes that's all you need. 10 goals for Marcin Robak is great, but at 37 this will likely be his last season for sure, as I really don't see him being able to offer much at 38 in the 2nd tier. Patryk Wrzesinski is the likely candidate to replace him long term, but I'll likely need to find another player or two in the summer, as there's really nobody else in the club, at least up front, that is jumping out at me. Finances etc:We're going into the winter with £1.28m in the bank, down a little from the £1.4m I mentioned having earlier. So we're really not losing a whole lot of money and even if we do end up around the 500-750k mark by the end of the season, we've enough in sponsorships etc to drag us back up to a respectable balance. There's no real prize money to speak of in Poland, so we're going to rely on that and player sales as we progress forward, but that's a fairly standard affair for a save like this. I've asked the club to find us a feeder club and preferably a parent club. I've had absolutely no luck in finding parent clubs on FM20 though and I really don't expect that to change much here, but you never know, maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised!
|
|
|
Post by Nick on Jul 19, 2020 20:48:13 GMT
That's a meaty ground for a team in the third tier. By the sounds of it, everything is in place for a triumphant return to the top flight and, looking at the infrastructure of the club, that's where it should be. I'd heard of Widzew before and I'm sure that Man Utd played LKS Lodz in the Champions League qualifiers in 1998 - they'd obviously go on to win it the following May - but aside from those two, I know nothing about recent Polish football. Are Legia still the team to beat at the top?
|
|
|
Post by jawzy on Jul 19, 2020 22:38:23 GMT
I played a very brief stint as Pogon on this version, but I stopped after half of the first season, as I was doiminating withgout making any additions. So i will follow with interest of what a longer Polish save on this version holds
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 19, 2020 23:23:52 GMT
That's a meaty ground for a team in the third tier. By the sounds of it, everything is in place for a triumphant return to the top flight and, looking at the infrastructure of the club, that's where it should be. I'd heard of Widzew before and I'm sure that Man Utd played LKS Lodz in the Champions League qualifiers in 1998 - they'd obviously go on to win it the following May - but aside from those two, I know nothing about recent Polish football. Are Legia still the team to beat at the top? Widzew actually put United out of the 80/81 Uefa Cup too, as well as beating Liverpool in the 82/83 European Cup. Legia are by and large the biggest team now, winning 6 of the last 10 titles, especially now that Wisla Krakow have fallen on some hard times recently (finished one spot above relegation this season), however the other 4 league titles that Legia didn't win were all won by a different team each time (Lechia, Slask, Lech and Piast) so it is a fairly competitive league, at least. In terms of the save, yeah, it's a pretty excellent infrastructure. Good facilities and a stadium which is about the 9th or 10th biggest in the country, so I really can't complain right now! Thanks jawzy I'm hoping this will be a decent enough long term project.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 21, 2020 7:02:21 GMT
Is there anything more depressing in FM?
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 21, 2020 8:13:35 GMT
Wizdew Lodz - 2019/20 Season ReviewSo whilst the promotion playoff still has to take place, that's fairly inconsequential for my update and I have a bit of time to kill before work, so I may as well get this written up! We finished the season as comfortable winners as expected. There were a couple of slight hiccups along the way, and we weren't maybe as dominant as we would have liked to have been, particularly when it came to scoring goals, but we dominated possession in matches and completely controlled the play. It felt like a lot of teams were happy to sit with 10 men behind the ball and try to frustrate their way to a draw or a sneaky win, which does make a bit of sense given our reputation and stature relative to the league, so hopefully that will be less of an issue in the 2nd tier. Polish CupThis gives me some hope that we're ready to make the step up, even if it is just to the 2nd tier. Sandecja are 2nd tier, whilst Lechia, Arka and Lech are all top tier sides (Lech actually won the Ekstraklasa this season) so to be able to make it to the semi final is pretty fantastic going for us. Going Forward:
We go in to next season full of confidence. The board want us to aim for the playoffs, and whilst I'm not necessarily that confident, I do feel like we'll be able to put up a good fight, relegation shouldn't really be a worry and with the right signings, we might just be able to make that push towards the playoffs, I just don't want to get too carried away at this point. We're currently sitting on just over £700k in the bank, but with sponsorship and season tickets, I'd expect us to be on around £2m or so by the start of next season. I'm going to try and rely on free signings and loan deals as much as possible until we're in the Ekstraklasa, as that's going to be where the step up in competition becomes most noticeable. Focus in the summer window will be on midfield and strikers, as we need to clear out some deadwood and try and build a much stronger depth of squad, as outside of 37 year old Marcin Robek's 15 goals, our other 3 strikers only managed a goal between them, and that clearly isn't good enough. Also, some interesting scenes from the Ekstraklasa... So not only do we get to play our local rivals LKS Lodz next season, we'll also be up against Wisla Krakow, one of the historically biggest sides in Poland. A really solid first season in Poland, but one that was fairly routine against expectations, so it's going to be interesting to see what next season brings us!
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 27, 2020 17:27:09 GMT
Widzew Lodz 2020/21 Mid Season Review
Well, as far as first seasons after promotions go, this has been a good start! I knew we were a strong side, but I originally thought that mid table would be a reasonable aim for us this season, before pushing for promotion next year. in line with the club vision, and whilst there's still plenty of time for this to go horribly, horribly wrong in true FM fashion, I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to keep the pace and at least finish in one of the two automatic promotion spots. I'd settle for a minor blip and promotion via the playoffs, but I'm probably just trying to keep my expectations lowered just in case.
Key to our promotion push has been two of our three new signings, Lithuanian striker Edvinas Baniulis, who's scored 10 goals in 17 games after signing on a free in the summer (he spent the last season in the Polish 4th tier?!) and attacking midfielder Konrad Handzlik, a free signing after he left fellow I Liga team Olimpia Grudziadz and necessitated a formation change to fit him in to the team, but has repaid that move with 10 assist and 4 goals in 20 appearances. The other summer signing was Bartosz Walencik, a decent squad depth centre back. So it's been even more rewarding to see that whilst we've needed a couple of new players, we've largely progressed with the same team as last season, allowing us to solidify our finances ahead of a potential jump up to the Ekstraklasa.
Speaking of finances...
We're in a very favourable position as we move into the winter break which lasts from December 1st to February 28th, for some mental reason. So that money is going to dwindle a decent bit, but I still think we can end the season on maybe £1.2-£1.5m, which would be perfect. Sponsorships and season tickets would take us up to £2.5m+ if we do get promoted and that wouldn't be too bad. A couple of free transfers, loans and maybe 500k-£1m should really be enough for us to stay up if we go up, but I really don't want to count my chickens just yet.
Not a whole lot more to add at this time, so I wont drag it out. I just want to get the rest of the season done now!
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 27, 2020 17:47:49 GMT
Last seasons intake was absolutely garbage and we didn't sign anybody from it. This seasons will likely be garbage too, but at least i have this excellent preview to keep my hopes up until they inevitable come crashing down.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 27, 2020 21:11:49 GMT
|
|
jla
New Member
Posts: 52
|
Post by jla on Jul 29, 2020 11:10:09 GMT
Amazing club choice Dale. Love anything Eastern Europe, so will definitely keep up. The preview for youth intakes is so ridiculous, I have no idea why SI include something that so obviusly makes no sense.
|
|
|
Post by chaodck on Jul 29, 2020 19:12:20 GMT
Terrific season so far Dale, and a pretty decent intake as well, those 4 lads should at least develop into cheap decent squad choices and with some luck you might find yourself a gem there. I like the current look of Jaroszek, hopefully his PA is higher than that first evaluation. Excited for the next update mate.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 29, 2020 21:15:36 GMT
jla chaodck - Thanks for the support lads Widzew Lodz 2020/21 Season Review And there we are, Widzew Lodz are on their way back to the top tier. We faltered a little towards the end of the season, winning only 6 of our last 14 games after the split, which I guess is still almost half, but for a team that's top of the league, we really should be doing a bit better than that. I'm hoping it was just complacency, tiredness or something similar and not an indictment that our tactical style is at fault. However, without dwelling on the somewhat negative aspect of our end of season form, we need to remain positive and stay excited about the challenge of being back in the top tier where we belong! Also, Wisla made the playoffs, lost and promptly sacked their manager, so yeah, that's kinda fun. It'll be interesting to see what player/owner Jakub Blaszczykowski does next, with his own contract expiring. They have a handful of players I could see myself being interested in once the season rolls over and we see what money we have to spend. Our 5 top performers there, it's nice to see that it's a fairly even spread between defence, midfield and strikers. Baniulis has a really solid season and I'm so glad I took the punt on him, whilst Rudol was solid at the bag and scored 5 penalties from 6, which is great as I often find that penalties are so arbitrary on this game in terms of scoring or missing. He (Rudol) is wanted by Cracovia, and he may even want to go there, but really they can go and fuck themselves. It's also really nice to see that if we look at the 6 top training performers from my youth team, 4 of them are the 4 players I highlighted from my intake. I think chaodck might be on to something with Jaroszek, who has already went up .5* in PA since April and has attribute improvements across the board, so I'm quite excited about that. We finish the season with £1m in the bank, slightly short of the £1.2m-£1.5m that I wanted, but really not the worst position to be in. We've got season tickets and a bunch of sponsorship renewals to wait and see where that takes us, but we should be looking at at least another million, preferably more. We're not in a great need of money, as we have a decently deep squad and there's plenty of cheap targets out there for me. So... That's two seasons in, we've completed out first long term goal of getting promoted to the Ekstraklasa, so next season is all about consolidation and staying up. I'm going to start looking around at some of the other Eastern European leagues for signings as much as possible, but first and foremost I'll be seeing what I can pick up in and around Poland, but I have to assume that as usual there'll be a domestic premium. So onwards and upwards we go. It's going to be an interesting season I'm sure.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Jul 31, 2020 21:48:33 GMT
This form needs to run out soon, surely... Last seasons top 3 are currently 8th, 11th and 6th respectively. We couldn't... could we?
|
|
|
Post by Nick on Jul 31, 2020 22:59:19 GMT
Great progress Dale. It doesn't look like last season was too much trouble, despite the slight dip in form at the end, and it can be tough to keep players motivated when you've led the league for so long.
I agree with Chaodck too. Something I've noticed on this version, especially in my Velez save when it was a yearly occurrence, is that the initial star ratings of the youth intake can be way off, sometimes in spectacular fashion. I had players that I didn't even take a second glance at initially turn into really solid players. I find that if they react well to training and start developing quickly after you sign them, their potential is adjusted in line with that early progress. That was a large part of the reason why I signed every player in my youth intake and is something that I'll continue to do in my future saves.
Unreal start to the Ekstraklasa too. Did you manage to bring in any of the players from Wisla that you alluded to?
|
|
|
Post by jawzy on Aug 1, 2020 10:16:51 GMT
How odd, this is what happened when I managed Pogon for half a season, my team predicted to be mid table was battling at the top with other non likely sides, while the bigger sides seemed top struggle.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 1, 2020 11:41:48 GMT
Great progress Dale. It doesn't look like last season was too much trouble, despite the slight dip in form at the end, and it can be tough to keep players motivated when you've led the league for so long. I agree with Chaodck too. Something I've noticed on this version, especially in my Velez save when it was a yearly occurrence, is that the initial star ratings of the youth intake can be way off, sometimes in spectacular fashion. I had players that I didn't even take a second glance at initially turn into really solid players. I find that if they react well to training and start developing quickly after you sign them, their potential is adjusted in line with that early progress. That was a large part of the reason why I signed every player in my youth intake and is something that I'll continue to do in my future saves. Unreal start to the Ekstraklasa too. Did you manage to bring in any of the players from Wisla that you alluded to? We only got one player from Wisla after he was released. There's one or two more I'd like but still being priced out currently, however Wisla are 9th in a close 2nd tier, so if they don't come up again there could be a fire sale...they're still listed as financially insecure at this point. We've brought in some good players, but I kind of hope we falter a little. I don't think we're as good as our form is making us look and that worries me a little, I really don't want a hangover for next season. jawzy yeah, it's weird. There's definitely an element of anybody can beat anybody in this league.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 1, 2020 12:48:44 GMT
Widzew Lodz 2021/22 Mid Season Review Lads... I just don't get it. We've scored 19 goals in 16 games, but we've only conceded 11. We're not playing that well but we beat Slask 1-0 with two shots on target against 10. We beat Rakow 2-1 with 5 SOT against their 15. 89th minute winner against Legia, a 91st minute winner against Lech. I've tried rotating the squad, playing youngsters...I'm barely even paying attention because I don't want to be doing this well...but we just keep getting results! So yeah, that's where we're at in the league and I just can't wrap my head around it. I shouldn't be complaining and I'm sure this form wont last forever, but it's crazy. I know we're a top tier side historically and I expected some progress, but this is just a little bit nuts. But anyway, on to transfers: David Niepsuj is the right back we signed on his release from Wisla, whilst left back Michal Koj came in for a small fee from Pogon. Martin Svidersky joins on loan from United and I'm going to try and get him permanently if we can, whilst Krzystof Maczynski adds some well needed experience to the centre of midfield. Kamil Grzesik is a good young prospect that my scout identified, he was a "day one" regen in the Polish third tier. Some really good players brought in and each one really represented an upgrade on what we currently had, which is ideal when you get promoted. I've no major plans for the upcoming winter window in January (It's currently December 1st) but I might look at some extra squad depth options or see if there are any decent players unhappy at some of the historically bigger clubs. I really want to sign Wisla's Daniel Hoyo-Kowalski but they're still holding out for his £1.6m release clause and I'm not in a position to pay that much currently, so we'll wait and see. Development: In terms of development our young players are continuing to come on well. Michael Jaroszek remains the standout, however, and he's currently away on loan getting some competitive games at 4th tier side Polonia Bytom, where he's scored 4 goals for them. He'll almost definitely feature next season. There's not a whole lot left to add at this point, so I'll leave it there so I can get back to the season and to the return of Scottish football!
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 6, 2020 20:12:08 GMT
Widzew Lodz 2021/22 Season Review (Apologies for the time between posts. Busy work schedule and a flare up of my sciatica has hampered progress) So, I know what you're all wondering. Did they do it? Did the plucky league newcomers, sitting second in the league, manage to upset the applecart and capture the league title? Did they fuck. So, let me start by saying that finishing 6th in the league in our first season back in the top flight is obviously a pretty fantastic achievement and one which I'm incredibly happy with. It's a good position, we can build on it and we can improve ourselves without having to worry about the expectation of defending a league title, but at the same time it came off the back of us winning only 2 of our last 17 games post winter break. We'd won 8 of our last 10 games pre winter break and there was no rhyme or reason as to how we fell so short after winter, but FM is a fickle mistress and I just need to accept it. I'll be able to build and improve the squad over the summer and just look to consolidate our place amongst the Ekstraklasa sides. How's that for form, eh? I guess the only consolation, if there is one, is that it was a pretty tough run to end the season and those losses and draws were almost exclusively against sides that finished in the top half of the table. Maybe we're just a mid table side that just got lucky. I've not really got a whole let else to add at the moment. We didn't make any signings during the winter break, there's been no great movers or shakers in the squad and no stand out players, with nobody averaging about a 7. Edvinas Baniulis continues to be a fantastic player for us, which is pretty excellent for a player I signed from a 4th tier side and is now considered a club icon, you love to see it. We've got £2.4m in the bank before sponsorships and season tickets and potentially looking at a decent rebuilding job over the summer, which should be fun. Gonna have a bigger look around Poland and then the wider Eastern European area as there should be some gems kicking about if I just put in the time.
|
|
|
Post by chaodck on Aug 6, 2020 21:33:40 GMT
Wow that's a fucking horrible second semester mate, great you had a cushion from the first half of the season. A couple of questions, how's the standing with The Board, what's their 5-year plan? Also, how's the league looking in terms of european qualification? (I never seem to grasp those table abbreviations haha).
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 7, 2020 6:15:34 GMT
Wow that's a fucking horrible second semester mate, great you had a cushion from the first half of the season. A couple of questions, how's the standing with The Board, what's their 5-year plan? Also, how's the league looking in terms of european qualification? (I never seem to grasp those table abbreviations haha). Yeah, it's really not ideal. After chilling out a little and looking back at the results, I'm taking solace in the fact that we only actually lost to teams that were above/around us in the league. So whilst it's obviously shit to go through such a bad patch of form, we still picked up two wins and some draws against teams below us, so maybe that's something. Still in good standing with the board, currently sitting on a B and considered favoured personnel. 5 year plan hasn't changed at the time of writing. It was fight bravely against relegation this season, it's the same next season, and the 4 following years are "work towards becoming an established Ekstraklasa side", so absolutely achievable. As far as Europe is concerned: The league winner qualifies for the Champions League in one of the early qualifying rounds. 2nd and 3rd qualify for the Europa Conference League, as do the cup winners. This seasons winners were Jagiellona, who despite finishing 2nd last season, only survived relegation by two points. Because Poland. Also, Wisla Krakow finished 8th in the 2nd tier this season, so it's safe to say they might actually be fucked now. They were financially insecure and have sold pretty much anybody of value and not really replaced them. It's going to be interesting watching them as things progress.
|
|
|
Post by Marshdweller on Aug 7, 2020 7:46:46 GMT
I mean this in the best possible way... my perception of you guys is that you're all very experienced and capable FM players so I find it quite reassuring that this version of FM can still give you that sort of a kicking. It makes me feel less stupid for the lengthy winless run I endured with Volendam! I guess it's the whole thing of FM reevaluating you for the second half of the season and perhaps overdoing it.
Whatever the reason, it's a rough way to end a really good season, so congratulations and I'm keen to see how you build from here.
|
|
|
Post by Nick on Aug 7, 2020 12:55:25 GMT
As the other lads have said, that's rough Dale but, in terms of the bigger picture, might actually be a blessing.
I think this is really important, more than ever in FM. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I get really lazy with FM when I achieve some success, which often results in what we like to call "second season syndrome". The fact that you didn't (massively) over-achieve, finish second, and feel like the save is just flying along might be a good thing. It should allow you to re-focus and really spend some time making changes that you perhaps wouldn't have done. Get that intensity back and hit it hard again next season. As you allude to, Eastern Europe will have loads of players kicking about that will improve your squad. You may have to spend time trawling through manual scouting, but if you put the time in, it's hugely rewarding.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 7, 2020 13:00:44 GMT
Thanks lads! Nick you're spot on. And I've already went back on my word ;p Because I forgot that it's Winter World Cup time, the season starts early so when I'd normally spend late June, early July scouting for signings, we're right into the new season...so that's a bit of a nightmare. And we've not exactly hit the ground running. So I'm gonna do what I can, but it's going to be an interesting season and a lot of restructuring needing done.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 7, 2020 21:38:20 GMT
We now have a 60 day gap between today and our next game thanks to the winter world cup, but I'm just gonna power through the season as I'm off work for the next few days. I think this season is a more realistic reflection of where we are as a team. I'm not upset by our performances, as we're playing fairly well, we just need to be more clinical, and I think that last season was for the most part a huge overachievement, so if we have this season which is more or less where we expect to be, then I know where I can improve for next season. At least a 60 day break gives me some time to look around the region for players, something which I talked about in my previous update but never got a chance to do properly due to the early season start.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 9, 2020 11:54:55 GMT
Widzew Lodz 2022/23 Season ReviewSo it's the end of another season here in Poland and after the incredible collapse at the end of the last season, I really wasn't sure what to expect this year. This year we were much more consistent. Consistently 'okay', but still consistent. We had one run of 7 without a win, but otherwise we were a decent mid table side and I think that's realistically where we are. I've realised that we're too good to be pulled in to a relegation scrap, but we're not quite good enough yet to be thinking about pulling into that top 4/cup winner European sort of spot just yet...and that's fine! I'm happy enough with consolidation and it's what the board want. It gives me time to focus on building up a good core squad without having to rush through with recruitment or having to worry about being good enough to defend a title or make it through some European qualifiers. Recruitment: This was our busiest season in terms of transfers, signing 6 players (3 pre season, 3 winter break) and spending £1.5m which isn't an insignificant sum for a club of our size. Sorry for the shitty formatting, but it's annoying me too much to fix! All three of the above players were signed pre-season and went straight into the first team. Stoiljkovic has been fantastic but unfortunately done his cruciate mid way through the season. He should be back in time for next season, but that somewhat necessitated going out and signing another winger to play in his position. The following three players were all found during my extended winter break and once again came into the first team almost immediately. Kovacic is our most expensive signing at £675k, but I think he'll be worth every penny and is the sort of player that we could realistically sell for some decent money down the line. 7 goals in 14 games is a decent return for our wee mid table side, especially as Baniulis only managed 6 in 25, his worst season since joining the club and neither Patryk Wrzesynski (not consistent enough) or Michal Jaroszek (just not ready yet) were quite ready to hold down the 1st choice striker role themselves yet. Extras:
We had another poor intake this year with nobody of note coming through, unfortunately. There's been talk of a takeover for two seasons now but the chairman is still listed as "Loves the club" and there's been absolutely no movement or anything close to resulting in an actual takeover. That's another feature from this year that I don't like, these constant takeover rumours that don't let anywhere...either tell me if there's going to be a takeover or don't. Even with our spending, we finish the season with £2.4m in the bank and between sponsors and season tickets, that should get back up to around the £4.5m-5m mark that I like to be sitting at. We're currently spending 58k p/w on wages, or £2.3m p/a, which is 13th in the league of 16. In comparison,Lech are spending £6.7m pa and and most of the top 6 are spending at least £1.5m p/a more than us, if not more. I would quite like to bring our spending down a little, if I'm honest, as I think we're holding on to too much deadwood for the sake of it. I need to be more ruthless, but that's always been a problem of mine in these longer term (for me!) saves.
|
|
|
Post by Marshdweller on Aug 9, 2020 18:34:58 GMT
How much of a difference is there between you and the 'big six'? That's quite a difference in budget but do you think you're far off them on the pitch?
|
|
|
Post by chaodck on Aug 9, 2020 22:25:26 GMT
I think that's a pretty good season Dale for the level you're currently at. Kovacic looks like a steal for that price, specially if you factor in that Maribor is a pretty important club, kudos on that. Bringing down the spending might be a tough ask, but I'm sure you can replace every bit of deadwood if you set your mind onto it, even if it means doing a ton of manual scouting. Good luck mate.
|
|
|
Post by dalenichol on Aug 9, 2020 22:39:52 GMT
How much of a difference is there between you and the 'big six'? That's quite a difference in budget but do you think you're far off them on the pitch? It's fairly significant, to be fair. I know that I've limited myself by only signing Eastern European players, but Lechia, for example, have spent £4.5m this summer on players from Porto and Bayern (x3) and 3 players on loan from Benfica. That's 7 players that would all walk in to my first team. The rest of them have still spent £1.5m-£2m on players. We are closing the gap, we're playing fairly well and as teams sell their prospects, they're not replacing them with the quality that we are, but we don't have the depth or the consistency of the bigger teams just yet.
|
|