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Post by dalenichol on Jun 24, 2020 22:50:28 GMT
Al-Ahli Saudi FC As mentioned briefly in Nick's new thread, I'd been having a few niggling issues with bugs and just minor inconsistencies with my save in Burkina Faso that I've decided to let it lie. It's been 6 seasons and things weren't showing signs of fixing, so it's on to pastures new. Saudi Arabia is a nation I've managed in a few times, with mixed results. I do enjoy it, though, as it's a very competitive league with some very strong teams and I have chosen one of those teams for my save: Al-Ahli. I was a bit dubious about choosing a bigger team, but in a league that's had 5 different champions in the last 8 seasons, with Ahli winning their only title since 1984 in 2016, I decided that they'd be my pick. (In honesty, though, I was already convinced that I wouldn't be happy managing in Saudi Arabia if I couldn't manager Omar Al-Soma, but more on that later). **In a bid to address my much aligned issue of poor regen name generation in Africa and Asia, and as a bit of a test for a potential editing project in FM21, I have added around 10-15 non playing staff (referees, journalists and agents) with some different first and surnames into the game. Maybe not enough to make a difference, but a couple that weren't previously in the database, so I'll see if they show up after an intake or two. ** So, onto the club:Al-Ahli are a Saudi football club based in Jeddah, formed in 1937. They are a moderately successful club domestically, with 3 league tiles and 9 2nd place finishes, and 20 domestic cup wins. Continentally less successful, they have been runner up in the Arab Champions League 4 times, as recently as 2012, and winner of the Arab Champions League (which is active in my save) once in 2002. Their last title, in 2016, came off the back of a 51 game unbeaten streak, a record for Saudi Arabia (and possibly Asia and maybe even the world). The club play their home games at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, nicknamed "The Shining Jewel", which they share with their fierce rivals Al Ittihad. The stadium boasts a capacity of 62,000. The club have great training facilities but poor to average everywhere else across the board and can boast 30,000 season ticket holders. The club has £17m in the bank, a wage budget of £741k (using 550k) and no debts. We may or may not have a sugar daddy (Edit, checked in the editor and we do 'Foreground'. Am I right in thinking that's the one that just throws money at us?) The Players:What you might not expect, given Saudi Arabia being, well, Saudi Arabia, is that it has one of the more relaxed set of foreign player rules in Asia. A maximum of 8 foreign players can be registered, although 1 of those must be of Saudi origin, so in game this is simply reflected as 7. But that's the only limit, and they can all play in the first XI without limitation. As such, the league has quite a lot of foreign talent, although talent might not be the correct term in a lot of cases. Here in Jeddah, however, we do have some really decent foreign players. Firstly, and the primary reason for me choosing this club, is Omar Al Soma. The Syrian striker has proven himself to be incredibly lethal in front of goal. You can talk down the quality of the league as much as you want, but the man has scored 160 goals in 177 games for a club that isn't winning titles. Twist it however you want, but that is impressive, especially when he's scored 19 in 25 continental games. As well as him, you also have the 3 time Brazil cap Souza, Cape Verdean international Djaniny and and one time £8m Chelsea signing Marko Marin. Whilst domestic talent at the club isn't quite at that level, we still have some dependable options in Motaz Hawsawi and Saaed Al-Muwallad. The youth players at the club leave a lot to be desired, but this is obviously something that's going to be at the forefront of my save as I progress forward. The Plan:"What are we going to do tomorrow night? The same thing we do every night, Pinky, try and take over the world" The plan for the save, at least initially, is simple. Dominance on a domestic, regional and continental level. Develop a strong youth system, develop the league and develop the national team. I wish I could think of some well thought out, philosophical vision for the save, but the truth is I just want to win everything. I'd like to make the league the top ranked in Asia (It's currently 7th), I'd like to see international Saudi players playing abroad (There's currently 0) and I'd like to see Saudi Arabia consistently challenge for regional titles at international level, whilst getting some wins at International level. It's all very standard stuff, but I think there could definitely be something worthwhile here. It's late, I need to think about bed and I started this save on a whim. It's not always a great combination, in fairness. So I'm gonna try and formulate some proper ideas of the coming days, maybe try and finally involve myself with training, or focus more on player development. Stuff that I don't always get to focus on, but we'll see. Oh, and I'll make some kits too, because that's always fun.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 24, 2020 22:56:19 GMT
Club Vision: Pretty much reflective of what I'd outlined in my initial post, this is what the club vision looks like for me over the next two seasons. Maybe a bit quicker demanding of instant success than I'd have liked, but obviously a job like this is going to come with some pressure. (I'd written up my initial post before I'd even clicked continue once, so this was somewhat surprising)
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 24, 2020 23:00:52 GMT
Continental Football:Due to the scheduling of Continental football in Asia (Saudi Arabia runs a standard August to April league), the save starts with us already into the knockout round of the Asian Champions League, with a 2-1 advantage going into the home leg against Shabab Al-Ahli of UAE and a spot in the Quarter Finals awaiting us. Omar Al-Soma is already on fire, as you can see. Interesting, and also frustratingly, Saudi Arabia's lax foreign player policy is not shared by most league or, as it happens, the Asian Champions League. I have 7 foreign players in my squad, not including the two in my reserves, and I can only register 4 for continental football, which will be interesting...
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Post by Nick on Jun 24, 2020 23:51:23 GMT
To answer your first question about the foreground sugar daddy Dale, think Man City and PSG. Both of those have a foreground sugar daddy. It's probably why expectations ramp up from the second season onwards - he'll be expecting a return on his money!
Hopefully you can continue the Al-Soma goalscoring record for the next season or two and then find his successor. Marko Marin is something of a forgotten man, I'd wondered where he was hiding. I didn't realise he was 30 now either, I swear he was about 24 last time he was relevant!
Looking forward to seeing how you get on and there's nothing wrong with just wanting to come in and win everything!
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Post by chaodck on Jun 25, 2020 0:16:39 GMT
Good save idea here Dale, there's surely a lot of ground to make up in order to achieve the ambitious global goals you're thinking of specially regarding the league and national team. Shame to see The Board being so pushy so quickly, specially on the AFC Champions League, I'm guessing you'll be quickly requested to win it every year. How are the other big Asian sides looking compared to you? I'm guessing you'll face stern competition from your fellow Arabs, plus Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Qatari sides. Best of luck my dear friend.
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Post by hokster on Jun 25, 2020 3:27:48 GMT
Out of curiosity, how would you compare this database to the one I made however long ago that was? I'm curious how the editing scene looks these days, and whether it's worth doing it again for FM21.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 8:01:54 GMT
To answer your first question about the foreground sugar daddy Dale, think Man City and PSG. Both of those have a foreground sugar daddy. It's probably why expectations ramp up from the second season onwards - he'll be expecting a return on his money! Hopefully you can continue the Al-Soma goalscoring record for the next season or two and then find his successor. Marko Marin is something of a forgotten man, I'd wondered where he was hiding. I didn't realise he was 30 now either, I swear he was about 24 last time he was relevant! Looking forward to seeing how you get on and there's nothing wrong with just wanting to come in and win everything! Ah right, okay. I did think that was the case. I'm going to assume that there's a few clubs with foreground sugar daddies in place and it's not just us. Will need to wait and see how that impacts us in the short and long term, I guess, but I am expecting to be fairly successful/competitive from the off. Poor Marin. Since his season with Chelsea, he's been to Spain, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Serbia and now Saudi Arabia, which is quite the journeyman career for someone that was so hyped at one point. That said, though, he'll do a good job here. chaodck Thank you! Having not played in Asia for a while, I'm not sure how well FM reflects real life. I'm going to assume that China and Korea will provide our biggest club challenges in Asia, with Australian and Japanese clubs just behind that, most likely, then the other Arab clubs. I think the 4 foreign player limit will hurt us here, as our domestic talent will not be as good as those other mentioned nations, so we have to rely on our foreign players making up the gap. hokster Most of the files I use these days, in fact almost all of them, are from megapacks for ease of use. I use Timo's currently and whilst he's got it almost spot on with the foreign player limit, I assume most other things above the very basic structure of the league etc will be simple copy and paste jobs. I think any file you made would be far more detailed and, frankly, far better.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 8:37:36 GMT
What a difference a few days make. I've still to get rid of the one coach that started here, giving me room to recruit two more when I get home tonight and get those yellow bars across the board. More importantly, we've got some good personalities in there and good people in the right job. Paulo Noga ( @nick ) should be first on the list if you need a HOYD in Asia, as you'll get him for peanuts and I'm sure his preferred Gegenpress and Direct styles will complement a lot of peoples outlook in FM. We also got a bunch of positive personalities in Tugay (Pro), Kit Symons (Fairly Pro) and Thomas Helveg (Model Pro), so between the likes of those, and the definite attempt to understand training more, this is the sort of structure that is going to set us up for long term success.
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Post by mrcool on Jun 25, 2020 9:11:48 GMT
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Post by Nick on Jun 25, 2020 9:20:56 GMT
What a difference a few days make. I've still to get rid of the one coach that started here, giving me room to recruit two more when I get home tonight and get those yellow bars across the board. More importantly, we've got some good personalities in there and good people in the right job. Paulo Noga ( @nick ) should be first on the list if you need a HOYD in Asia, as you'll get him for peanuts and I'm sure his preferred Gegenpress and Direct styles will complement a lot of peoples outlook in FM. We also got a bunch of positive personalities in Tugay (Pro), Kit Symons (Fairly Pro) and Thomas Helveg (Model Pro), so between the likes of those, and the definite attempt to understand training more, this is the sort of structure that is going to set us up for long term success. Noga looks excellent, certainly what most people should be looking for in a HoYD. Being Portuguese, he goes against my 'Asian only' mantra so I'm not allowed to sign him, even if he was interested.
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Post by hokster on Jun 25, 2020 11:22:32 GMT
Thomas Helveg was great for me at Le Havre before he was poached by Hoffenheim. I highly recommend him.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 20:28:37 GMT
Ah sorry @nick, I hadn't noticed you were doing Asian only. That's even more of a challenge! Yeah hokster , he looks superb and I was very surprised he even considered joining me, so I'll try and make the most of it whilst he's here.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 21:46:54 GMT
Picture the scene. It's your first game in charge of your new club, the expectation of the club, the fans and the rich, tycoon owner are weighing on your shoulders. Your first game in charge is a second leg, Asian Champions League knockout tie. You begin to put the teamsheet together and you look at what players are available and who isn't... Yep, that's me. 2 Foreign players unregistered and 7 Saudi players on international duty. Well fuck.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 21:58:52 GMT
Sorry buddy, I completely forgot to answer this. Yes, yes it is.
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Post by Nick on Jun 25, 2020 21:59:00 GMT
I hate shit like that at the start of save. You just have to suck it up and hope for the best but you know that the defeat will come up in a press conference in seven years time when you've just gone a season unbeaten and won the Champions League for the fourth season in a row.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 22:03:16 GMT
I hate shit like that at the start of save. You just have to suck it up and hope for the best but you know that the defeat will come up in a press conference in seven years time when you've just gone a season unbeaten and won the Champions League for the fourth season in a row. Good thing we won 2-1! I had a couple of players I could promote from the reserves, including one foreign player in Uzbek international Azizjon G'aniev. It was a fairly even game, but our difference came from Marko Marin who set up goals for both Al-Soma and Al-Khabrani. I could tell from that game that Marin's ability to pass a football is going to be vital.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 25, 2020 22:47:37 GMT
Al-Soma is a dream come true, I don't think I've ever managed a striker with 18+ on finishing since a couple of editions now.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 25, 2020 23:00:20 GMT
I've been an admirer of his for a few years now because of FM and FIFA, which led me to trying to watch him more in real life, and he's just such a complete striker. It's one of those ones that I'm sure you'll understand being South American, where you're watching a player who's far too good to be playing in the league that he's in, but due to some issue (Age and obscure nationality for Al-Soma, who had a work permit for a move to England turned down in 2012) just wont ever get the chance to showcase his true ability.
In FM, he's just so perfectly well rounded for what I need him to do. He's big, strong, fantastic in the air (He's scored 4 goals in 3 games, all with his head) and has great finishing and I'm pretty sure he's fairly two footed. He's just great to have.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 27, 2020 22:24:09 GMT
Progress is moving slowly due to work, but I'm off for a week now so we're going to get this season finished soon. Until then, I put together two kits for the club. Could've maybe made them better, but it was just a quick knock up on photoshop whilst I was watching some UFC.
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 23:20:09 GMT
Both really clean Dale, I like them. The pattern on the front of the home kit fits really well. They're nice.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 28, 2020 1:30:45 GMT
Progress is moving slowly due to work, but I'm off for a week now so we're going to get this season finished soon. Until then, I put together two kits for the club. Could've maybe made them better, but it was just a quick knock up on photoshop whilst I was watching some UFC. Love them Dale, absolutely love them. This is your kitmaking style, slick and uncluttered, I really love the colour combination and the sponsor choice. Top work mate.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 8:56:04 GMT
Thanks chaps! chaodck I think it might be, but I'd really love to try and do more intricate stuff, but I always struggle with ideas or knowing where to begin, so for now I'll stick with what I know
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 10:57:20 GMT
Al-Ahli 2019/20 Season Review You know, I'm not entirely sure I've ever had such a frustrating, yet successful, season in my time playing Football Manager recently. This game is an absolute nightmare at the best of times and I'm going to need to take a week off just to recover from the bloody stress of it! Saudi Pro League:So it went right down to the wire, we finished the season with a 0-0 draw against Al-Ittihad, leaving Al-Shabab with a game in hand the following day against already relegated Al-Wehda. Fully expecting to lose the title on the last day, Al-Shabab could only rescue a late 2-2 draw and the title was ours. We were so frustrating over the course of the season. We just never seemed to get going in any consistent matter, we couldn't take the game by the scruff of the neck and failed to score or put the game to bed far more often than I would've liked, which was demonstrated by our 10 draws through the season. We were only mid table for goals scored at 49, but we had the strongest defence only conceded 19 goals, 10 less than our closest challenger in Al-Fateh. So we did do something right, with our passing, possession and clean sheets. I just wish we could've done more in an attacking sense, but that will be something to work on in the pre season and hopefully change next year. We need to do something, as only Djaniny and Omar Al-Soma finished on more the double figures for goals and there's not even a guarantee that those two will be here next season, so something really needs to give. Asian Champions League:
Obviously there were games that took place before I started the save, so I've just included the matches that I was actually in charge for (with the exception of the 1st Shabab Al-Ahli match). So for those maybe unaware, the Asian Champions League has a regional structure that runs all the way to the final, separating East and West Asia. So what this means is that you'll only face teams from your region right up until the final. This benefits us greatly as Saudi Arabian teams are generally some of the strongest in our region, whilst the Eastern region is clearly far more competitive. This will, as we see above, increase our chances of making it to the final (or at the very least the semi final) most seasons, but will see us most likely get absolutely spanked in the final like we did this season. We were superb in spells in the run up to the final game, but Jeonbuk were just far too good for us and played us off the park across both legs, there's not really much else I can say to it than that. Kings Cup:Not a competition we're particularly fussed about, but another final appearance either way. Had two penalty shouts turned away at 1-1 before losing to two late goals in the final. Such is life. Player Performances:
We were disappointing for large parts of the season, so it'll come as little surprise that I don't have a whole lot of positives to discuss here. Omar Al-Soma scored goals but could and should have scored more. He finished the seasno with 29 goals in 48 games, 6 of those goals coming from the penalty spot. Djaniny finished with 30 goals in 49 games and a 7.31 avg rating, making him the best performer of the season. No other player broke 10 goals, and only Saeed Al-Muwallad broke 10 assists for the season, with 13 in 49 games. Off the pitch:
Off the pitch things are much healthier, as you'd likely expect with a tycoon backed club. We've got £18m in the bank and although we lose money, the chairman always tops it up so we're sitting on around £16-18m at any given time of the season. We have had our junior coaching and youth recruitment improved, although it's still only adequate and fairly basic respectively, and our training and youth facilities are being upgraded as we speak (currently Great and Average respectively). Our intake was relatively poor in terms of depth, as you'd probably expect from a first season Saudi Arabian intake, but it wasn't without its high notes. Mohammed Al-Qarni is the highest potential player in the youth setup after coming through this intake and I really, really like the look of him, his light hearted personality not withstanding. In a save where I'm going to have to keep an eye on foreign limits for the continental competitions against what I'm allowed in the domestic league, I need to make sure that we're developing as much domestic talent as possible and he looks like he could be special. Perfectionist Faris Al-Qarni (no relation) was the other intake standout and potential long term successor to Al-Soma. Obviously much more of that quick poacher type than the powerhouse we currently have, there's definitely room for imporvement but definitely potential for Faris and he may get a chance to feature next season. Abdulmosen El-Enezi rounds off the 3 that I was most excited about, but, and maybe I'm missing something, he's probably some way off the two above in terms of future potential, especially with his casual personality. Gonna try and get that mentored out of him asap. Transfers:Left until the end as there was little to no transfer business throughout the season, as I always tend to keep my first season relatively quiet to see what I'm dealing with. Aderlian Santos and Youcef Belaili are both leaving the club at the end of the season, Santos to Al-Rayyan of Qatar and Belaili to ES Tunis. Belaili wasn't in my plans and Santos had been out on loan all season before I took over, neither will be massively missed and both will free up some foreign player spots. Nobody else is attracting that much attention, although Djaniny did turn down a £7m move to Wuhan. None of my foreign players are unsellable, as we clearly have the means to replace them, which is always one of the fun parts of a save somewhere in Asia, but I'm not actively looking to offload players either. So we'll see what happens.
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Post by Nick on Jun 28, 2020 12:29:00 GMT
Thought you'd like to know Dale, on my save Al-Ahly have won two titles and are on their way to a third. They've also just signed Omar Abdulrahman for £3.5m.
A solid first season from yourself, even if it came with frustrations. At this stage, at least you have have something to work on instead of blowing everyone away from the off. I hadn't realised that the Asian Champions League was separated by region until the final, that's good to know. Your lot won it in 2019 in my save, followed by Ulsan and Gamba Osaka, so it's clearly pretty competitive.
Faris Al-Qarni looks like he could be a good player. I often find that progress of young players like him with an excellent personality is pretty swift, but also continues into their 20's.
Is there anywhere that needs desperate attention in terms of improving and transfers?
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 13:25:20 GMT
Thought you'd like to know Dale, on my save Al-Ahly have won two titles and are on their way to a third. They've also just signed Omar Abdulrahman for £3.5m. A solid first season from yourself, even if it came with frustrations. At this stage, at least you have have something to work on instead of blowing everyone away from the off. I hadn't realised that the Asian Champions League was separated by region until the final, that's good to know. Your lot won it in 2019 in my save, followed by Ulsan and Gamba Osaka, so it's clearly pretty competitive. Faris Al-Qarni looks like he could be a good player. I often find that progress of young players like him with an excellent personality is pretty swift, but also continues into their 20's. Is there anywhere that needs desperate attention in terms of improving and transfers? That is absolutely good to know...no pressure, eh?! Yeah, for some reason I'd never realised there was a regional split and when I noticed it last year I assume it was something that was new, but it's always been the case. Not sure if it'll be hardcoded into the game either, but from 2021 the competition expands from 32 teams to 40, with an extra group of 4 in each region and apparently adding more potential slots for smaller nations. It was only announced last October, so I'm going to assume that it'll be in next years game, not this one. It's always going to be very competitive, which I love, but given the regional split, particularly in the East, it really could be any combination of teams in the final. There's no part of the team that desperately needs improved, but there's plenty of areas where depth could be improved. I mean, my 2nd choice left back is 43 years old...I need to look at my foreign players and see if I can get rid of/improve on some of them. Obviously I'm allowed 7 in the league, but in the Champions League we're only allowed 4, one of which must be Asian, so we're basically allowed Al Soma +3. So, can I get rid of some and bring in better options? Or do I just get rid of the ones that can't play in the ACL? I think the big thing will be testing the waters domestically to see just how much of a premium we'd have to pay for good domestic players, I think it will be quite significant. Maybe not as much as you've seen in China, but it's going to be big.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 28, 2020 17:38:16 GMT
Good competitive season Dale, I know maybe a bit too much competitive though. I like the look of your intake players I didn't expect them to be any good and those three could become useful for a league where domestic talent is expensive and important. How did The Board take the season regarding competitions? Do you think expectations will rise come next season?
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 20:19:24 GMT
Well, it's interesting that you ask chaodck . So it's almost like they've tempered their expectations a little after we won the league last season. I was sitting at an A- for board confidence/happiness but that has unfortunately fallen to a C+ as we were prematurely knocked out of the Asian Champions League in the 1st knockout round by our league rivals Al-Nassr, in a two legged tie that we should have won with ease. I'll cover the rest of that competition at the end of the season, as I don't want to muddy the water in my updates too much due to the scheduling. So really, they just want us to keep doing the things that I outlined at the start of the save: Win competitions, increase our reputation and improve our facilities. I'm fairly confident that I can continue to do that both in the short and long term. EDIT: This news item came the following day So we actually had a little jump up to becoming the 4th most reputable club in Asia. Our poor run in the ACL this season might impact this for next year, but if we can win the league again it'll likely keep us steady.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 20:26:40 GMT
This is an annoying little bug that I keep getting at the moment. Asked to improve youth recruitment and junior coaching again and both were rejected due to our financial situation. It happened last season when we were up at £17m, and even though we've only £7m now, due to facility increases, we're hardly poor.
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Post by Nick on Jun 28, 2020 20:29:52 GMT
That would annoy me too. Do you think it may be something to do with the chairman keeping the club afloat? So not necessarily based on your actual balance, but more on your losses?
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 20:41:20 GMT
That would annoy me too. Do you think it may be something to do with the chairman keeping the club afloat? So not necessarily based on your actual balance, but more on your losses? Potentially, yeah. We're listed as 'okay' financially, just waiting to see if the chairman will do his usual and chuck us back up to £16m in the coming weeks. Once that happens, I'll request again and see what happens.
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