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Post by dalenichol on Dec 17, 2020 17:14:42 GMT
Did you guys hear about that new bra from Chile? It's got lots of support, but no cups! Sorry Chaodck! haha  C.D Cobreloa - Takeover and early progressSo we're here, let's give this game a proper go and attempt my first proper, long term save with documentation to hold me accountable! So, firstly a big shout out to our resident friendly Chilean chaodck for the idea for this save. I've always liked the idea of Chile, and South America in general, but the high number of games and apertura/clausura system always puts me off a little bit. However, Chile have been sensible and have a normal system, with a respectable number of games...so it's all good! So...Cobreloa? Not to be confused with the top tier side Cobresal that Chaodck mentioned in the other thread, Cobreloa are another team with a mining history. Cobre is Spanish for Copper and Loa are the province that the city of Calama is based in. Calama is a desert mining town, the driest city in the world with only 5mm annual precipitation, which for a Scottish person is just almost impossible to comprehend...I think we get that in a day? The club were founded in 1977, making them a fairly young club, and immediately pushed for success. The club were quickly in the Chilean Primera Division and by 1987 had been in the Libertadores multiple times, losing in the final in 1981 and 1982 and once again reaching the semi finals in 1987. The club have won the Primera Division 8 times in their history, with the last win being 2004's Clausura. The club have since struggled financially and currently find themselves in the 2nd tier of Chilean football, something i am looking to correct. The club have a history of producing some really solid Chilean talent, such as current internationals Charles Aranguiz and Alexis Sanchez, although this is not reflected in the clubs in game facilities, which are considered "average" and "below average" for training and youth respectively. The club play their home games at the Estadio "Zorros del desierto" de Calama, which I think roughly transaltes at the desert fox stadium and has a 12,312 capacity. So what are the plans? This will be a relatively straightforward save in terms of aims. 1. Get Promoted 2. Solidify our position in the top tier 3. Win the Primera Division 4. Win the Sudamericana 5. Win the Libertadores
Simple, right? Within those aims I want to bring through my own youth talent and develop them within my squad and I want to have my players represent Chile at the national level.
I'm not imposing any particular rules in my transfers, although I want to focus primarily on domestic talent, if the right player becomes available from another nation, then obviously that's something I'll still consider.
I'm acutely aware that this is become a bit of a wall of text now, so I'll leave it here and do a progress update shortly to try and break things up a bit! |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 17, 2020 17:50:10 GMT
 So this is the clubs culture and vision. The 5 year plan generally reflects what I mentioned in my previous post, at least as far as the first 2 points go. The club also want me to repair the financial damage at the club, I've not included this as a goal for myself, simply because it's one of those things that I really can't control all that much and, realistically, is something that will come along with the other goals that I have for myself.  We started the season around the -£550k mark, we're now down to 324k. We had a bloated squad of about 36 players, of which I sold 7 and put another 6 out on loan to help reduce the numbers a little. We signed a new sponsorship deal with around 200k per season and we've got season ticket money, so I'm fairly hopeful that we'll be fine after a season or two, especially if we can produce some players worth selling. The only outgoing that I'm really annoyed about is Ignacio Jara, our best player, who is getting poached on a pre contract by Colo Colo. There was nothing we could do, he starts with 6 months left on his contract and no desire to sign a new deal. Bastards.  The better news, however, is that we're doing pretty well so far this season. The board want a minimum of the promotion playoff, which I think is absolutely assured even at this point, but the more likely and hopeful scenario is that we can carry this form forward and just straight up win the league this season. We've started well playing an aggressive 4231 and it's working at this level. 4 separate players on 4 goals each and another on 3. It's probably not the formation or at least the style that I'd get away with playing at a higher level, but I'll cross that bridge if or when it comes to it. For now it's just about playing and winning, nothing more and nothing less! |
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Mikey
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Wales
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Post by Mikey on Dec 17, 2020 23:01:18 GMT
I've never managed in South America, will be following with interest, and eagerness to learn more about the Continent. Will be following. Good luck with this dalenichol. Let's hope this will be a long-term save for you. |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 18, 2020 13:57:34 GMT
Thanks, Mikey Well we're not getting the next Salas, Zamorano orAlexis Sanchez out of this intake... oh well. 4 games left in the season, we're joint top on goal difference, as we've dropped 5 draws in our last 8 games, which is very, very frustrating. I'm still hoping for automatic promotion, but I think we've got enough about us to get through a playoff if we need to. |
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Post by chaodck on Dec 18, 2020 16:32:40 GMT
Did you guys hear about that new bra from Chile? It's got lots of support, but no cups!
Sorry Chaodck! haha
Fuck you, that's a statement for a few years ago. We've since won 2 Copa America. So this is the clubs culture and vision. The 5 year plan generally reflects what I mentioned in my previous post, at least as far as the first 2 points go. The club also want me to repair the financial damage at the club, I've not included this as a goal for myself, simply because it's one of those things that I really can't control all that much and, realistically, is something that will come along with the other goals that I have for myself. We started the season around the -£550k mark, we're now down to 324k. We had a bloated squad of about 36 players, of which I sold 7 and put another 6 out on loan to help reduce the numbers a little. We signed a new sponsorship deal with around 200k per season and we've got season ticket money, so I'm fairly hopeful that we'll be fine after a season or two, especially if we can produce some players worth selling. The only outgoing that I'm really annoyed about is Ignacio Jara, our best player, who is getting poached on a pre contract by Colo Colo. There was nothing we could do, he starts with 6 months left on his contract and no desire to sign a new deal. Bastards. The better news, however, is that we're doing pretty well so far this season. The board want a minimum of the promotion playoff, which I think is absolutely assured even at this point, but the more likely and hopeful scenario is that we can carry this form forward and just straight up win the league this season. We've started well playing an aggressive 4231 and it's working at this level. 4 separate players on 4 goals each and another on 3. It's probably not the formation or at least the style that I'd get away with playing at a higher level, but I'll cross that bridge if or when it comes to it. For now it's just about playing and winning, nothing more and nothing less! Good start mate and moderate expectations from The Board which is always nice. Direct promotion would be super nice as that'll help keep the team reputation up and thus get better newgens and attract better players. Thanks, Mikey Well we're not getting the next Salas, Zamorano orAlexis Sanchez out of this intake... oh well. 4 games left in the season, we're joint top on goal difference, as we've dropped 5 draws in our last 8 games, which is very, very frustrating. I'm still hoping for automatic promotion, but I think we've got enough about us to get through a playoff if we need to. Pretty nice first intake mate, considering the level of the facilities. How are they looking in terms of personality? Besides the loss of Jara is there any other interesting player who could fetch you a decent price so you can level the club finances wise? |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 18, 2020 20:25:42 GMT
Haha, sorry my friend!  Unfortunately personalities are a bit off, some balanced, but Venegas is "low determination" and Faundez is "temperamental", so that's far from ideal, but we'll get hopefully get something out of them. Jara is gone and doing very well at Colo Colo, which is upsetting, and we're getting shafted by players leaving on bosman deals: Maturana (8 goals, 8 assists) is off to O'Higgins, Soto is off to Universidad Catolica, as is young prospect Joaquin Aguero and finally Josepablo Monreal, our top scorer, is joining Everton (CHI). We're slowly being dismantled, unfortunately. The one asset I have left, actually tied to do a contract, is Pablo Parra, who's fantastic and at this rate is going to be unsellable if we do make it to the top tier this season |
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Dec 18, 2020 21:19:31 GMT
Not a great intake, but at least you're off to a good start Dale! Hope you can keep it up!
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 18, 2020 21:53:21 GMT
Cobreloa - 2021 Season Review  Well fuck me, that was tense!  I don't know who's going to win the playoff yet, I imagine it'll be Temuco, but I don't really care because we're going up! We were absolutely fantastic this season and really we should've won the league by more. We didn't lose a game between 30/5 and 6/11 when the season ended. We had 7 draws during that time, 6 of them 1-1 draws, we also won 7 games in that time, in 6 of them we scored 3 goals or more. We averaged around 10 shots on target every game, we just need to learn to finish more of them and we'd have absolutely run away with the league title. But we won it in the end, and that's what matters! The main performance stats are below:  It's going to be a tough challenge next season already, with so many of those key players (Soto, Aguero, Monreal and Maturana) all going out on bosmans and a bunch more contract renewals still to try and figure out. It's going to be quite the restructuring job, but it has to be done. That's part of the challenge at the end of the day, isn't it?  So honestly, that's not as bad as I expected? We started the season 500k in the red and brought it back a little, before falling back down to 500k. For a team spending 15k p/w stuck in the 2nd tier of Chilean football, I absolutely expected us to hemorrhage money throughout the season. Instead, we're going up to a higher tier, will likely sell more season tickets, attract better quality players and better deals with sponsors. There's also been numerous talks of takeovers throughout the season...so I'm not too worried about our financial outlook if I'm honest! Right, I think that about wraps it up nicely. Apologies for the somewhat disjointed update but I've not been feeling great the past day or two and I jsut wanted to get something written up! If you want to know anything/if they'res anything I've missed, lemme know! |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 19, 2020 11:58:59 GMT
 I wish I'd checked what our season tickets cost last season! Could anybody that reads this go do a wee check for me on your own games? They're up to £273 a season ticket now, and we've sold over double our last seasons total of 4400. This, along with the TV revenue which will increased from 500k per season to £2.5m per season has meant that I've rapidly went from having -£800k in the bank (we had to pay out bonuses) to now having £1.2m in the bank and a very good reason to believe that money will continue to rise as our expenditure is reasonably low. If we stay up this season, and the money continues to increase, this should hopefully allow us to get some facility upgrades which would be lovely! |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 19, 2020 15:41:32 GMT
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Post by chaodck on Dec 19, 2020 16:02:09 GMT
Great progress mate, good thing that the money is coming in. Despite being in the Primera B for a while now, Cobreloa is still one of the higher rep temas in Chile, so being in the top tier again will surely and quickly attract sponsors and mo' money.
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 28, 2020 9:35:50 GMT
 Just over the half way mark here in Chile now, I didn't realise how little I'd actually managed to play the game over the festive season, but I'm hoping to be able to finish the season today during my day off. We've had a bit of a mixed bag of a season, but it's all very tight with so many teams on similar records. We're currently 9 points clear of relegation, but similarly only 9 points shy of Libertadores qualification and only 14 points behind the league leaders, so it's very much a case of anybody can beat anybody. We went on a decent start with 4 wins and 2 draws from our first 8 games, before hitting a rut and falling down the table. I did expect a relegation scrap, so I wasn't too surprised by this, but we've managed to turn it around a little and have, coincidentally, now won 4 of our last 8 games again, with 3 wins and 2 draws in our last 5 games, including a 0-0 draw with league leaders Univseridad Catolica and a win over our rivals Colo Colo. We've stuck around with largely the same squad that got us promoted, due to the financial issues at the time, but have made some key signings in the likes of Cesar Valenzuela from Huachipato and Mathias Pinto who spent last season in Primera B with Deportivo Nublense. With the financial situation at the club much improved, I'll be able to look at a more robust recruitment strategy for next season, but for now...if it works, it works! I'll hopefully be back in a few hours with a full end of season update! |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 28, 2020 10:35:11 GMT
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 28, 2020 11:54:42 GMT
Cobreloa - 2022 Season Review  Well it's the end of an eventful season here in Chile. Season 2 is done and dusted and not only have we clearly secured our place in the top tier, we've also qualified for continental football! (This is less impressive when you consider that in South America the top 300 teams in each league all seem to qualify, but whatever!) There was a time when we looked like we were going to be in a relegation scrap and a time where we were actually pushing for a top 4 place, but I'm more than happy with a 7th place finish.
5 wins in our last 8 games was a great way to end the season, even if we did lose our last two games and a place in the Libertadores as a result.  Some good performances throughout the team, although it's abundantly clear looking at match shape that I don't rotate enough! But when you have a team that is largely performing well and you're so focused on trying to keep yourself in a division, I think it's maybe understandable. Or maybe it isn't, fight me. There's a good crop of youngsters here. Axl Rios, 23, was one of the stars of the season, first choice keeper Hugo Araya is only 21, Mathias Pinto is 24 as is Claudio Zamorano. We've got some decent players in the youth set up. I'm fairly positive about the future of the club and the financial incentives of being in a higher tier are definitely helping. I'm not sure what there is in the way of prize money in the Sudamericana, and I imagine we'll likely go out fairly early on, but any extra money would absolutely be welcome.  We end the season with £1.07m in the bank, we've made a profit of £1.8m this season and we've just spent £500k on improving the youth facilities, so all in all there's not really anything to worry about in the financial department. There's 15k p/w free in the wage budget as things stand and we really don't need to offer all that much to players here, so we'll just take it a season at a time and see if we can't keep improving our finances and in turn improving the facilities at the club, that's the main thing! Next season is going to be interesting after finishing so highly and qualifying for continental competition. I need to spend some time focusing on recruitment, both for the playing staff and the backroom staff, so it might take me a wee bit longer to get going with more updates again, but we'll see! |
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Dec 28, 2020 14:00:27 GMT
That's a very good season back in the top flight! I share your struggles with rotating and keeping the second string match fit. With just one game per week it's very hard to keep everyone match fit, but I feel like it helps with performances if you bring them on as a sub.
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 30, 2020 19:49:46 GMT
Yeah, it's definitely something I don't do enough of Dirk. I'll need to rectify it this season, or at least in general going forward, if I want to start to develop young players. Also:  So yeah. Whilst we'll still have season ticket monen and stuff to come in, this has meant we're now 200k in the red before we start season 3, which has completely fucked my recruitment plan as I'll have to rely on free transfers once again. Great |
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Post by dalenichol on Dec 31, 2020 14:21:43 GMT
Youth facilities improved to adequate, youth coaching improved to adequate and youth recruitment increased to "Good". It's been a shaky start so far, but that's exactly the sort of wee improvements we need to be making at this stage!  |
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