dmayne7

Villa's spending has probably been the biggest joke of them all. The amount they spent in the championship and when they came back up was obscene and yet it's apparently fine.

He definitely fits into this team perfectly. I think it's hard for a defender/keeper coming through a PL club's academy to not be decent on the ball now. He's got a real calmness and composure. Saturday was the kind of game where any of the players would look ragged in possession. Previous round his use of the ball was fantastic (and hardly bad on Saturday). Reads the game well and 'deceptively quick'. Where he still hasn't been really tested yet is in a proper physical battle and as he's fairly slight and still young, that might take a bit of time to come on.

@Dan LCFC I did a bit of testing earlier and think there must be a bug. Not sure if it's exactly the same as you. I decided I am cashing in on this left back regardless and so managed to get £13m for him as figured going positive would help the finances long term. Currently get 10% of sales but was only going to get £900k (so another small bug there). Sold him but also had another sale of £13m lined up. Figured I would try to get the transfer revenue % increased as even 30% on that kind of deal would do the business. When i went to ask, I noticed that my retained revenue had dropped to 0%?! It wasn't one that said '10% until £x has been raised' . First time I asked I asked they actually said no. Then I loaded again and they gave me 10% again. So despite bringing in £26m they have rewarded me with the exact same % amount and I didn't even get the full £2.6m. Not sure if this is what happened to you but definitely a bug so I will raise on the SI forum. Mental thing is, the projection has drastically improved now and we'd be making £2m profit every year and that's before any EL money so shows how much a drain the negative balance was. If I can't get it resolved, I'll stick it out this year and then hope that give me something like 40% next year with a proper EL budget (gave me £80k a week and £500k budget ), and hopefully I'll have found somebody else to flog for big money, otherwise off to a new country.

I've got Santos too... He's my backup right wing back, not that he can play there. This wingback just got a 10 in his last game as is averaging an 8.5 in his last 5 games. One of those classic teens who hasn't got great stats but is phenomenal. Acceleration 18 is what seems to cause the damage.

@Dan LCFC Oh, and this happened which made me think of you. Yes Roger, you don't need to spend loads when you've got a wage budget 20 times the rest of the league and can make £250m in player sales in one year

Yeah, it's pretty brutal. Maritimo are in a similar boat where they've basically never been out of the top half for the most of the last 2 decades so you'd expect them to be well set up. I actually would have been much better off staying at Vianense because there was little debt. It definitely seems about fluking a good European run and then you'd be ok but still not sure why you got nothing. That wing back is improving all the time and averaging a 7.4 in the league after 12 games (conceded about 20 too ha) which shows you how good he is. He'll be a £10-15m player in the summer and I can't get better now. 5 star potential at this level could mean championship player or world beater, so you want to make sure you're getting good value or sell when they stop improving. But no need to worry on the money front. They've been really kind and cut my £80k a week budget to under £60k so that will be great . You're absolutely right about the gulf in quality though; it's mental. The only thing is the AI will waste their money so will get easier. Projected to lose about £4/5m every year despite that budget and no plans. Strong start though so a chance of Europe. From browsing this thread from time to time, you tend to do quite challenging saves right? So I don't blame you for reaching the end with it. Good luck in Sweden! That'll be quite interesting

Drink driving is beyond stupid. You kind of think it might happen with the odd 18/19 year old who does it once then hopefully realises what a tool they've been. For a 26 year old millionaire, it's beyond dumb. As others have said, he's got access to any means of getting back home, no excuses. For a guy who wants to carry the baton for Asian footballers, he's just about the worst role model you can have. Always some controversy following him about; it's just as well he's not good enough to get more media attention. Should be dropped (and if it wasn't for that new contract, binned off) regardless of our squad size at the moment.

Reading your other posts, that sucks. When you invest the time and have to bin it off. I have actually started an unemployed game a few weeks back and ended up in the third tier of Portugal. I've since changed clubs and just got Maritimo to the top flight. Whilst I do actually get a massive 10% of transfer revenue, we're £9m in debt and because of the way league money is distributed, there's no way we'll be out of that any time soon. Can only sign top league 1/championship quality players (which is fine for this level). Problem is, I have no way of making a dent in that £9m. Got a young wingback who I could maybe get £3m now but that will make no difference. Another youngster who make might some money. But feels like it all hinges on getting to Europe, and more importantly, competing at that level. Once we're in the black, they might give me a bigger chunk of revenue retained and then I can start to wheel and deal a bit more. Yours just sounds like a bug but from what I've read, seems like Portugal is brutal for finances and doesn't get better until you're in Europe. And the difference in ways between you and the top 3 (who probably go from top 10 PL sides to 6/7th best PL side in terms of quality) is on another level. Normally any of the top 5 leagues are so easy because other teams underperform but more because it's so easy to make money and keep making money. This seems like the complete opposite and getting lucky could be what takes you to the next level so really enjoying it, and likely to stay in what was meant to be a journeyman save. Mind you, 3 years in and still not a single coaching badge because of the money might force my hand As for bugs, I went to play my first game after the Jan window last season and noticed my left sided cb was missing. Had him on loan and turns out he had been sold for £40k, which I'd have actually been able to afford! No mention that he had been recalled or sold so lucky we were flying otherwise I'd have been fuming. One of my rules of the save is no 433/4231 as I always do that, so playing 3 centre backs with the the wide centre backs crucial to that.

But a legend of the club isn't just reserved for the very best players but also for those who are synonymous with club, their contribution over time, the longevity etc. Over a decade with nearly 400 appearances across 3 divisions; winning all of them is a pretty legendary achievement and contribution. You mention his contribution but even if not a starter in some of those teams, he still played a key role as the next in line. And you can argue without somebody of his character with the connection to the club, would those things have been possible? Not to mention he was key in us avoiding the drop so by your metrics, we don't win the league without him Cult status is for those guys who were loved for their character more than anything else after a couple of years; guys like Wasilewski. You can't be part of the incredible journey from start to end having captained the team along the way and being considered a 'cult hero'. That is a bit disrespectful, whether you meant it or not. And you say we'd have won those things without him but would we? He was miles ahead of Inler for example who would have stepped into the team. And how many of those players were truly irreplaceable to us? Vardy, Kante, Mahrez and Kasper? The others were all phenomenal but you can't tell me that we couldn't have got players of an equal or better calibre in those positions. It was all about them peaking at the right time. So by that metric, Wes definitely isn't a legend as he was replaceable and if anything he almost cost us the FA Cup when he came on the pitch! And that's a ridiculous statement to make because it was about his contribution to the club in that title winning season and over the years prior and after it. Ultimately, there is no criteria for what a legend is. It would make sense that it's a balance between ability, longevity and contribution to the club. I'm pretty comfortable that Andy King is a club legend based on that.

We've been absolutely dog in this half

Abysmal game management

If the fat controller thinks any ref is good then that's the ultimate sign they are awful. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to make excuses.

Not sure how the game judges it but you can still play passing football even when set on to direct passing. If you're vaguely successful, they'll not judge you on it really. I'm thinking of doing a new save and trying a direct philosophy or even a 5 at the back at sticking with it throughout my career. Too easy to revert to 433's

I reckon you could be onto something there. Definitely should have some player bias but it's gone a bit too far this year. You know what you're doing though so if you planned it right, a title win in 3 years with Wolves isn't entirely out of what would have been last year (well done btw!) Watched some YouTuber who won the PL with Brighton in season 2 (I think) despite having sold plenty of his best players and he's just stayed up with Burton in the PL with some players that are barely rotation options in the championship. His tactics are very basic too (the key to success) As for the Saudi money, I think people have blown that out of proportion. The issue is, and always has been, it's way too easy to make money. Big teams spend £70m on a player who had a good season for you and then he plays 5 games; it's just not realistic. Just saw a video now that had some great examples of it with Hull spending £16m on a decent championship player whilst still being in that league themselves, Rotherham £5m on a not great one and Brentford buying somebody who barely played in the PL last season for £45m... Whilst in the championship . As I say, it needs to give you as the player a tiny boost and make it so it's easier than real life to sell players otherwise it would just be really frustrating for some and like I said before, it's a game designed for escapism. But it's just a bit much at the moment.

It's always quite easy but this year it's ridiculously so (kind of putting me off a longer term save). But who cares? You buy a game to have fun and a bit of escapism so I'd say it's doing its job for you!

And they're both known for performing miracles. Danny's famous one of course is managing to forge a career as a Premier League footballer and fooling an entire nation that he's actually a professional goalkeeper. Come to think of it, maybe he can also turn water into wine? Might explain his performances if his drinks bottle actually contained wine and he was just p***** out of his mind when playing last year.

Also very lucky that it's not at the start of the season. The psychological blow of being 16 points adrift would have been massive.

Only properly watched from 60 mins but that ref was an absolute disgrace. How did Palmer not get a second yellow? He got pretty much every decision wrong.

If they think logically yes. But the narrative will be that all Cov fans think this and it happens with every football club across the country. One idiot's actions define a whole club. This is in no way a defence, I just think as I've got older, I take these things less personally and block them out. Now, if everyone in the stadium starts chanting about it then that's different...

Why not? I've seen things in the same category as this from ours: racism, homophobia, sexism, comments about things like Munich/Hillsborough etc. It's what a small group of people do in all sects of society, it's no exclusive to some and doesn't mean all people in that group think the same. And I'm saying that as somebody who hates human beings!

Sorry you're right, I obviously think it's really cool for people like this and the Millwall fans to take the piss about that tragedy... . I'm simply making the point that some people take it so personally and forget that we've got more than our fair share of absolute scum in our fan base. What they've done is so bottom of the barrel that I just makes me sad for how pathetic, idiotic and parasitic these people are. I'm not going to look at that and think all Cov fans are scum because then you'd just end up with the same outlook on every single football club and therefore think 10's of millions of people in this country are exactly like that

Obviously disgusting and not excusing it but like we wouldn't have fans who'd do similar. Football fans aren't the brightest or most moral bunch are they?

What has changed with FFP? Everybody keeps saying things like this as though it appears differently on the accounts. Money in is money in, no? So you spend £50m on players and sell players for £50m, you're breaking even for that accounting/reporting period. If £10m of that relates to one player, who you happened to buy for £20m (player a), then yes you have made a £10m loss on that player, but you're not punished for doing so. If, in another scenario, you also had the £50m in/£50m out but that included selling a home grown player (player b) for £10m instead of player a, what difference does that make? You're talking a difference of £20m in those 2 scenarios but ultimately the over profit/loss is exactly the same. Realise wages and spreading the cost on the books counts, as well as other exclusions but ultimately it's just being the right side of the maximum loss, over the period? I am missing something that changed in the rules?

This is the thing. Very highly thought of in Italy but his career has been ravaged by injury. If we were heading up after a few years out of the PL, I'd think this is a great signing but since we've a core a decent PL midfielders, seems a bit of a strange one as you'd rather somebody bigger (name and size!) or go for a younger player.

Yep, it was a great double block. Shame his positioning was absolutely shocking in the first instance that meant he had to make those blocks. He was very poor yesterday though a glorious pass for Cannon's goal and given his lack of pace, he's likely to look even more rusty after such a long lay lay off so isn't a game to judge him on really.