shen

Of course, I am fully aware I'm missing out on a lot by just watching the highlights, so I will trust your opinion. For what it's worth, my take from the highlights is that the stats seem a little misleading. Especially the 2,94 xG for Brugge as their chances felt like high quality chances (the double save first have probably accounted for 1,4-1,5 xG by itself). Their first and last goal also felt like low xG chances, i.e. not unreasonable to suggest they could've had more. FYI - Flashscore actually thinks the xG was 0,85 against 3,37. Obviously Brugge are top opposition, but this mirrors the trend from the friendlies a bit. Against superior opposition they need to be a bit harder to beat IMO. You don't give yourself many chances of getting any points if you concede 3+ goals per game.

Ooof, soundly beaten here. Brugge could and probably should have had 5 or 6 goals. Extremely passive and naïve defending. That needs to be rectified asap or else I fear they'll be fighting to avoid relegation again.

Sure, but many boys around 17 already have the physique of grown men. Just saying that his current stature would make me sceptical that he's ready for first team football. But maybe he'll grow a bit over the next year or two.

The Ghost transfers? I've checked, but all staff settings look correct. As Jack Diarra was 23 when he signed, I don't think it's to do with any U21/U18 manager shenanigans. I'm lucky Diarra is actually starting quality, so the club have made a bargain. Machmoum is now third in the NxGen top 50 (although I don't think he will improve much more - he's a solid PL level right back already though), so I can't complain 😅 Roekaerts was never a great goalkeeper and I did get him to perform well last season where I det up more defensively in general. He must not be well suited for my current tactics which are more attacking, but I am indeed seeing more goals from range fly in, like you were experiencing. GK is my weakest position, so I will be looking to strengthen here. The downside is Roekaerts is home grown with regards to registration in Europe/Jupiter league, so I didn't make it a priority to phase him out.

He looks extremely light weight?

Ultimately, is it the players' fault for not being good enough though? Our recruitment team scouts them*, the DoF signs them with the chairman's money. The manager selects them, the coaches are coaching them. Assuming the players are well-meaning people in general, then they are trying to do their best in the given circumstances. Some might not be up to it, but I'm not sure booing them improves confidence or performance levels. Booing and protests could absolutely be aimed at the leadership who are responsible for the failed strategies, player transfers, managerial hires etc.

Somebody is sucking up to the manager!

Diegem update: I reported the issue of ghost transfers to SI Games, but as I'd continued playing and couldn't produce a save just before the transfer happened, I decided to load a save from the summer and go on holiday until the date of the transfer (in January). But in my nervousness to not overwrite my ongoing save, which had reached end of March, I of course ended up overwriting it... By that point I was two points ahead of Club Brugge with five games to go and annoyingly I'd made a lot of scouting and training adjustments. And it was all in vain as the bug/issue didn't get reproduced anyway. Thankfully I had a backup which was from the end of January, but I still had to redo all the time consuming changes. By the time I had reached March again, I had already sewn up the league as both Club Brugge and Antwerp imploded and let me run away with it. So this league win feels very much tainted and I feel robbed of an exciting finish, but I couldn't be arsed to redo it all again. Club Brugge, who had comfortably been the second-best side with a GD just below ours, even ended up dropping out of the top four completely on the last day and won't be in Europe, which may make subsequent seasons easier as well. Not sure I'll keep going until I win the CL with Diegem as that is probably too tedious and time consuming. The biggest achievement of the season was actually my U-18 side which went on to win the UEFA Youth League. My academy has been producing "Elite" talent for three straight years now and one of them already has two full seasons of being a rotation player and is worth north of £25m already. I expect to blood in a centerback and a striker, maybe even a goalkeeper this next season. It's often been an ambition of mine to have home-grown players that can actually become good enough to play at the top level, but I rarely play more than 6-7 seasons, just when the academies usually come online and start producing worthwhile talent. With Diegem however, the academy has been producing above it's level for a while which is a very pleasant surprise.

It's become a LCFC specialty by now.

That's another mil knocked off his price then. And this is why you don't play wantaway players.

How do you read it as justification?? My point is that our main goal threats may well be from other areas/players than our striker and that we shouldn't reduce the striker role to just being a goal machine.

Did you predict JJ would be our top scorer last season? Or that Andy King would be such a goal machine last time around these parts? Cullen, Alves, Page (if he stays), Chaplin, Burns... We could absolutely have a genuine goalscorer at the club already, it doesn't have to be a striker.

It's like comparing the plague with cholera. Cooper was appointed first and presided over a team and vetted signings that were dreadful. We didn't do wrong sacking him, but we compounded the mistake with another bad appointment (and another... and another!) Out of all of them, Cooper was dealt the best/least worst hand though.

How is the youth player pool when managing a women's team? Are as many players generated as in the men's game?

And he wouldn't have been the player he was without Anderlecht etc. Ultimately, he's got himself to thank for making it all the way to Man Utd and captaining Belgium. It didn't end happily with us - and that's probably another indictment of the management & leadership at the club - but he obviously stepped up a level at Villa and arguably had his biggest club achievement there (winning the Europa League).

Harry Souttar deal done?

Ricardo, Soumaré, Ayew, Faes, probably Mavididi. Maybe James also picked up enough of it at Rennes, but probably not enough to backtalk.

Yeah, it is bizarre how a player can be booked or sent off for protesting or badmouthing the ref/offend a player racially/cover his mouth, but a clear act of physical violence (for a lack of better term) is completely ignored. It's a shame the season had to start on such a sour note. Better luck next game.

What a pathetic red card. Of course it's retaliation, but he gets barged into and the Charleroi player gets brushed on his ear by a reaction slap and goes down like he's shot. In my humble opinion, that should immediately cancel the card or result in a red for Charleroi play acting as well. Disgusting. The way the commentator just goes "dat moet je niet doen" and excuses the embarrassing unsportsmanlike conduct of the Charleroi player... pfff. Grow some balls and call it out!

And his dad, Admin, too

MK Dons and Wycombe handed out one year deals and Blackpool gave him a two year deal and moved him on for nothing after one year, so it checks out that we would 'secure' him for three years

So, he's been at four British clubs in the past seven seasons and has only regularly featured in four of them. He had a year left on his contract at Blackpool, but they don't even bother with a fee. He's 29 years old. He just oozes quality doesn't he?

There could be plenty of reasons. Maybe they treat their players well and don't let them rot on the bench or in the reserves when there is demand for them. It's also good business from a PSR perspective. Cole Palmer is an example that they let great talent go, even if it makes their competition stronger.

It is just another indictment of our recruitment planning. The fact it's the manager putting these names forward, or at the very least, selecting them from a list, means we have no clue or long term plan when it comes to squad planning. When Martin is inevitably sacked in early 2027 (as seems customary for our club lately), then we're saddled with his players for another 2,5 years.

Obviously we sell. He's one of the few first teamers with sell-on value. He'd be on large wages and he doesn't want or need to play League One football. If we can reinvest a couple of mil, then I'd find a defender who's better suited to the way we play.