Week 6 processing

Jimmy Briand's reward for such a good performance this week was a transfer from Matt's feeder club Flamengo back home to his favored club Marseille. man of the match Briand returns to Marseille in a £3millions cash deal, further swelling Flamengo's overflowing coffers.

A first win of the season sees things improving at Flamengo as squad sizes come down and wages are stabilised. The season can only improve from here on in for Flamengo.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

I'm sensing a trend here where the offers being made by reality managers are just a waste of time ? they do take a long time to process but are they worth it ?

It might be worth another thread on this but from looking at some of the offers I have had, I haven't found them to be that appealing. Van der Vaart straight swap for Rooney for example which didn't necessarily improve my overall team.

It might be too difficult to implement but I think what would be useful is if a reality manager showed an interest in a player it was up to the manager to suggest a deal if he is interested? It may be that other players within the RM's squad might appeal to managers but the offer is non-negotiable so to speak - just a thought?

Schalke's team sheet reads like a whos who of world football with names like Ronaldo, Cassano, Kaka, Xavi, Muller, Gomez and Neuer jumping out at you, but they do seem to be struggling at the moment. They were lucky in their league game to come away with a draw at Bayern and certainly didnt do the best job against Juventus in the Champions League this week either.

The sale of Heiko Westermann to Bayern this week will have helped their squad size issues but they still have five players not getting a game, one of which is a 19 year old goalkeeper who could be well employed in the youth team. Boss Jamie wasn't available for comment but we may be able to catch up with him later and get his views.

Sixth in the league is certainly not good enough for this great team.

Ben@Plymouth wrote:

Paul Hemmings wrote:

I'm sensing a trend here where the offers being made by reality managers are just a waste of time ? they do take a long time to process but are they worth it ?

It might be worth another thread on this but from looking at some of the offers I have had, I haven't found them to be that appealing. Van der Vaart straight swap for Rooney for example which didn't necessarily improve my overall team.

It might be too difficult to implement but I think what would be useful is if a reality manager showed an interest in a player it was up to the manager to suggest a deal if he is interested? It may be that other players within the RM's squad might appeal to managers but the offer is non-negotiable so to speak - just a thought?

The idea is that you can make a permanent deal offer back to the reality manager and then the system can respond to your offer the next week. If that makes sense.

It is definately worth having the reality manager offers but I think Ben is right in that the deal offered sometimes isn't enough to tempt you.

These are players that we aren't looking to sell, so the offer has to be enough to turn our heads and really think.

However saying that I don't want the managers to over offer for certain players. Think striking a balance could be key, not easy I appreciate, but might improve movements between these clubs.

Saying that, 12m for John Arne Riise seems a great offer to me!

A lot better than 4m and Chris Baird for Ledley King!

Paul Hemmings wrote:

The idea is that you can make a permanent deal offer back to the reality manager and then the system can respond to your offer the next week. If that makes sense.

Didn't realise this, makes sense and might make striking a deal more likely, if dialogue can exist between the two parties!

I might try it this turn.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Feyenoord signed Kenneth Vermeer this week for £2millions even though their defensive record id first class, with three clean sheets in their last three league games, and three wins in those games suggests that they arent doing much wrong. They will have to sort out the six players being left out though else club morale will slide and the results will start to dry up. But on the whole another well run feeder club doing extremely well.

A Feyanoord insider suggests that the signing of Vermeer may be the signal for Feyanoords young Belgium keeper Simon Mignolet, who's been in magnificent form to move on to better things and make his natural progression to the clubs parent club Fulham and a greater challenge.

Rumours are also rife that after over 3 seasons of fantastic service to the club Ivory coast international Gervinho may be following him as fulham look to pep up their lacklustre front line.

This is all unconfirmed speculation at this stage as the media try to get hold of the man at the helm.

And lastly in this week's review of forum managed clubs we have Athletico Bilbao, feeder club to the rich and famous, or in this case Schalke. A poor showing this week on the field resulted in a lucky draw at home to Real Betis and £1million fine didnt help their finances either. But of course squad building continues apace with Teemu Pukki ( what a name ) joins for £1million cash as Damien Le Tallec and Dennis krol leave. Also leaving for a hefty £4millions was Marvin Compper who joins Bayern as backup for their new central defensive partnership.

Bilbao have similar problems to other clubs with seven players not being used, two of whom are on the transfer list and one of whom is a loan in from Schalke, so a few problems to sort here as well. But more worrying is no goals in six league games although things should improve once their squad issues are resolved.

Well that's all the printing finished and enveloped ready for the postman later this afternoon. So hopefully you will receive your turns tomorrow.

Now lets go back and have a look in more depth at some of the issues raised

Was there any other problems at arsenal or lille??

I woke up especially early today to just read the last bit of week 6 processing lol.

and what info do you have on arsenal after changing tactics recently and there performances in Europe.

Let's start with Boca's squad size issues, seeing as Rob queried the reporters remarks.

Boca have 26 players not in academies, which is above the max squad size of 25, hence the chairman being a bit upset, but 6 of those are under22s, giving 20 players in the over21 squad, falling within league guidelines nicely, but of those 26 players two are currently classed as unused, a trialist and an 18 year old striker signed this week. So at this time Boca have a 98% squad efficiency. If both are put into academies/teams before next weeks games then the eff will return to 100%.

In this case there is only a slight discrepancy in the numbers as Rob sails a bit close to the wind as usual, but one that can easily be put right before next week.

headlines can be misleading sometimes

Paul Hemmings wrote:

I'm sensing a trend here where the offers being made by reality managers are just a waste of time ? they do take a long time to process but are they worth it ?

I can speak for Inter in that I only brought in Cavani 15 turns ago, with a clear view to building my attack around him. He's the only player that another club has bid for. I'm not playing Eto'o and he's a good player and not an Inter player so it makes less sense that no club would look at him. he wants games, he's good and he's available. I suppose, if I have any criticism of the reality bids is that it doesn't look at who might be available really.

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Paul Hemmings wrote:

The idea is that you can make a permanent deal offer back to the reality manager and then the system can respond to your offer the next week. If that makes sense.

Didn't realise this, makes sense and might make striking a deal more likely, if dialogue can exist between the two parties!

I might try it this turn.

Same here! Probably voids my previous message tho but good to know!

One question I do have Paul on unused players - I presume these are guys not involved in any sort of football within the squad? Including reserve team etc?

I was thinking about this yesterday and in light of Paul's comments about feeder clubs I have two main points:

1: Firstly some of my players didn't want to move to the youth academy (which is essentially a field - presume thought that by staying with the first team squad that this doesn't impact on the 25 (given their age)?

2:Is there a chance that the loan system could be increased to include a loan list for feeder clubs to loan some of the younger players? For example, could you offload some of the younger players to unmanaged clubs to increase the amount of potential first team action they could get and get them off your books for a while?

Just some suggestions...?

Wages seem to becoming a bit of an issue again so we can recap the default wages

basic wages

99=90000, 97=70000, 95=50000, 94=40000, 92=20000, 90=10000

88=8000, 86=6000, 84=4000 82=2000 80=500 78=250

good wages are

99=125000 97=75000 95=55000 94=45000 92=25000 90=15000

88=8000 86=6000 84=4000 82=2000 80=1000 78=500

these are the levels players will expect irrespective of what division you play in. Now you dont have to follow this regime, you can set your own wage structure and as long as players are happy with the wage of the other players in the same band they will stay happy, but if your wage structure is below another team and one of your players goes on international duty and finds out somebody in the international squad at the same wage rating is earning more then he will become disgruntled for that week only.

Ben, I think this is what happened to Rooney last week.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Ben, I think this is what happened to Rooney last week.

Ok I understand now as I pay him well above the 125K good wage so hopefully he bloody should be happy enough, although he has caused every other 9999 to ask for the same as him!

Will this continue everytime he heads off on Int Duty though or is it just a once a season thing, as he hasn't ask for a raise at all?

The point about squad sizes was to try and handle the issue of people hoarding players, which a few of you wanted me to address. I think the current system of squad size does make you think about the number of players you can comfortably home at each of your clubs, so I dont really want to extend the loan system in anyway to now circumnavigate it.

Basically you need to control your squad size.

Ben@Plymouth wrote:

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Ben, I think this is what happened to Rooney last week.

Ok I understand now as I pay him well above the 125K good wage so hopefully he bloody should be happy enough, although he has caused every other 9999 to ask for the same as him!

Will this continue everytime he heads off on Int Duty though or is it just a once a season thing, as he hasn't ask for a raise at all?

As I said it happens when players go on international duty, that implies each time they join up with their international colleagues. The effect starts following the international match and finishes once the morale is readjusted at the end of the week, so you dont really see it in print anywhere, its just implied with a below par performance.

processing order is games(fr/int or cup/league), coaching, morale

Clever managers can use it to adversely effect other clubs players in games that follow international matches that week.

Okay lets take an in depth look at Arsenal now

Perfect thanks Paul - a bit of trial and error therefore needed to ensure Rooney doesn't come back unhappy again!

I weep at the thought that Wazza isn't the highest paid english player.

Rich@Birmingham wrote:

I weep at the thought that Wazza isn't the highest paid english player.

I know mate lol and he is on a serious amount of £££!

I might call up Beckham to the England squad now he is on mega wage, seeing as I have no other English players, it might make the others think that they want more!!

Paul Hemmings wrote:

The point about squad sizes was to try and handle the issue of people hoarding players, which a few of you wanted me to address. I think the current system of squad size does make you think about the number of players you can comfortably home at each of your clubs, so I dont really want to extend the loan system in anyway to now circumnavigate it.

Basically you need to control your squad size.

I like the squad size limits and if I don't manage it properly then I only have myself to blame. So for me it makes sense.

Arsenal

We'll start on the pitch, six games, the first four of which only produced one win with the MIX tactic, and since the switch to FLY they have two wins one of which was by three goals , so I'd say that was working out well, but could be improved by switching their striker to a centre forward, as the wingers do prefer playing with a centre forward, he is easier to find than a striker in close games when they are under pressure whilst trying to cross.

Squad is right at the maximum limit of 25 players, with 5 under22s, but of those one is unused atm, Chris Gunter needs to play in either the first team or reserves, so they may have to sell to make room for him if they want to happily keep him. If you keep him unused he will eventually upset more players who are playing, especially as he is an international.

Financially the Gunners are struggling with a £3million debt and players are worried about not being paid next week. But can still raise £5million from sale of their internet rights to the Emirates conglomerate. They also dont have a travel sponsor, drink sponsor or phone sponsor, all small amounts, but they do add up.

Is Joey Barton going to be happy playing week in week out in the reserves ?

Aaron Ramsey will be turning 22 this year and will also need some time in the first team, so plenty of issues on the horizon for Phil to think about.