Quadruple-Dreams-and-Impact-of-Recent-Financial-Changes

At the start of last week I had hopes of achieving a quadruple in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065) and it got me wondering how many managers in a Gold Championship have actually achieved this?

To achieve a quadruple is a unique achievement. It’s something that I wanted to try and achieve. I had already won the Spanish Shield earlier in the season. With 3 league games left of the season I were going toe-to-toe with Valencia for the title and I also faced them in the semi final of the SMFA Cup. I also faced Levante in the semi final of the Spanish Cup.

I always try and keep a small first team squad and it currently stands at 20 players with an average rating of 93. I usually have a dozen or so younger players out on loan but none are good enough to get into my starting XI. However, I have a handful of players in my youth squad that are 85-86 rated that I can call on to compliment my first team. Naturally when you have a small squad as soon as injuries or suspensions hit it can cause a few problems but to date it’s never been a major concern.

So I had hopes of achieving a quadruple but alas it weren’t to happen as I ended up playing 7 games in 10 days. The busy schedule took it’s toll on my small squad and something had to give and after reaching the Spanish Cup final I decided to sacrifice that competition:

  • Monday 11th January SMFA Cup Semi Final Leg 1 Castilla 1-1 Valencia
  • Wednesday 13th January Castilla 3-0 Valladolid
  • Friday 15th January Spanish Cup Semi Final Castilla 3-2 Levante
  • Saturday 16th January Granada 0-2 Castilla
  • Sunday 17th January SMFA Cup Semi Final Leg 2 Valencia 0-3 Castilla
  • Tuesday 19th January Spanish Cup Final Castilla 0-2 Zaragoza
  • Wednesday 20th January Castilla 4-0 Zaragoza

Having a key first team player out with a torn ankle ligament since 23rd December, 2015, didn’t help and another squad player wasn’t due to return from injury until 15th January after a 7 week lay off. Throw into the equation one of my CBs picking up an injury on 16th January and this meant I were literally screwed!

I can’t really complain though as I made the decision to have a small squad and it was a good challenge juggling my starting XI from game to game. I also had to delve into the loan market after playing three consecutive games ahead of the Spanish Cup final. Morecambe (who I incidentally face in the SMFA Cup Final on 25th January) were kind enough to loan me 3 players and they went straight into my starting XI for the final along with numerous youth players. Something had to give and I sacrificed that competition so I could field a strong XI to try and clinch the league title the next day. Thankfully I gained revenge over Zaragoza the next day and won the league ahead of Valencia on goal difference!

Why do I have such a small squad? It’s to keep a rein on my finances as well as ensuring that I don’t hog players that I don’t need. My wage bill and ground maintenance is currently 98.8M and 4.63M respectively per season. So I know that next season my outgoings will be approximately 103M for the season. I’ve done some quick calculations and i’ll be making 1.97M per home league game and approximately 37.43M over the course of the season.Throw in the 511K that i’ll make away from home and that’s an additional 9.7M in income. So I can expect approximately 47M income over the season.

My initial thought is i’m screwed as i’ll be making a deficit of 56M. However, i’m not taking into account any cup runs that I may go on both domestically and in the SMFA as i’ve only factored in income from league games. My outgoings are as high as they are because the average rating of the 20 players in my first team is 93 and my youth players are developing as expected and likewise this is reflected in their increase in ratings.

Without wanting to blow my own trumpet but with the players that I have at my disposal I should be reaching the latter rounds of both domestic cups and also the SMFA Cup (which incidentally I have done this season). So this is were I close the 56M in deficit because any additional revenue that I generate from playing a domestic or SMFA cup game is a bonus.

I’m also sat here with a big grin on my face whilst I type knowing that i’ve just received 26.5M in prize money for winning the Spanish league. This is because we’ve just made changes to prize money based on our communities feedback. I know that i’ll be guaranteed at least 10M on 25th January for playing in the final of the SMFA Cup and if I win the trophy for the fourth time i’ll pocket 20M. Throw into the mix my share of gate receipts, merchandising and TV revenue and this is going to be a very lucrative game.

If the changes to prize money were in place at the start of the season I could’ve made in the region of 20-30M in my run to the SMFA Cup final. The prize money has also increased for the domestic cups and you also generate additional income from these games. However, I now know which competition other than the league that i’ll be concentrating on next season as the SMFA Cup is now a very lucrative tournament.

Actually i’ll be making additional revenue due to the revised attendances and stadium building. Prior to the changes I had a stadium of 17K or so and only averaged around 13K fans each home game. My stadium increased to 24K when this was in Beta in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065) and then again to 28K when this went live. Last week as a one off and to bring club’s up-to-date and in-line with the changes, some clubs received another increase and you can read about there here.

So my stadium capacity now stands at 31,284. My first home game after this increase saw a record 31,261 fans attend. Quite good timing really as they saw me clinch my first league title in 4 seasons! I might have to recalculate my projected income from home games next season as due to how attendances and stadium building works there is a very good chance that it’ll be increased once again when we move into season 22 in the next week or two.

So on reflection it’s not all doom and gloom and as bad as I first thought as I should be making a nice profit next season (that’s not even taking into account how I operate in the transfer market as I usually turn a profit in transfers each season). I’m now looking forward to the SMFA Cup final on 25th January and also a good battle next season once again with the managers in the Spanish league as I try and defend my league title.

About the author – Steven Gore

Steven is one of the co-founders of Soccer Manager and has been playing SM Worlds since August 2005. He can be found in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065) managing Castilla if you’d like to join him.

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Milestones-&-Best-Managers

One of the things i’ve been doing recently is reviewing the Help in Soccer Manager Worlds as it needs updating. Whilst looking at which articles we currently have and making note of if they’re still relevant and if they need updating, I came across one titled Best Managers. Due to being on the new user interface (UI) I went looking for this list as due to being on Soccer Manager since day one I thought there’s a pretty good chance that I might feature in one of them due to how it is currently setup.

Disappointingly I couldn’t find Best Managers within the new UI but managed to find it hidden away in the old one. I thought to myself I wonder how many members of our community are aware that this exists due to it being hidden away? If you do want to look at it as it makes an interesting read you need to click on Community within the cog icon on the desktop and then the Best Managers tab. For ease you can always click here as a shortcut.

Due to only having one team (as I don’t include the other one as it’s within a test Game World) which is in a Gold Championship I naturally went to the Gold Game World area to see where I am currently ranked. I’m currently sat in 26th place with my Castilla which is in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065). I’m quite proud of this as there are a lot of good managers around and i’ve managed to get in the Top 50 having taken on a small club and building them to a powerhouse over the years. However, this is where the problem lies.

There are now quite a few Gold Championships and the newest team from those Game Worlds is from Gold Championship 86. That in itself speaks volumes. This is because it uses Manager Points (which you can read about here) and naturally the managers with the most accumulated points will be in the Top 50. It’s good having a list like this but it also means that it’ll be near impossible to enter it due to how it currently works. Yes, you can argue that that is what the Average Points tab is for to see a snapshot of now but something needs to change.

The Best Managers firstly needs to be brought into the new UI. After that it needs to be brought to the fore so that it’s not hidden away in some menu that no one knows about. Lastly it needs to be expanded on so that it also includes a monthly Top 50 that is reset every 30 days as I believe that is something that managers would like to try and be part of.

After visiting the Best Managers it reminded me that there is also a Best Managers for your Game World. Again I believe that this is hidden away and a lot of managers probably aren’t aware of it’s existence. You can access it on the old UI via Game World (the globe icon) ? Overview / History > History > Best Managers. On the new UI via Game World > Overview / History > History > Best Managers. Unfortunately I can’t provide a link this time as it wouldn’t take you to your Game World.

Again I weren’t surprised to see my Castilla in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065) sat in both the Best Game World Managers of All Time as well as Best Current Game World Managers. This is because just like with the Best Managers it uses Manager Points to work out the Top 10 managers for each list.

It’s very well seeing myself sat in both Top 10s (currently sat in 2nd in both leaderboards) as I took control of my team in the Summer of 2007 but again it’ll be hard for those that haven’t been in the Game World to enter it.

So I know that the same problems that exist with Best Managers also exist with Best Managers for your Game World. I won’t list them all again and also what needs doing as i’ll just be repeating myself.

However, I will state that i’m a strong advocate of the community aspect of the game as I believe that is what Soccer Manager Worlds is all about. So needless to say that the Best Managers is an area that I want to improve going forward as there is nothing better than boasting to your mates that you’re now above them in the Best Game World Managers list whether it is for current managers or a new monthly leaderboard.

This leads me to my next point. It was only when I went to Best Managers within my Game World that I noticed i’d been manager of Castilla for 999 games! That’s some achievement considering you play two league games each week and any additional games are dependent on your success in domestic and SMFA cups.

Even though I played my 1,000th game in the first leg of the SMFA Cup on Monday night it felt like a damp squib. This game could easily have come and gone without me even knowing! It made me think that this achievement wasn’t important. So what, you’ve managed the same club for that many games? Well it is an achievement and i’d be nice to let other managers in your Game World know about it. Never mind other managers, I want to know about it as well so that it just doesn’t pass by like any other game!!!

So it got me thinking that just like with Best Managers we should do more to celebrate milestones that you achieve with your club. This is something you should be made aware of. This is something that you should shout from the rooftops and let other managers know. Needless to say this is an area of the game that i’d like to see improved going forward.

About the author – Steven Gore

Steven is one of the co-founders of Soccer Manager and has been playing SM Worlds since August 2005. He can be found in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065) managing Castilla if you’d like to join him.

PLAY SOCCER MANAGER NOW

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