Anyway it was time to start my first proper season with 'Tuna. From the 3 games of last season and a general look at my players I thought we should be aiming pretty high. We were playing like a top half team and the media likewise thought we should be aiming for that as well. They were predicting 3rd place. The board joined in with the general feel of optimistic and suggested a top half finish as well.
They handed over a reasonable wage budget (£4.2k a week) and quite a big transfer budget (~£40k). At this level I don't often spend the transfer budget. There aren't many players worth the money, and you're unlikely to ever recover your fee. So I was tempted to pump the money back into the wage budget if needed. Hopefully it wouldn't be though as I was around 1.5k under the budget anyway. I want to try and be financially responsible by keeping under the budget. What I've learnt from my previous save is that with smaller teams in FM13 finances, or a lack of, seem to hit much harder (realistically so) compared to past versions.
Transfers
So I have good financial intentions...not sure I've stuck to my guns completely though as I've tempted a few players in by more or less flaunting a wad of notes under their nose. Like Oskarshamn I didn't have many players show an interest but unlike my time at Oskarshamn I was able to use offer enough to let their greed take over.
So my transfer activity is as follows...
[The screenshots below were taken at various points during the season (I've almost caught up with myself!) so please excuse any clues and hints they give away as to how the seasons gone.]
Up Front
I brought in 4 players here, 2 of those on loan. Seems like quite a lot but I wanted to a) have some depth, b) some competition and c) have options if one or more of them couldn't hit a barn door.
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| Magnusson |
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| Felic |
Here's where I may go a little off track but I have a theory as to why that is - pattern recognition. I'm a psychologist. My background is cognitive psychology and as well as lecturing in the area I conduct research. One of the things people tend to be good at, or good at learning about anyway, is pattern recognition. We can recognise a chair when we only see part of it because we auto-complete the image - we associate a certain physical pattern with the concept or memory of a chair and when enough of that pattern is activated we bring to mind or recall the associated concept. We can pick out hidden images because we manipulate and adjust things mentally, and we can represent (see Connectionism if anyone is interested) concepts, ideas, images, memories, etc. theoretically as patterns.
What I think is happening here is I've learnt (correctly or not) that a certain spread of mental attributes can be associated with a certain type of player. In this case creative forwards. So when I see pattern similar to it that is what is brought to mind. Now I could be wrong (on so many levels) but it's a comforting explanation for me. I'm not going mad and irrational my mind is just working according to basic behaviourist/connectionist principles and that's that. I actually have an idea to test this....
Back on track now - I also tend to, irrationally perhaps, favour players I own over loanee's. I take a bit of a mercenary attitude perhaps but unless a loan player is going to sign for me I don't care about their development. If I own them though then I have much more of a vested interest in giving them the time on the pitch to do well. I know it doesn't really apply to a player Felic's age but I find it a difficult habit to break.
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| Berner |
Berner again was going to be rotated in or played from the bench. Partly because of his speed and partly because if need be I could play him in the AMR position and have Felic feed him. Hopefully he'll develop well.
I've not mentioned the final striker. A loanee called Englund. Mainly because they're middle of the road and are my emergency striker. Again no wage cost, so I thought I'd have them there in case the worst happens and all of the above 3 end up limping around with leg casts on.
Midfield
I didn't need anywhere near as much reinforcement here so I didn't sign anyone. I did try and get a few people in - loans and free's. But the loanee's didn't want to come and the free's wanted too much for what would essentially be a back up and bench warming role for many of them.
Defence
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| Molder |
A little more activity here. A right back - Molder. And a central defender - Ekblad. Molder to slot straight in, and maybe rotate with my Swedish U19 defender Manns. Ekblad was there to act as a solid back up for the centre.
Molder looked like a good bet for the wing back role. Fast, defensively sound when needed (tackling, marking and concentration at least!) and mentally...adequate. He can also pass which means when he's done running the ball might go somewhere useful.
So those are my recruits....but what of the rest of the team. Well below is my starting 11 plus tactic.
And below are some of the key players.
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| Cirak - AMR |
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| Wikstrom - DMC |
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| Alan... I mean Anton Hansen - DL/C |
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| Lundevall - MC |
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| Another Cirak - MC or AMC |
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| Manns - DC/R |
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| Kamara - MC |
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| Celsing - AML |
A lot of them seem to perform way beyond there stats. The Cirak's for example aren't fantastic stats wise but they are a real threat. Likewise Kamara seems half decent but he plays like twice the player the stats suggest. So with the new recruits and the core of the team from last year I was ready to take on the rest of the Swedish 2nd Division South Svealand.
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