Season 9 - The Financial Fair Play Fiasco #FM16 #WeAreTheCommunity

August 26, 2016

OK, caution if you are about to embark on this blog post. Get a drink, sit comfortably and relax...for what you are about to read is one mother of a shitstorm...

Background

In January 2018 (half way through Season 3 of my save) Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ) were bought out by Italian tycoon, Franco Soldati. I wrote a blog post about it almost 9 {real life} months ago and ran a Twitter poll as to what direction my save should go in:

60 out of 100 people voted for me to 'Adapt' my save: continuing with the Homegrown project but by purchasing 1-2 BIG name players each season. The attention and support I got from the FM Community was overwhelming and I thank you all who helped me out on this.

My save is now in June 2023 and the unthinkable is happening: GCZ are failing their Financial Fair Play (FFP) targets and are in serious danger of being excluded from Europe competitions for the 2024/25 (for what would be my 10th and final season in FM16). This simply CANNOT and WILL NOT happen under my management. Today's blog outlines how (1) I (with the addition of a lacklustre Boardroom) got into this position and (2) the remedy I will put in place for Seasons 9 and 10.

'Snapping necks and cashing cheques' (Transfers)

Under my management GCZ have won 8 consecutive Swiss Super League titles with 4 Domestic Doubles (4 Swiss Cups). We are the indisputable Heavyweight of Swiss football and have represented Switzerland in 7 consecutive Champions League Group Stages. In the past 5 years we have progressed into the later stages of a European campaign (either in the Champions League of Euro Cup). You could be forgiven for asking what the fuck has happened with all that money? I am partly to blame with some of the names and wages I have bought in, so let's take a look at the errors of my ways first...

Season 3 2017/18 (after board takeover)

After Soldati ploughed £26m into the Transfer budget, I only had a few days to invest in a big name player. I chose Niklas Stark at £11m to be the marquee signing. Nicklas arrived on big wages for the time (£39k per week). He became a great DM for us and left just 18 months later for £18m, when Liverpool bid for him.

Season 4 2018/19

Season 4 was also pretty low key for GCZ. We only made two purchases, both under the £11m Stark fee: young forward Franco López (£7m) and Spanish right back Patric (£3.5m). Hardly a huge outlay...both signings commanded wages of around £30k per week.

Season 5 2019/20

By Season 5 I had a really good team and wanted to polish it around the edges with a transfer record, so we went with Iuri Medeiros for £16.75m on £70k a week. But this was countered with the sales of midfielders Marko Grujic (£15m) & Nicklas Stark (£18m). So we were still a relatively healthy financial position: an overall balance of £24m.

Season 6 2020/21

I once again broke my transfer record by adding Julian Weigl at a price of £24.5m from Dortmund. Julian was an earner similar to Iuri on £60k per week. Despite this, I still made a profit on transfers of £19m by moving on Patric (mentioned earlier) for £16.5m and Homegrown Wonderkid Marco SImon for £20m. Our cash reserves had swelled to £36m.

Season 7 2021/22

Two major marque signings arrived for Season 7: Roman Bürki (£15.75m) and Victor Silva (£8.75m). I once again made profit (£26m) which included the record sale of Iuri Medeiros to Man Utd for £30m. We had maintained a balance of £36m.

Season 8 2022/23

Season 8 was one of the 1st years where I spent more than I made back from sales: around £2m. We made big investments in Brazilian Regen Casado and Swiss International Silvan Widmer (both at £9.5m). But we had fairly big sales of Adama Traoré (£8m) and Homegrown talent Stephan Hotz (£6.5m). In January 2023 I also bought back Franco López (£15m) for his second spell at GCZ.

Overall, I think I managed the transfer dealings quite well over my 8 years - although admittedly I have been a bit relaxed with wages and have had several players on £50-70k per week at any one time. Below is a break down of profit/loss on transfers in each Season:

Transfer Fees (Spent/Received 2015-2023)

Now my success in the transfer market has masked over a critical issue at GCZ, and it's the transition from Season 8 to 9, which has highlighted the fragile nature of our business. The FFP is a box probably overlooked by a lot of FMers, (including me for the most part):

In short, what the above states is: GCZ is not permitted to make a loss of more than £9.89m over a twelve-month period. Immediately I was crying out that this was a bug in FM and that SI had got it all wrong. After all, I had only made a loss of £2.22m in the transfer window and I surely didn't spend £8m on Agent fees (or any other expenditure outside of transfers). But the key thing to emphasise here is the 'twelve-month period', for all the good work done through transfer dealings in Seasons 5, 6 and 7 is not considered for the period between 8 and 9.

Sadly, the answers to the problem are found in the very small details of the finance tabs in FM, which is something I do not like doing. I'm not a huge stats man to be honest, I passed with good scores in my stat modules during my BA and MSc degrees, but I play FM to watch football...not view budget sheets. Plus the software in my degrees did all the work for me, sadly in FM...I had to go back to basic pen and paper (and calculator). Luckily the partial answers are easily visible within the top 4 club expenditures by comparing Season 7 against Season 8:

Season 8's top 4 expenditures - please look at 'Last Season' for this as the Saved Game has rolled into what is now Season 9 (sorry)

By comparing the above two seasons we can see that there has been an increase of £7.5m expenditure at GCZ (from the Top 4 streams). Now we have to look at the income between the two seasons and see what has gone wrong there...

Below is the income from Season 7, I only have to look at the top 3 income streams to see why there is an issue with FFP in the first place:

Season 8's top 3 income streams - please look at 'Last Season' for this as the Saved Game has rolled into what is now Season 9 (sorry) — Season 8's top 3 income streams - please look at 'Last Season' for this as the Saved Game has rolled into what is now Season 9 (sorry)

So what does the above show us? Well, we improved marginally on Gate Receipts (something I will come on to later) but didn't do too well with the prize money or players sold income streams. By comparing the two seasons in isolation, Season 8 is around £28m short in income. This is primarily what has brought the FFP issue to the forefront of my awareness. Basically, player sales and performance related prize money were masking an underlying issue at GCZ: we are not a self sustaining club. So if you have got reading this far, you might wonder why this FFP issue did not arise sooner...notably in Seasons 3 or 4 (years where I made greater losses in the transfer market). Season 3's FFP commitments were met through the cash injection made by the Soldati buy out:

Season 3's top 3 income streams - 'other' is the Soldati takeover

And Season 4 had a really successful run in the Champions League (Quarter Final). Check out the prize money below:

Season 4's top 3 income streams - which included a glorious Champions League run to the QFs

So Season 8 is a combination of higher than previous year wages (800k per week on wages) AND not over achieving in Europe. I am happy to take some portion of the blame for this, but the real culprits are found in the GC Boardroom, as one bad(?) season shouldn't jeopardise the Club. (I say bad loosely - we broke the total points record in the Swiss Super League and won a Domestic Double).

Frugal Soldati

Stadium

I genuinely thought after the initial cash injection that Franco Soldati would invest regularly into GCZ, improving all facets of the Club infrastructure - most notably the Stadium. As outlined in my 1st ever blog post about this save, one of my major desires for GCZ was to see them return home to Hardtrum. An extract from that blog:

GCZ have had a bittersweet relationship with FC Zürich and now ground share at the Letzigrund. For all intents and purposes, this remains FC Zürich's spiritual home and not GCZ's.

When I first arrived at GC the attendances were shocking, we barely scrapped 6,000 at home to Vaduz in 2015/16. However, fast forward to 2022/23 and our lowest attendance is twice that figure (13,291 against Thun). Furthermore, we have increased our Average Attendance during the 8 years by circa 9,000:

A further frustration of mine is that GC have sold out 6 times in the league (and are only 4k off a maximum average attendance), highlighting that there's clear demand for the Club to invest in a better stadium. This also doesn't include our Champions League games...which are nearly always at maximum capacity.

I have lost count the number of times I have asked to relocate stadiums, especially when we were floating around £40m disposable cash reserves (I know stadiums cost A LOT more than this, but a £40m deposit + some of their investment would make a sizeable mortgage claim). Each time I am refused saying that a sizeable increase in fanbase is needed.

Sponsors

Franco and company have done some work here on bringing in Sponsors, they have now arranged additional deals for an additional kit sponsor, continental sponsorship & training kit sponsor but we are still behind the Heavyweights like Man Utd who have a deal for almost anything. But what really irritates me, is the length at which it took Soldati and co to arrange these deals. It was only in Season 6 that these additional sponsors were arranged. So they took 3 years to get their arses in gear!

Furthermore, on an initial view...it looks like the deals they got GC are fantastically better than the previous ones before the Takeover:

Season 3/4 Sponsors (pre-takeover deals)

*drumroll*

Season 8 Sponsors (4.5 years into Soldati's ownership)

If we look at the above, Soldati seems to have got us a great deal on the Main Kit Sponsor...until you realise that the duration of the contract arranged is longer. The value per season is actually not that dissimilar to what was happening 4 years ago. I can understand the Board having difficulty marketing a Swiss team abroad due to the league rep (after all, you can't polish a turd), but I struggle to understand why it took so long to arrange the additional deals...we were already in Europe at the time of the Takeover. I could go on about other Income streams, but for the purposes of today's blog...you get my point: I have a lacklustre Board who are not proactive in making this club self-sustaining.

Also, here's a free Soldati dartboard for you all...

The Remedy

So as we approach the final two Seasons of my GCZ career, there is only one remedy for coping with the FFP Fiasco: go back to making net transfer profit whilst remaining competitive in Europe. In a lot of ways it feels like the save has gone full circle, as I've reached the limits of my transfer indulgence. Here are the deals so far, which have tipped us back into meeting FFP (but it's still perilously tight):

Currently sitting on £8.65m profit going into Season 9

The one big sale so far is Casado (£20m), who you may have read about in my Casado Experiment series. Unfortunately I am taking any bid of value into consideration, as I absolutely detest offering out happy players to clubs. It's bad for morale and I find on FM that there is no guarantee that clubs (even interested ones) will bid...even for lower than market value. It's for this reason that I am just biding my time and waiting for bids (puns!). The signings of Rahn (£6m) and Ngissah (£10m) are necessary but arranged many months prior to the FFP fiasco. This leaves us meeting FFP 'by the skin of our teeth':

So we approach Season 9 with a large imbalance in the First Team squad - we are 1 day away from starting our league defence. Most worryingly there is absolutely no left back whatsoever (not even a viable youth option) and we only have 3 capable Centre Backs. It's time to work the magic in the loan market, mirco-manage the team again and do whatever made me successful during the formative years in this save.

Can we still compete in Europe AND the league? Or will I see GCZ slide away into obscurity, tarnishing my legacy with this great club? Keep and eye on my Twitter and on this site for further updates.

As always, thanks for reading.

FMG

Ball Playing Defender: 'The Casado Experiment' Part II #FM16 #WeAreTheCommunity

August 23, 2016

Experiments provide:

...insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated

Back when I introduced Casado at the start of Season 8 there was no guarantee that this experiment would work - to turn a Brazilian central midfielder into a capable Ball Playing Defender (BPD). I was keen to ensure the 'experiment' wording was left in the title, I was under no illusions as to how hard it would be AND that things might not go to plan. Today's blog charts out the progress I have made in one season (Season 8: 2022/23): the successes and the failures.

Positional Suitability

One of the major successes, and something I was confident on, was Casado's ease at understanding the Central Defensive role. Within 3 months he was Awkward but by around 6 months Casado was an Accomplished Centre Back:

Box to Box: Casado is now capable of playing in 4 strata (CD,DM,MC,AMC).

The reason for my confidence is twofold, (1) I am stubborn - I would play Casado out of position on a regular basis - something you can see above: 22 starts at CB (81% of Casado's playing time was at the back as a BPD). (2) Secondly, and perhaps more crucially, Casado has the right Professional mentality to make this work. Professional players in FM will (within reason) not complain about the intensity of their training. Whether it's positional change, additional focus or a new PPM...they simply get on with it.

Glimpses Of Magic

Over the period of 12 months, Casado has shown glimpses of technical prowess in our attack. He has only made one direct assist, but he has shown good composure and passing ability in many 2nd or 3rd assists - what we'd expect from a BPD. An example is shown below, from a Champions League home win against FC Twente:

The frustrations I have when I watch the above GIF is that the occurrences are few and far between. I know for sure that Casado would have a more positive influence on our attack if he was played in a more advanced strata - whether it be DM, MC or AMC.

A Debut Disguise

Casado had a pretty memorable debut, not only was he part of a team that conceded 3 goals yet still won...he also scored a beauty (GCZ's 5th goal in a 5-3 victory):

The game was frantic, Casado played on the left side of a back three along with Davide Traverso (Regen) and Homegrown Noah Loosli. Both his partners had the Strength, Jumping and Heading ability to compensate for Casado's light frame. So I was expecting Casado to come out and play from the back. From what we see below, his passing and ball playing influences are marginally better than his peers:

We can see above that Casado is slightly more advanced and generally plays more riskier balls than his two partners but what comes with this experiment is Casado's sloppiness at the back:

Tackles won: 1

Tackles lost: 1

Aerial challenges won: 1

Aerial challenges lost: 1

Aerial challenges missed: 2

The above is pretty shocking and it was clear the my back-line was compensating massively for carrying a rather inactive ball player. My thinking was that I had to wait it out and see if Casado improved whilst his Positional Suitability/Awareness increased. Unfortunately the signs don't look too good, GCZ have only kept 7 clean sheets in the 21 League Games that Casado played as my BPD.

The Plateau Of Training

Worryingly Casado hasn't made progress in training. None of this BPD stats have grown (with the exception of heading from 10.4 to 10.6). There's various reasons why his stats may have plateaued, perhaps its because he is too busy learning the CB role...or that he is reaching the limit of his potential ability. Whatever the case, I am not making him a better footballer...something which really irks me.

Plateaued development: 'reaching a state of little or no change'

Conclusions

Now this whole experiment probably highlights that I am not as good as an FMer as I probably thought I was - or at least too cocky after 7 straight league titles. I tried to implement a brand new 3-4-1-2 system at the same time as accommodating Casado as a BPD. Sometimes too many changes can be your downfall. With this in mind, I have reverted back to a 4-2-3-1 after our European exit to Monaco. But I have tweaked almost every aspect of the Team Instructions and now find that the Attacking mentality in a high tempo suits us more. Over the last few months I've managed to recover Season 8:

16 straight league wins since the tactical switch up

We've recorded our highest ever points total in the league (101). We've also become more solid at the back: 9 clean sheets in those 16 games. The main casualty? You guessed it, the BPD. Beloved Casado.

However, it's not all doom and gloom, Casado has still finished his 1st season in Europe with a good Average Rating and a Domestic Double to write home about. But I am back where I was a year ago in this save, deciding what to do with him:

For now, the BPD experiment is on hold - I am content that in one season I turned a Brazilian import into an accomplished Centre Back, but it hasn't been without its problems. I am approaching the last two seasons at GCZ and I want to do everything possible to advance in Europe. I am hopeful that Casado will play a huge part of that success, but just in a different way than first conceptualised.

As always, thanks for reading.

FMG

The Marco & Remo Diaries - "Icons" Part V #FM16 #WeAreTheCommunity

August 21, 2016

Just over 2.5 in-game years have passed since I last updated you on the developments of Marco Simon & Remo Mahrer, two exceptional talents for the 1st Youth Intake of February 2016. When I last wrote about them, Marco had made the £20m switch to Lyon, France. Remo however, continued to rest with me in Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ). Previous posts:

Magic Marco

Marco's development under AI management has been pretty decent. He's come close to French silverware, with a Ligue Un Runners Up medal in each of his first two seasons before finishing 3rd last year. He's also been ever present in Lyon's Champions League matches, with 5 goals in 23 appearances. In terms of personal accolade, Marco was voted Lyon's Player of the Year for 2021/22. Marco is also rated as one of the World's most expensive midfielders at £45m.

Often talents go abroad and do not play.  I was confident OL was the right level for him... — Often talents go abroad and do not play. I was confident OL was the right level for him...

For the National Team, Marco has been made Vice Captain and wears the armband when Granit Xhaka is not around.

Swiss Icon

Remo's progress under my management has seen him win 'Nati Player Of The Year' - an award for the best Swiss National Player. When we last met him he was playing as a Attacking Midfielder on Support duty, but I said back in April that I see his eventual role being a Support Striker. The main reason for this is the PPMs I added to his game over the past 7 seasons:

Marco came with the Free Kick & Offside PPMs, but I have bettered him with PPMs to make use of his Acceleration & OTB movement

It's fair to say that Remo has flourished in the SS role in the previous 2.5 seasons. He's added goals to his game but still maintained the high levels of creativity.

At present, I don't feel the need to add any more PPMs to his game, but I have worked on his passing through the 'Additional Focus' option in the training. Since the last blog post we can see that Remo has gone from 12.4 to 14.5 in passing. A 4 point rise! He has, more or less, become my 'Swiss Bergkamp', as predicted in my very first diary post.

I'm now fast approaching the end of Season 8 and I only have 2 more seasons left before I quit GCZ and FM16 altogether. I have accepted that I may never be able to bring Marco Simon back to GCZ in this time, but I am delighted that Remo has signed a contract for the remainder of my stay in Zürich.

If you somehow haven't heard, FM17 is due for release on Friday 04 November (and beta being released at least 2 weeks before in mid-Oct), Before leaving FM16 for good I plan to simulate 10 more years to see ultimately what Marco & Remo end up doing. A 10 year sim into the future would effectively be the last blog post on these two treasured Regens. So, does anybody care to make any predictions of what they will get up to?

As always, thanks for reading. I still plan to make a few more longer FM16 blog posts on the 'Casado Experiment' and Season 8, 9 and 10 reviews. I will also be revealing my FM17 destination sometime in late Sept/early Oct as I 'hop' to another club & country.

FMG

Ball Playing Defender: 'The Casado Experiment' Part I #FM16 #WeAreTheCommunity

August 6, 2016

As discussed in my previous blog post, my Homegrown defenders lack the technical and mental ability to suit a passing game. As a five, their average Passing stat is 8.8 and Vision is 5.6. This isn't so much of a problem when coming up against weaker opposition, whereby the the transition is made easier from defence to midfield because my opponents are generally weaker at positioning and pressing. However, we struggled when coming up against the European Heavyweights such as Juventus and Man City. I need to experiment putting a passer in defence, someone with composure to keep hold of the most precision resource in football: the ball itself. Today's blog introduces my plans to implement this change, let's begin...

Introducing: Ronnielle Rodrigues de Moura ('Casado')

The player I've chosen to revolutionise Central Defence may mystify some, it's Brazilian 22 year old Regen midfielder 'Casado'. Signed for £9.5m from Clube Atlético Mineiro, Casado's standout attributes are Passing & Vision...something I want instilled at the back.

So what other strengths do I see?

Professionalism - As we are looking to retrain a player's position and completely overhaul his footballing role, we need to make sure he has the mentality to make this a success. As I have argued previously, Professionalism (a hidden attribute - other than the Personality descriptor) governs how hard a player trains. Casado's first few months at GCZ are going to be spent learning a new position and playing style. It's vital he can pull this off and luckily for me has the attitude to succeed.

Two footed - In real life, Ball players benefit from being two footed. It's no different in FM. Casado's Passing & Vision stats are enhanced by being two footed. More on why it's important here.

PPMs - Casado already has 'Dictates Tempo' and 'Likes To Switch Ball To Other Flank' as PPMs. It will be interesting to see how this displays in the match engine as PPMs enhance the frequency of how often a player does certain things. I have no doubt his strong Vision stat will complement these PPMs.

Attributes - Aside from being a stronger and creative passer, Casado complements this by being an Aggressive, Brave and Determined Leader. He also makes good Decisions, something vital for any Centre Back role.

The BPD stats overlay for your enjoyment

Training instructions on the day of arrival

What weaknesses do I see?

What I am proposing to do to Casado is radical. The transfer fee is my 5th highest in my 7 seasons at GCZ and to experiment with this kind of marquee player may seem absurd. There's also one major flaw in Casado's armoury: his Heading and Jumping Reach. Well done if you picked up on it straight away. Combined with Casado's height of 174cm (5 foot 7), he really isn't gong to do well against larger Strikers.

This is a flaw I cannot really correct with training. Both Heading and Jumping Reach can be improved (marginally), but I cannot make a 22 year old any taller. So my plan is to combine Casado with 1 or [maybe] 2 defensive partners. Luckily for him, my Homegrown talents are all around 186-190cm (6 footish) and have the necessary Strength (17 average value). I may also remind readers of the last defender to win the Ballon d'Or was also 1.7m, so there's hope:

FIFA World Player of the Year 2006 & World Cup winner: Fabio Cannavaro — FIFA World Player of the Year 2006 & World Cup winner: Fabio Cannavaro

It will be good to hear the opinions of the FM Community, am I Mad? Brave? Stupid? All three? Only time will tell if it pays off. Check back here for updates throughout Season 8 , 9 and 10 in my save to see how Casado is getting on. I plan to do a lot of work in the pre-season of Season 8 to view Casado in the match engine and how he behaviours with the AI and also with his defensive partners.

As always, thanks for reading.

FMG

The Homegrown XI: Season 7 update #FM16 #WeAreTheCommunity

July 29, 2016

One of the attractions of managing in a smaller European nation, such as Switzerland, is the Winter Break - a 60 day pause between competitive fixtures during the months of December, January and February. It's a chance to reflect on the previous few months and look ahead to the defining months of the season which are still to come. Each year I have used the Winter Break to reflect on the development of my youngsters and also look ahead and project their game time/experiences for the year ahead. Today's blog is me sharing this process with you as I enter the Winter Break in Season 7 (2021/22)...

The Homegrown XI

During my 5th Season at Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ) it was clear that I needed to form an 'end game' to my save. I had half a decade of domestic trophies already won and I knew that I needed to inject life into the save to keep my motivated. I therefore outlined a 5 Year Plan here. This GCZ save game is my only one for FM16 and I am currently taking one month per season. I therefore should reach the finale of Season 10 somewhere around mid-late October - finishing nicely with the planned release of FM17 (normally around November).

So the aim is to: develop a successful Homegrown* XI competing for Continental honours

*A quick catch up on what I define as Homegrown (and the meaning behind the abbreviations of HG and HGN further on):

Homegrown (HG): A homegrown player will be defined as one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ), continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the Season during which he turns 21)

Homegrown in Nation (HGN): also known as an 'association-trained’ player. This player fulfils the same criteria as above but with another club in the same association/nation.

Ever since Day 1 of my GCZ save, I have dedicated my time to youth recruitment and development. Outlined here back in Nov 2015, as I spoke about Professionalism being the most important influence on a player's development. Merry Guido over at Strikerless.com has pushed the discussion on even further by demonstrating this in various player projections. His conclusion: Professionalism is indeed the driving force behind development - as shown here.

Back at GCZ, we are now awash with a Professional staff structure (both playing and non-playing)...which has let to some potentially gifted Regens join us in the yearly Youth Intakes:

Some of which have already been introduced within the outlines of the 5 Year Plan. Now we'll move on to analysing my youth players to see how they've done in 1.5 seasons (30% of the Homegrown XI project)...

Tactics

During Season 7 (2021/22), results have been mixed. As shown in last week's blog. One of the reasons for this was my move from a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 to trial a 5-3-2 (with Wingbacks). The reason for this was to accommodate Homegrown talents in the 1st team matches. To cut a long story short, the trial of the 5-3-2 was a failure. But in being a failure, it highlighted several paths that my future line ups need to go down and also what ones to avoid.

To illustrate the point, it's best we start discussing the development of the Central Defenders...

Central Defenders

I currently have 5 HG Central Defenders on the books at GCZ, this includes Dayot Upamecano who trained for 36 months with GCZ before his 21st birthday (thus gaining the HG status). From youngest to oldest we have:

Sandro Bianco (19 years of age)

Gérard Zwicky (20 years of age)

Devin Manco (22 years of age)

Dayot Upamecano (23 years of age)

Noah Loosli (24 years of age)

Evaluation: you can see that I have not done much with these 5 defenders. First and foremost, I like my Central Defenders to defend. We can also see that they are very average with the ball at their feet. As a five, their average Passing stat is 8.8 and Vision is 5.6. This was the fundamental reason why the 5-3-2 discussed earlier did not work. Too much emphasis is placed on the CBs to move the ball and start moves with this formation...these lads were awful at it. Despite not being ball players, all five will make competent CBs in the Swiss League. Only time will tell if they can step up and cope on the Continental scene.

To do:

Continue rotating these CBs but consider selling the weakest if we continue with a 2 Central Defender formation in the future.
Tactically, focus on limiting time spent on the ball during games.

Central Midfielders

The limitations of the Central Defenders discussed above is negated with the fine ball playing trio of midfielders I have within my ranks. It gives me hope that I can use Deep Lying Playmakers and Registas in the future, to ensure I control ball possession - despite my weak footballers at the back. Let's take a look at the GCZ engine room of the future (again youngest to oldest):

Lukas Oswald (17 years of age)

Season 7 (2021) *Lukas joined as part of the 2019/20 youth intake*

Nuno Gouveia (19 years of age)

Nedim Bajrami (22 years of age)

Evaluation: We can see that the trio above are good passers with great vision. I have doubts that Nedim Bajrami will make further gains, but he is still a capable Central Midfielder who suits the mobile game. The younger two, Nuno and Lukas have amazing potential. I see Nuno's career trajectory as being a: Box to Box, before moving on to become a gifted playmaker (either advanced or deeper in midfield). Lukas on the other hand could be a sensible option as a Deep Lying Playmaker or Regista.

To do:

Ensure all three are given sufficient game time in the First Team from now on.
Aim to make Lukas more Professional and add some useful PPMs to his game (also work on his poor stamina).
Find a combination where all three work together in pre-season of Season 8 (2022/23).

Attackers/Strikers

I have a number of GCZ youngsters in the U18 that I believe can make it, given the opportunities. However there are three notable talents that I have no doubt will make a big impact on the game. Here they are (youngest first):

Stephan Hotz (18 years of age)

Mario Orlowski (22 years of age)

Season 7 (2021) *Mario is a new signing from Basel's youth system*

Remo Mahrer (22 years of age)

Evaluation: What I quite like with my current 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 is the ease I can drop a Central Midfielder, in favour for another Central Attack. I have been doing this often with Remo Mahrer, who in the last year has been used as a Support Striker. He's now added goals to his performance and as we enter the Winter Break of Season 7...he has 9 goals in 17 appearances. Remo needs no introduction, as I have a whole blog series about him (and another fabulous Regen who can't be named at the moment as I still mourn for his loss).

There's potential in a Support Striker and Target Man relationship brewing at GCZ and the youngest of our three strikers, Stephan Hotz, has really matured in two years. He is raw but with the right training I think we can make a decent TM out of him (as long as I ignore his poor bravery/jumping attribute that really bugs me).

Lastly, Mario Orlowski is a £1m signing from Basel's youth system. He's had decent First Team experience on loan in the Swiss Super League (with Vaduz & Luzern) and also in the Bundesliga (with Freiberg). He already has a good Personality and also some lovely Mentals like Off The Ball & Composure...all combined with excellent Finishing (and a Reasonable Weaker Foot)! You need match winners in this position...and I think I have three.

To do:

Working on Hotz's humping reach and consider tinkering tactics to adjust to his strenghts. Also look at the movement off the ball between Hotz and Mahrer as a TM and SS combo.
Add some PPMs to Mario Orlowski's game, incl. a Finishing PPM
Improve Mahrer's Passing to 15 or above

Other Homegrowns

I have already introduced 10 HG talents who I think may make it BIG at GCZ (and the inclusion of Mario Orlowski who is a HGN: Homegrown in Nation). I also have an abundance of squad players who can hopefully make the grade here + a few elder statesmen who are either HG/HGN + already established in the First Team (e.g. £13.5m singing Roman Bürki). So accommodating as many HGs/HGNs as possible in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 we look like this:

If either of the above two line-ups are successful, then we'd be achieving 8 HGs and 9 HGs (with the option of filling the RB and LW slot with World Class ability). This trumps both the Champions League Winners of Ajax of 1995 and Barcelona of 2011 (as discussed here) Homegrown achievements.

Now let's finish Season 7 and see if we really can hit the dizzy heights of European fame...

Thanks for reading.

FMG