Hi
Apologies for not posting in awhile. The pandemic has seen me working from home with strained administrative support and more work than I can realistically cope with as well as coping with everything else.
I'm grateful to be in a position where I can continue to work, as many are less fortunate.
Our eldest graduated with a 2:1 (which she's contesting as it should have been a first by her reading of their published marking scheme). Our youngest turned 18 in May having left school in March without any of the usual school leaver things or normal celebration for reaching adulthood. Since then she developed quite severe OCD, requires constant reassurance, and really struggles to touch anything. We've arranged private therapy conducted via zoom type meeting, which she's not always responded well to, and progress in terms of learning to manage her life with the mental illness and anxiety is a gradual path with some days going backwards and some days going forwards.
On the plus side there's always about half a bog roll torn off and left on the radiator next to the loo, which mummy neatly folds into a pre-arranged pile 2-3 sheets at a time.
We took her to the Isle of Wight for an intensive therapy day in July, which helped to set up a framework for her recovery, funded by grandparents thankfully, although the air BnB was my expense. Not quite the family flight to Menorca we'd planned (Last Minute have yet to refund the flight cost after the flights were cancelled at the end of July - they tried to offer vouchers, as did the two airlines involved) and all in all my monthly spend has increased during the pandemic to roughly £750 more than my earnings. As the sole earner that isn't sustainable long term but I regard the situation as an emergency and therefore using savings is appropriate because savings are for emergencies.
My partner stopped drinking at the end of 2018, and had replaced the 'fix' she was addicted to with swimming. When the pandemic and lockdown closed the local pool, she was devastated. As someone who could win gold in complaining at the olympics (if there was such a discipline) this escalated, but I'm incredibly proud of how she's coped. She'd already lost 3 stone and was petrified of putting it back on with her chosen excercise regime curtailed. She has a genetic condition that makes running impossible (plantar facsiitis) so started with Joe Wicks exercises, then hiring a nutritionist for diet advice , then a personal trainer to excercise in the park.
Then Boris announced everything would open (pubs - where you can buy alcohol) but NOT gyms and pools, and the swearing in hour house went off the charts. After a campaign by swim England (which we took part in) the government finally relented, but the already diabolical management of our local leisure facilities meant that that pool was not ready to open, and only opened yesterday (and it's still a farce with time in the pool limited to 40 minutes).
A handful of Spas opened nationwide, one of which was Charlton, 30 minutes drive away, so I paid £10 for an hour swim and drove her there in work hours a few times. That helped. The local David Lloyd then reopened with a discounted trial membership. She's there 5 days out of 7 now and we've agreed to full time membership when that expires. Given the time she uses it, it is probably the most cost efficient solution and her mum has kindly opted to make this an early birthday present.
I've dealt with all of this the only way I know and that's to focus on my daily/weekly routines, primarily geared around the hattrick constants. I became an NT Scout for South Africa, and joined the discord group for U20 England and the Slack group for Oceania and became chairman of the England NT Fed. I also buried myself on non-hattrick England to play WW games, hosting a Star Wars game with a record number of players and QTs which was nothing if not memorable.
At club level, which is what this thread is all about I've had a pretty useful season on all fronts.
In England the highlight of my season was seeing my home grown support player score against India for the U20 team. He's now solid leadership+solid experience and just turned 21. The team was also involved in the 'league battles' in Division IV where we finished 10th (our league is ranked 36/64). Playmaking training ended with my best two PNFs a shade over ET, and my home grown PNF and the Support guy very high titanic, and my quick NT FTW prospect at brilliant. I'm now on passing for a season, before a season of wing, and then scoring through. The training plan works well for all but the support player, who needs high experience and a high level of primary (compared the the opposition average) to make use of the spec.
With one to play I'm 2nd in the league, 2pts behind the leader, who play away to a TS shot 4th this weekend. I'm away to 7th already relegated on 4pts. I'd like to win the league to get the xp from a playoff, but it isn't in my hands so I'm not too concerned. The team was knocked out in R6 of the Cup by a Prem side, Metty's Pine Villa, and Metty is someone I know quite well from the WW. He also had a pizza sent round to me using a spare voucher for Papa Johns (pre lockdown) and I'm friends with him on fb, so it was a good way to get knocked out.
In my youth academy I have a star player in training, Dickerson, who is unpredictable (with excellent wing potential (and inadequte in PM/Ps/Sc). There's been some research don on training efficiency in the YA (see post id = 17350846.1) which I thoroughly recommend to make best use of the training options available. My training plan doesn't really work for him, so I'll have to sell.
I increased stamina for the U20 (a burst of 40% for 2 weeks in week 15/16 last season) followed by 12% to keep him at excellent) but that's now back at 10%.
I increased stadium capacity to 65k using a higher % of seats under roof than the normal recommended % split, and last Sunday it was raining and those seats were sold out, with £362k receipts compared to a maximum capacity £464k.
I'm using a level 3 financial director (£14m) with £13m in the bank, and sold a solid leadership xp trainee as he popped shortly after I switched to 2-5-3 passing training. Both Wb and my GK are solid leaders, and help provide better liquidity than having players that devalue with age or funds tied up above the cap. It is something that may be reviewed soon, as transfer price inflation has not been matched by the bank ceiling being inflated, leading to artificial markets in players.
In Oceania I'm training defending for home-grown and 2xEngland Wb. 23 weeks remaining. Highlight of the season was seeing my Maldives powerful CD (a man marker for club, but useful for CA as well 17D/11Ps/11Wg) also a solid leader, score on his NT debut in a friendly. He's 29 with 8xp. I'm currently selling a 26y/o magical defender with no spec 9PM/8Ps who has a good shot at the NT despite the lack of spec if trained well. It looks like I'll make a loss on training him to magical, because most buyers want specs, (quick and Unpred on defenders).
The team was also involved in the league battles (also IV) finishing 5th (ranked 24/64). I opted at the start of the season to buy a Costa Rican NT GK to help the Cup run. I sold him at quite a big loss when the Cup run ended, offset to an extend by the extra weeks in the Cup which included beating an Oceanian Pac Prem LS side for the first time after losing 8 times to Pac Prem times in the Cup previously. NT standard GK are good at stopping LS conversion, and we were knocked out the foillowing week in R6 by Bodily Harm who won the top division last season.
In the league I'm 2nd on -15GD going into the final week. Counter attack teams don't get big GD but I'm pretty satisfied with the way the season has gone. I'm away to 6th, they are at home to 3rd. Again, I'd be happy with a playoff spot for the extra xp, but it is out of my hands to some extent.
The Oceania forum has some really good competitions. This season I got involved. OCP ~41 requires you to pick a side from each of the top 5 divisions and to guess the number of goals they'll score in the Cup. Bonus points are added if they last longer than any other from their level. I picked the Cup winner along with a lot of other managers, made a hash of the goal predictions but finished a creditable 8th of 24 players.
I also got involved with Talbourne #14. This is a youth pull game for Oceanian teams. You add the HTMS of your best 3 pulls during the season and the player with the most points wins. It is getting to the sharp end, and I have a player whom I can promote with 10 minutes left before the end of the competition who could just about take me above the current leader (their U20 manager as it happens). The HTMS Points prediction tool..
http://www.fantamondi.it/HTMS/index.php?page=htmspoints&lang=en&action=calc says so anyway. If the target gets out of reach I can pull him after the deadline and have him as part of next season's competition. The player in question has no spec 7wg/6ps/5def(maxed)4PM(maxed/and 4of5Sc. He's training Sc+shooting next in line with the link to the Youth Training study above. It's also change-over week for our YA league and hopefully I'll have enough weeks to max wing and passing and scoring before he turns 17.
They keep a list of the best ever HTMS pulls in the competition, and I had one good enough for their top 10 earlier in the season (2138 HTMS), who is getting defender training in my first team. At least until the stamina goes up. He was excellent def, passable PM, inad wing/sc and weak passing.
I increased stadium capacity to 71k (again with a higher seats under roof %) back in February, and had a full house in R5 of the Cup for a shade under £500k.
I've a level 5 FD in place to the end of this season. I wanted to add an unpred Wb but a Czech one with 2300HTMS went for £15m and a Hungarian 2100HTMS went for £12m so I bought a more rounded Norwegian technical with just under 2000HTMS for under £5m. I also bought an unpred FTW for £4m and after the sale of my defender will have just over £12m as we approach end of season for me to buy a GK. I'm using the transfer list prospect tool to help locate the players I'm waiting for at the price I'm happy to pay, but may settle for an interim GK if I can't get what I'm waiting for.
In South Africa I'm training my 2 GK prospects in Defending. It has not escaped my attention that Unpred Wb are selling for as much as NT standard GK, but one of the GK is solid leader Unpred (Nigerian). My plan was to only use African players. This was compromised a bit as the Oceania U20 manager needed a defender trainer for a player to use in Q2 next season, so I've taken that guy on. Oceania look like they're going to qualify as well, so I'll have to do the stamina trick if he's still needed after the injuries he's been having.
I didn't sign up for the league battle as this team is far from being fully competitive.Having said that, this season it made it past R1 for the first time and was knocked out in R3. The high set piece skill and pressing/LS games I'd struggle to win, using CA in others means I've been a bit flukey to get into 4th spot last week (for the first time in this division) with 1 to play. I'm 2pts ahead of 6th who visit me this week, and I'd be happier with a 5th place bot qualification game for xp, but 5th are at home to 3rd, so they'd need to lose and for 6th to win to get that result.
2 youths with no spec and 2000-2100HTMS have joined first team training, along with a quick with 1967HTMS this week, necessitating the sale of the non-home grown guys I'd been training previously.
That promotion this week leaves me with 3xGK prospects all of which are promotable between age 17/45 and 17/68 so I'm hoping to pull a nice new youth soon. I have switched my youth pull day to Thursday mornings, quite some time ago, and am pretty happy with the output from all teams. The thinking behind it is that the pools get refreshed prior to the Thursday morning update. No idea if that's accurate, but the results are ok. In Oceania they have another theory and have all scouts from lots of teams in one region to empty the pool of dross that gets replaced rather than being repeat pulled by several managers. There may be something in that, but I've not joined in, preferring to stick with my lesser used regions (but not with the 3 least number of teams - as that's what I'd expect many others to do) for my scouts.
My stadium is now 66k in III, after another expansion this season, again opting for a higher % of seats under roof than standard. It rained a week last Sunday and those seats sold out for the first time, giving me a £364k receipt compared to a £474k max capacity.
As the team is still relatively new fans have been joining with +212 since the start of the season to get to 2535 compared to 2740 in Oceania (IV) and 2462 (England IV). I guess that's the first time my second/third clubs have both had more fans than my primary team!
I hope all is well with you guys, stay safe and I hope your teams have a good end of season!