FMLiveBlog.com - A Football Manager Live Blog

With Season 6 ending in 6 days, a few of my starting lineup’s contracts are set to expire in the coming days including Andre-Pierre Gignac (contract on auto-extend), Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker, goalkeeper Artur Boruc and Jan Kromkamp. After the experiences of the last set of wage auctions where I saw decent players go for highly inflated wages, I’ve decided to sell on Callsen-Bracker, Boruc and Kromkamp rather than fight to keep them at wage auctions. While there is a chance I could keep them, there’s every possibility that someone will be willing to pay more than me for them (particularly given their form) and I’d rather cash in now and then try to make my own splash during the wage auctions. As I said in the previous post, it’s impossible to build a squad and keep that squad together for any sustainable period of time… I see it as a major flaw of the game, but others might prefer that they need to have a practically new squad every 1-2 seasons.

Anyway, these players will be truly missed at Hastings Town, but with every cloud there is a silver lining and hopefully replacements at competitive wages. Their departures will slash 65k off the wage bill, plus 16.6k in exceed wage tax (81.6k total), which should give us plenty of room to move.

For the record, I have four senior players on auto-extend - Andre-PIerre Gignac (S), Fernando Belluschi (AM RC), Djorde Lazic (AM LC) and Hector Font (AM RLC) with one spot kept free for any future signings or talented youngster coming up through the ranks.

As for our performance in the XFA Premier League, we’re currently mid-table with a 17-13-17 record - recording 7 wins from 13 matches overnight including a fantastic 2-1 victory away from home to Fleetwood Town (currently 3rd overall in the world rankings and sitting atop the XFA Premier League). Just shows what the team is capable of…

I know I’ve harped on about the problems with wages in the game in the past and am probably starting to sound like a broken record - but last night was a new low. I recently acquired Judging Potential 5, which took almost one calendar month to complete, meaning that I can accurately judge youngsters and the potential they have. Anyway, last night I searched through the game and identified no less than 5 top notch youngsters, with no contract offers made.

As soon as I put the bids in, instantly others started bidding away for these players - people who have filters set to identify players with contracts expiring (which is what happens when a wage auction becomes active). At the end of 24 hours, of course - I miss out on all of the players I had done the research on… most to ridiculous wages for players that have barely reached their 16th birthday. £16,001, £7,776, £6,667… the list goes on.

Sure they’re good players… my gripe is the fact that I did the work in identifying these players and have NO chance in signing them unless I want to bid through the roof which is downright stupid. It also makes building and keeping a squad together near impossible - you can only auto extend 5 contracts and as we saw with the last set of wage auctions (see Adalton/Nenad Adamovic), again I have NO chance of keeping my second tier players. So the game no longer is about building a good squad, it’s about keeping ahead with wheeling and dealings in the transfer market…

Unless something is massively changed with regards to wage auctions/keeping players/signing youngsters, I can say with quite certainty that I won’t be paying for FML because at the moment all I’m doing is going around in circles and passing the time.

The definite highlight was the return of our captain Fernando Belluschi to the side after a 7 match suspension. Belluschi led the side to an away victory at The Hairy Nosepickers, a massive achievement for any side despite their recent slump in form. We went on to win 3, draw 2 and lose only 1 of our first 6 matches - but then the poor form came back from last season with 3 straight losses, followed by a draw, another 2 losses and another draw before finally coming good for a 3-2 win away to the 20th ranked Terror Pigs to show the potential they have but can’t consistently produce.

A howler from Boruc allowed a 45 yard goal to sink us at home to West Ham United, but the boys were back to their brilliant best away from home again with 4 first half goals at Maryhill Magyars (ranked 3 places above us!). We should have followed it up with a victory at home, only to be denied in the final minute of injury time with a dubious goal.

So after 23 matches in the XFA Premier League, our record stands 7-7-9 and already a top half finish looks beyond us. But time will tell! Here are the results:

GAME 5 (HOME): Defeated Meadfoot Celtic 3-1 (Brandao 9′, 20′; Gignac 73′)
GAME 6 (HOME): Drew with Queluz FC (Font 8′; Nunez 20′)
GAME 7 (HOME): Drew with Maryhill Magyars 1-1 (Gignac 11′)
GAME 8 (AWAY): Defeated The Hairy Nosepickers 2-1 (Belluschi 35′; Callsen-Bracker 45′)
GAME 9 (HOME): Lost to Lakers 0-1
GAME 10 (HOME): Defeated Woking FC 1-0 (Gignac 67′)
GAME 11 (AWAY): Drew with Lakers 2-2 (Nunez 63′; Gignac 70′)
GAME 12 (HOME): Lost to Lakers 2-3 (Brandao 47′, 74′)
GAME 13 (AWAY): Lost to Queluz FC 1-2 (Gignac 44′)
GAME 14 (HOME): Lost to Splatch FC 1-2 (Gignac 13′)
GAME 15 (AWAY): Drew with Tilecote Park Rovers 0-0
GAME 16 (HOME): Lost to Queluz FC 1-2 (Brandao 48′)
GAME 17 (HOME): Lost to Fleetwood Town 0-1
GAME 18 (AWAY): Drew with Woking FC 1-1 (Gignac 58′)
GAME 19 (AWAY): Defeated Terror Pigs 3-2 (Belluschi pen 9′; Gignac 27′, 85′)
GAME 20 (AWAY): Drew with West Ham United 0-0
GAME 21 (HOME): Lost to West Ham United 0-1
GAME 22 (AWAY): Defeated Maryhill Magyars 4-1 (Belluschi pen 19′; Gignac 28′; Nunez 32′; Turay 38′)
GAME 23 (HOME): Drew with Woking FC (Gignac 5′, 69′)

In other news, our hopes of going one better this year in the XFA Cup have been dashed in the second round by two England superstars - Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney - as we went on to lose 3-0 on aggregate over two legs to Chesterfield Town FC.

Our Season 6 XFA Premier League campaign looked set for a tough opening contest, with captain Belluschi (7 games!), Edno and Callsen-Bracker all serving suspensions and Ngcepe out with injury. But it took 48 seconds for us to score the first goal of the campaign through Hector Font. Unfortunately, the reply came just 5 minutes later but Gignac got on the board in the 20th and 30th minute to put us up 3-1. Brandao put the icing on the cake and sealed the match in the 55th minute as we went on to win 4-2. After that win, we had a mixed bag with two narrow home losses and a come-from-behind win at Lakers. We certainly are missing Fernando Belluschi, who is serving a 7 match ban carried over from last season from accumulating too many yellow cards.

GAME 1 (HOME): Defeated Hardy Athletic 4-2 (Font 1′; Gignac 20′, 30′; Brandao 55′)
GAME 2 (HOME): Lost to Terror Pigs 0-1
GAME 3 (AWAY): Defeated Lakers 2-1 (Turay 47′; Gignac pen 60′)
GAME 4 (HOME): Lost to West Ham United 0-1

There’s been minimal action in terms of our Premier League campaign, so this article looks back at some of the superstars that graced Hastings Town over the past 5 seasons and where their in-game journeys have taken them.

El-Hadji Diouf (1599 appearances, sold to FC Skazka for £800,005)
- Diouf has made 27 appearances for his new club with 9 goals and 7 assists.

Adalton (1592 appearances, lost in wage auction to Fc Zoetermeer)
- Adalton has made 21 appearances this season with an average rating of 6.64. Not as much of a significant loss as first thought.

Michael Jansen (924 appearances, lost in wage auction to Wilkinson Warriors FC)
- Left back Jansen was lost in a wage auction at the end of season 4 which slipped under the radar. He has made 62 appearances this season for his club, with an average rating of 6.70. Had a good season last campaign.
Jesus Palacios (910 appearances, sold to Jonah’s Babes FC for £250,001)
- The highly gifted Palacios made just 60 appearances with Jonah’s Babes FC before being transferred on to winners fc for twice the transfer fee we sold him for. Has made 9 appearances this season with an average rating of 6.76.

Gustavo Manduca (891 appearances, lost in wage auction to Butler Juniors)
- Manduca was allowed to depart Hastings Town to give Walter Nunez increased opportunities and he has shown what an underrated player he still is, with 188 appearances for Butler Juniors with 4 goals, 27 assists and an average rating above 6.90.

Albano Bizzarri (884 appearances, sold to ThE BaBiX FC for £350,000 plus Olivier Werner)
- Bizzarri, our first choice keeper from Season 2 to Season 4, has been solid for ThE BaBiX FC with 163 appearances for 66 clean sheets. However, his first team chances at our club were limited with Artur Boruc firmly entrenched in the number 1 jersey, making this transfer a win-win for both clubs.

Nenad Adamovic (607 appearances, lost in wage auction to Bredeweg HC)
- Easily the biggest blow was losing Adamovic, who we invested heavily in during his younger years only to see another club reap the rewards. He has made 81 appearances this season with an average rating of 7.04, following his late last season where he averaged 7.14 for his new club.

Alan Smith (419 appearances, sold to Noble FC for £1,300,000)
- Our marquee player alongside Diouf for Season 1 and Season 2, Smith has travelled to 6 other clubs since leaving Hastings Town, enjoying success at most. In 5 appearances so far this season, he has shown he still has what it takes with 3 goals and 3 assists.

I will look at the progress of some of the players we let go when the youth academy was disbanded a couple of seasons ago in a later post, checking in to see if names such as Oscar Sanchez (5 million), Ricardo Barbosa Costa (1.8 million) and Nick Pino (625k) have been worth the big money paid for them.

It’s been a while since my last update - I’ve just moved house and unfortunately the internet hasn’t been connected yet… and there’s only so much FML you can play at work without being caught!

So expect an update over the weekend… the only news I can bring you is that El-Hadji Diouf has left Hastings Town for 800k after spending 5 seasons with the Blues. Look for more news soon.

Spanish Attacking Midfielder Cani has arrived at Hastings Town overnight, with the Blues winning the race to sign the player. Cani came to the Blues for 665k and wages of 40k, and will slot right into our potent midfield brigade alongside the likes of Belluschi, Font, Kewell, Lazic and Nunez. His debut came against The Hairy Nosepickers, probably the most famous team in FML and #1 in Gameworld 7. And Cani didn’t disappoint, firing off an assist as we FINALLY defeated The Hairy Nosepickers after multiple attempts! The victory was celebrated hard - it was a fantastic achievement and hopefully a sign of things to come from an underachieving squad.

Hastings Town are through to the XFA Cup Final! We defeated Firefly United 3-2 on aggregate in the semi finals - 2-1 at home (Callsen-Bracker 3′; Gignac 27′), 1-1 away (Lazic 36′). Our opponents in the final are SE GLOCK RIDERS, who are one place below us in the rankings. In our four meetings this season, we have won 2, drawn 1 and lost 1.

First Leg (Home) - DREW 0-0
It was a new look defense, with Jan Kromkamp, German Rivarola and Anderson Polga joining Callsen-Bracker in the back four. Our top scorer for the season, Andre-Pierre Gignac, went off injured in the 16th minute, a severe blow. Diouf had a great chance to score late in the first half, but his shot went straight at the keeper. Both sides had their chances to break the deadlock, but a nil-all draw was the end result. Now we have it all to do in the second leg.

Second Leg (Away) - LOST 3-1 (extra time)
Gignac scored in the 51st minute and the cup looked set for Hastings Town, until an equaliser in the 86th minute broke our hearts. The game went to extra time and GLOCK RIDERS substitute Mauricio Gomez was the hero, slotting two goals in injury time of the first half of extra time.

A disappointing result - but to have reached the final is a fantastic achievement by the lads considering some of the competition. They now have two official runners-up trophies, adding this one to runners-up in the DFA Cup.

In transfer news, we’ve lost Brazilian pair Adalton and Gustavo Manduca in recent wage auctions. Adalton, a centre back, commanded a massive wage of 27k (previously on 4k) while Manduca left for 5.25k (previously on 5k). When asked to comment on their departures, Hastings Town manager Kieron Turner said:

“We’re not going to pay 27,000 pounds for a centre back. Adalton has been a great servant for Hastings Town, but we saw him to only be worth a quarter of that amount! New signing Anderson Polga will slot right into his spot, at a fraction of the wages! As for Gustavo, he’s been a fantastic player but he’s 32 and with the emergence of 19 year old Walter Nunez and the form of Harry Kewell, his first team chances are limited as he’s restricted to playing on the left. He is better off at another club where he can be a regular first teamer. We wish both players the best of luck.”

In terms of new players, two fullbacks have been signed - one who plays on the left (German Rivarola) and one who plays on the right (Jan Kromkamp). Their signings will need to be offset as the wage bill has ballooned - look for at least two players to be at new homes before the start of Season 6.

With the end of the season now reached and player contracts expiring, wage auctions are here once again. We made a major splash in the last round of wage auctions, signing Gignac, Kewell, Srna (gone) and Boruc. This time around, Hastings Town will have more of a focus on youngsters to build up our youth academy which has shot up the rankings already. We’ve also signed experienced central defender Anderson Polga, who will most likely team with Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker if we lose Adalton in the upcoming wage auctions which is a distinct possibility.

But as always, some of the wages people are willing to pay for players is ridiculous.

One 16 year old went for 7.1k wages, almost as much as his acquisition fee (10k). Some other players we’ve missed out on have gone for almost as much as their acquisition fees… crazy.

In other news, El-Hadji Diouf has been transfer listed but there has been little interest in the Hastings Town veteran.