Beggars can't be choosers!

#58842 Kiwi : Seems that Sanudi is now a citizen and not classed as an overseas player! Only issue is now is transfer listed by request and unregistered for the league competition until Jan.

Does anyone know whether this is normal? It's certainly something I didn't see coming!

Nothing unusual about that.
His profile would have shown how many days he has remaining to gain citizenship.
Citizenship can be gained at anytime of the season if you meet the requirements.

Its therefore always a good idea to look at your foreign players profile information before decided to unregister or sell them.

You seem to be making good progress with Dynamos.
2nd place gets you into the promotion playoffs.
Try and avoid the playoffs though as you could end up facing the 15th place PSL side.
From my saves, the PSL side always got through in the playoffs.

→ This post was edited by sniper99 (2012-07-21 11:39, 10 months ago)

Results Sept '13

4.9.13 away to Witbank Spurs
We was robbed and I still feel aggrieved at our 2-2 draw.

Cards were flying everywhere, Spurs held the possession advantage, and Gcaba and Mashego scored for us. If I write anything more, I’ll launch into a rant, but let it just be said now that I’ll look to “open up a can of whip arse” in Jan ’14 for the return home leg.

15.9.13 home to FCAK (Semi Final Cup competition)
6-1 spanking of FCAK, led by young striker Mashego and well supporting by the other strikers. FCAK pegged a late goal back, but it was too little, too late, as they were totally played off the park. Record number of ticket sales showed the growing support for Dynamos.

18.9.13 home to Chippa Utd
Another 4-0 drubbing handed to Chippa, as Mashego again found the net with a brace and his second successive Man of the Match award. Ramudzuli and Hammers also scored. Chippa had the lion share of the possession, but still couldn’t get a shot on target.

21.9.13 away to Sivutsa Stars FC
Couple of landmarks here, we gave up our first goal in the league competition a soft tap in to midfielder Mlalande, we had a hattrick of opportunities from the penalty box, we missed one of our penalties attempts and Sivutsa Star gave up an own goal, as we prevailed 6-1, with Hammers scoring, and both Gcaba and Mashego scoring twice each.

Defender Ngobeni and defensive mid Gomis were injured during the match, which lead us to field a player out of position. Sivutsa Stars also lost centre defender Phama to a second bookable offense on the hour mark, so it was always going to be a struggle for them to contain us.

28.9.13 away to Atlie FC
I was forced into making a couple of changes to the lineup, which may have backfired. Striker Simon Radomumo complained about the lack of first team opportunities. Given the dearth of strikers available to Dynamos at present, I thought it was prudent to give him just enough game time to keep him quiet. He replaced Hammers in the starting lineup. And had an absolute shocker.

Gomis, the def midfielder was injured in the game against Sivutsa Stars, and hadn’t fully recovered to take his spot against Atlie, so Ferreira took the starting slot. Gomis was fit enough to occupy the bench, in the hope that he wouldn’t be needed. Ferreira was injured at minute sixty six and Gomis needed to run on, with the scored locked at nil all.

Midfielder Onana settled it just before the full time hooter with a banana shot from just outside the penalty box, for us to escape with a 0-1 win.

That said, we did not deserve to win at all. We only had 37% of possession, we defended wave on wave of attacking play from Atlie. We were a distant second with every conceivable measure, except for the only one that mattered.

I may also need to reassess my thinking with Ferreira as he doesn’t seem to be hardy or fit enough to cope with a full game, so that may well spell curtains for him, providing I can obtain a suitable replacement – and that is proving to be more difficult than it looks.

I didn't think through the process and certainly didn't apply it to players with WPs in my head. I have seen the screen with nationality and days required to gain citizenship - five years in South Africa, or 1825 days. I simply assumed that he was a foreign player and would always remain so, without checking how long he had been on contract.

Most of the games I have played have had EU restrictions, and as such, the market is much wider. With the smaller base in South Africa, I am finding that as I am making bad, or emotive decisions, it is having a severe impact on progress. In previous careers there has always been another player, or staff member, it was merely a case of looking for them.

The other reason I didn't make the connection is that it is impressive for a low end club to be able to retain an international player on their books for five years. I certainly don't make a habit of signing my "punts" for a five year term off the bat, and have had situations in England (with an Algerian winger) where he got a two year work permit, but it wasn't renewed, so we couldn't offer a second contract. I was League Two with Maidenhead at the time, and the Board wouldn't even consider a feeder club, so I had to let him go....

But, it does serve as a timely reminder about the state of some of the "foreign" players in my Osasuna's save!! And that I do to think my decisions right the way through...

#58888 sniper99 : #58842 Kiwi :
Nothing unusual about that.
His profile would have shown how many days he has remaining to gain citizenship.
Citizenship can be gained at anytime of the season if you meet the requirements.

Its therefore always a good idea to look at your foreign players profile information before decided to unregister or sell them.

You seem to be making good progress with Dynamos.
2nd place gets you into the promotion playoffs.
Try and avoid the playoffs though as you could end up facing the 15th place PSL side.
From my saves, the PSL side always got through in the playoffs.

→ This post was edited by Kiwi (2012-07-21 14:42, 10 months ago)

Ah, the smell of prize money. GBP51,200 of it should make the balance sheet read a little easier.

The Board are happy, the fans are grateful for having me as their team manager.

It wasn't all plain sailing. A 4-2 win away against Balau Killers in the First Divison Cup Final, where Hammers scored a hattrick and Mashego also got on the score sheet. There was an embarrassing two minute period where we leaked soft goals from Sait (own goal) and a toe poke from Kubheka.

Stop, Hammers' time!

My job status is now secure, with Board approval rating at 58%.

Softy softy, I still wasn't able to increase the wage budget - which I desperately need, but I was able to get the Board to agree to allow me to hire more physios.

All the options about junior coaching were discussing cutting funding back, so I didn't want to go near those!

Sinisa Mihajlovic has been sacked as Serbian Manager after a 3-0 loss to Croatia.

Craig Levein has been sacked as Scotland Manager after a 3-0 loss to Belgium.

I'd be interested in an international coaching post, just not at this stage in my career!

I've just had Sait go down injured again, twisted ankle this time and still likely to be out for 4-5 weeks.

loving this story kiwi. the way you write it up is so interesting and i manage the same way as you with the financial side of the game being so important

In checking the training page for all my starting players, I have noticed that all three of my current strikers - Hammers, Mashego and thirty year old Ramudzuli's overall progress has stalled due to needing a new challenge.

I better readjust my sights on promotion and then hope I can sign them to new contracts as they have all been fantastic!

Thanks Shaneo, I have always loved the LLM stories, and I made it more difficult this time around by changing my nationality around, and you do get satisfaction when you do win. My experiences with Derby/Osasuna taught me that the finances need to be sorted, and that you are better to accept lesser offers for players than to have them sitting sucking down valuable wage budget when it could be piles of money in your bank account.

Excel is also my friend and I keep tabs on all my players, and eventually build up to when to sell, how much to sell for, and when to start looking for replacements. It's a bit harder to do that here at the moment, no budget, no reputation, no facilities so I can't even look forward to an gem of a player in my academy this year.

Thanks for your comments and I am glad you are enjoying the story, I am certainly enjoying writing it, and learning a thing or two as I go along!

#58919 shaneo insaneo : loving this story kiwi. the way you write it up is so interesting and i manage the same way as you with the financial side of the game being so important

Vujadin Boskov is the new Serbian Manager. I know the guy is 82 years old, but have you seen how many twenty's he had on his stats.

George Burnley is the new Scottish Manager, his stats are far more normal.

At my staff meeting, it was suggested that we drop Sait due to poor form. Given he is injured and likely to be out for five weeks anyway, I just told him that he'd need to perform better if he wanted to remain in the first team.