Conquering the Americas

Great to see you get on with the story again, you're looking strong so far and it looks like a mid table finish is well within your reach

Good luck!

With two games left before first phase group play, it will take some serious breaks for us to claim 8th. I'm really hoping that we can get in so we get some extra game revenue, but it's looking doubtful. :|

This leads to my current issue - income! We're steadily leaking anywhere from 50k to 60k per month and I'm almost certain that we will finish in the red at the end of this season. Right now we have ~260k in the coffers from promotion money, but that will be drying up about one month before the end of the season. I've already done everything I can comfortably do - I moved my transfer budget to weekly wages as soon as it was alotted to me, and we've been ~6k p/w under that budget all season long.

One thing I will likely do soon is hit the transfer market and unload a little bit of excess. I have a Brazilian keeper, for example, that will likely start for me in a few seasons. He was really brought in as a speculative transfer, however, and we'll be looking to cash in on him soon. And since we picked him up on a free transfer, he's pure profit.

What our finances illustrate is our need to get into our new stadium ASAP! We've been at full capacity for all of our home games so far, but when your capacity is only 900 fans, you just aren't making enough at the gate. If we can come clos to selling out our new stadium, that will go a long way towards getting us to break even on the books. I've been cautiously watching my board room results; waiting to see if our finances is having a negative impact on the board's view of me, but so far so good. Everyone is still very happy; still high on the fact that we got promoted.

Assuming we don't qualify for group play in the first phase, we will need to continue our solid play going into the second phase. All signs point to us finishing comfortably in the middle of the table and out of the relegation zone, but I don't take anything for granted. Just as our fantastic run of form helped propel us toward promotion last season, it will only take a few bad results for us to go in the opposite direction.

Great post, for me as well finances are very important to me. In my unemployed career so far I've made close to a quarter of my transfer revenue in profit every season. Currently though with a bunch of new signings I'm losing like 10k a month, despite the fact that we built a new stadium with about 7000 capacity (1700 seated).

The problem on my end is that we have very little support, I am struggling to attract more fans to watch us, but we are averaging very few supporters per game, usually around 1000+, and the majority is our opposing team's travelling support.

Well from my experience most chairmen don't start kicking up a fuss until they are below zero, and even then if performances are strong, they are not worried.

In your situation I would have to agree with letting some fringe players go - they're eating up your earnings, and to get a bigger stadium you need that sum of money in the bank.

Hope you can fix your finances, and if you have any ideas how I can attract more fans (short of winning the league), do let me know

Recent Fixtures

[imgw]http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/1149/2012p1fixturescc6.jpg[/imgw]

Columbian Cup

[imgw]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4978/2012cc6.jpg[/imgw]

League Table

[imgw]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/2584/2012p1leaguetable16.jpg[/imgw]

---

Sigh. Even though we were an unrealistic long shot to qualify for group play, it still weighs heavily on me that we didn't make it in. With two league games remaining, a 0-2 defeat at the hands of America de Cali essentially sealed our fate. We had a spirited win in our final game of the first phase, but we still finished 3 points shy of the 8th position. My attention now turns to the Columbian Cup since it is our only form of competition until phase two begins.

In that regard, we are doing quite well in the Columbian Cup and I attribute that to having a wage budget more fit to battle against first division sides. We are currently level with Real Cartagena on points and have four games remaining. The top two teams qualify for the second round and we are looking real solid - 7 points clear of 3rd place Junior. I'm hoping to find out about prize money if we do in fact advance to the next round. As of right now, I can only see what it takes to qualify.

So close those last few games, pity u didn't make it. Cup results are great though, keep it up

We're almost mathematically assured of advancing to the second round, which is both good and bad. I remember when we qualified early for group play last season and it seemed like my team took it easy. That led to a break in form and made me far less confident than when we were rolling along. If we qualify early, I'm tempted to play a bunch of subs to try and keep my main players from dropping in morale. I'm not even sure if it will keep their morale high or if it will impact it negatively, though.

And speaking of subs, I think I'm going to start bugging the board to improve our youth facilities. I'm probably the only team that operates with only one squad. Everyone else has a reserve squad of sorts and a youth squad. We, on the other hand, only have the one main squad that's cluttered with a bunch of 18 and under players that get no playing time. I can't help but think that we're losing valuable growth with these players since they don't benefit from any game time except during friendlies and in extreme circumstances.

I doubt you'll get an acceptance for your request to improve youth facilities, unless you have loads of money. If not why don't you try to loan your players out or make a link with a feeder club?

FM_MUFC : I doubt you'll get an acceptance for your request to improve youth facilities, unless you have loads of money. If not why don't you try to loan your players out or make a link with a feeder club?

I think their youth contracts prohibit me from loaning them out? And I can't realistically sign too many of those players to non-youth deals due to budget constraints.

joannes3000 : I think their youth contracts prohibit me from loaning them out? And I can't realistically sign too many of those players to non-youth deals due to budget constraints.

Unlucky, your're just gonna have to wait unfortunately, by the looks of things. Give it some time and might just work out :wink

Yeah, I'm going to start assessing my long-term goals now that we're heading into the second phase of league play. IIRC there isn't a higher league to promote to within Columbia. I need to find out what other national and (hopefully) international tournaments we can aim to qualify for. I figure as long as we have some loftier goals to aim for, it helps me stay content to stay at Carlos Sarmiento.

The other big factor will be our financial situation and the general ambition of the board. As long as I continue to be given enough funds to put up a fight, I'm happy. These questions should all be answered by the start of next season and much like last season, I'm hoping I can win my way toward better finances. The board is more than happy with the team's performance to this point, and I'm hoping to leverage my strong run in the Columbian Cup into a higher transfer and wage budget.

I also have some major team news that I will post when I get home.

"Carlos Sarmiento have completed the signing of Medellín's young striker Brayan Fernández for a fee of $20,000.

The youngster had been on the transfer list at Atanásio Girardot and the club felt it was time to allow the 20 year-old striker to move on."

First off, we managed to sign away ST Brayan Fernandez who we previously had on loan from Medellin. He originally joined us last season but he failed to unseat Ubel Herrera at the time. We were quick to get him back on loan when Herrera went down due to injury and he has stepped in admirably. So much so, that he has taken over as a starter.

His statistics don't tell the whole story, as his presence on the pitch seems to make everyone perform well. For that, I was willing to dip into our transfer budget to the tune of 20k. His loan stats don't appear on the following snapshot, but in 16 league games he has bagged 4 goals, 1 assist, and a 6.9 average rating.

[imgw]http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/8464/2012brayanfernandez.jpg[/imgw]

This bit of news is recurring, with several teams constantly tracking one of my players. The response is always the same - I issue a hands off warning. Ramirez is the most valued player on my team; a stud defender at the right back position that has been there since I took over the club.

"Tolima are among the clubs said to be chasing Carlos Sarmiento's enthusiastic full-back José Ramírez.

According to the Tuluá Football Daily, the highly-rated youngster would command a transfer fee of at least $975K.

Ramírez has been attracting the interest of clubs such as Ecuadoran Serie A side Barcelona SC in recent times."

After two seasons of repeated offers, Ramirez showed dedication to our side and never demanded a transfer. His value had constantly risen over time and none of the interested parties ever hesitated to offer his full value. Ramirez kept anchoring our defense and pitched in with some assists and could even bag goals as our main penalty taker. Then one day, we got Man Citied.

"Tolima have made an offer worth $1,900,000 plus future incentives for José Ramírez.

The highest fee Carlos Sarmiento have ever received for a player was for Carlos Ramos' $65,000 transfer to Sport Recife.

Chairman Jorge Santana feels this offer was too good to refuse and has decided to take matters into his own hands by accepting this transfer bid on behalf of the management."

Take a few moments and let those numbers settle in. Tolima, a division one side like myself, tabled a bid that was twice the value of Ramirez. 1.9 million? That's enough to pay for our new stadium. That's twice as much money as we made all of last season! The best bit of business I did beforehand was a keen 65k transfer. We were offered a bid 30x that amount.

Do we have a hole to fill in our starting eleven? Absolutely. Can we find someone of similar quality? Perhaps. Will we have the funds to do so? You bet your ass we do. Here's a snapshot of Ramirez.

[imgw]http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/581/2012joseramirez.jpg[/imgw]

[imgw]http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/3052/2012mauriciotenorio.jpg[/imgw]

I want to introduce our new signing at right back. While Mauricio Tenorio isn't the defensive stalwart that Jose Ramirez was, he helps make up for it in terms of offensive ability. And in saying that, he isn't a liability on defense; it's just that Ramirez was fantastic on our back line. I also like the versatility that Tenorio brings. He is able to fill in competently at the left back position and is comfortable playing anywhere up the right side - from fullback to attacking mid.

Tenorio didn't come cheaply from Division 1 side Santa Fe, however; even though he was transfer-listed. I got into a bit of a bidding match for his services and ended up paying 100k in transfer fees to secure him. With the sale of Ramirez, that still leaves me with almost 200k in the transfer budget. This signing leaves me feeling positive about our chances of maintaining our run at avoiding relegation in the second phase of league play.

The new right-back looks promosing, good luck with the next phase!

Quick update!

We secured our place in the second round of the Columbian Cup with a game to spare, so I trotted out a scrub unit against Real Cartagena. We have a league game four days after our CC game and we were already qualified so there was no point in fatiguing my main subs; let alone any of my starters. As a result, Real Cartagena smashed us 4-0.

Our second round opponent is First Division side Once Caldas. As of this entry, they are the second place team in the league. We're looking forward to a two legged affair for the right to advance into the third round. No word yet on any prize money. :no