[JonInMiddleGA]

Out of character stuff

Dang, that was fun. Couldn't have asked for much more drama in the final match and I'm honestly surprised by the success. I kept expecting things to fall apart more than they did, that was my old pattern years back but it never truly came undone.

The learning curve has felt pretty big, even having played past versions. So much has changed, the game is more intricate than before, downright delicate at times.

I made at least one glaring error that I'm still worried will cost me dearly. I oversigned - classic overanxious rookie mistake I know - and stayed about $500/wk over the salary budget for the 2nd half of the season. That means I've been unable to do much of anything about renewing contracts and honestly I don't know how that's going to work out. I'm hoping that once contracts expire that will clear the decks enough for me to renew the players I want to keep as well as being able to begin negotiations with those of interest that I've scouted. The whole thing about trying to get rid of a player or two that happened with 2-3 months left in the season (the Coulson incident) was born of a desperate desire to sign a pacy LMF I found, I really believe he would have been enough to push us toward clinching with a little less stress at the end.

It's a little unnerving to reach this point & realize how much of the game - both FM12 and real-world - I don't understand. After clinching the league, I had no idea when the next sequence of events would take place, stuff like vacation, official promotion, etc. etc. So right now each time I click continue I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to see next.

I look back at the year and know some of the things I did wrong besides the salary problem. I'm sure I didn't handle training very well at all but hope a guide I found online will at least improve that next year. I obviously still have things to learn about team meetings & handling the interaction system in general.

My biggest concern about next season is BSBP is really two-fold. I'm sure I'm going to be outmanned most of the time but what actually concerns me most about that is my strategic weaknesses making that even more difficult to overcome. It was probably only the last 5-10 matches that I starting paying attention to the "best roles" info in the player reports & trying to play to those strengths when it made sense & fit my general scheme. I know I'm going to have to mix up the formations/strategies more as I move into higher levels, 4-4-2 Standard probably ain't going to cut it nearly as often. I also have to get more structure with my reserves, keep more players match fit in the slower parts of the schedule. I felt very limited in squad choices by having so few guys who were really ready to play, would have loved to have had those veteran LWB's Kulsten & Giddings out there more.

The things I think I did well, at least reasonably, included identifying players who fit certain roles & complimented the talent on hand. Picking up Sinclair was huge, I saw him (based on ratings) as an improved version of D'Laryea and he turned out to be that and then some. Down the crucial stretch nobody on the team played better (7.10 in the last five) and that was very satisfying to me.

Going to be a wild ride ahead for sure, but as most of you already know, this is one heck of a game.