Part 86: Epilogue: The calm before the storm.

Epilogue: The calm before the storm.
May 5th-June 9th

This is a quiet stretch, a time devoted to pouring over scouting reports and planning for the next season. The board votes are in, and the board has chosen, in their munificence, to go Bees.



We'll have an £18,200,000 budget to split between wages and transfers, a new feeder club in Europe to start a pipeline of players from other continents, an improvement on our current (already above average) training facilities, and we can now scout everywhere in the world. I'm a happy clam with most of these developments.



Shirra deserves this. I can't wait to see what he can do next year.



By way of comparison, the last place finisher in the Premier League gets over a million pounds in prize money. Mid-table is over ten million. We're gonna be rich!



Woah. I was willing to offer Coulson a new contract because he'd been pretty good for us despite his limitations. Then his agent goes and asks for over £7,000 a week. I'm sorry to see you go, Coulson, but I'd be more sorry if you stayed at that price.



Similarly, Poole wasn't bad at all as a backup, and if worst came to worst I could flip him for some cash. But he's not a player who deserves close to £250,000 a year.



Bailey's willing to sign for something reasonable, at least. The fan favorite won't be leaving for at least two years.



They won't let me pick the feeder club myself? What more do I have to do for this club? I also canceled
the Sampdoria link while I was at it, we don't need them anymore.



The very first thing I do with our new scouting range is get a scouting report on Rocky Bastable. I'll have to see if he's willing to join us later this summer when the game updates us to the Premier League. I can't believe he'd rather play in Qatar than come to a BPL club.



U Can't Touch This.



I actually improved everyone's morale in one of these end of season meetings. That's new.



I've arranged our friendlies. We've got fixtures against Wrexham Garden Village, Chester, TNS, and Tackleford as our minnow tuneups, and another free payday against Swansea. I've tried to keep some schedule open if another big club wants to come play at our house or wants us to go play in theirs.



Meanwhile the board has big plans. Sky Shadowing has hired a cousin of his to put in under-soil heating, which will keep our pitch dry and playable even in the pouring rain.



We're also getting a Youth Facilities upgrade, on top of the one that's already taking place. Note that I didn't ask the board for these things, they just went ahead and did it. I assume Sky Shadowing is taking his opportunity to dole out contracting jobs while he can.



Hey, this finally happened. When we're flush with cash this fall I'll be asking the board to push us up to Category 2.



The downside of the board splurging on stadium improvements is that we're about 2.5 million pounds in the red, I can't tell the scout I'm releasing to take a hike so that I can replace him with someone new. I do add two new scouts, though, and set them to work on South America.



I'm attempting to upgrade on those coaches who are at the end of their contracts. I'm unable to land this guy, who would have been a 4.5 star attacking coach, but I'm able to lure in a different coach with similar abilities. That coach is now the most highly paid coach on the team, at £2,300/wk. He's worth it.



I also re-up a number of our coaches. Boulding is the worst scout I bring back, he's only a 16/13 JA/JP, but his Tactical Knowledge has skyrocketed to 17. As he's the guy who scouts our next opponent having a high Tactical Knowledge attribute means that his advice should be heeded when he recommends our tactical focus for pre-match training.



You're worthless, directors. I'm going to keep working on this, I'll keep you updated.



We already paid over a million in taxes during the season, so this isn't that wonderful.



They hired some good accountants, we've lost a lot of money in the last year and I don't see how we're listed as having made a profit of nearly two million pounds.



There's now 41,000 dues paying members of the fan trust. I wonder how the original 10,000 members of the fan trust feel about these Johnny come lately, pink-hatted, bandwagoneering plastics.



This is worth more than twice as much as our original jersey sponsorship from five years ago. It's still peanuts compared to the giants of Europe, but we're starting to get somewhere when it comes to our business dealings.



When I arrived at the boardroom to ask about the hunt for a feeder team early one morning I found a suitcase full of neatly arranged banknotes with a note saying “Fuggedaboutit.” I promptly walked out, and no one has ever mentioned it.



Some players received more from their squad bonus than they earned in salary for the year. Maybe that was what the suitcase of money was for.



The ingame board is way more generous than you guys, this budget sums to about £32m, or £6m more than my request.



Wigan wins the promotion playoff, after overcoming QPR and Sunderland.



Fair Play regulations get a bit stricter. A £15m loss over three seasons really isn't that much money, and five points is not a slap on the wrist. £90m is a lot of money to pump into a club, but well less than the expenses of a megabastard clubs. Man City spends £139m a year on salary alone.



The Continental Fair Play penalty is rough, and the rules much more restrictive than that for the Premier League.



It's June, so the yearly awards are coming out. This is our best finish in over 150 years as a club. You're welcome.



Meteor missed a third of the season and still won best young player. It's his second award in this category in a row.




Lewis was excellent, making his second Team of the Year. I expect him to remain solid in the Premiership. I would love to pay out that bonus again.




Coulson and Harrison go one-two for goal of the year, thanks to their excellent strikes back in December. It's a good note for Coulson to go out on, he'll remain a good player in the lower leagues for several years.



We were picked to finish 21st and we finished 2nd. If I didn't win someone would have been arrested for rigging the vote. It's my third Manager of the Year award in a row. I should really ask for a raise.



Now top division teams want to interview me. Arrogant cads.



I've re-signed everyone who I wanted to, these guys will all be leaving.



Wait, what? No one told me about this! Who the hell decided to take out another loan with that New Jersey bank!?



The fans are never happy, though I'll agree that Harrison's cold streaks drive me crazy as well.



It's time to start remaking the team. I'm bailing on Siegrist and Garuti, both are amongst our highest paid players and both were among our worst performers. I don't think Curran, Peters, or Rainey will ever be more than benchwarmers at the Premier League level, so I'm going to see what I can get for them. Holland is somehow valued at 2m pounds, if we can get half of that for him it's a great deal. Pym wasn't bad, but we need to upgrade our striker, and he didn't improve as a player last season. It makes for a lot of turnover.



Notts County offers us £155k for Curran, a good deal, but he refuses to sign with them. What a jerk.



I'm also still hesitant to sell Todd. He's only got a year left on his contract, but we could get him to sign an extension and he still has room to improve. With Lewis he makes a solid centerback pairing.




We're finding fantastic players in South America, but they won't get a work permit and thus aren't worth signing. This guy, from Mexican club Monterrey, would be perfect for us if only he were able to obtain a work permit.



Oh what's that Australia? You think Mujkic will be joining you?



Hahahaha! He will never play for you when I can prevent it! So sorry, not sorry, Stinky Pete.



We may be a small fish in a big pond, but we've proven that we've got sharp teeth. It's time to make the world recognize the might of Wales.