The Estadio de Reyes cheers home its Kings

Season 1 of the Saunders gameworld is over and the Kings of Dion finished in a very impressive 4th place in the Xtreme Football Association (XFA). It all came together on the last day of the season when we managed to beat 5th place Sagresse 1-0 and then 6th place Blue Nose Bears 2-1 to cement 4th place. Unfortunately, this will all come to nothing as I took the decision to leave the XFA and join the Super Evening Football Association (SEFA). There were just too many games in the XFA and hopefully the SEFA will suit me better.

The starting line up which ended Season 1 is to the left and there were only a few changes made throughout the season. Avimiled Rivas joined the Kings for £60k and is taking over as a key player in the team. He is calm under pressure and links up the entire team. He starts most of our attacking moves receiving the ball from Defense and playing to either the wings or Olivera in the attacking midfield position. He also plays an important part in linking the width of the team. Balls are quickly spread from left wing to right wing and vice versus through Rivas in midfield. (An important part of the 442 system and often overlooked by teams who want star strikers and wingers) If you have no-one good to give them the ball from defense it doesn't matter how good your wingers or strikers are.

My first ever experience of the end of season contract auctions has begun. Its been touted as one of the crucial points in the FML season and I must say Simon's post on the Wild Geese blog has been invaluable http://wildgeesefc.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favourite-time-of-year.html

I've been lucky this season, in my intial squad I had only 5 players worth keeping for the future and by signing 6 or 7 players on 2 season contracts during the season i've managed to keep most of my first team secure for next season. This has left me with 3 players who are entering the wage auctions that I actually want to keep, my goalkeeper Orkun Usak, and my two fullbacks Sami Tajeddine and Sampo Koskinen. I've taken a gamble and allowed them to go to the dreaded wage auction, i'm just hoping nobody noticies them because at the end of the season their average ratings dropped below 7 to around the 6.9 level.

The major tip I could give to anyone is to search through all the players on the gameworld with a contract expiry of less than 7 days and shortlist all the players (not already locked) who catch your eye. This way you get regular updates on when their contract is going to a wage auction and you can decide at that point if you want to make a bid on them.

The Kings Go Forth

The Kings of Dion FC go forth into the Saunders Gameworld of FML. Its been just under 2 weeks since the start of Saunders and things have just started to get exciting with the start of the FA competitions and the first wave of transfer auctions.

Day 1
It was really tense prior to the start of the Gameworld and I was lucky to be one of the first to get in the Gameworld. I quickly snapped up Obafemi Martins for £400k. That basically blew my budget but what can I say, he has scored 62 goals in 93 games, well worth it in my opinion. He is superb on the counter attack, his pace destroys most teams and he can strike a ball from any angle meaning he often bags goals from positions where most players wouldn't even chance a shot on goal.

My other notible signing in the initial squad was Nicolas Olivera for £30k, he has done me proud with 24 goals and 26 assists in 79 games. He has real creative flair and lays some beautiful balls through to Martins from the centre of midfield.

With the initial squad signed up I started to put together some tactics and after 24 games of messing about with 3-5-2, I went back to the good old 4-4-2 (I haven't used that formation since FM06). I've now been with the 4-4-2 formation for 77 games and thanks to some top tips from Simon James of Wild Geese FC (check out his blog - http://www.wildgeesefc.blogspot.com/) I've clawed my way up to 186th in the rankings. I'm pretty pleased with that so far.

Day 12
Today is day 12 of the gameworld and I've made quite a few changes to my first team since day 1. I snapped up Marcio Emerson Passos (he current plys his trade in Qatar) for £24k and he's scored 27 goals in 51 games for the Kings. I've just sold 33 year old David Possanzini for £129k, a nice profit of £115k. My most recent signing was Dmitry Molosh (the Belarus CB/LB currently playing for Russian side FC Nosta Novotroitsk) for £80k which has helped strengthen my back line. I managed to knock £20k off the initial asking price of £100k so I was pleased with that.

Aside from FML I've just finished reading an excellent book by David Peace called The Damned Utd. It covers the 44 days of Brian Howard Cloughs rein as Leeds United Manager in 1974. It also covers the history of how Cloughie took Derby to the First Division Championship in 1971-72. Its a fantastic read and I thoughrly recommend it to every one interested in football - you can pick it up for £4 in HMV.