Lee >> monday august 21 - 17:58

Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, players of all ages....welcome to the start of another season!

I will leave it to my counterparts to regale everyone with their plans, hopes and dreams but I've been busy showing the older players and useless youths the door, and bringing in an expensive line-up of U21 players.

I did however only buy players with good-looking girlfriends - wanted to make sure I had something pleasing to look at while my team tanked on the pitch.

Good luck to all, and I hope you appreciate the points you will no doubt take from me.

Stephen >> monday august 21 - 18:17

We've seen the back of Tibon and, with him gone, Beach fans are hoping the team is now fully operational. This is despite still being in a period of building and financial restraint.

The accountancy team - now numbering over four dozen and all armed to the teeth - has been shooting anyone on sight who is even thinking about bringing in a new signing. It's this ruthless approach that has meant Seaburn has finally posted profits in most of the last five seasons. It does mean that we won't be bringing anyone in who might actually improve the side. And maybe this season will be the one the team doesn't suffer a whole range of increasingly bewildering and lengthy injuries...

Good luck to all!

Charlie Mopps >> tuesday august 22 - 07:29, Edited tuesday august 22 - 07:30

In Liverpool we ended up selling the strongest and most expensive players. Thanks to the profit, the construction of Anfield 10 has finally started, however the team is greatly reduced and we must hope for salvation.

Two difficult seasons will follow due to the lack of income and the increasingly older team, but we are confident in the future.

Numpty >> tuesday august 22 - 09:20

Congrats on the England job, Charlie. 

In other news we have lost a level at the bottom, as we seem to have established a yo-yo pattern alternating between 4 and 5 levels every few seasons. 

So sponsorship is down and there will be a handful of clubs who have been unexpectedly promoted. (Due to a reshuffle of the bots from higher divisions). There will also be fewer rounds in the cup. Although this likely won't affect anyone in the top division.  

Blackwhite >> tuesday august 22 - 09:40

Last season, the objective was to finish in the top 10 : Contract fulfilled with the added bonus of a European qualification by finishing 7th

For this 75 season, our team continues to weaken as we are launching training academy 3 in a few days.

==> The objective will therefore be the maintenance without any other claim

Good season to all

Charlie Mopps >> tuesday august 22 - 09:50, Edited tuesday august 22 - 09:54

Thanks Numpty, I hope to do well with the English national team!

Yes, I see this morning that we have lost 6 M€ per season of sponsorship due to the loss of the lower level.

Numpty >> tuesday august 22 - 11:59, Edited tuesday august 22 - 12:20

I'm not entirely sure why I did this, but some may find it useful. Here is a detailed breakdown of the cup draw for anyone who may be interested. 

Cup Draw With 4 Levels

With 4 levels we have 160 clubs in the draw: L1 x 20, L2 x 20, L3 x 40 and L4 x 80.

The first round is a qualifying round, equivalent to the round of 256, which includes the bottom 60% of the teams from L3. This is based on last season's final league position. 

There are 2 groups of seeds who enter in the rounds of 32 and 64 respectively. All of the remaining teams enter in the second round, including the bottom 8 from L1.  

• 1st Round 104 teams (L4 x 80 and L3 x 24) 
• 2nd Round 52 winners + 44 byes (L3 x 16, L2 x 20 and L1 x 8)
• 3rd Round 48 winners + 8 seeds (L1 x 8)
• 4th Round 28 winners + 4 seeds (L1 x 4)
• 5th Round Last 16
• Quarter-finals
• Semi-finals
• Final 

Cup Draw With 5 Levels

For comparison here is the breakdown for the cup draw when we have 5 levels. With an extra 8 divisions this doubles the total number of clubs from 160 to 320 so has a massive effect on the draw, especially at the bottom. 

The first round is a qualifying round of only 8 teams, equivalent to the round of 1024. The majority of the clubs (252) start in round 2. There are 4 groups of seeds (60 in total) who enter in subsequent rounds. 

• 1st Round 8 teams (L5 x 8) 
• 2nd Round 4 winners + 252 byes (L5 x 152, L4 x 80 and L3 x 20)
• 3rd Round 128 winners + 32 seeds (L3 x 20 and L2 x 12)
• 4th Round 80 winners + 16 seeds (L2 x 8 and L1 x 8)
• 5th Round 48 winners + 8 seeds (L1 x 8)
• 6th Round 28 winners + 4 seeds (L1 x 4)
• 7th Round Last 16
• Quarter-finals
• Semi-finals
• Final 

The main differences

When there are 5 levels there are 2 extra rounds. Comparing the two draws it makes no difference to the L1 clubs.  With 5 levels the bottom 12 teams in L2 start one round earlier, the teams in L3 mostly start one round earlier and all the teams in L4 start one round earlier. 

** Note added for clarity ** The best way to understand the 'extra rounds' is that with 4 levels R1 is the round of 256 and R4 is the round of 32. When we have 5 levels this is equivalent to R3 and R6.  A team gets one extra round if it starts in a round with more teams. 

Stephen >> tuesday august 22 - 19:07

Cheers Numpty

Charlie Mopps >> thursday august 24 - 08:18

Good morning everyone, as the new coach of England I made new call-ups and I slightly changed the tactical module to make it more offensive by exploiting the characteristics of the players.

The debut in World Cup qualifying is quite simple "on paper", however I don't want to risk and it will serve as a test for the future.

Come on England!

Monk >> thursday august 24 - 16:12

Did we mention before you took the job on, that all rockingsoccer managers agree to have an English flag tattooed on their body? The body place is your choice; and also a "Made in England" tattoo around the belly button. It's there in the terms and conditions if you look carefully enough.

Charlie Mopps >> thursday august 24 - 21:14

...

Numpty >> friday august 25 - 12:45, Edited friday august 25 - 12:50

Having documented how the cup draw works I thought I'd do the same for the U21 Youth Cup. 

This season, Season 75, there are 99 teams in the draw, but it will differ slightly each season because of a variable number of clubs with an U21 team. The first round is a qualifying round (78 teams) equivalent to the round of 128, there are 4 seeds who enter in Round 3 and 17 get a bye into Round 2. [I'm not entirely sure of the criteria for the seedings]. 

The current format would allow for between 61 (min) and 116 (max) clubs with a youth team. If there were more than 116 U21 teams there would be an extra round and probably more seeds. 

U21 Youth Cup Draw Season 75

• 1st Round 78 teams
• 2nd Round 39 winners + 17 byes  
• 3rd Round 28 winners + 4 seeds 
• 4th Round 4 Last 16 
• Quarter-finals
• Semi-finals
• Final 

BakerMan >> saturday august 26 - 02:31, Edited saturday august 26 - 02:32

Well I decided to go with my in-house GK. Only 28, but he has another 40 seasons ahead of him!

Think my games will be a lot more unpredictable this season and the Champions League will be chaos, but will be interesting to see the difference that just a GK makes...

Numpty >> saturday august 26 - 14:01

Well I reckon you're probably going to struggle to qualify for Europe next season @BM. 

You got me thinking so I thought that to make the season a bit more interesting I would try and make a prediction for the final league positions at the end of the season. 

This is the final day of the transfer window so my predictions are based on the current squads at the time of posting.