The Board Did WHAT?!

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Thanks for the support as a channel member Kyle Burch. Well, good news boys and girls. The board have slashed our budget back down to what it was the second half of last season, but this year they've done it earlier in the year. So, we're probably going to have to sell some players in January, which is doubly triply annoying because, as you can see, we are very much in that title race that we hoped we would be in.

[00:00:21]We're we're currently second in the league, one point behind top of the table Valencia with a game in hand over them and could very conceivably be top of the table at the end of this round of matches because Valencia have already played. We play Real Betis who are down in fifth place. If we beat them, we will go top of the league as we approach the halfway point of the season. So, it is quite frustrating that if we can find the finances uh that this has happened again. They've slashed the wage budget back down to exactly what they slashed it to this time last year. It is infuriating. However, as you know, I am an avid reader of the comments section.

[00:01:02]Nothing bad ever happens down there. But somebody did say I had millions of pounds worth of transfer clauses available to sell, which I don't even know where you see that on here.

[00:01:12]Oh, here we go. It's down here. Three available to sell. Total value 2 million. That just can't be right.

[00:01:20]Okay, Danny Hernandez has his 40% silence. See, this is on the face of it a potentially tough decision.

[00:01:30]I mean, in reality, obviously, we're going to do it, but at his age and continuing to get better at 40% sell on, I mean 1.9 million assumes what, maybe a£5 million future fee. Do we think he's going to go for more than 5 million when he sells?

[00:01:50]Possibly. He might not, though. I mean, we're literally just going to bite their arm off for that. How do we get it? Give me that. Give it to me now. Um, we're also going to sell these two as well because it's not like front and center like it has been on previous FM games. I do forget to check this, but that is potentially massive because that immediately does that gives us a bunch of transfer money as well. We can push that transfer money back into wage budget, which pushes the wage budget back up a bit.

[00:02:26]And now I guess we just have to convince the board to maybe give us some of the wage budget back. That feels like a tough ask considering we are still overdrawn. We're still projected to be mega overdrawn at the end of the season.

[00:02:41]But all of a sudden, we're looking a lot better than we were before. But it does make me think, imagine if we'd have had the same thing with Jude McRobie, Russ Eddie. These salons now could be could be financially securing our future. But that is the best our bank balance has looked pretty much ever.

[00:02:59]So, how do I ask the board? I think we go in here, don't we? Board request. I didn't request to build a new stadium.

[00:03:07]They told me they were going to do it.

[00:03:08]Um, but we would like No, we can't because they they've just pushed it down. So, we can't actually do anything about that yet. I probably should have asked for that before doing the clause, but to be honest, we were over 2 million in debt. They weren't going to they weren't going to play bored with it anyway. Play bored, play ball. Bottom line, it might not be as bad as first thought. Although, obviously going into the transfer window in a month, still probably close to a million pounds overdrawn and £5,000 a week over our wage budget. There is still still going to be some pressure to sell. And if we look at the players who are attracting interest, Victor has got some interest from Hercules. Pena also Hercules, Bruce Hill, Estipona. So there's no mega clubs in to throw big money at us.

[00:03:54]But yeah, I mean none of these are going to make a huge difference to our widget. It's the cheaper players.

[00:04:05]I mean, if we sold all three of them, we'd be back within our wage budget, but we'd then have to sign at least two more players and realistically bring in another center back to cover Bruce Hill as well. So, we really don't want to have to go down that route. So, let's just focus on keep winning. We're playing Riettis. This is the team we're putting out there to try and beat them.

[00:04:25]We are pretty much full strength. Um, Lenarez is injured again, which it is proving difficult for him to force his way back into this team. His one appearance this season has been up front and uh yeah he's not having the best of times trying to get back into the team ahead of a 5'10 goalkeeper. I never thought that would be a thing but it is Escuin in goal a back of Zapata Zapata Zabala and Balon Ko in victory in midfield. Angel Pena and Javier behind Castro and uh let's just keep winning football matches. We are we are a good team. We are a better team than we were last year. I think it's safe to say at this point it's the best team and probably more importantly the best squad we've had in the entire save and I know we've had a few now or ever moments throughout this series. I really think this season is one and we've got to win matches like this. We cannot risk the playoffs again. We cannot risk an end of season collapse again. We can't risk not being top of the league going into January in case we have players sold out from under us. Remember in Spain everybody has a minimum fee release clause. And having seen what's just happened with Hernandez, we have that kind of inbuilt incentive to potentially sell players for below their release clauses as well. So someone like Castro, I think has a half million pound release clause. But if someone comes in and offers me 300,000 and a 50% sell on, it's pretty hard to say no knowing that they could come back and just pay his release clause and we miss out massively in the long run. So yeah, we just got to win as many matches as we can, accumulate as many points as we can before the squad is ripped apart.

[00:06:02]Hope we get promoted and get some financial benefit off the back of that. If we're looking to build a new stadium, that will be nice.

[00:06:11]Hopefully we can get some bigger sponsorships, some more prize money, and start to establish ourselves in the in La Liga 2 or whatever it's officially called. Sagunda Liga, is it something like that, isn't it? Do I look Spanish to you? frankly. Um, but good work from Javier. That is a really weird replay.

[00:06:32]I mean, we did score. I promise the replay wouldn't tell you that we did.

[00:06:35]Interesting that that shot only had 0.09 xG. It He was basically on the edge of the sixyard box. I would say that would have a much higher xG than that, but what do I know? There you go. Penort has just scored almost exactly the same goal. How much xG do we get for that one?

[00:06:53]I mean, the fact that he receives the ball back to goal, I think lowers the xG. Was it the same with Javier? We actually get to see the replay of this one. So, yeah, he receives it back to goal, but then turns onto it. Yeah, I think it's the receiving it back to goal that's forcing the xG down because they were both pretty much unmarked on the edge of the sixyard box. You would think that would be much higher, but yeah, I've decided I'm very clever and it's the back to goal receiving the ball that forces that down. But either way, we're two- up. That's the important thing. Who cares about XG? Not me this season. Pre previous seasons. Yeah, this season though, we're going to win the league with real points and real goals and not have to worry or complain about XG. And wouldn't that be a thing? Right, Javier.

[00:07:43]Oh, blime me. He's been he's been mugged there. That's got to be a red card surely. He was so late and it is a red card. Javier looks like his foot's come off which isn't ideal. No, it's back on.

[00:07:55]Um, it's back on. He'll be fine. Run it off, lad. Goodness me. But we are now two-0 up against 10 men. Rialetis are doing a bit of an Andrach style um self combustion and we're here for it. Kone over the top looking for Javier who plays it in looking for Castro. Can't find him but Victor picks up the pieces.

[00:08:15]It's with Javier again who seems to be fine now. He's got two feet again. And Pena has added his second of the game, our third. And we might finally be doing a thrashing against a good team in a video. And it's been so long. It has been so long since we've played well in a like properly well in a video against good opposition. And I know they're down to 10 men and we've only had three shots on the target. I mean that in itself for us to have scored three from three shots on target is so different to how we have typically been.

[00:08:52]Um and it's interesting that it is a guy who's been here very much from the start. Penfort was here in episode one.

[00:08:59]He was down in the uh he was down in the youth team but he I don't think he's someone who generated during the save.

[00:09:05]I'm pretty sure both Pena and Castro were here. This saves Mick Powell and Anthony Harris. They were here at the start and they're still here. And frankly, Castro should be in similar conversations to Mick Powell at this point because he's scored as many goals as he did. He's bringing us up through the leagues the way Mick Powell did.

[00:09:27]We just have to we just have to keep the two of them and have them scoring in the Champions League for us and make them proper heroes. But they have been they have been superb and Pena really having quite a good game today. And it falls to Castro on the edge of the area who looked to add a fourth um but he missed unfortunately and we are going to take Castro off now. He's not had the best of games. Sorano can come on him. It's lovely to be able to make these substitutions now. Pñena's going to go out to the left hand side and Mayberg's going to come on. Um and then we're also going to take off Zapata and Ruiz can come on for him. We've got we've got two players for every position throughout the team which is jolly nice and again it's not something we've ever had before and there is your proof that as it stands right now we are top of the league as well and looking really good value for it with a really good performance against one of the better teams in the division one of the preseason promotion favorites. This is all jolly good stuff. Um, Zabala heads it forward, but not far enough. And we've been caught a little bit on the back foot here. And they're trying to get past a Zapata moving about the same pace I move. Um, but has a similar figure to me and managed to put himself between the player and the ball. So, his pace didn't really matter cuz it took quite a while to get all the way around him. Right, we're going to bring on Renwick for more game time for him. Um, and then I think in fact, you know what? We're going to play Renwick at center back. No, we'll bring Bruce Hill on at center back. I was going to bring Delgado on to play right back, but no, we'll play Renwick right back and Bruce Hill can have a a run out at center back. And again, we're in that lovely position where we've got so many of our own youth players on the pitch. Hill, Renwick, Pena, Mayberg.

[00:11:08]Obviously Castro's been on and come off, but we're top of the league, looking good, and half our first team, uh, our own youth players, which is it's just super. I'm I'm a proud papa. Um but we are he says having released his own son on a free transfer back in the summer.

[00:11:26]Shut up. He's uh Pena's my real son. Um he looks much more like me. But yeah, he's uh he's grabbed a couple. We are now I think going to push I was going to say push forward a little bit, but no, we play Atéico there. So that's going to be our next match because that's another big one. So, we'll do Albeti.

[00:11:49]Oh, it's a cup game anyway. We'll do that off camera. We'll do Kartagena off camera. We'll be back for Atletico where hopefully we after that match are still top of the league which would be super duper. Our unbeaten run goes on. We uh we knocked Albaceti who were in the division above us. We knocked them out of the Copper Del Re um and then drew away against Carter Gina um who are down in mid table. Little bit frustrating.

[00:12:14]would have rather it happened the other way around, but we now face Atletico Madrileno um at home. Jirona have moved above us temporarily on goal difference or head-to-head or we've got a game in hand either way. If we if we even get a draw here against Atletico, we go back to the top of the league. Obviously, we'd like to win and continue proving we can beat the better teams now. Um I think the team is unchanged from the last match you saw. Penfort has been injured in the meantime. So, um, Mayberg's played the last couple of matches, but otherwise it is a pretty settled team now. And Pena is now fit to be back in the side and hopefully continue where he left off before his injury because both in terms of goals and assists, he's having the best season of his And career. He's still only 22 years old. He's already got 13 goal contributions this season in I think 15 matches. So, Pena is becoming a becoming a bit of a superstar. He did make it to 20 total goal contribution or just over 20 total goal contributions last year. So, his output is certainly improving as he gets older. And uh according to my coaching team, he still has the potential to be a leading um La Liga 2 player, which suggests he could be here for the next four or five years cuz I don't imagine we're going to be getting promoted to La Liga anytime soon. So he's going to play the best years of his career presumably for us and then if we get to La Liga when he's like 28 29 that's ideal for him to just drift down to being a squad player get his Champions League debut at 34 and then become assistant manager. It's all coming together for Pena. Um right and there he is on the ball now coming deep trying to play it for Dcastro eventually gets through to him more through luck than judgment I think. And now Javier who's just won the uh the divisional player of the month Javier and I won manager of the month. So um that's why we didn't win the last game I think because we both had the uh the manager of the month player of the month curse.

[00:14:10]But Javier now he's moved on from that.

[00:14:13]He's back to doing what he's been doing all season again. Although this time apparently he's offside. I refuse to accept it myself but we don't get to see a replay for it. XG continues to confuse me. Where's point8 of XG come from in this match? That is a good save from Escuin. That's why or one of the reasons why Lenarz is not back in the team. I think Escuin is probably the best shots stopper we've had in the series. Unfortunately, being 5' 10, there is a negative and we saw it in full flight there because he just I mean there's no point in coming for corners because he can't reach him and that does make us a little bit susceptible to that which Larz probably comes out and just collects that corner.

[00:15:01]So, we need to be able to combine the two of them really. Maybe if we could get him to sit on Linares's shoulders, that would be perfect. I mean, we've got previous for playing two goalkeepers. If we can find a way to make it work, it'll be the best of both worlds. Um, but it is Atletico on the attack again. If we go 2-0 down at home here, all the good form we've had this season starts to go out the window because in these leagues where you only have that one automatic promotion spot, you really can't afford to mess up against your rivals. And as it stands right now, halfway point of the season, it's the same old story. we would be third in the league, level on points for the two teams above us, but below them because of head-to-head. And a great once again, it comes down to we've lost against them both when we played them, which cost us last season.

[00:15:49]It cost us the season before. We've got to stop losing to the teams we are in a title race with. And I thought with that game against Rail Betis that we might have finally gotten over that nonsense.

[00:16:05]But if we lose at home here after I think we're on like a 17 game unbeaten and I don't think we've lost in the league since the first game of the season.

[00:16:16]This would be this would be very annoying. Very very annoying. Actually, we must have lost to Jirona at some point as well. Or maybe we drew at home and that counts as them being ahead on headto-head. I don't I don't really know how head-to-head works, but Angel getting caught in possession there. And that is so frustrating. Yeah, you put your head in your hands, you plum. What were you even thinking?

[00:16:41]This is awful. This is our captain.

[00:16:49]Well, we bate.

[00:16:53]Annoyingly, it's same old story from previous years. We've been the better team. We've had more possession. We've created more chances. We've got better xG with a home team. It's just bottly.

[00:17:04]Castro's gone missing again in a big match like he always does without fail.

[00:17:11]And it's just same old story. Angel's going to come off. Quintterero is going to come on for him, the new boy that came in. Uh, in fact, he's not the new boy that came in in the summer. He's only 16 years old. He's not coming on.

[00:17:26]Pena, he's I was thinking that was somebody else entirely. Right. Mayberg's going to come on. And then we're also going to bring on Sorano and Dawara. And we're changing the entire attack around because we're just not creating it. We are creating stuff, but it's the opposite of what happened in the last game. We're now creating chances again, playing well again, and just being entirely let down by our front four, which is just it's such an annoyingly familiar script that we Oh, that is a lovely long throw from Dio. ENDS UP WITH DIARA AGAIN. Oh my word.

[00:18:08]He nearly scored an absolute worldy.

[00:18:13]Maybe he needs a bit more game time because he looks to be developing a few useful traits that we might benefit from. That long throw. I mean, the thing is I don't know who we bring him in for, but that long throw looks like that could be something of a weapon with the size of the players that we've got. Kone is going to come off for thick broom.

[00:18:33]And then for my final roll of the dice, I want to get Ryes on and go two up top.

[00:18:39]So, I think I think we take off take off Victor.

[00:18:48]Mayber can drop back there and we'll go to two up top and he can uh he can play up alongside him like that.

[00:19:08]And hopefully we can grab a couple of goals from somewhere and salvage a draw.

[00:19:15]It doesn't look likely, does it?

[00:19:18]Taking off Victor in this situation as well. One of our longest serving and best players.

[00:19:24]Oh, it's all so annoyingly familiar.

[00:19:28]Right. Oh, ref, do something about this.

[00:19:32]I'm not having a nice time.

[00:19:35]Please disallow three of these goals for me.

[00:19:40]I mean, that is one of the alltime great FMings.

[00:19:47]Every stat, we've been better than them and we've lost 3-0 at home.

[00:19:54]as the manager on a very limited budget.

[00:19:58]So, I can't just go out and buy a striker who's not a bottly stat padder.

[00:20:07]I genuinely don't know what I'm supposed to do because coaching wise, the match stats are telling you I'm doing everything right. We are playing better than them and we're just not getting the reward we deserve. And it's been season after season after season. It's just it's a mentality thing.

[00:20:28]Obviously, Atletico much bigger club and we're intimidated by their reputation and as a result, stupid things happen.

[00:20:36]There's absolutely no version of reality where we concede four goals today.

[00:20:44]Yet, here we are.

[00:20:46]Hide. absolutely hideous and makes it so much harder for us to go up automatically because we now have to finish clear of both Jirona and Atletico. We can't finish level on points with them because they've both got us for headto-head. And with that being 4-1 as well, even if we go to their place and beat them 1-0il in the second half of the season, they'll still have us on headto-head.

[00:21:11]So annoying. If you've enjoyed that, please make sure you leave a nice big thumbs up on there for me. Subscribe to the channel for daily Football Manager videos.