Just a reminder that you have until around mid-day on Saturday to cast a vote in the rerun poll.

Interestingly, so far only one manager has reversed his vote from that cast in the original poll.

We have 9 managers still to vote who voted in the original poll and 5 managers voted who did not
cast a vote in the original poll.

If I am not mistaken there is a suggestion that I could double up a special ability with swansong. I think that I would aim to
have 6/19 in my squad at the start of next season. Make him a Mav and the add swansong. SL 29 before a ball is kicked.
Count me in for that 👍

A good indicator of the number of unmanaged teams will come from those clubs who have a Bosman
signing named "Rename". Count them once the pre-season closes and you might just have an answer.

My surname is not a common surname in Israel, and that's a bit of an understatement. Israelis
struggle to spell it and say it. I have however found that telling people I am related to Bart,
helps enormously. USA culture to the rescue!

Thanks everyone. Appreciated.

I can see where managers are coming from on this one. It just makes things easy.
Except that if you check about you'll find that it's not a problem for most teams.
What it does do is make you plan ahead if you want to make good or optimum use of that special.
The teams it is likely to affect most are those that are already strong in other ways including
having 5 or more special players.

I still think Swansong should be available for a player with a previously assigned specialty.

Had to get that off my proverbial chest.

Thanks.

Aye, right!

It's good to see several friendlies to start the season. Eight matches in each of the three match spots. Perhaps more will join?

My original intention was to coach Buffel (MA) to SL33 and manage his EL by using him as an impact
substitute, only playing him from the start in key games. However, I hadn't factored in the effect
of injuries on his EL plan and we had a lot of early game injuries especially in the first part of
last season. This meant that Buffel, being the highest SL available sub for every outfield
position, was forced onto the pitch early. When it happened for a 3rd time, I decided that he had
to play from the start, and be substituted probably at half time. Of course, the first time I
started him, he got injured! It was a relatively minor injury but because of the -12 EL penalty he
missed 3 games before I could consider playing him.

.....So if you are thinking of choosing the Maverick characteristic for an outfield player,
consider carefully how you will play your Mav and how you will manage his EL.

I'm not sure what I will do with Buffel this season but I would trade him for an Age 2 SL20
player, so if anybody is interested, get in touch.

Thanks to everyone who voted for TED in last season's awards categories. Your votes were much
appreciated.

Ellis,

I had quite good luck assigning Maverick status to Warren Sapp (GK) last year. I believe the bonus put him at 27 SL for the season (I did
not have spare CP to coach him further, nor did I feel the need to use CP on a 27 SL keeper), which was a great start - I think he started
the season as the highest rated GK in D1. It worked well because I had a second high SL keeper, so they basically played every other
match. There were a couple of times where one of the two played back-to-back games, but that was rare and situation specific.

To be fair, Stewart had a completely different experience assigning Maverick to one of his MA's. You might want to get his take on it, just
for reference.

Good luck!

Or you could Mav your 4/17 GK - 4/22 - then throw some CP at him - 4/29. He would start next season 5/21. Nice

Thanks for the answer Roy. So, is it worth making your top GK a Maverick?

Think its fair to say theres only going to be one candidate for the Origin Div 3 most
enterprising trader award for season 40.

I have another plan...

If I try to arrange a preseason friendly there are just over 20 teams available to play and I know that many of them have
managers and I guess that those who have already arranged a fixture are with managers. Hmmmm....

I could guess.... on every day and watch who has been on recently. Tick the names off for, say two weeks, and I have a rough
idea.
Perhaps the easiest way is count how many teams have submitted preseason orders before the start of the season? I might
even consider how many have nominated a captain - that’s basic surely - nominating, not working out how many managers
we have, that’s a head scratcher!

As of this posting, the Gers look to have a bit of an edge on paper.
With half a season to go before the Quaffers face the Gers for the
first time, Old Colony fans are confident their side can pull nearly
even and make it a match to remember.

After hearing that The Quaffers will be filling the stands with their new Season 40 jerseys The
Bears have gone on a spending spree. All of our stores report that the new Teddybears chess set has
completely sold out! While The Bears will be indulging in a bit of 'Ruy Lopez' before the match
hopefully The Gers will checkmate The Quaffers on the field.

One off +5SL boost (not per season) buy EL recovery is permanently reduced

"Gains permanent SL but will recover at a lower EL rate after each match"

What is the SL gain? A single level?

That was back when getting more than 3 players to SL25 was considered a mighty achievement.

Yes, that's right.
Not for Early Cross either.
The original idea was that you could neglect OTF and MF to build better FWs and WGs to compensate.

Looking at Table 24: Tactics Formulas, it shows Longball gets no advantage from OTF. Do I read
that correctly? Does OTF not contribute anything when playing Longball?

In an attempt to fill the stands of match 25 with Old Colony jerseys, our new kits are 30% off.
If you arrive with a receipt for a Gers kit, our store will beat their price by %5.

Cheers Quaffers!!

TED is pleased to announce that our Season 40 'Home' and 'Away' kits are now available from the
club's stores. Unfortunately the designers have not been able to work the Nigerian 'Away' kit zig-
zag pattern into our jerseys but we hope that supporters are pleased with the new kits.

In my haste to gather together the 20,000 dog chews for pickles i signed an apprentice without a
name. Showing as (c) at the moment for some reason.

Sorry.
Pickles says you have to pay a ransom of 20,000 dog chews.
Roughly translated. Barking and growling is hard to translate sometimes.

I think I see what has happened. The lots are essentially the same as those for Season 39 but some
of the player positions have been changed thereby rendering some characteristics invalid.

Adam, have some of the Season 40 auction player characteristics been incorrectly assigned?

For example: GK Passers in Auctions 3 & 6; FW Shooters in Auction 2, UT Shooter in Auction 5, SW
Wing Back in Auction 3, WG Playmaker in Auction 7.

Yes, it's happened at last! Really looking forward to it. It looks like we have been drawn in a very
competitive group which consists of FIVE first division clubs.

We need to report a theft, match 44 last season we won the origin cup for the first time in our
history but it has been stolen from us.

Reward offered for the cups safe return.

That's funny, David. I almost believed it for a moment.

Ahem.

With the third best squad for T16 in our division I can't see us challenging this season.

When you see that message don’t hit ‘yes’

What?

When you see that message don’t hit ‘yes’

I’ve said it before and I will say it again - you are in the top two of all time greatest managers. Take care and keep in touch 👍

Stewart - check your schedule. Match 25. The world will be watching.

Yes!!!

Welcome back Adam. Hope you enjoyed your hols!

I'd guess that there are about seven teams unmanaged just now, counting AK and WCR.

Guys,

How many teams do you think are unmanaged at the moment?

Hi Guys,

Im back.

I am processing stuff just now and setting up the new season.
I see a poll on merging leagues. Wooooooof. That's a lot of work. It won't happen this
season but I will look at it.

No!!!!

I do not accept. Please stay.