Birmingham City - Implementing a cantera policy

[bcfc1]

Birmingham City - Implementing a cantera policy

After having played around with a few personal saves, I've decided to do my first story for FM21. I've wanted to do something like this for a while now but never got round to doing it until now. The plan is to manage Birmingham City and implement a cantera policy, probably made most famous by Athletic Bilbao.

What is a cantera policy?

Cantera is a spanish term which, in football terms, means to only recruit players from the local region. As I said before, the most famous form of this is probably Athletic Bilbao who only recruit players with a link to the Basque region of Spain. Other clubs do this, or a version of this, around the world with the next most well known one possibly being Chivas in Mexico who only recruit Mexican players.

If you want to do a cantera save, why not just manage Bilbao?

I have managed Bilbao plenty of times over the years and love the challenge, however I feel the game produces far too many great newgens for the region and after the first couple of seasons, the team is good enough to compete with anyone in world football. My hope is that by doing this with a different region, I will get round this problem and be a more realistic version of a cantera save.

How are you going to implement the policy?

Bilbao's transfer policy is hard coded into the game so all you have to do is start a save with them and it is there. That won't be the case with Birmingham however. I've created 2 filter views that I will use when scouting any players that will filter out any players who don't fit certain criteria. My first filter will filter by place of birth and I have added every city (all cities/towns/villages etc. are called cities on FM) in the West Midlands to this filter. What is and isn't in the West Midlands could be debated by I have just gone by what is classed as West Midlands on FM. My second filter will filter by home grown status and I have added every West Midlands club on to this going down to the National League North/South. I may miss the a few newgens by not including every single semi-professional and amateur club on to this but I don't think I will be missing out on the top quality players through this.

Tracking for number of West Midlands players in squad
​

Year	Number of West Midlands players
2020/21	6
2021/22	14

In my next post I will give a bit of history of Birmingham City and also look at some of the few dream signings to make from the region. If anyone has any ideas on what to do add to this to try and make is as realistic as possible then please let me know.
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[zelenichajnik]

Very interested to see where this goes. I tried a cantera save a little while ago on Sardinia, but I think it was doomed to fail haha. Best of luck!

 

[bcfc1]

Birmingham City - The Club

Despite bearing the name of the city, Birmingham City have almost always been the underdog to Aston Villa in the city of Birmingham. For a long time in my youth (1990's) we weren't even in the same division as them. We did however enjoy some success in the 2000's where we earnt promotion to the Premier League and completed a great double over them in our first season (Go look up Mellberg goal v Birmingham if you want to see one of the most unbelievable goals of all time). In 2011, the club had an incredible year where they famously beat Arsenal in the League Cup final but then ended that season getting relegated. This meant we actually played in the Europa League while being in the Championship. While the club have stayed in the same division for the last decade, the problems at the club have mounted and we have flirted with relegation to League One for the last 5 years or so. My aim will be to change all of that while sticking to the policy of bringing in local players.

Overview

Year Founded - 1875
Stadium - St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium
Capacity - 29,409
Nickname - The Blues

Honours

Second Division Champions - 1893, 1921, 1948, 1955
Third Division Champions - 1995
League Cup Winners - 1963, 2011
EFL Trophy Winners - 1991, 1995


​

 

[bcfc1]

Very interested to see where this goes. I tried a cantera save a little while ago on Sardinia, but I think it was doomed to fail haha. Best of luck!

What happened that made it 'doomed to fail'. I might be able to avoid the same issues if I know what they are.

 

[bcfc1]

Players from the West Midlands

With me using my own filters, I thought it would be a good idea to show you the current crop of best players that fit in to those filters.

This first filter is the one based on players place of birth. There are some very good options there that should help the club grow and develop in to a top Championship and even a Premier League side. Those with a strong Aston Villa connection (Grealish, Albrighton, Lolley) might be quite difficult to bring in at any stage but the others should be targets for the short and long term for us to grow.

This second list is based on players home-grown at clubs in the West Midlands. There are few surprises here, particularly Chris Wood, who can also add to the squad.


I'm not planning on making many transfers in the first season as the squad is pretty big as it is but the staff will need an overhaul so it will be a busy summer to make sure that is all arranged before the season starts.​

 

[zelenichajnik]

What happened that made it 'doomed to fail'. I might be able to avoid the same issues if I know what they are.

Basically, the player pool just wasn't big enough to do anything long-term with. There were some decent individuals, but when you've only got two sides in entirety of Italy's professional leagues, it became a real issue. You should hopefully be fine.

 

[bcfc1]

Pre-Season

I'm writing this on the day of the first competitive game of the season (Carabao Cup first round against Swansea) and even though I said that I wasn't planning many transfer deals, we ended up selling a first team player and loaning out a lot of youngsters and then bringing in 2 players for the first team. I spent a lot of the pre-season trying to decide on what tactic to run with. I switched between a 433, 4231, 352 and an asymmetric 451. I eventually settled on a more conventional 4231 which should do us well throughout the season.

Transfers

Players Out

Most of the players moving out where youngsters going out on loan but the one first team player to leave was Lukas Jutkiewicz who went to Cardiff for £350k. He has been a great servant for the club in real life but he doesn't fit in to how I want to play so I decided to move him out and make a bit of money out of him while we can.

Players In

So two signings have been made and both are for very different reasons. The first signing was youngster Mitch Clark who joins on loan from Leicester. He comes in as a back up to Maxime Colin and a possible long term solution to the position as we have the option to sign him for £1mil at the end of the season.

The second signing is to improve the squad immediately as we signed Daniel Sturridge on a free transfer. With Jutkiewicz sold and both Cosgrove and Leko starting the game injured for around 3 months each, we needed another striker to compete with Hogan and Sturridge is clearly a higher quality than most strikers in the league. The challenge will be to keep him fit for the entire season.

Squad

GK - Etheridge, Prieto
RB - Colin, Clark
CB - Roberts, San Jose
CB - Clarke-Salter, Dean
LB - Pedersen, Friend
CM - Harper, Gardner
CM - Sunjic, Clayton
RW - Bela, Valery
AM - Halilovic, McGree
LW - Sanchez, Toral
ST - Hogan, Sturridge

Others - Trueman, Leko, Cosgrove

​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Love the idea behind this, will be interesting to see how well you can do!

 

[bcfc1]

Basically, the player pool just wasn't big enough to do anything long-term with. There were some decent individuals, but when you've only got two sides in entirety of Italy's professional leagues, it became a real issue. You should hopefully be fine.

I should have a few more teams than that producing players, the question will be if I can actually sign players from them. Villa and Wolves won't sell to me because of the rivalry so I think I am relying on West Brom, Stoke, Coventry and Walsall to produce players. As well as my own youth system as well of course.

Love the idea behind this, will be interesting to see how well you can do!

The squad I already have is good enough to compete in the Championship but the real challenge will be if/when I get promoted. To compete in the Premier League without going out and signing whoever I want to will be a real challenge.

 

[bcfc1]

September

Its a great start to the season as we beat a good Swansea team to get through to the next round of the cup. We created a lot of chances and probably should have scored a couple more.

Another great result to start the league as we had a great second half to win 3-1 against Brentford. Two goals after the break is what really turned it around for us and from then on we controlled the game very well and was able to make it comfortable with a 3rd goal from Clayton.

Through to the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup we go with a really strong performance against another West Midlands team West Brom. It was a really strong performance from the team and, in particular, Alen Halilovic who put in another good performance from the no.10 position. We have drawn Man Utd in the next round so it's going to be extremely unlikely that we go any further.

We faced Swansea for the second time this month and we got another win and another clean sheet against them. This game was much tougher though as we were holding on at times. The early goal came from a long throw and from then on it was a very defensive performance before Hogan caught them on the counter in the last minute of the game.

Out of the cup we go but I wasn't too disappointed by the performance. Rashford scored 2 good goals in the first half and then Fernandes scored two more very late on to make the score line a lot worse than the game actually was. The focus now is to recover from this and put together a good run of results in the league.

This was a great bounce back from the Man Utd result as we dominated Rotherham from start to the finish. It was a story of set pieces here as Roberts scored twice from Sanchez corners and Bela's goal came from a wide free kick as well.

Summary

Its been a very strong start to the season with us winning every game and only conceding once across those games (except for the tie against Man Utd). A few players have started very well with Sanchez and Halilovic in particular looking like they can link up together very well. The defence is looking strong as well but I am still waiting for a striker to really claim that position for their own.

Player of the Month
Ivan Sanchez

League Table

 

[bcfc1]

October

The solid defensive start to the season went out the window here. I'm not the biggest fan of using xG to analyse a game but the fact that they scored 3 goals from a total xG of just 0.48 shows they just had that bit of luck on their side for the game.

We then got this terrible news that Roberts is going to miss the majority of the season with a broken leg. He has been our best defender so far and also provides the added threat of having an incredible long throw. He will be heavily missed and it will be the job of San Jose to step up and try to replace him.

This was a really tight game that we won right at the end from Hogan adding another goal to his tally. He has really started to stake his claim to be the main striker this season.

This was a very tight game again and a draw was probably a fair result. I'm really pleased that we can compete with a team like Norwich as they have Premier League quality players in their team like Buendia, Cantwell and Aarons.

Its nice to keep a clean sheet this month and to have a pretty comfortable game. The defense was really strong and it shows by the fact that all 4 of them and the keeper got ratings above 7.

Another clean sheet and another strong defensive performance. We aren't always the most free flowing going forward but to paraphrase a famous saying, good defences win championships.

The month ends with another clean sheet and Sunjic scoring for 2 games in a row which I don't think he will have ever done in his career before. I had to rotate the team here a bit due to fatigue and it showed in the first half as we were poor and lucky not to concede. We improved in the second half though and were able to get take the 3 points.

Summary

Another strong month as we went unbeaten in 6 games which included a couple of difficult teams. Hogan has claimed the main striker role at the moment with Sturridge not getting much game time. With Cosgrove and Leko both beginning to come back from injury, I'm not sure whether things will improve for Sturridge. The main thing about this month though has been how the defence have turned it around. We started with conceding 3 to Stoke and then ended the month with 3 clean sheets in a row. The loss of Roberts could be massive as the season goes on but at the moment San Jose has stepped in pretty well.

Player of the Month
George Friend

League Table

 

[bcfc1]

November

Really nice start to the month but Wycombe are not the strongest opposition. Harper put in a really good performance in midfield and is looking like a great DLP. He will be a future transfer target if I can afford him.

Another really good win against a strong Bournemouth team. I don't think there was a single chance in the first half but the game came to life in the second with Hogan and Bela securing us the points.

I'm so annoyed to not win this game. We absolutely dominated the game but couldn't get that important second goal. In the end they caught us with a late goal to steal a point. Sanchez's rating should go some way to show how many good chances he created but other players couldn't finish them.

Another really poor result and incredibly this is our first loss in the league. We never really looked like winning as Luton seemed to just have our number. We tried a few different things to change it but nothing seemed to work. Got to put it down as just one of those days.

Now this is more like it. All of our play runs through Harper and Sanchez and they were both on fire here. We scored 4, had a goal disallowed and missed a penalty which is a crazy game. The only negative was losing the clean sheet late on when we had the game wrapped up.

Summary

Overall the month has been good although we had a little dip with the games against Coventry and particularly Luton. My personal target at the start of the season was to try and finish in the top half but I may need to review that if we can continue like this for another month or 2. The starting XI is pretty decided now but does need to rotate every now and then due to how quick the games are coming. The balance between a strong starting team and fatigue is going to be important going forward. Next month brings 8 league games which will be a real challenge and it will be a good time to see who out of the squad players can step up and produce for the first team.

Player of the Month
Jake Clarke-Salter

League Table

​

 

[bcfc1]

December

It is a decent start to a busy month as we secured a 1-0 win against Barnsley. We had a couple of regulars missing but were still able to pull through this game with the points.

A disappointing draw here as I feel we put enough in this game to get the win. We consistently pushed in the second half to try and get the winner but it wasn't to be. Sometimes you have to accept that at this level, the players won't deliver in every game.

I actually played this game 3 times which sounds like cheating but I will explain why. The first time I played this match, we lost 2-1 but soon after my laptop died and the game had not saved. After restarting the laptop I played it a second time and actually won the match but I didn't feel right about claiming that win after having lost the game the first time. I therefore reloaded the save again and did something I've never done before, went in to a game looking to lose. Disappointingly it actually wasn't that hard to do as we were pretty poor and deserved to lose this game.

Not the most interesting game with the notable events being the goal and an injury for them but it is a vital 3 points nonetheless. Watford are not having the greatest season but they do still have Premier League quality players in their team so to beat them and keep a clean sheet is great.

A disappointing result here as we lose 2 points to a late equaliser. Cardiff are however right up there with us so it isn't surprising that they were able to fight back and take a point. I've decided to play around with the tactic a bit more as I felt the no.10 role wasn't working for us well in a 4231. We went with a 433 in the hope we get Halilovic more involved in the game but that didn't help either. I need to keep playing with it I think.

Another change of tactic as we went asymmetric and it seemed to work here with a solid performance where Middlesbrough didn't record a single shot on target. Clarke-Salter got our goal from a set piece which is something we haven't taken advantage enough of in my opinion. Set pieces aren't something I have ever done very well with so if anyone has any advice on how to add goals from corners/free kicks then please let me know.

A good performance let down by conceding a late goal. We limited them to very few chances but they then had a deep free kick which was lumped in to the box and McKenna was able to get on to the end of it. Disappointing but we move on.

A resounding win here as we were clinical in front of goal, particularly Cosgrove who added 2 more to his goal in the last game. He has been working his way to full fitness after starting the game injured for 3 months and now he seems to be willing to compete with Hogan for the chance to start up top.

Summary

It has been one very busy month as we played 8 matches, arranged a few sales (I'll talk about them next month), changed our tactic a couple of times and had the report for our youth intake (not a golden generation but apparently could have a very good Latvian midfielder coming through which would be surprising). We weren't on fire this month but we were certainly not poor. 4 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss is pretty decent, especially considering how quickly the games came and we are still in the promotion battle at the end of it which is pleasing. Next month brings 5 league games as well as the FA Cup which I would like to go a few rounds into if we can. It of course also brings the transfer window which we will probably be busy in as we have arranged a few sales already and they will need replacing.

Player of the Month
Jeremie Bela

League Table

 

[bcfc1]

January

A poor start to the new year as we were extremely lucky to get draw here. Blackburn dominated the game but couldn't convert anything, including a penalty just before half time which was very poorly taken. We can't afford to play like this too many times if we want to keep our promotion hopes going.

Through to the next round of the cup we go. Coventry had some terrible luck in this game as they had an early injury, a red card which led to the early sub being subbed off himself and by the time their 2nd injury came, they had already done all of their subs and had to finish the game with just 9 men. Within all that we scored a goal to secure our passage to the next round where we face Tottenham. I also switched the asymmetry the other way which I think gives us a slightly better balance.

What a game and what a performance from Strurridge. He hasn't played much as Hogan and then Cosgrove showed good form but in this new tactic he now has a chance to play as our no.10 in the Shadow Striker role which could suit him very well. The game was actually pretty tight which the xG shows but we were extremely clinical in front of goal while they were wasteful.

A very tight score here as it took an extremely late goal from Cosgrove to get us the win against the team currently sitting at the bottom of the table. We had plenty of chances but couldn't take them as Hogan and Bela were both poor in front of goal. We thankfully got the points though which is the important thing.

Out of the cup we go and it isn't a shock considering who we were playing. We haven't had much look in the draws we got in both cups and hopefully we get a nicer draw next year. After Kane scored the second goal after just 17 minutes I was worried of a hammering but thankfully the game just died down after this and it stayed at just 2-0.

Another decent result. We got the lead in the first half and then the game settled until they got 1 back. After that they had a couple more chances but nothing major to really threaten us.

We faced Coventry for the second time this month and for the second time we win by the odd goal. Bela got another goal which takes his tally for this month to 4 which is good from a wide man who is usually more of a creative player than a finisher. Hogan got a goal as well which is good as he has had a much quieter month than previous ones.

Summary

This was another busy month as we had plenty of games and had quite a bit of activity in the transfer window as well (mainly people leaving rather than joining). Bela performed well from the LW position as an IF but the real positions I've been impressed with are the full backs. The change of tactic meant they have support duties which I thought would limit their effectiveness (especially offensively) but if anything they have improved with the change. Seddon came back from his loan and has slotted in well while Colin has really impressed to the point that he is now becoming a star player for the club.

Transfers

Starting with those moving out and there were quite a few. The deals for Halilovic and Toral were agreed in December so they went straight away. Both had done a decent job for us but they didn't really fit in to how we wanted to play and the fact that I was able to bring in a fee and remove their wages has been very useful. We had actually agreed to sell Pedersen to Orlando as well but the deal fell through so we had to offer him out again and he finally got a move to the MLS with Sporting KC. He is a solid LB but he is nothing special and I'm fine with recalling Seddon and playing him instead. The deals for Stirk and Trueman are both youngsters who didn't really have a future at the club. The fact that Man Utd came in for Trueman was shocking but once they did, he obviously wanted to go so I let him go. Finally, team leaders Harlee Dean and Gary Gardner left for America for decent fees. Dean was 4th choice CB while Gardner's departure was pushed through after one of our signings. All these deals brought in more than £5.5mil which has helped balance the club a lot and given me the money to make my signings.

On to the signings in and there weren't many. The first thing we did was make Mitch Clark's loan a permanent deal. He has impressed in the games he has played and looks an eventual replacement for Colin at RB. The second deal was Ryan Wintle from Crewe for £1.2mil. He was out of contract at the end of the season and I was hoping I could get him for nothing in the summer but Swansea bid for him in this window so I had to go in for him to bring him to us instead. He is an upgrade on Gardner and possibly a replacement for Harper after his loan ends. We also recalled Seddon, Boyd-Munce and Bailey to bulk out the squad and to try and give them a chance before the summer transfer window.

Player of the Month
Maxime Colin

League Table

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[bcfc1]

February

Bournemouth a very good team for this league so a draw against them at their ground is a good result. It could have been even better it Sturridge had scored the penalty but it wasn't to be.

A solid win against Luton here as we scored just after the half time break. We don't seem to be able to score as freely as we have previously in the season but our defence looks as tight as ever. Hopefully that is what will carry us to promotion at the end of this season.

Another clean sheet for the defence and a couple of goals at the other end as well. We had complete control of this game and should have made the game more comfortable than only getting the second in the 86th minute.

We thankfully held on to the points here as the defence had an off day. Injuries/fatigue are starting to really affect us as Seddon, Roberts and Clarke-Salter were all missing from the defence as well has Harper and Sturridge not being fit enough to start in midfield.

This was a must not lose game against the team chasing us in the table and thankfully we held on to the draw. The early goal gave us the lead but it also meant Norwich dominated a lot of the game after that and even after they had equalised, we struggled to really get going. By the end of the game, a draw was the best we could have hoped for.

A poor result and a poor performance here as QPR were by far the better team. It is a disappointing way to end a pretty solid month and it means we have allowed all the other teams behind us to close the gap.

Summary

The loss to QPR spoiled what could have been a very good month as it has meant the teams behind us a little closer than they should be. The story of the month is that our strikers goals have pretty much dried up. Hogan scored in the first game of the month against Bournemouth but since then no one in the striker position has scored. I may need to once again look at changing the tactic or at least the style of play to try and fix this as at this rate we will not only not win the league but will probably drop in to the lottery of the playoffs.

Player of the Month
Neil Etheridge

League Table

 

[bcfc1]

March

A good start to the month with a 2-1 win away from home. We had to rotate a little again and it is good to see we are able to still win when we do that. A big moment for young Boyd-Munce as he got his first ever goal for the club. He has been a solid backup to Sanchez on the right wing. All of the youngsters that I called back in January have done well actually and given us a lot of young energy in this second half of the season.

Its a big scoreline and a big performance from Bailey. He has looked incredibly good in the shadow striker role to the point that I was only able to get Sturridge in to the team by playing him up top. The striker role finally got a goal as Cosgrove cam e on and scored a late one to make the score look even better.

It was Leko's time to deliver here as he scored both goa in our 2-0 win. I think I've finally got my head around the tactic. The striker is more of a facilitator than a goalscorer. He harasses the other teams defenders and then plays little passes or flick ons for the LW and AM to go and finish. Cosgrove gave a great performance in this role in this game. Its a shame the match engine doesn't recognise it with a good match rating.

For the first time since 2nd Jan, we failed to score in a league game. We didn't play too well here which is shown by the fact that almost all of our defensive players were the ones to get the high ratings, including Etheridge winning MotM. We struggled against Reading earlier in the season as well so I think I may just struggle against their tactic (they play 3 AM's in a narrow 4231).

This is a massive win against a Premier League quality side. When we went behind I feared for the worst but we were incredible to get straight back in to the game and from there just dominate proceedings until the final whistle. The front 3 all linked up well together and are gelling together really well.

Summary

Another good month comes to the end and we are almost there in terms of earning promotion to the Premier League. This month was mainly about the youngsters that I recalled in January stepping up as Boyd-Munce, Seddon and particularly Bailey really performed when they played. Boyd-Munce won't be good enough for the Premier League but Seddon and Bailey are both showing they can at least be the backup option in their positions, if not more. Next month brings 6 games and will be the month where we will hopefully guarantee our promotion and possibly even the title.

Player of the Month
Odin Bailey

League Table

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[bcfc1]

April

A good win which comes from a very late goal by Leko. Bela has been my preferred wide man over Leko for most of the season but recently Leko has shown he is the better goal scorer and he showed it here again with both goals.

A pretty poor game where we were lucky to get the draw. We got the early goal which I thought would set us on the path to win but we were dominated for the rest of it and by the time they scored they completely deserved it. It is results like these that make me worry about next season, assuming we get promoted. If we can't regularly compete with the better teams in the Championship then how are we going to get enough points in the Premier League to stay up.

A much nicer victory here as we played well and scored the goals needed to wrap up the 3 points. Harper put in a very good performance from midfield and it is going to be very difficult to replace him as it is unlikely that West Brom will sell him in the summer to us.

A very bore draw. Not much as to say really. The entire game lacked quality.

Another draw as we seem to refuse to just wrap up the title. An early goal seems to always end up with us being dominated for the rest of the game and that is what happened here. By the end we were very lucky to get the point and the confirmation of both promotion and being champions goes on for another week (well 4/5 days until the weekend).

CHAMPIONS!!! We weren't at our best and probably didn't deserve the win, but we got it and we have wrapped up both promotion and the title with 2 games spare. This game will not live long in the memory for much more than that. Etheridge had a storming game in goal though to keep us in it.

Summary

The only thing to talk about is surely the title. It took a couple more games than expected but we finally got the title wrapped up and can now start planning for a tough season in the Premier League. It was actually a bit of a weird month as we went unbeaten but we also only won half of our games. 3 wins and 3 draws isn't too bad and considering it was enough to win the title I can't complain too much. One thing from this month is that some players (Leko and Seddon for example) are really playing their ways into my plans for next season while others (Sanchez and every striker) seem to be doing the opposite.

Player of the Month
Jonathan Leko

League Table

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[seventhcolumn]

would you mind sharing the asymmetrical tactic? was just about to start a birmingham career myself

 

[bcfc1]

would you mind sharing the asymmetrical tactic? was just about to start a birmingham career myself

This is how it looks at the moment. I'm still tinkering with it though, particularly the striker and RM role. If you try the tactic and find a better role for those positions then let me know.

 

[bcfc1]

May

Another win which takes us to 100 points in the league. Bailey got another goal and is now one of our top goalscorers, even though he spent the first half of the season out on loan. He has really slotted in to that role well and I've got a tough decision to make on whether I look for an upgrade on that position or give him a chance to prove it in the Premier League.

What a send off from Harper. In what is likely going to be his last game for us, Harper goes and scores a hat trick in the first 23 minutes of the game. It's such a shame we are not going to be able to sign him, West Brom asked for £90mil when I enquired about him. It looks like they are going to get relegated from the Premier League so hopefully that fee drops considerably once that happens. It wasn't just Harper who delivered here though as Sanchez put in a good game as well. He hasn't been as consistent in the second half of the season but he put in a good performance here.

Summary

A short month of just 2 games and both lacked any importance as we already had the title wrapped up. 2 wins from 2 is a good way to end the season though. Bailey keeps on pushing for a place in the starting team for next season, as does Leko. My worry is will they still be able to perform against much better defenders. Not much else to say about this month really and I will give an overview of the whole season in the end of season post.

Player of the Month
Rekeem Harper

League Table