In search of the fire. The seeker from Burgos.

[Death Ball]

Introduction:

I thought I might bring Dexther Bolle back to answer Ezequiel Valls' handling of the team in my FM10 story, but since Bolle was left angry in the third season (in half) at the board selling without consent and, more importantly, the Valls story ended in 2022 with Burgos in La Liga, I thought it would feel rather odd. And while in one hand I wasn't too keen to repeat story, on the other I thought it worth to do it with a different char and different approach to see the differences in development, plus I made the database and I want to use it!.

I'll try to be more consistent this time with the format, and will go with an alternation between manager - board communications and news articles. And though ideally I would like to be again a pure Burgos, from the abyss to the stars tale, it mayend being a career that starts there but may move elsewhere. Though I had also started a journeyman career thinking on making a story of it.


********

This is an excerpt from the news:

«After the new failure of Álvarez de los Mozos to promote Burgos from Tercera, the board has decided to give the control of the team's destiny to the local José Cabello, hoping the youth will give the energy that the team lacked in previous seasons.

Some like to poke fun at the board making their choice based purely on the name, José Capello, mixing the name and surname of José Mourinho and Fabio Capello.

He's just finished his manager courses and doubts abound whether such a young manager, who has barely twenty years, could impose his authority over the squad.»

*******

To: Juan Carlos Barriocanal.
From: José Cabello.
Subject: Conclusions from squad and financial information.

Esteemed president of Burgos C.F. S.A.D.,

It is my belief, viewing the performances of the men in our first trainings, that the team has what can be considered as the key men to aim for success at our level in Nel, Jonathan Castro, Pablo Sierra and Hugo. However I have doubts that the companions have what it's needed to provide the team with the solidity that we need to really look forward to a successful promotion.

I do agree with the outstanding opinion among the supporters that we shall aim to step up to the front and make our way to 2ªB next season and we indeed have the quality for the task, though it will not be easy. Our defense is going to be vulnerable to pace and it seems that pace is not that short among the competition, though we compensate with an aerial ability that is on par what any team in the division could throw at us. But when I speak of successful promotion I am thinking on being in 2ªB the next season, our team can't hold its place up there and it can't be made up with few changes, specially because we will have injuries, our replacements are by far not up to our first team and as things are I can only fear that going up this year can well mean returning the next. I will, of course, do what I can to avoid that from happening.

The big problem is that I consider the manager has to be responsible for all in which his actions may have repercussions, so I have to look for the financial situation, and seeing how our balance is low and the wage budget is already exceeded, I think I can't but keep away from the market until we manage to lower our wages so we can get a look into the free agents available. As a result, I am start by offering Medrano, Lezaun and Sala, that should provide us with a near €30,000p/a wage margin to bring a pacey defender or a goalkeeper of guarantees. It is the only way I may be able to take the first small steps to be able to survive a next season in 2ªB, besides earning promotion.

Tactically, I will be working with a 4-4-2 formation, as it is the best suited to our squad, keeping a central midfielder to take a full defensive task (ball winning defence) and his partner to have some more offensive duty, without going too much ahead (adv. playmaker)

 

[TheMjt]

Nice start Death Ball, good luck

 

[Death Ball]

DIARIO DE BURGOS. Deportes
Preseason analysis


Tarque. Burgos. The season is very close to start, the first official matches have been played already, in the shape of the first round of Copa del Rey and it is time for us to look at the upcoming season and what we can expect to find.

Another season and the strongest team of the past one are still here to battle for the promotion. Burgos and Valladolid B the most likely teams to battle for the group title and promotion, two fierce rivals that will give their best to get above the other with not much of challenge from other teams of the group. We could be for a poor's La Liga season where Valladolid B and Burgos take the roles of Real Madrid and Barcelona. If only they could play as well!

The first team to be considered is, of course, Burgos F.C. or we wouldn't be Diario de Burgos (Fixture table and other tables in the last page of the special issue).

- BURGOS F.C.

The Burgos team has showed us with a series of brilliant surprises mostly, as their preseason tour has taken visits from 2ªB teams, except for the preferente side Guadalajara B, and though it started seeing them fall to bitter rivals Mirandés without much of a problem, in the next matches we could see them run comfortable winners over teams tipped to finish high on their 2B groups, such as Barakaldo, who they defeated 3-1. They regularly dominated the matches, grabbing majority of the ball and denying their opponents chances to score, dealing correctly with the few they generated, or almost generated.

Their game seems to be based on a defensive plain 4-4-2, though since the Barakaldo visit they seem to have granted Nel a little more offensive edge, letting him move higher up the pitch, for good result. The results so far seem to have the fans happy, but will that last?, the past season there was outrage at the style implemented by Álvarez de los Mozos, his defensive style in which he looked to keep their sheet clean making out a side that showed little spark in the front. If we start to see low scorelines as in the games after Barakaldo, we may be on to watch some fan indignation.

Watch some fan indignation?. Some more fan indignation. Even if there had been some signings already sealed before the arrival of the new manager, with special note of Pablo Álvarez, the player formed at the Real Madrid ladder, it was expected that Burgos would do some important signings in order to give its forward more sting. What we found was the surprise that José Cabello would not only not bring any of the desired signings, besides two defensive ones, but he sold a number of players. The board has repeteadly expressed their concern on keeping the club's finances healthy, but if Burgos really wants to have the results the fans demand, they need to spend. And they need to spend in the front, past season showed that what this team really lacks is efficiency in the offense, not in the defence. So, it is hard to understand why Cabello would give up some of our talented attacking players, such as Zazu or Manel Sala to bring a centreback and a goalkeeper. In his talks with the press, mr Cabello has expressed his concern with the pace of his back four and Charcos is not a player that will bring that, I can concede he is not slow, he's just not specially slow, but he is not the solution that would be required and definitely not one the team needed. As for goalkeeper, we had already a good in Aurreko, there was no need to bring another just to have either sit in the bench. Admit it, it's wasted money. And they say they care for the finances!. Don't bring a goalkeeper and a defender, bring a truly creative midfielder and maybe a striker.

The squad is basically the same that failed the past season and it is only something to guess as why would Barriocanal leave things as they were the previous season, all over again. I do not claim to be a genius or have a position to demand, but if the board keeps things like this, one wonders if it can be expected to change, maybe it is time to look for a new board that will really give the team what it needs to move forward, and to appoint a manager that will have the guts to do what it is needed, instead of resigning himself to failure from the start.

Yes, José Cabello is resigned to failure. Already. It was clear when in the press conference before the first leg of Copa del Rey against Tudelano, he went as far as to say he had no expectations whatsoever to go any far in the competition. We know Burgos is a Tercera side and that a Tercera team can't pretend to have any chance to win, but not to say that "I don't think we'll go far in the Copa del Rey, it is not our main interest" clearly shows the lack of ambition of the man that now has the reigns of our club. A club which place doesn't belong in Tercera and that should be driven by individuals who know what is the level of our club and its place and who have the drive to lead it where it belongs, where it deserves!.

The board claim that one of the first effects of Cabello's tenure is that the wages have been reduced to fit the budget. So what?. Next season we'll still be in Tercera because we have a board that is too stubbornly fixed on accountability and that hires managers that don't have the ambition to match our team and our team's fans aspirations. This is a wasted season, unless something happens and things are changed come winter.

__________________________________________
OOC Note: I will be working on updating my database these next couple of weeks, plus (at least for a time) I will be playing full matches, so the next update may take a bit longer than I'd like, though shouldn't take as long as the database update. I don't think, though, it's too likely to take long.

 

[Eds]

Very good update. Will follow this one closely. (Y)

 

[Death Ball]

________________________________________________________________
|From: José Cabello.___________________________________________|
|To: Juan Carlos Barriocanal____________________________________|
|Subject: Re: Sant Andreu_______________________________________|

Esteemed board president,

You know well how is the press and the fans as well as I know, I hope you don't want me to invert our order in that phrase. The ones are irresponsible and follow the sign of the era, demanding everything without any rooting on reality and what is possible, without any idea at all of how economy works. They think money is magically at our disposal, as if we could bring here Cristiano Ronaldo if only he were willing to play at our level. Well, you know the drill, I know you had to suffer this kind of thing for more than a season long. You also know the press, they think that unless we win Champions Leagues in rows, and maybe even then, they think they will sell more if they feed fan outrage. You know well what is the right place of the sport press.

I know the match against Sant Andreu wasn't good, but we were handicapped by the early penalty and red card by Daniel. We went as the underdogs and really can you expect us to come out with a win being one man down with our bench team?. Rather the right consideration would be if it could have been expected our bench team, with one man down against a superior side, would have been able to fight possession and scrap one goal back.

There are only two things I have to say about that match:

- I am proud of my players, who didn't surrender after the red card and not even when they had received the third goal, to stand a fight in the second half with the 1-0 partial result of that.

- It was the right decision and I would change nothing if we would be back in time. Copa del Rey is not one of our priorities and since we can't hope to beat Real Madrid and Barcelona we can't hope to win it, if we can't win there is little point in wasting efforts there. Our priority is the league and promotion, the cup would only be a distraction. I will not care for Copa del Rey until we're a Primera side and can look to win it.

Sincerely,
Jose Cabello.

I am certainly happy that I could shut some mouths with the effectiveness of my changes against Cristo Atlético, it was very good to see the instant impact of bringing in Sedano in the wing bringing Sierra in Nel's position and Zamora in for Álvarez. Three goals in the eight minutes after bringing them, quite the kick in the teeth for those journalists. However I am not too happy with seeing how Cristo Atlético could have come ahead in the first half. Leyenda made a mistake trying to come out for that ball over our defence, but all the same we shouldn't have conceded it.

At any rate, it is another case showing fans are utterly crazy, how can they say Zamora can well stay in the bench when he was such a brigth star for our comeback?. He's earned to be in my starting XI.

Now, that was truly epic!. I am truly ecstatic about this last match. It was a disgrace hard tackle that mad Txitxo sent off at 16 minutes into our match away at Numancia B's stadium. That made me bring the first sub, taking Trigo to take the place Txitxo left and removing Hugo from the front two. And well, I was happy enough that we seemed to hold ourselves and keep the ball away from Numancia. That is, until they scored in the verge of half time, that made me worry and think we had the match likely lost. So it was the moment for a new change. We are Burgos, we aim to top this group, we can't go down without a fight. So, on Álvarez for Zazu and Sierra to the centre to form a 4-3-2. And sure enough, I was mighty pleased to see our counter to take one goal back. Again I felt happy the referee knew to disallow the goal Numancia B got on offside (at the time I thought it was offside).

It was a great blow to see Álvarez taken out with injury when we had used our substitutions and got down to nine players. I thought we were doomed. So you can imagine my surprise to see how the boys could still be dominating possession!. And it was so nice to hear the referee whistling the penalty. Sierra's miss sure stung, but I could count myself satisfied with such a fine display by the lads. Asking them to start hitting the ball long was a gamble that sure paid off.

And Álvarez had a broken leg, can you imagine how bad that was?. That means several months out, and he's an important player. We will miss him, a lot, specially when our funds don't allow us to bring any substitute, unless we find a loan who's willing to come, which is doubtful seeing how every one rejected us.

So, after the penalty missed in minute 85. You can imagine my delight when we got another penalty two minutes later!. And Sierra scored this time! We had come back from 0-1 to draw with one man down and to win with two men down!. That has to be a moment I remember for the rest of my career! All my life! And even playing half an hour with only nine players we dominated possession! Even more so than in the first half. I am seriously chuffed to bits the lads could pull that one. I am taking them out to party tonight.

And next week, we will be able to take our top spot in the group when we face leaders Villaralbo. After the Numancia B match, I'm quite confident we can do it and come on top of the group, even without Álvarez and with Txitxo out for likely two matches,

The Numancia B overview:


The stats of the game:


Our schedule:


And the table:

 

[Ben]

Looks really good. Keep it up mate

 

[Death Ball]

Midseason report

The first round does confirm our aspiration for promotion, being on top of the table which such a comfortable advantage and unbeaten makes it a certainty we will be in the promotion play offs, as sich a drop of form as it would take for us to lose the difference with the fifth position does seem very farfected a possibility to be real. However, I believe based on the table that we're not in one of the tougher groups of the division, which therefore means that the play off can't be anything short of tough, and not simply for the one match in a possible bad day kind of way.

We have to consider also that the teams in other groups as well as our competition in ours will likely be reinforcing themselves while we have barely been able to bring in Juan Antonio Milla and no player is accepting our loan offers so far, which means we will be likly a step weaker in comparison in the second round, if the other teams indeed achieve an improvement.

However, even if we are not improved in terms of squad, we seem to be solving some of the problems we had at the start, despite our dominance, that made me fear for this later part of the half season when we were to face the stronger sides of the group, and that is that in every match we would start losing the control of the match and the rivals threatened with a comeback. These last matches have shown that we have the ability to keep up our performance or even pick it up to come back from adverse results, and that's important to give us confidence for the future.

One of the things that make me more satisfied is to have the top goalscorer of the division ((it's my first time ever to, I think)). Also there's some good performers in the team.

In relation to future strengthening, my attempts so far to bring loaness have failed, but I don't think there's much sense in bringing more given the squad we have and that they are working well together. in regards to next season, it will have to wait to see if we are in a position to get the loans we need, as it will be a long time before we can start bringing better talent with our budget. But I have already secured the coming of Abraham, who should give us an extra edge in front of goal.

The only troublesome point in the future are the playoffs for promotion and, for the influence upon them, the final games of the regular season to bring a good morale into them.

- José Cabello, manager.

 

[Death Ball]

«It was supposed to be a relaxed second league leg for the Burgos manager, mr Cabello, however we could see him in the dugout, with symptoms of not being very content. His team had dominated the league and was sitting on a comfortable first position. He had expressed his displeasure with the performance of the first match in the second round, having a 2-2 draw with bottom Cristo Atlético, it certainly miffed the coach to see missing two points at the hands of a team that had only obtained four points during the whole first half of the season. It was not good for the environment that the 5-0 inflicted upon Santa Marta didn't seem to please him, as the first loss by 0-1 against Íscar, with Hugo missing two shots at goal when he had beat the goalkeeper, tied with the gloom of Cabello helped to instill worry among the fans of the team.

»Was he right in showing his discontent?. One would say probably not, as the team continued to a string of good results, with an occasional draw, that kept the team well ahead of its rivals. Yet he kept to be unhappy about his defense, claiming it was not acceptable to be receiving goals in every match. Which was true, but it was also ture Burgos still had the stronger defence with the least goals against. Perhaps it was his apparent lack of confidence in the team that seemed to be bringing a crisis to the team, as the lost the second and third games in row. Though the run didn't continue and then moved to a win, two draws and another win to close a successful campaign that has led his team to be champions of their group and be qualified for the promotion play-offs.







He can't be disappointed with the performance of his players, as his men have achieved some decent stats in the league

Now it is time to see what team is drawn for the semifinal, in principle, things can be good for Burgos, as there are few groups with leaders that have exerted such dominance as Burgos has in his. Though that also can speak of group 18 being weaker than the norm in the division.»

**************************

Huracán Z. Why do we have to play the semi-final against probably the only team of the group we've not beaten in any of the two games?. Luck certainly doesn't love us. However, it is not at all an imposible match, just possibly one of the harder. To add insult to injury, we have to play in a long stadium which is exactly the worse for us, as they have quick forwards and we have slow defenders, without having strikers that are precisely outstanding when it comes to outrun defenders. And worse of all, we have our best defender, Charcos, out injured for the whole promotion play offs.

Going to the reports of our league matches, we can see both were 1-1 draws, in each case the away side scoring first, in both cases utilizing a 4-4-2 tactic. So the question arises... what needs to be improved? Our attack or our defense?. Is there a way to, at least, reinforce one without weakening the other?. In one hand, our defence has worked better when it has pushed forward to take out the space between lines, but in a pitch long as this we would be risking an easy counter, so it would be reasonable to consider bringing a player between the midfield and the defence so we can maintain a defensive line reasonably deep but still have someone to help negate spaces in front of it. And with the intelligent Maureta, good passer Txitxo and the attack efficient Nel we have the recipe to give an answer to an alternative to our tactic for this match, that will grant us that little extra to defense without completely losing the attacking power of a second striker or an attacking midfielder: an assymetric 4-2-3-1, with Maureta deep, Txitxo in the midfield and Nel linking with the striker, Pablo Álvarez, because naturally Zamora has to be injured, and Pablo Sierra in the wing with Sedano injured, too.

"Now, you listen to me, people, I know we haven't defeated Huracán Z this year, but that doesn't mean we can't beat them. Look at how they have been left way behind us in the table and not even second, while we've defeated the other two teams coming into these play offs. The lesson is we can defeat them. We have won in pitches that aren't theoretically in our favour, remember Ávila. Keep your head, play as we usually do, don't let our defence too far forward and work the ball into the area and things should go fine".


********************************************

__________________________________________________
|From: José Cabello...............................|
|________________________________________________|
|To: Juan Carlos Barriocanal......................|
|________________________________________________|
|Subject: Plans...................................|
|________________________________________________|
Esteemed board president, don Juan Carlos Barriocanal,

I am as disappointed as anyone of our lack of ability to
defeat Huracán Z and progress to the next stage of the
promotion, I can't take out of my mind that 68m chance
that Gabi missed or the one that Hugo couldn't convert
in the last moments of the 90 minutes. But the worse is
not that, the worse is the lack of attitude shown by some
of our players: Nel, Nené, Leyenda... there is no excuse
whatsoever for the lack of itnerest they showed. Regardless
of what happened, it is in the past and we need to move on
and start working for the next season.

In the first place, I want to thank you for the support you
have shown by offering me the new two year contract even
if there was still another year in my old one.

Once we have already sealed the coming of two attacking
players such as Carletes and Abraham, the first thing that
I will do is to study our economic reports to establish a target
as for the wage limit for the next year squad. Once that is done,
I will offload all the high earners that are not needed as well as
those who didn't put all they had on this last match. That means
I'll look to send off Álvarez, Sierra, Nel, Nené and Urbano, and if
I find suitable replacement, Leyenda. Then once we have done away
with those high salaries will be the time to look for replacements
and new incorporations. For one I will be trying to sign Alatz Muñe-
cas in a permanent basis and find a quick centreback to make
our defence better equipped to deal with the threat of pace. What
I see is that during the season we've lost about one hundred thousand
euros, counting the cash injections, so I should endeavor to get
the wages reduced in two hundred thousand euros, and as the
maximum stretching I will not let it be a reduction of less than
one hundred thousand.

Sincerely yours,
José Cabello.

_________________________
As you may notice, the news item is wrong, as it states I have guaranteed promotion, which is false

 

[Nick.]

very nice as always Death Ball

 

[Death Ball]

DIARIO DE BURGOS. DEPORTES
EL CRUZADO AL SEGUNDO PALO
-By José Ramón Ojeda Fernández
Blogs Diario de Burgos

We're just started the new season and it is time that we got to interview the manager of our team, José Cabello, the youth in whom many thought the answer to the team ambition was to be found. Let us move without further ado to the meat of the article. We offer the welcoming greeting to José Cabello and begin the interview:

José Ramón Ojeda Fernández - We're just after the first match of the new league season, but before we start our talk about the present, what are your thoughts on the past season?

José Cabello González - I'm reasonably happy, we dominated the regular season and were the best team both goalscoring and not receiving goals, we got the group title with the money that means, which is an important thing for the club, and we showed to have the quality to fight for promotion. However I can't be completely satisfied as we failed to get to Segunda B and we did so in front of a team that we should have been able to beat. At least perform better.

JROF - But you only lost by one goal, and there was not a big distance...

JCG - I know that and know as well that you will point that we didn't defeat Huracán Z in either game of the regular season; but I think we should have created some more chances, our game was somewhat quiet, the fact we kept them mostly away from our goal isn't enough for me, moreso when we didn't do it enough to keep our sheet clean.

JROF - So do you still haven't got over that match?

JCG - Sure I have - he laughs - it's in the past and we won't wake up tomorrow in the upper division for thinking over it, but you asked me about past season.

JROF - So there is really nothing you regret from that match?

JCG - No, I think I took the right decisions. Or better, I didn't took a clearly wrong decision, as it is shown by the fact when we went back to our custom 4-4-2 that still didn't work for us. If there's something that I could mention, that might be of use to say for the future, is the way in which the neutral stadium is chosen. The stadium where we played Huracán Z wasn't as neutral as it should be. I think that the choice of stadium for such games should change, it should be chosen from those that are agreed by either manager or at least are theoretically truly neutral. We have a slowish defence, they had a pacey-ish offense and we got to play on a long pitch. That, I think, was biased in favour of our rivals. Whether we would have passed in a intermediate pitch or how much that went against us I can't say, but it definitely was bad for us. Anyway I don't think your readers are really that much interested in hearing about past season.

JROF - Indeed. Let's move to the present. The first thing that comes into attention is the amount of new faces you have brought this season and the amount of players that left the side, mainly because you kept stating once and again your intent on going slowly with the transfer market.

JCG - They were needed for one reason or the other, chiefly that we were suffering economical losses and we needed to cut out in the wages department. Obviously I would have liked to keep many of the gone players: Sierra, Álvarez... but their contracts ate too much of our funds and we wouldn't be able to keep going much long like that. I want to take the team to higher heights, not undo it trying.

JROF - One of the main surprises was the leave of goalkeeper Leyenda. You had signed him and had him in the starting XI constantly, as if you didn't trust Aurreko, this season he's out and you didn't bring a replacement. How is that?

JCG - Heh, we are back to past season's key game. But let me state first it was not about not trusting Aurreko as to not thinking we had a decent back up, I simply found Leyenda was better to start rather than coming out of the bench. There's two reasons there isn't a replacemen: transfer budget and our young goalie, Pagés, I find able to take the position in the odd match where Aurreko can't play. Leyenda's offload shouldn't be a surprise, as shouldn't be either those of Nené, Colina and Txitxo; if you had watched him during out semifinal for promotion, you would have noticed his attitude on the pitch was of disinterest. We had two big matches past season, that was the first of them, the second was the final, he didn't care about that match, do you really think we can be happy with a player that doesn't give a **** for what was our big match? That was unacceptable, I will not have a player that doesn't care for the success of the team as to not put everything when the big games come. Beyond the pitch chosen the big question is would have we lost that game if our goalkeeper was with all his heart in the match?. Would have he reached that shot?.

JROF - What can you tell us of the new faces?

JCG - They were in a great deal to replace the players that left the team. The most significant ones in the terms of reinforcing what was there are Carletes and Abraham, either of them, one was to replace Álvarez as his departure was already on our plans, his wage was too high for us, the other to add depth and face the chances of suffering injuries like that time past season we had the two starting strikers and no suitable sub for them. One will give us a greater touch of creativity and the other hopefully some better accuracy. Iván Romero is the replacement we needed for Nené, Olivier Romero is the most important signing as he will give us the speed we needed at the back, apart from working as a good sub for the left fullback position in cases of need, Alatz Muñecas replaces the absence of Urbano, and he's a good catch since after having him loaned past season we know that he offers what we want, Andrés works as a replacement for either position in the right side of the pitch and in this preseason he's showed he's been a good catch, Jonathan Proietti is the replacement for Pablo Sierra and he will provide us with some quality wide playing, as long as the injuries respect him, Sergio Alonso is perhaps our other important signing for it serves several purposes: a replacement for Zazu in case of injury and also the replacement in midfield for Nel as our creative outlet, allowing Trigo to work when needed as the defensive one when our other Alonso isn't fit or just when we need rotation, José Manuel Carrasco is there as a back up in case of injuries, I have enough confidence that he will not disappoint when he's needed, to being with he's a professional that knows the role for which we've signed him.



JROF - Don't you fear so many changes will weigh on your team?

JCG - Certainly there is the possibility that we will suffer from some lack of compenetration at some moments during the first part of the league, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem, honestly. If you look at our squad you should see that we don't need to be playing with too many new players at once. There's only need for one new player in the defence and midfield lines, the rest of the team can be made of players that were already in the team past season, so the new can come into the team at slow enough pace as to not cause any serious problem.

JROF - Are you happy with the preseason and the two first matches?(see bottom)

JCG - The preseason has gone well, the team has performed well enough, our rivals weren't as strong as past campaign, when we battled against sides of the upper echelon, but we faced teams from our disivision level, so we can be happy enough about it. I wouldn't give much consideration to the Toledo side, since we played with a team made out mostly of players that are not going to play in the season and are meant to be loaned out. Besides not having been able to manage that one ((Due to a number assignment bug I was forced to holiday as it didn't let me progress otherwise, keeping the league 22 number limit in the cup even if I should been allowed to give them numbers out of those 22, or at least it didn't show those players as unellegible)). The important game was the Astorga one, and we won it showing our better quality, though we shouldn't have conceded that goal.

JROF - I'm sure you keep the ambition to gain promotion, but do you think this year you will achieve it?

JCG - I certainly do!. Our team is not worse than past season, despite the players that we had to let go, we have one less man for the centre of midfield but what we have should be enough to see us challenging for the maximum objectives, we're even better inasmuch we have reduced substantialy our wage expenses and if we do things right we may end this season with profit, though they will not be big they will still allow us to survive financially and think on creating enough funds as to survive, though there's still way left to walk in that line.

JROF - Are you insinuating we will be seeing more surprise sales?

JCG - Well, I don't think we're at a point that such kind of sales will be needed, but there may be some one or two players sold during the next transfer window if need be. Fear not, though, in that case it would not be just to reduce wage budget, but to bring a goalkeeper to complement Aurreko and Pagés, I think we still could do with one.

JROF - Let's be finishing the interview. What if you don't get promoted?

JCG - It depends on circumstances. How did we fail to?, what is the financial situation of the team?, is there a clear chance to improve the team so that it can provide for a better chance the next with my style? It depends on those questions, we won't have them until it happens.

And that was the end to our interview, we exchanged some courtesy words and say our farewells. And that is my farewell to you readers, make what you may of what you just read, I'm here just to report on the events as they happen.

 

[Death Ball]

Report from Cabello to Juan Carlos Barriocanal

Without doubt, the start of season can rightly be described as disappointing. We had team to defeat both San Fernando and Arandina so missing the four points during those games was not the kind of performance we should have had. The loss to Segoviana is no doubt painful, but we can take some goods from that match since the team showed a capacity to react to bad situations and fight back, even if we didn't make it to at least a draw. But Segoviana is a strong side so it was in the cards the chance of losing, if not going through a 3-0. Similarly with Ponferradina B, that match wasn't as bad as its made out to be.

And that is where the bad results can be accounted for. Then the referee stole our Numancia B match that should have ended with a victory. But really can the next string of six games without win be used as argument against anything done by our club?. Certainly not, no if you consider that all our key midfield players were sent to the infirmary for so long a time than only recently we've been able to field them: Maureta, Alonso, Proietti and our left back Romero were out injured, and no proper replacement to be found either in the transfer market or in loans, so what was I to do?. We could only bring Berto Toyos but the Romero injury forced to put him in the defense so the other Romero could be taking the injured's position and keep a solid back line, and then I found Galán, and what should I do with him if he got injured the first training session for four months other than send him back?.

Ayrton and Paul Matthijs only became available too late, when the injuries were close to end, but at least now we'll have some back up, even if it means we'll have to sell three players to ease the load on the wages. I already tried selling Charcos, but nobody wants him. Probably another centreback will go out along some other player I've not yet decided.

The proof that rot was caused by injuries is that when they finally started to return to playing our results immediately improved and carried us up to the sixth position at four points from promotion play off. If we don't suffer an injury crisis like that we should make it into the promotion at the end of the season, though being champions is now looking certainly far.

Finally I did one move ahead of the next season, knowing finding full backs is a hard task and we'll likely need one new signing there, so José Mari has already accepted for a move next season. And before journalists telling oh him being my big signing, I will say I see him as a decent back up.


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Sorry for the long delay update, I opened an old game of X-COM: Enemy Unknown and... saw a chryssalid. I've been hiding under my desk since then

 

[Death Ball]

(It shouldn't take long for the next update, I'm close to finish the first season. Apologies for the long time, I've been away from FM, my interest taken elsewhere for a while).

 

[Death Ball]

Extracts from a diary

Offloading of players would have been better if someone had taken Charcos off, but getting out Carrasco and Milla should help. Just saving wages and, besides, having to cut 23+ players that can't be registered for the second half. Odd thing to do with all the injury problems, but it's not like it could not be done.

If the first half of season was awful, this second only serves to increase frustration, as injuries keep piling up. We suffered four injuries in our game against Atlético Astorga, we were lucky to come out with a win, thanks to a marvellous shot from the edge of the area by Jesús Alonso. Still, the hopes to do anything this season are pretty much done for, as we are again missing some of the important men in midfield, with the other Alonso, Sergio, Maureta and our two main strikers, Hugo and Zamora, injured for several months each, with Hugo being the only that may return before the end of the season, need only see out squad before our match against Huracán Z (note that Andrés is unavailable due to loan clause. No wonder seeing our lack of wins for a while as the injuries struck and some of the players weren't still adapted to our game style.

It makes one lose a lot of faith in the team and think in resigning and seeking some other team that either is respected by injury or that at least has a budget to expect the economical means to imrpove the squad in coming seasons. Despite all the reduction of wages compared to past season, the team seems losing money and the projection is that of finishing the season with the bank account in the reds, which means the need to further reduction of wages and the impossibility to do any meaningful signing to improve the performance for next year, which kind of means the team is not going anywhere in the near future.

It was certainly a pity, if had it not been by the injuries, I am sure we could have had a much better run during the second quarter of this round of league, as I am pretty sure, by performances, that we could have turned most of those draws and the draw against San Fernando into wins, which would definitely had pushed us up to the top four instead of ending in that seventh position ((it should have been sixth, but due to problems with the version of my database with which I began the game, ordering in draws is not the right one, this problem was solved in the last update)).

The points to argue that we should have done better were it not for the injury plague, can be found in that we're again the less conceding team, having one striker among the best passers that is also one of the long injuries, and having the best passer of all, though Alonso plays in a defensive role, taking less risks so it's logical he's got to complete more passes. Considering Zamora missed more than half the season, one could argue, based on the numbers, that we would have had Zamora among the top scorers and Caretes might have got into the best assisters, and that could easily have meant the goal production we needed to get higher up the table.

So, in the end, the team has had a rough season with obvious udnerachieving that is no wonder has made a dent in the board's confidence, though fortunately they had have the sense to not as my resignation as if I could really have done significantly better than I did with all the injuries, though it's granted I could always have done some things a bit better than I did.

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I see the previous post displaced to the right, I've not seen any error with tags in the previous one, so I don't know what it is. Since the last before this is unimportant and this one shows right, I'm not deleting the one that's shifted so this one doesn't turn out glitched like that

 

[Death Ball]

Reconnecting with Burgos sports newsfeed.

Esteemed President,

I am glad to find perfectly unnecesary to have to explain our economical situation making us need to let out players to lower our wages as much as possible, even if it forced you to take the tough decision of reverting to semi-professional status. Fortunately, the releases are having a better impact than I expected, giving us benefits in these two months previous to the first month of league.

The change of formation to 3-5-2 has not been due to the transfer policies, as press pretends it to, as if I had made it based solely on our squad I would have gone with fullbacks to add to the wingers. The reason for the change are purely a tactical matter, consequence of the conclusions I extracted from our last season and the effect of the injuries. We might have been the team with the least goals against, but that doesn't remove the perception we were too weak in our back line in one hand, in the other the fact that we were more so weak when we suffered the injury crisis, affecting mainly our midfield, which made me judge that if we were to make the team stronger in defense, without making a reinforcement in quality, then we had to do so by increasing our midfield men. That would have led me to choose a flat 4-5-1 were it not because we also showed some lack of edge in front of goal, so I didn't want to pull the man from the front, so I had only the defense to take it; considering our defense is strong in the air and our rivals play conservative football almost always, it is not going to concede too much in the way of free fullbacks taking advantage. I think it has shown it's worth in the preseason (and the two league games so far), as only Almería B, strong side in 3ªD, though Atlético Tordesillas probably shouldn't have been able to get those two goals. But then, the match against Valladolid B proved we're not so worse than past year as a minimum. Another good sign is the team proved their ability to fight back from a bad result in those cases, so I keep a fair optimism about this upcoming season; though I don't lose my touch from reality and know it will be hard to get in promotion play offs, right now I think our concern shall be having profits to avoid the debt to grow.

I can't promise promotion, as it's evident from what I just wrote, but I would like to point that in the extremely rare case we'd achieve it, it wouldn't be more than to get one season of possibly bigger ticket sales and a bit more profit before coming back to 3ªD, it doesn't matter how good we do, our debt won't disappear and I will not incur in expenses that would make it grow. What we have can't possibly be enough to stay in 2ªB.

I attach some files from the scouts about our new players.

Attachments: José Mari, Berto Toyos, Álvaro Valdés, Alfonso

__Notes from Cabello's diary________________________________________________________
| Report of Naya's injury. Will we have the same injury problems than past season?. It's so disheartening, it makes me think more and more in resigning. The team won't do anything but stay for two seasons minimums, maybe more.
| At least now that we went past the second match it looks like the team may not go as bad as I expected, may as well keep fighting. And who cares if we take more than three years to go up?. If it's fun it's worth staying.
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Ah, another bigger delay, various things getting my interest at the times I would be playing. While I'm getting back the mood for FM and I want to take it more frequent and wish to update this more regularly, I can't make any promise, so expect that the next won't come too soon. But at least I hope it won't be much more than one week, maybe up to two *fingers crossed*

 

[Death Ball]

DIARIO DE BURGOS. SPORTS ANALISES.
- By Ramón Tarque

[...] The Burgos coach seems like a happy man, which understandably is infuriating to the fans, though the board are in full support of the man. The team is sitting, when the half of the season and the winter break are almost upon us, in third position, four points clear into the promotion play off zone and five points from the top that is shared by two teams, following an irregular season that has seen his team outside the play offs.

The fans understand that such results are not fitting to the history of Burgos C.F., a team that inherits from the Real Burgos that has been in first division twice, last not so long, between 1990 and 1993, in which it earned the title of matagigantes after drawing at home to Barcelona and Real Madrid in their first season in Primera. It should be clear, as I have said time and again, that the team has to achieve nothing less than winning the group and promoting, something that had to be done two seasons ago and that has not been done, yet the man who failed is still sitting in their bench. Unconceivable.

But despite what should be clear to anyone - what is clear to all the fans - the board supports the work of mr Cabello, and their defence is that finally the club is getting benefits that in a little more than a year should see the debt of the club disappear, as when the month ends with a loss, it is very small. A defence that seems to be also the main used by Mr Cabello, who also adds, as if it would be a merit, being in third position with a side that is weaker than in past seasons. Here one would say that then he should have promoted the team two seasons ago, when he had the best squad, or the past one when he still had a "better squad" and add to that if he had not neglected hs duties on behalf of money, the team would then be dominating to ensure promotion. But we're in the times that have make of money the sole king.

The other point in his defence is that the performance has been kept up even after some injuries, like that of Aurreko, possibly the most serious as it forced the side to play with youngster Pagés, but there's also been the weeks without either Jesús Alonso, most valued player so far, that lasted four weeks and two of them were at the same time as the playmaker Sergio Alonso and box to box Toyos were out injured, forcing to bring up youths to the starting line up, and also the injury of the key defender Matthijs for more than a month and two weeks of them Jonathan Casto was out, leaving the back three with two unproved youths. The 3-5 (flat with defensive wingers)-2 system makes barely relevant the two months injury of left wingback José Mari. (See thatdespite the injuries spawning trouble for more than a motnh and half there is no constant drops of form It may be true, but it's logic isn't one to apply to such a club as Burgos CF.

It is funny that one of the reasons for the tactical change that is, so far, leaving some good players like the aforementioned José Mari and the fan's favourite Muñecas to warm the bench match after match, if at all, was "to make the defence stronger", to hear that he's satisfied with the result and then see that there are two teams that receive less goals than Burgos by a fair difference. There is, indeed, one imrpovement as it can be seen from looking at the stats, and that is the passing play of the team, that is the most likely explanation to the results, and that accounts for Burgos having three players among the top passers, and also Zamora contesting for top goalscorer and Valdés for best man. Data that gives us some hopes for the end of the season.

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Posting now this last update, I will move this all to the new blog system as soon as I figure it out (it should be no brainer, but just in case so I don't drag this update).

And it is done, all transferred to my blog