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As I've moved teams (again) I thought I'd simply edit the post I made while at QP to avoid confusion.

When I left Inverness, after failing to win the treble, I asked Commish for a challenge and in Deveronvale I certainly have that. We aren't the weakest team if you base that on SL with a T11 of 19.4 and a T17 of 16.8

Clydebank have 19.3 and 16.5
Greenock have 18.3 and 16.7
East Stirlingshire have 19.0 and 16.4

Clydebank have a better attack (assuming the MA play up) but inferior keepers and a slightly weaker defence.
Greenock's attack is better than ours, but like CB a weaker defence. However their keepers are virtaully identical to ours.
East Stirlingshire are also weaker but have a star forward and plenty of money.

It will certainly be a tough fight at the bottom.

At the top I can't see anyone stopping Queens Park and Clyde. The former already have the resources to be a great team that could see successive promotions and the latter could also be a powerful side if they can get more TP to the side.

The other teams are all pretty closely grouped with T11 from 19.7 to 21.4 and T17 from 17.1 to 18.2

As for my team - well I may have 20 players but four of those are goalkeepers with two in single figure SL and I only have three attackers that could do anything so I expect a lot of 4-4-2 normal tactics. My defence is pretty good but I only have five players which means some out of position play or a 3-5-2 from time to time.

I've tried to get some trading going, but have had one turned down and I think I was just too late on another as the player went elsewhere for what I offered. I have my CP and TP pretty much planned out and with just 25k in the bank I don't see me being very active in the auctions.

I wish my predecessors and successors (Tyron now at Inverness, and Al now at Queens Park) good luck in their respective divisions. I'm sure they can both win their divisions.

I just have to try and avoid too many blowouts.

I think this season and perhaps next CB will just have to take its chances of hitting bottom spot.

Theres nothing but major surgery will rescue the squad from the pitiful state its wandered into over the last few seasons.

I blame the manager, but he blames trying to avoid bottom position and making too many tactical decisions when more strategic thinking was needed.

So its a three season plan from now on......

Altogether now...... This is a rebuilding season......

GMcD.

Time for an update seeing as no one else seems to be interested in 300k. I'm not sure when I edited my first post, except that it was after GMcD posted his.

Deveronvale have been fairly busy in the transfer market with 4 confirmed trades and even more cancelled ones. First failure was not getting Dundee United's 3/17 WG for 3 TP, but the next day I was happy to pick up a 5/15 WG for just 1 TP from Hearts. I also missed out on a 6/12 DM at Hamilton but for 1 CP more was able to pick up a 6/14 from Hibernian. The other transactions were a 2 TP for 3 CP swap which leaves me with 40 TP and 4 age 1 players to train, and the bargain of the month was Stuart Gray's 1k move to Airdrie. He would probably never play for Deveronvale but is already the 15th highest SL player at his new club.

Dolphy and Glass haven't helped my T11 (my 11th best was SL 15 anyway) but my T17 has had a boost up to 17.4 which is equal 10th in the division. With a bit of luck I can see a mid-table finish for us this season.

Unfortunately I can't see me getting past Huntly in the Cecil Cup - it's not as though we can play for two draws and penalties because we'd lose that easily.

I don't see any changes to my league predictions: Queens Park should walk it even with bad luck. Even if they coach and train as slow as possible, and most of the others go as fast as possible, it will take 7 matches for them to catch up in T11.

Clyde are still my second favourites as long as their manager doesn't concentrate on the cups too much.

As for the rest it's going to be down to luck, who they get in the auctions and whether they train and coach hard or decide to save money.

Well, things aren't looking good for poor old Montrose this season. Without much firepower up front, we'll probably be struggling to score many. We have only 6 players over 20SL, and two of those are GK....

On top of that, we have only 4 players under Age 2, including this season's Bosman signing and a new APP. We may well have a struggle on our hands to avoid the wooden spoon. Mind you, having struggled for a few seasons the last time I was in SESL, I suppose it's only what I'm used to.... It looks like staying that way for a while as well.

I suppose mid-season ageing might help a little, but then as I have plenty of older players, it might not be such a good thing for me. I'm sure my T11 is uncompetitive already, and will only get worse after mid-season. So, I'll have my work cut out, tactically, and can only hope to scrape draws with the odd goal here or there. If CB really does expect to struggle, he can probably still rely on finishing above poor old Montrose.

Well, season 16 looks to be another year of hard graft for the diamonds. After moving from bottom to top in two seasons, it has taken us nearly that long to come crashing back down again (hanging on to division 2 by the skin of our teeth in season 14!).

So, do we have any hope of bouncing back straight away? Probably not. Best take a look at the opposition and attempt to make some predictions.

Let’s wait and see just how right I am!

The first live auction is over and the only third division side to pick up a player was Queens Park and as he was an apprentice it doesn't affect T11 or T17 but just means that side will be even harder to stop in the future. With five age 1 players and an age 0 player worth training and 57 TP they should be unstoppable. QP could do with getting a FW in the early auctions but there's no panic as the division three GKs are not particularly good.

As for Deveronvale, we have just picked up a decent defender which means we now boast the 12th highest T11, 8th= T17 and 6th= overall. Age is against us though with 10 younger teams. We also have little money so will be saving as much as we can with as little over coaching as possible. We have 36 TP and a minimum 37 games so the last TP is likely to go in the penultimate SESL cup game.

The target is to finish the season with over 3000k. It's possible if we finish mid-table and keep morale around .500 and write loads of press.

My current favourite for the wooden spoon? Clydebank I'm afraid with a weak second GK, age up front and hardly any midfield. They may have a lot of resources but I don't think it will lead to enough wins.

Steve,

I cant honestly disagree with you about the Bankies and last place.

I think we'll be there too, but I'm going to be focusing on training my youngsters and my age 2 players for the season after next.

GMcD.

Thanks for all the confidence in my team everyone, I'll be looking over my shoulder for you's all season.

Steve has left me with the makings of a good team and I hope to have QP promoted by the end of the season or I'll have undone his good ground work.

I don't know much about any other teams and will need to learn as the season goes on, but by all accounts QP should be aiming for the top and won't have to worry about whats happening at the bottom.

My team has a couple of good old pros that should help all my young guys until they are the backbone of the team.

Good luck all.

I was surprised and pleased to see us tipped for 7th place, as I was expecting to be challenging for the wooden spoon. Still, I'm quite pleased with my acquisitions, which should help us along a bit. I've even taken the revolutionary step of planning my CP/TP, for the first time ever (thanks for the tip, Steve!).

Now I think of it, maybe that prediction of 7th place was more down to expecting me to have at least average ability as a manager. If only!

I am impressed with the new sesl site, I know also a place were i could use something like that ,
second season in div 3, and with div 1 teams knocking every week at the managers door for the young talent we have, its was difficult to point uot where we should invest, and decide what aim we have this season.
At the live auction we tried to buy some players but prices went skyhigh, so we did some bidding, getting that cash out of the league. Next auction we must have some chance in buying some MF players, cause that is the weak spot in the team at the moment.

Bottum line of all this, I hope to find enough time to invest in the team, and probably a excuse is at place here for the managers trying to trade with Dumbarton, just figuring out how the website works in trading perspective, thought I already traded some plauyers, just seeing them still in the roster

We've had a few games and no great surprises with Queens Park top and Clydebank bottom of Division 3. Most of the trading has probably been finalised now so apart from the auctions there's not going to be much of a change to the teams.

I've added each team's remaining CP and TP to their T17 to come up with this order:

Queens Park (24.6) - one excellent keeper and a decent back up. Enough cash to bring in an auction buy as well. QP's weakness is at FW with two at only SL 22, one who won't be coached and the other can only reach 27. However FW adds the least to area stats so this means they are strong everywhere else. A certain bet for promotion if rookie Al Nicholl holds his nerve.

Clyde (23.7) - Four SL 29 players already with good back up in all areas. Once the reserve keeper is fully trained these will be very difficult to beat and will climb the table.

East Fife (23.2) - Very strong up front but weak second keeper and first choice not coached yet as Stuart is conserving cash. Most CP/TP of the division and second most money. Enough to get an auction buy and my 3rd promotion team.

Deveronvale (23.1) - This can't be right. But with two good FW who will be coached into the high 20s, two decent GK who will likewise be quickly coached/trained and a decent defence, this side could be high up the table by mid-season. However I will be coaching slowly as we're broke and mid-season aging will hurt us. Outside chance of a play-off spot.

Hamilton Accies (23.0) - Weak second keeper. First keeper also weak at the moment but if the excellent defence can keep the shot count down while the SL 28 and 29 forwards slot home the goals then these will be my 4th team for automatic promotion.

Dumbarton (22.9) - Good attack and defence but GK might let them down. Outside chance for automatic promotion, but should make a play-off spot.

Nairn County (22.9) - The third most CP/TP available pushes County up this table. But a weak, old second keeper, and a young one as first choice, as well as problems in front of goal (no FW or MA have scored in the league).
(Position edited after their la-*test*-('") trade)


Brechin City (22.6) - Another team with a weak second keeper and an OK attack. Probably a mid-table team.

Montrose (22.6) - Two great wingers but no forwards. Decent keepers as well. Loads of money to improve the team in auctions and equal most CP/TP.

Forfar (22.2) - Will have a great forward line in a few weeks but an awful second keeper that will cost them too many games to challenge for promotion.

Fraserburgh (21.9) - Only one decent forward but good goalkeepers. With luck these could well be in a play-off spot, especially with a good buy.

East Stirlingshire (21.5) - Three good FW, one good keeper and a good young defence, but lots of low SL players.

Stranraer (21.3) - Forward line not so hot at the moment but strong in goal. Fewest CP/TP left of all the division.

Aidrie (21.0) - Good forwards but poor goalkeepers and not many resources.

Clydebank (20.8) - Not the worst! But poor up front and not great keepers.

Greenock Morton (20.6) - Better attack than Clydebank and better keepers. It will be touch and go who finishes bottom.

Quality reviews Steve.
Going above the call of duty to update it after trades though.
Managers may feel like they are being closely watched!

Thanks, Craig, but I was doing the second part anyway so it made sense.

There's not a great deal of difference between East Fife and Montrose and which of these 7 teams get the promotion spots will depend on the luck of the Olmec gods.