Chapter 11

"The next player is also truly exciting and from a more established league, Steve Regis Mvoue. The midfielder came to prominence in the 2019 AFCON U17 tournament where he walked away with the trophy and player of the tournament accolade. Technically proficient and physically domineering he is a real presence in the midfield, and he makes his inclusion felt. His move to Toulouse was supposed to be the start of a wonderful career but injury problems and settling issues have meant that he hasn't been able to kick on. Ligue 2 is practically inaccessible as far the entry points are concerned but Toulouse were able to secure promotion the previous year. If we can convince the player he will get the game time he requires and provide a little profit for Toulouse, I believe we will be able to secure him"

" To bolster our defence, we should recruit Ravil Tagir who came through the books of Altinordu F.K, which also produced Caglar Soyuncu. Elegant in possession and a very composed distributor of the ball, he would slot in seamlessly in any team and is ready to make the step up. He is very much a modern centre back who is more than comfortable bringing the ball out of defence. His maturity is the thing that really impresses me having regularly played against players older than him with no fear. This is one player who will likely be more expensive than we were hoping for but one I feel we would be foolish not to splash on. He currently plays at Istanbul Basaksehir having moved for two million which we will need to beat."

"I would now like to bring to your attention another player who plays at Toulouse, Bafode Diakite. A powerful centre back who is equally comfortable on his weaker foot. He ticks every single box when it comes to his physical attributes and dominates the aerial game which is an area Ravil is weak in. Toulouse play a high line and he has demonstrated his recovery pace and strength in breaking up attack's multiple times. The only weakness of his game being a tendency to roam in search of aerial duels leaving space behind him, it would be a matter of coaching positional discipline. He has been a starter at Toulouse and would require a greater fee than Mvoue but has all the possibility to improve quickly."

"That concludes the players we have managed to come across so far and though that isn't all the positions it is a solid start. The players are all talented and though I assume Henke will negotiate well they will be far over our budget which means we need to sell."

"That was always the plan with Jobe and Jordan moving up the ranks and the midfielders we are going to be signing, it leads quite a few of our current roster surplus to requirements. That would be Woods, Bacuna and Sunjic in particular which should allow us to receive some needed funding. Gijon have already exercised the clause in Villalba's contract which gives us roughly half a million and opens up our wage bracket."

"I'll get on finding clubs for them and make first contact with the clubs of these new players"

"Good, I think that was a productive meeting. I'd like to offer congratulations to Leo; the players are exactly what I'm looking for and must have been difficult to find them considering all of our requirements"

The long meeting finally wound down to a close with the each of the group individually offering their gratitude to Leo while he humbly thanked them. The size of the challenge that faced this group had made them become quite close in a short amount of time and even though the meeting was now over they kept asking the scout about more details and other players he had. Yusuf took that as an opportunity to walk out and allow them to keep talking.

Yusuf was abundantly aware that the work never really came to an end, so he returned to his office to fill out more paperwork. The paperwork was related to player accommodation that the club was purchasing. The accommodation had been his idea as a place that the foreign youth he was signing could stay. One of the biggest difficulties experienced by players was sourcing a place to live especially when they could be transferred to a new club at any point. The players who made a lot of money would often rent properties at extortionate fees and never really put down roots. He knew the stress that a lot of these domestic situations caused to players, and he believed that a player who was uncomfortable off the pitch would struggle to separate that from their on-field performance. This was the reason; he had approached Maxi to discuss the club purchasing a property that the younger players could use. The plan was to prepare for them all they needed so that they could perform to their best ability when they came here. This meant comfortable accommodation within reasonable distance of the training ground; a personal chef who would prepare lunch and dinner for them; and a liaison officer who would spend most of their time at the accommodation to deal with any issues experienced by the player. English lessons would also be held on the site to allow them to better communicate with their teammates. This idea had many merits with one of them being that the players would become comfortable with each other which would transfer to the pitch. The players would push each other to become the best they could while also supporting anyone who fell behind.

GBE Information:

Band 1- English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A

Band 2- Portuguese Primeira Liga, Holland's Eredivisie, Belgian First Division A, Turkish Super Lig, English Championship

Band 3 - Russian Premier League, Brazilian Série A, Argentinian Primera División, Mexican Liga MX, Scottish Premiership

Band 4- Czech First League, Croatian First Football League, the Swiss Super League, La Liga 2, Bundesliga 2, Ukrainian Premier League, Greek Super League, Colombian Categoría Primera A, USA's Major League Soccer, Austrian Bundesliga, French Ligue 2

Band 5- Serbian SuperLiga, Danish Superliga, Polish Ekstraklasa, Slovenian PrvaLiga, Chilean Primera División, Uruguayan Primera División, Chinese Super League

Band 6 – Any League Not in Bands 1-5

15 points are required to be eligible for a GBE. The club the player is currently at provides 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0 points depending on which band that club is in.

The last club which the player was at adds points dependant upon the band of that club and their final league position. The points are awarded for being title winner, mid table ( only in the case of Band 1 clubs), promotion and how far they made it in continental comps ( qualifiers, group stages).

Continental minutes which are the minutes played in any continental competition such as Champions League, Europa League, Copa Liberatodores, Copa Sudamerica, CONCAF CL

Domestic minutes calculated based on the percentage of total minutes a player has appeared in. The ratio of percentage of minutes to points is also dependant on the band of the club.

International appearances also provide points depending on the FIFA ranking of the national team, enough of this can result in an autopass without having to consider other criteria.

The rules are slightly different for players who are under twenty-one as they are less likely to make appearances. They gain points for making even a single appearance in a competition. This is equivalent to 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 dependant on the band as before.