Soccer Supremo - A Sports Progression Fantasy

I got up and shook Billy Webb’s hand. ”Well In’s mad at me for selling one of his most reliable players, but this was the deal, wasn’t it? I train you up, give you some medals, move you on. Barrow’s a good place for a defender, and you’ll be next to Jamie Brotherhood. He’s their right back.”

”Good, is he?”

”He gets stuck in and he’s got some upside. You’ll frustrate a lot of good attacking teams, mate.” I gave him his hand back and looked around. ”Was there anyone in particular you wanted to say goodbye to?”

”Kin hell, Max,” complained Well In. ”Always looking for the gossip.” He paused. ”But was there? Anyone in particular?”

Billy smiled at us, then his head swiveled around. ”Is, er... Is Angel here?”

I winced. ”Oh, mate.”

”You don’t think - ?”

”I think she would try to be nice about it. She always tries to be nice about it.”

Billy looked at Well In, who said, ”Max has never let you down. He has let me down, but not you. Never you. Come on, let’s do the round.”

They walked to the next table.

Buy a guy for 5 grand, benefit from him playing in the first team, sell him two years later for 65. It was a decent business model, and I had intended to use the profit to buy a replacement with an even higher ceiling and do it all again, but that wasn’t really the point of Saltney Town these days. So instead of replacing Billy, I had told Well In to promote one of the dragons from the youth team.

Jake Williams, centre back, was 16 and only had CA 35, but his PA was 131. The Welsh Premier was basically wrapped up - we were miles too good for the other teams. We would get whatever results we got in the final four Europa League matches. Jake Williams could play a lot of minutes in the second half of the season, then, without it affecting the club’s results, and by the time next season came around, the lad would be CA 60 or more. Not all that far away from Billy Webb!

Well In knew all this, and he was happy to accelerate the development of a Welsh lad, but he was a football manager these days and had absorbed the football manager’s habit of moaning about the ’board’ messing his team up in the transfer market.

Well In was actually lucky I hadn’t weakened the squad even further, though it was something I was considering. The second Syndicate signing, the right back Otis Burke, had hit his cap of CA 77. But we had signed Carl Carlile, whose cap was also 77 and who was loving life at Saltney Town. I thought we didn’t need two right backs, but Well In didn’t agree.

The youth system actually had two spectacular D RCs, both 15. Rex Jones was PA 141, while Greyson Hughes was PA 138. I had pitched the idea of moving them up to the first team squad but Well In had pulled a face. ”Next year, Max. Next year.”

I tended to agree with him, so Otis Burke would stay for the rest of this season, as would the third Syndicate signing, Cam Mason. Cam had the highest PA of the group, 85, and was eight points shy of it. With Billy Webb out of his pathway, Cam would hit his peak pretty quickly, and again, would be another summer sale.

The Syndicate would get their money back, plus a big bonus, leaving me with no debts to them. That meant Saltney would keep 100% of whatever we got for Vincent Addo.

Vincent Addo was a DM RC, a defensive midfielder who could play on the right. Thanks to the top training he was getting, plus playing at youth level for Ghana and in senior European competitions, his growth this season had been fast. He had added 23 points and had very recently hit CA 100. His PA was 169.

I had a real dilemma with him. When was the right time to bring him to Chester? He was only 10 points off Championship level, so I could easily do it in the current window. There would be no issues with work permits or ESC slots; he had been in the UK for long enough and had played continental competitions.

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He probably wouldn’t hit a training cap if he stayed at Saltney, so that wasn’t a consideration. He would get four more appearances in the Europa League, which would keep him hurtling forward. If there was a soft training cap at Saltney, I reckoned it was in the CA 125-130 region as long as the club was in Europe.

Bring him to Chester for a million quid? I didn’t have the money. A small loan fee? That would work, but how often would he play? Our squad was jam-packed.