Bermuda Triangle Season Review

[Bermudo]

Bermuda Triangle is a team without real money investment, just tokens from free offers. As the team is on a new server, it has been on the top of the server since its creation and has a tough transfer market with mostly 3* players on the Lists.

1. Competitions

League

This was the first time that Bermuda Triangle had a league draw without a scout team. As the best quality team from the beginning, BT dominated the league, ending up with 21-4-0 before the last day and securing the league winner on day 22. Top scorers and top assist speak for themselves, too: BT has 1st and 2nd place in both categories. The 2nd placed team bought 3 scouts around day 18, but it was too late, BT was already too far ahead, and surprisingly the 2nd team had some unexpected losses even after buying those scouts. Its unlikely next seasons league will be as easy as this one. Still, BT will look to do their best and aim for Champions League qualification once again!

Champions League

Reaching Champions League semifinals was the aim set at the beginning of the season, and as in last season, BT was able to exceed all expectations and won in the final against a team with 6 scout players. The group stage was very easy with 3 weak teams, but the quarterfinal and final opponents were very tough and there was definitely an element of luck involved. Lets hope our luck continues next season.

Cup

There was a cup? Ah, that was where the team went out in round 2 (day 6 of the season).

2. Transfers

This season was quite difficult as far as transfers were concerned (July 4th had the same problems, and there were others, too).

At the beginning of the season, the team had enough resources for two scout players, but there were no players that met the managers expectations.

In the end, we signed Mike Kraaijenbrink, a 6.6* 22 year old DC/DMC who was very good at corner kicks. He had a difficult time adapting, with low ratings and some injuries at the beginning of the season, but he has grown into one of the teams mainstays with 19 assists and 7 MoMs.

The other early season signing was Guillaume Guillou, a 4.4* 19 year old DC/DR, who replaced a slow training DR and is keeping up quite well with the team quality, having reached mid 5.4* over the season. He will definitely stay in the BT defense for a while.

Early mid-season, we signed two 19 and 20 year old wingers (due to total lack of wingers we had to play narrow diamond only at the start of the season), who are still below 5* but got decent growth and will have to stay until we sign some better wingers at the start of next season. Mitric, the AML/ML, is still promising at 4.8*, 19 years of age and 12 goals out of 31 matches. Napier, a 20 year old 3.8* grown into 4.4* MR/DMR, fills some gaps since he covers two important positions that I dont have any other players for.

The transfer of the season was probably Yarkeu MGonlebe, a 20 year old 5.8 star MC who has since grown to 6.2 stars. He came to the team for only 4 tokens (random high quality transfer list, pretty rare on our server) and filled a big hole in the teams midfield, scoring several MoMs and also 11 goals in 23 games.

There were also some more 3 star players signed for filling holes and as reserves, but they arent really worth mentioning and mostly played the bench or friendlies.

3. Older players

Rene Leitner, dubbed "Leitwolf", our 7* striker signed at the start of season 3, is still the mainstay of our offense. He scored less goals than last season (40 compared to 50) but also had 16 assists. With 13 MoM, he is our most valueable player, but he shows an off day now and then when he doesnt score at all. Fortunately, these matches arent too often.

Swan Watson, our token youth from season 3, is still going strong. He is a 19 yo 5.4* DC this season from natural growth only, and is expected to go for 2-3 more seasons in our team.

Jonathan "Action" Jackson, an AMC/AMR signed in season 2, is now 25 years old and his growth has slowed down a lot, he will be 3.4* next season which should be a bit low. Nevertheless, he is full-offense specced (41 offense) and managed to score 18 goals so we decided to prolong his contract and keep him even if we get a better AMC/AMR.

Tahj Broadbelt, our one-on-one goalkeeper from season one, has turned 22 this season and his growth has slowed down noticeably. He barely hit 5*, and we will probably need a new keeper at the start of season 6. Still, there are bigger holes in our formation (a 2nd MC, both wingers, DL) so he will have to do for one more season.

Mörtel, the 2nd MC, 23 years old and 5* quality at the end of the season, is also suffering from slow growth, and will have to replaced sooner or later. He scored seven goals, especially the winning goal in the CL final, but also caught 5 yellow cards over the season. He might do for one more season but we are are more actively looking for a replacement here.

Martinez, Kraijenbrinks predecessor as DC/DMC, turned 20 and hit 5* again, so he will still be an important players in defensive formations with 5 players. He has been benched in quite some games where we used a 3n defense without dmc, but he is expected to help out for at least two more seasons.

Murphy, our DL/DML, is simply growing too slowly to have a future in our team. He will stay until we get a replacement, but at 26 years, 4.8* quality and with a corner SA, he would be perfect for selling at season start. Of course, only if we can sign a better DL.

Firsov, the 2nd striker in the team, 30 yo 4.8* also has to be replaced, but since his value is pretty low due to his age, he should be able to stay as reserve or even as 2nd striker.

Of course, there are some more reserve players, but many of them are free agents from season 3 and 4 and not really worth mentioning.

4. Transfer goals

at the start of the season, we will have about 11 millions, plus anything we can get for players to be sold off. We can probably afford two scouts, or a scout and a young player, at the start of the season, and are especially looking for good midfielders, one MC maybe and one offensive winger with several positions, and a decent defensive left.

A scout level player should only be signed as MC or multi-position winger

A DL can be a young player or maybe a youth (expected on day 5). A better secondary striker would also be a good idea, but not a scout since the team often plays with only one striker.