Welcome to the fourth episode of my series on the evolution of Real Valladolid in Rabona. It has been a really tough season. In the middle of the season there were suspensions and injuries to three key players that plunged us down the table and we were even in the relegation places for a good part of the season. In fact we suffered several humiliating defeats against npc teams. A season in which, despite everything, we have learned some good lessons that will serve as a learning experience for the future. Let's go with the analysis of what has been this third season in the game of Real Valladolid.
STADIUM AND FACILITIES
This season, investment in the club's infrastructure has been very modest. We have upgraded the Building Yard to level 3. This is a forward looking investment to prepare the facility for when there are sufficient funds and needs to upgrade other aspects of the infrastructure such as the stadium to higher levels. With this upgrade we have gone from a 5% bonus to 9% by the way, thus doubling the benefit of this facility for future construction and expansion.
The second and final improvement has been in the youth academy. From level 2 to level 6 to obtain an efficiency of 42% in a facility that, with the arrival of renewing contracts of our current squad members, will be more important in the coming season. We will have to start making use of this facility already next season and, moreover, the intention is to increase it to level 8 within a short period of time. We are confident that this investment will pay off and that we will be able to save a lot of money in terms of players salaries.
THE SQUAD
Here are the most important changes this season. The fact is that these players are out of contract:
- Michael Bloem (56)
- Paul Sedlak (57)
- Ki Won-sik (50) - Not renewed
- Wei Sheng (63)
- Mikolaj Nowicki (47) - Not renewed
Ki and Nowickj are strikers leaving the squad with only 3 for next season so at least one more player will have to come through the youth academy. The salary increase they were asking for was not affordable as the value for money left something to be desired. With Bloem, we have been considering until the last day whether to proceed with his renewal or to discard him at the end of the season as well. In the end, with only 4 defenders, if we decided not to renew him, it seemed insufficient and we decided to offer him a new contract to continue in the team.
THE LEAGUE
It has been a very tough season in sporting terms. The team has performed particularly badly this season after the good sensations of the first two seasons. Injuries and suspensions in the middle of the season have been decisive. But apart from that eventuality, we have lost matches against npc teams by setting the right line-up and system of play for those opponents. It is time to continue researching and learning about the game engine in order to improve in the coming seasons. The sporting result shows that we have been the worst human team in the category and we have ended up really close to relegation. A bad season from which we have to draw conclusions for improvement for the future.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Another season in which we have ended up with a negative balance sheet. And after much deliberation we have decided to take a step back and correct this imbalance. At the end of the season we have proceeded to reduce the item that caused the financial gap. The training center has been downgraded from level 5 to level 2 to eliminate its maintenance costs. It is a structure that, at our level, is not decisive and does not compensate the financial effort it causes with the possible benefits it brings. We will reassess this aspect at the end of next season.
In addition, a major handicap is that the sponsorship income is still very small. We signed the contract when we were in a lower category and these have not been updated as there is still a contract in force. There are still two seasons left under the old contract which brings in just over RBN 100,000 per season.
CONCLUSION
A tough season in which the team has performed poorly in sporting terms and economically we have paid for some planning errors. We forgot that we are in a long-term project and we have tried to grow beyond the economic possibilities of the club and we have paid the consequences. This is the third season of learning and correcting mistakes in order to continue taking steps in the growth of the club.
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All images credited to rabona.io. Cover image made in canva.com