STJ sends 1 TP to COW for 100k

See "Notebook" blue button beside 'journals'

Cash-in your old players for money by retiring them before match 28 kicks off on 15th April.

There is no requirement to buy an apprentice as 2nd option of season is just a straight cash-in.

Managers will post on Notebook what the aged SL and value is of players being retired, plus a total amount due.

Managers will retire players themselves before Sesl cup match kick offs Wed 15th April, 3pm.

Commish within 24 hours will add cash in full of the players that were retired before deadline noted above.  

Any player retired by accident cannot be re-introduced to the game as database does not facilitate this.  
(an exeption may be made if a valuable apprentice is maybe retired in error, 
but the player would need created from scratch and will have lost his history)

any player age 4+ with SL12 or less is eligable to be cashed in.
Age 4 players at 15k per SL
Age 5 players at 12k per SL
Age 6 players at 10k per SL
Age 7+ players at 8k per SL

HIB sends 1 TP to COW for 100k

Sorry for your loss 

The following teams receive an MVP bonus after match 27:
Fraserburgh - MVP #5: 25k (wWd)
Stenhousemuir - MVP #4: 1 CP (wwW)
Hibernian - MVP #3: 1 TP (WwD)
Inverness - MVP #1: 1 TP + 25k (wWw)
East Stirlingshire - MVP #3: 1 TP (WwD)
Montrose - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (dWW)

The following teams receive an MVP bonus after match 26:
Arbroath - MVP #3: 1 TP (WdW)
Cowdenbeath - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (wwW)
Albion Rovers - MVP #1: 1 TP + 25k (WdW)
Aberdeen - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (WdW)
Annan Athletic - MVP #3: 1 TP (WdW)

Sunderland 0 - 0 Tottenham

Brentford 1 - 1 Everton

West Ham 0 - 1 Wolves

Arsenal 2 - 0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 2 - 1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 0 - 1 Fulham

Burnley 1 - 1 Brighton

Man. United 1 - 1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 0 - 4 Newcastle

Chelsea 0 - 2 Man. City

Sunderland 1-1 Tottenham

Brentford 0-1 Everton

West Ham 2-1 Wolves

Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 2-2 Aston Villa

Liverpool 1-0 Fulham

Burnley 2-1 Brighton

Man United 2-0 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 0-0 Newcastle

Chelsea 1-2 Man City

Oops!  I copied and pasted but forgot to edit.  Here are the correct predictions.  Correct, that is, not in the sense that they reflect the actual results but....you know what I mean....

Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham

Brentford 1-2 Everton

West Ham 2-1 Wolves

Arsenal 2-0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 3-1 Fulham

Burnley 1-3 Brighton

Man United 2-1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 1-0 Newcastle

Chelsea 1-2 Man City

Sunderland 1-1 Tottenham

Brentford 1-1 Everton

West Ham 3-1 Wolves

Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 2-1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 2-1 Fulham

Burnley 1-2 Brighton

Man United 3-1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle

Chelsea 2-2 Man City

Thanks, Andrew. It was a very even game and both sides were quite deserving. Glad I win this coin flip to get some revenge for the final a dozen or so seasons back.

As much as the Ballon D'or and other awards would have you believe that only FWs matter, sometimes it is the GKs who end the day as the most important player on the pitch. Maybe Budinaukas needs a re-naming to be Thibaut Courtois, just for his ability to win cup finals nearly by himself...

Sunderland 2-1 Tottenham

Brentford 1-2 Everton

West Ham 3-1 Wolves

Arsenal 4-0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 2-1 Fulham

Burnley 3-3 Brighton

Man United 3-0 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle

Chelsea 2-2 Man City

Sunderland 1-1 Tottenham

Brentford 1-1 Everton

West Ham 3-1 Wolves

Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 2-1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 2-1 Fulham

Burnley 1-2 Brighton

Man United 3-1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle

Chelsea 2-2 Man City

FRA sends 1200k to HIB for Jim Davis (2/29 WG)

Sunderland 0 - 2 Tottenham

Brentford 1 - 1 Everton

West Ham 2 - 0 Wolves

Arsenal 4 - 0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 1 - 2 Aston Villa

Liverpool 4 - 0 Fulham

Burnley 2 - 1 Brighton

Man. United 3 - 1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 2 - 2 Newcastle

Chelsea 1 - 2 Man. City

Sunderland 2 - 2 Tottenham

Brentford 1 - 1 Everton

West Ham 2 - 0 Wolves

Arsenal 2 - 1 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 1 - 2 Aston Villa

Liverpool 1 - 0 Fulham

Burnley 2 - 1 Brighton

Man. United 3 - 1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 2 - 2 Newcastle

Chelsea 1 - 2 Man. City

Well done Andrew Foss-Grant, a man who has somehow masterminded a 2–0 cup final win over the Blues without the luxury of having the most dangerous striker on the pitch. No Mondo Polestar, no problem—just a calm, methodical game plan and the radical idea of not conceding.

It’s hard not to admire the sheer stubborn efficiency of it all. While others chase flair and excitement, Andrew has boldly asked: “what if we simply… win?” And remarkably, his team listened. Motherwell were organised, disciplined, and just clinical enough to get the job done—like a well-oiled machine, if that machine occasionally needed a sit-down and a cup of tea.

Was it thrilling? Not particularly. Was it devastatingly effective? Unfortunately, yes.

So once again congratulations to Andrew, who has proven that you don’t need the best striker—just a system that quietly ruins everyone else’s day. Pah humbug......

Sunderland 2 - 1 Tottenham

Brentford 1 - 1 Everton

West Ham 2 - 1 Wolves

Arsenal 3 - 0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 1 - 2 Aston Villa

Liverpool 3 - 0 Fulham

Burnley 2 - 1 Brighton

Man. United 3 - 1 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 2 - 2 Newcastle

Chelsea 0 - 2 Man. City

I couldnt decide on a staff purchase but at least I was able to still do EPL predictions

Sunderland 1 - 1 Tottenham

Brentford 2 - 1 Everton

West Ham 2 - 1 Wolves

Arsenal 2 - 0 Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest 1 - 1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 2 - 1 Fulham

Burnley 1 - 2 Brighton

Man. United 2 - 0 Leeds United

Crystal Palace 1 - 2 Newcastle

Chelsea 1 - 2 Man. City

The following teams receive mid season staff purchase through admin applying staff purchasing:
HIB(100)

The following teams receive mid season staff purchase through 8th April:
AI(-150) ALB(-150) ALO(-250) ANN(-50) AYR(-50) BRE(-150) CLY(-50) CB(-400) COV(-50) COW(-150) DEV(-150) DUM(-500) DUU(-150) DFA(-400) EF(-250) EST(-50) EDI(-250) ELG(-250) FAL(-200) FOR(-50) HAM(-150) HIB(-150) INV(-150) KIL(-150) MOT(-250) PT(-300) QP(-150) RR(-150) RAN(-250) ROS(-50) STJ(-250) STE(-250) STI(-50) SRA(-250)

The following teams receive an MVP bonus after match 25:
Motherwell - MVP #6: 25k (WDw)

EDI sends 100k to HIB for 1 TP

Click on "Notebook" for details how you appoint your mid season staff purchase.

Mid season opportunity to buy 1 staff member

A) Spains Juan Touch: add 5 OTF - up to maximum OTF total of 10 allowed.

                      Costs: D1, 600k  D2, 500k  D3, 400k

B) Mr Motivator: team morale increased to 0.9

                      Costs: D1, 300k  D2, 200k  D3, 100k

C) Ch-ch-ch change man: a single SW DF MF WG or FW can change position to one of these other positions

                      Costs: D1, 300k  D2, 200k  D3, 100k

D) Senior Citizen: add 10 SL to a single age5+ player up to usual maximum PU of 10.

                      Costs: D1, 250k  D2, 150k  D3, 50k
                      
E) Physio: choose one player to be set to EL 10.

                      Costs: D1, 150k  D2, 100k  D3, 50k

Post your request on "Notebook" by Wednesday 3pm

The following teams receive Participation Bonus through Participation Thru Apr 5th:
AI(20) ALB(10) ALO(50) AYR(20) COV(10) DUM(30) DFA(10) EF(10) EDI(45) FAL(20) FOR(10) FRA(20) HEA(10) HIB(30) LIV(10) MOT(50) PT(10) RR(20) RAN(10) ROS(30) STJ(20) SM(10) STE(20) SRA(25)

Apologies for the late payments on the end of March participation - I usually try to have everything in before an auction runs, but only noticed that week had been missed when I came to payout the most recent week's participation

The following teams receive Participation Bonus through Participation Thru Mar 29th:
ALO(50) ARB(5) AYR(20) BER(10) BRE(15) CLY(10) COV(10) COW(20) EF(50) EDI(40) FAL(15) FRA(15) HEA(10) HIB(40) LIV(20) MOT(40) RAN(15) ROS(50) SM(20) STE(20) SRA(30)

ABE sends 2 CP, Scott McKenna (4/21 DF) to RAN for Craig Gordon (4/26 GK)

EDI sends 100k to HIB for 1 TP

STI sends 2 TP to EDI for Liam Brady (4/21 DF)

Ross County are proud to announce the signing of young DM Kaedyn Kamara from Preston North end, coach rob said he will slot straight into the side and develop this season and hopefully be stronger next season as he develops. 

EDI sends 100k to STE for 1 TP

ALB sends 1 TP to HIB for 1 CP

The following teams receive an MVP bonus after match 24:
Dundee FC - MVP #3: 1 TP (wWd)
Raith Rovers - MVP #1: 1 TP + 25k (WwW)
Celtic - MVP #4: 1 CP (DWw)
Stirling - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (WwW)

I'm finding it difficult to see why this might have happened.  Surely it's a new glitch or someone would have spotted it before - and if it's new, why has it suddenly happened now?  And presumably it's caused by something in the code that adds 4 EL to all players after matches, but some of the players mentioned have had odd amounts of EL added - not multiples of 4.   Very strange.

The following teams receive an MVP bonus after match 23:
East Fife - MVP #3: 1 TP (WwW)
Dumbarton - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (DwW)
Hibernian - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (dWW)
Dunfermline Athletic - MVP #2: 1 TP + 25k (WWw)

Once EL reviewed, games will run today. 

Hopefully near to usual deadline.  4pm uk time.

Berwick - two players finished last game on -2 and -3  but now on 8 and 9.

I'm sure it's just a system error but good to know AI are at full strength to take on FAL and DUM.

Strange but true

AI's Euan Henderson finished against HIB on EL 1 and is now EL 9

David Fernadez finished on EL 1 and is EL now 9

Thanks Willy - things change, with time ;-)

Colin, you may have looked in the wrong place.  That GK shows EL 2 now...

:)

Sometimes, if I have time, I check my opponents before submitting orders. I noted this guy played against HIB last week and was very impressive to make 7 saves and be crowned Man of the Match. He finished on -2 EL...
 

Ps Name                      SL SL SL SL EL Ag DP Sv Gl Sh Mn Rt
----------------------------------------------------------------
GK Javier Sanchez Broto      39 39 39 17 -2  n  0  7  0  0 90  7

Now, for some reason, he is at 9 EL. The Mighty OLMEC certainly does work in mysterious ways. I guess this is some kind of Easter thing. He is risen!

Intrigued by this mention.
Anything that balances shot chance closer sounds reasonable.

Randomness on shot scoring is fine.  If a GK makes a dozen saves then so be it.  It happens in real matches sometimes.
But it would be demoralising if you on wrong end of lower shots than expected, and this was repeated every other week or whenever, it would feel like a kick in the stones.   Weighted change sounds good as a fair-play leveller. 

Just read Steve's post more closely. Think Weighted Random History would probably be the best sort of solution, if folks decided a change was needed, but also require even more work to implement. Don't think it still comes close to landing on the correct side of the cost/benefit analysis, but I'm not the boss around here.

From my perspective, the structure of the game is un-changeable. The minute-by-minute random draws are so integral to the codebase that any change to the random shot chance distribution would be essentially a re-write of the entire game.

However, there probably are some workarounds that could be done via additional features. Note, these are still major structural changes to the code, but they are less than a full re-write. An example would be a 'bad luck' bonus shot. e.g. If you go, say, 2x or 3x the expected amount of time without a shot, then the next minute automatically gives a shot chance and the count resets. So, if you had a 10% shot probability and went 20 or 30 minutes without a shot chance, then the system would give you an automatic shot chance at that point.

Do I think that is needed? No. Do I think it is worth the major code effort? Also no. Do I think we have anyone available with both the skills and time needed to write that feature? Probably also no. But that is the direction I could imagine for a feature that reduces the tail end of outcomes without fundamentally re-writing the game. 

Personally, I think the broad distribution of outcomes from the minute-by-minute structure of these games is part of what make them so much fun. I think the structure is incredibly well thought-through and implemented.

Actually I flagged it up as a comment (to win some cash for participating mainly), but it was not meant to be critical of the pile of goals that day produced. Given a choice, I'd have too many goals than a pile of 0-0s, 1-0s etc.

So forget I spoke - leave well alone I say.. :-)

Firstly, I don't have a problem with the random number generator, even though I do complain  about lack of shots for us or too many for them. We did have a lot of goals in match 19 but we had a lot of high shot chance percentages as well. But a lot of managers think something should be done. 

That doesn't mean any of the three Commissioners want it done  Nor a lot of managers.

I did ask Claude and it gave four options. The worst was basically rolling twice and taking the average. Unfortunately this would move extremes towards 50% so we'd all get less chances. Claude recommended Weighted Random History. Basically you track how many chances you've had compared to expected. Falling behind and the chance goes up, ahead and the chance goes down.

HEA sends 1 TP to EDI for Nicolas Kuhn (5/13 WG)

Great work Steve checking.  No complaints from me.
Is there an argument the random number generator that appears to be behaving correctly may be, generally speaking, too random?
Good the extreme outcomes at top and bottom be trimmed a bit?   
Random is needed, but not TOO much randomness.

Each session of matches a logfile is created. This has the shotchance and actual random numbers "rolled". In the 24 games there are 4320 rolls. However the code actually sometimes rolls twice, once for a shot and, if there isn't one, another for a near miss which has a 5% chance. Claude counted all these as well for 8317 and I think assumed that if the second roll was also a shot chance. Here's "his" comments:

Total draws 8317
Expected shots 569.3
Actual shots 602

Then there's something about standard deviatio a Z-score of 1.45/ "In statistical terms, this is not significant - you'd expect a result this far from the mean roughly 15% of ther time by pure chance.

Conclusion: There weremodestly more shots than expected but well within normal random variation. The random number generator appears to be behaving correctly - no evidence of bias.

Having just been knocked out on the away goals rule I suppose I now fully understand why the Europeans removed it.

Oh well back to the drawing board .Another season without too much prospect of winning a trophy.

Worth noting that away goals are terrible tiebreakers in real life. But, I really like how they play out in SESL

Away goals in the cecil cup are one of the best features, in my opinion. Adds extra complexity to the structure of setting out orders pre-match. 

Let's say you drew 0-0 home in a first leg. For the second leg? Pretty easy to put in a stall at G=0 late on. Best case the score is 1-1 or 2-2 and a draw will put you through. Worst case it's 0-0 and the stall will push you to penalties.

On the other hand Let's say you drew 4-4 in that same home first leg. Now makes it easy to press at G=0 late on, as most any draw will see you knocked out.

So what do you put for G=0 when you drew 1-1 in the first leg? That's where the fun comes in. An interesting problem to face.

Alon, away goals.

Matt, thank you but all I did was ask Al Sellers to check my code and he asked his AI friend, Claude, which improved it 

Rules haven't changed on this since Sesl began 28 years ago

From Wiki :  "The team with the superior aggregate score (combined) over the two legs will advance.
In the event of a tied aggregate score, away goals count double."

After the 2 legs the 2 teams are locked at 2-2 and there was no penalty shoot out.

Anyone know how the deadlock is broken?

Clocks went forward an hour at the weekend hence 4pm kick-offs til next autumn.

Sitting here waiting expecting a semi to have happened

ALB sends 1 CP to HIB for 1 TP

ALO sends 1 TP to HIB for 1 CP

ALO sends 1 CP to HIB for 1 TP

The following teams receive an MVP bonus after match 22:
Motherwell - MVP #5: 25k (WwW)

Steve,

What ever you have done seems to have stopped it accepting double bids.

WELL DONE.

Matt

ALO sends 1 TP to COV for 1 CP

ALO sends 1 CP to COV for 1 TP

I was looking at games - to see if there did seem to be something wrong with the random numbers* and saw a problem in the Viewer caused by Elgin's Josh O,Connor. The Viewer didn't like the comma so I've deleted it (the comma) from the database. I don't think it likes ' either but _ is OK if you want, Jason.

* to be honest I got bored but I did see a lot of high shot chances and also low SL GKs so I'm not surprised there were a lot of goals. There were a couple of anomolies: STJ getting 9 chances with a 4ish% chance and EF scoring 3 against an SL 36 GK in 54 minutes but it' just random numbers.

I'm going to ask Claude AI if the numbers seem to be random, maybe another day.

Please see if you can break the trade program. It works over on OASL but not tested with Safari.

Match number 28-32 are sesl cup group games for all 48 teams.

5 matches. Neutral field.

Top 4 out of 6 teams in each group progress to knockouts.
 

	Wed	15-Apr-26	28	SESL cup group play
                    oldies cash in #2
	Sat	18-Apr-26	29&30	SESL cup group play
 	Mon	20-Apr-26	31	    SESL cup group play
	Wed	22-Apr-26	32	    SESL cup group play

The following teams receive Cup Draw Participation through sesl cup groups:
ALB(50) PET(50)

LIV sends 215k to DUM for 2 CP

AI sends 2 TP, Mawuli Mensah (7/2 MF) to CLY for 16k, Alessandro Bastoni (5/16 DF)

I looked at the code for trades and worked out what goes wrong 

First we have the proposed trade which is stored in the database as pending. It then shows up on both teams' pages then..

When one of the managers clicks on Confirm, Reject or Cancel it is passed on to another program which..

For now ignores Reject and Cancel but does the Confirmed trade if valid (player not already sold, not enough cash etc will invlidatethe trade). Crucially, as Andy FG surmised, there is no check to see if the trade has already gone through because once it has the links disappear from the team pages  Then..

Updates the trade log to one of the three above or Invalid.

Refresh, Back button, Safari means the Confirm/Reject button can be processed again.

I had a couple of ideas and settled on one that checked to see if the trade was still pending before doing it, then at the end, updating if it hadn't already been done (I used a different token).Another one was to have a 5th status of 5 (which Claude calls "processing") but it didn't work in my head.  I asked Al to have a look and he sent it to Caude who used both ideas and has also added a check on double-clicking the Confirm button.

I will be updating and resting tonight, so can I have some.proposed CP for TP trades please. I will propose similar for David and Matt to.see if they can break it. However the code might not work- the Blog one didn't at first as one line was not php 5 6 compatible.

I was pretty certain that this could not be added to a GK last season, but no mention of it in the rules so I guess it can be?

PT sends 6 TP to CLY for 630k

No change from last season it seems Matt for senior citizen boost criteria.
GK can again get the upto 10 SL boost (to a PU 10 max)

You were thinking about "change of position" maybe as GK not included in that.
Would be too easy to TP up a MF or FW, and then have them installed as a GK once his SL was useful.
 

Live pictures

News from the Royal is that Cafltun is in theatre now. Appeals have gone out for blood (Blue obviously -Ed) and we can only hope for the best......more news as it happens.

Disaster struck at Stair Park as star defender Lian Calftun (DF 2/36) limped off after just 19 minutes of the 1st Leg tie of the CECIL Semi. The fans were shock as the game was stopped and the highly trained medical team spent nearly 30 seconds trying to revive the hero. An Air Ambulance was immediately summoned and he was rushed to Glasgow Royal Infirmary. On landing he was given all possible treatment by the top Docotors there. Fans of course are worried about the state of Lian and whether or not this is life threatening. A further update from the hospital's medical team is due tomorrow morning. All flags have been lowered at Stair Park and an all night vigil organised. Our prayers are with the young lad......

Can senior citizens on staff now be a gk wasn't allowed last season?

Isn't the problem that if it was it wouldn't get light in Scotland until late in the morning in winter?

But I have long argued that it works both ways as Peter has found, and so it is absoutely useless as a way to remember which way the clocks move!  And yes I agree -  Fix it at BST and never change again.

Late kick offs in the cup today due to tedious clock change to help farmers or whatever the reason.

A nonsense.  😝 

Nice auction addition Rob.

I thought you'd have went for FW rather than another MF.... and then I saw you already have THREE strikers over THIRTY SL.  Nice.