Bahrainian Rhapsody

FML is a funny old game, as most of the addicts will testify. Funny, unfortunately, doesn't necessarily mean you're laughing.

One of the odder quirks of my FML experience is that I've now come to be an Anglo-Scottish player with a Qatari alter-ego whose clubs are based in Hungary (mostly with Hungarian names) but whose playing staffs are mostly Bahraini. Such is simply how my FML career has panned out. It's this academies business that's to blame really, as I was quite happy being a Scottish manager of an Hungarian club until they came along.


What's even stranger, however, is that my academies in Bahrain have been... well, surprisingly good, actually. My all-Bahrain under 17 team in Miller's OFA finished runner up in both league and cup last season, spearheaded by whippet striker Ibrahim Abdulla and featuring some quite bizarre positional combinations (I had TWO D/AM RCs graduate last season alone, and a right footed D LC, but have waited three seasons for my first ML). The team who finished ahead of me in both - Melbourne Strikers - has spent a fortune on its youth programme both in money and skills, the sort of investment I could never justify. The average potential reading of my graduates seems to be a solid 3* (roughly 140 PA in old money), with a healthy smattering of 3.5s and a 4, so hopefully by the time they reach senior level I'll have a pretty solid squad to build on.


In order to facilitate that, I've set myself two new rules:
1. Never pay more than £2500 wage on a non-academy graduate senior.
2. Never buy a player younger than my oldest Bahraini, currently 20 year old striker Yousif Abduljallil whose attributes are as follows:
 

Now Hristo Stoichkov he is not, but I'm pretty happy with that for an average graduate. When I finally get relegated to my proper level (I was hideously overpromoted during Miller's FA changeover) I'm sure he'll do a decent job for me. Just average enough to be average!