August 2024
First month of the season is done and, to be honest, I’m not exactly impressed with how it’s gone. Just the one clean sheet in friendlies and some really big issues that I need to delve into with our league form.
Pendikspor 2-1 Genclerbirligi
I’ve got pre-season all wrong.
We can’t hit seven fixtures and then be completely out of it by half time in the first game, unable to keep up to the pace and just invite pressure on to us. Our game plan, itself, was decent but we were half a yard slower, second to every ball and, despite us being motivated and seemingly up for the game, we just didn’t have it in us. The substitutes came on already being leggy – a mix of not fully recovered players with not fully match sharp players has given us the worst possible start to the season, considering we won this fixture 3-1 last year in a fairly comfortable tie.
I will spend the time it takes me to play this season to read and learn about pre-season and how it works. I’ve opted for 45 minute spells, with sometimes 30 minute spells, to get everyone game time in each game – in this case seven friendlies played on Wed/Sat of each week. I’m guessing that will change from next season.
Genclerbirligi 1-1 BB Erzurumspor
The badly cropped image shows the physical state that we were in, for the second game running. And, for the second game running, we were completely out of it.
We’ve had a few cases of the FM23 Match Engine issue where we just stand and watch their players and that was the case here as their full back was allowed to run nearly thirty yards, unopposed, and slot the ball away. We drew level with another one of the FM23 gripes – a poorly hit long shot from Metehan Mert that somehow found its way in. Our football, once again (trying not to literally copy and paste from the last match update) was poor, as we squandered the same number of progressive balls as we completed in the opponents half, barely scraping into their penalty area, let alone giving new signings Sodje or Melih a chance to do anything.
The only way is up. I’ve got a lot of analysis to do, which, to be fair, I love. It certainly makes what (will hopefully) comes afterwards even sweeter. But right now, ask me about promotion and the answer is a firm “NO!”
September 2024
What do you do when things go wrong? Write nearly three thousand words of how you’ve tried to put them right, of course!
Ümraniyespor 0-0 Gençlerbirliği
Infuriating, again.
I’ve tried to capture a few things on the review screen there to share my thoughts in a little bit more detail about what is going on. We’re largely, accustomed to the style of play that I want, which is great – considering that I’ve made five new signings and I’ve not even been in this job a year, yet. I also think that this familiarity is somewhat overrated, and that a lot of that can be overcome by a strong tactical style and understanding.
I have to agree with the analyst – we’re okay at the back: fourth best defence, at this point and, even with some pressing concerns around ‘how’ we defend, the worry is going forward. Melih Demir is averaging 3.83 shots a game, with 50% of those on target whilst Sodje is actually yet to take a shot. The form has an xG overperformance of -0.6, as he is yet to find the net from a total of his six shots, which weigh in at 0.1xG/shot – not amazing. These things, along with the phrase ‘We do not provide much of a threat at the minute” tells me that it needs to come through my midfielders. Below are all of the players in the five midfield roles who have appeared for me this season:
The first thing you notice is that the game says that none of these are playing well. However, I don’t feel that the Average Rating is always an accurate metric to measure that so I’ve dived a little deeper. For context, I want us to play aggressive, forward thinking football where we transition from defence to attack quickly, through ball carrying or vertical, high risk passing, ideally through channels and into space. This is backed up by the team instructions that instruct for a positional overload on one side to allow for extra space on the other, but can be changed to suit conditions or to alter our attacking focus.
We aren’t bad at the first part – our wingers rate highly in terms of dribbles completed this season but, out of the five midfielders that make the top list for progressive passes, we have nobody anywhere to be seen. Again, the list is short, but we have nobody on the top rating for midfielders with high possession loss and also nobody anywhere near the top lists of pass completion, probably showing that there is a correlation between that and key passes at this stage. Overall, this tells me that our passing is just off. We’re not getting the ball forward as much as we should, nor are we completing those forward passes and, in fact, any kind of passes, really.
I think that I can show this better with a few stills from this match:
First up, Gokhan Gul – a DM(d) but with license to get forward as he’s behind two central players on attack, is presented with an opportunity where he has at least two open passing lanes and maybe one more if Belyaev continues his run, yet his attempt is a lofted pass through to Sodje, who has two marks around him. The ball is far too straight and, due to the loft, the defenders have enough time to get round and clear with ease. Considering that his Vision and Passing is below average for attacking players at this level, and his only trait is to Dictate Tempo, I’d have expected/wanted him to play this a little safer. Likewise, the second picture sees Metehan pick the ball up bbut, despite having at least three short passing options and a decent lane to move to the feet of left winger Yusuf, he attempts a high, floating ball in behind, which, as you’d expect, is easily picked off. I don’t want him to slow the play down, go back to the keeper and watch us build again but I don’t want him to throw possession away so easily. The fact that he’s a BPD is intentional – I had hoped that he’d try more risky things – like a higher risk ball into the feet of Belyaev, knowing he’s marked rather than a hoof forward, which is far too high risk.
It continues here as Alberk is breaking into the centre from his right IWB slot. As a left footer, his body shape should allow the three passes that I’ve highlighted to be completed quite easily, yet he opts for, again, a hoof over the top to try and get the left winger – a supporting player who isn’t going to be busting a gut to get forward – into play. The ball is terrible and we lose possession. Again, I want us to play quickly and directly, but there is a difference between us moving the ball forward ten yards, three times, with a high percentage of it coming off and us moving the ball forward thirty yards, once, with a low percentage of it coming off. Lastly, Sidibe has the ball wide left and there is a real chance of some nice, slick interplay but, again, he choses a really high risk ball to try and play Belyaev in. It turns out that his Beckham-esque switch turns into a fluffed twenty yard pass that the centre back cuts out but I’m trying to find that balance between risk and reward.
The Higher Tempo is an attempt to make quick counter attacks but maybe it is counter-productive with a team who struggle to make decisions quickly and then play football that is above their level. Interestingly, moving the Tempo slider back a notch retains ‘Slightly Higher’ so that will be my first change for the next match.
I think I’m somewhat blessed with relatively low expectations and a relatively strong squad. I will take the changes and adaptations slowly and we will come out of this mini-rut a better team!
Gençlerbirliği 4-2 Ankara Keciorengucu
Much more like it in this battle of Ankara but still lots of things to consider!
The only change I had made was the flick to still ‘Slightly Higher’ tempo but a notch down and it looked to be a stroke of genius as Cem finished a lovely move – evidence that we can progress it and get men forward in the way that I actually want! The second was just as good, as, instead of going long, Mert chose a pass to Alberk, who threaded it through for Cem to finish. Cem went on to get his hattrick and Melih Demir opened his account for us, too, but the dotted lines on the Match Momentum are the next thing that I really want to dig into.
On the 57 minute mark, I made a triple change. Their rating is inside the square brackets.
- Mazeed Ogungbo [7.5] off, Oguz Ceylan [6.6] on.
- Serkan Odabasoglu [7.0] off, Dunyacan Copur [6.6] on.
- Gokhan Gul [7.1] off, Ahmet Tunc [6.6] on.
Obviously, our two goals conceded came post this time so the defensive players on previous to that would, naturally, have rated better. However, there is a question, for me, as to why I’m taking off players who are doing well. The answer there is fitness. More so, the question then arises as to why they played so badly. If I compare the match stats of Ogungbo and Oguz, there’s not a lot different:
Ogungbo recorded two more dribbles and got an assist, yes, but, defensively, there isn’t much difference noted here but what is missing is that an error by the Turk allowed Ankara their first goal. Positionally, when he came on, we were deeper, but how much of that is to do with him or to do with the fact we had also lost the possession fulcrum in Gokhan when he went off at the same time? I think a large part of his poor performance comes from the below:
Returning from injury and not match fit. But, when the players ahead of him aren’t lasting more than an hour, despite being naturally fit and in a shape that, realistically, does not require a huge amount of intensity, these changes have to happen. The cynic in me thinks that something is wrong with my substitutions – maybe three at a time is disrupting our flow of the game and maybe, just maybe, I don’t need to give youngsters game time each match but, with five subs from ten named at three stoppages, I do need to be sensible. I think though, probably, it’s more down to the quality of the player coming on, the fact that, at this point, Ankara were three nil down, had little to lose, had just made three of their own changes (and, as such, potentially really motivated them to perform better than who was on the pitch previously) and that the players I have still aren’t match fit from what is now considered a nightmare pre-season.
Manisa FK 0-3 Gençlerbirliği
Two slight tactical tweaks in what has been our most comprehensive performance yet: moved to Positive from balanced as I feel the other instructions are purposely removing some risk so adding a little more back to the overall team may help and removing Stay on Feet as I think we’ve been guilty of being a little soft and letting teams win the first and second ball all too often. I also successfully implemented my ‘end of game’ strategy, allowing us to see out the game a little bit and it was evident in the lack of chances that Manisa made in the last fifteen. This was, however, the Melih Demir show as he continues to perform really well at this level. An early goal was ruled out for offside but the intent to get in behind was great and he was soon rewarded as he moved across the defenders to finish well.
My only thoughts in this game were surrounding the immediate reaction to half time, but it appears that my team were somewhat motivated, although time will tell if I can get better outcomes when focusing on individuals rather than areas of the team. Three really important points and a much better performance, too.
Genclerbirligi 3-0 Bodrumspor
I need to return to my old ways of pre-matching scouting and, aside from making sure we get all of the basics – subs, fit players etc – going, we need to approach games on a match-by-match basis and tweak where necessary. The analyst report made a few recommendations that I’ve summarised:
- They’re not as good as their current standing in the league suggests and there may be an element of coming back down to earth at some point
- They create a lot and that comes through crosses, mainly. It’s predicted they’ll have wingers and, as you can see from the overall passes and passes received by FBL/R and AML/R, you’ll see they get the ball wide early and drive forward, completing a lot of dribbles. But it also appears that the majority of their lost passing comes in that middle third, so, if we can disrupt that, we’ve got a chance of stopping the passing lanes.
- The defence seems pretty good in the air but, from the limited knowledge I have of them, don’t appear to be too fast.
- Dejan Drazic has six goal contributions so far this season and looks to be their offensive fulcrum but looks to be more involved in shooting than creating, if their last match is anything to go by.
Off the back of my scouting, I set some opposition instructions – focusing on stopping the midfielders play and sending the wingers inside. I know both of my CM are on attack but, given that the team sheet shows their defensive shape and their double pivot is in the DM strata, I don’t think it’ll be too disruptive to our own attacking play.
The outcome was quite resounding.
Drazic wasn’t able to complete a progressive pass in our half and the winger’s ball supply was cut off, restricting them to just 4 dribbles in the entire game, down from 11 the game before. In terms of what we did, I wasn’t able to completely cut out the long ball to Melih, as he lost more headers than he won in the attacking half, but I was able to get him space, like this – where he scored his first goal. A really comprehensive victory, showcasing tactical pro-activeness and reactiveness as well as seeing out the game nicely, too. I’m delighted.
Bandirmaspor 0- 2 Genclerbirligi
The analyst report showed a very different picture to the one it showed last week: a team that defends and attacks badly, is lucky, quite poor on the ball and will tend to launch longer passes from their double pivot. The plan will be similar in that I will try and stop their wingers from getting the chance to get crosses in and stop their midfield duo getting the ball to them as well as putting a little extra into set pieces given their poor heading stats.
The actual game wasn’t as clear cut as I’d have wanted. We allowed them to have some really good chances in the first half, as they worked three openings in our box. I can’t exactly put my finger on what went wrong, nor did I actively change anything, but we certainly grew into the game and, by the time our quick fire double had started the second half, were in control. Their centre mids were restricted, with only thirteen progressive passes between them and their wingers were not allowed to dribble or attempt anywhere near the number of crosses they’d like to.
Suddenly, things don’t quite seem so bad!
The old adage of ‘you get out what you put in’ is so true for me in FM. I’ve tried to work out why we’ve been misfiring and, now, for a short time at least, we aren’t.
October 2024
A month that has taken me over a week to play, largely due to my skinning exploits, which show no sign of let up. You may even notice a little logo on the analysis tabs and you’ll also probably see the xG shot map and improved heatmap in my updates, too. Due to this (and a laptop crash which meant I lost nearly one thousand words of the write up), this is going to be rather concise!
Genclerbirligi 1-0 İskenderunspor
The analyst report indicated a relatively weak team but I was more concerned about the new formation that I’d be facing, given how well we’ve done against the 4-2-3-1 of late. However, the game was as easy as they come and that man Demir got in again.
Eyüpspor 0-0 Gençlerbirliği
Back to a common formation but another analyst report that suggests we should have the upper hand, even if we needed to do a few things to control their shooting. That we did and, from the 24th minute onwards, Eyupspor didn’t record a single shot, adding 0.00xG to their early game total. We, on the other hand, didn’t do much ourselves and ended with the draw but 0.49xGA in two games is a decent base to build upon.
Genclerbirligi 2-0 Ankaragücü
The Ankara derby came off the back of the away side coming out of Administration, where a £70m loan had been plunged into the coffers of the recently relegated side. I was alerted about full back Marlon’s outputs and the analyst report recommended that this is a team probably where they should be – a worry for an ex top tier side but one that is not too surprising, given their plight. Taking our total to just 0.54xGA from three games and producing a dominating performance, we ended with bragging rights in the capital.
Caykur Rizespor 1-1 Gençlerbirliği
Now comes the post-skinning time, hence the Statman logo from my skin. I still can’t decide if I like it and that is just one of the three million questions that I’m asking myself and the procrastination is killing my game time. An even game but one whereby our previous defensive solidity was questioned. An own goal brought us level but there was some decent attacking play, which can only be commeded.
Genclerbirligi 4-1 Kütahyaspor
A run out for the youngsters in the cup as we overcome some lower level opposition. You can see the point at which their previous game – just two days prior – had caught up on them and the complacency set in with the changes. We conceded against the run of play but our fourth came from a delightful freekick, his first professional goal, for Dunyacan Copur.
Things are looking good!
We’re probably a little ahead of where I expected to be at this point but there is plenty of time left of the season.
November 2024
November is done and we’re still flying pretty high in the league! Lots to think about though tactically and going forward for the club, but we’re two or three years away from having a really good squad here. The last game – against Somaspor – was the first on the new patch, so I’ll be keeping my eye out for how those updates have changed the match engine.
Altay SK 1-0 Genclerbirligi
The month started in the worst way possible as we were dumped out of the cup by lower league opposition. Following our resounding win, I continued with youngsters – giving minutes to a young starting XI, and including the promising Resit and Enescan on the bench. In one of those classic smash and grab performances, Altay managed four shots and 0.16 non penalty xG. That being said, our creative instinct was lacking with only four key passes in the entire match – with both Dunyacan and Cem struggling to find space high up the pitch to complete progressive passes. Maybe, just maybe, we could class ourselves as unlucky given our shot map but, at the end of the day, we weren’t good enough to get the job finished. I think there is some tactical naivety, on my behalf, as we stuck to our counter attacking guns, even though they defended deep and didn’t show much attacking intent, something that will, eventually, need to be solved by me if we want to progress.
Altay are in the fifth round and host Fenerbache, so, they’ll both get a good hammering a nice boost to their bank balance.
Gençlerbirliği 2-0 Kayserispor
In preparation for the tie, I had my usual look at the analyst report. To quote FM – ‘the findings are interesting’
- Clearly underperforming, with overall metrics on a par with ours in terms of goal output, completing more passes but conceding more than us.
- Possession hungry but like to build up quite deep (34% of passes) but also lose a lot of possession from here.
- They don’t look to cross yet that appears to be their strongest method of scoring (27%) of all assists there with 59% of goals coming from the centre of the penalty area.
- A very low block with 34% of defensive actions inside their box and a league low of ~130 possession regains per game.
- They don’t start the second half well (26%) of goals conceded there, but end the first half well (22% of all goals scored there).
- They’ve conceded 25% of their goals from outside the penalty area with 35% from through balls.
- They are vulnerable to a 4-3-3 but do create more than they concede when playing this shape.
- When conceding first, they’ve lost 67% of their games.
- Baris Atik is their top scorer and inverted winger Zahit Findik leads the assists.
- They are likely to line up in a 4-3-3 shape.
With that in mind – I set my instructions, with some changes (in blue).
- [Trap Outside] and [Stop Crosses] – they don’t cross much so I will force them to go wide but I will stop them from crossing when they get there.
- [Pass into Space] to ensure there are through balls.
- [Very Attacking] to start the game and for the start of the second half, knowing that their heads might drop if we can nick an early go at the start of each half. This will be returned to positive after around ten minutes.
- [Focus Play Down Right] to expose their more aggressive right hand side.
- Melih -> AF(a) to DLF(a) in order to pull out their low block and to expose some spaces.
- Opposition instructions to stop the ball creative Zahit finding space, tightening our marking on their creative midfield trio and pushing players to their weak feet.
Plan executed, to perfection!
Mert Kula rose highest to nod in from a corner, leading to an immediate mentality change, back to positive. The rest of the first half went by with little to note: Kayserispor had three shots, none of which hit the target as we restricted them to constant possession rebuilds, through their keeper. We had only had 40% of the ball but it was pleasing to see. My only change was to move Melih Demir to a CF(a) – given that his range of passes was a little deeper than I’d wanted and he hadn’t troubled the keeper at all.
Back to Very Attacking and another goal, again coming from centre back Mert from a really nicely worked free-kick that saw him get on the end of a knock down from a deep cross. The second half played out much like the first – a real game of attrition and grit whereby we probably neglected a little offensive quality to solidify defensively but it worked. Just 38% of the ball but we made it count and recorded a really big win over a strong side. Furthermore, the way that we’ve won was even more pleasing to me:
- 0% cross completion
- 34 progressive passes completed.
- 0.1 xG for 6th top scorer in the league Baris Atik
- 25 open play touches for dangerman Zahit Findik.
Feels like a real tactical victory.
Adanaspor 1-1 Gençlerbirliği
A goalkeeping crisis of epic proportions lay ahead of me in our trip to Adanaspor as the first three keepers were injured or on international duty and the more promising of the two, Ozgur Can Basturk, was ineligible due to being on a youth contract. It was then left to eighteen-year old Ragip Halit Eken to make his competitive debut for the club, after a rush to get him to sign a new, professional deal in time was concluded.
In the end, the game fizzled into a draw as my experiment to improve the form of Tai Sodje somewhat backfired. The young Nigerian hasn’t been clinical enough for me and, with the opposite to be said of Melih Demir, has found himself on the fringes – not having the time or opportunity to make an impact. He couldn’t find the back of the net and, in fact, hasn’t found the target with a shot in a month now. Worrying times but, when I have one striker who is scoring, not too devastating. We deserved so much from this match but settle for a draw.
Genclerbirligi 0-0 Eskişehirspor
Another draw but one where I’ve, perhaps, been a bit tactically naive. Against a deep line, away from home with a DM and two pretty defensive minded CMs, I’ve found that we’re somewhat swamped for space. I need our attacking positioning to change, with a forward who can pull out space from the defenders and allow midfield runners to break through. In four examples (see here: example 1, example 2, example 3 and example 4), we’ve received the ball in not hugely advantageous places, in terms of our transitional play. It’s something I want to explore, probably during the mid-season friendlies, as we’ll face more and more teams like this as we move towards the top of this level.
In the end, another point on which, we probably could have got more but, again, controlled their outballs well with some strategic marking and pressing.
Somaspor 2-5 Genclerbirligi
The goals are back!
I faced a slightly different proposition here, not through their formation – but the roles used, a Regista and a Wide Target Forward. I spent a little bit of time analysing the passing play of the Regista, noting that he normally looked for the wide man, so simply pressed him at every opportunity and doubled up (MR and DR) on the wide man. It worked! In the process, we scored five and Enescan Ozu became our youngest ever scorer. I’ve paid huge attention to our youth production line and it’s paying off here!
We’re doing very well but, with January approaching, several of the bigger Turkish teams are interested in Melih Demir, our top scorer. I think, given the long term future of this club – with us being a year or two away to really, truly compete for promotion – I think a sale would probably be welcomed as, given our financial outlook, the money raised could be the difference between being able to both sign and retain players in the summer and not.
There’s bigger financial issues and this is pretty much papering over the cracks, but they are very wide at the moment! We’re well inside wage budget but it’s something that could be slashed, meaning we’d be unable to retain the current crop. €2m + and I’m probably all ears…
December 2024
Genclerbirligi 2-0 Sakaryaspor
A straightforward victory where we dominated the chances and kept them out defensively. Interestingly, before this game, I’d read an article on StatsBomb on line breaking passes and the amount of space a teammate has when a player aims a pass there. I think that there is a lot of thought that I’ve probably overlooked in regards to this. The more space I can get my playmakers into when they win the ball, the more chance they have of making something happen. I have probably considered this idea but maybe not in the simplicity of the sentence preceding this one. The examples below show a new metrics that I now want to have a look at. I have no issues with FM not calculating the Zone 14 Ball Receipts in >5 Yards of Space (although I’d love them to fix shot xG/conversion rate) so am happy to play this by eye – with, in this case, ‘r’ representing the radius of the circle around the player, joining the nearest opponent, roughly.
The problem lies, initially, with my own data collection. Zone 14 sits centrally outside the penalty area but the first two images are in the centre circle, so, even though Dunyacan has plenty of space, he’s not in any kind of dangerous position. The last image, where the circle is too small to add the line for the radius, shows a more realistic perspective of where we are at. Melih, not my playmaker, receives the ball in Zone 14 but he’s so closely marked by one defender that he hasn’t got the time to bring the ball down or do anything other than a flick on, which – in this case – leads to a turnover in possession. If he could only drop three yards into the space (without the marker, obviously), he’d have the time of space to take a touch and play someone in. This is one of the reasons why I really liked Emile Escalona last year in my Groningen save as his ‘Comes Deep For Ball’ allowed him to do this more. I’m teaching Melih to ‘Play One Twos’ in order to try and encourage him to take a touch or find a teammate in spaces like this but really want a little extra off the ball movement to get that space for him and/or others in these dangerous zones.
But then, to counter my own argument, with our style – is this where we want to be receiving the ball? Or would I rather my playmaker be picking the ball up in Zone 11 and threading a pass through we counter? At this stage, who knows?!
However, will all the talk of Melih’s development, I sanctioned this:
With suitors sniffing around and our perilous financial situation, I set my price and actually offered him out, trying to seal a move at the value I wanted rather than seeing derisory bids potentially upsetting him. In reflection, I may have offered him for too little as my demands were met immediately by Trabzonspor but this will create a huge swing in our finances and, with 40% of any future sale locked in too, Gencler could benefit from this sale for many, many years to come.
It’s never good to sell your best players and I did, admittedly, fold very easily to this but, in the long run, the cash flow is imperative to help the current crop of players grow and the club to thrive as an entity. I wish Melih the best, envisaging that I’ll be facing him in a couple of years time and hope that he can continue to grow as a player over the coming years.
Genclerbirligi 3-0 Pendikspor
Whatever Melih can do, Sodje can do just as well!
With Melih’s departure announced, I wanted to try out what the future might be look and it certainly looks good. Tai Sodje is a very different type of player to his predecessor – he’s not going to hold the ball up so well and he’s not likely to pick out a pass, so we’re back to the thoughts from the last game that I’m going to have to have players break the lines much more to get Sodje in to finish. I actually feel that the PF(a) role, in itself, might suit him better than an AF(a) but I wanted, for consistency, to try him out in the same role as Melih has excelled in. To see Cem in space like this around Zone 14/15 is amazing and it was from this area that his pass, through the lines, put it on a plate for Sodje to get his first.
In reality, Pendikspor were/are a really poor side but we still do what we needed to – some tactical nuances in my game-to-game analysis, identifying their key players and putting plans in place to stop them – and we fully deserved the victory.
Kocaelispor 1-1 Gençlerbirliği
A really poor showing, considering the previous two performances!
We had the better of the first half but were unable to really create anything whilst also looking unusually poor defensively. Take away their goal (with 0.58xG) and the game would swing more in our direction but they defended well, too, with our nine key passes coming far enough up the pitch to cause them problems, if it wasn’t for some last ditch defending, see here, we maybe would’ve won. Coincidentally, this is the first time we’ve faced a 4-4-2 this season and it’s maybe something I need to look at. We have the spare man philosophy embedded with a DM sitting ahead of the two DCs to occupy the forwards but still it’s worth a look if we come across this again.
Erzurumspor 0-1 Gençlerbirliği
Much more like it, defensively at least.
To conceded 0.00xG in the entire first half is great but – on that notion – this amount of touches in the final third in that forty-five just isn’t. However, a lovely long range strike from Cem was enough to seal the three points and end 2024 with a win!
I’m well aware of the gaping hole left in the team from the departure of Melih, but I feel that we can continue to push on. I still don’t want to predict promotion and still think we’re short and underprepared but, with money to come into the accounts, I can start to scout, prepare and build a for the future. It’s really good fun managing here – there are very few teams at this level with the facilities that Gencler have and I really want to push that – making sure I share my thoughts regarding the progression of my youngsters in future as that is, honestly, my first FM love!
