The department title is looking good as I hold a 9 point lead over second place with 7 matches to play. My team gave up its first goal in round 22 since an own goal in round 4 yielding a draw. Other than that, it's been smooth sailing. I bought a 17 year old midfielder today, Q71, I don't expect him to become a great player but I think my investment was worth it. We will see in two or three seasons how far he's come & then I will either commit to him or sell him for profit. 

Of my remaining matches two are against teams that have secured relegation--Bot & TheDreams. FC Icy & India United will remain in Division 3 with winning records & KOOLGOALRIDERS FC (the 2nd place team) & sambas who is fighting to stay above 10th. 

If I beat TheDreams, FC Icy & Sambas in my next 3 matches, & KOOLGOALRIDERS wins its 3 matches as well, a rd 27 win against KGR will secure the department for me & I will be free to play backups for more experience. 

I have begun to look to next season, as you would expect of any team, especially one with a strong probability of moving up a Division. In preparation, I have reached a tentative deal to purchase an improved midfielder, sold a lesser quality midfielder & am looking for replacements for Albu Laureniu who will likely retire after this season. Given my roster composition, it's quite likely that I see several retirements next season & that will throw a wrench in my plans. I would like to buy 2 very good youth next season but if retirements force me to replace A-squad players, so be it. 

On an interesting note, I am nearly done with my 200 friendlies this season, & will be training my players most of this week & all of next week. I'm curious to find out how beneficial training actually is versus resting (& playing friendlies). I expect to have at least 14 training rounds with all players training. This will give me 14*28 opportunities to see player gains. However, there are 3 factors I want to measure: age, attribute value & gain. Obviously the last will be a 0 or a 1. Since we know gains decrease as age & attribute value increase, I was going to experiment a little to get some percentages. Of course the sample size will be too low to really consider it accurate, but I'll post my results. If anyone wants to contribute theirs, feel free