May 2026 – Newsletter
April was a big month. League 4 kicked off, Season 4 got underway in League 1, and somewhere in between I apparently agreed to process two leagues on Monday nights. Autumn has arrived in Cape Town – which means fewer excuses for slow development and more evenings at the keyboard. The managers’ wives may have opinions on that.
⚽ League 4 — The Legend of La Rochelle Kicks Off
After months of recruitment, League 4 finally launched at the end of April. Sixty-four clubs, four groups, thirty weeks – and every position matters. Unlike a standard league season, Season 1 is a group stage where final standings determine divisional seeding for Season 2. Finishing 4th and finishing 5th are two very different outcomes.
Week 1 delivered the usual first-day chaos in the best possible way. Everton arrived with the highest squad rating in the entire league (388) and could only draw 1-1 at home with Torquay United. St Mirren knocked Rangers over. Celtic nicked a 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest with a 91st-minute Larsson goal. Southampton’s Pellè bagged two inside 25 minutes. It’s going to be a good season.
📋 Hint Sheets #8 and #9 Now Live
Two new hint sheets went live in April.
Hint Sheet #8 covers Contracts, Salary and Market Value – how market value is calculated, how wages are derived from it, and how to use contract renewals strategically. If you’ve ever been surprised by a Circuit bid or a wage demand, this is the place to start.
Hint Sheet #9 covers Non-Playing Members – all five of them (Youth Scout, Fitness Coach, Skills Coach, Physiotherapist, Personal Spy), what they do, how Hidden Potential discovery works, and how to prioritise your NPM budget in the early seasons.
➜ Hint Sheet #8: Contracts, Salary and Market Value
➜ Hint Sheet #9: Non-Playing Members
🔄 Monday Night Processing
From the start of Season 4, I’m running both League 1 and League 4 on Monday evenings. That’s roughly an extra hour on top of the usual window, so results for Monday leagues may land slightly later than you’re used to – expect them by 7pm UK time rather than 6pm. I’ll flag in the WhatsApp groups if anything unusual is happening.
🐛 Transfer History Bug Fix
A cosmetic bug in the Transfer History list in the Manager’s Report was fixed this month. Some entries were displaying out of order. The underlying data was never affected – only the display. Should be reading cleanly now; let me know if you spot anything still looking odd.
📰 Weekly League Summaries
I’ve started publishing written summaries of each week’s Matchday Magazine on the website – one post per league, per week. They’re not just a scoreline dump; they’re written as proper match reports and league columns. The other purpose is as a historical archive – so that as each season develops, there’s a record of how it unfolded week by week that anyone can go back and read.
| → | Season 4 underway – all 64 clubs managed, a full house for the first time in League 1’s history |
| → | Internationals active for the first time – managers sorted into four regions, regional votes decide who manages Senior and U21 sides |
| → | Reigning champions Walsall opened with a 3-1 defeat at Rangers; Hull City’s Gomis hit a hat-trick in 11 minutes against Colchester |
| → | League Cup group stage begins Week 2; Supremos Cup Round 1 at Week 12 |
| → | Rapid Vienna lead Division 1 by 2 points from Sporting Lisbon, with Hearts a further 2 back – all still very much in it |
| → | Real Madrid sit bottom of D1 despite drawing the highest average gates in the division (58,535). Bayer Leverkusen are yet to score away from home all season |
| → | Birmingham City are running away with Division 2 – 40 points from 18 games, 5 clear of PSG |
| → | Bristol Rovers are untouchable in Division 3 – nine home wins from nine, 10 points clear at the top |
| → | Supremos Cup Quarter-Finals scheduled for Week 23: Barcelona v Nottingham Forest, Celtic v Cambridge United, Charlton Athletic v Bristol Rovers, Norwich City v Newcastle United |
| → | Richmond in Division 3 are extraordinary – 34 points from 12 games, 10 clear of second, zero home goals conceded all season. Yakubu has 13 league goals in 11 games. Title race is effectively over |
| → | Division 1 is a tight three-way battle: West London Blue (27), Mighty Greens (25), Indie Kids United (24) |
| → | Division 2 has five clubs within 6 points of each other – Supremos are the quiet threat, unbeaten away all season |
| → | Eight clubs currently without a manager across Divisions 3 and 4 – several in decent positions |
| → | Just launched – see the full write-up in the April Review section above |
| → | 63 of 64 clubs managed; Brighton & Hove Albion in Group 2 are the only vacancy |
| → | No cup competitions in Season 1 – straight 30-week group stage to determine divisional seedings for Season 2 |
League 4 brought a wave of new managers through the door in April – welcome to everyone who signed up for the Legend of La Rochelle. It’s a strong opening field and Week 1 results suggest a few of you came here to compete from day one.
The Managers Academy WhatsApp group is the best place for cross-league discussion, hints, and general football management banter. If you’re not in it, drop me a message and I’ll add you.
Join the Managers Academy WhatsApp Group →
May’s main development focus is the Match Engine V2. I’ll be going into more detail this month on what V2 actually means in practice – the rollout strategy, what’s being improved from V1, and what new features managers can expect. It’s been in development for a while and I think it’s time to lift the lid a bit more on what’s coming.
Other items on the list, time permitting:
| → | Hint Sheet #6 (Fitness & Injury) – written, just needs a final check before going live |
| → | Hint Sheet #5 (Experience) – in production for May |
| → | Weekly league summaries continuing for all four leagues |
| → | League 1 League Cup tracking as Round 1 results come in (Week 2 onwards) |
Four leagues running, cups underway in two of them, a fresh one just out of the blocks – April was a full month by any measure. If you’re an active manager, thank you for keeping the turnsheets coming. If you’re lapsed and reading this out of curiosity, the door is always open. And if you’re new to all of this and wondering what a turnsheet even is, have a look at the Starter’s Guide and pick a club.
See you on the pitch.
– Gads
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