Itsagoal DevelopmentsAs managers will know, a group known as the Think Tank was convened to discuss developments and improvements to
Itsagoal. We would now like to share these with everyone for further discussion. This would have taken place earlier but for the extra work caused by the recent and highly regrettable breach of the game's security.
We discussed a number of areas and wish to bring these to everyone first:
Player Agents
The proposal is intended to provide an additional method by which managers can add players to their squad. This will help those who are unsuccessful in doing so through the Transfer Market or the Youth Academy, but at a cost premium. The very best players will not be supplied through Player Agents, as these will be available through other means. . Managers would be offered the chance to sign new players, and would have 24 hours in which to make their decision.
Youth Academy
The intention here is that the Youth Academy should play a more significant part in the game. There will be the chance to make it considerably larger than at present. Players will accept promotion most of the time, but the number of promotions permissible per season will be limited. The potential quality of the best Academy graduates will be at the highest level. Manager interactivity with the Academy will be much greater, corresponding with the potential rewards gained from running it well. This will include youth training.
Transfer Market
The intention here is to make the transfer market more dynamic and exciting. Bidding will be open, but auctions will close at random times during the last day. Bids will be raised by predetermined fixed minimum increments, and will also be throttled - that is to say a manager must wait a certain time period before bidding again. Bidding information will be made visible, though without revealing manager identities. Contracts will be agreed in advance, before bidding can start.
Club Makeovers
Significant changes are planned here, so that the balance of clubs in their division is not distorted by the resetting of clubs awaiting new managers.
When a club is initially made vacant, the initial reset will make the club playable, but will neither weaken nor strengthen the club.
Clubs that are subsequently reset for new mangers will be prepared for them near to the time that they will be allocated, and will be set to a state equivalent to 12th position in their current league. Sometimes, such clubs will appear on the general vacancies list.
New managers will be channeled into the lowest division in each league, to give them the best chance of developing their club and to achieving some success.
Finances
These will be adjusted and monitored continually to ensure that the game works as intended.
Discussion
Managers will be invited to discuss each of these matters on separate threads, to be provided very shortly. Each one will begin with a draft proposal, giving more detail then is shown here. It will be important for any comments made to be relevant, so that views are not obscured.
Timescale
It is always hard to predict how long it will take to introduce improvements in a game of this nature.
I wish to do some more work on the site in general, and will then address making the improvements to the Match Engine previously discussed. These might be completed by midsummer. The next area to be worked on will be that of Player Agents, which we hope will be finished by the autumn. When that is done it will be possible to give a timescale for subsequent work. Please be aware that emergencies will take priority over development work if necessary. 
