How it works

The draft

Two reels: a club and a decade. Spin, and you may draft anyone who played for that club in that decade — into any shirt they can actually play. Eleven spins, eleven shirts, 4-3-3.

What the reels give you, you take. There is no spinning again until you like the look of it — once the reels stop you draft from that club and that era, and the only way out is a re-spin.

You get exactly two re-spins for the whole draft: one club re-spin and one era re-spin. A club re-spin holds the era still and moves the club; an era re-spin does the opposite. Spend them on the shirt that matters, because they do not come back. If a re-spin has nowhere to go — no other era for that club still has anyone who can fill an open shirt — the reels stay put and you keep the re-spin.

The reels only ever land on a club and era that still has someone useful in it, so you can never be stranded with a shirt you cannot fill. No player twice, and nobody plays out of position for free.

The season

Your XI then plays three competitions:

• The league — 38 matches. Beat three title rivals to the line.
• The cup — five rounds, one leg each, penalties if level. The classic treble killer.
• Europe — an eight-match league phase, then two-legged knockouts and a one-off final.

Matches are decided by your attack against their defence, sampled as goals. Win all three and it is a treble. Two out of three is just a good season.

What the ratings mean

Each player has four numbers — finishing, creativity, defending and physicality — weighted by the shirt they are wearing. On top of that:

• Chemistry rewards a spine from one club and a core from one era.
• Balance punishes a hole. A side that is all attack loses the league in November.
• Out of position costs you, so a striker at left back is a real decision.

The odds

The season you watch is one season. The odds replay the same XI two thousand times, so you can see whether a treble was your side or your luck.

About the data

The pool is a hand-picked set of 373 players across 20 European clubs and seven decades. Which club and decade a player belongs to is a matter of record; the ratings are this project's own judgement, and are meant to start arguments.