Football Manager 23

[Shindig]

No need. Coolest name wins.

[Adramelch]

Today's game: Guess who plays for what team

[Baz]

I’m gonna try and win the Ballon d’Or with one of these young strikers so please go and vote. You can pick up to 10 of them, if you’re indecisive.

Here's our boy:

[Adramelch]

The game said he was injured during a training session, but I'd like to imagine he tripped and twisted his ankle at some point during his flight to Italy.

[Shindig]

He stacked it on the steps like a statesman.

[Baz]

Because I’m only bothered about playing this Icelandic striker I’ve set staff responsibilities so I do nowt and President Florentino Perez does the majority. He sold Vini Jr for £102m to City and bought Sancho to replace him. he has also signed Antonio Silva though so he’s not completely useless.

I’ve stepped in and signed Adam Wharton, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Leny Yoro, Florian Wirtz and some regens.

It’s bizarre how good head of youth development regens are. I got one as my assistant and Celts Vigo have now snapped him up as their manager cos he’s got 20s pretty much across the board.

[Dan]

Djurgården 2027 Midseason Update

It seemed like I was going to end up staying put, particularly as I'd already agreed to a two year extension at Sandvikens by this point, but Djurgårdens finally decided to look through their job applications after Xmas, and so I'll be taking on a job with some pretty high expectations - they want me to make the knockout playoff in the Conference League & finish in the top three, but after that it's win or bust, so I might only stay here for a year or two before looking to move abroad.

I've finally reached the midpoint of the season, so it's time for an update.

Transfers:

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Not a huge amount of business, at least in terms of incoming transfers, but we did clear out some of the dead wood in the reserves & got some of the more promising young players out on loan. Coming in were three of my Sandvikens lads who will provide cover in the midfield positions as well as helping with the home grown quota (you have to have 9 home grown players in every squad), as well as a Swedish left back who was signed on a free for similar reasons. The main area of focus was our back three though, as we needed more quality on the ball, so in came Jamie Lawrence & newgen Paulo Iachini, who should both be massive upgrades on the players already at the club.

Allsvenskan:

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Pretty straightforward here so far. Malmo are our main title rivals so it was nice to get the win over them to round out the first half of the season, although the table is closer than you might think. So far it's felt a bit like taking over the Celtic job as we seem to be a tier above most of the league, and if we manage to continue our form across the whole year I might consider a one & done here.

Svenska Cupen:

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Nice, easy way to begin my time at the helm, as we comfortably made our way through to the final, which for some reason is held two months later, where we'd face Elfsborg.

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Err, yeah. We absolutely murdered them :dunno:

Conference League:
The group phase was already over by the time I got hired, with us finishing in 15th place. Most of the good teams were in the top 16, so I felt like we at least had a chance of making it out of the knockout playoff, but from there on we'd be hoping for some kind draws.

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We almost bollocksed it up at the first hurdle, losing to Rapid in Bucharest & toiling for an hour at home before a few changes completely took them apart. Beating Gladbach was a huge surprise, but we deserved our win at home & battled for a draw in the second leg. Rijeka were a nice change of pace after that, but when we pulled Lyon in the semi finals it was game over, even if we did manage to beat them at our place.

It's a really pleasing run, which I hope will provide a decent bit of rep, but I'm definitely not expecting us to be able to get that far again for a while.

I don't think I'll be making many changes in the midseason transfer window, and hopefully I'll be able to make some quicker progress down the back half of the year with no cup competitions to focus on.

[Baz]

Check out this monster:

[Baz]

Because I’m only bothered about playing this Icelandic striker I’ve set staff responsibilities so I do nowt and President Florentino Perez does the majority. He sold Vini Jr for £102m to City and bought Sancho to replace him. he has also signed Antonio Silva though so he’s not completely useless.

I’ve stepped in and signed Adam Wharton, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Leny Yoro, Florian Wirtz and some regens.

It’s bizarre how good head of youth development regens are. I got one as my assistant and Celts Vigo have now snapped him up as their manager cos he’s got 20s pretty much across the board.

He's sold Bellingham.

[Adramelch]

A double whammy of an update this time (split in two posts because it won't let me make a longer post), courtesy of me spraining my ankle during easter holiday (yay me!):

Season 2030/31

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After a very dominant first season at Basel, a quiet summer window was in the plans. That said, a few release clauses were activated and a few good players were available on a free that would be an upgrade over our current backups, so I still ended up signing seven players. Only two of them are important enough to show however:



Our previous left-back failed to really stake his claim here so when the opportunity arose for us to make a 2m profit within a year I just took it. In came Quarto to replace him for just shy of 7m.



Another youngster, as is my MO. Not necessarily a player we needed, but at a 5m price and with money burning my pockets I signed him nonetheless.



Even more dominant of a season, which was somewhat surprising since we also had European games this time around. Once again we coupled that with a cup win. As for Europe, once more we got the hardest possible opposition in the Playoff round, but this being the Champions Path, that was just Sparta Prague, which was definitely within our powers to beat. And beat them we did, to qualify for the group stage and beyond:



A very very strong run all in all, with massive wins over Arsenal, Fiorentina and PSG (twice!). The Fiorentina one was massive in particular as it improved our goal difference just enough to finish inside the top 16 and get an easier draw in the next round. After a very easy knockout tie against Galatasaray, we were drawn against PSG and just surprised the whole world. Granted, we were clinical in our finishing and the 6-3 aggregate score flatters us, but make no mistake, we were the better team in both games and deservedly went through. Unsurprisingly, we couldn't repeat the same feat against Bayern, but we definitely held our own, so there's nothing more I could ask for.



A full squad screenshot for once. As you see very much a collective effort, especially offensively where we had no fewer than 6 players with goals in the double digits and 5 with ten or more assists. Particular mention should of course go to Reichert who found a bit of consistency and finished the season with 35 goals despite losing about a quarter of our games through injury and a bit of rotation.

[Adramelch]

Season 2031/32

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The following season started with me leaving Switzerland and travelling only a few hundred kilometers south, to become the manager of:



I wouldn't have minded staying another season at Basel, but I haven't managed in Italy for quite a few years now and when the position at Milan became available I thought it was the perfect opportunity. Now, as I'm sure everyone who's managed in Italy knows, the classic Serie A experience was waiting for me: the club had a massive squad, full of aging players and was about 80 million in the red. Thankfully, in this version (and reality) Saudi Arabia exists, which gave me an out. A total of 15 players left the club for a combined fee of just shy of 200 million euros, most of it coming from the transfers of De Ketelaere (80m to Arsenal at 30 y/o), MacAllister (65m to the Saudis at 32 y/o), Theo Hernandez (19m to the Saudis at 33 y/o) and an assortment of decent squad players. Leao was also close to going to Saudi Arabia for 70-ish million, but I decided against it. That meant we had some money to spend so in came a total of 8 players. The most important three were Quarto (the left-back I signed at Basel), who came in as a direct replacement of Hernandez for 13 million, as well as the following duo:



A player, who almost joined me at Basel for less than 3 million last summer, but understandably chose Porto over us. We paid a steep 55m to bring him, but I think it's worth it for a player that can lead our frontline for years to come.



We really struggled with goalkeepers. When I joined, our first-team keeper was a 36 y/o rapidly declining Maignan and our other options were non-existent. I tried to replace him and I was very close to bringing in a real gem, but he (again understandably) decided to join Real instead, so we were stuck with the French grandpa. Four months later, I had seen enough and I decided to sign the best available option for the money we had at our disposal. And that's where Di Giacobbe entered the picture. He was (and still is) not the finished article, but in our dire situation and with him being young and home-grown, I just went for it. Cost us 30m.



That was very, very, very close. In fact, we went into the last day with both us and Juventus at 95 points, with them having the head-to-head advantage, so we were on course to lose a league with 98 points, in what must be a record across European leagues. Thankfully, while we dispatched Como at home with ease, they struggled at Florence, and we emerged as champions, for the first time in 10 years. As an aside, look at the state of Serie A: Brianza (who?), Salento (again, who?), Como, Pisa and Cremonese, among others.

In the cup, we unceremoniously went out to Atalanta in the quarters. As for Europe, we would be playing in the Europa League this season after finishing 5th, which is why the previous manager was fired. The club expected us to reach the quarters, but I knew we had to do better than that as we were the biggest club in the competition. And that's exactly what we did:



It wasn't as comfortable as I expected, but in the end we got there. Lyon almost cut our journey sort by grabbing a (very undeserved) 2-0 win at their place, but we rallied and manage to score three in the return fixture. After a brief respite against Betis, we were drawn against Frankfurt in the semis, which was probably the second best team in the competition. We were the better team in both games and deservedly went through, but again it was too close for comfort. That meant we would be facing Feyenoord in the final and it was quite the nailbiter:



We were second best throughout the night, but our clinical finishing gave us the trophy. It was a game full of twists and turns, starting from Thiaw scoring and then picking two yellow cards within 10 minutes, Di Giacobbe saving their penalty only for us to immediately concede from the resulting corner and Leao scoring a Maradona-esque winner, by picking the ball in our half and going past 6 players before slotting it into the corner. Oh well, second best or not, I'm very glad we won the trophy.



Our front four might just be the best front four in Europe. 116 goals and 81 assists between them is just ridiculous. If I had to pick my player of the season, it would have to be Popovic. He's probably the worst out of the four in terms of quality, but even though he was to be our backup striker, he got a couple of games on the left wing early on and was so good that Leao was relegated to a bench warmer. That's how impactful his presence was. Also props to Quarto, who made a big step, with big shoes to fill and he rose up to the challenge.

So with that settled, more rebuilding is to come. The club is once again 50m in the red, so a lot of players will be leaving and a lot of bargain hunting will take place. The goal for next season is above all to steady the ship financially, but I wouldn't say no to a repeat performance in the league and a deep run in the champions league.

[Dan]

I did think you must’ve joined Milan when you posted the screenie of the new signing getting immediately injured. Definitely a nice upgrade, especially as you’d done about all you can in Switzerland.

Brianza are Monza & Salento are Lecce, I believe. At least you managed to avoid Capitolene.

[Adramelch]

I did think you must’ve joined Milan when you posted the screenie of the new signing getting immediately injured. Definitely a nice upgrade, especially as you’d done about all you can in Switzerland.

Brianza are Monza & Salento are Lecce, I believe. At least you managed to avoid Capitolene.

I figured something was going on since I couldn't find who they would have replaced. I guess it goes to show that I haven't managed in Italy for quite some time. I'd noticed of Parthenope/Napoli through our European encounters but not much else.

[Raoul Duke]

How does Quarto look now? He looks like he could be mega (albeit one of those with low natural fitness who'll be on the way to Saudi Arabia up by early 30's ish)

[Adramelch]

Not much different since the previous picture was at the end of said season, but he has progress a bit physically:



I also think I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't post a screenshot of Bruno Santos:



He had 36 assists without taking any set-pieces. Probably the highest I've seen in that regard.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Didn't play my Hitchin save for a week. First game back one of my CDM's gets sent off after 1:46 and then a CB gets sent off after 21:44.

Here is the squad for our next game, an FA Cup qualifying game against Bamber Bridge:



Lads, simmer the fuck down.

[Adramelch]

Seems to mostly be defensively-minded players as well, just to make it even harder for you.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Thankfully it didn't matter, we won 6-1.

[John Arne]

Get Stuck In on?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Get Stuck In on?

It was off.

I checked player instructions though and every single player was on "Tackle Harder", whoops.

[John Arne]

[Adramelch]

Another season done and a very successful one at that. As I mentioned in my previous update, the main goal this season was to steady the ship financially, so that we can start building something more permanent, which we definitely accomplished. To begin with, we only replaced two starters, one of which was aging and wanted to leave and the other we could get a significant upgrade on, while making a profit in the process. Apart from those two, we moved to improve the quality of the bench players and we also sold some more than solid backup players to make room for some youngsters. All in all, we only signed six players (two of of which were youngsters that were instantly loaned out) for a (still hefty) combined fee of 83m, but we more than offset by selling a dozen or so players for a combined 212m. The more relevant players that joined are the following:



A side-grade at best for the right back position, but Kalulu wanted to leave and he was getting old so I pulled the trigger. It was a bit of an indirect swap, as Kalulu joined Barcelona for 20m and we then proceeded to sign Sandoval from them for 48m.



One of the aforementioned youngsters. He joined from Sparta Prague in January for just 9m but stayed with them for the remainder of the season. He will probably see some first-team football from now on.



Easily the best bit of transfer this summer, but quite possibly one of my best transfers overall in this save. He only cost 7m and was a significant upgrade over the player he replaced, who was the wrong side of 30 and we managed to sell for 35m.



He wasn't as good when he joined but he's already become a great player and he was only a squad player this season. I think he's earned a chance to impress in the upcoming one. Cost 21m from Estoril.

With the transfers done, let's continue with the results. The season started strong with a relatively comfortable European Super Cup win over Manchester City. We didn't continue as strong though as we struggled to close out games and we found ourselves in a 3-way battle for the league with Inter and Juventus. Right as we regained our previous form, they both started to falter, so in the end we retained the league title without much hassle:



This was almost coupled with a Coppa Italia win, however we couldn't beat Inter in the final. Truth be told, they were the better team on the night, however marginally, so kudos to them. At least we managed to win the second tinpot trophy of the season, the domestic Super Cup, by beating Inter in the semis and Juventus in the final. What about Europe:



That picture makes it look dominant and it was, but only in the knockout rounds. We struggled in the group phase and only made top 8 by the skin of our teeth, when Bayern failed to win at home against Ajax on the final day. And this proved to be massive, since not only did we avoid the extra tie and the tough draw, we ended up getting very lucky in drawing Nice. After dispatching them with ease, we were drawn against Inter and let me tell you that scoreline doesn't reflect the truth, as we should have scored at least a couple in each leg. As it were, a 1-1 draw away was followed by a narrow 1-0 win in the return leg to set a semifinal tie against Barcelona. They weren't as strong as I expected and after a deserved 5-3 win at home in the first leg, I had confidence in reaching the final. The return leg was even more sided, but they somehow managed to hold us to a 1-1 draw. As for the final:



We were comfortably the better team and it only looks like it was even-ish because they had the good old FM injury time spell where they threw everything at us, but thankfully we held on to our lead. Now, I didn't expect to win both the Europa League and the Champions League within 10 seasons in this save, but honestly this version has been very easy for me in every save I've played. Oh well, it is what it is.

We also played in the Club World Cup this summer, but only made it to the quarters where we were beaten by United through a Rahsford brace. Disgusting.



As you see, the stats aren't as impressive as last time around. We scored fewer goals in all competitions, but at least we were much better defensively so it more than evened out. I am also very happy with the amount of rotation I was able to do. I am really happy with the squad that I've assembled and I don't expect any major changes the following summer, not because there's no improvements we can make, but more so because I don't really want to spend the money needed to achieve that. I will also look to involve even more youngsters into the rotation and we have some really juicy ones coming through our academy.

In terms of plans, I did throw a speculative job application at Tottenham, but they opted for Inter's Luis Enrique instead (who then proceeded to sign De Zerbi, who had just been sacked by Tottenham; just FM things), though I can't say I was disappointed. Even though I've found some early success, I intend to stick with the save and manage clubs in the other big leagues before calling it a day.

[Adramelch]

Have a look at this disgusting left-back United have:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Got to the FA Cup third round again with Hitchin this season and drew Dulwich Hamlet who are in the same league but doing a lot worse than us.

They FM'd us to win 3-1 and got Liverpool away in the fourth round, I'm absolutely fucking SEETHING.

Probably a mill or so lost out on.

[John Arne]

Have a look at this disgusting left-back United have:

Just as comfortable on the left wing as he is centre back

[Baz]

My regen won the Ballon d'Or (first regen to win it)



He's phenomenal tbf:

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Still no sign of my Icelandic lad ever getting it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hitchin Town 2041/42 Season Update:

League:








We fucking did it! Football league here we come.

After ages in the North it was a quick turnaround in the National League as this was only our second season with playoff final appearances in both. I was shit scared when they scored the second basically straight from kick off and the rest of the first half was nervy.

Thankfully we came out firing in the second half to put them to sleep.



Props to Josh who has been our starting AMC since being in the latest intake (we also have a CB who came straight into the team) and he saved his best game for Wembley. 3 assists and awarded MOTM.

Cups:



Still SEETHING that we lost to Dulwich Hamlet who then went on to get Liverpool at Anfield. They must have made a fortune.

We've also turned pro and our stadium will be bigger:



Worried as shit though for the future as Ioan's contract is expiring at the end of the next season.

[Adramelch]

Another twofer from me:

Season 2033-34

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After an unexpectedly successful season expectations were high. But at the same time, we realistically wouldn't be able to replicate our success. Still, I went into it fairly confident since we had played really good football to get us where we were. With that in mind and also keeping to my goal of not overspending and undoing all the work I've done here in terms of financial stability, I opted to stick with the same squad. We only signed 3 players, but they were just promising youngsters that would add depth so you're not getting any screenshots.



We weren't very good. Towards the end of February we proceeded to lose three games we should absolutely be winning in the space of 3 weeks and it really put us on the backfoot. Thankfully we rallied from there (partly due to a less congested schedule) and Inter started dropping points, so we somehow managed to retain the title. At the very least, we managed to win the Cup this time around, in what must be the most dominant start to a final I've ever seen, as we were 6-0 up within the first 20 minutes against Atalanta. I lowkey hoped we kept going for some sort of record but it only ended 7-1.

In Europe we struggled once again, and only made top 8 in the group phase courtesy of other teams dropping points on the last day rather than us deserving it. We drew Sporting in the last 16, which we easily dispatched and then met with Barcelona in the quarters. A tight 2-1 win at our place left things open for the return fixture, but sadly they were better there and grabbed a 2-0 win to knock us out and take revenge for the semi-final defeat the season prior.



This season highlighted a few things: Di Giacobbe might have had a decent first couple of seasons here, but he is not good enough for a team with Champions League aspirations so a replacement is planned for the summer. Our defense also isn't up to the level I'd want them to be, so Scanavino has already replaced Sandoval at right-back and we will be looking for a new starting centre back. Finally, Popovic wasn't the game changer that he had been in my first two seasons here so he was replaced by Joelson (who also happens to be an academy product). The plan there is to shift him back to his natural position, playing backup to Astrom and getting another academy product that has impressed out on loan to be Joelson's understudy. As you can see Astrom basically was the reason our season was saved, and he almost broke an 80-year odd record that Nordvahl has held since the 50s with 38 goals in a season, but he only managed to tie it.

Season 2034-35

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Following a disappointing(-ish) season and having identified our problems, we made some moves in the market this time around:



A direct replacement for Di Giacobbe. Cost us a steep 100m, but with the latter moving to Liverpool for 60m, I thought it was a great piece of business all things considered.



The starting centre-back I mentioned. He only joined in January but had an immediate impact so I'm very happy with the transfer. Only cost 14m from Brondby as well.



More of a squad depth signing for the time being, but one with tons of potential that only cost 15m so I thought he was worthy of a screenshot.



A player that hasn't played a minute for us. We signed him for just 7m in the summer when he was at 2.5 stars for current ability, but he spent the season on loan at Torino and was incredible for them, so he'll be a regular fixture for Milan from next season onwards. He could be one of the best players in the world if he keeps developing like that.



Back to our best. We were dominant throughout and proved that last season was a blip. This was coupled with another Cup win, with us beating Inter 2-0 in the final. As for Europe:



We came close. This time around we were actually really solid, but it was the one season where 18 points weren't enough to guarantee a top 8 slot. Thankfully the draw was very kind, as once we dispatched Juventus, we got the easier team we could have gotten in Marseille, although it has to be said that they've been strong for a few seasons now. Still, we went through with ease to reach the quarters where Barcelona awaited once again. This time around we showed that we were the better team, with a very comprehensive 8-3 aggregate win (3-1 at home, 5-2 away) to set-up a semi against Real. We were the better team at home, but were held to a goalless draw at our place, missing a penalty in the process, but then proceeded to dominate the return fixture to get to our third European final in four seasons.



We were the better team, but neither team was good to be honest. We got the lead late in the first half, but then conceded two goals to Haaland and couldn't get an equaliser. Oh well, a very good season still.



Very happy with the squad overall. Joelson taking over the left wing proved to be an inspired move and it also allowed Popovic to go back to his original position and grab an incredible 21 goals mostly coming off the bench. Boenitsch was really solid between the goals and our usual trio (or I guess quartet if you include Perez) in Simons, Santos and Astrom were on fire once again.

With all that said and done, a new adventure awaits as I was offered a position at:



Finding a new club has been quite the adventure. The Real Madrid position was open last summer, but they opted to go for Tuchel instead of me. PSG then never held interviews for Tuchel's replacement, as they immediately agreed a deal with Klopp (who'd just been fired from Real). Then in the winter, United sacked their manager and decided to sign, yep you got it, Tuchel instead of me. Then the Chelsea position became available and they signed Guardiola over me. Thankfully, when Tuchel left Real in the summer to join United, that position was up for grabs, so here I am.

[Dan]

Djurgårdens IF 2027 Season Review

I don't think I'll be making many changes in the midseason transfer window, and hopefully I'll be able to make some quicker progress down the back half of the year with no cup competitions to focus on.

Well it's taken me 10 days to get to this update so I guess not Might as well try to make this quick.

Allsvenskan

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We were actually pretty rubbish for the last month but that just meant we squeaked out 1-0 wins instead of scoring 3 or 4.



Invincible season domestically, having won the Svenska Cupen as well, and we also broke the Allsvenskan points record. That'll be a one & done then.

Europe:

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Having made the semi finals of the Conference League at the start of the year we battled our way through qualifying to secure a spot in the Europa League this time round. We had a fairly average set of fixtures, although I'm not a fan of starting with the two toughest games.



That's about what you'd expect, I guess, and it leaves us towards the bottom of the playoff spots. There are still two league phase games left to play, but both of those are in the new year so hopefully I'll be gone by then.

Key Players:

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The whole team graded out pretty well this season, as you'd expect from a team that didn't lose a domestic game all year, but the tippiest of tip top players were probably these guys:

Victor Edvardsen - absolutely smoked everyone all the way until the last month, when he died of exhaustion & we started to actually have to work for goals.

Viktor Bergh & Lucas Agazzi - I finally got wingbacks to work \0/

Jamie Lawrence - started out as the middle CB in our back three, then moved to the right when I signed Olivier Aertssen on a free. He was a beast in both spots & started adding goals when I remembered to load my set pieces.

I should also give some love to a couple of guys at opposite ends of the pitch who were amazing but got sold in midseason. Jacob Widdell Zetterstrom was a great GK for us, but when we got a national record bid for him the board stepped in & he's now at Antwerp. Evidence Makgopa, meanwhile, was smashing goals in at the same rate as Edvardsen for the first half of the season, but we let him go to Kobenhavn for a decent fee as he was getting grumbly.

Time to get my Xmas shopping done now the season is over & maybe I'll also book a trip abroad...

[Baz]

Once you get so far in, money becomes absolutely meaningless. Alright I’m Real Madrid, but one billion transfer budget is insane

[Adramelch]

Once you get so far in, money becomes absolutely meaningless. Alright I’m Real Madrid, but one billion transfer budget is insane

And yet Bellingham wouldn't renew his contract because I could only offer him up to 1.1m per week and the Saudis ended up giving him 1.9m.

Real does feel like a cheat code though, indeed. I have no idea how they're generating that much revenue, compared to virtually everyone else.

[Manc]

I've reached the summer of 2052 and decided to call time on my annual French adventure. 1062 matches, spells with five clubs and the odd national job. Not sure what challenge to take on next.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Holy fuck.

I tried to sell him in the Summer as his wage demands were £5k a week and he agreed to leave for £825k. No one would make an offer due to his wage demands being so high but I've worn the fucker down.

I hate the £625k release clause but fuck it.

9 goals in 11 League Two games (top scorer) so he's still quality at this level.



It's done

[Dan]

Time to get my Xmas shopping done now the season is over & maybe I'll also book a trip abroad...

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Had an interview with Rapid Bucharest & ultimately turned them down, but this came up shortly after & feels like a sideways step with similar budgets, so we should be able to compete for a league title pretty quickly. They were in sixth when the job came up, but have sorted themselves out a bit & are now third at the winter break, however Legia are 11pts ahead of us & have only lost once all season, so we might need to wait until next season for a proper title race.

It's a step up in Europe, as they're sitting 6th in the Europa League compared to 23rd at Djurgården, although our two remaining games are Lyon & Stuttgart, so that's a pretty rough start to my tenure.

We've got a month until the proper games start, but only £2.81m in the transfer budget & £16.78k p/w free in wages, so it will probably have to be some bargain bin browsing or selling to buy. Time to crack out the spreadsheet again...

[Baz]

And yet Bellingham wouldn't renew his contract because I could only offer him up to 1.1m per week and the Saudis ended up giving him 1.9m.

Real does feel like a cheat code though, indeed. I have no idea how they're generating that much revenue, compared to virtually everyone else.

Yeah the Saudi clubs are annoying af.

My loan farms going well, at least:

[Adramelch]

Yeah my loan list at Milan was looking quite similar.

[Adramelch]

On a different note, it's February and we've scored precisely 0 out of the 4 penalties we've been awarded.

[John Arne]

Keep the updates coming, gents - enjoying reading these.

On my Crewe save, I got this message through, and thought.. "who is Dyfan Powell?"... he must be one of my youth candidates (they generated like 2 days ago)... I don't recall a Nigerian being in the list.



Called up for Nigeria's U20's despite being just a couple of days past his 15th birthday, really not that great, oh and born and bred in Llandough, Wales.

[Limoutsonik]

I was under the impression that training wonderkinds on your own club provided you have ace facilities,leaving him play in the under 19s and giving him 20-odd matches was better than loaning him out. Is that not the case? Should i just loan out promising newgens?

[Adramelch]

It's a bit of everything. My general strategy is to keep them at the club until 18-19 and then if they are going to get solid football here (and by solid I mean at least a dozen or so starts, not just sub appearances) I will keep them, otherwise I will loan them out to high profile clubs with the condition that play regularly.

[Baz]

In my case I’ve been letting the staff do any selling and played a team of ‘5 star potential’ for three seasons, but my Icelandic striker kept getting subbed off whenever I holidayed ahead. He’s 34 now so running out of time to get anywhere near a ballon d’or (definitely not happening but will see it out until he hangs up his boots) so I’ve loaned out every player I had bar 3, and bought a whole team of 4-5 star current ability players and am ‘only commentarying’ every game so Atli Þór Sindrason can play every minute as we try to win every game. He only seems to score pens, and he misses half of them, though.

Also made it a save-long mission to sign Lamine Yamal cos he absolutely bums Barcelona. After years of scouting him for four games at a time and constantly declaring my interest, all to no avail, he finally left Barca to join a Saudi club. And he still had no transfer interest, but had doubtful loan interest for the first time ever. A £75m loan deal for the year has seen me successful (if you can call it that) in finally seeing a 34 year old Yamal in a Real Madrid shirt. And he’s absolutely smashing it from AM L as an inside forward. Has a ‘goal contribution’ every game, and might actually be in with a chance of winning the Ballon d’Or just to rub salt into my wound.

[Adramelch]

It was a very ambitious project to begin with (and fairly out of your control at that), if we're honest.

[Baz]

It was a very ambitious project to begin with (and fairly out of your control at that), if we're honest.

I should have gone with a tall player to at least score headers from corners. Might go again with Salim Yenpariye once I’ve failed this.

[John Arne]

It's a bit of everything. My general strategy is to keep them at the club until 18-19 and then if they are going to get solid football here (and by solid I mean at least a dozen or so starts, not just sub appearances) I will keep them, otherwise I will loan them out to high profile clubs with the condition that play regularly.

This is the approach I do, and it works best. 16-18 players develop better with clubs with good facilities, after that it's about playing games.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's tough being a professional club.

We're bleeding money like crazy.

IIRC my monthly youth costs are more than what they were for the whole of last season.

[Adramelch]

Been flying through seasons while watching a show on the side, so here's another two.

Key players

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As I said in my previous update, I would be joining Real Madrid and the situation was that they had finished 3rd twice in a row, behind Atletico and Barcelona, but the squad was quite strong, if a bit on the older side, and they had about 700m in the bank. Alongside Bellingham, who was still incredible at 32, they also had this guy:



Over the course of the two seasons, we signed a total of 15 first-team players, as well as an assortment of youngsters. Among them were these three high-profile transfers:



Joined in the first transfer window from Hoffenheim for 95m. It was already a bargain at that point but he's also grown a lot in those two years.



Joined in the second summer from Fulham for 115m. A bit steep for a player that's not necessarily a finished product but he had a stellar season, so a great piece of business on hindsight.



Joined this January. We really struggled to find good defenders, so I just decided to splash the cash on a big name signing. Cost us a combined 190m (out of our measly 445m budget at that point) to bring him from Dortmund.

Season 2035-36

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In the first season we almost won everything, except that we didn't. And it was always Atletico beating us to the punch. They beat us in the Super Cup final, they beat us in the Cup final and they also beat us in the league:



It was a bit of a travesty that we didn't win the league, given our performances, but they went full-on Simeone (who's still their manager and has been for the past 25 years) on us, with 11 single-goal wins. At least we won our consolation prize:



In what has been a theme for this save, we somewhat struggled in the group stage, finishing just outside the top 8 and drawing Chelsea in the knockout round which I thought was harsh. As it turns out they were a complete pushover, as we beat them 10-4 on aggregate. As for the final, we dominated from start to finish against my former club but we couldn't find a goal. In the end, we did, in the most dramatic of fashions, in the 120th minute.





Great set of performances all around, but obviously I should single out Guizani and his 47 goals, Rydlewicz and his insane 60 goal contribution and Munoz for being an unlikely hero who was signed as a hot prospect and ended up being pivotal to our performances. Honorable mention should also go to Jude who contributed to 30 goals, despite playing as a ball-winner (which was a travesty in itself, but we couldn't find anyone better). Sadly as I mentioned in a previous post, he left us in the summer to go to Saudi Arabia.

Season 2036-37

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The second season was a lot more successful. Domestically it helped that Barcelona and Atletico just weren't at the same level, but we were also much better, especially as the season went on. We won the Super Cup (beating Barcelona in the semis and Valencia in the final), the Cup (beating Girona in the final after going through Barcelona in the semis), as well as the league:



Just pure dominance as we proceeded to break league records for most wins and most points in a season, despite having to play every two days (in classic FM fashion) in the tail end of the season. And this congested schedule was down to us being great in the Champions League once again. This time around we remained unbeaten in the group stage and were dominant throughout the competition:





I'll take it! This wasn't our only international trophy, as we also won the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup to complete a perfect season.



Guizani was a beast again with 47 goals in the "regular" season and another 7 in the Club World Cup (his hat-trick in the final was after the cut-off date so it isn't included in this screenshot). Rydlewicz was a beast once again although his stats ended up being a bit inferior, partially due to Quin taking over as set-piece taker but also because he missed a handful of games through injuries this time around. As for Quin, I was a bit skeptical when I signed him but he most definitely delivered.

With all that, there's a decision for me to make as City have just sacked Xabi Alonso and have offered me a job. I was very inclined to decline and spend a couple more seasons at Real before looking for another job in England, but after winning the Club World Cup and completing the perfect season, I feel like it's only downhill from there, so now I'm tempted to make the move. Regardless, the goal for the rest of the save is to also win a Champions League with a club from England, France and Germany (along with their respective domestic leagues) before I call it a day.

[Adramelch]

I've never seen that one happen mid-season before, not even once, and it has happened three times already now in half a season, always when the finances got into the red. Nice to see City's financial cheating has been hardcoded into the game.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Jesus christ.

[Adramelch]

Make that four times. Always a telecommunications company, always in the 85-88m range.

[Baz]

With the Icelandic lad looking like a failure, I'm think of trying to win the Ballon d'Or with Julian Vitus Pedersen.



Remember this face.