Football Manager 23 [Archive] - Page 5

Gray Fox

15-01-2023, 12:26 AM

Almost immediately after my last update my board dropped this on me:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/476466012024340483/1063453611629232219/003b5dee3ca8e748ab85d760684db8f0.png

The ticketing issue was bad so no wonder the board are trying to correct it. Unfortunately it does mean the club have essentially paid for a stadium that vanished and now we're about to pay for a new one. I'm in September now and they've yet to come back with anything concrete in terms of numbers, though I'd imagine somewhere around 30k seats with room for expansion will be coming.

The board also dropped our expectations and vision for the season on us and they've changed just a little from last season...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/476466012024340483/1063449353253032007/8df91c0cbc1c2ac92b2a6dd5e82e263a.png

Still we moved on and used our transfer kitty as well as we could.

https://i.gyazo.com/ad383c3e0149707cabe5c0f60fc5e8f0.png

I'll save the individual posts as they're all real players bar the bottom one. There were so many points where I'd have a player that would really improve us, only for his agent to leak it and bigger money to come in.
The other issue, that will come back a little later down the line is release clauses. Every agent demanded one. I even tried to get an expiry date on them but all bar Netos' agent told me to stick that.

Vustovs clause is £9m, Neto is £9.75m. Gatti £5.75m. That's great money when they do eventually get triggered but, Vustov and Neto especially could have 10+ years here if their potential is accurate. Angel Gomes comes in as cover on both wings and has a £4m optional future fee.

The last guy is a 15 year old we stole. They do get 30% of his next transfer fee, but as cheap as he was we're still likely to make an easy profit.

https://i.gyazo.com/4962deb8eceb6d4e0170d0eb22251cd8.png

He has great physicals for 15 years old and good technique, with a few other key mentals in good places, but he really needs help technically. Still he's unlikely to see game time for 3+ years and he was cheap as chips.

He joins the only two really decent lads we got from our youth intake:

https://i.gyazo.com/d131792186dbd09ccba98002206e9d56.png

https://i.gyazo.com/4d310147f5a5c78ed9a292e79ac5f6d6.png

We took our merry band of men off to face our CL Third Qualifying Round opponents, CFR Cluj. We were at home first and after a nice short pre season, we ran straight into an FM'ing. 2-0 at home. Absolutely rinsed on the counter.
However despite a few scares we rallied in Romania and took the tie to extra time. There Zuber popped up in the 104th minute to strike us into the Play Off Round.

On the same day we found out it would be Anderlecht, we got this horrible news:

https://i.gyazo.com/4e4f7aae33514dc4044a741207c4cc53.png

He was great last year and now leaves us with a player to replace. But no time for that we went off to Belgium for the first leg. The first half passed without highlight, but at HT I saw they moved Jan Vertonghen to LB. So I put my guy with loads of pace there and 15 mins later he'd hacked Garcia down for a straight red card. From there we peppered their goal and at the death stole a goal to take home.

https://i.gyazo.com/093c46103748dd54e8a8eca5ad5bf4ca.png

Back at our place, the job looked simple. We were 1-0 up at HT and they'd done nothing. We even added a second on the night on the 59th minute. However we found out we had just poked the bear. They went all out from then and we looked lost. They squared it up on the night despite us scoring again and blazed a golden chance in injury time wide.

https://i.gyazo.com/d109d0db64e304ca76b61544c6ecd06f.png

https://i.gyazo.com/54703c02c1c5dafc43d28b9f0225949f.png

I've immediately asked for upgrades to anything I can while we have money in the bank, as I reckon when the stadium planning hits, that money will vanish. Our reward for making the group stage is a group of just PSG, Benfica and Red Star. No biggie. Each win is over £2m in prize money, which is massive for us, so we need to try our best at home and away to Red Star.

In Greek European news, Olympiakos fucked their qualifier against Shakhtar and so drop into the Europa League. That will be Greeces only involvement as the other 3 clubs in Europe have all crashed out of the qualifying stages.
Greece however is up to 11th in the coefficient table and as such the winner of the league this year will go straight to the final champions play off. Cracking the top 10 is where the automatic group stage appearances come in. In truth, I think we'll be stuck qualifying like this for a few years yet.

I suppose I better go find a midfielder to loan for the year then.

Sir Andy Mahowry

15-01-2023, 12:33 AM

Angel Gomes :drool:

Adramelch

15-01-2023, 12:41 AM

You're honestly probably better off if the other teams drop to the lowest possible competition (as long as they are in one), so they have a higher chance of progressing.

Gray Fox

15-01-2023, 12:49 AM

Yeah they all did that and then still fucked it up. All lost in the Conference League qualifiers.

Board also rejected all requests bar training facilities, so at least there's that.

Dan

15-01-2023, 07:57 PM

FC Groningen 2023/23 Season Review

I've worked my way to the end of my first half-season, having joined the club just after Xmas with the team sitting in 14th place (https://imgur.com/HSMH7E6). My task was to avoid relegation, and we started slowly, struggling to score goals or put wins together, but we were also extremely hard to beat, and that helped us keep the points total ticking over until we got things going.

In the end, we were never in danger of getting relegated, and considering we only lost one game to a team that was Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord, it was inevitable we'd start picking the rest of the middle tier off, and we worked our way up the table (https://imgur.com/6Fsduof) to finish 8th (https://imgur.com/WPLUBGS).

I didn't realise that would mean that we ended up in the European places playoff, although I wasn't even aware that existed, but we got revenge on Go Ahead Eagles in the first round, which set up a final against FC Twente.

https://i.imgur.com/fE5ovwv.png

:(

We won the first leg 1-0 at home, but proceeded to shit the bed in the return game, getting comprehensively outplayed throughout. We actually levelled the tie in the 80th minute with our second chance of the entire game, but in typical FM style they went upfield four minutes later & some randomer banged in a 35 yard screamer to finish us off.

We flopped in the cup (https://imgur.com/q3joQQp), getting smashed by PSV a few games in to my tenure, after struggling with a lower division side, but it was definitely a successful season.

The Squad

When I arrived we had no transfer budget & were £6k over our wage budget, so I pretty much had to work with what was there. After a bit of playing around I managed to get to a pretty settled side, and we had a few players who stood out. (https://imgur.com/AZ7YbGa)

Ricardo Pepi (https://imgur.com/1eyramn), on loan from Augsburg who very kindly let us have him for no wages & no loan fee, came in to the side after a few games & ended up being our primary source for goals, finishing the year as the third top scorer in the Eredivisie (https://imgur.com/lw9SpyW). Sadly it seems he'll be going back to Germany next year, but we do have a few options to replace him, which I'll get to shortly.

Tomas Suslov (https://imgur.com/3BeaxX4) is probably our most talented player, and he played pretty well coming in off the right wing with some flashes of what he could develop in to. We have plenty of options out wide, with Paulos Abraham (https://imgur.com/qdYbhSf) usually starting on the left, and Florian Kruger (https://imgur.com/RNLJMTY) & Cyril Ngonge (https://imgur.com/mL7BX8u) able to cover up front or out wide.

We have a few other young players I'll look to build the team around, with Luciano Valente (https://imgur.com/W1gGG6d) impressing in midfield & he'll be joined by Victor Jensen (https://imgur.com/mFvnWDX), who is arriving for free after his contract expires. We also have Thijmen Blokzijl (https://imgur.com/djhasMX) coming back from loan next season & he looks like he could play immediately if needed, and Jasper Meijster, (https://imgur.com/AhkiEDy) who could be our goalkeeper of the future.

Without much money to spend on improving the squad we'll have to lean heavily on our high level academy, and it's already provided us with a couple of intriguing strikers - Roberto Kruiswijk (https://imgur.com/EsGySOG) is probably the better of the two, but David Coolen (https://imgur.com/o5YKpxp) can play too.

--

I'm not sure how long I'll stay here, as the purse strings seem to be kept very tight, but I'll see what I can do with the resources I have been given - £2.9 transfer budget & a £99k p/w wage budget (last year it was £80k) - and will keep an eye out for another interesting job somewhere if things start to get tricky next year.

Sir Andy Mahowry

15-01-2023, 11:43 PM

Palamós CF 2031/32 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/IKxpJ0J.png

https://i.imgur.com/hyxWz4u.png

He was moaning a lot so I decided to sell. He was getting bad offers in for him and then I put a £20m price tag on him and Cardiff instantly came in. He hasn't been great for them and they finished 13th in the Championship...

https://i.imgur.com/GirI7Yl.png

My number 1 keeper. Just after the Summer window he came to me asking for a new contract which I agreed to. After some back and forth he rejected my offer, I then apologised to him and his agent but the agent told me to get fucked so I decided to sell in January.

https://i.imgur.com/kQY2u2M.png

First choice LB who was great when he came in last year. He struggled this year though and kept making mistakes, he then came to me asking for a new contract but I told him he hasn't been good enough. This didn't sell well with him and I decided to move on.

https://i.imgur.com/AZ7l0zK.png

Starting AMC but I wanted to give more time to the Serbian PROJECT and there was a lad I wanted to bring in. £21.5m was seriously good for him as he blows hot and cold too much.

https://i.imgur.com/BR7oSRP.png

Peter Reckels. He's not pictured on above as it went through early. Porto came in for him and I negotiated to £8.75m with 50% next sale. I was thrilled with this as he hadn't kicked on and was just a backup. Porto then offered him back on loan for the year which I accepted.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/5jK4AnA.png
https://i.imgur.com/VvKcK13.png

https://i.imgur.com/ViZNuZX.png

THE PROJECT has done alright, especially near the end of the season. I'm happy with him.

https://i.imgur.com/bZLfWrJ.png

His mate has already become a HUGE part of our team. He was struggling a bit to start and then got injured, when he came back I changed his role from DLP to RPM (although he does sometimes play as the BWM) to suit his style more and he started clicking.

https://i.imgur.com/CIOQkgO.png

I wanted him in January but Frosinone wanted too much, in the Summer their value of him tanked and I scooped him up. He had a slow end to the season but he had a patch of starts in the middle as my main striker got injured and he looked incredible.

https://i.imgur.com/sklXV0M.png

I went back to the Serbian well. It was a toss up between this guy and another but I chose him as was a big tall boy.

https://i.imgur.com/NMHYplG.png

Easily the signing of the season for us. He's played at AML and he's been the starter there. Seemed to cool off near the end of the season though sadly.

https://i.imgur.com/3Jqrmy7.png

Bought him as a backup AMR but he pissed me off in February. He got called up to the Swiss national team and I congratulated him. He told me that he should have been called up a long time ago and he called me patronising. He's now on my shit list and might be sold.

https://i.imgur.com/OzoJF6v.png

I'm a sucker for Serbian. The bargains are incredible. This guy has come in and replaced my old LB and done a better job.

https://i.imgur.com/wMXZ3Dq.png

I needed a new keeper and I chose this guy as he seemed to be the best who was interested in us for a non-silly price. He's been really good at times but he's also been absolutely tragic at others, he cannot seem to save headers which are right at him and his positioning (despite being 15) is horrendous.

https://i.imgur.com/tr272dH.png

The guy I bought when my old AMC was sold. Took him a little bit to settle but he was brilliant down the stretch.

https://i.imgur.com/2N7uvUO.png

I didn't need an AMR when I signed him but I couldn't say no for the price he was listed for.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/giACz0q.png

https://i.imgur.com/o9EWKGt.png
https://i.imgur.com/PQeSI5S.png

Bittersweet season for us in the league. I'd have taken 9th before the season but we were so close to Europe and we bottled it HARD in the last few months. The run of losses (and draw to Valencia who equalised in the 86th minute, had we held on we'd have been in the European places back then) was really hard to take as we won the xG battle in all of them bar Atleti and Barca matches.

Budgets aren't great going into next season but I do think we're good enough for Europe next year.

Cup:

https://i.imgur.com/AcQA4U8.png

Nice to have a bit of a deeper run this year.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/csmzJQt.png

Really happy with the squad right now bar goalkeepers which I might look at it in the Summer. Only players outside of goalkeeper that I'd be willing to move on are Jonczyk who despite having good attributes and star rating seems to make a lot of mistakes as well Remy Bertrand who also makes a lot of mistakes.

Clunge

16-01-2023, 11:39 AM

Waffdon

16-01-2023, 12:33 PM

https://www.fmscout.com/a-modern-target-man-fm23-tactic-by-vujevic.html

This tactic is broken if anyone wants some fun and has a target man in their squad

Jimmy Floyd

16-01-2023, 12:54 PM

Suggest me a save please people. Looking for low to mid-tier side (not the dregs) in a league where I'll have potential to grow the reputation and succeed on a continental level. Ideally a European side. Any sleeping giants particularly welcome, or maybe a team I could build up to challenge an established rival.

Boavista
Anyone in Hungary (I adored my save there in FM19 although the names are not for everyone)
Wisla Krakow
Catania/Palermo (make Sicily great again)
Brondby
St-Etienne

Sir Andy Mahowry

16-01-2023, 12:58 PM

Schalke.

Jimmy Floyd

16-01-2023, 01:00 PM

I thought Schalke (and Hamburg) but maybe too easy.

Ben

16-01-2023, 01:02 PM

I agree with Palermo and Catania (and Messina). I always loved saves with those teams for some reason, particularly Palermo.

Palermo are now part of the Man City Empire so I don't know if that makes it more or less appealing.

Sir Andy Mahowry

16-01-2023, 01:05 PM

I thought Schalke (and Hamburg) but maybe too easy.

They've got a rancid squad and are struggling so much in real life that it might not be. Plus Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig and possibly Leverkusen should make domestic level hard.

In my save Schalke have been in the second tier more than the Bundesliga and almost got relegated to the third tier last season.

Jimmy Floyd

16-01-2023, 01:15 PM

Bordeaux are in the second tier as well. All the certainties of my life are crumbling before my eyes.

St Etienne are somehow bottom of Ligue 2, below Annecy and fucking Pau.

Clunge

16-01-2023, 01:52 PM

Thanks all. Quite fancy a crack at Poland. Was hoping Inter Bratislava might have made it back into the playable leagues in Slovakia, although I could just holiday through until they make it. Messina look like a good shout too. I've just done a season with Leverkusen so might dodge Germany for now.

Dark Soldier

16-01-2023, 01:58 PM

Steaua in Romania is a good one. The original CL winning proper team is in their second division. The fake Steaua, FCSB, who got to keep the records essentially due to corruption, is in the top league.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Steaua_Bucure%C8%99ti

Sir Andy Mahowry

16-01-2023, 02:18 PM

https://i.imgur.com/4ZaSVin.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW2n3umJuaE

I'll fit right in.

Baz

16-01-2023, 02:54 PM

https://www.fmscout.com/a-modern-target-man-fm23-tactic-by-vujevic.html

This tactic is broken if anyone wants some fun and has a target man in their squad

If I ever get back to TTH, Mahow could probably do a job.

Clunge

16-01-2023, 03:26 PM

Baz

16-01-2023, 03:49 PM

Yes! Thank you. Knew there was one at the back of my mind I meant to do.

Make sure your logos pack has the right badges. Seen a lot of Reddit posts about them being wrong.

Gray Fox

16-01-2023, 04:08 PM

Como in Serie B are a decent shout.

You get ancient Cesc Fabregas and your boss is somehow Dennis Wise.

Sir Andy Mahowry

16-01-2023, 04:31 PM

Wait what?

Gray Fox

16-01-2023, 07:02 PM

Dennis Wise is President of Como 1907. 35 year old Cesc Fabregas is on the books. As, somehow, is Irishman Liam Kerrigan.

Jimmy Floyd

16-01-2023, 10:55 PM

Peñarol - 2024 season
That's right, another year in Uruguay on High Pressing Fatigue Manager 2023.

I'll do the Libertadores first this time. I've already posted upthread that we got through a group with two pretty shite teams in it, then played River Plate and somehow edged an epic tie on penalties. In the quarter-finals, we had Corinthians, who munched us 5-2 on aggregate, though we did manage to draw the home leg 2-2 which was something to cling onto. Sao Paulo, somewhat surprisingly, won it.

https://i.ibb.co/2KHnryx/lib24.png

The league was a cakewalk. The team was set up beautifully, espcially going forward: versatile Veglio and Fernandez run things from midfield, Bruno Nazario (Brazilian) pulls strings as an AM, wingers Rossi and Alberti create heaps of chances, and Borbas puts them away. This formula resulted in a second straight uncontested title. This time it wasn't as perfect as 2023 as we didn't make the Intermedio final in the weird middle phase of the season, but that was largely by design due to resting players for the Libertadores ties happening during it.

https://i.ibb.co/Tmdg6JB/pen24.png

https://i.ibb.co/7xDK6hT/borbas24.png

Borbas obliterated his own all time league record of 42 goals, by notching 50 times this season. This was despite missing six of the 37 games with international call-ups, and fatigue issues causing a definite slowdown in his form during the Clausura (where he notched a measly 15 in 13 games). He was also the top scorer in the Libertadores with 14. His record for the club overall was 48 games / 66 goals, and in the two and a half seasons since he joined, he is 126 games / 154 goals. There are some quality freakish stats in relation to him and the team generally in this year's league, but this might be my favourite:

https://i.ibb.co/QPwtDkM/borbasxg24.png

As is always the case in South America, I expect there to be some upheaval in the close season. First choice Argie defender Barboza is likely to get the chop, and it might be the right time to sell ginger midfield general Veglio, even though he has been amazing. Incomings include Argentinian 21 year old Infantino, who despite his name looks a hell of a talent. The bank balance is healthier than ever (though still tiny in comparison to the Brazilian and Argie teams we need to catch). The next question will be whether we can extend Borbas's contract again. He's signed for another two seasons with a £20 million release clause at the moment; it might take another large bribe of his agent to keep the clause that high.

It wasn't all plain sailing: River Plate triggered the release clause for my first choice goalkeeper Lentinelly mid-season, so after that I had academy graduate Randall Rodriguez in net, he's pretty good but I'm not sure if he's the answer for the long haul. There are some pretty good kids coming through, the best of which thus far is midfielder Perez (below) who has been in the first team a bit, and there are a few more who could come good, which is important as the foreigner limit of three on the pitch places a premium on growing your own.

https://i.ibb.co/cgzQBTV/perez24.png

Dan

17-01-2023, 08:25 PM

I'm surprised Nacional have just folded without a fight, they usually churn out some good newgens, and Pablo Neris was playing in Portugal in my console save. Borbas absolutely running wild though.

Just about to start my first full season at Groningen. We've let a few of the squad players go, raided VVV Venlo for a bunch of their young players on amateur deals & brought in a few players on loans & freebies, most notably Victor Jensen (https://imgur.com/GuiVdyr) on a free from Ajax, Antonio Blanco (https://imgur.com/undefined) on loan from Real Madrid & the broken remains of Marco Van Ginkel (https://imgur.com/mh7Tevo), fresh off yet another cruciate ligament injury.

EDIT: Van Ginkel broke his leg within 5mins of coming off the bench for his debut in the opening game of the season. Thought he might at least make it 25mins without falling apart, but I guess not.

Sir Andy Mahowry

19-01-2023, 05:28 PM

Palamós CF 2032/33 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/XyTNFsG.png

https://i.imgur.com/orfkMIX.png

Jonczyk was someone we picked up for £3m in January 2031 and he looked a bargain as he was, on paper, so much better than what we had. Sadly he seemed to always make mistakes and I ended up trusting a couple of youth CBs more as they were more consistent and made fewer mistakes. Big profit which is nice.

https://i.imgur.com/84zNLWf.png

Picked him up on a free in, I believe, our first season in La Liga. and he was a regular starter for two seasons. Last season he was more of a rotation player and I just didn't see him getting minutes this year so I let him go. I rejected more in the Summer as I was holding out for £20m+ but the most I was offered was £15.75m.

We also get 20% of any profit on the two above.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/JXs8amL.png
https://i.imgur.com/JpDGzaj.png

https://i.imgur.com/G2Rnr8t.png

I let one of my backups leave on a free so in came Reinertz which looks like it might have been a mistake. His potential has gone from 5 stars to 3.5 and his value has shrunk since signing. I keep telling myself not to go near "unambitious" players but I keep getting sucked in.

https://i.imgur.com/Mrx9MKB.png

Leonardo on the other hand looks like a bargain. I wanted a new backup striker as my other one is moaning a lot (and went out on loan in January) and I wanted someone who if called upon can be a pure finisher. Seemed to struggle at the start and then got an injury but he's been lethal down the stretch and even won POTM (none of my other players managed this) in March after scoring 6 in 4 and he only started one of those games.

https://i.imgur.com/UbUx71E.png

After Jonczyk left I needed some backup in defence. Mario was my 4th or 5th choice but the others either were too expensive or they wanted mad wages. He's not great right now but he can cover across the backline which is handy.

https://i.imgur.com/7qXjzaA.png

I didn't need Parenti but he looked too good to pass down for the price. He has been good when used but he's moaned a lot too due to not enough starts and because I upset him with a team talk once. Tried to send him out on loan in January but had no takers.

https://i.imgur.com/WZ81esi.png

With Bertrand leaving we were a little light at CDM so in came Liniker although sadly we haven't seen any of that Walkers money yet. He is now our highest earner (but quite some distance, £46.5k v £27k) but I think the kid could be World Class. Handy that he can also play RB so provides cover there too.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/CsXLjs4.png

https://i.imgur.com/tOeZVEP.png
https://i.imgur.com/KiYlmy3.png

We started poorly and after Sevilla we were, IIRC, 17th in the table but 4th in the xG table as my strikers were not putting away chances (the Costa Rican got injured near the end of last year and it took him a while to get scoring again) and my keeper was letting tame shots right at him in. Thankfully the striker started scoring and the keeper started looking ok.

We had some bad draws near the end (against Malaga we conceded in the 96th minute and against "Atleti" we let one in in the 94th minute) and I thought it would stop us taking a Champions League spot. We battered Betis and then I knew if we won our last two there was a chance as Betis had to face Atleti in their last game. They lost a day before we played and then we dismantled Osasuna to take 4th. We needed Europe this season as our finances are struggling now as our wage budget is bigger than our monthly income.

Cup:

https://i.imgur.com/dB3hO9f.png

In each round we used a reserve 11 and needed starters in the second round to bail us out which they did and we needed them in the third round but they couldn't help. Huesca went down to 10 men early but we never looked like scoring even though we had so many good chances.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/NrK52Zh.png

The squad is great but quite a few are upset right now as CL clubs came knocking in January and I kept swatting them away. Some I managed to get back on board by promising Europe (of some kind) this year which pleased them but others are still not happy. My former starting RB, Taner, will probably be sold if the money is right as will Milic which ends THE PROJECT as he's thinking of leaving on a free when his contract expires in 3 years and is demanding to be sold.

Other than that only Corradini (who pissed me off last year) will probably go as I'll try and hold onto everyone else. Oh and I'll try to Zoran Markovic, he's someone who came through the academy last season AND he's Cypriot but he's pissed me off with insane wage demands and when I offered him out in January the teams interested in him baulked at his demands.

Jimmy Floyd

19-01-2023, 08:04 PM

Well into 2025 now and Endrick is still at Palmeiras (and slaying me in the Libertadores group stage), is the transfer system borked because I have the European leagues on view only?

Gray Fox

19-01-2023, 08:28 PM

If anything view only should help things. His potential is in a range so maybe in your save he was at the lowest of that range and so teams havent flocked to sign him immediately.

Sir Andy Mahowry

19-01-2023, 08:34 PM

They also made it harder for teams to sign him after some people (like Lolujo who signed him for Peterborough) were able to get him in at shit clubs.

In my Palamos save he moved in 2024.

thommo

19-01-2023, 10:37 PM

2026/27 - Season 2 - Kitchee SC

Following on from a domestic treble, there wasn't a need for major squad upheaval. With a few foreign big earners leaving, I was able to reinforce by bringing in Lee Dong-Geon from South Korea to take over in central midfield. We were reunited with Roman Alles too - I signed him in the winter after his contract at Kedah FA expired. They formed a solid partnership in the 2nd half of the season in the middle.

The league was a little tighter than our first season but the title was still wrapped up with 2 games to go, despite a valiant effort from Wofoo Tai Po, who inflicted 1 of our 2 league losses.

https://i.ibb.co/C5mvz1x/kitch-26-27.png

We lost the season-opening Community Cup, looking rusty in a 1-0 loss to rivals Eastern AA. We were also unable to retain the Sapling Cup. We stormed through the 8 game group stage once more, with 7 wins and 1 draw, before seeing off Eastern AA in the semi-finals after extra time. Wofoo Tai Po were our opponents in the final and they rounded off an impressive season by coming from behind to defeat us 2-1, and snuff out our hopes of a domestic quadruple.

Thankfully we were able to retain the Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield with ease, and we also won the Hong Kong FA Cup after a disappointing exit last season in the quarter final. Sham Shui Po were comfortably dispatched in both finals, taking our trophy haul to 3 this domestic season.

https://i.ibb.co/r4R73Hm/kitch-domestic-win.png

On the continental side of things, the season started poorly as we failed to make the AFC Champions League group stages due to Newcastle Jets beating us 2-1 in the 2nd Preliminary Round. This did mean we dropped into the Asian Confederation Cup group stage where we were in incredible form. 29 goals, 6 wins from 6, and we were comfortably through to the Interzone Playoff.

Sreenidi of India were seen off without conceding a goal, and this put us up against Istiqlol of Tajikistan, with the winner going through to the eventual final of the tournament. We were under pressure away from home, losing 2-1 and it could have been more. But the tables turned a fortnight later, as we put in a dominant performance in front of a sell-out crowd. Despite this, we still trailed approaching stoppage time and it was up to our supersub Mamadou Bah to equalise in the 93rd minute. We carried this momentum into extra time, and Bah struck again to put us ahead. It seemed like we'd booked our tickets to the final, but in the 121st minute, disaster struck....

https://youtu.be/R3_8WCAkrFA

:moop:

Our centre-back passed our 1st penalty to the keeper, and our useless twat in goal didn't get near any of their 5, and we were dumped out. A real chance of continental success in Asia wiped out in an instant.

https://i.ibb.co/VB0kfX5/kitch-confed.png

https://i.ibb.co/7rvK5BZ/kitch-squad.png

It was a great season for Travis Clark, who broke club records with his 25 assists, even though he did wane towards the end of the year. Valerio Gelli was still pretty influential when on the pitch, but he unfortunately suffered with a few serious injuries. Chan Wai Nam was the real breakout star of the campaign - he had been on loan to the U23 team in my first year in charge and started the season on the bench as a backup. He quickly usurped Bah to be the first-choice striker and ended up with 32 goals. There's definitely good homegrown talent coming through the youth ranks here, enough to keep them top of the pile in the coming seasons.

6 trophies in 2 years is a great haul, but I think I'm done with Hong Kong. My contract expires at the end of June and I'm already applying elsewhere and trying to move on. I'll definitely keep an eye on the likes of Alles, Clark and Gelli - they may come in handy at my next club.

Baz

19-01-2023, 11:04 PM

They also made it harder for teams to sign him after some people (like Lolujo who signed him for Peterborough) were able to get him in at shit clubs.

In my Palamos save he moved in 2024.How did he manage that?

thommo

19-01-2023, 11:28 PM

Kevdoctrin works in mysterious ways.

Gray Fox

20-01-2023, 12:15 AM

After my Polish midfielder died and my back up striker bitched about game time, I've agreed a deal to send him packing to Holland in January. As such I wont be wasting any playing time on him. I also had a deadline day bid of £4m from Toulouse for Eliasson, but he rejected their wages which is a shame because that's great money for us.

Still, I needed some more depth in midfield and got a couple of guys in. You might recognise one:

https://i.gyazo.com/46715c8273d0fc7d017659f11b46ba18.png

Almendra was out of contract and picked up for free. He's on a great low wage and has no release clause. That his value has jumped up already says this was probably good business. Still has a little potential to reach, but I suspect in a couple of years he'll be off for some nice profit.

https://i.gyazo.com/607f585d2baedce56e30b83a446a6e8d.png

I couldn't not do it. His physicals may be shot but I'm only expecting 10-20 games out of him really.

As for covering my strikers departure:

https://i.gyazo.com/87917396f231565bd8f8558c319f360e.png

He's in on loan and we've secured a £2.8m optional future fee on him. My scouts think he can improve quite a lot and he may be worth persevering with to do so. He wasn't interested in a permanent move when we signed him though, so it may be out of my hands.

As for my striker position, there's also the matter of the contract of one Sergio Araujo. He is currently due to expire at the end of the year but we do have an optional year extension to trigger. He only has 10 natural fitness so he's very soon to start declining as he's nearly 32. I do kind of want to trigger the extension and sell him later, but he's on the clubs favoured personnel page, is the club captain and is top of the squad hierarchy, so it may cause uproar.

I've also arranged for this guy to come in on a free in January:

https://i.gyazo.com/6c41aa04c29d1375ecf2046a264c8ba2.png

He was going to be my back up for next year, as I assumed Van Weet would last til the end of his deal, but it seems not. On the surface he's very meh at best, but looking closer he actually compares okay to Araujo. In truth this is one I wish I could have back, but he's agreed a low contract and is free.

Worryingly, no news yet on the stadium front and it's been a good 5 months since the board stated their intention to build.

As for the CL campaign. Things have gone well so far. Our first game was a great 1-0 away win at Red Star. I think we're both going to get pumped by PSG and Benfica so the results between us could decide the Europa League spot. Our second game was at home to PSG and we actually performed respectably.

https://i.gyazo.com/01e800756c14d4f1bc312f1fc1f718b3.png

Sir Andy Mahowry

20-01-2023, 12:34 AM

How did he manage that?

Got him on loan and then signed him on a free IIRC.

Dan

20-01-2023, 06:12 PM

FC Groningen 2023/24 Midseason Update

After taking over at the midpoint last season & guiding the team from 14th to 8th, I felt like we had a chance to push for Europe this season. We have a promising young squad, and with most of the Eredivisie being one big clump of kinda okay teams, the potential is there for us to climb to the top of that group. So far this year we've had flashes of that potential, but we've been held back by the FM gods.

https://i.imgur.com/0tKIVvi.png

We're 9th going in to the break, but a few weeks ago we were 5th & thinking about chasing down the teams ahead of us. We've had a couple of runs of form (https://imgur.com/TiaCFaS) where the game has decided we're not allowed to win, which have stopped us from pushing on. The last four games that I played today in particular left me rather not happy as we bottled two games against teams in the relegation zone, one of which had just fired their manager, got knocked out of the cup by a second division team & then missed a penalty & conceded to their only chance of the game.

Hopefully the break will give us some time to get ourselves together, but if we continue to struggle I might seriously start to consider exploring some other options. On the plus side, our academy might be coming through for us again (https://imgur.com/xy0gzoi).

Jimmy Floyd

20-01-2023, 06:18 PM

That happened to me all the time in England (seem to be immune from it in Uruguay) and wound me up no end. You play the same football but the finishing crashes off the face of the earth for no apparent reason.

Dan

21-01-2023, 10:17 AM

It’s definitely one of the most frustrating parts of FM, although I’d really like them to get AI transfer offers sorted one day - nobody in the entire world wants any of my young players on loan for free, which seems unlikely.

Jimmy Floyd

21-01-2023, 12:24 PM

Here we go :drool:

https://i.ibb.co/DKTxHt4/pellistri.png

Sir Andy Mahowry

21-01-2023, 12:31 PM

Glorious.

Dan

21-01-2023, 01:49 PM

So...Ajax might be hard to topple...

https://i.imgur.com/jHrEyO9.png

EDIT: Feyenoord beat Ajax in their next game. The jinx :drool:

Dan

21-01-2023, 01:51 PM

Here we go :drool:

https://i.ibb.co/DKTxHt4/pellistri.png

He never really developed when I managed Uruguay on console & was bouncing around Championship clubs for a bit, but he's surely going to crush it back in the domestic league before someone comes back in for him again in a year or two.

Gray Fox

21-01-2023, 10:12 PM

I see they still haven't got the team interactions right.

I've got a back up DM bitching to me about not playing. They guy playing in front of him is my boy Jens Jonnson, who is currently at a 7.35 average rating for the season. If he's fit, he plays. I told the back up to piss off.

Yet I now have my 3 listed "team leaders" knocking at my door telling me I'm wrong and I'm to play him.

Jimmy Floyd

21-01-2023, 11:34 PM

Yeah, the lack of logic used is daft. I have people playing in more than half the games and coming telling me they want a loan move for first team football. Mate, you're winning trophies under the reign of King Borbas, trust me, you don't want a loan move to some farm team named after a 90s F1 backmarker.

Baz

22-01-2023, 09:04 AM

https://i.imgur.com/1mNDY7t.png

This seemingly broke FM cos it crashed straight after. :(

Baz

22-01-2023, 09:31 AM

https://i.imgur.com/JAHpL9J.png
igor_balis

-james-

22-01-2023, 10:09 AM

Has anyone tried FM on steam deck? I don't like gaming on my PC but I'm craving a lower league caper.

Gray Fox

22-01-2023, 11:56 AM

Lofty

Dan

22-01-2023, 03:31 PM

FC Groningen 2023/24 End of Season Review

We entered 2024 sitting 9th, right where the board expected us to finish, but having come off a slump in December it felt like we were squandering the chance to push for Europe. Could we get ourselves together and outdo our 8th place finish from last year?

https://i.imgur.com/Qo2p2yb.png

We were much better over the second half of the season, avoiding any bad runs of form & picking up excellent results against the three juggernauts up top. It might look like we got lucky to get a point away to Ajax, but it was fully deserved - they scored from an early penalty & that was basically the only chance they had all game.

Annoyingly, though, the three games we did lose were all ones that I'd gone in to thinking we had to win. Twente were close behind us when we met & mashed us, Utrecht were right in the hunt for a European spot & AZ were midtable but with PSV & Ajax straight after & two other European contenders to close, it felt like we couldn't afford to drop cheap points, so obviously we lost to an injury time goal having had the best of it :moop:

All of that left the final table looking like this:
https://i.imgur.com/WbIjM6t.png

:fun:

We worked ourselves up the table over the back half of the season & held on to 4th place thanks to club captain Mike te Wierik (https://imgur.com/GyO8HBS)'s huge late header in the final game. That guarantees us a spot in the Europa League group stages rather than a Conference League qualifier, so should provide us with a big boost to our rep & finances.

Players of the Season:

Just like last season, we had one guy that we relied on to score most of our goals - Ricardo Pepi (https://imgur.com/3prHiA3). Having somehow managed to convince Augsburg to let us have him for 0% wages & £0 loan fees for the second year in a row, he continued to bang them in, scoring almost half of our league goals. I don't think we'll be able to get him back again next year, and we don't have the finances to pay his agreed fee or pay his wages, so a striker is going to be a huge priority, but I'm definitely going to be asking for a third freebie year if possible.

We also had big contributions from new arrival Victor Jensen (https://imgur.com/u6Mu7Ee), who was our main creator, and Paulos Abraham (https://imgur.com/zg7rFey), who stepped up when we had to sold our best player for £6m in January. A couple of loanees played big roles too - firstly Antonio Blanco (https://imgur.com/WNgD27x), who came in on loan from Real Madrid but has agreed to join Armenia Bielefeld next year, and secondly Taylor Booth (https://imgur.com/XbMkZlY), whose work rate & versatility got him on the pitch a lot.

We very nearly had another of our core group of players leave in January, with goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenbergh (https://imgur.com/6jOE5gw) agreeing a move to LAFC literally twelve hours after our transfer window closed, however we were saved by them getting taken over before the transfer could be confirmed.

Next Season:

I think we'll struggle to match this finish next year with the extra European commitments & potential issues up front, but as long as we can stay in the hunt for Europe we should be fine. We have some good young players at the club & are continuing to bring in more, having added Leandro Morgalla (https://imgur.com/3HOtuPG) & Philipp Schulz (https://imgur.com/zptvS2m), and we're also bringing in Elia Caprile (https://imgur.com/zWXWjIT), who we nabbed when it looked like Leeuwenbergh was leaving, but he's clearly an upgrade so I'll have to figure that one out over the summer.

Our academy is working wonders so far, and may in fact provide the long term solution to our striker issues. Having given us Roberto Kruiswijk (https://imgur.com/2w02K5E) & David Coolen (https://imgur.com/qJcdVFN) last year, we've had a third impressive striker come through this year in Roy Birza (https://imgur.com/aRIwTdM), who headlines an excellent class alongside the likes of Syb Schaars (https://imgur.com/RUJfNe2) & Kenji Mulder (https://imgur.com/spB9WuR).

We've also added Milan as a parent club & gained a feeder club in the Ereste Divisie, so hopefully we'll be able to get some loans going in both directions to help keep the squad ticking over.

I'm not sure it'll be easy to reel in the big three any time soon, so I might just play out next season & see what jobs come up, but at the same time there are a lot of interesting players I'd like to keep developing, so I guess we'll just see how things go.

Clunge

22-01-2023, 11:18 PM

https://i.imgur.com/1mNDY7t.png

This seemingly broke FM cos it crashed straight after. :(
Am I okay? 👀

Baz

23-01-2023, 07:38 AM

Am I okay? ��
Yes, very good. Probably first choice winger.

Survived another transfer window without losing anyone. Mark accepted an offer from Everton for AyDee but offering him out to everyone all but secured a deadline day move to Man City, until I pulled the rug out in the final stages. :harold: To avoid a meltdown, he went there on loan instead.

I was half-paying attention when accepting loan bids but from memory about four players went to Brentford with the promise of regular starter, and I feel like we’re left with only Mike and Dark Soldier as makeshift centrebacks. The league is all sewn up so even an unlikely run of losses shouldn’t affect our campaign.

Also got beat 2-1 at Old Trafford, which earned us over a million in ticket sales. The previous month we only made 200k total. :drool:

Gray Fox

23-01-2023, 03:10 PM

I've hit the halfway(but not quite) point of the season in Athens.

https://i.gyazo.com/762bb0be380e7e5059b6df105ce09ac4.png

The summer reinforcements have really kicked us on a gear. Combine that, with me going a little bit more attacking in general, we seem to have good control in the league. The biggest surprise is quite how easy it has been so far.
With added Europe and not going out of the cup immediately on top, I've had to do some rotation as there's been pretty much a game every 3-4 days. A big change from last season.
Even with this, we have two players on an average rating of 8 or higher so far. Sidebe and Levi Garcia.

As for the other teams, Olympiakos has really shit the bed this year. Though it was about this time last year they kicked off a run of about 13 wins in 14 games so we'll see. PAOK have really used not being in Europe to keep chase. They were crap last year and didnt spend anything.

As for Europe:

https://i.gyazo.com/997c67c84afa55c61861a1970c1e95c1.png

A 4-2 and 4-0 loss to PSG was offset by two wins against Red Star(1-0 and 6-2). The games against Benfica were very entertaining. They scored a last minute equaliser in Portugal to save a 3-3 draw and then we had ours disallowed in Greece to see them hold on for a 3-2 win. Ramos scored 5 across both ties and terrorised our defence to death.
It was a spirited showing, but it shows how far away we are from Europes elite. PSG the bastards played 3-4-2-1. The 4 was flat across, one step ahead of the CBs, which seems to be a big in-thing in FM atm.
This nice run has kept the bank balance at £13m.

Our reward for finishing 3rd is a drop into the Europa League where we will face Rosenborg. I'd hope we can win that, but I'm not sure of our chances to go much further.

I checked the facilities page after the training ground was updated and it's got us as now searching for a site for a 28k seater stadium. No idea how much longer it may take, but the pitch at our temporary home is being trashed as it's being shared by us and Apollon Smyrnis, who are our feeder team from the league below.

Lastly we come to the transfers. Our run sees a fair few players wanted. Most of them are for the end of their contract. Araujo and Sidibe are both set to expire in the summer and I think I'm going to let them go. Both are coming up on being 32 and will likely want wage rises to stay, which I don't want to do.

Levi Garcia however has interest from Leicester. His value range is listed at £10.5-£12m. He has come to me 3 times begging for a new contract this season alone and I've told him to piss off each time, which he has taken well so far. However if Leicester do come in for him, I doubt I could say no to a fee north of £10m.
Vida, who also starts regularly for us, but is out of contract in the summer too, has had a bid from Hajduk Split and he wants to go.

I'm fine with most of these, but then it's the release clause guys that worry me. They're all now valued at around what their clauses are, or higher. I don't have the spare cash to renegotiate with them yet.
I would hope this window and the summer will be the last one of major changes in the squad all at once.

Jimmy Floyd

23-01-2023, 10:49 PM

Peñarol - 2025 season

We're at the point now where we're the dominant team in Uruguay and will not be challenged, so the triple aims are: try to build a team that can one day win the Libertadores, produce youth players who will help keep the dominance going (as the foreigner limit of 3 isn't going away), and keep the Thiago Borbas goal tally ticking.

To achieve some of the above I brought in two Argies to play in the creative midfield roles. This lad, clearly unencumbered by his disastrous surname, arrived on a free from Rosario Central:

https://i.ibb.co/LJt1h71/infantino25.png

This fella cost only £600k from Boca Juniors, where he had barely played:

https://i.ibb.co/pvx2g9y/vega25.png

Versatile forward Franco Perez came in from Rentistas to bolster the attack, and he would end up being first choice on the left wing. Facundo Pellistri would also be added mid-season. Defence was a bit more mix and match but with our vertical tiki-taka style we often have 70% of the ball even against illustrious Libertadores opponents, so defending is mainly about winning headers and passing it out. I already have a lot of academy grads filling the bench and rotation places, even though not all of them are amazing on paper.

The league doesn't need mentioning. We won all three parts and were not threatened even for one game. Nacional, playing awful defensive football, have fallen away completely and this year Defensor Sporting, who play more expansively, were able to beat them into second place:

https://i.ibb.co/KwL2FZb/pen25.png

In the Libertadores, we're still second seeds (not really sure how or if one can earn top seed status) and we were drawn with Brazilian giants Palmeiras, Venezuela's Deportivo Táchira, and Ecuador's Barcelona. We started by beating Táchira, went to Palmeiras and were soundly beaten 2-0 (it's impossible to describe how much of a gulf there is from Brazil's top sides to us), and smashed Barcelona 8-0 at home with Borbas scoring four. We then went back to theirs and managed to drop points with a 1-1 draw, which was pathetic and would prove unbelievably costly with the way the Libertadores works - the second round draw is determined by first round record, so you need every point you can get. We then had Palmeiras at home and, much to my surprise, beat them 2-0, a rare clean sheet for us (even in the league we nearly always concede) and our first win over a Brazilian side. We finished with a win in Venezuela to end the group in 2nd place on 13 points - Palmeiras had 15, so if we hadn't dropped those ridiculous points in Ecuador we'd have won the group and received a far more favourable draw.

https://i.ibb.co/9W0xMLS/Libgroup25.png

As it was, we drew Athletico Paranaense, who apparently added the 'h' a few years ago in a perhaps optimistic bid to attract English-speaking fans. They are a constant presence in the Brazilian top six and twice Lib semi-finalists in the last three years. As such, I was expecting a tough test and to brush them aside 3-0 in the home leg was most unexpected.

https://i.ibb.co/rH6mcbT/libr225a.png
https://i.ibb.co/WV8J1Qs/libr225.png

We went 1-0 up in the away leg, too, then we tried our very best to fuck the whole thing up. Thankfully, the boy netted another late goal to end the anxiety.

So through to the quarter-finals and the nightmare draw: Flamengo. Whilst all Brazilian teams are strong, Flamengo are on a different level - the best team in South America by a mile, winning five of the last six Brazilian titles and only missing one of the last four Libertadores finals. Their assembly of names - Gabriel Barbosa, Marcos Leonardo, Victor Hugo, Matheus França, Pedro - amounts to a Harlem Globetrotters in the context of South American football. Could we shock the continent?

https://i.ibb.co/cQKpgps/libqfa25.png
https://i.ibb.co/j8jVD4T/libqfb25.png

No we couldn't. It was a dispiriting two legs. The first leg should have been about 6-1, and the second leg in particular was a horrible watch. The whole game was just wave after wave of lightning one-touch attacks, scything through us at will. 8-0 would have been a fair scoreline (their xG was 3.98) - they missed a penalty, our keeper had a blinder and their finishing was embarrassing.

They went on to melt Sao Paulo in the semis before once again inexplicably bottling the final. It's hard to see how we're going to be able to beat a team like that, so either it's a case of waiting for them to get worse, or we'll have to somehow keep getting better. At least in this year's comp we made the jump up to be able to beat a win a couple of games at home to other Brazilian teams.

https://i.ibb.co/4t3qJ6M/lib25.png

So to the Borbas goal count. Games (goals):

2022: 24 (31) in the league; 29 (37) overall
2023: 37 (37) in the league; 52 (52) overall
2024: 31 (50) in the league; 45 (66) overall
2025: 36 (49) in the league; 48 (67) overall
For the club: 128 (167) in the league; 174 (222) overall.

He doesn't even do anything spectacular. Alongside those 166 league goals he has a grand total of seven league assists for us. He isn't amazingly quick or a world class finisher. He just gets into position and scores, again and again. He is, as a fat man once said, a predatory motherfucker.

We had a £1.9 million bid from Porto, that went straight in the bin and he was cool with it. Legend.

Baz

23-01-2023, 10:52 PM

I've loaned out so many players that the crappy regen TTHers have been called up.

https://i.imgur.com/P9XiINA.png

https://i.imgur.com/zPLKgTH.png

Easy to keep a small group happy though innit. :huhu:

EDIT: Can we see an updated Borbas screenshot?

Sir Andy Mahowry

23-01-2023, 11:09 PM

Palamós CF 2033/34 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/m1IsCrC.png
https://i.imgur.com/PF757io.png

https://i.imgur.com/WjCIYPv.png

The offer of £25.5m was brilliant for Taner. It was well over his value and he was now our second choice RB. This was a board sanctioned transfer though and I have a problem with it. We are paying £15.5k of his wages until 2037 (which is only 1 year fewer than his Galatasaray contract), two other teams made a £25.5m offer. One wanted us to pay only £5k a week and the third wanted nothing, why would the board not just accept these two and tell Galatasaray to fuck off is mental.

https://i.imgur.com/EYq0Re8.png

Nemanja Millic aka THE PROJECT. I had high hopes when he came in for £6m and after becoming the starter last season he started moaning near the end about leaving and said he was considering his options. I didn't want to sell him but I said I'd look to do so however the offers were poor until Ajax came in with a bid that was accepted by the board. I feel we could have got more for him but it does include a 20% of profit sell on (as does the Taner deal). Annoyingly Liverpool are interested in him so he'll become a villain of the save if he runs to the dark side.

https://i.imgur.com/jiHedi0.png

Jonathan Molina was bought during our second season in La Liga (IIRC) for just £4.5m and he was a key player for three seasons. I'm conflicted about this deal as £40m is amazing money for him and he's someone who probably wasn't good enough for us anymore but I was attached to the guy and it killed me to see him leave for Atleti in a straight up £40m deal.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/kNU4nvO.png
https://i.imgur.com/7VRseu5.png

https://i.imgur.com/bi8C3Km.png

Lee Ji-Hoon, he's not a striker that fits my system but if his passing was better I'd re-train him as an AMC. As it is he's someone I bought for profit and as such will be sent out on loan again next season and probably the season after too.

https://i.imgur.com/WLoX8A7.png

Oscar Aldo Turrubiates is a RB with insane potential and I think he's already good enough for the team but he's non-EU and we only get 3 spots which are currently filled. The good news is that my Brazilian striker is eligible for his Spanish passport in just over a month so he'll be with the senior team this season.

https://i.imgur.com/JHUkokt.png

Carlos Guevara is absolutely insane. He's already near the same level as my second choice CB and he's only 19. He's played a lot of games for us this season and played really well. I think he's going to be a star.

https://i.imgur.com/hsdGYQG.png

Sergio was bought when THE PROJECT left. He was my fourth choice AMC to come in as he's raw (although this did mean thrusting my lad from DR Congo into a the starting 11 and he's flourished) but everyone else was £40m-£60m and we just couldn't do that sort of deal.

https://i.imgur.com/7arc1hQ.png

Manu Prieto was signed near the end of the window as I felt we lacked a bit in the CDM department. I then loaned him out then wanted to brought him back in January to serve as a backup but I hadn't realised he played for two clubs (his original and the loan club) this season so he spent the second half of the season in the stands annoyingly.

https://i.imgur.com/djuHqDE.png

I did not need Reinout Krott at all as wingers are our strongest position but the more I looked at him the more I realised I had to have him. He's a near perfect inside forward who can play on either flank and is either footed. In his first start he scored a hattrick and he followed it up with a brace in his second. He even forced his way into the starting 11 near the end of the season. The kid will be a superstar.

https://i.imgur.com/L1mhfC9.png

We were lacking at CB so in came Charilaos Zonas for cheap who can also cover at LB. He looks handy for 17 and he's done well when used but he's probably not ready to be in a squad rotation so I'll probably loan him out and bring someone else in.

https://i.imgur.com/gVUHXzI.png

Because Manu couldn't play I signed Gertjan Brookhuis on a free as cover at CDM. Surprised he was available for nothing, I think his previous club didn't offer a senior contract so he was on a youth and I swooped in.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/KMXgdvo.png
https://i.imgur.com/yWY9lBc.png

https://i.imgur.com/zFsmHJU.png

We were absolutely brilliant this year, we made mistakes (the 4-2 Almeria defeat where my keeper just gave up stands out) and we actually led the league for a while but Madrid are just absolutely ruthless in this save. We'd have only won the league once in this save with that points total and this is Madrid's lowest points total since 2029/30 where they also got 94, just look how good they've been:

https://i.imgur.com/xBvVEhK.png

Regardless though, we did amazingly well. I was hoping to get third and look better than the rest of the pack so to be in a genuine title challenge and push them so close is insane.

Cups:

https://i.imgur.com/hSvZxqo.png

Meh. We were also in the SUPERCOPA which is weirdly a 4 man competition in January, I sent out the reserves who took Atletico to extra time in the semi-final which we ended up losing 3-1.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/HfKVF2P.png

Spain have been poor in Europe so 4th didn't guarantee groups, I thought we might lose to Sporting but they proved to be easy. I also thought that taking a 9th-24th place and thus playoffs should be achievable if we beat Jablonec, Haifa and Hamburg. I did not expect to beat Milan (who are in the final) or Man City which left the league phase looking like this:

https://i.imgur.com/QHCCE2d.png

I included Chelsea so we can laugh at them. The game said we weren't guaranteed qualification before the Liverpool game but I don't see how. We were in third we beat Man City and thus had the H2H record against them and 4 sides in the top 10 were facing each other (all were below us) and there was no way they could all jump us.

Knockouts:

Round of 16:

https://i.imgur.com/vFYGlpx.png

First up Dortmund who I felt was one of the easiest teams that we could face. We were lucky in this first round as they dominated us but we put our chances away.

https://i.imgur.com/OtQp6AL.png

In the second leg they couldn't get near us, great performance from the team.

Quarter-Final:

https://i.imgur.com/jlNdvdo.png

Bayern up next who have Endrick in my save. At the time he had scored 18 in 10 games before this with Aston Villa the only team to shut him out. We played really well and whilst the score flattered us a bit we were good for the win.

https://i.imgur.com/UDcW85f.png

I went in to this game cocky and I cam crashing back down to earth pretty quickly as Endrick was a menace. Our keeper had a nightmare and their xG flattered them:

https://i.imgur.com/75qsQDe.png

The penalty obviously boosted them a huge amount but outside of that it was fairly close. Felt bad to lose but overall they were the better side and they're now in the final.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/tHqkLap.png

I like where the squad is at and I feel we're deep in all positions. I will cut some fat a bit this year with me wanting to sell Nkosi, Mario and Corradini at a minimum, I can also see us having to sell a star or two off if a big club puts down some big cash.

Special mention goes out to Leonardo my backup striker who ended up with more goals that Jorge Sanchez our starter. The kid was on fire and seemed to keep scoring even when coming off the bench although he did slow down the stretch. At one point he was averaging a goal every 46 minutes in La Liga.

I think we can win the league as Madrid are ageing now and they did look vulnerable at times this season.

Jimmy Floyd

23-01-2023, 11:09 PM

There's not much to see.

https://i.ibb.co/NZQg29N/Borbas25.png

He plays as a lone Advanced Forward and does pretty much nothing other than score. A lot of them are from inside the six yard box. Gets called into every Uruguay squad, rarely plays, and when he does he's shit. He's like peak Ian Wright.

Gray Fox

23-01-2023, 11:29 PM

Christ @Mahow. Which player did Madrid buy about 6 years back to improve on their goal tally so much?

Sir Andy Mahowry

24-01-2023, 12:14 AM

Vinicius Jr turning into a machine really:

https://i.imgur.com/45ESWA5.png

Then it seems to be spread out:

https://i.imgur.com/mEEXCqn.png

They signed this guy 3 years ago and he got 24 last year with 20 this season. 35 year old Valverde has scored 15, 14, 6 and 13 in his last 4 seasons from midfield, they have Angelo (who is at Santos in real life) who has double figures for a few years, in the past 10 seasons Rodrygo (who has never been a starter) has scored between 11 and 22 a season. Even Tchouameni chips in with a fair few from CDM.

Klopp (who has just left for Newcastle) led them to those 100+ seasons. His attacking 4-3-3 seems to have gotten the best out of anyone who plays there.

Baz

24-01-2023, 10:35 PM

https://i.imgur.com/WK8DoaQ.png

I hate to break it to you Nige but no TTH account = no gametime.

Baz

24-01-2023, 11:31 PM

Won the FA Trophy, which is really good considering I won't get chance to do so ever again. Everyone lucky enough to remain at the club scored this season - except Mo and ScousePig. #teacherstrike

https://i.imgur.com/OaOHJ48.png

https://i.imgur.com/XT3wfHV.png

EZ.

Onto League Two. Sincere and Trancemeister are poised to join us in the Summer.

Thanks to whoever it was who told me how to stop the board selling players.

John Arne

25-01-2023, 03:59 AM

Thanks to whoever it was who told me how to stop the board selling players.

Where have I ended up?

Also, could you share the current save file? I'd like to have a play around. Cheers.

Baz

25-01-2023, 07:22 AM

Where have I ended up?

Also, could you share the current save file? I'd like to have a play around. Cheers.

Will check later.

And sure so long as you promise not to spoil anything with regards to development or PA/CA etc. :panda:

John Arne

25-01-2023, 09:09 AM

Will check later.

And sure so long as you promise not to spoil anything with regards to development or PA/CA etc. :panda:

Of course, no spoilers shall be announced.

John Arne

25-01-2023, 04:52 PM

Lost on pens 31-30 :cry:

https://gyazo.com/4ddd1817b081201bee248c79100e8b78.jpeg

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-01-2023, 05:12 PM

:lol:

Shindig

25-01-2023, 06:56 PM

Imagine staying an extra hour+ to watch that.

Gray Fox

26-01-2023, 11:03 AM

They came in for him :(

https://i.gyazo.com/3254b3783b5c121defb4bc5c44225466.png

He demanded to talk to Leicester and I couldn't stand in his way. He's on £53k p/w there and we can't get near that currently. To add insult to injury, I did not notice that he had a 40% sell on fee clause in his contract so he takes £6m of that figure for himself.

We could have got more straight cash I think, however I got a loan back until the end of the season and a 50% of next sale fee included, which I think works for us better long term.

I've arranged the free transfer in the summer of Spanish inside forward type Róber. He should do alright as the replacement.

I did want Datro Fofana, but Dortmund came in for him and that only ends one way.

Dan

26-01-2023, 12:23 PM

FC Groningen 2024/25 Midseason Update

Having finished 4th last year & secured Europa League football, things are likely to be a bit trickier this season with the increase in fixtures. I'm hoping we can stay in contention for a European spot whilst making the knockout rounds of the Europa League, and so far things have been a bit of a mixed bag.

Transfers:
Lots of churning still going on, with a handful of guys coming in at the end of last year (https://imgur.com/IuNUti5), and we spent the summer scrounging (https://imgur.com/cJmm1im) from the loan market & our new parent club Man Utd to build out our squad. Somehow we also managed to sell a winger that I'd grabbed for free off an amateur deal last season to West Ham for £10m without him ever playing a game for us, so that's given us a nice boost to our finances. We decided not to spend any of the money though, instead we converted some of it to wages & brought in a bunch of loans & veterans on freebies to fill gaps iuntil we can actually offer good enough wages to get quality players in long term.

Domestic Stuff:
We've actually been pretty good so far. (https://imgur.com/btEP3zb) We didn't show up in the opener, ran into the Ajax steamroller a few weeks later & got mugged by Fortuna, but otherwise we've managed to maintain our level of play from the end of last year & we're ending the year back in fourth place (https://imgur.com/gooqDxC), behind the usual suspects. AZ & Willem were actually in the top three until recently, but they've slowed down as Feyenoord & PSV have come back in to form.

We got an annoying tough second round draw against Excelsior in the cup, but ended up cruising it & have been rewarded with a third round tie against second division side Almere City in the next round.

Europe:
We were handed a pretty unfavourable set of fixtures (https://imgur.com/916d2CL) for the league phase, and have been very up & down, as you can see from our results so far (https://imgur.com/tdfTN5e). We're sitting 17th with two games to go, so every outcome is still possible, but I'm hoping we can at least hold on for a spot in the playoffs.

--

We should be in for an interesting second half of the season, but one bad run of form could see it all fall apart, so fingers crossed FM plays nice for a while longer!

Dan

26-01-2023, 12:24 PM

Lost on pens 31-30 :cry:

https://gyazo.com/4ddd1817b081201bee248c79100e8b78.jpeg

Fucking hell :D Did you watch the whole thing or just leave & come back an hour later to find them still going?

John Arne

26-01-2023, 12:33 PM

Fucking hell :D Did you watch the whole thing or just leave & come back an hour later to find them still going?

Fortunately, it was the Papa Johns shite, just Instant Result'd it.

Dan

29-01-2023, 12:22 PM

FC Groningen 2024/25 Season Review

We should be in for an interesting second half of the season, but one bad run of form could see it all fall apart, so fingers crossed FM plays nice for a while longer!

It did not play nice.

I'm not even gonna do a proper update, this was fucking brutal. We spent most of January & February playing a game every three days, which tanked the squad and meant everyone kept getting injured. We slid down the table, got SMASHED 5-1 by a second division team in the cup, and just struggled to do anything positive.

We finally managed to put some results together once the fixtures eased up, and clung on to a spot in the European places playoff, only to lose the final on penalties after failing to score a winner despite playing against 9 men for 15mins. We limped our way through the Europa League group stage before squeezing past Ludogorets, only to get drawn against our parent club Man Utd, who proceeded to stomp us.

I think this was the final straw for Groningen - the gap between us & the big three is huge & we just don't have the resources to be able to close it any time soon. The board have no ambition whatsoever, and we pretty much have to rely on loans to bulk out our squad as we can't afford to sign anyone. In two and a half seasons I've spent £1m+ on a transfer twice, and our highest earner is still on less than £10k a week.

SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/rWz5b8C) | CLOSING LEAGUE RESULTS (https://imgur.com/rIGxX4u) |EREDIVISIE TABLE (https://imgur.com/UmaogMT) | EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/hOI4RYz) | SEASON TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/oFXKow7)

So yeah, I've applied for Sassuolo, who barely avoided relegation in Serie A, and Schalke, who didn't avoid relegation in the Bundesliga. If I don't get either of those I'll probably stick around at Groningen until something else comes up that's interesting, but my contract runs out next season & I have no intention of signing a new deal even if I do make it through another whole season.

Sir Andy Mahowry

29-01-2023, 03:12 PM

Going into the final day of the season and things are TIGHT at the top:

https://i.imgur.com/gp6Wtqc.png

We play Sevilla (who sit in 5th) away while Atletico and Real play off at the Bernabeu.

If we tie at the top with Atletico we win as we have a superior H2H against them, if it's tied between us and Real it will come down to GD.

If it's tied at the top between Atletico and Real Madrid then Atletico take it.

If we are all tied at the top on 89 at the end of the day then Atletico take it as they'll have more points in the three way tie. This is going to be intense.

Sir Andy Mahowry

29-01-2023, 03:58 PM

Palamós CF 2034/35 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/wdvYx1b.png

I signed Mario the season before for £4.3m purely because he could play across the entire defence. He hadn't kicked on and quite a few teams were in for him so I cashed in for £8.75m to Newcastle who loaned him to Rotherham in the Championship and he was shit.

https://i.imgur.com/LXAAmzl.png

Nkosi was a bargain for £500k in 2031/32 and he had two good seasons with us but last year he got phased out as he hadn't progressed and others had. £24.5m was a nice healthy profit too.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/8TQ4YLH.png

In addition to those 3 I signed this guy early:

https://i.imgur.com/x3iaAmo.png

Riccardo Cirigliano was picked up for £4m and has been with the youth team the whole season. I think he's got a bright future but he wont be ready for a while, especially as we're stacked in his position.

https://i.imgur.com/DcqgIYi.png

Still on the hunt for a quality youth keeper so in came Ggrica Matjas who spent the year on loan to Almeria in the second tier where he did alright.

https://i.imgur.com/Jbwty3b.png

I wanted to bring in Talal Ali Al-Mesmari in the Summer when he had a £2.9m release clause in his contract but he kept rejecting me. He then signed a new contract with a larger release clause and became interested in me. I wasn't going to buy him as £15m was a bit steep considering his poor physicals, unambitious personality and lack of consistency but I had money to spare and went for it. He's also my 21st different nationality in the first team squad.

https://i.imgur.com/dxoHaH9.png

Another keeper in Ivandro, his potential dropped from 5 to 3.5 after signing annoyingly and he couldn't be registered as we had no non-EU spots left but his value has boomed.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/apFEVeZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/AxcEiNc.png
https://i.imgur.com/Pr0vNsk.png

Here's our last game of the season:

https://i.imgur.com/eNPxNbR.png

It was tough to watch but that final 20 minutes was a joy where the team just went all out for the win which we got (Real Madrid beat Atletico 1-0) to win us the league.

It did not look likely with a few weeks remaining as Real Madrid were 4 points behind us with 3 games to go which they played in between our 36th and 37th games. They ended up winning 1, drawing 1 and losing 1 which set up the epic last day of the season that Sky would be wanking themselves silly over.

It also looked unlikely as we were behind them in GD but the 8-1 against Gijon swung it in our favour.

Incredible stuff.

Cup:

https://i.imgur.com/JGAC2D6.png

Played the reserves and we went down to 10 men early then they went 4-1 up. I made changes (including to my keeper) and we really should have won it but I left it a little too late.

Also lost the Supercopa by sending out the reserves against Madrid.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/T4diKmg.png

https://i.imgur.com/Fw2H9MX.png

A harder set of fixtures for us in a way but we did really well.

Weirdly Milan finished in 28th, they were rancid this year having been the beaten finalists last season.

Knockouts:

https://i.imgur.com/VGp2ArH.png
https://i.imgur.com/P5aBMcp.png

We weren't good enough and I feel the occasion got to the players, keeper really should have done better but he struggled in big games this season.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/IoVaJCk.png

The standout who Jorge Sanchez, I was rotating him a lot more with Leonardo this season (although he was shit this year) and then he came to me asking to start more which I obliged and he went on a Moukoko-esque run of hattricks which also won him the golden boot (scoring a goal every 65 minutes). Our squad is really strong right now but I'm also in a bit of a pickle with it.

Sanchez scored loads but Macneil now looks like a better striker than him on paper and Chapaev (who started the season as a backup RW) is now ranked as our best player and he looks really good. The best two to play are Macneil and Chapaev out of the three but I don't know if I can boot Sanchez out.

Here are the three in question:

https://i.imgur.com/atj8hOZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/6RBRKAZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/t0XGGRZ.png

Gray Fox

29-01-2023, 04:50 PM

Season Review: 2023-24.

https://i.gyazo.com/4e31d24d73803763c00e9658a4af8813.png

It felt all season like we had it in the bag. PAOK tagged along for a little bit but as you can tell by the goal difference, we've smacked a lot of teams about. Mostly the teams in the relegation group.
The league now seems to have 3 groups in it. The bottom 5, the guys in between and then there's a top 4 group. The bottom 5 are in truth quite terrible in comparison to the top guys. The other 3 in said top 4 all tend to take points off each other.

I even thought the unbeaten season was in the bag as well, but we fell 1-0 at home to PAOK in game 34 :(

That came right after game 33 where this happened and I thought it was written in the stars:

https://i.gyazo.com/f1cd6201b532bda8865096827f0f9ad9.png

Cup Competitions.

As previously seen we cantered to 3rd in our Champions League group.

From there we dropped into the Europa League and the draw was very kind to us with Rosenborg. A 4-1 aggregate win lead us into another favourable draw in Celta Vigo. This was much closer on the pitch and ended 4-2 on aggregate in our favour.

Into the quarter finals and we got Lazio. They won 2-1 at our place and we were unable to score over there as they really should have put more past us, but a 0-0 there saw them through.

As for the Kypello Elladios(Greek FA Cup).

We enter at the 6th round stage and for some reason every round but the final from there is a two-legged affair. We got to the final without much trouble and there we faced Panathinaikos. It was a very good game with them constantly catching us on the counter. However Levi Garcia popped up late on in his very last game for the club and saved the day.

https://i.gyazo.com/ade2b028606159d2c9c633e2193f30ee.png

Here are the final stats for the boys:

https://i.gyazo.com/8124b35bd71200c555bb9450e7a92038.png

As you can see almost everyone got their fair share of game time in. Fernandes and Eliason the unhappy parties, but they can suck it up.
Almost every outfield player scored a goal and everyone but the backup goalkeeper registered an assist.

The attention payers will notice two big things though. There really is a lack of home grown players at the club. This badly affected us in Europe due to registration rules.
To this end, I've been running a massive scouting mission. In the player search I used a filter to narrow it down to all players in international U21/20/18 squads that were age 15 to 17. It came up with some 900 odd players, which should be 90%+ regens. I've since been whittling it down. I've attribute masking on so some players got glowing early reports and I moved to snap two them up for cheap. Now they've been further scouted one looks a reasonable prospect and the other just looks a miss, but both have yet to arrive.

We're about halfway through the list of players for now, but already some great looking players are starting to show. For now they're just out of price range or play for bigger clubs than us, but we'll find some.

The other problem is that Sergio Araujo, easily the clubs top scorer this season, is leaving. If he didn't count as a foreign player I'd be keeping him. But a lot of scout suggestions are coming back as South American, so I need to free up some space. This would however leave us with no recognised striker. I'd have to gamble that I would find one in the market.
Noel Lopez who has impressed on loan would be available for £2.2m. Both I and the club are listed in his favoured section, so I think he'd join too. e may be a good fall back option.

Elsewhere around the world, Olympiakos, the useless fucks, came bottom of their Europe League group. With all other Greek teams out but me, we're now projected to move down a place in the coefficient list. Hopefully PAOK can at least make the group stage of the Europa League next year. It'll be great for their finances.

Speaking of finances, the board gave us a nice budget of £10.63m with an wage budget of £525k p/w(up nearly £100k p/w). I might squeeze a few out of that, or maybe one big one. However they then dropped this news on us:

https://i.gyazo.com/96029b4b74489819ddc5fd549b8b0f60.png

That'll over double our attendance. There's no loans on it either which is further great news.

I'm hoping this leads to more facilities upgrades down the line with more guaranteed income too. We have 13k season ticket holders now with a further 19k on the waiting list, so it should really fill the new place immediately too.

igor_balis

29-01-2023, 04:52 PM

had an absolute nightmare with Livorno. promoted from 5th tier to 4th to 3rd in consecutive seasons, then took a couple of seasons to get to serie b.

was upper mid table all season, then went on a mental run of about 16 wins, finally moving into automatic promotion spot with three games to go. then lost all three games, and then lost the playoff final against genoa :moop:

Sir Andy Mahowry

29-01-2023, 04:55 PM

https://i.imgur.com/bMglpqY.png

Alan put £61m into the club's bank account and instantly asked for a meeting to raise the wage budget which went from £935k to £1.29m a week :drool:

We're only allowed to register £750k of wages right now but when the new season starts it will update and hopefully be closer to that new number.

Edit: Allowed to register £1.2m worth of wages, ka-ching.

Dark Soldier

29-01-2023, 10:23 PM

Got the ol' Covid and booked the week off as annual leave so rebought this.

Patch is better, Beta was disgusting.

Going for this:

https://i.gyazo.com/6b3deae261d98b2a7b1f9d6c86f2f3f6.png

John Arne

30-01-2023, 12:35 AM

Got the ol' Covid and booked the week off as annual leave so rebought this.

Patch is better, Beta was disgusting.

Who you managing?

Dark Soldier

30-01-2023, 11:02 AM

Southampton

John Arne

30-01-2023, 04:28 PM

ohh... :drool:

https://gyazo.com/df073cf060b803e11beb7b0e50f86bf7.jpeg

Dark Soldier

30-01-2023, 06:27 PM

Well silly formation works, won 6-1:

https://i.gyazo.com/511bc98c2434795706adeb76718bda28.png

Dan

30-01-2023, 09:36 PM

So yeah, I've applied for Sassuolo, who barely avoided relegation in Serie A, and Schalke, who didn't avoid relegation in the Bundesliga. If I don't get either of those I'll probably stick around at Groningen until something else comes up that's interesting, but my contract runs out next season & I have no intention of signing a new deal even if I do make it through another whole season.

Yeah, about that...

https://i.imgur.com/mXhI8L0.png

I got rejected from every job I applied for, mostly for stuff like having never managed a team that's been in a relegation battle or not using set pieces enough, which are definitely sensible reasons to discount a manager without even speaking to them. I did get one interview, but got turned down from that because they didn't like the changed expectations I'd proposed, despite the fact I'd actually accepted their expectations, so basically FM's terrible logic has stranded me here for a while longer.

It has, however, gone very well so far (https://imgur.com/Jh5lVrd) this season, with us currently sitting in third place (https://imgur.com/dokZ8YW) at the winter break. We didn't do a lot in the way of transfers (https://imgur.com/zYIFoYY), partly because I was trying to leave, but we did have to sell one of our starting defensive midfielders as he wanted to jump to a bigger league & I could hardly blame him when I'm trying to do the exact same thing.

I'm hoping that, without the fixture crush Europa League football led to last season, we'll avoid another complete collapse over the back half of the year & be able to secure European football without having to endure the end of season playoff.

I'm still applying for jobs that look interesting, but I think I'll need a bit more of a reputation boost to actually be able to get on to some of the shortlists as most of the time I'm getting pushed out by 'stronger candidates', so a decent run in Europe next season would be greatly appreciated if we can get that sorted.

Dark Soldier

30-01-2023, 11:48 PM

If anybody wants to try it, I'm fucking loving this formation:

https://i.gyazo.com/555452a94f306ac34cd0f3935be6a1b8.png

https://easyupload.io/lnoml8

Gray Fox

31-01-2023, 12:04 AM

Two Premier League clubs have separately triggered the release clauses for my goalkeeper Vutsov and my best player in Martim Neto. They're both awaiting work permits but once they get them, there'll be close to £30m for me to spend.

I've got the double facilities upgrades being worked on already.

Problem is my scouts seem to be exclusively recommending players that are non-EU, which I can't just go mad on.

EDIT: Now my best CB too. This is a disaster.

Dark Soldier

31-01-2023, 12:51 PM

Doing the customary City test (Leeds and Forest also).

Haaland around midway through the season:

https://i.gyazo.com/f0c0cb5c8dca70d181f8cd21b68fc383.png

Gray Fox

31-01-2023, 12:58 PM

Getting to the point now where the scouts have cut out a lot of the shit and quite a few promising looking 16-18 year olds are showing in the weekly reports.

Problem now is that most don't want to leave. They almost always wish to stay and continue their development at their current clubs.

Gray Fox

31-01-2023, 12:58 PM

Doing the customary City test (Leeds and Forest also).

Haaland around midway through the season:

https://i.gyazo.com/f0c0cb5c8dca70d181f8cd21b68fc383.png

Is this designed to funnel all the goals to the DLF, or so the rest chip in with some too?

Dark Soldier

31-01-2023, 01:01 PM

Is this designed to funnel all the goals to the DLF, or so the rest chip in with some too?

To give you an idea:

https://i.gyazo.com/5ae18ef8719958a36fc96d61b687e985.png

I have the usual locked morale/fitness test set-up, so seeing how a season would go with all three strongest 11s.

There are some broken set pieces on there. so 29 corner goals in 26 PL games for City.

Currently City are top, 1 loss all competitions all season. Leeds 4th, Forest 5th in Feb.

Baz

31-01-2023, 07:58 PM

Which set pieces? :eyemouth:

Dark Soldier

31-01-2023, 09:01 PM

Which set pieces? :eyemouth:

On this tactic - tallest player on where the ball ends up. Hence Haaland in the screenshot on the link doing 154 goals in 65 games.

https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/42121sirjur.180840/

Sir Andy Mahowry

01-02-2023, 12:51 AM

On this tactic - tallest player on where the ball ends up. Hence Haaland in the screenshot on the link doing 154 goals in 65 games.

https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/42121sirjur.180840/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/crge02v2k19o

Southampton have been reading the thread it seems.

Dan

01-02-2023, 01:50 PM

FC Groningen 2025/26 Season Review

I'm hoping that, without the fixture crush Europa League football led to last season, we'll avoid another complete collapse over the back half of the year & be able to secure European football without having to endure the end of season playoff.

Well, we didn't have to go through the playoff...

https://i.imgur.com/ol53eTE.png

:cool:

We just kept rolling down the back half of the season, with only the big teams really able to control us, and with PSV struggling we were able to pull away from ADO Den Haag down the stretch & wrapped up third with a game to spare. We also made a decent run to the semi finals of the cup, but drew Feyenoord rather than either of the two midtable shitters, so that killed our first real chance at getting some silverware.

FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/3vWfavm) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/NlGZCGl)

--

We did have a scare at the end of the January window, as our starting goalkeeper decided he wanted to leave & the dressing room agreed with him (maybe they'd been watching him play, he was actually pretty rubbish), so we had to let him go a few days before the deadline. We also had one of our LBs break his leg around the same time that meant we were relying on two youth team fullbacks off the bench, so we grabbed a bunch of reinforcements by signing Jeyson Rojas (https://imgur.com/nvf4UQn) & loaning in Rayan Ait-Nouri (https://imgur.com/HRqePNq), Alessandro Zanoli (https://imgur.com/zBzyCnW) & goalkeeper Stefano Turati (https://imgur.com/K1zFYht). We've extended the loans for RAN & Turati for next season, and we might considering bringing them both in permanently after that depending on what wages we can offer them.

TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/jD2tPSV)

--

We had some great performances, as you'd imagine when we equalled the record highest finish in club history & smashed their best points total. Florian Kruger (https://imgur.com/zaObjFT) has really blossomed since he was forced to move up front a couple of years ago, finishing as the leagues top scorer (https://imgur.com/sbcygIs) this season. He slowed down a bit in the new year, but Sydney Van Hooijdonk (https://imgur.com/D5UCrxA) stepped up & scored some crucial goals to keep us going strong. Summer signing Screve Kabeya (https://imgur.com/To2BqDO) also chipped in with some great performances & looks to be our long term starter on the left wing.

In midfield we had the outstanding pairing of Rafael Luis (https://imgur.com/EFUazP2), who was a bargain at £2.1m in the summer, and Noel Aseko Nkili (https://imgur.com/6MpmCuz), who is the best player in the team, does everything beautifully & rarely puts a foot wrong. We don't have the money to be able to sign him yet, but we have managed to get him in for a third consecutive season on loan, so I'm praying we can get an offer sorted next summer to keep him around full time.

SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/UexX78r)

--

Looking forward to next season, we're going to need to expand the squad as we were destroyed by the extra European fixtures last season, so it's probably time to start bringing a few more of the up & coming youth prospects in to the first team. Two that are nailed on to see a lot of games are Roberto Kruiswijk (https://imgur.com/XwLa5Z0), who came through our first academy class & looks like our long term starter up front, and Girolamo Meeusen (https://imgur.com/UlfxrjS), who might be the backup at AMC, but we do have a decent number of other players who could move up if needed.

I doubt I'll be applying for other jobs over the first half of next season as I want to see how things go in Europe, but if we have another rough stretch around January that might be the nudge I'll need to start looking again.

Baz

01-02-2023, 03:59 PM

FM23 is finally out on PS5.

Dan

01-02-2023, 08:48 PM

https://i.imgur.com/s1SXEc8.png

Well, this is a problematic, and gives me a little extra nudge towards leaving at the end of this season.

Gray Fox

01-02-2023, 08:58 PM

https://i.gyazo.com/af89c56986dd676526ec7967d92f3599.png

Gray Fox

02-02-2023, 01:24 AM

AEK Season Preview: 2024-25.

I was hoping for a quiet summer, keeping the guys that were not released. But the very day the transfer window opened, Crystal Palace triggered Martim Netos' release clause. I saw him as our best player and to lose him was quite frustrating.
More so was when Spurs did the same to our star goalkeeper Svetoslav Vustov. Not only did he leave us to go there, he's listed as their backup on £54k p/w. The boy would have been a star here...
Eliason leaves because I'm sick to death of his bitching every other month about not playing enough. He was valued at double that but I just wanted him gone. He was the first task for my new Director of Football.

Speaking of, the main thing I wanted to address this off season was the backroom staff. Money was tight when I took over, leading to me not wanting to massacre the deadwood staff. Hand in hand with that problem was our inability to offer big wages out to staff members. After the above transfers there was a lot of money in the coffers so I asked for everything under the sun. They said no to everything, with the facilities upgrades being the only two they would talk about. Tellingly I was able to talk them round on both counts, which has never happened before.

Still money freed up I could offer your top positions a decent wage and so set about getting top quality staffers in key positions:

https://i.gyazo.com/9cf7e21157fb448127f03902c799cf23.png
https://i.gyazo.com/ae4a173cb890e93bd8356e768419c631.png
https://i.gyazo.com/669f4fe1cc43e5d58322710b0211f9be.png
https://i.gyazo.com/847f13b95f8411430dd3cd83ec4792ba.png

I actually wanted any of the lower three as my Assistant Manager originally, but none would accept that job role. It might only make a tiny difference going forwards but I'm happy to have it in place now.

Annoyingly the scout/coaching wage offerings didn't go up by nearly the same token. As such the scouting department is still a bit lacklustre in terms of top clubs. I was able to add a couple of decent coaches and some physios who don't have about 7 for physiotherapy...
That leaves us with best in class of everything across the board in training, scouting and medical for the league, with the exception of goalkeeper distribution.

Now for the ins:

https://i.gyazo.com/e5f3be933cd59917b4fff6af55f5104e.png

Again mostly real players for now as it's still a struggle to get the under 18s to leave their clubs. When it was clear we were getting the Neto money, making Lopez permanent was a no-brainer.
The boys in on free transfers I feel are steals. The loanees also cost us very little and will give us great cover through the season and more importantly, buy time to scout out younger options. I tried to get a future fee on Endrick but I couldn't manage it. Vandevoort has a future fee of £4.7 as an option but Lavia has one set at some £60m+.

Almada is the most exciting one there for the here and now. I did try and sign him in the January window for nearly double that fee, but at the time he wanted £75k p/w and the most I could offer was £30k p/w.
Cut to now, I can offer up to £71k p/w for a star player all of a sudden. He wanted in the 70's again and at first negotiation I knocked it down to £51k p/w. He immediately accepted, so I feel like we've overpaid on wages, but I think he's worth the risk. I think he's defacto the best player in the league already and is already in the media dream XI in the season preview.

After doing well(I think) there, I then did horribly with Brimsvik. (https://i.gyazo.com/b1072d57e99363925fbe8fc2afac988a.png)On one of the first go rounds of the scout reports on my earlier mentioned scouting mission, he came back as high potential with white stars. I saw he could be signed essentially for free and went for it. As he got picked up again a few go arounds later it became apparent he wasn't up to much at all really. He was at the bottom of every one of the ranges I saw in the first report. Still, a lesson learned.

https://i.gyazo.com/7c428ae18abd696c29c854224b51fe60.png

Very pleased to get Kamal for cheap. He is very promising in certain areas for someone of only 16. If every one of his attributes goes up by a few then he could well be a star.
Serge reckons he's also not far off some first team action already. I'm pleased to get him in at 16 too as assuming he does develop then he would count as home grown.

https://i.gyazo.com/078a93ca1a97e9177ee20ea4dfe73a23.png

https://i.gyazo.com/0546c83d3da6a36e982bc8ec24fd4222.png

These two full backs were cheap enough for me to decide to run an experiment on them. I saw the same thing in both really in that both are in a very good place with their physicals at a young age, however are quite lacking elsewhere. I want to see what their development looks like.
If things go as I think they will, they'll both be pretty good athletes that are a bit sketchy. If their non-physical attributes take a big spike then both could be great players.

Overall recruitment aims for the future are to continue to bring players in very young to try and improve our home grown quota. Due to the involvement in the Champions League our bank balance is now at a lofty £45m. Speaking of which, it is the first season of the new format I've experienced. We did originally qualify for what was a the Champions Playoff round, but we have just been chucked into the group phase without having to qualify.

https://i.gyazo.com/32a69532599710ee72e17e9c59a720c0.png

Getting into the top 24 with that is going to be tough. I'd love to know how it's decided who you will play.

Dan

02-02-2023, 11:49 AM

https://i.gyazo.com/af89c56986dd676526ec7967d92f3599.png

Maybe not...

https://i.imgur.com/YHEaazI.png

EDIT: Nope, I was up against club icon Gio Van Bronckhorst, so never stood a chance.

Sir Andy Mahowry

02-02-2023, 12:55 PM

https://i.imgur.com/6711PuE.png

Alan is a total babe.

We had £3m left before this.

Dan

04-02-2023, 12:11 AM

FC Groningen 2026/27 Midseason Update

https://i.gyazo.com/af89c56986dd676526ec7967d92f3599.png

It's now 2027 and I am indeed still here. Things have gone pretty well so far, as they tend to do over the first half of the season, but it was the back half where we struggled last time we had European football so the real test is yet to come.

We sit third in the league, nicely slotted in amongst the big three thanks to an impressive debut season in the side for academy kid Roberto Kruiswijk, who has rotated with Florian Kruger up front & has started getting hype of a national team call up after netting 18 times in 13(11) appearances.

It didn't go as well in the cup or the Champions League, as we drew Ajax in the second round of the cup & Porto in the CL qualifying round, and were swiftly booted out by both. We did fall in to the Europa League though, and it's been a much better story there, with 4 wins from 6 games putting us in position to easily make the playoff round even if we lose our remaining two games - which we will, they're against Roma & an Aston Villa side that has Endrick (lol).

LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/zGDeXvf) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/PxcMn5F)| EUROPEAN FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/oQTnkis)

--

I'm still applying for other jobs, and have just had interviews at Dinamo Zagreb & Sampdoria, neither of which I'm actually sure I'd take if they offered me the job, but hopefully my rep will jump up a notch soon & I'll actually be able to get a few more interviews at some of the bigger jobs.

John Arne

04-02-2023, 02:22 PM

Bayern "Munchen" Munich have just recalled a goalkeeper I had loan because he wasn't playing in the agreed position of goalkeeper.

Sir Andy Mahowry

04-02-2023, 02:28 PM

Dan

04-02-2023, 04:42 PM

Where were you playing him?

John Arne

04-02-2023, 05:23 PM

Certainly not at right back.

Keeper, every week. I blame Jens Mustermann.

Gray Fox

05-02-2023, 01:09 AM

A little mid-season update in Greece.

For some reason this game doesn't allow you to choose your pre-season start date, so for this one we only got 4 weeks and on top of that, there were internationals at the beginning of September. The group that went to them were not kept in good condition. Because of this when we did start the season, thanks to also being in the CL group stage, we had a game every 3 days for about a month with only about 13 fully fit players. Add in that there was massive squad and team dynamics upheaval in the summer. It was a slow start.

https://i.gyazo.com/991ed5a8b282485d6957f84f98a4eade.png

There might well be a title scrap this year. We have kind of clicked into gear once we hit November, so I hope that continues.

This did also have a knock-on effect in our CL games. Our two pretty much only winnable games were the first two and with everything being disjointed it has not gone well...
https://i.gyazo.com/bb2c061c376d30a7c44cdf15e9e64be8.png

We face Porto and Atletico in our final two games who are 2nd and 3rd in the table at present. Real danger of finishing bottom of a big pile. We've just been outclassed against everyone bar Lyon.

So of course I've gone out and found a 24 year old Conor Gallagher is available on a free transfer. DoF reckons he'd immediately be our best CM so it's a no brainer. He's got what I believe is a £16.5m release clause, which on joining he is already valued higher than.
It does mean a likely £16m profit in 6 months time, but it's annoying that the agents have these locked in despite removing the stepping stone thing in the contract promises screen and them accepting it. Is there any way around this?

Dan

05-02-2023, 12:43 PM

FC Groningen 2026-27 Season Review

https://i.imgur.com/s1SXEc8.png

Well, this is a problematic, and gives me a little extra nudge towards leaving at the end of this season.

Turns out it wasn't a problem at all, as we went unbeaten in the league all the way from January until April on a run that included a 1-0 win against a Feyenoord team that had a man sent off after 2 minutes, a result which ultimately proved decisive as we leapt above them to finish second for the first time in the club's history.

We had a decent enough run in Europe too. After finishing off the group stage we were drawn against Qarabag in the knockout playoff. We easily pushed them aside before getting Napoli in the last 16. I played a weakened team as I was trying to focus on the league, but after a 1-1 draw in the first leg we had hope of an upset, however a late goal in the return game saw them squeeze through 3-2 on aggregate.

LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/7R4zTAH) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/hUdDmLI) | EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/NYf48hu) | TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/D75caR4) | SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/FEfS6Th)

--

My contract expires next season & if we manage to make the CL group stages this season I really might let it run out as i don't know that I can take this team much further without investing several more years in to building the team. My reputation is still sitting at only 35% / 2 stars, so I think I'm going to need to move on to one of the major leagues if I'm ever going to work my way up to one of the bigger jobs. I've had a few interviews at mid-table sides in France & Burnley offered me an interview as well, so I think it should be possible to get a job somewhere, it just seems like my game is a bit bugged & half of my interviews think I'm proposing changes to their expectations when I'm not - a bit of testing suggests this might not happen when you don't have a job, hence why I'm debating leaving.

John Arne

07-02-2023, 02:21 PM

Not seen this message for a while. Got this guy on trial and just offered him a contract, fortunately this appeared before I confirmed with him

https://gyazo.com/6c56804475d7f9fb2cab0af81c7cf6b0.jpeg

Sir Andy Mahowry

10-02-2023, 02:34 PM

Palamós CF 2035/36 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/jTx3o9O.png

https://i.imgur.com/jrAhLEm.png

Mihajlo wanted to leave and as he was a backup who was seemingly at or near his max potential I let him go. Decent offer and we get 20% of any profit.

https://i.imgur.com/qfyStR1.png

Barbato got a lot of minutes with us last year but most were off the bench and he was not happy so I cashed in for £58m with 20% of any profit. He's done really well at Hamburg so it seems we could still make a decent amount on top of the initial payment. Shame to lose him though as I did like him but I was worried I wouldn't be able to make him happy to sign a new contract.

https://i.imgur.com/O1ACBFJ.png

Petrazzuolo was one of my starting CB's (although my third choice was right behind him) but he wanted to leave last season but I kept him. He wanted to leave again this season and I didn't think it would happen as the bids were far too low. By January the third choice CB had jumped above him and Villarreal came in with a good enough offer for me to let go.

https://i.imgur.com/o9q2RLe.png

Vargas was bought for £60k during our first ever season in La Liga and had been a backup for his whole career with us but he was happy with this. Teams were making low offers this season and he was fine when I was rejecting them but then Gladbach came in with an offer which met his release clause. A bit sad to lose him but £60m is insane for him.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/wofVXj9.png

https://i.imgur.com/P5WMCjH.png

Bastos was someone who was on my radar for a while but we never had £70m+ which was what Man City were looking for prior to this Summer. They dropped his price tag and I swooped in. I see him as potentially our new starting AMC at some point who can also play on either wing too, which is what he did this season.

https://i.imgur.com/2LhAuTX.png

Another year, another keeper. Malo is the most expensive but he's also got the most potential according to my scouts/coaches. I even gave him some quite a few games when my first choice keeper had a wobble.

https://i.imgur.com/bqyUX8u.png

When Mihaljo left I needed a backup LB and so I chose Cleocir, he needs some work on his technical ability but I like him a lot. He's also Portuguese so doesn't take up a non-EU spot.

https://i.imgur.com/z3ZalG0.png

Soucase has been on my radar since he was 15. When he was 18 he went to Arsenal for £5m which broke my hear but he was still interested. In January the board made a thick amount of cash available so I swooped. He doesn't look as exciting as he did when he was 15 as his progression hasn't been amazing but I still think he could be mega.

https://i.imgur.com/YqdUqg0.png

Needed a new CB with Petrazzuolo leaving so in came Javier Catalan who can play across the entire back line. I like him a lot and he's quite good on the ball which is great as I play one BPD and, other than the starter there, no one else is well suited to it.

https://i.imgur.com/zMpUWf8.png

With Vargas leaving I needed a new CDM. My first choice was a 18 year old at Real Madrid but he signed a new contract rather than come to us for £50m (he's interested again but his new release clause is £85m...) so in came Zaid Hassan, he's not amazing but he was cheap and he added a new nationality to my team (we're up to 24 different nationalities in the first team squad including those out on loan).

League:

https://i.imgur.com/VWn1gXY.png

https://i.imgur.com/anj4Y32.png
https://i.imgur.com/2ipj080.png

We had a big wobble in December where we couldn't score (I moved the Scot to ST and he struggled at times) and I thought we might struggle to finish in the top 4 let alone win the league. Thankfully we turned it around and no one else really pulled away from the pack. Madrid seem done as their squad is really old and regressed a lot and Barca had a bit of a resurgence for some reason but again, struggled near the end due to the age of the squad.

Back to back titles (both won with 92 points) and our third season in a row with 90+ points. We're doing well.

Cups:

https://i.imgur.com/b9oqvIO.png

https://i.imgur.com/6vJ4ant.png

Reserves ended up winning the shitty Supercup which seems to exist to annoy me and we got to the final in the actual cup before being battered by Barca.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/HweqoCp.png

https://i.imgur.com/70G51uV.png

Struggled a little bit in the league for some reason but it was enough to see us through.

Round of 16:

https://i.imgur.com/HAx5het.png

https://i.imgur.com/DCqdRDT.png

I was a little worried in the second leg as they wouldn't roll over but we got the job done.

Quarter-Final:

https://i.imgur.com/HqIj8jf.png

https://i.imgur.com/6it26gj.png

We started both legs really fast and they then grew into the game as it went on but the damage was done and West Ham, thankfully, just aren't strong enough.

Semi-Final:

https://i.imgur.com/lo1RMyo.png

https://i.imgur.com/HaENm19.png

Our first trip this far and really we should have won. Liverpool were lucky in the first leg as we were by far the better side, even after going down to 10 men. In the second leg we were again the better side but they went all out in the final 10/15 minutes and we just couldn't cope and the ratty cunts got the two goals they needed in the final moments to send them through.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/tJBxeOt.png

I'm a big fan of this squad, I think it's great and I do think it's a potential CL winning squad. There is some deadwood (mostly those on loan) which I'd like to chop away. In terms of upgrades it's a bit hard to do as we don't seem to have the rep to pull away genuine stars from other clubs which is the only thing that would improve us.

Dan

11-02-2023, 06:05 PM

FC Groningen 2027-28 Midseason Update

We've hit the winter break & it's been kind of a strange season so far.

TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/zwFhVgy) | LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/2yYSOIO) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/CUpCANC)

We didn't do much business in the summer, and we started well domestically before getting our first win over Ajax in the whole save, which we then wasted by losing the next three. It's all much tighter than usual, but we're in a decent position to push on if we can avoid the injuries that have plagued our season so far.

EUROPEAN FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/xFipNzn) | EUROPEAN TABLE (https://imgur.com/0IMJvRK)

We entered the Champions League in the third qualifying round once again, however this time we've been able to fight through to the league phase, and after getting a horrific looking draw we've actually done way better than I expected, racking up 10pts with two games to play. Those are against PSG & Porto though, so I think we'll have to cross our fingers that 10pts is enough, which it does seem to have been so far.

--

I haven't extended my contract yet, and I think I'm going to make the decision after the season at this point. I don't think there's much else we can achieve domestically without winning a trophy, but we have a really promising young team that does seem to slowly be inching closer towards Ajax, it's just a question of how much longer it will take & what other options are out there.

igor_balis

12-02-2023, 08:39 PM

I don't have the effort or skill to do proper updates but I'm absolutely loving my Livorno save. I absolutely save scummed important games when I was a kid but these days I almost get more motivation out of near misses. have now lost the final of the serie b playoff finals two seasons on the trot, and other than the massive anticlimax after staying up until 3am to finish the season I feel like it was probably for the best.

to be fair, my team has been massively overachieving, even the mid table dweebs like Perugia are pissing away £10k/week on players and my highest earner is on 5k. each season I've missed out on promotion (I also lost earlier in playoffs the year before) I've improved the team a significant amount. I am also acutely aware that I should appreciate this before I finally go up and inevitably get battered most weeks

Dan

13-02-2023, 12:29 AM

FC Groningen 2027-28 Season Review

I haven't extended my contract yet, and I think I'm going to make the decision after the season at this point. I don't think there's much else we can achieve domestically without winning a trophy, but we have a really promising young team that does seem to slowly be inching closer towards Ajax, it's just a question of how much longer it will take & what other options are out there.

Well, it turns out we were inching closer to Ajax faster than expected.

We continued our strong form into the new year & actually managed to do the double over Ajax, who have fallen off massively this season compared to the rest of the save, but are still Ajax. In the end, we got to the final five games with us, Ajax & PSV all within five points of each other, and it was us that had the advantage, with a four point lead over PSV & the easiest run in (https://imgur.com/LprJtEP) of the three teams.

Both Ajax & PSV decided to turn on champion mode though, crushing everyone in their path on the way to a head to head showdown on the final day, whilst we dropped a couple of careless points at home to ensure that all three teams went to the last game of the season able to win the title. Shockingly, Ajax blew the doors off PSV 6-0, but could we finish the job?

https://i.imgur.com/KBbkWlY.jpg

We also won 6-0 to record our first ever Eredivisie title, and round off my time at Groningen by ticking off the final item on the checklist, and the one I thought we were still at least a few seasons away from being able to achieve.

The fans, unsurprisingly, were delighted, whilst the board, almost as unsurprisingly at this point, thought it was alright (https://imgur.com/oSktKmn) but kinda figured we should've been able to do it even though they wanted a mid-table finish & never gave me any resources without me having to beg five times.

LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/MozbFDg) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/f4v5ytw)

As for the Champions League, the loss to Celtic proved decisive as we proceeded to lose our final two games & finish 25th, the most painful place to end up as we watched every result go against us on the final day.

CL FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/jBnLOIT) | CL LEAGUE TABLE
(https://imgur.com/QG8XnoX)
--

This is going to be the end of my time at Groningen, at least for now. My contract runs out in the summer & I'm going to try to get a job elsewhere - preferably in France or Germany - to try to start the project over again at a higher level. I'm going to keep a save point here though, so I can always come back & continue to build things up here.

I did get a job offer from Feyenoord, which would've been double the budgets I've been working with, but I don't really see the point in moving within the Netherlands, so I've turned them down.

SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/UU0TDtx) | SEASON TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/okUBWpr)

Jimmy Floyd

13-02-2023, 01:20 AM

I've gone back for another go in England and it's just as stressful an experience as before (doing a sort of short-term fireman journeyman effort - been at Palace, Bolton and now at Bristol City in the third season). No matter what tactics you play, your centre backs get turned by a straight ball hoofed over the top for a pacey forward (or often three pacey forwards, in the absurd 3-4-1-2 favoured by every Championship team) to rush onto and score. It makes trying to manage the team almost pointless. I'm mid table (which is about where we should be) but every game is an end to end tear. Last four games finished 6-4 (win), 1-1, 3-4 (loss) and 3-3.

I think I was able to avoid it in South America because there is far less pace on the field. Anyone with pace just gets 50 yards of clear turf to run into because the defenders turn like steamships. My centre forward (AF) Soonsup-Bell has 20 goals in 24 and he's been really poor at times, should have easily had 35. In the 6-4 game he had his shooting boots on and had five goals before half time. Just endless, endless chances and goals at both ends.

Dan

13-02-2023, 02:11 PM

Yeah, I've definitely found that too. Doesn't matter how deep you defend or how fast your CBs are, they just leave thirty yards of space in behind at all times, which is great.

I think I might have to create a new manager with better rep to carry on this save, as apparently taking Groningen from 14th to 1st in six seasons on 10-25% the resources of the big three isn't a good enough resume to even make me worthy of consideration at midtable clubs in the major leagues like Fiorentina & Bilbao, who seem like exactly the kinds of teams that would be taking a shot on someone like that. It's also great when half the teams refuse to consider you because you don't score enough goals from set pieces, which nobody would actually give that much of a shit about.

Gray Fox

13-02-2023, 04:32 PM

This was part of the big graphics debate by the FM 'influencers.'

Is it the match engine deciding this is what is actually happening, in which case this needs rebuilding. Or more likely, the graphics engine doesn't have a better way to display a pacey striker getting in behind so this is the best it can come up with.

Jimmy Floyd

13-02-2023, 04:51 PM

How often in a high level professional match does a pacey striker get in behind? I don't think it's this often.

I think it's more that they can't manage to make defensive attributes (such as game reading, positioning etc) cancel out pace and power in the way they do IRL.

Browning

13-02-2023, 04:56 PM

Dan

14-02-2023, 07:36 PM

I think I might have to create a new manager with better rep to carry on this save, as apparently taking Groningen from 14th to 1st in six seasons on 10-25% the resources of the big three isn't a good enough resume to even make me worthy of consideration at midtable clubs in the major leagues like Fiorentina & Bilbao, who seem like exactly the kinds of teams that would be taking a shot on someone like that. It's also great when half the teams refuse to consider you because you don't score enough goals from set pieces, which nobody would actually give that much of a shit about.

Well, I wrote that on 30th June, and then July came along, the Euro & the Copa America ended & everyone suddenly remembered me. I had job offers to take over the Turkey & Denmark national teams, as well as offers for interviews as Torino & Aston Villa, none of which I'd applied for. Villa became extremely interesting when they told me they'd give me a £62m transfer budget, but I didn't end up getting an offer, unlike Torino.

There was one other job that I did actually apply for, though. When I saw it had opened up it immediately struck me that it's pretty much the exact club that would take a chance on a manager with my profile...
https://i.imgur.com/McTGdfh.png

We're going back to Italy! After turning Fiorentina into a juggernaut on FM22 console I'm hoping I can do something similar here. They're not quite the team they are in real life at the moment, with the likes of Hojlund, Scalvini & Carnesecchi all long gone, but they did make the Europa League for the coming season & my current target is just to finish mid-table, which should be achievable.

I've had a quick skim of the squad, and to be honest I reckon Groningen would beat them comfortably right now, but the ceiling for European progress is much higher here if we can get things rolling.

I've not hit continue yet since taking over, so I'm going to have a bit more of a look around to see where we can strengthen & who we can get. We don't really have a huge amount of time until the season starts, but I should have enough time to make a few moves & figure out the team a bit.

igor_balis

18-02-2023, 03:18 PM

I don't have the effort or skill to do proper updates but I'm absolutely loving my Livorno save. I absolutely save scummed important games when I was a kid but these days I almost get more motivation out of near misses. have now lost the final of the serie b playoff finals two seasons on the trot, and other than the massive anticlimax after staying up until 3am to finish the season I feel like it was probably for the best.

https://i.ibb.co/fpJWH1c/2526.png

https://i.ibb.co/Xs0XFbb/2627.png

https://i.ibb.co/xF1LFyy/regi.png

https://i.ibb.co/k2jkTxd/spal.png

https://i.ibb.co/4gXdc2W/2728.png

i've changed my mind

igor_balis

18-02-2023, 03:44 PM

Lost the playoff final. Fucking hell.

Manc

18-02-2023, 03:52 PM

That's a special effort. Playoffs can be infuriating. Currently 0/2 in my FC Eindhoven save.

Jimmy Floyd

18-02-2023, 03:56 PM

Leagues that use H2H as the first separator are just scumpits.

Dan

18-02-2023, 09:15 PM

Lost the playoff final. Fucking hell.

That’s painful. Surely a runaway title win is incoming though - can’t keep finishing third without building up a strong team, just need to get the final piece to click then you’ll steamroll the league

Gray Fox

18-02-2023, 09:43 PM

The goal difference going up each year is a good sign. Needs hammering home that you need to break 73 points though. Throw some water bottles.

igor_balis

18-02-2023, 09:57 PM

Lads, don't worry about it

https://i.ibb.co/1TMzR1y/best.png

much better than promotion

Dan

19-02-2023, 11:08 AM

That qualifies you for the Conference League, I think.

Browning

19-02-2023, 11:46 AM

I won that with Lazio. My fans considered it meaningless.

Dan

19-02-2023, 06:15 PM

Atalanta 2028/29 Midseason Update

Having fallen into the perfect job following my departure from Groningen, I had a few weeks to overhaul a decent looking but not inspiring squad & see whether we would be the team pushing for Europe suggested by their Europa League qualification last season or the mid-table nobodies suggested by the board expectations.

TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/IjfxxwF)

We only had a transfer budget of about £12m to work with, but there were plenty of players who could be moved on to help create more funds, and through a combination of identifying the bargains already on my shortlist, sniffing out some release clause/transfer list steals & calling up some of my Groningen boys, we actually ended up able to make some significant upgrades. The question was, how well would they work?

LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/l4CiD4F) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/MRqDR46) | EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/jSVkjY7) | EUROPA LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/4ZqFTjG)

Turns out the answer was immediately, as we went all the way to the end of October without dropping a point in either competition, beating current Champions League holders & winners of the last 5 Serie A titles Milan 3-0 at their place in the process. We've come back to the real world a bit since then, but we're still massively outperforming my expectations & in a great position to have a very successful season.

I do still need to put some work in to the squad depth, moving some players out to get game time & finding some others to bring in/recall from loans, but we have more than twice our initial transfer budget available to spend now, so there's definitely room for us to make some more upgrades if we can find the right players. We're also struggling for home grown at club players, but that should be solved in a season or two as there are some decent looking youngsters who aren't far away from the first team squad.

igor_balis

19-02-2023, 08:25 PM

following season I'm currently in 11th after 15 games :D ffs

igor_balis

20-02-2023, 10:59 PM

https://i.ibb.co/rpG9bhd/lol.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unRldLdllZ8

igor_balis

20-02-2023, 11:50 PM

https://i.ibb.co/SQX8f75/thank.png

:rave::rave::rave::rave::rave:

Sir Andy Mahowry

21-02-2023, 12:26 AM

Such a shame we didn't get another glorious bottle.

igor_balis

21-02-2023, 03:44 PM

Absolutely wonderful nominative determinism for my new signing, the hard tackling...er, hard tackle.

https://i.ibb.co/kKHN8vB/pe.png

Browning

23-02-2023, 12:35 AM

After not playing FM for most of January due to being ill I finally returned to my save after accepting the job at recently relegated Lazio following 3 titles in 2.5 years at Newport (taking them from the National League into the Championship but leaving them before the championship season started). On paper this was a piss easy job... massive team who didn't belong in Serie B with a lot of money to spend..... and so it transpired.

Despite the club being in a fair chunk of debt they still gave me a nice transfer budget and I immediately used £17.5m of it so sign Luca Guilarducci, a 19 year old regen winger/striker from Juventus. Aside from him, it was the defense I noticed needed improving the most and so we spent another £8m on Tyrell Malacia who had been fucking about at Crystal Palace after 1 season at United. Aside from those 2, most of our serious business was done in the loan market where a ridiculous calibre of player was happy to join us, presumably because of our club rep. This meant I went into the season with a starting 11 of:

GK- Provedel, 35 years old and here when I joined, he was more than good enough for this level.
LB- Malacia as above
CB- Mario Vuskovic, one of our key loan signings, and Nicola Casale who was already here.
RB- Despite spending £2.5m on the supposed best RB in the division, a guy named DelPrato from Parma, we ended up using someone who was already here, Nicolo Armini.
DMC- Marcos Antonio, already here and one of the best players at the club, partnered by Nico Schlotterbeck, another loan signing.
AML- Gianni Martino, regen, youngster, club captain, highest earner..... this was his spot and no amount of £50m bids from Inter were taking him away from it.
AMR- Luka Romero- here when I joined and an absolute hero.
ST- The previously mentioned Ghillarducci partnered by loanee Thiago Almada.

This team was overpowered for Serie B. We set all the records. Most points (106), most goals (98), most goals by one player (36 from Ghillarducci), most wins (34), longest win streak (12 and we later beat it, not sure what we ended up with) and most importantly.... first ever team to not lose a single game.

Every member of my starting 11 got more than 7 as their AR for the year. Ghilarducci was the highest with 7.66 to go with his 38 goals in all competitions and 5 assists. Almada chipped in with 24 goals and 20 assists and Luka Romero had 23 goals and 13 assists. He achieved hero status with a 90th minute equaliser against Frosinone in our 3rd from last game of the season (with the last 2 being against relegation fodder). Not only did it save the invincible season, it also denied Frosinone promotion (unless they win the play offs).

All in all, the easiest season I've ever had. Roll on the next one where they want conference league football.

Our first season back in Serie A was both beyond our wildest dreams and incredibly, incredibly frustrating....

Transfer wise our first move was to make the loan signing of Thiago Almada permanent for £14m rising to £18m. This transfer however counted against the Serie B campaign as it was agreed so early and took our net spend for that season to a lowly £4m (52 out, 48 in). With the club over £100m in debt, it was about the best I could do.

For our Serie A campaign, there was no money to spend. My first signing was a regen striker from Liverpool on a free named Taylor Hatton. He had played 3 times for Liverpool, scoring once, and spent most of his career on loan to the championship, most recently at Bristol City where he netted 8 times in 28 games. Sexy I know. He wasn't quite ready for us so he was loaned out to Spezia for the year and would end up scoring 15 goals in 37 Serie A games for them.

Next order of business was to find a Goalkeeper as Provedel had retired as an invincible. We agreed a deal with Marsielle so sign Evan Huriez for £4.3m (rising to 5.5m) despite the fact he'd never played a professional game in his life. Towards the end of the summer that fact started to scare me so we chucked £3.5m (mostly on installments) at Leicester for their experienced Italian keeper Guglielmo Vicario. Vicario started the season as number 1, played 4 games, got injured and never got the job back from Huriez.

Elsewhere we renewed the loans of Scholetterbeck, Vuskovic and Korosec who was a Slovenian DM who was genuinely class but only started to show it towards the end of our Serie B campaign. We also bought in Orkun Kokcu on loan from Spurs who looked like a revelation before he broke his leg and we sent him back in January. I sold off a bunch of players I wasn't using to offset some of the transfer business but no one notable. We also signed Christian Pulisic on a free, but he was a sub option only at his age.

In January, we had the funds for one player and as both my starting CBs (Schlotterbeck and Vuskovic) were on loan I used to to bring in a CB, Pedro Henrique a 23 year old Brazilian from Flamengo who cost me £8.5m (again largely on instalments). This took our net spend to a massive £11.25m when all was said and done.

This meant the line up was now:

GK- Huriez- not trusted to begin with but following the injury got the job and never gave it back. Called up to the France squad as a result but never capped. This summer we turned down bids in the region of £14m for him.
LB- Malacia
CB- Schlotterbeck and Viskovic, until Henrique arrived in January. I intended to introduce him gradually but long term injuries to both our starters meant he basically played every minute once he arrived.
RB- Armini
DMC- Antonio and Korosec
AML, AMR and ST- Unchanged- Martino, Romero, Ghillarducci and Almada.

And we fucking nailed it... but not quite enough. We got a ridiculous 93 points.... and Inter got 96. Fuming. At the start I'd have taken CL, obviously, but we had a number of results that looked like significant moments for a title challenge- including:
- Beating AC Milan (2-0) and Juventus (2-1) in our first 2 games.
- Beating Inter Milan twice, including thumping them 3-0 in the home game.
- Beating Bologna 4-2 after being 2-0 down and coming off a terrible run (where we got 1 points from 3 games against Atalanta, Pisa and Frosinone).
- Beating Juventus 5-0 in the 2nd meeting.
- Beating Empoli 4-2 after being 2-0 down at HT, lead by our captain (Martino) returning from injury at HT.

A really fun season but ultimately heartbreaking. Still, with the finances we have we shouldn't be competing with Inter who spend triple our wage bill and spent £200m on new players.

I played through the next summer and it was.... eventful.

We had a few deals lined up already, namely signing Cher Ndour on a free from Monza and Zeng Xianglong on a free from Arsenal. Zeng looked like an absolute beast of a DM and at only 23 was an ideal replacement for the outgoing Korosec. Unfortunately, due to the non-EU players rules, I couldn't register him. I thought I could register one per season and he would be my 1, but we also agreed deal for a Paraguayan striker from AC Milan named Claudio Meza and despite coming in later, he took the spot. After looking into it I think it might be because he had player international football whereas Zeng has not, but I'm not sure. Either way it meant we had a player who was valued at £50m+ when he was at Arsenal who couldn't play unless we sold one of Henrique, Antonio or a shit Colombian who AVB was mindlessly giving £80k a week on a 3 year deal (making him the 2nd highest paid player at the club when I arrived). Selling the Colombian lad was the obvious answer but he turned down anyone and everyone who came in for him, presumably because they wouldn't give him £80k when he was shite. I ever offered him + £500k to Man City for a shit youth player to try and get rid of him and he snubbed Man City. :D Eventually, by offering to cover £25k of his wages, we got him to agree to go to Moderna. Surely they were paying him £50k+? Nope..... thye're paying him £475. What in the fuck was going on there if not AVB money laundering or something?

Anyway, it turns out selling him to another Italian club doesn't count..... so now we had to sell one of our starters if we wanted to register Zeng. Marcus Antonio, however, was 31, out of contract in a year and didn't want to stay. We accepted bids of around £28m from Watford and West Ham and of course he snubbed them. £17m from Brighton.... snubbed. On deadline day I lost my patience and sold him to Wolves for £5m once again agreeing to cover part of his wages. For fuck sake. But at least Zeng was registered now. We filled his spot in the team on deadline day by signing Dale Ford on loan from Liverpool and Denis Zakaria from Juventus for £375k. Earlier in the summer we'd made our one big purchase of the year, raiding Sampdoria for Gianluca D'Agostino another young CB for £7.5m. We also signed another Striker from Milan for £3m with the intent on loaning him out for the future, but that hasn't materialised yet so he's rotting on the bench.

Line up wise we're very similar, with the only changes being:
Both CBs are gone- replaced with Henrique and D'Agostino
Both DMs are gone- replaced with Zeng Xianglong (who is a CM I'm retraining) and a combination of Dale Ford/Denis Zakaria/Cher NDour
Taylor Hatton has also carved out a role for himself playing either on the wing or up front when we want to rest someone and has started very well goal wise.

We've actually made a net profit on transfers by selling Hjulmand to Sporting for £7.5m and Antonio to Wolves for a pathetic £5m. That is due to change in January though because we have a deal arranged with Stoke to sign Hungarian international RB Balazs Kiralyvari who is better than Armini and is only 22 so a long term replacement.

Start of this campaign has been.... OK. We opened with 6-0 and 6-1 wins over Lecce and Spezia but once Antonio left our midfield we slipped up to draw with Pisa and lost to Empoli either side of a 5-2 win in my first ever Champions League game against Trabzonspor. Since then though we've won 4 league games, the most recent being beating Juventus 3-1 despite going down to 10 men inside half an hour. We also beat Ajax 2-1 away from home in my 2nd CL game. We currently sit top of the table, but only on GD above Milan after 8 games. I doubt we'll win the league, but this season the focus really needs to be going as far as we can in the Champions League to start clearing the massive debts AVB and his predecessors left for me. Getting rid of the shit Colombian is a big start, but there are still 2 other absolutely shite players on the wrong side of £50k a week that I need to be shot of. Thankfully, all their deals expire this year.

Sir Andy Mahowry

23-02-2023, 10:39 PM

Palamós CF 2036/37 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/94CiTTd.png

Niko Andersson was bought for £525k 6 years ago and he never managed to become a starter. It didn't look like he ever would become one so I cashed in. We also get 20% of any profit.

https://i.imgur.com/AzeZ8HN.png

This one stings a little Jorge Sanchez has been a magnificent servant for the club after signing for just £30.5k. Sadly last year he became a real after thought and barely played any minutes and he was struggling to score so I decided to move him on. £48m was a little on the low side considering how many goals he scored for us but I wanted him to play more games.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/oVxYGz5.png
https://i.imgur.com/IEI0N99.png

https://i.imgur.com/dAievTC.png

I felt like LB might be our weakest position right now so I decided to bring in Roko Leko. He's pretty raw so will probably have to go out on loan again but I think he could be decent. He did get quite a lot of game time at Real Oviedo in La Liga this season which is good.

https://i.imgur.com/H2eBYRK.png

I'm stunned how cheap Jaume Fontan was as I think he could be special. He spent the season on loan with the club I bought him for which is probably a level too low for him (the 4th tier in Spain), not sure if he'll stay here next season or go on loan to another La Liga club.

https://i.imgur.com/Tu9VMLp.png

Alberto Real is our record transfer ever at £85m. I tried to buy him in January when his clause was £50m but he chose to re-sign with Madrid upping his clause to £85m which, after some umming and ahhing, I decided to activate.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/YP0Hafz.png

https://i.imgur.com/r5mjyop.png
https://i.imgur.com/MSAlhq2.png

That's three in a row now and also our most unconvincing. It was the lowest points total to win the league in the save and I really thought we were going to fluff it at one point. We had a lot of games where the team would just stop scoring and then let in a late goal to take away the win/draw. Madrid were sloppier though.

Cup:

https://i.imgur.com/ZqPMal7.png

We had a lot of suspensions going into the final which is a shame but oh well.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/XTp1gIF.png

https://i.imgur.com/rwKtuHh.png

After we beat Man City I thought this might be our year finally but to then struggle so much against the others was a real shitter which caused us to finish outside the top 8 for the first time.

Knockout Playoff:

https://i.imgur.com/MD9BNMI.png

https://i.imgur.com/7xLZjmp.png

No real trouble here which was to be expected.

Round of 16:

https://i.imgur.com/84ktSrV.png

We had a shocking first half but responded well in the second half and had a good chance at the death to tie it up.

https://i.imgur.com/00DFF85.png

In the second leg we were horrendous and I'm not sure we even had a highlight, it was painful. What also stung was Renato Augusto, a man I tried to sign as my LB in the Summer (he's a natural LB/AML) but was beaten to him by Arsenal.

Our joint worst showing in a Champions League which came off the back of a semi-final last season. The board were not happy and neither were a core group of players in the team who I had to promise a quarter-final place next season.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/35byRSI.png
https://i.imgur.com/kJLCVdS.png

The squad, including all loanees, is pretty damn large. I wanted to trim it down some more in the Summer but was unable to do so and had to settle for loans, I will try again to shift some weight (I'm looking at Reinertz, Corradini, Parenti and Zaid Hassan). In terms of incomings I'm not sure what I'll do, it seems the players who would improve the first 11 all cost £150m which we don't quite have.

Sir Andy Mahowry

24-02-2023, 11:34 PM

https://i.imgur.com/Foi5bo2.png

Well we've hit the "long term goal" of the save before winning the Champions League.

I guess I'm done as soon as I win the CL as we are officially BIGGER than Barcelona.

Dan

25-02-2023, 11:06 AM

Still gotta pass Real though

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-02-2023, 01:54 PM

Bayer Leverkusen are after this chap:

https://i.imgur.com/Y2oIfvc.png

On the 26th of July they made an offer:

https://i.imgur.com/qHncBmT.png

They came back on the 30th:

https://i.imgur.com/cIfIdss.png

The 3rd of August:

https://i.imgur.com/8j5PJi2.png

The 7th:

https://i.imgur.com/3bMn9X0.png

The 11th:

https://i.imgur.com/We8KbJD.png

Why is the AI so shit at making bids for your players?

Gray Fox

25-02-2023, 02:17 PM

Isn't that pretty much exactly how Man UFC tried to sign Bruno Fernandes the first time around?

Jimmy Floyd

25-02-2023, 02:40 PM

Is his contract running down or something?

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-02-2023, 03:18 PM

He's got 5 years left as I had a 2 year optional extension in his contract which was activated as soon as he got the hump about wanting to leave.

Dan

25-02-2023, 05:07 PM

Atalanta 2028/29 Season Review

Turns out the answer was immediately, as we went all the way to the end of October without dropping a point in either competition, beating current Champions League holders & winners of the last 5 Serie A titles Milan 3-0 at their place in the process. We've come back to the real world a bit since then, but we're still massively outperforming my expectations & in a great position to have a very successful season.

Well, we're going to break this one down competition by competition...

Coppa Italia:

We'll start with the one nobody cares about. We get the perks of not having to enter until the third round, and a draw against Cagliari was decent enough. Parma followed in the quarter finals & were also sent packing, setting up a semi final against Roma. They gave us a game at our place in the first leg, but only had 80mins in them & we proceeded to blow them away in the final 10mins, before finishing the job to put us in the final against Juventus.
https://i.imgur.com/UgPrio4.jpg

:cool:

We went a goal down against a team I'd expected would crush us, but it turned out we were the ones doing the crushing, wrapping up an unexpected victory in emphatic fashion.

COPPA ITALIA FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/imqt16T)

--

Europa League:

We'd put ourselves in a strong position over the first half of the season, sitting 5th after 6 games, and we did enough to narrowly hold on to a top 8 spot & a place in the last 16. We ended up being drawn against Monaco, losing the first leg 2-0 before running wild on them at home, winning 5-0 to seal a quarter final spot. In a poetic turn of events, we were drawn against our former Dutch rivals Ajax in the last eight, and after seeing them off 1-0 in both legs we got another Dutch team in the semis in the form of PSV.

We should've taken the initiative in the first leg, but a 92nd minute equaliser sent us back to Italy with it all to play for, and we capitalised on home advantage with a 3-0 win that put us in to the final. The only problem was that our opponent was going to be Chelsea, who beat Braga 6-0 on aggregate in the other semi & won the Premier League this season...
https://i.imgur.com/6zwNbG6.jpg

:dance:

We need to send the trophy directly to Alessandro Plizzari's house, as our goalkeeper pulled our the kind of superkeeper performance that usually only goes against you in FM, recording 11 saves, including one from Romelu Lukaku's first half penalty, before saving their fifth spot kick in the shootout to give us the trophy.

EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/dYoaN0J)

--

Serie A:

After flying out the blocks at the start of the year & positioning ourselves for an unexpected title push, the battle for glory on three fronts took it's toll a bit down the back stretch. The games started stacking up & we had a run of injuries that thinned out the squad in some key spots, and we started having to look over our shoulders at Lazio, Napoli & Inter, who were all threatening to pip us at the finish line.

In the end it came down to our result in the final game of the season, with only a win giving us Champions League football.
https://i.imgur.com/abYz5no.png

We had a scare when we gave up a 20th minute penalty, but got ourselves together & ended up comfortable winners, ensuring we finished the season third despite both Lazio & Napoli sweeping us in the league.

SERIE A FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/zDuaKa6)

--

KEY PLAYERS:

I was going to go over the whole first team squad, but I can't be arsed, so here's a speed version.

Kenneth Jorgensen (https://imgur.com/tuqgXfC) - signed from Brondby for £4.9m in the summer, he's come in & immediately established himself as a quality goalscorer, breaking the club record for goals in a season & finishing as the top scorer in the Europa League.

Alessandro Plizzari (https://imgur.com/TP3UFzN) - signed in the summer before I arrived, he's been by far the best GK I've had in the save, and he's also a beast at saving penalties. He's just earnt a call up to the national team, and it's fully deserved.

Ilie Mihaescu (https://imgur.com/GM0lj7M) & Matteo Cancellieri (https://imgur.com/o1J9Opm) - our two wide players both chipped in with plenty of goals & assists. Mihaescu was signed for £9m in the summer & has proven to be a bargain, whilst Cancelleri broke the club record for assists in a season

Giorgio Cittadini (https://imgur.com/rONdqrm) - we have a bunch of good CBs, but our club captain has combined good defending with elite corner cheesing, scoring a hilarious 10 goals this season. He's had Man Utd & PSG sniffing around him, and has said he wants to go, but we've agreed that he's not leaving for less than £49m, so hopefully that's enough to price him out of a move & he can stick around for a while longer.

SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/AULNLzx)

--

I have a few areas that I'm looking at for the summer, although we do seem to be consistently losing money every month, so I'm not sure we can really afford to go chucking our £22m transfer budget around on just anyone. I've already identified a few players who might get moved on, and I'll be looking at some of our young players to see if they can help plug some gaps without us needing to open the chequebook.

I'm not sure what the aim will be for next season yet, but if we can consolidate & keep on tuning the squad we should end up in a good spot.

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-02-2023, 11:19 PM

Well Leverkusen have stopped with the offers for the CDM.

Instead they came in and met the release clause of one of my backup AMC's:

https://i.imgur.com/c4gDu14.png

£71m.

I like the kid and he's still got room to grow according to my coaches/scouts but that seems a bit excessive.

Dan

26-02-2023, 04:42 PM

In an unexpected turn of events...

https://i.imgur.com/LMrqg32.png

The Italy job opened up after they won the Nations League & Lucien Favre retired. I had a look at the WC2030 qualifying group & they have Austria, North Macedonia, Luxembourg & Belarus, which seems like a cruise but they've already lost once at home to Austria. I figured I could probably live with some of the issues that come from managing a club & international team at the same time for a year & then quit after the World Cup, but it will give me the chance to get in the good books of some of the young Italians I can then tempt to Atalanta.

The squad is mostly around 30, so I'll be trying to mix in a few younger players here & there, but considering I'm only here for a year it'll be veterans galore when the real games come around.

Andrew

28-02-2023, 06:55 AM

Anyone playing this on console? Don’t think the idea of using a joypad appeals to me though especially with this game.

Browning

28-02-2023, 07:14 AM

Not this year but I have in the past. It’s pretty decent if you use the mode that basically makes the controller into a mouse.

Lofty

28-02-2023, 04:03 PM

Can't remember who was asking but this version runs nicely on Steam Deck, although if you don't have a massive SSD version might have to sacrifice the custom logos and faces.

Dan

28-02-2023, 06:31 PM

Anyone playing this on console? Don’t think the idea of using a joypad appeals to me though especially with this game.

I played 22 on console & then 23 for a bit. It’s much quicker to get through a season as a lot of the faff has been removed, and I’m convinced it’s easier than the full game. The controller is a bit janky to navigate the tactics screen in particular, and I found myself switching between the mouse & pad settings for the cursor, but it’s actually fine once you get used to it.

Lofty

28-02-2023, 06:45 PM

Can't remember who was asking but this version runs nicely on Steam Deck, although if you don't have a massive SSD version might have to sacrifice the custom logos and faces.

That said I have managed to install a standard logo pack and FLUT dark skin this afternoon :drool:

Dan

28-02-2023, 07:36 PM

Atalanta 2029/30 Midseason Update

I'm not sure what the aim will be for next season yet, but if we can consolidate & keep on tuning the squad we should end up in a good spot.

Well, I'd say we've done a decent job consolidating. We didn't make any huge moves, other than selling overpaid squad player Tommy St Jago for £26m at the start of the summer, but I did put a focus on bringing back some homegrown veterans to help out with squad registrations, and ensure our young players could all go out on loan without sacrificing depth. We've also agreed a deal to bring in a beastly looking young goalkeeper (https://imgur.com/Ibn0CXt), who should be my long term number 1 & will probably challenge the other beast I manage for Italy as the best young GK in the world in a few years time.

Despite losing the European Super Cup 3-0 to Arsenal at the start of the season, we've carried on our momentum from last season in both domestic & European competitions, sitting second in Serie A midway through the season & third in the CL league phase with five wins from six, including beating both PSG & Barcelona. The other game? A 2-0 defeat to Everton :moop:

TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/JJz9a22) | SERIE A FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/hoQTkYz) | SERIE A TABLE (https://imgur.com/K2oQLbx) | CL FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/zyBV470) | CL LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/HvmCiAC) | EURO SUPER CUP (https://imgur.com/IAfvqP7)

--

Italy

Quick update here too. We qualified for WC2030 as expected (https://imgur.com/eOXbEHs), beating everyone except Austria, who we drew 1-1 with. Unfortunately, having already lost to them before I took over that meant we only finished second in our group, but we did top the second placed teams table & since been drawn alongside Iran & Tunisia. which seems about average.

2029 FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/J8sOHuD) | QUALIFYING TABLE (https://imgur.com/DxYFObD) | SECOND PLACE TABLE (https://imgur.com/eAv51C8) | WC2030 GROUP DRAW (https://imgur.com/lxAgsQc)

Lofty

28-02-2023, 08:16 PM

Is 'Chairperson' instead of 'Chairman' a new feature in 23?

Lofty

01-03-2023, 08:04 AM

Lofty

01-03-2023, 08:06 AM

Has anyone tried FM on steam deck? I don't like gaming on my PC but I'm craving a lower league caper.

Found this manually, search is useless. FM23 is verified and can run a lot of leagues and ultra graphics, just small text naturally.

Dan

03-03-2023, 11:26 AM

Atalanta 2029/30 Season Review

Despite losing the European Super Cup 3-0 to Arsenal at the start of the season, we've carried on our momentum from last season in both domestic & European competitions, sitting second in Serie A midway through the season & third in the CL league phase with five wins from six, including beating both PSG & Barcelona.

Just gonna keep this one short because I'm not over it yet.

We continued our good form in all competitions, winning the Italian Super Cup & progressing from the CL league phase with 7 wins from 8 games. We got drawn against Dortmund, who we'd played in our last league phase game, and saw them off again, only to get drawn against Man City, who totally outplayed us - as every team would have, we we easily the smallest team in the last 8.

In the league, Milan refused to lose until we met them for the second time, and our win proved to be their only league defeat all season. Despite that, we actually had a 5pt lead coming down the home stretch, although we still had to play Napoli, Juventus & Inter, so I expected to watch it slowly disappear before my eyes. The way it played out, however, was even more dramatic, as we beat Juve & Napoli, but lost 3-0 to 16th placed Udinese & drew against Torino & Sassuolo, before throwing away a 2-0 lead against Inter. Somehow, though, we could still win the title on the last day if we beat relegated Pisa & Milan lost to Napoli...

https://i.imgur.com/RGDwZWL.png

That's right, we had a fucking title playoff. Milan & Napoli drew 3-3 whilst we stomped Pisa to ensure the title would be decided by a rubber match between us & Milan...
https://i.imgur.com/JzrhGQr.png

Gutted :cry:

We should've won it this year, and those four bad results down the stretch are going to haunt me for a while. We finished with 95pts & still didn't win the league, and I have no idea how we're going to be able to do any better than this, so our only hope is that Milan suddenly collapse & let us steal one. They've won the seven titles in a row & in the last five they've racked up 90, 94, 101, 90 & 95pts, so you've pretty much got to win 30 games to beat them, and even that wasn't enough this season.

Unsurprisingly it's the best ever season in the clubs history, both in terms of points & league finish, but to have it in our hands & let it slip means it feels like a defeat rather than a victory. We'll take a look at the squad over the summer & try to figure out what we can do to take that final step, but I don't think we'll be spending a whole lot as we already have a few players out on loan who are ready to come in & play.

SEASON TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/P80tE1v) | LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/TMRQehR) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/VT74hIk) | CL FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/DOMzKU6) | SUPER COPPA (https://imgur.com/r1jTYzu) | SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/dmGI6YW)

I have the World Cup with Italy up next, which will be the only tournament I manage them for, so hopefully we can do well - we're the defending champions, but we've definitely not played like the best team in the world, so I feel like anything beyond the last eight would be a decent result.

EDIT: Unfortunately for me, the Italian FA think the minimum we should achieve is reaching the World Cup final :D

Waffdon

03-03-2023, 11:51 AM

That January transfer update really did wipe out a lot of the Wonderkids lol. Schjelderup, Endrick, Duranville, Datro Fofana, Murdryk and Santos all moved clubs off the top of my head.

Chelsea must be the easiest long term save in a while. The rebuild has basically already been done for you.

Dan

03-03-2023, 02:43 PM

I have the World Cup with Italy up next, which will be the only tournament I manage them for, so hopefully we can do well - we're the defending champions, but we've definitely not played like the best team in the world, so I feel like anything beyond the last eight would be a decent result.

EDIT: Unfortunately for me, the Italian FA think the minimum we should achieve is reaching the World Cup final :D

Turns out that I was right.

https://i.imgur.com/mXn3pKR.png

We sailed through our group of Iran & Tunisia, before seeing off Scotland in the second round & Portugal in the third. Unfortunately, we faced France in the quarter finals, and they have this lad called Kylian Mbappe who'd quite good - two France highlights, two Mbappe goals.

The FA considered that to be a campaign deserving of an F grade, but I pretty much got on a plane out of there as soon as the final whistle went, so that'll probably be it for my international management career :D

2030 FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/9zih9e9)

Dan

03-03-2023, 04:25 PM

So...

https://i.imgur.com/d9JkGfI.png

Carlo Ancelotti retired & Real Madrid brought Zidane back again (I did apply & got an interview, but clearly never stood a chance). That meant Dortmund, the team I beat in the CL league phase then dumped out in the last 16, needed a new manager, and considering they're offering me 9x my current transfer budget & double the wage budget, it's pretty hard to say no. It does feel early to leave Atalanta, but Dortmund were one of the two clubs I'd targeted as the ideal next step - the other being Lyon, who now have a tycoon.

We're no better off in terms of competing against a juggernaut, obviously, as Bayern have won every title on the save so far, and Zidane has already decided to activate the release clause of the superstar GK I was looking forward to managing, but it's another huge jump in resources so we should be able to throw some money about & get the squad to a good place before the start of the season.

--

I'm leaving Atalanta in a good spot, fresh off the best season in their history, with a squad full of talented young players & having just accepted a £50m+ offer from Real Madrid for a striker who's been out on loan the last two seasons. Maybe I'll come back further down the line & try to finish what I started, but after the heartbreak of last season it does kinda feel like we gave it our best shot & would probably have to wait another few seasons for another opportunity, in which case I may as well just build with a 2-3 year window at a team with way more resources & pulling power.

igor_balis

03-03-2023, 04:38 PM

Getting absolutely fucked up in serie A, but it's been a really productive season. Spent the last 8 seasons slowly haemorrhaging money until prize money/board injections/player sales bring us back to the black. This year, on account of our frankly ludicrous serie A warchest of ~350k/week wages (about half of even the second cheapest knackers in the league), every time I check the finance tab we have a couple of million more than before.

Signed shit loads of saleable young prospects and upgraded all the facilities. I'm looking forward to destroying Serie B next season.

Browning

03-03-2023, 11:19 PM

Our first season back in Serie A was both beyond our wildest dreams and incredibly, incredibly frustrating....

Transfer wise our first move was to make the loan signing of Thiago Almada permanent for £14m rising to £18m. This transfer however counted against the Serie B campaign as it was agreed so early and took our net spend for that season to a lowly £4m (52 out, 48 in). With the club over £100m in debt, it was about the best I could do.

For our Serie A campaign, there was no money to spend. My first signing was a regen striker from Liverpool on a free named Taylor Hatton. He had played 3 times for Liverpool, scoring once, and spent most of his career on loan to the championship, most recently at Bristol City where he netted 8 times in 28 games. Sexy I know. He wasn't quite ready for us so he was loaned out to Spezia for the year and would end up scoring 15 goals in 37 Serie A games for them.

Next order of business was to find a Goalkeeper as Provedel had retired as an invincible. We agreed a deal with Marsielle so sign Evan Huriez for £4.3m (rising to 5.5m) despite the fact he'd never played a professional game in his life. Towards the end of the summer that fact started to scare me so we chucked £3.5m (mostly on installments) at Leicester for their experienced Italian keeper Guglielmo Vicario. Vicario started the season as number 1, played 4 games, got injured and never got the job back from Huriez.

Elsewhere we renewed the loans of Scholetterbeck, Vuskovic and Korosec who was a Slovenian DM who was genuinely class but only started to show it towards the end of our Serie B campaign. We also bought in Orkun Kokcu on loan from Spurs who looked like a revelation before he broke his leg and we sent him back in January. I sold off a bunch of players I wasn't using to offset some of the transfer business but no one notable. We also signed Christian Pulisic on a free, but he was a sub option only at his age.

In January, we had the funds for one player and as both my starting CBs (Schlotterbeck and Vuskovic) were on loan I used to to bring in a CB, Pedro Henrique a 23 year old Brazilian from Flamengo who cost me £8.5m (again largely on instalments). This took our net spend to a massive £11.25m when all was said and done.

This meant the line up was now:

GK- Huriez- not trusted to begin with but following the injury got the job and never gave it back. Called up to the France squad as a result but never capped. This summer we turned down bids in the region of £14m for him.
LB- Malacia
CB- Schlotterbeck and Viskovic, until Henrique arrived in January. I intended to introduce him gradually but long term injuries to both our starters meant he basically played every minute once he arrived.
RB- Armini
DMC- Antonio and Korosec
AML, AMR and ST- Unchanged- Martino, Romero, Ghillarducci and Almada.

And we fucking nailed it... but not quite enough. We got a ridiculous 93 points.... and Inter got 96. Fuming. At the start I'd have taken CL, obviously, but we had a number of results that looked like significant moments for a title challenge- including:
- Beating AC Milan (2-0) and Juventus (2-1) in our first 2 games.
- Beating Inter Milan twice, including thumping them 3-0 in the home game.
- Beating Bologna 4-2 after being 2-0 down and coming off a terrible run (where we got 1 points from 3 games against Atalanta, Pisa and Frosinone).
- Beating Juventus 5-0 in the 2nd meeting.
- Beating Empoli 4-2 after being 2-0 down at HT, lead by our captain (Martino) returning from injury at HT.

A really fun season but ultimately heartbreaking. Still, with the finances we have we shouldn't be competing with Inter who spend triple our wage bill and spent £200m on new players.

I played through the next summer and it was.... eventful.

We had a few deals lined up already, namely signing Cher Ndour on a free from Monza and Zeng Xianglong on a free from Arsenal. Zeng looked like an absolute beast of a DM and at only 23 was an ideal replacement for the outgoing Korosec. Unfortunately, due to the non-EU players rules, I couldn't register him. I thought I could register one per season and he would be my 1, but we also agreed deal for a Paraguayan striker from AC Milan named Claudio Meza and despite coming in later, he took the spot. After looking into it I think it might be because he had player international football whereas Zeng has not, but I'm not sure. Either way it meant we had a player who was valued at £50m+ when he was at Arsenal who couldn't play unless we sold one of Henrique, Antonio or a shit Colombian who AVB was mindlessly giving £80k a week on a 3 year deal (making him the 2nd highest paid player at the club when I arrived). Selling the Colombian lad was the obvious answer but he turned down anyone and everyone who came in for him, presumably because they wouldn't give him £80k when he was shite. I ever offered him + £500k to Man City for a shit youth player to try and get rid of him and he snubbed Man City. :D Eventually, by offering to cover £25k of his wages, we got him to agree to go to Moderna. Surely they were paying him £50k+? Nope..... thye're paying him £475. What in the fuck was going on there if not AVB money laundering or something?

Anyway, it turns out selling him to another Italian club doesn't count..... so now we had to sell one of our starters if we wanted to register Zeng. Marcus Antonio, however, was 31, out of contract in a year and didn't want to stay. We accepted bids of around £28m from Watford and West Ham and of course he snubbed them. £17m from Brighton.... snubbed. On deadline day I lost my patience and sold him to Wolves for £5m once again agreeing to cover part of his wages. For fuck sake. But at least Zeng was registered now. We filled his spot in the team on deadline day by signing Dale Ford on loan from Liverpool and Denis Zakaria from Juventus for £375k. Earlier in the summer we'd made our one big purchase of the year, raiding Sampdoria for Gianluca D'Agostino another young CB for £7.5m. We also signed another Striker from Milan for £3m with the intent on loaning him out for the future, but that hasn't materialised yet so he's rotting on the bench.

Line up wise we're very similar, with the only changes being:
Both CBs are gone- replaced with Henrique and D'Agostino
Both DMs are gone- replaced with Zeng Xianglong (who is a CM I'm retraining) and a combination of Dale Ford/Denis Zakaria/Cher NDour
Taylor Hatton has also carved out a role for himself playing either on the wing or up front when we want to rest someone and has started very well goal wise.

We've actually made a net profit on transfers by selling Hjulmand to Sporting for £7.5m and Antonio to Wolves for a pathetic £5m. That is due to change in January though because we have a deal arranged with Stoke to sign Hungarian international RB Balazs Kiralyvari who is better than Armini and is only 22 so a long term replacement.

Start of this campaign has been.... OK. We opened with 6-0 and 6-1 wins over Lecce and Spezia but once Antonio left our midfield we slipped up to draw with Pisa and lost to Empoli either side of a 5-2 win in my first ever Champions League game against Trabzonspor. Since then though we've won 4 league games, the most recent being beating Juventus 3-1 despite going down to 10 men inside half an hour. We also beat Ajax 2-1 away from home in my 2nd CL game. We currently sit top of the table, but only on GD above Milan after 8 games. I doubt we'll win the league, but this season the focus really needs to be going as far as we can in the Champions League to start clearing the massive debts AVB and his predecessors left for me. Getting rid of the shit Colombian is a big start, but there are still 2 other absolutely shite players on the wrong side of £50k a week that I need to be shot of. Thankfully, all their deals expire this year.

Following the disappointment of that first campaign where we were so fucking good and didn't win the title.... we weren't able to follow up on in in season 2, at least not in the league. Juventus absolutely ran away with it leaving us to fight for a top 4 spot. When January rolled around we continued the project of fixing our defense signing Janne Hamalainen, a Finland internation LB from Atalanta for £6m, Leonel Briz Castillo, a Mexican international RB from Club America for £7m, the previously mentioned Balazs Kiralyvari from Stoke for 6.5m (Hungarian international RB) and bringing back old favourite Nico Schlotterbeck from Dortmund for 4.8m. We also signed a young defensive midfielder called Damion Zettl from Red Bull Salzburg for £3m. To offset some of this we sold Claudio Mezo, a Paraguayan international striker who wasn't worth a valuable non-EU slot to Villarreal for £2.5m. We also loaned out a bunch of young players, most notably Briz Castillo to PSG (as we couldn't register another non-EU player) and Fabrizio Cazzaniga (more on him later) to Salernitana in Serie A.

Long story short we finished 2nd again, never threatening Juve, but went on a fantastic Champions League run. In the group phase we won 7 out of 8 games, beating Trabzonspor, Ajax, Celtic, Hertha, Lille, Everton (Who have a tycoon) and Leipzig and only losing to PSG (though we lost 5-1 there). We then beat eventual champions Juve 8-3 on aggregate in the round of 16 before stunning Man City 5-2 on aggregate in the quarters. Unfortunately we bumped into PSG in the Semis and after a 2-2 draw at home, we went one worse in the 2nd trip to Paris and lost 6-1.

So we went back to business for Season 4, my 3rd season in Serie A (after taking over in Serie B) and continued to plug away at the defense, signing:

Pascal Ludovic- A RB/CB from recently relegated Werder Bremen for £12m. He was a bit part player for the first part of the season and spent the 2nd half of the season on loan at Gijon to get some game time.
Marcus Vinicius- A wonderkid LB/CB from Atletico Mineiro for £5.25m. We couldn't register him (non EU issue again) so he was loaned out to Atletico Madrid for the season where he was a starter for them. Annoyingly as soon as he left the game decided he was now registered but I didn't include a recall clause.
Mario Napoletano- a LB I've had my eye on for some rime from Sassuolo for £10m. I had previously agreed deals with him but he wanted £250,000 a week or so. Now his demands were down to £120,000 which still made him our top earner but I needed to replace an ageing Malacia so in he came.
William Cosenza- A young striker signed for £3.9m from Boca Juniors and loaned back out. Looks like he might not be good enough to be fair.

Our only notable sales were Cher NDour joining Sociedad for £5.5m, Samuele Vignato joining Spezia for £1.4m, Enrico Delprato joining Bologna for £1.2m and former starter Nicolo Casale hoining Salernitana for £800k.

This left the new look squad as:

GK- Huriez- Still our number 1 despite not being a world beater, we just haven't found better. By the end of the season he had played 111 league games in Serie A for us Vs 1 league game in the rest of his career. He's 30 as well so not like he was a kid when we signed him.
LB- Napoletano, displacing Malacia who was just too old now.
CB- D'Agostino remained a starter despite big money bids in the summer from Newcastle unsettling him (he still wants to leave but has agreed not to unless someone bids £36m.) He was partnered by Fabrizio Cazzaniga who returned from a loan spell to another Serie A club last season and looked to have bags of potential and was now listed as a wonderkid. One of our own :cool:
RB- Leonel Briz Castillo who could now be registered following his 6 month loan at PSG.
DMC- Zang Xianglong who was signed FOR FREE from Arsenal and is a beat, alongside Pedro Henrique who played at CB for us last season but we moved him forward to accommodate Cazzaniga. Henrique is probably the player I'd most like to upgrade on, aside from maybe the keeper.
AML, AMR and ST- Unchanged- Martino, Romero and Ghillarducci retain their spots but Almada dropped to a bench option for Taylor Hatton, another freebie (This time from Liverpool) stealing a starting spot after being the top marksman in Europe last season.

And it was a season of 2 halves to be sure.

We kicked off the season with the toughest game possible, away at the champions Juventus and we didn't get a kick as we lost 3-0. I wasn't worried as we faced promoted Cremonese next... but when that finished 2-2 I was suddenly very worried. An international break happened and following it we got D'Agostino back from injury which was huge but for whatever reason I blamed the slow start on Napoletano and bought back Malacia to play LB. This worked as we romped past Atalanta 5-1 and then Atletico Madrid away 3-0 in the next 2 games. We snatched a 2-2 draw in a tough game with Napoli and then beat Benevento 4-0 and things were looking up and after that run of games I gave the job back to Napoletano and he didn't let it go again. Cazaniga still hadn't kicked a ball all season due to injury and Ghilarducci had also been injured in the first game but other than that we were finally at full strength. Unfortunately, despite the fact the CL was still going well we suffered back to back league losses against Roma and Sampdoria and were then struggling in midtable. We went to Inter soon after and I felt we had to win to stop the streak of us getting up into the european places and then dropping down. We went all out for it and stole a 2-1 win in a result that was pivotal. All told by the midpoint of the season we were in the top 4 and we had cruised through into the Last 16 of the Champions League again, winning all of our games except a 3-3 draw with Bayern (where we were 3-0 down at HT) and losing 3-0 to Man City when I rested everyone.

The 2nd half of the campaign... was the polar opposite. We collapsed in the CL, losing to a last minute goal against Atletico Madrid who we had previously spanked in the group phase... but we stopped being so hit and miss in the league. We beat Roma 2-1 to close the gap on them and Inter who were at the top and then following 3 more wins we were top, although it was about a point separating the top 4 (Us, Roma, Inter and Juventus). We blinked first, drawing 2-2 at Napoli and letting Inter and Roma overtake us. All 4 teams continues winning streaks but Juventus dropped away when we beat them 3-0 and they also lost to the other 2 as well. It was now a 3 horse race. For much of the season Roma were ahead of us by a point and we were 2 points above Inter but they had a game in hand. After that Napoli draw where we gave up the lead, we won 13 games in a row and that was only enough to steal a narrow lead over Roma who only dropped points once, ironically by drawing at Napoli just like we did. Inter meanwhile refused to drop points, also going on a 13 game win streak which snapped abruptly when they came to face us at Olimpico and we dismantled them 5-0. This was after we had won our previous game 1-0 with a 89th minute winner. Following those 2 results we had 2 games to go and a 1 point lead over Roma. Inter were all but out of it following the 5-0 loss to us and when they only drew 1-1 at Fiorentina in their next game it was a 2 horse race. Unfortunately, we had one more slip up in us, going to the San Siro and losing 2-1 to AC Milan despite absolutely bossing the game. Roma won and we had that sinking feeling as they went back top by 2 points heading into the final day. But there was still a glimmer of hope because Roma had to go to Inter on the final day while we had Genoa at home. We ruined Genoa, winning 7-0 and frankly it should have been more. And then the news came through that Inter had beaten Roma 1-0, making us the champions. I don't know if I could have handled getting 92 points and not winning the league 2 seasons after getting 93. We pipped Roma by 1 point and Inter by 3 points.

Player wise, Taylor Hatton was the top scorer in the league with 32 goals. Ghilarducci was 3rd with 22. They were also the top 2 players in the league on average rating with Ghilar on 7.77 and Hatton on 7.73. Sukru Karaman, a wonderkid I signed from Liverpool for £6.5m in January was also ranked high with 7.36 despite only really being a sub. He managed 12 league goals and 4 assists in 20 games with 18 being off the bench. Luka Romero had the most assists with 16 and Hatton set a record for most MOTM awards with 10.

Frankly, I don't know where I go from here. This was seen by me as a season of transition, especially after our bad start. We had some great young players, especially the LB on loan at Atletico and Cazzaniga who eventually broke into the first team as our starting CB and I was planning to just let them develop with a view to challenging for the title properly in a season or 2. To have won the league with such a young squad who have so much potential feels a bit like "completed it mate" and time to move on, but.... there's something about this team and this league that is just fun. We'll see if I move on or not I guess.

Yevrah

06-03-2023, 11:58 AM

With the January data update having landed I need to get back into this. I have a few ideas for a save, but any suggestions?

Waffdon

06-03-2023, 12:04 PM

Reims and show the gimp in charge who the real FM super star is

Dan

06-03-2023, 08:24 PM

Dortmund 2030/31 Midseason Update

We're no better off in terms of competing against a juggernaut, obviously, as Bayern have won every title on the save so far, and Zidane has already decided to activate the release clause of the superstar GK I was looking forward to managing, but it's another huge jump in resources so we should be able to throw some money about & get the squad to a good place before the start of the season.

Well, it's been a very Bundesliga season so far - Bayern out in front, us in behind & everyone else beating each other too frequently to keep pace.

We didn't end up spending much, and in fact have sold more than we've bought, although we did bring in four goalkeepers since we only had two shit ones at the club after the good one followed Zidane to Real Madrid. The players we did sign have been good though, with Marian Diekneite (https://imgur.com/OqRXaqr) our new number one, Thom Visser (https://imgur.com/tLTXRuV) impactful on the left wing, Benjamin Jimenez (https://imgur.com/imxtxHn) reuniting with me to keep things ticking over in the middle & Jon Karrikaburu (https://imgur.com/PTRqMA7) leading us in goals despite only being intended to be a backup player.

As mentioned, we're sitting second in the league at the midway point, although having beaten Bayern at their place we probably should be top - unfortunately a couple of classic FM specials have cost us, but we're certainly closer than I expected to be.

TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/17dfLAb) | LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/NBVuBOW) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/2ayk6U0)

The Champions League has been a mixed bag, with some good results balanced out by a smashing against Benfica where all four of their goals were scored by players I'd had at Groningen, then a loss to Man City where we threw away a 2-0 lead. We are still in position to get an automatic spot in the last 16, but we have my former club Atalanta up next, which will probably be an interesting one.

CL FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/YDAdJ20) | CL TABLE (https://imgur.com/pImADlD)

I may have gone a bit far with the player sales & loans, as we've been having some problems with depth & fitness, particularly at the back where CB Thiaw & LB Moha have been needing a rest for what feels like two months. As such, I've gone crazy the other way & have already brought in a bunch of defenders & midfielders to help ensure we have some extra cover through the second half of the year. The youth setup doesn't seem to have a huge amount of talent at the minute, so I'll be looking to snap up some promising youngsters & hopefully the youth intakes will start chipping in as well.

wullie

06-03-2023, 08:26 PM

Just finished the 27/28 season with an all-time Cov record finish of fifth which was good for a spot in the Europa League, then a news item confirmed that thanks to coefficients both England and Germany now had 5 Champions League group spaces so I'm in the big time somehow.

My board has set me the target of reaching the 'table stage' so I'm guessing the European competitions are all a bloated mess that makes no sense now

Sir Andy Mahowry

06-03-2023, 09:42 PM

Palamós CF 37/38 Season Update:

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/YUrNiop.png

https://i.imgur.com/41huO6w.png

Sergio was a quality backup option for us being able to cover 3 positions and I wasn't planning on selling him this season. Leverkusen kept making shit offers for a CDM of mine (which got progressively worse every few days) and then out of the blue they decided to meet Sergio's release clause of £71m. I was stunned that they went that high, especially as it came from nowhere.

https://i.imgur.com/snnliob.png

Toby Macneil was a HUGE part of the team since signing in 2030/31 for £9.5m. He was absolutely amazing for us at AMR as an IF but struggled at times when I moved him to ST as an AF. I wanted to make a push for the CL this season and didn't think he was good enough to lead the front line so I wanted to sell him to bring in a newgen from Spurs who looks mustard. However, I couldn't get it done in the Summer as Spurs wanted £300m or so. I went back in during January and got a deal agreed of £270m or so (a lot on instalments) but he accepted a new contract at Spurs for a lot less money.

I also had a problem selling Macneil too, despite many big clubs wanting him all I was getting was shit offers. His value was £100m+ but teams kept bidding closer to £40m. Macneil ended up being phased out slightly after the Summer though as I decided to give Matias Soucase a chance as the striker and he flourished which made Macneil redundant and I accepted £80m in January when Norwich came calling.

https://i.imgur.com/EX3j8fF.png

Eduardo Stevens was our first choice keeper and whilst he was great for us he had a bad performance in him. In November he conceded 4 goals in back to back games (against Real Madrid and Bayern) which pissed me off so I benched him and I splashed the cash on a new first choice keeper in January.

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/EQKEAQw.png

https://i.imgur.com/Dt7uzkb.png

We didn't really need a new striker (nor an AMR) but I liked the look of him and he did really well this season. Scoring at a decent rate when played and he managed a few assists.

https://i.imgur.com/PmX4Pcj.png

In came Matthias Jensen to become our new number 1 keeper, he's probably the best keeper in my save so it was a huge upgrade over Stevens. He played really well and was even named the keeper of the year in the CL. The only negative is that he saved his worst performances for the final couple of games when we really needed him...

https://i.imgur.com/K3t6ML7.png

I didn't need a LB (I've even agreed to buy another in the Summer) but I couldn't say no to Maurizio Remorini. He was 20 when he signed and he's already fairly comparable to my starter but he has bags of potential still. He introduced himself well with 3 assists on his debut but struggled when playing in any other game sadly.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/s5hvEbw.png

https://i.imgur.com/CatpVmk.png
https://i.imgur.com/zfXVTwd.png

I'm not really sure what happened here, Real were top of the league after the mid-season break (albeit by H2H IIRC) and looked like they would go toe to toe with us throughout the season but when they came back they turned to shit winning only 7 games, drawing 7 and losing 6. As such no one was going to realistically catch us come the end of January and the only reason we didn't hit 100+ is because I kept playing the second 11 in games before the CL.

Also, the 4-3 with Real Madrid right near the end was fun. I played my second 11 and we were 3-0 down after 33 minutes. We grabbed one before halftime and then the reserves levelled it up before I sent on some of our big guns to win the match.

Cups:

https://i.imgur.com/3nvqiiB.png

Our second Supercopa win for the second 11, such a pointless super cup. In the actual cup we were shit. We battered Osasuna for 120 minutes but they held on and then won on penalties. The board were seething but fuck it.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/bsZ3Wwb.png

https://i.imgur.com/FM8F5eY.png

Second year in a row that we failed to hit the top 8 but the game screwed us with some mental hard fixtures (four of which finished in the top 8, what bullshit) and so we needed the playoffs.

Playoffs:

https://i.imgur.com/ReheD24.png
https://i.imgur.com/DiFmQCD.png

Milan were never going to stop us but I did worry how bad we looked in the first leg. Thankfully we smashed them in the second.

Round of 16:

https://i.imgur.com/3c55D7Q.png
https://i.imgur.com/nGX24Y3.png

Leverkusen were the easiest team by far that we could have gotten in this round and the FM gods were kind to us. I was a little scared in the second leg when they went 1-0 up and we got a red as I thought the game was going to screw us over. But we managed to hold on.

Quarter-Final:

https://i.imgur.com/iY8Z2SI.png
https://i.imgur.com/FIVfeXx.png

The 3-2 score line flattered "Atleti" a lot as we should have done a lot better. Again, I feel tis was the easiest draw we could have had as we are much better than all the Spanish sides right now.

Semi-Final:

https://i.imgur.com/Q1kzk8I.png

https://i.imgur.com/uUU8IKD.png

After the first leg I was cautiously optimistic as we looked the better side and probably could have won it by more. I thought we were going to the final when Ikanga scored early but then the game stuck the middle finger up at us. Carlos Guevara (sadly not Che) was sent off for fuck all and then it was near enough all them, sadly my keeper had a shitter and he really should have saved two of their goals. I was crushed and felt we had been done over by the game, this was tough to take.

PSG went on to beat Dortmund (no idea how they did it as they finished 3rd in the Bundesliga behind Leipzig, who are the first team to win the Bundesliga other than Bayern, and Bayern) in the final.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/F9RMNGP.png

The squad right now is brilliant and more than capable of winning the Champions League but the game seems to keep throwing random red cards and penalties against us in the biggest matches to hamper us. I did try to buy a WORLD CLASS CB or RB to come in as I feel our defence is the weakest position but they were both £250m+.

Lofty

07-03-2023, 11:11 AM

Started a journeyman save, sunday league footballer experience, C licence, Tactician, England Germany Italy France Spain all leagues running. Was rejected for a lot of jobs, eventually got offered two interviews: Banbury and Chippenham. Banbury opted for Dean Holdsworth, and whilst Chippenham look to be in dire straits (18th in the Vanarama South with 13 points from 12 games, -4 GD) I am bored of waiting so off we go.

I decided to bring heavy metal football to the Vanarama South with great success. Put together quite the run after a debut defeat against national league opposition. We even managed to briefly top the league table before doing an impression of Marv from Home Alone 2 and immediately falling. Essentially form stuttered during the run in partly due to injury and partly due to Chippenham being a part time outfit with no money meaning the players I had got playing well were easy pickings for other clubs. Finished 2nd with 91 points behind Ebbsfleet. Beaten 1-0 with a man sent off by Havant and Waterlooville in the playoff :moop:

Waffdon

07-03-2023, 12:28 PM

With the January data update having landed I need to get back into this. I have a few ideas for a save, but any suggestions?

Have you chosen?

John Arne

08-03-2023, 02:46 AM

Is this lagging for anyone else since the minor update from yesterday?

igor_balis

09-03-2023, 08:46 PM

https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/334899304_195952336381227_6346279043320532438_n.pn g?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=ae9488&_nc_ohc=xA9swYx4jvUAX-05vOI&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=03_AdQNAKeMRF5I_xjM2-RL1QX6Iov-8OzyFvs0vDUQgHzGkg&oe=6431A450

God, I love these useless dickheads.

Yevrah

09-03-2023, 08:59 PM

Have you chosen?

I haven't yet. Been tied up with some tedium and haven't had the time to crack into a game yet.

Browning

10-03-2023, 06:07 PM

Following the disappointment of that first campaign where we were so fucking good and didn't win the title.... we weren't able to follow up on in in season 2, at least not in the league. Juventus absolutely ran away with it leaving us to fight for a top 4 spot. When January rolled around we continued the project of fixing our defense signing Janne Hamalainen, a Finland internation LB from Atalanta for £6m, Leonel Briz Castillo, a Mexican international RB from Club America for £7m, the previously mentioned Balazs Kiralyvari from Stoke for 6.5m (Hungarian international RB) and bringing back old favourite Nico Schlotterbeck from Dortmund for 4.8m. We also signed a young defensive midfielder called Damion Zettl from Red Bull Salzburg for £3m. To offset some of this we sold Claudio Mezo, a Paraguayan international striker who wasn't worth a valuable non-EU slot to Villarreal for £2.5m. We also loaned out a bunch of young players, most notably Briz Castillo to PSG (as we couldn't register another non-EU player) and Fabrizio Cazzaniga (more on him later) to Salernitana in Serie A.

Long story short we finished 2nd again, never threatening Juve, but went on a fantastic Champions League run. In the group phase we won 7 out of 8 games, beating Trabzonspor, Ajax, Celtic, Hertha, Lille, Everton (Who have a tycoon) and Leipzig and only losing to PSG (though we lost 5-1 there). We then beat eventual champions Juve 8-3 on aggregate in the round of 16 before stunning Man City 5-2 on aggregate in the quarters. Unfortunately we bumped into PSG in the Semis and after a 2-2 draw at home, we went one worse in the 2nd trip to Paris and lost 6-1.

So we went back to business for Season 4, my 3rd season in Serie A (after taking over in Serie B) and continued to plug away at the defense, signing:

Pascal Ludovic- A RB/CB from recently relegated Werder Bremen for £12m. He was a bit part player for the first part of the season and spent the 2nd half of the season on loan at Gijon to get some game time.
Marcus Vinicius- A wonderkid LB/CB from Atletico Mineiro for £5.25m. We couldn't register him (non EU issue again) so he was loaned out to Atletico Madrid for the season where he was a starter for them. Annoyingly as soon as he left the game decided he was now registered but I didn't include a recall clause.
Mario Napoletano- a LB I've had my eye on for some rime from Sassuolo for £10m. I had previously agreed deals with him but he wanted £250,000 a week or so. Now his demands were down to £120,000 which still made him our top earner but I needed to replace an ageing Malacia so in he came.
William Cosenza- A young striker signed for £3.9m from Boca Juniors and loaned back out. Looks like he might not be good enough to be fair.

Our only notable sales were Cher NDour joining Sociedad for £5.5m, Samuele Vignato joining Spezia for £1.4m, Enrico Delprato joining Bologna for £1.2m and former starter Nicolo Casale hoining Salernitana for £800k.

This left the new look squad as:

GK- Huriez- Still our number 1 despite not being a world beater, we just haven't found better. By the end of the season he had played 111 league games in Serie A for us Vs 1 league game in the rest of his career. He's 30 as well so not like he was a kid when we signed him.
LB- Napoletano, displacing Malacia who was just too old now.
CB- D'Agostino remained a starter despite big money bids in the summer from Newcastle unsettling him (he still wants to leave but has agreed not to unless someone bids £36m.) He was partnered by Fabrizio Cazzaniga who returned from a loan spell to another Serie A club last season and looked to have bags of potential and was now listed as a wonderkid. One of our own :cool:
RB- Leonel Briz Castillo who could now be registered following his 6 month loan at PSG.
DMC- Zang Xianglong who was signed FOR FREE from Arsenal and is a beat, alongside Pedro Henrique who played at CB for us last season but we moved him forward to accommodate Cazzaniga. Henrique is probably the player I'd most like to upgrade on, aside from maybe the keeper.
AML, AMR and ST- Unchanged- Martino, Romero and Ghillarducci retain their spots but Almada dropped to a bench option for Taylor Hatton, another freebie (This time from Liverpool) stealing a starting spot after being the top marksman in Europe last season.

And it was a season of 2 halves to be sure.

We kicked off the season with the toughest game possible, away at the champions Juventus and we didn't get a kick as we lost 3-0. I wasn't worried as we faced promoted Cremonese next... but when that finished 2-2 I was suddenly very worried. An international break happened and following it we got D'Agostino back from injury which was huge but for whatever reason I blamed the slow start on Napoletano and bought back Malacia to play LB. This worked as we romped past Atalanta 5-1 and then Atletico Madrid away 3-0 in the next 2 games. We snatched a 2-2 draw in a tough game with Napoli and then beat Benevento 4-0 and things were looking up and after that run of games I gave the job back to Napoletano and he didn't let it go again. Cazaniga still hadn't kicked a ball all season due to injury and Ghilarducci had also been injured in the first game but other than that we were finally at full strength. Unfortunately, despite the fact the CL was still going well we suffered back to back league losses against Roma and Sampdoria and were then struggling in midtable. We went to Inter soon after and I felt we had to win to stop the streak of us getting up into the european places and then dropping down. We went all out for it and stole a 2-1 win in a result that was pivotal. All told by the midpoint of the season we were in the top 4 and we had cruised through into the Last 16 of the Champions League again, winning all of our games except a 3-3 draw with Bayern (where we were 3-0 down at HT) and losing 3-0 to Man City when I rested everyone.

The 2nd half of the campaign... was the polar opposite. We collapsed in the CL, losing to a last minute goal against Atletico Madrid who we had previously spanked in the group phase... but we stopped being so hit and miss in the league. We beat Roma 2-1 to close the gap on them and Inter who were at the top and then following 3 more wins we were top, although it was about a point separating the top 4 (Us, Roma, Inter and Juventus). We blinked first, drawing 2-2 at Napoli and letting Inter and Roma overtake us. All 4 teams continues winning streaks but Juventus dropped away when we beat them 3-0 and they also lost to the other 2 as well. It was now a 3 horse race. For much of the season Roma were ahead of us by a point and we were 2 points above Inter but they had a game in hand. After that Napoli draw where we gave up the lead, we won 13 games in a row and that was only enough to steal a narrow lead over Roma who only dropped points once, ironically by drawing at Napoli just like we did. Inter meanwhile refused to drop points, also going on a 13 game win streak which snapped abruptly when they came to face us at Olimpico and we dismantled them 5-0. This was after we had won our previous game 1-0 with a 89th minute winner. Following those 2 results we had 2 games to go and a 1 point lead over Roma. Inter were all but out of it following the 5-0 loss to us and when they only drew 1-1 at Fiorentina in their next game it was a 2 horse race. Unfortunately, we had one more slip up in us, going to the San Siro and losing 2-1 to AC Milan despite absolutely bossing the game. Roma won and we had that sinking feeling as they went back top by 2 points heading into the final day. But there was still a glimmer of hope because Roma had to go to Inter on the final day while we had Genoa at home. We ruined Genoa, winning 7-0 and frankly it should have been more. And then the news came through that Inter had beaten Roma 1-0, making us the champions. I don't know if I could have handled getting 92 points and not winning the league 2 seasons after getting 93. We pipped Roma by 1 point and Inter by 3 points.

Player wise, Taylor Hatton was the top scorer in the league with 32 goals. Ghilarducci was 3rd with 22. They were also the top 2 players in the league on average rating with Ghilar on 7.77 and Hatton on 7.73. Sukru Karaman, a wonderkid I signed from Liverpool for £6.5m in January was also ranked high with 7.36 despite only really being a sub. He managed 12 league goals and 4 assists in 20 games with 18 being off the bench. Luka Romero had the most assists with 16 and Hatton set a record for most MOTM awards with 10.

Frankly, I don't know where I go from here. This was seen by me as a season of transition, especially after our bad start. We had some great young players, especially the LB on loan at Atletico and Cazzaniga who eventually broke into the first team as our starting CB and I was planning to just let them develop with a view to challenging for the title properly in a season or 2. To have won the league with such a young squad who have so much potential feels a bit like "completed it mate" and time to move on, but.... there's something about this team and this league that is just fun. We'll see if I move on or not I guess.

Another season down at Lazio following our title win the year before and it was eventful.

Going into the Summer Transfer window I was happy to just keep the band together, but the game had other ideas. 3 of my first team players- Huriez, D'Agostino and Briz Castillo were seriously unsettled following premier league interest. While I was able to get 2 of them to stay in the end, Castillo just wasn't having it and he eventually departed for Man City for £36.5m which could rise to £42m, not bad considering we signed him for £7m 18 months ago. Malacia was released due to being too much money for his age and Schlotterbeck was sold off for £3m after getting homesick but then randomly choosing Wolves over a return to Germany..... alright mate. Janne Hamalainen who had been our back up LB/LW was also sold when Atletico offered us £16.5m for him which was frankly too much for the role he played. On deadline day Karalyvari threw his toys out the pram and was sold to Napoli for £8m. While all these were good deals, I did take my eye off the ball a little, and not realise just how many defenders we had let go....

Transfers in were more low key than the outs. We signed Frederic Andrey, a young Defensive Midfielder for £14.25m from Caen and immediately loaned him out to Sunderland. We also completed the £12m signing of wonderkid Keeper Dario from Espanyol but I didn't realise I had still included a loan back so he went back there on loan. To offset losing him we signed Norway's keeper Simon Nokolaisen from Dortmund for £1.7m to warm the bench. We also bought in a young promising winder, Mouhamed Ndao from Atalanta for £3.6m and Alexis MacAllister who was released from Napoli joined us on a free.

It was only after deadline day that I realised just how badly I'd fucked up. We had 6 first team defenders on the books.... and we played a back 4. To make matters worse, 1 of the other 2 was our first choice at DM. This meant we had 1 player to fill in for 5 first team spots. Oops. I got to work trying to solve it but the rules being what they are meant that no matter what I did (free transfer, loan etc) no one new could join us until January. Surprisingly this didn't bite us on the arse as hard as I expected as we, for the most part, avoided injuries and were able to soldier through. When the transfer window opened, we immediately signed:

Caio Henrique- a verteran I signed on a free hoping I could register him to play before January.... I could not. He ended up not playing and leaving at the end of the season.
Gabriel Fernando- A Brazilian CM/RW who was released by Mineiro but seemed good enough to play a role for us. He was my first back up at CM and did well enough.
Betinho- my favourite signing of the window for £12m from Palmeiras. Unfortunately, we fell victim again to the non-EU rules and couldn't play him. He was therefore loaned out to Hertha.
Andreu Crusat- A young defender who joined on loan from Barcelona, featured a little.
Moises- a promising winder from Napoli for £5m who barely featured as he's not ready.
Alfred- A young defender from Las Palmas for £8m. He again featured a bit as our first reseve whenever a defender needed a rest.
Pedro Suarez- Another youngster, this one a DMC who played again as a first reserve.
Rusembergue- Young Brazilian fullback from Fluminense for £5.75m who was loaned to our feeder club as he's nowhere near ready.

This gave us the depth we needed to not struggle as much in the 2nd half of the season. Towards the end of the window we added Jose Rodriquez, a decent looking Uruguayan wonderkid who was available on a free and all of Europe were in for him. We actually did sign and register him but I wanted him to play more so he was loaned out to PSV. We then added Edemar, a wonderkid I noticed a couple of years ago who ended up going to Spurs but they were selling for a cut price fee of £14m. I couldn't register him so out he went on loan to Schalke.

The starting line up ended up being:

GK: Huriez- been in the job 3 years but will probably be moved on as he constantly asks to leave and Dario will be back from his loan spells.
LB: Mario Napoletano- His 2nd year as our starter, very solid player but 31 years old now.
CB: Same pairing as last season, Cazzaniga and D'Agostino. I thought we might lost D'Ago but luckily we didn't.
RB: Pascal Ludovic who we loaned out last season. Not as good as Castillo we lost, but solid enough.
DMC: Pedro Henrique- Still looking to upgrade on him, may well be able to when Andrey returns from Sunderland.
MC- Zeng Xianglong- still amazing, still can't believe he was free.
LW and RW are still Martino and Romero as always.
ST- Ghillarducci is the most important player at the club, but Hatton, despite being the top scorer in Europe 2 years running, dropped to the bench with Karaman taking his spot.

The season quickly turned into a 2 horse race between us and Inter Milan for the title. We had a bit of Champions League hangover that saw us drop points early on especially with our small squad making rotation impossible. We also nearly got knocked out in the group phase, but a couple of wins towards the end snuck us through. The 2nd half of the season once the new players came in we improved a lot and built up a 4 point lead over Inter, although that disappeared when we got hammered 4-1 by AC Milan. Inter weren't as dominant as usual though so we were able to stay above them and when we beat them 2-0 with 3 games to go, it all but killed off their title challenge. Our penultimate game with Sampdoria was then delayed until after the "final day", and on said "final day" we wrapped up the title by beating Pisa 3-0. Inter actually lose to AC, though it didn't matter as we won. We then won the delayed game as well, though the title was already done.

Lazio- 92
Inter- 85
Genoa- 77
Juventus- 71
- - - - -
Roma- 70
Napoli- 63
Milan- 62

So for the second year running we end up with 92 points, but this time the title was much more comfortable.

In the Champions League we went on a great run. Despite stuttering through the group phase and into the Play Off we beat Sociedad 5-2 (4-0 at home, 1-2 away) to advance to the round of 16. We then beat Arsenal 6-3 (3-1 at home, 3-2 away) and Liverpool 8-2 (5-1 at home, 3-1 away) to make the Semi Finals for the 2nd time in 3 seasons to face Bayern Munich. Much like last time though.... we were nowhere near. We once again drew 2-2 in our home game, but lost the 2nd leg 4-1.

All told, another successful season, and the squad is only getting stronger. Karaman was a revelation up front, bagging 50 goals in 43 (11) games. Ghillarducci's goal totals dropped off massively playing behind him as he only managed 19 goals (Luka Romero had 24) but it was worth it to get so many out of Karaman. Taylor Hatton chipped in with 17 in 34 (17) games but he did score 2 goals including one in the 88th minute to help us beat Juventus 3-2 in a vital game at the end of the season and then both goals when we beat Inter. He was rewarded by FINALLY getting called up by Mourinho's England and is going to the World Cup. :cool:

Dan

11-03-2023, 09:58 PM

Dortmund 2030/31 Season Review

Well, it's been a very Bundesliga season so far - Bayern out in front, us in behind & everyone else beating each other too frequently to keep pace.

As mentioned, we're sitting second in the league at the midway point, although having beaten Bayern at their place we probably should be top - unfortunately a couple of classic FM specials have cost us, but we're certainly closer than I expected to be.

The Champions League has been a mixed bag, with some good results balanced out by a smashing against Benfica where all four of their goals were scored by players I'd had at Groningen, then a loss to Man City where we threw away a 2-0 lead. We are still in position to get an automatic spot in the last 16, but we have my former club Atalanta up next, which will probably be an interesting one.

We've finally got to the end of the season, and for the most part everything stuck to the patterns above.

BUNDESLIGA:

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this one, as despite beating Bayern home & away this season we still finished comfortably second, thanks to those occasional games where FM just decided we were losing. I got that vibe a couple of times in the second half of the season - take a look at the fixtures & see if you can guess which games they were.

LEAGUE FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/IPbn8v8) | LEAGUE TABLE (https://imgur.com/TTftuCn)

POKAL:

We had first world problems in this one, as despite not caring about this one at all we kept progressing & ended up in the semi finals against Bayern, in a game that would surely decide who would end up winning the trophy. Once again we prevailed, meaning we went 3 for 3 against Bayern this year, and with only mid-table Gladbach standing in our way, it seemed like we were going to end up basically winning the trophy against our will.

After 90mins of the final, however, the score was 0-0, with us dominating but having failed to capitalise...
https://i.imgur.com/dbTsLwg.jpg

Luckily there's stoppage time at the end of the 90mins though, and we finally got what we deserved seconds before extra time :cool:

POKAL FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/yEVccoI)

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:

Having put ourselves in a good position to secure a top eight spot, we started the new year by travelling to Bergamo to take on my former club, Atalanta, who were also pushing for the top eight. A 2-0 win in Italy pretty much secured our place in the last 16, and the reserves finished the job against the whipping boys of the competition.

We drew Chelsea in the last 16, and managed to see them off thanks to a 2-0 win at their place. Our reward was a tie against Man City, who we'd lost to in the league phase having been 2-0 up. Bizarrely, the same pattern happened in both legs of this tie as happened in the league phase - we went two up, then they pulled one back. Luckily for us, however, this time we held our nerve & took our revenge with 3-2 & 2-1 wins to secure our place in the semi finals.

Barcelona were our opponents in the final four, and we went to Spain for the first leg just hoping to stay in the tie. We frustrated them throughout, and were actually the better team, which made our injury time winner extremely satisfying. Back in Dortmund we proved it wasn't a fluke, and a 1-1 draw meant we had somehow made it to the final, where we would be taking on defending champions Liverpool.

Oh, and it was going to be played at our home ground. No pressure then...

https://i.imgur.com/ZL1fmdB.jpg

Unbelievable, but absolutely deserved. Once again we were the better team, as the secondary tactic I created has consistently worked in big games against the top teams. Dusan Vlahovic tried to ruin our party, but we weren't to be denied as each time they pegged us back we rallied & a late winner gave us a cup double (and also meant that Jurgen Klopp was sacked, lol).

CL FIXTURES (https://imgur.com/qJLLdR4) | CL LEAGUE PHASE TABLE (https://imgur.com/zD7qiXD)

Players of the Season:

We had some great performance this season, particularly from our attacking players, with both Youssoufa Moukoko (https://imgur.com/OAvsT7B) & Jon Karrikaburu (https://imgur.com/3eaHN9q) scoring 25 times, and Karim Adeyemi (https://imgur.com/UE7Ka4b), Thom Visser (https://imgur.com/q1jiQs7), Mario Berlanga (https://imgur.com/cjvSNmI), Nico Williams (https://imgur.com/LDFnKDp) & Garang Kuol (https://imgur.com/cQo8ad2) all chipping in nicely as well. In midfield both Benjamin Jimenez (https://imgur.com/rQA6q1D) & Krystian Wojtkowiak (https://imgur.com/cm66PhI) stood out amongst a solid all round group, and in defence our back four played well, but goalkeeper Marian Diekneite (https://imgur.com/1POZBfC) proved to be an outstanding replacement for the guy that followed Zidane to Real Madrid, with more than 10 expected goals saved, as well as the only penalty he faced.

TRANSFERS (https://imgur.com/737M3rV) | SQUAD OVERVIEW (https://imgur.com/ztGcdX8) | GOALKEEPER STATS (https://imgur.com/qW0l0vZ) | OUTFIELDER STATS (https://imgur.com/f2GfT3V)

Overall I'd say this was a pretty fun first season, but we still have some work to do to be able to finally break Bayern's dominance at the top of the Bundesliga. We've got plenty of money to spend, and some talented young players out on loan who can help round out the squad, so hopefully we'll be able to close the gap with a good summer.

igor_balis

13-03-2023, 10:10 PM

So, first season in Serie A we got absolutely battered and finished bottom. Serie B we ended up winning the league on the final day (unlike previous horrible seasons, promotion was wrapped up pretty early).

Came into our second attempt with the big boys, I was quietly confident we'd stay up reasonably easily. I did not expect this though:

https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/333461425_124429627248660_7574287754847764853_n.pn g?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=ae9488&_nc_ohc=hRkiHQMyEMkAX_ZEPo2&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=03_AdRBn5-ejMPF2RRhJf0Q9D2lhpxrOa9XtTKV3JWIczQbsQ&oe=643701DF

:cool:

also, I've literally only just clocked that our right flank is very reminiscent of a different sport:

https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/333522521_1143724339657830_757690014926725176_n.pn g?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=ae9488&_nc_ohc=j0NM-4P2q78AX__yoYA&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=03_AdSa5qMsKguIh9FwAIYHU-99LbHNgi2n4NUEGLzSuFAY2Q&oe=6437109B

class

John Arne

14-03-2023, 09:41 AM

Trent 'TAA' Alexander-Arnold looks to have taken a big hit on the new winter update. Down to 3 stars in the Liverpool squad :D

Raoul Duke

15-03-2023, 05:53 PM

Some nice FM game ideas here in the "local derbies that have been played the fewest times (https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/15/which-local-derbies-have-taken-place-on-the-fewest-occasions)"

Yevrah

17-03-2023, 07:57 PM

I'm baaaack.

Journeyman game with the aim of getting to the top having started as a manager with no badges and only Sunday league experience. Want the full journey experience so I've loaded all of the default leagues in Asia and South Africa to start with and I'll add/remove more as we go.

Hoping to be able to avoid Indonesia as the first stop as I've managed there loads before.

Shindig

17-03-2023, 08:02 PM

Yevrah

17-03-2023, 10:07 PM

Season 1 - Pre Season Preview

So after holidaying for a couple of weeks it didn't take long to get a job and I think I've hit the starting jackpot with this one. I give you:

https://i.postimg.cc/L8b1ckcR/Lee-Man-FC-logo.png (https://postimages.org/)

Lee Man, from the Hong Kong top (and only) tier.

Lee & Man Paper were the main sponsors and operators of Rangers during the 2016–17 season. The club played that season using the team name Lee Man Rangers (Chinese: 理文流浪).

The following season, Lee & Man decided to invest their money in building their own football club. They paid a HK$1 million entrance fee to the Hong Kong Football Association for the right to enter a club directly into the Hong Kong Premier League

Looks like I've hit the 90s Blackburn of the Hong Kong league. We have some decent forriners (including the mandatory flairy Brazilian) and £3m in the bank. I can't spend any of it yet (as I have first window budgets turned off), but a look at the competition and we might not even need to to win the league, where we're already predicted to finish second. 12 month deal on £300 a week. The only downside as far as I can see is the dressing room think I'm out of my depth.

John Arne

18-03-2023, 03:24 AM

Asian journeyman save :drool: Looking forward to the updates, Yevrah

For some background, for some reason a lot of HK clubs are very rich, notable Lion City Sailors (formerly Home United) - I suspect they'll be the team to beat, along with Albirex Niigata, the weird Japanese team playing the league who have dominated for the previous decade or so.

EDIT: had a mini stroke - those clubs play in Singapore :D Hong Kong... er....Kitchee are good.

Yevrah

18-03-2023, 01:10 PM

Season 1 2022/23 - Lee Man - Hong Kong Premier League

What a joy managing in Hong Kong is. The league season is only 18 games, with no bullshit second phase or other such nonsense. There are probably too many games in the Sapling Cup, but were I planning to stay here that'd be a great competition to blood youngsters. Anyway, onto business.

The League

https://i.postimg.cc/52W25520/League-Table.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

We led from start to finish and won the title with three games to spare, also securing a place in the AFC Champions League Group stages. Looks like Hong Kong have been flitting between that and whatever the confed cup is and I suspect the former is a bit out of our league but bring it on.

The Cups

https://i.postimg.cc/Zqcn59Zq/Sapling.jpg (https://postimg.cc/nsXpdhX8)

Securing the title led to a wanky run of form which coincided with our Sapling Cup run and saw us spurn numerous chances in the semi-final, which was a shame.

https://i.postimg.cc/zBGCzZs9/FA-Cup.jpg (https://postimg.cc/QBv9mPxb)

Still, we held it together to secure a domestic double and two trophies in the first season of a journeyman game is very welcome.

I was going to leave after a season, but the board finally released the WARCHEST and we have £1m to spend on transfers in the summer, so I'll stay for one more year and then it'll be time to move on.

Shindig

18-03-2023, 01:15 PM

I ready Leung Lap Tin as Leung Tap In. Also, Irn Bru Rangers :(

Yevrah

18-03-2023, 03:21 PM

Must admit, I had no idea Irn Bru was a thing in Asia.

Yevrah

18-03-2023, 03:35 PM

Season 2 2023/24 - Lee Man - Hong Kong Premier League - Pre-Season Update

The board were kind enough to send me on my National C coaching license badge over the summer, which with the domestic double helped to up my rep to one star. Heady heights. I then set about figuring out how to spend the £1m WARCHEST we'd been given and quickly realised that'd be impossible - the Hong Kong league is dreadful and no one commanding anything like that fee will touch it. In the end I decided to syphon a load of it into wages and see what we could do on that score. I picked up some of the better domestic players I could find (all shit obviously) but they'd help keep me within the forriner limits and then set my sights on seeing what quality we could tempt from abroad. I give you the holy trinity of:

https://i.postimg.cc/rmMLGFkb/Kameni.jpg (https://postimg.cc/qtbY4rgX)

https://i.postimg.cc/X7Tmc7K8/Miura-Profile.jpg (https://postimg.cc/JG5pR82D)

https://i.postimg.cc/KzHJGJJN/Quaresma.jpg (https://postimg.cc/VrXj4Byr)

:drool:

I signed a new contract on £400 a week for another 12 months as the last season drew to a close, but once that winds down we need to be moving on from Hong Kong. Some more trophies before we do would be cracking.

Shindig

18-03-2023, 03:40 PM

I wonder what retirement age the game has in mind for Kazu.

Yevrah

18-03-2023, 03:42 PM

Sadly 2024, but I am determined to get him to score once he turns 57 in February.

Yevrah

18-03-2023, 07:08 PM

Season 2 2023/24 - Lee Man - Hong Kong Premier League - Mid-Season Update

The league is going swimmingly and on track for our second league title in a row.

https://i.postimg.cc/5tM3nWdz/League.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

We're also still in both cups, although did just spunk a 3-0 lead against Kitchee to lose 6-3 in the Sapling Cup group stages.

However, the real DRAMA has been reserved for the continent, where we featured in the Asian Champions League. Our draw on paper looked alright: Johor Darul from Malaysia, Kashima Antlers from Japan and Jeonbuk from South Korea. Now the latter where clearly much better than us, but I fancied taking the Malaysians and it would come down to me vs Antlers for second place. That was until I realised that only the group winners are guaranteed to go through, with the 3 best second placed teams from 5 groups.

After 5 games we had 3 wins and 2 losses and we were in with a shout.

https://i.postimg.cc/0y8WsJyQ/AFC.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

It was pretty clear a draw wouldn't be enough even though it would see us second in the group and there was a scenario where even a win wouldn't see us through, so we had to beat Kashima Antlers at home. Antlers had the better of the first half, but we managed to equalise just before the break, only to see them take the lead again and us go down to 10 men. With nothing left to try I threw on Miura in one last ditch attempt to get us the win with 10 minutes to go.

https://i.postimg.cc/KzHSKD4J/Antlers.jpg (https://postimg.cc/dkrSpd2y)

:cool:

Our reward is a two legged tie against Jeonbuk, which is both odd and presumably terminal, but we've made it through. :chief:

Raoul Duke

18-03-2023, 11:26 PM

king Kazu :cool:

Yevrah

19-03-2023, 12:15 AM

Season 2 2023/24 - Lee Man - Hong Kong Premier League - End of Season Update

So my time in Hong Kong comes to an end and we bagged another couple of trophies. First we ran out comfortable winners in the league.

https://i.postimg.cc/kGpw6HTG/League.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

And then added our first Sapling Cup. Sadly Jeonbuk were too much for us in the AFC, but we did run them close and our final game was a disappointing Cup defeat.

https://i.postimg.cc/PfPcbGw2/Cups.jpg (https://postimg.cc/bdf38BLt)

Lee Man Summary

44 HoF points accrued in our two seasons:

https://i.postimg.cc/XvPK4PYY/HoF.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

https://i.postimg.cc/HnzVsJ99/Career.jpg (https://postimg.cc/SYXygx5n)

In terms of where next it depends on who'll have a one and a half star manager, but a team with a chance of winning the league in India, Australia or South Africa would be cracking.

Yevrah

19-03-2023, 12:03 PM

So after leaving Hong Kong it took 6 months to land the job I wanted, but finally it's happened.

https://i.postimg.cc/XNrzgH8g/Melbourne-Victory-svg.png (https://postimg.cc/6TNcWhF7)

Yevrah

19-03-2023, 01:58 PM

Season 3 2024/25 - Melbourne Victory - A-League - Sit Rep

https://i.postimg.cc/YCpC9rhX/Table.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

This is the situation we inherit. With the league obviously gone the aim is to get top 6 and make it to the playoff thingy, which I think is a separate competition with its own HoF points. So as these split league dogshit things go, one of the better ones.

We're also still in the Asian Confederations Cup, in a semi-final of sorts. I say of sorts as I've no idea what we need to do from here to win the bloody thing, but a team from Myanmar to start is nice.

My squad is bad, but on the plus side the foreign players are all old so the opportunity for a quick rebuild with some shrewd business is on. Looking at the rules I'm allowed 5 foreigners in the squad and 4 designated players that don't count towards the £29k p/w wage budget.

I've also binned off Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia and introduced Canada and the MLS.

Yevrah

20-03-2023, 11:08 PM

Season 3 2024/25 - Melbourne Victory - A-League - Sit Rep

First season in Australia finished and we did pretty well.

Managed to claw our way up the table to third and make the final series in the process:

https://i.postimg.cc/rmtHY2fX/League.jpg (https://postimages.org/)[/url]

Sadly despite being the form team we weren't quite good enough to take the trophy.

[url=https://postimages.org/]https://i.postimg.cc/W1hw769x/FS.jpg (https://treetop100babynames.com/exotic-baby-names-boys)

Really pleased to beat Central Coast over two legs but we were a massive let down in the final.

In more positive news we won the Confederations Cup:

https://i.postimg.cc/NFFKwbrc/Confed-Cup.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Must be the most random continental competition I've ever been in. From starting in the semi's against a team from Myanmar, to endless matches labelled as finals which manifestly weren't, to finally reaching the final and seeing we had to play the team we were facing in their home ground. Just bizarre as fuck.

Two years left on the contract, but there's a major problem with Australia, in that you can't buy any players from the A-League, you have to exchange to get them. What this means in practice is that I spend all my time looking for Australians who don't actually play in Australia just so I can meet the foreign quota. Wouldn't be so much of an issue if I was staying longer term, but not that ideal for a journeyman game. With that in mind I think I'll see out the next season and see what's about then.

thommo

22-03-2023, 02:27 PM

Only just catching up on this now Yev, good start to the career.

I managed in Hong Kong too in my Journeyman save - ended up going to Kitchee SC and winning pretty much everything across 2 seasons. My foreigner signings were significantly worse than yours however, don't think I had the same amount of cash you did. I also made too many, had to bench about 3 or 4 throughout the season. :facepalm:

I definitely had a step down when leaving though - I ended up at semi-pro Warrenpoint Town in Northern Ireland...

Yevrah

23-03-2023, 07:19 PM

Hit a bit of a problem with this save in that having to use the add/remove league option to use the MLS it's populated that league with players far too good for that level. I've rocked up at NYC and have a generated 26 year old striker who wouldn't look out of place in a top 6 premier league side and players like this are now littered throughout the MLS. Absolute realism and immersion killer.

John Arne

24-03-2023, 12:38 AM

It's weird that it does that sometimes.
I added Canada mid-save once and about 10 world class players at their peak suddenly appeared. World beaters overnight.

Yevrah

24-03-2023, 12:49 AM

It's really annoying and has killed the save for me.

Presumably 'View Only' gets round that problem but is the saving on processing power loading leagues that way enough to make it a viable option for a Journeyman game?

Yevrah

24-03-2023, 09:34 PM

Right, back in the game for another crack, this time with the other save I was toying with, Aberdeen.

I'll keep the season 1 update brief as with first window budgets turned off there wasn't a lot I could do other than play games, but we did pretty well.

https://i.postimg.cc/fy6SWQ2m/League.jpg (https://postimages.org/)[/url]

With the Scottish Cup final still to go (which we're not in, the Old Firm saw to us in both cup competitions) I think we'll be in the Europa League qualifying if Celtic win it and the Conference League if they don't.

Decent budget just announced as well which is much needed given we had about 12 players in the first team squad on loan from other clubs in the first season.

[url=https://postimages.org/]https://i.postimg.cc/MGNnmSw4/Budgets.jpg (https://banks-nearme.com/)

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-03-2023, 04:15 PM

Palamós CF 2038/39 Season Update:

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/SXOYwyK.png
https://i.imgur.com/hdITcAG.png

https://i.imgur.com/tFfcmx2.png

Decided to add another nationality to the team (at 19 right now) and I felt like we needed a new youth striker. Mehdi is pretty raw but my scouts think he could be incredible and he's super consistent and a perfectionist.

https://i.imgur.com/CFQGvaw.png

Pablo is not someone we need but I like the look of him (minus the inconsistency) as he's a big boy who is quite quick and his value has shot up. Plus it's rare to find a 5* potential guy at the club.

https://i.imgur.com/oaHFRmR.png

Esteban has been someone who I've had my eye on for a while now and I've always decided he wasn't worth the price. We were a bit light on left wingers and I like his versatility plus money is meaningless to us so I thought fuck it.

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/li1M3na.png

I wanted to keep Leonardo as I like him a lot and he is someone who was always a backup yet scored a lot when called upon. However he played a lot less last season and was moaning a lot with his contract not far from expiring so I offered him out. I expected more than the £36.5m rising to £59m but oh well.

https://i.imgur.com/aJY1R9p.png

I bought Ji-Hoon with £1.8m and I knew he was never going to get game time for us. Selling him for £38.5m rising to £43m was great.

https://i.imgur.com/xsOt2A1.png

We have so many keepers so I decided to sell one. Matijas goes for £19.5m rising to £21.5m.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/fWTWG11.png

https://i.imgur.com/5qWGIo1.png
https://i.imgur.com/VKTzrH5.png

Easiest yet. Madrid were in third for almost the whole season and Rayo were never close enough to worry us. I think I felt safe after about 15 games or so.

Cup:

https://i.imgur.com/11bBLxV.png

Reserves win the Super Cup again and we finally win the Copa Del Rey.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/FdSJZl5.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZJMGsaw.png

We pissed the league phase and I thought this was our year. Beating PSG and Bayern felt HUGE.

Round of 16:

https://i.imgur.com/C0dBjE7.png

https://i.imgur.com/NjW5ABV.png

I don't know what the fuck happened. We looked really shit in both legs. I thought we'd win the second leg easily when we scored early but the red card killed us as we needed to attack but were far too exposed. Brutal.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/aeVScfk.png

The squad is good enough to win the Champions League I know it. So much so that I'm not really sure where I can make improvements that don't cost £200m+.

We go again.

thommo

25-03-2023, 08:17 PM

How many Champions League have you bottled now?

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-03-2023, 10:59 PM

I'd say it's between 3 and 5 now :moop:

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-03-2023, 11:02 PM

https://i.imgur.com/h8tlxZY.png

I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse...

Manc

25-03-2023, 11:03 PM

Does anyone know how the UCL league fixtures are decided? I've just been given the following run:

Zagreb
Lille
Atleti
Juventus
Hearts (lol)
PSG
Bayern
Arsenal

Not a chance.

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-03-2023, 11:05 PM

That's three seasons in a row we've lost to the eventual winners now...

Sir Andy Mahowry

25-03-2023, 11:07 PM

Does anyone know how the UCL league fixtures are decided? I've just been given the following run:

Zagreb
Lille
Atleti
Juventus
Hearts (lol)
PSG
Bayern
Arsenal

Not a chance.

It's meant to be two from pot 1, two from pot 2, pot 3 and then pot 4.

So PSG and Bayern as pot 1? Arsenal and Juve from pot 2, Atleti and Lille pot 3 and finally Hearts and Zagreb from pot 4.

It used to be complete pot luck and the game didn't tell you shit but it's a bit better now.

Manc

25-03-2023, 11:16 PM

Fair enough. Here's hoping we can stretch to a 24th place finish.

thommo

26-03-2023, 12:12 PM

In my last update, I was just about to leave Kitchee SC in Hong Kong in the summer of 2027, after winning pretty much every domestic trophy that was on offer. I had high hopes of making a step forward in the world of football, but as it happened I ended up leaving a professional club to join a semi-pro outfit who had just been relegated to the 2nd tier - Warrenpoint Town in Northern Ireland.

Despite relegation, the squad looked quite good for the NIFL Championship, and immediate promotion was the aim. However, a number of first-team players were pretty unhappy and wouldn't even talk to me regarding contract extensions. And with the contracts being a bit weird in Northern Ireland (some expire in the summer as you'd expect, but others expire at the end of the calendar year), we were due to lose some key players halfway through the season. But with some smart work in the loan market, we were able to replace most of the players leaving and it ended up being a bit of a breeze as we strolled to the title and promotion back to the Danske Bank Premiership.

https://i.ibb.co/17GhWQB/27-28-ni.png

Conor Carty was the key man up top as we played a very attacking 4-4-2, with the wingers pushed on. We picked him up on a free at the start of the season and he stormed to the top of the scoring charts.

https://i.ibb.co/HYBcSqL/carty-stats.png

Back in the top tier, we started well despite losses to Coleraine and Linfield. Survival was the aim, and we were over-achieving in the first 15 games, pushing for the top 4 at one point. But as December came around, the fixtures piled up massively, especially with the various regional cups that Northern Ireland throws at you. And our semi-professional status really began to have a negative affect - we were having to rotate heavily for every game and our results took a hit.

I had my eye on the job market as I really felt that I'd achieved as much as I could without embarking on a long-term project at Warrenpoint. And one job in particular caught my eye in the 2nd tier of South Africa.

Black Leopards had enjoyed an impressive campaign, challenging for promotion after being predicted to sit in mid-table mediocrity. Their manager had been poached by a Premiership club in December while they sat in 4th, but the board still only expected a top-half finish. They were happy to accept my application and I jetted off to Africa, leaving Warrenpoint in 5th with half the season to play.

https://www.clubfootballshirts.com/uploads/6/9/5/1/69518371/black-leopards-f-c-updated_orig.jpg

The contract situation was quite strange when I joined, as I was unable to offer extensions to any players until after March. But we were able to pick up some freebies, strengthen the squad depth in the loan market and push on for promotion. Top spot was a little out of reach but we embarked on a great unbeaten run as the season wound down, helped by our striker Sifiso Williams, who ended up with 21 goals in 31 apps.

We went into the strange play-off mini league for promotion in good form, but we entered the last game needing a win for promotion - anything less would have meant our opponents were up instead. And thankfully, an academy product Litha Meyer curled in a free kick in what was to be his last game for the club, giving us a 1-0 win and promotion to the DSTV Premiership.

https://i.ibb.co/v1PJ2pm/28-29-sa.png

Despite being heavy favourites for relegation, we've started in good form in the top tier, sitting 3rd after 10 games. Williams has 9 goals already and there's a good basis for development at the club. Youth intake seems to be of a very high quality - a number of first teamers came through the academy, and as such it's a young squad that can hopefully push on throughout the year. Sipho Ndlovu looks very bright on the left side in particular.

https://i.ibb.co/x7ppWy4/ndlovu.png

I've just accepted a contract extension to the end of the 2030-31 season - ideally I can make a bit more of a name for myself here and then move on to a professional job in Europe to really build up the reputation.

Dave.

26-03-2023, 03:36 PM

Yevrah

26-03-2023, 04:32 PM

Season 2 - 2023/24 - Aberdeen - End of Season Update

With Europa League football secured we were given a decent budget of £2.4m to make some additions, which would have been good but what made it even better was Stoke coming in for Bojan Moivski and having negotiated £9m straight cash it was just too good to turn down. Armed with an £11m WARCHEST, I set about replacing all of the loans and building a squad that Aberdeen would actually own.

https://i.postimg.cc/RVyrBKTD/Transfers-1.jpg (https://postimages.org/)[/url]

https://i.postimg.cc/HnrSZvFs/Transfers-2.jpg (https://postimages.org/app)

Nearly all of the business was done in the summer, but light on striking options I moved for Shpendi in the winter window.

The League

https://i.postimg.cc/15jg1C21/League.jpg (https://postimages.org/app)

3rd again, which I'll settle for and we accrued 3 more points than last season. Feel I can overhaul Rangers in the next season or two but Celtic are just ridiculous and that'll be another matter entirely. I need that sweet, sweet Champions League money ASAP.

The Cups

https://i.postimg.cc/4xxrVwxy/Cups.jpg (https://postimg.cc/mtKXGYMW)

Disappointing. To lose to St. Mirren in the League Cup was bad enough, but getting dumped out of the FA Cup by a Championship team was just bobbins. Fixture congestion is real, so I may need to play the reserves in the League Cup going forward.

Europe

https://i.postimg.cc/0jmJtp5J/Europe.jpg (https://postimg.cc/64W3q4v9)

With Aberdeen ranked 227th on the coefficient list this was nearly the best thing I've ever accomplished in CM or FM and still amazing as it was. So many incredible performances in games I went into assuming I'd get battered. Man Utd were a step too far, but even that wasn't a hammering.

Season 3 thoughts

[url=https://postimages.org/]https://i.postimg.cc/289fHgJh/Transfer-Budget.jpg (https://postimages.org/app)

A decent budget again and with far more players now interested in joining us we really could improve both the first team and the depth. Back in the Europa League as well, it's imperative we get a decent draw in the playoff and make the group stages again - new nonsense format for the win I believe.

igor_balis

26-03-2023, 06:11 PM

Now I'm comfortably getting in champions league, and easily picking up players for £1-10m that I can flip for £40m+, it does all feel a bit futile. I know I was doing exactly the same plug and play fm approach most seasoned cunts like us use from the start of the save, but I was able to suspend my disbelief a bit more when I was going up the divisions. Now it's basically a question of how many seasons of buying for a quarter and selling for a buck it'll take to win everything.

It must be really hard to be an FM streamer like benji and loki and deliberately tank to create the illusion of jeopardy without it being really obvious.

Yevrah

28-03-2023, 04:34 PM

Season 3 - 2024/25 - Aberdeen - End of Season Update

Season 3 began with our biggest WARCHEST to date and I set about spending all of it to transform the club.

https://i.postimg.cc/43CLwN98/Adli.jpg (https://postimg.cc/4Y5QxGwt)

£3.7m from Milan breaks our transfer record and delivers what I consider to be a genuinely good player to the midfield.

https://i.postimg.cc/X7Rk61Yq/Ferguson.jpg (https://postimg.cc/w7kmhVJY)

Ferguson left Aberdeen for £3m in the summer the game starts and he's been on my radar to get back since we began. Out of favour in Italy and at £1.7m an absolute bargain.

https://i.postimg.cc/V6wYy83g/Rose.jpg (https://postimg.cc/kVjr8kMR)

£800k a bit steep for this chap, but he's club grown and I needed someone who fitted that criteria to keep the squad on the side of the European rules.

https://i.postimg.cc/pTkMgnQV/Shpendi.jpg (https://postimg.cc/ft3Pdyg1)

With his brother an instant hit we swooped to complete the set from Cesena for £1.5m.

https://i.postimg.cc/gkxbTjxd/Uldrikis.jpg (https://postimg.cc/GHnfBcPS)

The Kevin Richardson to my big Ron. With Cambuur relegated £1.2m was coughed up to bring the massive Latvian to Scotland.

https://i.postimg.cc/2yJMDd1Y/Yusi.jpg (https://postimg.cc/9wdJP7Pg)

Signed this ex Real prospect from the bowels of Spain for £100k and couldn't initially get a work permit for him so back there he went.

On the players out side of things some shit left, with the one notable deal being Mason Hancock to Stoke for £4.5m.

League Cup

https://i.postimg.cc/q7b9wdpg/League-Cup.jpg (https://postimg.cc/nsmRVgjt)

Our first trophy and with it 62 Hall of Fame points. Now I don't have to play in the group stages of this shite I'm quite a fan.

Winter Window

https://i.postimg.cc/NMGj9tpM/Granger.jpg (https://postimg.cc/Lq7pwcdK)

The most exciting youngster I've got so far, Granger was inexplicably released by Ross County and with a load of Prem clubs sniffing about I offered him 10x what he wanted to get the deal done there and then.

https://i.postimg.cc/25h0bR3P/Ramsay.jpg (https://postimg.cc/sBfYqLYc)

Another in the list of youngsters to leave Aberdeen for pastures new, I couldn't afford to buy him but 50% of his wages + £100k a month seemed a no brainer.

FA Cup

https://i.postimg.cc/VNqxCHNH/FA-Cup.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Disappointing in the cup again, but fixture congestion was very real by the point we went out.

League

https://i.postimg.cc/yNjfBqxB/League-Table.jpg (https://postimages.org/)[/url]

It's taken three years, but we've finally toppled the Old Firm's grip on the top two and with it passage into the Champions League qualifying playoffs. Just need to stay there now.

Europe

[url=https://postimg.cc/hhMrnT4s]https://i.postimg.cc/m2W6Qy0v/Europe.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Another magical European run that has done wonders for our coefficient (think we're around top 40 in Europe now), that ended with a bit of whimper as we were thoroughly outplayed by Fiorentina. A European trophy at this stage would have been lovely, but alas it was not to be.

Season 4 Thoughts

https://i.postimg.cc/ZYs5n02v/Budget.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

That's the budget for Season 4. Now the first team is relatively good I need to start bringing in more youngsters and turn Aberdeen into production factory that develops then flips them. It'll be a key piece of the strategy if we're to overhaul Celtic, let alone turn Aberdeen into a European force. I also need to qualify for the Champions League proper, which will be easier said than done.

Baz

28-03-2023, 05:07 PM

Anyone play the mobile version of FM23? I don't have time to play the full version so have to settle for this one. It looks very much like a watered down version of the full game but still decent enough.

I recently played it on a flight. It’s very engaging, and so long as you don’t want to really control everything then it’s enjoyable. I basically waited for my scouts to tell me who to loan, hit instant result and fiddled with tactics until I started doing well.

Next time I plan on playing it, I’ll be sure to set up the logos/kits/faces etc to make it even better.

Dan

28-03-2023, 06:50 PM

I haven't been feeling Dortmund since I finished the season, so over the last couple of weeks I've been faffing about with the new database & doing a few games to play about, but I think I've settled on a new save over the last few days.

I downloaded a few extra league files & have decided to start a club & country/building a nation type save in Latvia with Ventspils. Having started, I've noticed a few errors with the database - the league format is wrong, they've moved everything over to what's actually meant to be an under 18s team & the stadium only holds 100 people - but I'm three seasons in now so we're just rolling with it & pretending things are what they should be.

A Quick History of Ventspils, Brought to You by Wikipedia:

FK Ventspils is one of the biggest clubs in Latvia, and the only Latvian side to play in the Europa League group stages (2009/10). They dominated the league from 2005-2015, however they were shut down in 2020 & then somehow also banned from Europe until 2027/28 the year after, having been a right bunch of dodgy bastards. They reformed in 2023 & now play in the third tier.

--

In game, there appear to be two Ventspils teams - JFK Ventspils & FA Ventspils. In the main game it looks like JFK are the correct one, but on the file I'm using all the current players & manager etc are on FA Ventspils, so we're pretending that's the correct one & JFK are some other dickheads. Despite our former glory we don't have loads of money or reputation, and having reformed are back to being some random collection of amateurs.

Pleasingly, we've managed to secure back to back promotions anyway, mostly thanks to Aleksejs Davidenkovs (https://imgur.com/0kJPqeq) steamrolling the lower leagues at more than a goal a game over both seasons. We may have climbed to fast though, as we've now gone pro & have immediately started losing £40k a month, mostly through paying wages. We were favourites to go down at the start of the season, but luckily some kind agents showed up from Brazil with a van full of lads willing to join us, so we've pulled in three ringers who should be enough to keep us up, albeit they're not exactly helping us with the whole wages problem.

--

As for the national team, well, it's fucking Latvia. We're getting trashed by almost everyone, and although we did manage to get promoted from our nations league group we're immediately back into a relegation playing having failed to hang with Luxembourg & Montenegro. I'm starting to try to phase all the old lads out & start bringing through some young players, but I don't think it's going to make much difference for a while yet, and I'm expecting I'll end up getting canned sooner or later, so fingers crossed Ventspils don't go under or I'll be having to try to find a new save again.

Baz

28-03-2023, 06:52 PM

Give that lad some caps.

Yevrah

28-03-2023, 08:13 PM

2-0 down from the first leg having played 73 minutes of it with 10 men, this then happens in the second leg.

https://i.postimg.cc/pTJQVHkk/CL.jpg (https://postimg.cc/vgDxXCJ6)

Gutted doesn't begin to describe it.

Dan

29-03-2023, 08:40 AM

Give that lad some caps.

He’s scored 3 goals in half a season in the top flight, so I think he’s just a lower league machine sadly. We do have an 18 year old GK that I’ve given a debut to, although he’s out of contract at the end of the season & doesn’t want to sign a new deal, so that’s probably not going to help us out very much.

John Arne

29-03-2023, 10:37 AM

John Arne

31-03-2023, 04:33 AM

Nom nom nom.

https://gyazo.com/a3ffe3732e489e44759a6c54aaee79b9.jpeg

John Arne

31-03-2023, 04:38 AM

Nom nom nom.

https://gyazo.com/a3ffe3732e489e44759a6c54aaee79b9.jpeg

John Arne

31-03-2023, 05:40 AM

Not the first tiem this has happened when managing Crewe :eyemouth:

https://gyazo.com/844cc438286925044bff779ef2703581.jpeg

Baz

31-03-2023, 05:45 AM

Barry Bennell Arena.

John Arne

31-03-2023, 05:55 AM

Nonce's Bar can be found near the club shop.

Dan

31-03-2023, 10:46 AM

I've made it to the end of our first season in the Virsliga, and we managed to survive, finishing 8th (https://imgur.com/4cayYW5) thanks to a good start to the season. There are clearly a few different tiers in the league, and we're very much in the bottom one, which became obvious over the second half of the season where we could barely get a win.

The Brazilian ringers we brought in helped out, with Rodrigues (https://imgur.com/AMNoxbl) leading the way as our top scorer, whilst Mendes (https://imgur.com/LYMa9cI) & Rodrigo (https://imgur.com/4b4QIvp) gave us some extra quality at the back. We also managed to bring in Marks Kurtiss (https://imgur.com/tGJFmCR) in the middle of the season, and he chipped in with ten goals to help provide some extra firepower.

We've already lost our starting goalkeeper (https://imgur.com/q5kea42) for next season, and we'll probably also be saying goodbye to club legend Aleksejs Davidenkovs (https://imgur.com/nIQX0SX) after 87 goals in 98 games over his three seasons with us. I've moved some of our wage budget over to give us one month of full global scouting, which will hopefully help us find some extra talent to bring us closer to the teams above us, but I think it'll be a slow climb as we're going to struggle to hold on to good players for more than a couple of seasons. We've also got a new stadium (https://imgur.com/mth0ZFn) on the way, but it'll be two more seasons before we move, so finances are going to continue to be an issue for the foreseeable future.

-

In terms of Latvia, we obviously failed to qualify for the World Cup, but we did perform pretty well, picking up 9pts that included a win over Belgium (https://imgur.com/EUY1tWA). We have our national league relegation playoff in March, but hopefully we'll have enough to see off Azerbaijan. I've started bringing some young players through, so fingers crossed we'll start to see a few of them establish themselves over the next couple of seasons & maybe we'll have an outside shot of qualifying for the Euros if things fall nicely.

Sir Andy Mahowry

01-04-2023, 09:19 PM

https://i.imgur.com/bePked8.png

https://i.imgur.com/eczsfZE.png

I genuinely believed it was an actual injury, Miles fucking got me the giant bellend.

Yevrah

02-04-2023, 03:23 PM

Season 4 - 2025/26 - Aberdeen - End of Season Update

Season 4 done and I managed something I don't think I can ever recall doing on any FM or CM ever. Spoiler - it was not a good thing.

Summer Transfers

https://i.postimg.cc/YSwWbqFB/1-Christ.jpg (https://postimg.cc/JsP0h8Kp)

£125k from Nancy, looks like a bit of a bargain.

https://i.postimg.cc/pLK9hb6G/2-Vazquez.jpg (https://postimg.cc/FYsF8qm3)

£325k from one of Real Madrid's feeder teams, wouldn't normally buy a player with no face but we needed the squad depth at centre-back and he was on budget.

https://i.postimg.cc/3wsYgd02/3-Semidan.jpg (https://postimg.cc/KKD6bcNY)

Technically bereft, but like the guy's work ethic. £2.4m from Las Palmas.

https://i.postimg.cc/W3mLgSvP/4-Morrice.jpg (https://postimg.cc/ygNbzmxf)

£60k from Airdrieonians, hopefully one for the future.

Rest of the budget went into the win bonuses and we were ready to go.

Champions League Qualifying

Covered this above, but our first attempt to qualify for the Champions League group stage proper ended in an agonising penalty defeat.

https://i.postimg.cc/VNRWtbVV/Champions-League.jpg (https://postimg.cc/jWDf0CKH)

On the plus side, we did drop into the Europa League group stage.

Scottish League Cup

https://i.postimg.cc/Jn338Hbq/League-Cup.jpg (https://postimg.cc/MMTfbT3M)

More heartbreak and again on penalties. Having won this tournament last year we just couldn't fend off Celtic in the final this.

Winter Transfers

Without much at all left to spend I headed into the window not expecting to be able to do much business and then it happened. Al Sadd started sniffing around Adli and he wanted to leave. I'd forgotten he had an £18.75m release clause, but the Saudi's were prepared to pay it and suddenly we had a very decent budget to work with. The board then chucked another £5m on top of this and it was time to go shopping.

Yevrah

02-04-2023, 03:56 PM

Winter Transfers Continued

First three players were all free transfers we'd had lined up for a while.

https://i.postimg.cc/MZYB6jLc/1-Suarez.jpg (https://postimg.cc/MXvHtXqx)

https://i.postimg.cc/vZCgq74K/2-Delley.jpg (https://postimg.cc/5Xq2jCq5)

https://i.postimg.cc/2671SP0p/3-Miguel.jpg (https://postimg.cc/Q9V86nLS)

https://i.postimg.cc/rmZLjjm0/4-Alberdi.jpg (https://postimg.cc/DJGDyq1n)[/url]

£155k from a Spanish basement club, has progressed excellently since he joined.

https://i.postimg.cc/Mps2qt7s/5-Filipovic.jpg (https://treetop100babynames.com/exotic-baby-names-boys)

£2m from Serbia, immediately became first choice right back.

https://i.postimg.cc/2SLFSSvP/6-Oulale.jpg (https://postimg.cc/zy5Rd5xj)

£1.5m from Toulouse.

https://i.postimg.cc/LX91L9Y4/7-Vegas.jpg (https://postimg.cc/1gdXZZrb)

£925k from Real Sporting. A budget Iniesta or Xavi if you will.

https://i.postimg.cc/fy6y2DL9/8-Cabrera.jpg (https://postimg.cc/ZvxJ0k6b)

£3.5m from Boca Juniors

https://i.postimg.cc/Hsw8Z8wW/9-Oliveira.jpg (https://postimg.cc/MvGGXT3g)

£700k from Tondela.

I still had a fair few quid left, but there were a couple of targets I couldn't secure before the window SLAMMED SHUT.

The League

https://i.postimg.cc/Jzg8jPss/League-Table.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Target was to at least finish 2nd again and we missed out on that on goal difference. 3rd disappointment of the season.

FA Cup

https://i.postimg.cc/bJgF9wmm/Scottish-Cup.jpg (https://postimg.cc/mzcwbBf9)

To beat Celtic in the semi's was great and I really fancied us to take Rangers in the final, but despite dominating for most of the match they fucked us on the break and sealed it with two in injury time. Disappointment number 4.

Europa League

[url=https://postimg.cc/5Q48XVDp]https://i.postimg.cc/mkMj6Zjx/Europa-League.jpg (https://treetop100babynames.com/exotic-baby-names-boys)

Having dropped out of the Champions League qualifying we sailed through the group phase and took care of Famagusta before the all Scottish showdown in the last 16. The 3-0 win away from home was a joy and we were in the quarters. Bayer Leverkusen was fairly comfortable and I thought Lyon was too until we nearly fucked the 2nd leg, but we got the winner in extra time and there it was, our second European final in a row. We faced Fiorentina again who we'd lost to in the Conference League final the year before and while we were much better, we just couldn't score. Disappointment number 5.

Season 5 thoughts

On balance and despite losing three cup finals, the Champions League playoff and missing out on second in the league on goal difference season 4 was a good one. Our European coefficient is now through the roof and we still have this season to add to it and the squad was much improved. That said, I definitely want a trophy this season and we absolutely have to finish second in the league as a minimum.

Dan

03-04-2023, 07:56 PM

Ventspils & Latvia 2026 Update

Well, despite my washing machine flooding my bathroom this afternoon I've managed to finish our second season in the Virsliga, and it's been a surprisingly good one.

Having finished 8th last season & been clearly in the bottom tier of the league we took a huge tier jump this season, thanks to the addition of a couple more ringers, as I forked out for a couple of months of global scouting to maximise our chances of getting the right players in, resulting in the additions of Adailton (https://imgur.com/3AHGYgA) as our new starting goalkeeper & Nicacio Spachi (https://imgur.com/wOPkLoJ) up front as our last two non-EU players. The real difference maker, however, was a Latvian, as we nabbed Daniels Smitins (https://imgur.com/ZaXnKk1) on a free & watched as he broke the league's scoring record (https://imgur.com/l3gRVzg) with 33 goals in 31(2) games to propel us into contention for Europe.

It went right to the wire, with us Valmiera & Liepaja battling it out for two spots. The problem, though, was that they were also playing each other in the cup final, which takes away one of the European qualification places, and with Liepaja winning the trophy & finishing fifth, that meant we were in a straight fight with Valmiera to take third place & the last remaining European spot. Things got a bit tricky when we lost to them a month from the end of the season, but with an easier run in we managed to take it to the final day with both of us tied, although we had the advantage with a better goal difference. We took on the bottom side who hadn't won all season, whilst Valmiera faced the league leaders who had to win to secure the title. Happily, there was no final day drama as we beat Super Nova 3-0 whilst 10 man RFS beat Valmiera 2-0 to secure them the title (https://imgur.com/axZ3lFM) & us a place in Europe (https://imgur.com/h47iV7M) :cool:

It wasn't all sunshine & rainbows, however, as shortly after that we were told that we're dropping back down to semi pro (https://imgur.com/72E6Wm5), despite the spot in Europe promising to wipe at least half of our debt away just for showing up. I'm hoping this doesn't mean we lose all our players, but if we have to let one or two of the Brazilians go they should be easy enough to replace.

--

It's been a pretty good year with the national team too, as we've secured a second place finish in our Nations League (https://imgur.com/ZX4uZDP) group & continued to bring through some young players, including my boy Daniels Smitins who strolled in & smashed in 5 goals in his first 2 games. I think he's quite good :wub: He's got something to aim for, though, as Yev's boy Roberts Uldrikis (https://imgur.com/8e9QzPP) became Latvia's record goalscorer this year, overtaking Maris Verpakovskis with 31 goals in 64 international appearances. He's still only 28 too, so he should push that close to 50 assuming he stays fairly healthy over the next few seasons.

Just like the with Ventspils, though, the year finished with bad news in my inbox as we were drawn against Portugal, Norway, Greece & Belarus in our Euro 2028 qualifying group, which will probably result in a lot of kickings & not many points.

Yevrah

04-04-2023, 01:53 PM

The Aberdeen game is another that can be added to the scrap heap of failed saves. The board started selling my players out from under me, despite us not remotely needing the money, so fuck that.

Baz

04-04-2023, 03:10 PM

The Aberdeen game is another that can be added to the scrap heap of failed saves. The board started selling my players out from under me, despite us not remotely needing the money, so fuck that.

I won’t suggest managing TTH then. :stamford:

Sir Andy Mahowry

04-04-2023, 03:51 PM

That's going to happen at 99% of clubs until you've got great reputation or can easily fund any project.

I imagine as well that the bullshit FM projections (which are always wrong by a country mile) play a part in it too.

Yevrah

04-04-2023, 10:05 PM

Yeah, I've had it before in other saves, but so frustrating and much more damaging when you're trying to peg back Celtic and Rangers. Might be Ferguson's best achievement that.

Sir Andy Mahowry

05-04-2023, 11:21 AM

Palamós CF 2039/40 Season Update:

Transfers In:

https://i.imgur.com/fBDneZe.png

Had him signed shortly after he was produced so technically came in last season (why have they still not fixed this?), £4.2m only which I feel is a bargain. Will look to send him out on loan next season.

https://i.imgur.com/uxzZpT5.png

https://i.imgur.com/9BlIHVW.png

He's a guy I've chased for a few seasons now and I've been close to signing him but could never quite work out a deal which worked for us. We paid £110m up front with £75m in instalments. He's ancient for one of my signings but I can't deny he's incredible and thought he could be the final piece of the puzzle to put us over the edge. Unfortunately he dealt with a couple of really bad injuries this year.

https://i.imgur.com/31gu6RI.png

£2m is peanuts and I think he could be good. Will look to loan him out next year.

Transfers Out:

https://i.imgur.com/vj2LZrQ.png

With the arrival of Medina I needed to sell our former first choice RB who had actually become our third choice with the mega signing as his former backup was looking a lot better than him.

League:

https://i.imgur.com/EYq3vbU.png

https://i.imgur.com/5G2BErw.png
https://i.imgur.com/hICKLOp.png

Our only loss was with a heavily rotated side. We're just far too good for anyone else in the league.

Cups:

https://i.imgur.com/Z5aJCGD.png

Whoops.

Europe:

https://i.imgur.com/jsom0wG.png

Again we looked amazing in the league phase but then turned to shit in the knockouts. The second leg against Dortmund was particularly infuriating, they only had two highlights (one of which was a penalty) and they finished with an xG of 1.06 after 120 minutes. We on the other hand absolutely battered them from minute one but just couldn't finish. My top striker in particular was shocking, he finished the match with a 6.4 despite scoring a goal because he kept missing big chances. He alone had an xG of 2.85 in that game.

Against PSG we continued to be shit. The first leg was tight but my defence and keeper were sloppy and gifted them two goals. In the second leg they scored after seconds but my striker replied back quickly but was then forced off injured. From there it was done.

I'm still seething, especially as my main striker is annoyed that we didn't win as promised but he has to take a long look at himself for chances he missed.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/MB7w00R.png

This squad is good enough to win the Champions League but we keep bottling it. I've set a limit on this save, it ends in 2 seasons in 2042/43. The 20 year mark. We have two more chances to win the Champions League otherwise it's a complete failure. The clock is ticking dickheads.

John Arne

05-04-2023, 11:30 AM

£185m for 31 year old... madness :D

Sir Andy Mahowry

05-04-2023, 11:41 AM

He was 30 at the time...

But this is what I've been saying the last few seasons about trying to buy established players. It takes mountains of fucking cash which is why he's the only established player I've actually bought in the save recently. Everyone over the age of 24 seems to either be wank or cost £200m+.

Yevrah

05-04-2023, 11:45 AM

Yeah, get that far in a save and so many of the players are useless and the ones that aren't will cost an absolute fortune.

Yevrah

06-04-2023, 03:03 PM

After the aborted attempts at a World Journeyman game and the Aberdeen save, hopefully it's 3rd time lucky with this one - a European Journeyman game, with every vanilla nation and division loaded.

Starting with no rep and Sunday league playing experience pickings were slim, but we secured a job in the 4th tier of Swedish football with Angered BK, a semi-professional outfit.

https://i.postimg.cc/sD1WHGYB/Table.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

This is the state of play we inherit, with a 5 month contract on £425 a week to take us to the end of the season. The target is to avoid relegation, which I'd be happy to do, but the most important thing is that the board (after a bit of an argument) have agreed to fund my National C coaching license. Onwards and upwards.

Dan

06-04-2023, 05:50 PM

Ventspils & Latvia 2027 Update

It wasn't all sunshine & rainbows, however, as shortly after that we were told that we're dropping back down to semi pro (https://imgur.com/72E6Wm5), despite the spot in Europe promising to wipe at least half of our debt away just for showing up. I'm hoping this doesn't mean we lose all our players, but if we have to let one or two of the Brazilians go they should be easy enough to replace.

Dropping to semi-pro caused us a few problems with player retention as expected, but luckily we had most of our best players nailed down for another season or two, so we were able to keep up our momentum from last season, once again finding ourselves in a three way battle for 3rd-5th place. Valmiera once again gave us a push for most of the season, with Spartaks Jurmala the third wheel this time around, but once again we managed to hold strong down the closing stretch to finish up looking pretty comfortable in third (https://imgur.com/f8nUxv8), and we actually only finished a point behind RFS (https://imgur.com/owYiLKL) in the end, having beaten them in a meaningless game on the final day.

Europe was where it was at, however, as with us losing about £25k a month a good run was going to be huge to claw back some of the debt & maybe give us a push back to professional status. We entered the first qualifying round of the Conference League and got a pretty nice draw against Havnar Boltfelag of the Faroe Islands, who we saw off 3-0 on aggregate to basically wipe out all our debt. We faced FC Pyunik of Armenia in the second qualifying round, and after losing 2-1 away we came back to Latvia & rolled them 5-1 to send us through. That was where it ended though, as we faced Slovakian side Dunajska Streda who destroyed us 7-0 on aggregate, but I don't care because this whole campaign (https://imgur.com/CacoFnV) made us about £1.1m.

We were mostly carried by the same players as last season, with Nicacio Spachi (https://imgur.com/oIPPmUy), Daniels Smitins (https://imgur.com/9OYj7ea) & Rodrigues (https://imgur.com/n9xCvV1) providing the goals whilst Adailton (https://imgur.com/ax5KmcN) kept them out at the other end. Unfortunately, Spachi is one of the players we haven't been able to keep, as he didn't want to sign a new deal so we've sold him back to Brazil for £20k, which is nothing, but the 50% of next sale clause will hopefully net us a nice bit of cash. We lost a couple of other starters in midfield, but with all that extra money in the bank I think I can afford another month of global scouting to revamp the side in the offseason.

The best news of all, though, is the double whammy of our new stadium (https://imgur.com/8056TQM) being ready for next season & the news that we're going back to professional status (https://imgur.com/3IWVnrQ), which should hopefully help me keep the guys who were going to be out of contract after next season. Another good run in Europe next season & we might even be able to afford to upgrade our facilities!

Just like the with Ventspils, though, the year finished with bad news in my inbox as we were drawn against Portugal, Norway, Greece & Belarus in our Euro 2028 qualifying group, which will probably result in a lot of kickings & not many points.

That pretty much covers how the year went for the national side. We managed a draw & win against Belarus in our group, but lost every other game (https://imgur.com/W1HHOrJ), although surprisingly none were worse than 3-0, so I'll consider that progress! I was disappointed to lose both of our friendlies, against Hungary & Cape Verde, but I do think we're slowly improving as we get more newgens & nationalised foreign players into the side. It's still going to be a while before we have any chance of making a tournament, but we can pretty much put out a competent side now & I'm optimistic we can solidify out spot in Nations League C, and maybe even win a friendly in 2028!