Big clubs - maintaining interest

I always play either small clubs or rapidly move from club to club but I know a lot of people start with Man Utd and play twenty seasons winning everything.

For various reasons, I've started with Ajax this time and won the double in year one.

What I'm wondering is: how do people maintain interest in this kind of save? What should my long term aims be, other than to win the ECC?

- Build up a club in a specific way.

- Do well in Europe each season to increase the rating of your league, improving the chances of signing better players.

- Have an exit strategy - perhaps decide you would only leave for Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Home grown youngsters you sign or bring up from youth system and turn em into world beaters. Any one can win with established players. Finding diamonds in the rough and making them win the Champions league now thats a nice long term challenge.

Home grown youngsters you sign or bring up from youth system and turn em into world beaters. Any one can win with established players. Finding diamonds in the rough and making them win the Champions league now thats a nice long term challenge.

^This. The only time i start with a big club is with Liverpool because i support them and i always find that youth development is the most enjoyable part of managing a big club.

Yeah youth development is fun for two reasons:

1) It is a challenge and it takes a long time

2) I like checking up on former talents that haven't made it into my first team and see how "my kids" are doing in their career. This way, the feeling of the current club being my team is a major motivational factor

... I will never bother to do this with a big club like Manchester United though. I tend to take a club from a lower league (with potential of making it in the top) and turn them into the best and biggest club in the world.

So, basically I have to "own" the team by populating it with "my" players.

It has occurred to me that I could restrict myself to only buying U-20 players but I don't want to make it into a gimmick save.

Do what Sir Alex Ferguson does, keep building, keep winning.

Set up house rules. I only signed players at 17 years or younger. Really helps keep my arsenal save alive.

Also, aim to create better football. The results are not in doubt, but the quality of football can be. I'm still ever improving my side to produce better football.