Hackers76

Haven't purchased Fm for a couple of years so was intrigued to see how much has changed. To say it's been a frustrating first couple of seasons is an understatement. The constantly unhappy players have nearly broke me. Season 1 Finished 4th in the Premier League with 77 points earning Champions League football. Got knocked out of the FA Cup in the 5th round by Man City which is where the first revolt started. Expectations were to reach the latter stages of the competition so most of the squad were angry despite over performing in the league. Crazy the game doesn't take into account strength of opposition for this sort of thing. Playing with a 4231 pressing style similar to how Spurs line up now with the exception of the inverted full backs. Transfer wise I try to play the game with a bit of realism and don't try to sign too many players focussing on squad harmony. Of the second window transfers only Geetruida joined straight away with the others staying at their clubs until end of the season. 23/24 In: 1st window: Wilfried Gnonto £14.5m 2nd window: Lutsharel Geetruida £81m, Alberto Moleiro £23m, Adam Wharton £16m, Martin Baturina £12m, 23/24 Notable outs: 1st window: Hugo Lloris £1.8m 2nd window: Lo Celso £47m Gnonto was a good signing playing 37 times mainly off the bench but provided good cover up front and on the right. Maddison was Spurs player of the season scoring 18 goals in an injury hit season, he managed 28 games in total. I was gutted to lose Lo Celso but the Saudi Pro League came in and I had no choice. They also put bids in for Bissouma and Romero, I managed to keep hold of them by agreeing to sell if an agreed offer came in which never happened. I was expecting to lose them and others in the summer due to the constant rumours which caused many of my problems for the second season... 2nd season: The off season did not go very well, I had so many players hoping to move due to bigger clubs sniffing around and this seemed to drag on for ages. I decided not to wait and be proactive in the transfer market. However the offers for many of the players never materialised and I had a bloated squad. Due to European registration rules I had to make some tough choices and some new signings and established players were left out. Queue the second mini revolt which was deserved due to my mistakes. Despite some challenges on field things went very well, Premier League winners with 94 points which was a close run battle with Liverpool who run out of steam towards the end due to good runs in all cup competitions. In the Champions League managed to finish 2nd in the group with some impressive wins notably 2-0 away to AC Milan. Unfortunately they were a tougher proposition in the round of 16 and I lost to them on penalties. Maddison once again was the player of the season, the right side was also exceptional with Porro and Kulusevski getting 17 and 22 assists respectively. 24/25 In (all first window): Viktor Gyokeres £35m, Josh Doig £14m, Nicolas Seiwald £55m, Federico Chiesa £82m (px with Joe Rodon going the other way) 24/25 Notable outs: Bissouma £62m, Reguillon £14m, Son £114m, Hojbjerg £32m So due to the size of the squad and the registration rules I had to leave Baturina, Doig and Ben Davies out of the initial squad, all of which were very upset. Doig also suffered an injury which would keep him out for 3 months, he still constantly complained about lack of game time and has been an absolute pain since he joined so will be shipped out as soon as possible. I also managed to upset Chiesa as I had promised to improve the coaching team. I managed to get it to the best in the league but he still wasn't happy and had the full support of the squad. I then worked on the performance analyst team getting all with decent qualifications which still didn't help, he gave up complaining when we won the league! Now in the off season ready to start the third season, the aim is to trim down the squad and rely on the likes of Ashley Phillips, Adam Wharton and Mikey Moore to provide cover, this should allow a smoother ride when it comes to squad registration. Josh Doig will be the first I will move on, would love to get rid of Romero as his constant "aggressive" state during matches scares me. Plenty I have struggled to move on too, Richarlison, Skipp, Sessignon, Gil and Solomon keep rejecting contract offers which is a pain. Despite that I have a transfer budget of £150m and currently operating £320k a week under the wage budget. Tried to get Dean Henderson as back up keeper with Forster retiring but he wants £120k a week and I refuse to give that to a bench warmer. Weak spots in the squad are in goal and up front, I love Vicario in real life so I'm struggling to move on from him but it may need to happen. I may get Restes from Toulouse and loan him back for another season. Up front tempted to go for Evan Ferguson, his performances have not really caught the eye test yet (Brighton struggling will be a factor) but his numbers and scouting reports are superb, Be interesting to hear how he has performed for others or if anyone else has done the trick as a pressing forward.