santy001

It's a huge reality of football that is a consequence of continuous 24 hour news cycles so SI has to reflect it in game really. Does anyone find press conferences in real life to be anything other than tedious though? Almost all managers are media trained, they rarely put a foot out of place and they're a relic of the time before managers had that training and there were potentially interesting things to find out. Most of the time its the media trying to make something out of subtle gestures, minor details or winding up a manager and getting an inadvertent remark. Chris Kamara on Soccer Saturday was the last source of finding out anything remotely interesting from pre-match conversations with managers and they weren't even press conferences. These days it's not even likely to get a Keegan-like interview again, the last on that front was probably Benitez. They're a huge part of football now because 30-40 years ago the less frequent interviews of non-media trained managers turned up cracking stories. They got some longevity out of it when it became adopted at lower levels and caught a new batch of managers without that training but now it's pretty much redundant. There is a little utility in doing them if you do them well, they're always a potential hazard which is essentially a reflection of what they really are.

Screenshots of the likely lesser known signings for Real Madrid: Chris Rigg Jesus Diez Jorrel Hato Bertrand Matip For Barcelona: Nico Gonzalez: Luca Lipani:

Season 3 - Early Summer Business A very busy start to the Summer for Real Madrid with some big money signings coming in and a few departures albeit most just loans: Over at my Barcelona side I've also begun spending some of the funds made available, with considerably more departures:

Best XI's Barcelona: Real Madrid:

End of Season 2 - Another Real Madrid dominant year: Up until the international break in March the league was tied neck and neck with my Barcelona side still sitting at the top with the head to head record this year. From January onwards though I'd been in an unfortunate cycle of recurring injuries and it came to a head at this point where so many players were missing the squad just ran out of steam. From 29th March I went 7 league games until I won again. That comfortably handed the title to @oliscott and Real Madrid. Despite this downturn in form I still managed to get to the Spanish Cup final, however, despite a dominant display in terms of stats the game finished 1-1 and I went on to lose on penalties. The Spanish Super Cup was a resounding 4-0 defeat against Real Madrid in January, with ter Stegen injured after 3 minutes and not putting a goalkeeper on the bench Eric Garcia had to deputise and while 4-0 is a terrible score it feels somewhat respectable given an outfield player was in goal for 87 minutes. I had the misfortune of meeting @oliscott in the semi-finals of the Champions League, however, despite thinking my squad was not read for this a 1-1 draw in the first leg and a narrow 2-1 win in the second saw my side face PSG in the final. A resounding 4-2 win saw my Barcelona side wrap up the Champions League as our only trophy this season. So Real Madrid finished with another 2 for the league & Spanish Super Cup, I finished with one in the Champions League. The gap at 10 points seems quite large, but I'm not as concerned given I was down 7-8 first team regulars during March/April when my side fell away. Additionally after 2 years of heavy cost cutting and operating on bargains the board have freed up a £196m budget which is getting put to use.

A couple of examples of posts from the SI team highlighting the closures of different sections of the bug tracker.

Your save games will update to the latest version, it is things like rule changes and data changes that need new saves. If you've downloaded the updates they will be in effect on your saves.

January Window - Season 2: Having missed grabbing a screenshot at the midseason break as we end January here is the table: Tighter than last year, with my Barcelona side having gotten the win in the league in our first meeting so I've currently got top spot held by virtue of the head to head results. It's looking like this season could be an even higher points total from both clubs than last year. In terms of transfers let last years signing Umar Sadiq leave the club for £37m (rising to £44m) as he had begun making unreasonable contract demands and then took an approach of signing some youngsters and cheap players to bolster the squad: Over at Real Madrid meanwhile there was no business in January. @oliscott was trying hard to make something happen with either Haaland or Mbappe but couldn't get the clubs to part with the players, a lack of sales also meant he didn't have any further gaps arise in his squad to target some other replacements. Here are the signings since they're obscure/regens. Ramon Mierez: Joao Silva: Soren Birk:

To the best of my knowledge, there is not. Often times I will switch the development from progress to attributes and check timelines to assess development:

Summer Window - Season 2: At Barcelona I had a rather paltry £25m budget to play with, the ongoing financial struggles really imposing restraints whereas Real Madrid had a more generous £80m available. As a result I spent the summer looking to free up more wages and get players out with low-budget or academy replacements. Brandon Williams, Toni Kroos and Gaius Makouta on frees at the end of their contract. The money on youngsters I hope will come good in Joao Veloso and Nelson Weiper. I had tried to sign Weiper the season before only for a lack of budget to ruin those chances. Letting Ilkay Gundogan, Oriol Romeu, Sergi Roberto and Frenkie de Jong go (de Jong went in June so is just missing from the first screenshot). With around £140m raised from those sales. I had tried to structure a deal to bring Joao Cancelo back with a very low upfront fee but overall package skewed a bit too high and I couldn't afford it in the end. Real Madrid had a much busier summer, an early signing of Joao Neves followed by Scalvini, Silva, Barco, Restes and Rego with the pre-arranged transfer of Endrick. Some high value sales to Saudi Arabia freeing up additional funds for this spending spree. @oliscott did pull out of a deadline day deal to sign Musiala - perhaps something he will regret in the future but looking at the rest of his squad it's likely not to be the case.

End of Season 1: An incredibly tight title race, a slip up by @oliscott in the second to last game and drawing 2-2 meant everything was to play for on the final day of the season. Both sides were level on 98 points but Real Madrid were top on the head to head record. While my Barcelona side overcame an early set-back going 1-0 down to bottom of the table Almeira to win 4-1 it was redundant as Real Madrid ran out 6-0 winners. A high bar set for both sides as we finished level on 101 points with Real Madrid having a +108 goal difference while Barcelona had a +107. Real Madrid went on to win the Champions League against AC Milan with a comfortable 3-0 win, my own Barcelona side crashing out to Inter Milan in the quarter finals just not converting dominance to a result. My consolation trophy this year being the Spanish cup. Real Madrid Trophies: 3 Barcelona Trophies: 1 Best XI's from this season:

January Business - Season 1: While Real Madrid were blessed with a £120m budget coming into January over at Barcelona there were no extra funds. As a result I sold Raphina to Man City in a deal worth up to £70m to raise some funds. With players returning from loan in the summer there is going to be an abundance of players across the AM positions. That being said, the board only freed up £8m out of the sale so it limited my options. Real Madrid: Luciano Rodriguez Michael Kayode - £22m: Viktor Gyokeres - £35m: Barcelona: Yannick Eduardo - £2.5m: Scott McTominay - £5.75m:

First blood goes to Real Madrid and @oliscott with a win in the Super Cup held in Saudi Arabia. It was overall a very easy game, both squads somewhat depleted with injuries I felt I had it wrapped up when Joao Felix scored but a careless backpass from Ter Stegen gave Joselu a relatively straight forward finish. While there were a couple of strong chances late in extra time for my Barcelona side and Noah Darvich having a goal disallowed it wasn't meant to be as the game went to penalties and ended with a Real Madrid win.

Season 1 - Midseason Break: A phenomenal start from Real Madrid saw an unbeaten run until mid-November when an unexpected loss to Granada who were in the relegation zone at the time put an end to @oliscott plan for an unbeaten season. At Barcelona things have begun to settle in and while the players in the midfield positions all feel very similar, results have been strong. Entering the midseason break my Barcelona side lead Real Madrid by 2 points: Both of us are wanting to make some considerable changes to teams to build them in our preferred style but there have been good performances across both teams as would be expected. The Real Madrid squad having two players leading the charge with strong goalscoring in Bellingham and Vinicius Jr: Meanwhile over at Barcelona Umar Sadiq has been the single figurehead for goals. 18 Goals in 23 games means he is already looking to be an excellent acquisition on much lower wages than Lewandowski and for half the fee. Elsewhere in the team there are a lot of spread goals, some players like Ferran Torres, Joao Felix and Raphinha have performed better than I expected. Fermin has been surprisingly effective and even at 16 Lamine Yamal is proving dangerous:

Notable Signings - Barcelona: Umar Sadiq has started with 5 goals in 4 games, hopefully one to lead the line for the next few years while I build up funds and identify some top tier talent to sign. Kofi Amoako at £200k is a player with potential I am hoping can kick on. Cheap and looks to have a positive attribute spread this was definitely a bargain signing I feel: Then the third one to review for Barcelona is Candelari, an entirely speculative cheap purchase. The player is good physically and so I felt like taking a risk and seeing what happens over the next 18-24 months with his development was low risk. Notable Signing - Real Madrid: Ouédrago is well known in FM I expect, and while I rivalled @oliscott for the signing he picked Madrid over Barcelona.