santy001

Season 6 - Early Summer Business: A few early deals done as usual for both clubs. Real Madrid hoarding more youngsters as ever, meanwhile I've aimed to be rather precise with my signings this year to fill specific roles. Kobel as my new GK, Thuram to play as my Libero although Kai Evans and Antonio are speculative youth signings. Barcelona Transfers: Real Madrid Transfers:

Season 5 Complete - Back to Back Invincible Seasons Another domestic campaign in which Real Madrid did not lose a league game, and another season in which my Barcelona side finish runners up with over 100 points. Having begun tweaking things tactically to introduce a Libero in defence and a Segundo Volante in midfield I'm hoping I can close the goal gap a little more and hopefully get those few more results necessary but the reality is I do need Real Madrid to slip up too. At this point the only positive to take is statistically it cannot go on forever. Courtois has to replaced soon, but the rest of the team are pretty much in a position where they have years ahead of them. A clean sweep of all 4 trophies including the CL has been the case this year however. Sesko did well in his first season proving competitive with Haaland for goals. Haaland has played less games but still gotten more, but that is one of the few areas to hope maybe some recurring injuries and fitness issues are going to pose some problems for the Real Madrid team in the future. Barcelona Best XI: Real Madrid Best XI:

It depends on what you mean by getting the best out of them. Not every player can be amazing every game, in my sides the DM's are often never going to get great ratings as they're there to do fairly basic things but to a consistently high standard. If they do their job correctly then other players will have higher ratings because they've benefited from that work.

Are you on about this? If so, it's just one of the options built into the forums to give a score out of 5.

Nothing meaningful has happened from a throw in during one of my matches in recent memory, the best I've generally been able to hope for is getting a corner from one high up the pitch. It's rather been a source of frustration that I haven't even been able to get a goal from a throw in despite trying a few different things. If you're conceding regularly it suggests you may need to alter your set-up to defend them. Sometimes there may be issues/bugs with particular set-ups so might be worth checking to ensure that isn't the case with your side.

Despite the resources out there in terms of shortlists for the starting DB I never particularly bother with them myself as being a researcher I can tend to assess players rather well directly, and a particular strength is finding niche players who can perform very defined roles well. So in terms of getting to line up promising youngsters that probably does give Oli an advantage, especially in the early game. There aren't really the players ready to go in the game now that are of the strength to compete with the Real Madrid squad, so I'm in a position of having to develop them myself through training or find something else tactically.

January - Season 5 In January the £300m battle for Warren Zaire-Emery concluded with him signing for my Barcelona side over Real Madrid. Not exactly cheap, but after last season especially it feels like only the top tier players can potentially make a difference. That being said it didn't help in the league as despite arguably having the better of the game on the stats I lost 2-0 to Real Madrid and a 3 point gap has emerged between teams. Effectively 4 given the head to head sorting of the league. Barcelona Transfers: Real Madrid Transfers: *No permanent departures from Real Madrid, only loans.

Heading into the first international break it's probably the tightest start we've had in the league. A 4-4 draw between us in the league in which I really failed to capitalise on Real Madrid missing Courtois and not having a decent backup keeper, but both sides have won every other game. Sesko missed the first couple of matches of the season with injuries, but is pursuing Haaland for goals already.

Season 5 - Early Summer Business So after the previous seasons disappointing campaign resulting in losses each time Real Madrid turned up I knew really it was time to try and further add some variation to my side. Pedri despite being a genuinely good player didn't make the Best XI last year because he struggled to get a look in. With Osimhen and Roque on the left & right respectively of the central striker and Lamine Yamal starting to cement that role in the middle there was no space for Pedri and I couldn't see a viable retraining like I did with Gavi. I let him go in part to focus on bringing through youngsters as well. A couple other sales of Alex Valle for £30m and Milinkovic-Savic back to Saudi Arabia for another £50m have bolstered the clubs sizeable coffers. Another summer of mostly low profile hoarding youngsters for Real Madrid bringing in a further 6 young players. Barcelona Transfers: Real Madrid Transfers:

End of Season 4 - Nearly a Perfect Season and the Ghost of Gyokeres Past While @oliscott completed an unbeaten season in the league and finished with a 37 wins, 1 draw record the unbeaten season nearly extended to all competitions. While my Barcelona side put that to rest in the Champions League final former Real Madrid front-man Viktor Gyokeres put 4 past Real Madrid as part of a 5-3 win. My only trophy this year being the European Super Cup compared to the haul over at Real Madrid of the League, Spanish Cup and Spanish Super Cup my team are falling behind in the overall trophy race. Barcelona Best XI: Real Madrid Best XI:

Took a deep dive through his fixtures to look to see what teams he has struggled against, not just this season but in previous years too. AC Milan have always fared well against his side and they play a narrow 4-1-2-1-2. Not really suited to my side outright but I gave it a go and while my side faded away (6-2 at full time which took the game to extra time) and it turned up results. Once Oli changed formations mid-match I struggled again and the goals dried up, if Osimhen had his goal in the 68th minute count I'd have gone through 7-6 on aggregate. As that fixture list shows though, I've fallen up short in every other fixture this season. Overcoming the might of the squad @oliscott has assembled is now almost a case of waiting them out to retire rather than being able to identify genuinely better players.

My own January business consisted of me having a bit of a recognition that neither my striking options in Vitor Roque or Victor Osimhen could get much out of the Real Madrid defence. Haaland was always going to be a decisive signing once Man City were open to offers. Changing things around in my side I decided to give Nelson Weiper, a 6'4" forward I signed a couple of seasons back a run in the side. Osimhen with more space playing a little deeper and someone to run off of became more effective. With that in mind I turned my attentions towards signing essentially the target man style forward who could lead the line. I tried my luck with Sesko but Leipzig would not negotiate at all and when I looked at Ferguson at Brighton they were wanting close to £200m. I turned my attentions to 29 year old Tammy Abraham who I hope at £30m can help demonstrate across the remainder of the season whether this is an effective approach or not. My Transfers in this season proving quite costly, MIchael Sjoquist has already begun proving himself and I'm hoping the January additions of Suarez and Rodriguez can be ones for the future.

Season 4 - The Summer Business A pretty busy summer in terms of outgoings for my Barcelona side as a number of players were entering the final 12 months of their contract already on big deals. The choice between renew on higher wages for probably their last or main big contract or move them on made for a difficult choice. As Real Madrid procured Haaland there has been a couple of high value sales on their side and a whole batch of youngsters too it seems. Barca Transfers: RM Transfers:

As we're in the territory now where regens are coming through and beginning to look like they could feature soon here are a few of my top prospects. First of all is Soren Birk, signed for £17.5m during the second season scouts uncovered him early and rated him highly across 3-4 scouting missions. I moved quickly as I worried Real Madrid interest wouldn't be far behind. 42 goals and 20 assists with the under 19's and I'm retraining him to operate as an inside forward on the right hand side. I probably need to get him working on his weaker foot but during the next 18 months he will start to be integrated into the team. Alfred Delmas is a product of the club academy, came through almost looking ready to play for the senior squad but I've decided to take it easy and let him develop with the U19's once he turns 17 I might give him some limited first team exposure but I feel there's time to let him grow organically and no pressure to come in too soon. Antoni, another club prospect who may be likely to feature sooner rather than later as I consider letting Jules Kounde go. Very raw technically but has some good physical and mental attributes already, if he can develop the technical side this could be the kind of player who has a spot cemented 15 years from now. Josep Lluis Brugue is a little less impressive at first glance, but I like the mental attributes and both footed nature of the player. A couple of strong technicals to start him off and he could be a good player in the future, certainly one I'm keeping an eye on over the next 2-3 years.

Bit of missing transfer history from last season as we blazed through it without updates tonight: Barca Transfers In/Out: RM Transfers In/Out: