BoobyBlah

Really enjoying this version tbh. Finished first season, won the league and Europa league. Playing with a libero and inverted wing back has been a lot of fun, and quite successful too. Since its a beta save and I want to have fun with it, sold Salah and VVD to Saudi for 185m and 74m, respectively. Trying to not go too nuts with the money, but also trying to focus on players I've not used in previous FMs. Learning that there are not many elite AMRs available (just like IRL I guess).

They came for him on mine too, but wouldn't offer more than 35m?! Crazy. Haven't had any other Saudi bids, despite trying to flog Matip and Thiago. Both will leave on frees for me.

I bottled it. Dortmund went unbeaten for their last 10 matches, winning 8. We went 5 wins, 3 losses, 2 draws. It was bad.

Quick update on my Leverkusen side. Third season, currently first - 3 points ahead of BVB and 7 points ahead of Bayern. After 27 matches. Knocked out of everything else. Injuries have really derailed me, I was clear in first for a while, but we have been playing really poor lately. Fingers crossed we don't throw this away coz not sure I'll get a Bayern team playing this poorly again.

Quick update on my Leverkusen save. We appear to sleep through the first half of seasons and become almost unbeatable after January. Its not a good strategy as we again finished second behind Bayern. Also lost DFB Pokal to Bayern. Didn't get much out of Europe either. Had a good start to the transfer window then through a mix of alcohol and confidence buggered it a bit. Goncalo Ramos my big signing to replace Schick. But then I went and paid 24M on newgens despite needing another winger and centre mid. Back to the loans market for me I think.+ Good news is I've lowered the age of my squad well and it sits around the 23 level now which is where I like it.

Not sure if he was updated but I had never seen him before - Kacper Tobiasz. Looks a brilliant young keeper and cost me just under 4m second season.

So I'm trying to lower the average age of the club. Sold Lunev and Aranguiz. Tried to sell Bellarabi and Demirby also but no buyers so ended up using Demirby a bit. just letting Bellarabi leave on a free My main signings were loans tbh as didn't have much cash. Carvalho from Liverpool, Oliver from Sevilla and Thomas Lemar have all been pretty good for me. Also board gave me more money in January so I brought in Alex Scott who looks awesome. Got a huge 60M budget second season, so already arranged a few transfers in: GK Kacper Tobiasz - will be my Hradecky replacement and was cheap. CB Jan Paul van Hecke - was free and will rotate in defence LB Borna Sosa - again cheap coz Stuttgart relegated and has 18 (!) crossing. CM Nicolas Seiwald - My big midfield signing Vitor Roque - Big striker signing to rotate with Schick. Will probably bring in more loans as back ups as I got good value out of them this season.

Diaby took some time to get going for me but has been excellent in the second half of the season. Frimpong, you're right, he's so good. Just glides past players.

I've been playing with Leverkusen since the update. Hradecky may be the worst keeper I've ever used in FM. But I will need to wait until the summer to replace him. He's lost me at least 10-12 points this season just from errors. Wirtz is terrific since he got back from injury though.

It took 4 seasons, but Nunez finally outscored Haaland in a season. Mainly coz Haaland only managed 24 goals. Still my proudest achievement

One thing I'm struggling with this year is signing young players (like <17 years old). They never have any interest in signing even though I am the biggest club in Europe. I can't tell if it's a bug or not, but every decent regen I find has no interest in signing for me.

Any suggestions for back up left backs? I love Kostas IRL but he's just not doing a job for me in this. In second season.

Just finished my first season with the Reds. I originally started with them just to test the beta so made some dodgy decisions, but now I want to keep playing the save so I'll live with them. I did the league and champions league double. League was very stressful, beating City by 3 points. Injuries almost crippled me, especially Salah being out for 4 months. But Jota really stepped up for me and Diaz was unreal. Naby and Firmino both leaving on frees. I started with with first window off and by January I was struggling with injuries so couldn't try to sell them. I only brought in Zabarnyi for CB and Schjelderup (but loaned back out) in January. And also Conceicao on loan to cover the Salah injury. For next season, Caicedo is already in (Brighton got relegated), Marcos Leonardo is in to rotate with Darwin. Also looking at Antonio Silva. Would love to bring in Bellingham but doubt I'll be able to afford it. Enzo Fernandez was my backup but he wants over 200k a week and I refuse to pay that. Overall, I've really liked fm23 so far. Nothing groundbreaking about it but seems a more polished version of fm22.