FM15: Tottenham Hotspur - Always Take Lamela With You

I sold Vertonghen to Man Utd for £45m!

I sold Vertonghen to Man Utd for £45m!

I'm beginning to feel like an idiot accepting £23m from Barcelona! Utd were offering £30m but I really didn't want to sell to a team in the same league.

Who have you bought in with the money? I got Musacchio in as replacement but he got injured straight away and I haven't played him yet.

I bought Balanta to replace him. I would screenshot my transfers but it won't let me

I bought Balanta to replace him. I would screenshot my transfers but it won't let me

Is he good enough at the start? I thought he was probably one for the future.

I've been trying to avoid a Spurs save this year as it's who I always am, but I'm still finding myself drawn to them. After just watching us lose (again) it makes me want to try my own way again and get rid of the chuff in our squad.

If someone offered me £45mil for Vertonghen I would sell, could get in Balanta for £7mil who will be just as a good and turn out better!

I'm only four games into the season at the moment

I've been trying to avoid a Spurs save this year as it's who I always am, but I'm still finding myself drawn to them. After just watching us lose (again) it makes me want to try my own way again and get rid of the chuff in our squad.

If someone offered me £45mil for Vertonghen I would sell, could get in Balanta for £7mil who will be just as a good and turn out better!

I was exactly the same - I was dead set on being someone else this year and letting Pochettino get on with managing Spurs without my interference (ha!) but the worse they do the more I want to be them and sort the mess out myself!

Keep us up to date on how you do.

Yeah, that's my exact scenario. I started one as Southampton but soon got bored as I had no connection to the players. But then the main reason I chose not to go Spurs is because I get too connected to them and keep playing them because I like them in real life! This time i'm going to be ruthless and make the right decisions based on stats!

I'm going back to square one as well and reading tactic thread to try and learn more about setting up a proper tactic with longevity. I ideally would like to set up exactly like the two screen shots in your original post, but will need to read more about roles before I attempt it!

Yeah, that's my exact scenario. I started one as Southampton but soon got bored as I had no connection to the players. But then the main reason I chose not to go Spurs is because I get too connected to them and keep playing them because I like them in real life! This time i'm going to be ruthless and make the right decisions based on stats!

I'm going back to square one as well and reading tactic thread to try and learn more about setting up a proper tactic with longevity. I ideally would like to set up exactly like the two screen shots in your original post, but will need to read more about roles before I attempt it!

I wanted to be someone else precisely because I don't feel as connected to this bunch of Spurs players as I have done in the past. Revolving door policy and lack of leaders makes it hard to identify with them - and I was gutted to see Sigurdsson and Holtby leave (partly because I wanted them for my FM15 team!).

I also sold Vertonghen for 45 million as replacements I brought in Balanta for 6.5 mil and Juan Jesus for 11.5. I wanted to bring in Musacchio but he went to Real Madrid. Also got 6 mil for Naughton, 10 mil for Adebayor and 1 mil for Benny and Capoue went out on loan. How I replaced them. At right back I brought in two, as the op mentioned Walker has a long term injury so I wanted cover. The two were Pavel Kaderbek at 3.4 mil and Gino Peruzzi for 3.5 mil. When Walker is fit I would imagine I could move both on for a decent profit in the second season if I wanted. To replace Adebayor I signed Seydou Doumbia for 8.5 mil. Other players I brought in were Stanciu, Romero, Alli and Jordy Clasie

i started with spurs won the treble first season (fa cup, league, europa) i had a massive clear out and brought in an awful lot.

transfer history: first season

main outs: main ins:

verthonghen 35 mill to man u howedes 15 mill

paulinho 34mill to psg fierro 5 mill

townsend 7 mill everton balanta 7.5 mill

lennon 5 mill everton vela 29 mill

fazio 11 mill valencia lucas romero 7.5 mill

soldado 15 mill liverpool gaston gill romero 4 mill

adebayor 5 mill fiorentina adama traore 1.6 mill

sergi roberto 1.9mill

doumbia 12 mill

patrick roberts 10mill

and about 4-5 youngsters

second season:

main outs: main ins:

vela 74mill to madrid sterling 45mill

lamela 54 mill to psg lewandowski 60mill

rose 15 mill to liverpool de sciglio 20 mill

kaboul 15mill lucas digne 15 mill

doria 25mill

there were more little signings and selling but those are the main

if you wanted to know first season i played 4-2-2-2 with eriksen aml and vela amr then i trained lamela as a deep lying forward

my favourite players in first season were: flanagan, eriksen, lucas romero, howedes, doumbia,lamela

in second season now and lewandowski has scored 5 in 4 games and beat barcelona 2-0 in champions league group ))

also follow me on twitter @tolleyvilla07 i post screenshots sometimes when its worth it

My first transfer window ended like this, for bettor or worse...

Tielemans looks like he could be one of the best midfielder's in the world once he develops. Looking forward to having him in action for my second season., after letting Anderlecht continue his development this year.

Anyone else as disappointed as me at Ryan Mason's stats? No chance of ever being a regular PL player in game, despite being first choice in real life. Would have liked to see his stats boosted a little with potential to go over if you give him games.

i got tielemans on free 2nd season i think on villa save class player

Wouldn't he have been rated by the Swindon researcher? I think its indicative of our midfield that he has made the jump from league one and is now our best centre mid

I was thinking of Tielemans but I'm sure my scouts said he didn't enjoy the big games or something like that so it put me off

Wouldn't he have been rated by the Swindon researcher? I think its indicative of our midfield that he has made the jump from league one and is now our best centre mid

Good point about the Swindon thing. Shame though, I was looking forward to using him in game (so much so I gave him a little boost in the data editor - just made him 2.5* and gave him decent potential. Nothing world beating).

He should get a boost in the January update like Bentaleb did last year

I've been trying to avoid a Spurs save this year as it's who I always am, but I'm still finding myself drawn to them. After just watching us lose (again) it makes me want to try my own way again and get rid of the chuff in our squad.

Am exactly the same.

Had a little trial go on fm15 yesterday and brought Stones from Everton for about £24m. Will start a season properly next weekend. Scouted the following who look good; Patrick Roberts (Fulham), James Ward-Prowse (Shampton). I removed Kaboul as Capt & alot of players kicked off!

Talking of Captains; Dawsons stats are good this year - bit gutted we sold him...........

Anyway plan is to sell Vertonghen to Man USA & ask for Jones in exchange and then pair Jones with Stones.

He should get a boost in the January update like Bentaleb did last year

Another good point! I'll have to be patient.

I removed Kaboul as Capt & alot of players kicked off!

I swapped Kaboul to vice captain and made Hugo Lloris captain and everyone loved it! Even Kaboul didn't object.

cheers will give that a try

Am exactly the same. I removed Kaboul as Capt & alot of players kicked off!

Was tempted to do that but decided against it for that reason. He is probably 4th choice center back for me so he doesn’t play much which leaves Lloris the captaincy more often then not so not overly concerning, and with luck I should be able to get shot of him at the end of the season

Another good point! I'll have to be patient.

Long time to go till then so edit away Would love it if he was as good in game as real life myself as I play a 4-1-4-1, so him and Eriksen in the center would have been great for some games

i started with spurs won the treble first season (fa cup, league, europa) i had a massive clear out and brought in an awful lot.

transfer history: first season

main outs: main ins:

verthonghen 35 mill to man u howedes 15 mill

paulinho 34mill to psg fierro 5 mill

townsend 7 mill everton balanta 7.5 mill

lennon 5 mill everton vela 29 mill

fazio 11 mill valencia lucas romero 7.5 mill

soldado 15 mill liverpool gaston gill romero 4 mill

adebayor 5 mill fiorentina adama traore 1.6 mill

sergi roberto 1.9mill

doumbia 12 mill

patrick roberts 10mill

Isnt there a cheaper option than vela?

Do you get vela and doumbia to perform well for you?

First Season Summary

I usually manage Hull but this year decided I'd try Spurs with the beta, having had a good Spurs save about 10 years ago! I opted for no transfer budgets during the first window to stick with the starting squad but had a pretty poor season overall, finishing 7th and missing out on the Europa League by a point. Knocked out of the FA Cup in the semis too, where proceeding to the final would've given European qualification.

It was mostly down to the first half of the season, where I was often outside the top half and kept performing badly while working on different tactics through the different beta match engines. I conceded nearly 20 goals from corners too, which is a lot when other teams aiming for the top 6 only conceded 2 or 3! I also had a run of games where players kept getting sent off for constantly diving and some comical own goals during the beta.

January I decided to restructure the squad a bit.

Transfer In - Jan 2015:

Jonny Howson (£11.25m, Norwich) - MC/AMC

Andrea Poli (£6m, AC Milan/Sampdoria c/o) - MC/DMC

Ruben Neves (£17m, Porto) - MC/DMC

Lucas Romero (£5m, Vélez) - MC

Memphis Depay (£25.5m, PSV)

Transfer Out - Jan 2015

Federico Fazio (£17.75m) - DC

Benoit Assou-Ekotto (£1.1m) - DL

Emmanuel Adebayor (£4.9m) - SC

Nabil Bentaleb (£5.5m) - MC

Brad Friedel (£190k) - GK

With the new squad I played a mix of 4231 and 433, clawing my way back up the table, but just missed out on Europe in the end. Luckily I wasn't sacked and though I was tempted to start again with the full release version coming out I decided to keep going with this save, as I could approach the following season as a rebuild to get back into Europe and kick on from there. I also now had Neves, Romero and Depay as quality youngsters alongside Lamela and Eriksen to develop as the future core. Hopefully the release match engine would be a bit more consistent!

I won't post all the stats as it was a pretty dire season after the first half, and I didn't take screenshots of player performance, but Eriksen was probably the best player with 14 league assists as an advanced playmaker.

How did Jonny Howson do?

Start of Season 2: 2015-2016

With the full release version out and the board not sacking me I decided to continue the save I started in the beta, with the challenge of getting into Europe. This time there was no transfer restriction in place at the start so I set about shifting on various players and adding a few more.

Transfers In - Summer 2015

Tomer Hemed, 28 (£2.1m, Almeira) - SC

Sam Johnstone, 22 (£250k, Man Utd) - GK

Sébastien Corchia, 24 (£8m, LOSC) - DR

Ryan Shawcross, 27 (£10m, Stoke) - DC

Bilal Ould-Chikh, 18 (£5m, Twente) - AMR

Total Spent = £26.5m

Transfers Out - Summer 2015

Michel Vorm (£3.2m) - GK

Etienne Capoue (£15m) - MC

Thomas Carroll (£3m) - MC

Kyle Naughton (£3.6m) - DR

Younes Kaboul (£1.8m) - DC

Aex Pritchard (£1m) - AMR

Mousa Dembélé (£18m) - MC

Aaron Lennon (£2.7m) - MR

Total Received = £48.7m

Hemed isn't a world class striker but cheap as a reasonable all-round forward as cover while I get back into Europe. Shawcross comes in as my new captain, with Corchia replacing Naughton as right back rotation and Ould-Chikh one to develop. Kaboul went out as he's too injury prone, Naughton not good enough and though I would've kept Lennon he was in the last year of contract and wanted too high wages to be worth renewing. Capoue and Dembele didn't really fit with my playstyle, lacking the creativity and vision I want in midfielders.

That gave me the following squad with the transfer window closed:

Goalkeepers

Lloris, Johnstone

Defence

Walker (DR), Corchia (DR), Shawcross (DC), Chiriches (DC), Vertonghen (DC), Dier (DC), Rose (DL), Davies (DL)

Defensive Midfield

Neves (DMC), Stambouli (DMC), Poli (DMC)

Central Midfield

Romero (MC), Paulinho (MC), Howson (MC)

Attacking Midfield

Lamela (AMR), Ould-Chikh (AMR), Eriksen (AMC), Holtby (AMC), Depay (AML), Chadli (AML), Townsend (AMR/L)

Strikers

Soldado (SC), Kane (SC), Hemed (SC)

With the above squad I'm mostly playing 4231 with Lamela on the right and Depay on the left, Eriksen in the hole. So far this season I have one wide player as an IF(s) and the other a Raumdeuter(a) but still tinkering a bit with roles to find the best mix. One central midfielder is one of the DMC bunch (but usually played at MC) to sit back with the other MC in a support role. For tougher away games I drop the AMC to DMC and play a 433, in which case I change the defensive MC to an attacking role to support the lone striker from that deeper starting position.

Anyhow, only 4 games in but I'm off to a much better start with the full release match engine, sitting in 3rd having just beaten Man Utd 4-0. I did lose to newly promoted Wigan away but had Shawcross sent off early in the second half and conceded in the 88th minute.

Things seem to be going better this season and the new players are doing nicely so fingers crossed I can finish top 6 and get back into Europe. Top 4 would be a bonus.

How did Jonny Howson do?

Howson doesn't look flashy and certainly doesn't excel in any particular area but I wanted a cover/rotation player who was at least reasonable all-round, ie. both with the ball and defending. He played 13 games in the second half of the first season with 1 goal, 1 assist and 1 PoM for 6.92 rating but many of those appearances were as a late substitute for Romero who is first choice ahead of him for the MC(s) role. As a squad player I've been happy with him, he's not first choice but puts in a solid performance when called upon. He was relatively expensive as Norwich were top of the table at the time and he was one of their best performers, but he was the best option available that January for what I wanted. At £20k a week his ongoing costs for that squad role are fairly low maintenance.

Howson doesn't look flashy and certainly doesn't [/i]excel[/i] in any particular area but I wanted a cover/rotation player who was at least reasonable all-round, ie. both with the ball and defending. He played 13 games in the second half of the first season with 1 goal, 1 assist and 1 PoM for 6.92 rating but many of those appearances were as a late substitute for Romero who is first choice ahead of him for the MC(s) role. As a squad player I've been happy with him, he's not first choice but puts in a solid performance when called upon. He was relatively expensive as Norwich were top of the table at the time and he was one of their best performers, but he was the best option available that January for what I wanted. At £20k a week his ongoing costs for that squad role are fairly low maintenance.

Sounds great. Every squad needs those players, and I think it works best when you find ones who will stick around for a few years even as back-up or rotation options. Might take a look at him myself.

Always start with Spurs in every FM, but this year there seemed to be no challenge. Finished 5th first season and won Europe League, then won the Prem and CL in second season.

Sold Vertonghen for 25 Mil to Man City, Paulinho for 20 Mil to Wolfsburg and a fire sale of Adebayor, Lennon, Townsend, Capoue, Bentaleb and Soldado.

Replaced them with Wilfred Bony, Luis Gustavo, Lucas Romero, Balanta, and Sergi Samper.

Always start with Spurs in every FM, but this year there seemed to be no challenge. Finished 5th first season and won Europe League, then won the Prem and CL in second season.

Sold Vertonghen for 25 Mil to Man City, Paulinho for 20 Mil to Wolfsburg and a fire sale of Adebayor, Lennon, Townsend, Capoue, Bentaleb and Soldado.

Replaced them with Wilfred Bony, Luis Gustavo, Lucas Romero, Balanta, and Sergi Samper.

I think the big challenge with Spurs this year is to try it with the first transfer window turned off - that starting squad is going to struggle without some good management and tactics so getting through to January without any additions really adds some pressure.

I'm waiting til later to start my Spurs save this year. Waiting for Mason to be re-rated more than anything.

I played a 4-5-1 with an anchor man as DM, 2 CM , wingers and 1 upfront. Finally won the league in 3rd season.

In: Tielemans, Kurzawa, Peruzzi and Roberto Firminho(?sp). All doing very well. I retrained Erikssen to a CM and he's world class. Townsend on the right and Lamela on the left are also very good.

Sold Paulinho, Fazio, Ben Davies, Lennon, Stambouli.

Btw how much do you guys sell Paulinho for? I see PSG is willing to pay almost any price for him.

Btw how much do you guys sell Paulinho for? I see PSG is willing to pay almost any price for him.

I sold for £18m, I was happy but the fans/board weren't.

Just about to start a game. Hardest thing for me is i want to get rid of who i dont like BAE, Adebayor etc regardless of whether they are good or bad.

This year i want to get rid of the ones that are not performing in real life. So thats 3/4 of the team lol

Just about to start a game. Hardest thing for me is i want to get rid of who i dont like BAE, Adebayor etc regardless of whether they are good or bad.

This year i want to get rid of the ones that are not performing in real life. So thats 3/4 of the team lol

That's exactly what I want to do. I think I will keep Eriksen, Chadli, Lloris and Walker. Maybe Lamela too, but I am unsure about him. The rest of the team off-load. I was thinking about bringing in Sissoko from Newcastle, Coleman from Everton, then re-train Eriksen on CM, add a muscle ball winning midfielder near him like Modric - Sandro pair a while ago. Add another class LB and a CB to pair Vertonghen.

That's exactly what I want to do. I think I will keep Eriksen, Chadli, Lloris and Walker. Maybe Lamela too, but I am unsure about him. The rest of the team off-load. I was thinking about bringing in Sissoko from Newcastle, Coleman from Everton, then re-train Eriksen on CM, add a muscle ball winning midfielder near him like Modric - Sandro pair a while ago. Add another class LB and a CB to pair Vertonghen.

Something I found notable - and true to life - is that on the team comparison page Spurs come in 18th in the Premier League for Leadership. You're not going to win stuff with that being the case so it means clearing out the weak players (who are mostly the ones you can tell are useless in real life too!)

I sold Paulinho for 21 Million pounds...also to PSG

I've had good luck retraining Eriksen to CM, mainly because I don't like playing an AMC. Once he gets trained up he does very well, been playing him as a Roaming Playmaker.

Lost my first two matches of the season (home to Liverpool and @ Man City) but have done very well since then. Won six straight in all competitions at one point.

Brought in Memphis Depay to start opposite Lamela, also brought in Balanta. Playing with a False 9 Baldini recommended Sone Aluko from Hull after I sold of Soldado, and he's done well as a backup F9.

I also picked up Sam Byram from Leeds, a young RB to replace Naughton after selling him for £6m or so. He's done surprisingly well so far, much better than I expected for sure. Been one of my better players. I don't know what his potentials are or anything, though my scouts give him three and a half gold + 1 black star in potential I don't think he'll every be quite good enough to be a starter, but he's fine as a backup.

Of course I also sold Verts for £40m.

I most assuredly won't be selling people based on real life, as I'd have offload the whole team. Including Eriksen, he's been rubbish this season for the most part (in RL).

Hi, how are you getting rid of Paulinho, do you list him then wait for a bid from PSG or offer him to PSG for £20m?

I have just started a new save and offered him out. I got 25 mil for him, cant remember if it was 5 or 10 mil up front with the rest coming over 48 months

What strikers are people buying?

Hi, how are you getting rid of Paulinho, do you list him then wait for a bid from PSG or offer him to PSG for £20m?

I transfer listed him, then PSG enquired for him. They paid 30m euros, I think you can force and see if PSG are willing to pay more for him.