FM 10 Real Betis Balompie team guide.

Real Betis is a Spanish football club based in the city of Sevilla in the South of the country. They currently play in the Segunda division and are currently managed by Victor Fernandez, who replaced Antonio Tapia on 24/01/2010. The club was formed in 1914 by the merger of Sevilla Balompie and Betis FC. However the current formation date is taken as that of Sevilla Balompie of 1907. Playing at their current stadium the Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera since 1929 los beticos are a team steeped in tradition but short on major honours.

Real Betis won their only Spanish Liga title in 1935, and have won the Segunda title on four occasions, in 1932, 1942, 1971 and 1974. They have also won the Copa del Rey on two occasions in 1977 and 2005.

Traditionally appearing in green and white striped shirts with white shorts and green shorts, being the colours of the Andalucian region in Spain.

Years of underachievement eventually lead to a losing battle against relegation. This season they start off in the Segunda having been relaegated with a home draw on the last day of last season against Valladolid. While the current chairman is José Léon Gomez it is Manuel Ruiz de Lopera who effecively runs the club as majority shareholder. While he is comitted to the club there are certain sections of the fans who wish that he would step aside due to his controversial running of the club.

Club Information.

Nation: Spain

Year Founded: 1907/1914

Status: Professional

Reputation: National

Chairman Status: Loves the club

Legends: Julio Cardenosa, Luis del Sol, Rafa Gordillo, Beinto Villamarín (Sp. only), José Ramón Esnaola.

Icons: Hipólito Rincón, Alfonso, Juan José Canas, Alexis Trujillo (Sp. only), Finidi, Faruk Hadzibegic, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, Joaquín, Gabino.

Favoured personnel: Juanito, Juan Merino, Fernando Varela, Hristo Vidakovic, Pepe Mel (Sp. only), Gabriel Calderón, Robert Jarni, Denílson.

Fierce Rivals: Sevilla

Other Rivals: Málaga, Xerez.

Finances: Okay

Average Ticket Price: £21.30

Average Season Ticket Price: £350

Season Ticket Holders: 30000

Estimated Value: £35.5M

Continental competition: None

Media Prediction: 1st

Squad Personality: Determined

Captain: N/A

Vice-Captain: N/A

The wikipedia link for the club is here.

Real Betis' colours were originally Green and Black stripes donated to the club by Glasgow Celtic shortly before formation in 1912. The black stripes were subsequently replaced by white ones (due to Green/White/Green being the flag of Andalucia). Interestingly enough the game has the order of the two change strips reversed.

Current Staff.

Chairman: José León

Gen Mgr : Momparlet

Dir: Manuel Ruiz de Lopera

Manager: Victor Fernandez

Asst Mgr: Juan Merino

Coach: José Maria Montiel

Gk Coach: José Ramón Esnaola

Fitness Coach: David Gomez

Fitness Coach: Enrique Romero

Youth Coach: Pedro Illanes

Youth Coach: Miguel Angel Caro

Physio: Santiago Perez Hidalgo

Physio: Tomás Calero

Physio: Antonio Bermejo

Physio: Ildefonso Blanco

Scout: Juan José Canas

Staff Overview

Number of coaches allowed: 11 Number of scouts allowed: 9

Number of coaches at club: 6 Number of scouts at club: 1

Free spaces: 5 Free spaces: 8

Number of physios allowed: 2

Number of physios at club: 4

Free spaces: -2

Chairman:- José León.

Considered a placeman for the current owner and director Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, who steeped down from his chairmanship after a conviction on finacial charges (not sure what google translate mangled it). In the game he is relatively generous, giving the prospective manager a budget of between £2.6m and £2.8m and a wages allocaton of between £225k p.w. and £230k. While at the start the wages are over budget at c. £237k, there is enough dead wood at the club that a canny manger will be able to afford the wages of new players.

1st Team

Assistant Manager:- Juan Merino.

A long term servant of the club, Merino was a fans favourite as a player and has been the assistant manager of the club since his retirement from football in 2007, providing some stability at management level since then.

Not the best of coaches, his best training rating at the game start is 3 stars for Tactics, it is in the area of man management and motivation skills where Merino shines. With a JCA/JPA rating of 11/13 he is good but not great, his tactical kowledge is very good at 17. However in 3 seasons managing Betis he has improved and has not put a foot wrong for me.

Best Star rating: 3 Tactics.

Mutual termination: £325K

Coach:- José Maria Montiel.

As a coach Montiel is not good at all, but if you look at his physio stats he is actually in the wrong job, and should be rehired as a physio, something I didn't notice myself first time around. His best star ratings are 2 in goalkeeping, defending and tactics.

Best Star rating: 2 Tactics, defending, goalkeeping.

Mutual termination: £200K

Gk Coach:- José Ramón Esnaola.

Like Merino Esnaola is a long term servant at the club, who went on to eventually mange the team in 1990-1991. He also returned to the club as a Gk Coack in 2007. Esnaola is a good quality Gk Coach achieving a 6 star rating for the position, however his low determination, adaptability and tactical knowledge means that a higher position is beyond him. At 59 too he is getting on and may need to be repalced in a few seasons.

Best Star rating: 6 Goalkeeping.

Mutual termination: £100k

Fitness Coaches:- David Gomez and Enrique Romero.

I will take these two together as they are similarly bad as fitness coaches, with Gomez being slightly better in his positition. Gomez like Montiel would make a good physio (except he wont take a contract, aargh!), but the only recommendation for Romero is to replace him with someone competent.

Best Star rating (both): 2 Fitness, Aerobics.

Mutual termination: Gomez £65k Romero £65k

Youth team Coaches:- Pedro Ilanes and Miguel Ángel Caro.

If you thought the fitness coaches were bad be prepared for a shock here. Ilanes' only saving grace is that he is good at working with youngsters (17), Caro doesn't even have that. My recommendation, either of my dead grannies would be better.

Best Star rating (both): 1.

Mutual termination: Caro £60k Ilanes £100k.

Physios:- Hidalgo, Bermejo, Blanco & Calero

You have four physios here and can only have two, and frankly only Hidalgo and Blanco are decent physios, with Gomez and Montiel being significantly higher in Physiotherapy than either. My recommendation is tho get rid of your physios (except for maybe Blanco as he has good determination, adaptablity and motivating) and reallocate Montiel, who is perfectly happy to change. The only caveat is the ternminations which are a bit steep for all four.

Best star ratings: not checked.

Mutual termination: Hidalgo £170k Bermejo £230k Calero £190k Blanco £220k.

Scout:- Juan José Canas.

Like Merino and Esnaola Canas is a former crowd favourite, who took up a position with the club (though a google translation of his Spainsh wikipedia page seems to indicate he has no position at any club IRL). As a scout he is only decent with a JCA/JPA rating of 13/10. However if you like keeping legends around he will manage next opposition scouting no problem, and as you can have 8 more mutual termination is not necessary to free up space.

Best star rating: not checked

Mutual termination: £75k.

Note: all star rating checked with default FMRTE settings, if anyone has better I will accept them.

Best staff ratings using the defaults:

Frankly the cupboard is pretty bare here with Esnaola (6 goalkeeping) and Merino ( 3 Tactics) being the only two half way fit for purose.

Suggested staff:

Best free staff (unrealistic targets filtered out).

Assistant Manager:

Josu Urritia, Juan Vizcaíno or Pierre Maroselli. Personally I stuck with Merino, as I could see nothing major wrong with him plus he's a club legend.

Coaches:

Manuel Delgado Meco (definitely sign), you will only be able to sign as first team or youth coach. Between 4 and 7 stars.

Al Stewart, decent all rounder, good in mental, determined, good for spotting potential.

Juan José Valencia Gk coach, good replacement/compliment for Esnaola. 5 star GK rating.

Fabio Caponi. Good fitness coach. 4 stars in both fitness areas.

Physios:

If you decide to go for outside physios the best frees are:

Odelió Costa (phys 19)

Javier Vásquez (phys 17)

Scouts (JCA/JPA in brackets):

Antonio Comi (18/16)

Erich Beer (16/16)

Herbert Wimmer (15/15)

Andrea Pastarello (17/17)

Txema Noriega (16/17)

Don Mackay (15/18)

Barry Whitbread (15/16)

Backroom Advice:

Manuel Delgado Meco, coach (free)

Miguel Angel Espana, Gk coach (free)

Manuel Almeiro, Gk coach (free).

Of the three Almeiro is not good enough but the other two are definite acquisitions.

Finances

Transfer / Wage Budget (Expectations): £2.6m / £225,000 p/w (Promotion) or £2.8m/£230,000 p/w (Win Segunda)

% of transfer revenue made available: 35% (although this rises a lot with sales IIRC)

Current Wage Budget: £ 227,378 p/w

Sponsors: £793k per season (ends 2009).

Loans Outstanding: N/A

Club Balance: £7,857,923.

I said above that you are given a decent transfer budget for the division. Well it might be a bit optimistic (in 10.2 the % revenue available was at about 75%). But what you will be doing in the Segunda will be preparing the club for what happens after pormotion, as anything less will see you gone. The budgets in year two will be somewhat more generous, at between £8 and £10m in transfers and about £350k p/w in wages.

Stadium and Facilities

Name: Manuel Ruiz de Lopera

Location: Sevilla

Capacity: 52,500 all-seater (expandable to 62,500)

Year Built: 1929

Owned by: Betis

Stadium Condition: Good

Under-soil Heating: Yes

Roof: No

Surface: Grass

Pitch Dimensions: Length: 107m, Width: 64m

Maximum Pitch Dimensions: Length: 117m, Width: 70m

Pitch Condition: Perfect

Corporate Facilities: Adequate corporate facilities

Training facilities: Good training facilities

Youth Facilities: Good youth facilities

(facilites are an improvement on 10.2 where they were only average for both)

First team squad and analysis

Goalkeepers:

1. Ricardo.

25. Inaki Goitia

13. Casto

We have 3 good goalkeepers here, though as they are all at least 27 (Ricardo is older at 33) there is no young guns on the way up. For the Segunda this trio is definitely good enough. If a player wishes to trim the wages he could offload Ricardo (on £15.75k a week he is one of the more highly paid players at the club).

Defenders (positions in order of usefulness, best pos always natural)

2. Melli.

Best pos: DC Other Pos. DR WBR DL WBL SW DMC.

Branko Ilic (on loan at FC Moscow future fee £2.5m)

Best Pos. DR Other Pos DC WBR DL DMC

Isidoro

Best Pos. DR Other Pos. DC DL WBR

4. Nano

Best Pos DC Other Pos. DL WBL

3. Fernando Vega

Best Pos. DL Other Pos WBL

6. Alex Ortiz

Best Pos DC Other Pos. DMC

David Rivas

Best Pos. DC Other Pos. DL

21. Carlos Garcia (on loan from Almeria, no future fee, new addition for 10.3)

Best Pos. DC Other Pos. SW

8. Arzu.

Best Pos. DC DMC Other Pos. MC AMC

22. Nelson

Best Pos. WBR DR Other Pos AMR DL MRDL AML

16. Toni (on a part-time contract)

Best Pos. WBL DL Other Pos ML AML

12. Damia

Best Pos. WBR MR Other Pos DR AMR DC

Right back: Between Nelson, Damia and Isidoro. Of the three Damia is the best, Isidoro is rightly on the transfer list and Nelson is far better going forward than defending.

Centre Halves: Arzu and Nano are the first choice centre halves, although with the asddition of Garcia on loan in 10.3 this may change. David Rivas is still good enough at this level, but is wanted at c. £750k on the transfer list. Alex Ortiz the other listed player is not good enough though at 23 he still can improve (I sold him).

Left Back: The outstanding choice jere is Fernando Vega, easily good enough for this level. Toni's stats don't look great but he does well enough to cover Vega, and if he's given a full-time contract may be good enough to keep on promotion.

Recommended transfers: Mikael Lustig D/WBR (Rosenorg BK c. £2.5m), Nicolas Otamendi DC (Velez Sarsfields C. £2.9m), Francisco Pavon DC (Zaragoza c. £500k), Luca Antonini DRL WBL (c. £275k), Diego Renan (c. £4m) {all prices at the range availabl, not value}. The most urgent position is at right back where there is no obvious first team quality player. Damia is good but has the stats of a winger and not a fullback.

Midfielders:

5. Nacho

Best Pos. ML AML Other Pos. WBL MC DL AMC

17. David Odonkor

Best Pos. AMR Other Pos.WBR MR DR St

18. Iriney

Best Pos. DMC MC Other Pos. AMC

15. Marco Aurelio (unfortunately injured for between 4 and 6 months)

Best Pos. DMC Other Pos. MC DC AM

10. Sunny (on loan from Valencia release clause £1.7m)

Best Pos. DMC Other Pos MC MR DC ML

Jose Canas

Best Pos. MC Other Pos DMC

Juande

Best Pos. DMC Other Pos. MC

20. Achille Emana

Best Pos. AMC Other Pos. MC DMC MR AMR St

Capi

Best Pos. MC Other Pos AMC DMC MR AMR

Benat

Best Pos MC Other Pos DC

7. Juanma

Best Pos. MR Other Pos AMR AML ML WBR AMC MC DR

Israel

Best Pos MR AMR Other Pos WBR ML AML

11. Juan Pablo Caffa

Best Pos. AML Other Pos ML St WBL AMR MC

23. Jonathon Pereira (new addition for 10.3)

Best Pos. AMC Other Pos St AML ML AMR MR

Right wing: A choice between Juanma, Odonkor and Israel, Juanma wins easily, Odonkor is a fast donkey and Israel is not good. While Sergio Garcia is primarily a striker (see below) he is still a good winger and can be used here instead of Juanma.

Centre Midfield: Some strong competiton here, with Iriney, Aurelio, Sunny, Emana, Capi and Benat all good enough for this level. I would sell Benat though as he's slow and unfit, and Merino already feels he's hit his peak. Bring Capi off the transfer list, he can still do a job. Best two are Iriney and Aurelio, but before Aurelio Sunny and Emana fill in well with Capi as good cover.

Left wing: Caffa and Nacho here, but personally I would go for Caffa. There are a number of players who can cover, but only Sergio Garcia can do it well enough outside of an ememrgency.

Players to get rid of: There's a lot here so I said I'll list them seperately. Basically Odonkor, Canas, Juande and Israel are all donkeys and aren't worth the time of day. Most are cheap and shift easily, but Odonkor will probalby go on loan to buys for a season or two before selling (ignore any complaints about loaning him out).

Special case Jonathon Pereira. He's listed here as primarily an AMC but if you are using a 4-4-2 like I listed he'll see his games up front. I haven't used him (starting my game in 10.2) but to me he's not impressive.

Recommended signings: Yago AMLC (Juventus Loan), Robert Flores AMRLC FC (Villareal £1.5m), Javier Arizimendi AMR St (Zaragoza £2m). I would suggest bringing in a left winger here as you'll badly need the cover for Caffa (I brought in Denilson on a free myself here but that was on 10.2). Sunny (release clause of £1.7m) definite purchase, just make sure you can do it at season end.

Forwards.

24. Juan Moreno

Best Pos. St Other Pos. AMC AMR MR AML

9. Sergio Garcia

Best Pos. St. Other Pos. AMR MR ML AML AMC

14. Mariano Pavone

Best Pos. St. Other Pos. N/A

Up front your best choice is Pavone and Garcia. Moreno is another donkey and is fit onlu for sale (if you can tempt anyone). Pereira may be enough cover for the segunda but you will be buying in someone here.

Recommended signing: Vaclav Kadlec (Sparta Prague c. £2.4m). He's a -9 PA so he may be better in some games than in others. Helder Postiga (Sporting de Portugal £1.2m), Yannick Djalo (Sporting de Portugal £800k). If you can get Kadlec and Djalo you will have a strike force for the next decade.

Young player to watch (only good one):

Manu Gavilan FC. Merino gives him a 2.5 star rating so he will be at least good enough to get a good price.

Note on youth team: There are only 5 non-regens and the only one worth keeping is Gavilan as described above, maybe you'll get lucky and pull down a top regen here.

Note on “B” team: Not a single player here will come close to your first team. Be careful about how the manager handles his contacts and transfers though (you never know he might get in a good free transfer no-one has ever heard of). There is one player in on loan, Razak. Get rid of him.

Formations, based on current squad

4-2-3-1 Control.

This is a formation which I devised for a Parma game. A flat back four with the two centre-halves playing a defensive game and the two full backs on support. The two central midfielders are on defensive duties, as a central midfielder (Iriney) and a ball winning one (Arzu). I have two attacking wingers and an attacking midfielder supporting the target man up front. This (or a similar) formation fits the make up of the current squad very well with the teams strength in midfield. However my preferred formation is

4-4-2 Advanced wingers Attack.

Yes I'm gung ho, but its fun. The back four is the same only now the full backs are attacking. The two central midfielders are now support (Emana) and defensive (Iriney). My ass-man suggested the other way, but Emana is a natural attacker. Up front I put Sergio Garcia in an Advanced forward role, and leave Pavone as a target man. For this tactic to be used throughout the season you will need to buy a forward or two.

Very good OP dude

Agree with batty Nice work on the OP.

Hint: If you save you screenshots in Paint as PNG format, they should come out a lot crisper and clearer

There are a number of players you can get rid of in order to fuel your dream purchases.

Ricardo £1m (not necessary, but on his wages its an idea)

Isidoro £100k

Alex Ortiz £140k

Canas £170k

Juande £725k

Israel £140k

There are a number of other players where clubs will make bids, I also got rid of Damia Melli and Nano for another £4m, and was able to pick up cover for them on frees. Branko Ilic will also problably come back in January, you can sell him for £2.5m easily enough too, otherwise you'll get that much from his release clause with FC Moscow.

Also selling these players will reduce your wages by about £20k a week and allow you to pay for at least two new players.

You could free your whole "B" team and free up another £2.5k a week, as they are useless, and a lot of your yout team could probably go as well.

Promotion in season one is a must, and is achievable with the current squad, but I would get in Lustig, Kadlec and Djalo straight away, as they will not be around for long. The big problem will be next season and the one after. your midfield and backs are good but old and you will be buying in a large number of players from season two on to make a new team.

Facilities are not good enough to hope for some good prospects to come through every year, so your youth policy will be buy in until the facilities have been improved.

Free transfers will be your friend on 01/07/2010, for example I got in Nicolas N'Kolou and Gabriel Hauche in on frees on that date, and then the next season got Milevskiy and Grenier in. This allowed me to use my transfer budgets to get in the top class regens I was tracking over the previous season.

Agree with batty Nice work on the OP.

Hint: If you save you screenshots in Paint as PNG format, they should come out a lot crisper and clearer

I got a bit lazy with the screenies, especially the tactics one. I will probably get back to them next week after Easter and improve them. Any advice on anything I've written will be welcomed. If there are any true Betis fans out there who want to flesh out my history please feel free to do so, I started this thread on the back of a good save.

Very good OP .

good work . this thread really has made me wanna play a game as Betis !

Great OP mate

Still busy with my Lyon save but may get round to Betis at one point.

Great Op mate might give it a go after my spurs game

I've been thinking about starting a Betis thread for a while but you've done a much better job than i would have done. Fell in love with Betis on 09 and wanted the challenge of bringing them to the top of spain.

Currently half way thorugh my third season, sitting in 4th place, in semi final of the Spanish cup and first knockout round of Euro cup. Loving it so far, don't think i can finish higher than where i am as the top three are miles ahead but hopefully i can get in the champions league next year.

Very nice OP, only just noticed this thread.

I've been thinking about starting a Betis thread for a while but you've done a much better job than i would have done. Fell in love with Betis on 09 and wanted the challenge of bringing them to the top of spain.

Currently half way thorugh my third season, sitting in 4th place, in semi final of the Spanish cup and first knockout round of Euro cup. Loving it so far, don't think i can finish higher than where i am as the top three are miles ahead but hopefully i can get in the champions league next year.

Very similar to me at that stage last season. I'm second half way through December 2012, but as my buttock is being prodded (c. Carrot Ironfounderson) by Valencia at the moment I wont be there much longer.

By the way did you keep or sell Sunny?

Update: Valencia stopped prodding buttock after 25 mins, allowing me to win 3-2 with a 93rd minute goal from Kadlec. I'm thinking of bringing out a new fanzine "2-0 down, 3-2 up"

Very similar to me at that stage last season. I'm second half way through December 2012, but as my buttock is being prodded (c. Carrot Ironfounderson) by Valencia at the moment I wont be there much longer.

By the way did you keep or sell Sunny?

Update: Valencia stopped prodding buttock after 25 mins, allowing me to win 3-2 with a 93rd minute goal from Kadlec. I'm thinking of bringing out a new fanzine "2-0 down, 3-2 up"

The Valencia jobs been up twice since i started but have never been offered it. Doing my best not to get 4th. Three points behind Sevilla but i keep getting silly results. My next league game is them at home though. Through to the Spanish cup final and i'm taking a 1-0 lead to the San Siro for a place in the Euro semis.

Didn't keep Sunny, wasn't overly impressed with him, he got booked nearly every other game he played.

Didn't keep Sunny, wasn't overly impressed with him, he got booked nearly every other game he played.

I kept him, for £1.6m you wont get too much better, now him and N'Koulou (spelling?) are the mainstays of my midfield. As good a partnership as any in Spain atm. I play Sunny as a suppor cent midfielder, he gets cards but usually picks up only 1 suspension a season, N'Koulou picks up a few more as he's a defensive ball winner.

very good opinion brian .u covered all aspects of the game .may start game with them after my parma challenge

Just to update, finished the season in 4th, 5 points clear of Sevilla. Reached the Euro cup final but unfortunatly lost 2-1 to Man U. Just won the Spanish cup with a 1-0aet win over Almeria. I'm delighted and hopefully the board give me some cash so i can move on up from here.

Just had the Spurs job offered to me with quadruple my current wage but turned it down.

very good opinion brian .u covered all aspects of the game .may start game with them after my parma challenge

Thanks, I am having a really good game with them at the moment, and decided with some time on my hands I would share my thoughts. If you have anything you'd like to add to improve the game I would be happy to include it.

Just to update, finished the season in 4th, 5 points clear of Sevilla. Reached the Euro cup final but unfortunatly lost 2-1 to Man U. Just won the Spanish cup with a 1-0aet win over Almeria. I'm delighted and hopefully the board give me some cash so i can move on up from here.

Just had the Spurs job offered to me with quadruple my current wage but turned it down.

I lost out in the 2nd rd. of the Euro cup myself, and I beat Almeria in the cup final 5-0 at the same time. The board should give you about £12m for the minimum of qualifying for Europe, but if you get as far as the group stage you may get more in January.

Great OP. I've read a lot of good things about Emana.

Great OP. I've read a lot of good things about Emana.

He's a good player, for the first three seasons anyway. He does both the defensive and attacking side of the game well. I found him good in the support role in my 4-4-2 formation.

However I'm not using him that much at the moment (just into 2013), as I have Sunny, N'Koulou, Grenier, and a Spaniash regen Gabriel who are all either as good or better. I'll probably get rid of him in the summer just to free up a shirt.

Into the second week of April 2013, and I am looking at the new season already. I got knocked out by Inter in the CL 3-2 on aggregate, dire first leg ended 3-1 loss and brillian second (home) leg 1-0 win where I just couldn't get the 2nd.

I got knocked out of the cup by playing youngsters against Barcelona in the 5th Round. Away leg lost 2-0 home one lost 4-3 (mad game). I am at 2nd in the league can finish anywhere from 1st to 7th, though with 11 points on fourth with 7 games to go I'm confident of finishing third. Barcelona are behind me by 6 points with two games in hand and a better head to head (2-1 win at home 4-2 loss away).

Looking to the new campaign I am going to get rid of Emana (with a heavy heart but hes 30 and no better than my others), Montes a regen centre half who was moaning all season about me not selling him to Arsenal for low money (Man City finally came in and gave me my asking price), Juanma (now my 4th choice right winger, and was only used in 1 game all season), Pacheco (never really came on before I got him free and going backwards since), Fernando Vega (at 28 a far second at left back, and beiginning to noise his dissatisfaction) and maybe my backup goalie Jose Salcedo (not as good as the regen I got cheap of Real and immediately loaned back to Castilla for some Segunda action).

And I think I've found my new left back Bart Wisse, a Dutch regen from Ajax. This is how he compares with my current starter Kubala. I believe there'll be some fierce competition next year if I can pry him away.

Great op brian,i have the toulouse thread so know how hard it is:)Anyway just started the betis save with a hope of making them top dogs in europe.Hope your not a betis fan as ive ripped them to shreds and brought in my on type of players,will do a screen shot laters but sold 28m worth of players and brought in exactly 28m worth of new talent until i found that welliton was willing to join the club so i forked out another 16.5m over 48 months for him.

Winning the league should be no problem at all,next season should be harder but a top 6 place will be the aim.

Will keep you posted.

Top six place is doable, especially if you bring in young players for the future. I found with Betis that a few players who I used to avoid like the plague like Sergio Garcia play very well for me at Betis.

I haven't played the game much since I finished the season last Tuesday, but I did a nice bit of transfer dealings, after finishing a suprise second in the league, Barcelona with the advantage on me with six games to go ran out of gas and fell apart.

The off season saw my busiest transfer window yet, where I decided to splash out on a number of players, after having my best CB sold for his release clause to Man City for £50m (would have liked to keep him, but 18 months of the biggest teams upsetting him saw him wanting to leave). I bought the lad Bart Wisse as my cover left back (well even rotation really), got Txema Aranburu on a free form Real (they paid £5.75m for him originally gazumping me)brought back Logan Wolf from loan at Castilla (where he impressed a lot, I also picked him up from Real for a song), and Cordoba from a number of loans over two and a half seasons. In total I sold £58m and bought £58m (though I have about £2m going out in January on a Czech midfielder Kral and Brazilian goalie Luizihno).

My preferred team at the moment looks like:

Club legend Arzu and Gabriel (another regen) are obscured by the info box sorry. mr. Athritis is Clement Grenier; Yor is Vaclav Kadlec, Ború is Aranburu after his two goal debut. I have 3 regens already first team choices and the five on the bench are only kept there by exceptional players (and will reach 20 games easily by rotation). At the moment I have Arzu, Caffa, Pavone and Goitia slated for future staff positions (they are all willing they just need a nudge or two).

My aim this year is to maintain second (and hopefully beat Barcelona or Real away, the only thing I'm not confident of), get to at least the quarters of the CL and blood some of my better prospects in the cup. I would also like to see the board build an academy, as the only two players capable of coming through to the first team from my youths were 1) a 1st day regen (and hasn't come along quickly) and 2) was too far off the level atm so I used him as an incentive in the Wisse transfer.

Just to update you guys, at the Christmas break and i'm currently third, 5 points of top. After finishing top of my Cl group which contained Man U, Milan and Brugge I have been rewarded with a tie against FC Kobenhaven. Pretty pleased with my team so far although my strikers aren't scoring as much as i hoped. Signed Pazzini in the summer and i'm just hoping he will justify his fee. In other transfer news, after years of telling him how much i loved him and years of not playing for Madrid, Canales is on his way for 7.5m. Hopefully he will make them rue the day they sold him.

Brian, how have you coped in your matches against Barca? I can beat Madrid and if i lose it's always close but i never get anywhere against Barca.

At home I can usually hold my own against both teams and have a respectable win record, away though I get thumped usually. Last season Real won 5-1 (painful) and Barca 4-2 (a bit more respectable but Messi tore me apart). In a few seasons I will start to surpass them though. If you look at Aranburu, he was like that when I got him and Real didn't play him once in 3 1/2 seasons, they also let Mads Rits go th Osasuna (IIRC) for £6m (didn't want him at the time) so their youth policy is to buy dear sell cheap a la Tim Nice-but-Dim.

My biggest problem is the random draws against the mid-table opposition, every so often I dominate a game without closing it out and get caught.

Atletico are going to be a big threat. I posted elsewhere that the IRA used their bank job money to buy the club, well they've just gone and bought Neymar (£33m), Pato (£64m) and Cuellar (£8m) for £105m so they're going mad with power. I also managed to qualify Turkey for the WC in Brazil, but that's kind of tangenital to Betis.

Started my save as betis a week ago and just completed my second season with the club.

First season in adelante went as expected with me winning it with ease,sold a lot of players who i thought had no future at the club and brought in some young players who will be great for the club and a couple of older more experienced players who would do a job for a year or 2.

LIGA ADELANTE

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/scottbrown1888/LigaAdelante.png

SQUAD

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/scottbrown1888/BetisAdelante.png

TRANSFERS

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/scottbrown1888/TransfersAdelante.png

Second season was more intresting,i bought big with an aim of finishing in the top 6 or hopefully higher,most transfers were over 48 months to give me a a chance of buying more players.Things started badly with me lying 10th for most of the season but with more money spent in january we started pushing up the table and finally finished 3rd,some distance behind the big 2 but a great finish anyway.

LIGA BBVA

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/scottbrown1888/LIGABBVA.png

SQUAD

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/scottbrown1888/Betisbbva.png

TRANSFERS

http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/scottbrown1888/Transfersbbva.png

I also had a great run in the copa del rey defeating real madrid in the quarters and then barca in a great final after 2-2 normal time,5-5after extra time then eventualy penalties.

COPA DEL REY

Next season id be delighted to come 3rd again and keep on building,and hopefully i can get a decent run in the champions league for some much needed cash:)

Out of the players you sold in the first season I would have definitely kept Goitia (regularly one of the 3 best GKs in Spain for me, reckon his hiddens are high) Sergio Garcia, (probably my best overall player of the original group) Caffa (who I always found to be good enough for any level) and Marco Aurelio (I know he's a long term injury but he was a massive tutor for 3 seasons for me and always good if you rested him right).

Did you offer Toni a full-time contract before you sold him, if you did I reckon you could have squeezed £500k out of someone at the start of 2010-11 season.

I don't touch Tafer with a 4o foot poll personally (he's never impressed either in 09 or 10) and would have (well did) gone with Vaclav Kadlec. Even in the low range of his -9 all his stats are in the right place.

Very well done on the 3rd one full season before me. I would suggest that you could expand into a full analysis of your methods, especially as I didn't actually start a new game with mine, just loaded up one to see the differences between 10.2 and 10.3. I also follow tactics which are suited to me and not the ME (if you get my meaning ).

I would love to see a few more perspectives on the club, just to give everyone a better idea of what's what.

My methods are that i buy players that i know will do a great job for the club,i also spend big in the first 2 years using the 48 months option,by doing that it gets you into europe where the big money is.

I do use my own narrow tactic,dont know if it exploits the ME or not but i put a lot of effort into it so i enjoy using it in all my saves.I also have my own corner tactic and not the cheat as you will see that my centre backs chip in with their fair share of goals.

Tafer is a personal favourite in 10.3 so i buy him for most saves that i do and he only gets better.

Currently in feb of the 3rd season and unbeaten in the league and through to the champions league last 16 against bordeuax.

Just finished season 4. After a long battle with me fighting with Barca and Athletico for 2-4, we coulnd't keep going and finished 4th. Not too fussed as it was close for a long time. Hopefully i can build on that for next season.

Got knocked out of the Champs league by Kobenhaven which i wasn't happy about. They won 3-1 at our place, they had only 4 shots. Hopefully can get a bit further this year.

Real Madrid knocked my kids out of the Spanish cup.

Looking forward to next season, was given 26m transfer budget, signed Dabo from Ajax and trying to sign Ivanovic. Debating wether to sign Sobis on a free, not sure if i'll have the cash to buy someone better. He would be a backup as Pazzini and Cristaldo formed a lethal partnership last year. It took a while but Pazzini was my top scorer and Cristaldo my top assister.

Well sorry about taking so long to get back but I had a few internet problems. This though freed me up to get a whole season done, where I exceed all hopes and dreams and won La Liga. My team made up half of regens and half of bargain buys and frees won the league, by an eventual 5 points over Real. 2 losses all season was the reason (though both at home ). I got as far as the CL semis where I was knocked out by my bogey team Inter over two legs, but Betis are now a more prestigious team than Lyon.

I will post a full report in the morning with pictures and all.

Well I'm a day late bout here is my promised report:

I won the league as above by 5 points, I got to the CL semis (only got the knockout stages here) and in the cup got knocked out by Villareal in the 5th round (no pic not important).

I had some big performances from my big players:

Goitia was goalie of the season with only 18 goals conceded in 28 matches, with a league ave. of 7.04 (I gave my reserve Wolf 10 games this season and he conceded 4)

Kadlec scored 27 in 31 giving an average of 7.50

Milevskiy scored 18 in 34 and 16 assts. giving an average of 7.71

In the middle Sunny and N'Koulou got 7.03 and 7.24 from 20 and 28 games respectively (scoring 1 each).

At the back Martinez my top defender (and coincidentally my lowest CA/PA defender) got 7.25 from 31. However Otamendi and Caldito didn't do so well with 6.83 (29 games) and 6.72 (26 games). Good figures but both had some stinking games during the season.

My full back performed admirably and so did my wingers.

There was a breakthrough season from Cordoba, who the previous season was out on loan (and not getting games) at Cadiz in the Segunda. I was pleasently surprised.

I did a lot of selling in the Summer and bought in a few players (most of whom were arranged a while back). Here's the list, not full as my B team released about 10.

This year I hope to retain the title, and finish no lower than a very close third. I expect a CL quarter-final (despite being drawn with Inter in my group, they've knocked me out of Europe in 3 of the last 4 seasons.

I have some very good prospects in Junior (good enough to sell a want-away Lustig for £10m), Sanchez at £5m to put manners on the two underperformers, and Anghel (a player I bought a while back but impressed enough on loan for a trial as back-up in the 1st team).

I also started a link with Nacional de Madeira (Portugal not loaded) a solid Europa team who will give my better prospects good European experience.

Oh, and finally my board were good enough to do this, without me even asking for it. The Manua Ruiz de Lopera will be at full capacity in October.