FM14: Manchester United FC Thread - Dawn of a New Evra!

[Bradz FM]

Yeah, seems players require "extended leave" at least once per year, even though I rotate, have "average" training, and a rest day after every match.

#

I find having rest day before match to be more beneficial than after

[Diego Birtles]

What is the highest transfer budget people have ever got? I just got an absolutely insane one in 2023, almost 4x as much as I've ever got before!

[zizunola]

anyone using an attacking 4-4-2 successfully. what intructions are you using and roles n duties? for manutd. want to start a new save. cheers

[stevemc]

#

I find having rest day before match to be more beneficial than after

Interesting, I might try that, does it effect match training though?

anyone using an attacking 4-4-2 successfully. what intructions are you using and roles n duties? for manutd. want to start a new save. cheers

I have a 442 version in my set of three tactics, like so:

-------- F9(S) --- CF(A) --------

DW(S) ------------------ DW(S)

------- AP(A) -- BWM(D) -------

I'll sometimes swap my right winger DW(S) to an IF in home matches against weaker opposition.

[Bradz FM]

I suppose techically it would if you wait until the scout report before applying match training as you would have a day less. Just means your players have more recovery before game. Who cares how tired they are after a game. make them train

[Geordieboy52]

Not a great start to the season - 1 W 1 D 1L - but on the plus side have played 3 of last year's top 5, beat Newcastle at home (2-1), drew with Spurs at home (0-0) and lost away to Chelsea (1-2). Plus' include Evra and Rafael flourishing higher up the pitch and Rooney slotting in nicely as a B2BM. Negatives - RVP's attitude, RVP's training levels, RVP's lack of goals and generally we've not hit the ground running.

[stevemc]

Managed to play 6 games last night, drew 3 away, won 3 at home.

Sometimes I put this on and my team just can't get going, then other times I'll be unbeatable winning games by huge margins!

I did have training set to defensive work most of pre-season, and to start the season, because I was poor last season, and I think that's detracted from my attacking play, so I've put it back on attack movement and team cohension.

[Vipertitan]

I wanted to start as Manchester united and try and completely re build the squad and get rid moyes staff and bring my own in.

the squad i was going to start with is a flat 4 4 2 formation. Goalkeeper: David De Gea :Full Backs:Rafael,Evra Center Half's Vidic Ferdinand right wing Young, left wing Januzaj, center mids will be mata Fellaini. forwards rooney and Van Persie

my targets i will be looking to buy are as follow

Alen Halilovic, Mattia de Sciglio,Giovanni Simeone, Mohamed El Neny and Will Hughes

[scott MUFC]

yea.. this is fun, nearly all my right midfielders are Injured, had to play Costa there :/

need a new LB, missed deadline day for the one I bought and shipped out Buttner, so only Evra there. tried to get one in on loan but it is grayed out

won in the league cup, both strikers and "wingers" scored

found him when looking through players to play, dunno if he is this good for everyone though.

[Ty]

Gave him a bit of game time in my first season, currently in April.

[fatlad86]

half time in fa cup , will they make a comeback? lol

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Decided to do a Man Utd save after watching their match today. Won the first game of the season, beating City 6-0. I think I'm going to enjoy this save...

[bsoltan]

Sooo, bought the game today and setup with Man Utd. Disable Transfers for the first season to see how I do..

Then this happens in my inter-squad friendly..

[Ty]

Season Summary 2013/14

Wasn't sure I was going to continue playing this save or not, due to how easy it was. Then, I lost in the final of the Champions League... which made me want to continue until I win it, hence I am doing an update!

Transfers

After settling on what tactics I was going to play, I realised I'd need another LB/LWB and RB/RWB, and better CM's. After purchasing Verratti and Shaw, I realised I wasn't going to be able to afford another RB/RWB so poor old Rafael has played EVERY game this season pretty much. RWB is my top priority for next season, need the rotation option.

Transfers In - Transfers Out

Luke Shaw was always a big priority when I knew I was going to play with wing backs, with him being English and young. I wasn't going to play with an AMC, so knew Shinji would be better being sold to raise more funds. This allowed me to sign Verratti from PSG, the perfect mold of a CM that I wanted and bring in Lucas Romero of similar quality for cheap. Casasola was brought in with Vidic/Rio leaving next season, get him under the United wing early and settle in, ready for more action next season, he still managed to play a part in 32 games in all competitions.

With one striker position available, Hernadez was able to be sold for £20m upfront, which allowed me to complete the Romero/Casasola deal and also fund the Verratti deal as well. There was no future for Buttner at the club so getting £5m for him was brilliant! Evra, Rio, Vidic, Fletcher, Nani, Valencia, Cleverley will all be able to leave the club at the end of the season for free and fees.

Tactics

I kept the same tactics all season, and they worked beautifully. Fluid attacking football, great defensively and score a lot of goals. Phil Jones is the perfect HB in this formation, although I would be tempted to move him to CB in the future and get Javi Martinez for the position. Rafael and Luke Shaw were phenemonel all season, two of the best performers at the club with only RVP/Smalling/Vidic getting a higher average rating than them. Although, all the CB's in the squad had very high average ratings. There is a lot of player instructions used to try and get it playing how I want, the only person that let me down as Mata... I feel I might have to sell him, not because he is bad, because I wont get the best out of him out wide. His sale might even fund a player like Sterling/Chamberlain to come in and use another IF on the left.

Summary of Competitions

Premier League - Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2 - Table

My tactic is not only great going forward, but quality defensively. So many cleansheets! I am wary of 'second season syndrome' so not sure it will work as good next season. The two games lost were to weaker sides which was frustrating... we did win the league with 7 games to go, due to lack of competition.

Community Shield - Fixtures

Not much to say really, mickey mouse cup which is basically a glorified friendly. Glad we won it though!

Capital One Cup - Fixtures

It may not look like it, but besides from Phil Jones and Adnan, I played my second string players for this cup. Yes, Rooney and Welbeck are my bench players.

FA Cup - Fixtures

Set a new FA Cup record for not conceding from 3rd round to winning it. It also included some big wins and a lot of goals scored.

Champions League - Fixtures

So annoyed we didn't win it, also very glad it wasn't Hernandez that scored the winner in the final though after having an average season for Chelsea.

Here are also a few of my top scorers - Link - Januzaj I feel has been overrated on the new 14.3 update as he was phenomenal all season!

[FMnutter89]

Season Summary 2013/14

Wasn't sure I was going to continue playing this save or not, due to how easy it was. Then, I lost in the final of the Champions League... which made me want to continue until I win it, hence I am doing an update!

Transfers

After settling on what tactics I was going to play, I realised I'd need another LB/LWB and RB/RWB, and better CM's. After purchasing Verratti and Shaw, I realised I wasn't going to be able to afford another RB/RWB so poor old Rafael has played EVERY game this season pretty much. RWB is my top priority for next season, need the rotation option.

Transfers In - Transfers Out

Luke Shaw was always a big priority when I knew I was going to play with wing backs, with him being English and young. I wasn't going to play with an AMC, so knew Shinji would be better being sold to raise more funds. This allowed me to sign Verratti from PSG, the perfect mold of a CM that I wanted and bring in Lucas Romero of similar quality for cheap. Casasola was brought in with Vidic/Rio leaving next season, get him under the United wing early and settle in, ready for more action next season, he still managed to play a part in 32 games in all competitions.

With one striker position available, Hernadez was able to be sold for £20m upfront, which allowed me to complete the Romero/Casasola deal and also fund the Verratti deal as well. There was no future for Buttner at the club so getting £5m for him was brilliant! Evra, Rio, Vidic, Fletcher, Nani, Valencia, Cleverley will all be able to leave the club at the end of the season for free and fees.

Tactics

I kept the same tactics all season, and they worked beautifully. Fluid attacking football, great defensively and score a lot of goals. Phil Jones is the perfect HB in this formation, although I would be tempted to move him to CB in the future and get Javi Martinez for the position. Rafael and Luke Shaw were phenemonel all season, two of the best performers at the club with only RVP/Smalling/Vidic getting a higher average rating than them. Although, all the CB's in the squad had very high average ratings. There is a lot of player instructions used to try and get it playing how I want, the only person that let me down as Mata... I feel I might have to sell him, not because he is bad, because I wont get the best out of him out wide. His sale might even fund a player like Sterling/Chamberlain to come in and use another IF on the left.

Summary of Competitions

Premier League - Fixtures 1 - Fixtures 2 - Table

My tactic is not only great going forward, but quality defensively. So many cleansheets! I am wary of 'second season syndrome' so not sure it will work as good next season. The two games lost were to weaker sides which was frustrating... we did win the league with 7 games to go, due to lack of competition.

Community Shield - Fixtures

Not much to say really, mickey mouse cup which is basically a glorified friendly. Glad we won it though!

Capital One Cup - Fixtures

It may not look like it, but besides from Phil Jones and Adnan, I played my second string players for this cup. Yes, Rooney and Welbeck are my bench players.

FA Cup - Fixtures

Set a new FA Cup record for not conceding from 3rd round to winning it. It also included some big wins and a lot of goals scored.

Champions League - Fixtures

So annoyed we didn't win it, also very glad it wasn't Hernandez that scored the winner in the final though after having an average season for Chelsea.

Here are also a few of my top scorers - Link - Januzaj I feel has been overrated on the new 14.3 update as he was phenomenal all season!

Whats Romero like would you highly recommend him

[Ty]

He came from Velez.

[FMnutter89]

He came from Velez.

Whats Romero like would you highly recommend him

[Ty]

If you want a CM/S or a BBM/S... yes, he does a hell of a job. His stamina means he will run all day! Not tried him with any other roles, but I have no need to.

Also just had this news pop up in my game, the Ox getting a hatrick... making me want him even more!

[heron]

Hi Ty, do you have some more information on your tactic, like philosophy, team instruction, etcetera?

I find it funny that your approach seems to be based around the attacking positions you want your players to take, while I always want to build from the defensive positioning of my players (e.g. I wanted to start from a 4-1-4-1 formation to get the same play as you seem to get from your 2-3-2-2-1). Given the results, your approach seems vastly superior!

[stevemc]

2016/17

Didn't get much time on it over the weekend, but I managed to turn around a stuttering start, I'm now in January, with a League Cup final place in the bag and I'm 4 points off Chelsea in second place in the Premier League, and have FC Porto to play in the Champions League.

Everton spent pretty big in January, after there new billionaire buyer sacked Martinez, they brought in the Ox, plus a few others. Chelsea and Manchester City are seriously strong too now.

Will Hughes picked up the Golden Boy award:

Not happy about this though...

... and lets hope this happens in real life

[Westwood Wizard]

Sooo, bought the game today and setup with Man Utd. Disable Transfers for the first season to see how I do..

Then this happens in my inter-squad friendly..

Hope you fined Reece James!

[scott MUFC]

going to be Tough now. Only had one player who could play ML/R..... and he was the only fit player who could play MR

so naturally

never before have I been more annoyed at Losing Nani...

got away games in the Champions League - against Tel-Aviv and Arsenal next as well as well as a couple of other away games.

[stevemc]

2016/2017: Manchester United

This has been the worst season for far while I've been at Manchester United, I made some big changes in the Summer, to try and compete with free-spending Chelsea and Manchester City. Managed to pick up the Charity Shield early on, but in truth we struggled for consistency after Christmas. I didn't win away at any of the big teams, plus a tricky run of games in February/March in the league, Champions League (Real Madrid) and the League Cup final lead to moral dropping and key players simply not performing. By that point, Chelsea were romping the league, and turned me over 2-0 in the League Cup final:

Once the league was out of reach, I decided to drop all the older players (Fellaini, Rooney, RVP, even my Summer signing, Balotelli) in favour of the younger lads (Zaha, Barbosa), plus 16 year old wonder kid striker, Ljungberg, from my youth team. I've made a few tweaks defensively, and managed to pick up a few results, restore moral and retain 2nd place in the league with 2 games to go. I also have an FA Cup final in the bag against Manchester City.

I think this Summer, I might completely change my philosophy and sell the high profile ageing players, and re-build with youth…

[Geordieboy52]

I like that idea Steve the squad is aging, give it a massive overhaul - I think you should be able to declare that as one of your philosophies.

[stevemc]

Yeah, I only have 1 year left on my contract too, so I have to get it right.

I need to tweet my formation, and get rid of the aging players, and re-build.

[RTHerringbone]

I'm on a "throwaway" save at Man Utd, but I've just started the fourth season - seems it's the first FM14 save I've got into

I use FMC and have whistled through seasons in no time, and have been typically ruthless with the squad.

Just 8 of the remaining first team squad remain (De Gea, Rafael, Jones, Powell, Mata, Januzaj, Fellaini and Kagawa).

It has been a very successful tenure so far and we operate from a base of four tactics; principally using an aggressive 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1.

The stadium capacity is being increased for the second consecutive season. An initial increase of around 10k seats literally just completed at the end of season three, before a further 15k seats were planned. Should be able to benefit from the additional income from the start of season five, in what should presumably be a stadium of around 100k capacity.

On the subject of income, I don't know if FMC differs to Simulation Mode. I've already had a message to confirm that the debt is cleared, so that's £10.75m less per month disappearing into the abyss. Is that way ahead of schedule? I've brought in a load of transfer income, so that perhaps offsets the debt?

Financially we're in rude health. AI squad building seems as duff as ever on FM14, so we've received healthy fees for most of the offered out players. RVP, Welbeck and Cleverly all generated £30m+, Rooney only £21m, but we've done well to sell the likes of Evans, Lindegaard and Young for fees well in excess of that invested in their direct replacements (Ginter, ter Stegen and a Spanish newgen called Fernandez in those specific cases). Vidic even commanded an £8.25m fee (i.e. Doria) in season one from Chelsea, even though his contract was expiring.

Incoming players have been the usual, predictable "Who's Who" of highly rated youngsters, so Balanta, Doria, Grimaldo, Peruzzi, Rafinha, Barbosa, Berardi and Sergio Roberto have been recruited over the four seasons to date, along with some true FM newgens, of whom a couple of 16 year olds (Fernandez and Caspers) are already coming on from the bench.

My FM games usually end up being a case of rapidly clearing the decks of "original" players and then kicking off a cycle of youth recruitment and development. I expect to have an entirely newgen squad not long after season ten.

[roo-naldo]

@RTHerringbone In the full game, the debt is cleared 02/01/2017. I only know cause I've just past that date myself

I've had problems selling players, unlike yourself, but I tend not to make wholesale changes on a seasonal basis, but carefully dissect the squad each summer.

[RTHerringbone]

@RTHerringbone In the full game, the debt is cleared 02/01/2017. I only know cause I've just past that date myself

Cheers for the clarification, I thought I was special for clearing the debt so fast

My approach to squad rebuilding can afford to be Gung-Ho, as there's no (pointless) tactical familiarity in FMC.

I could sell and replace a whole starting XI each season if I wanted - and I'd never rule it out

[roo-naldo]

Cheers for the clarification, I thought I was special for clearing the debt so fast

My approach to squad rebuilding can afford to be Gung-Ho, as there's no (pointless) tactical familiarity in FMC.

I could sell and replace a whole starting XI each season if I wanted - and I'd never rule it out

That's okay, just forget you read my comment

Never really given FMC much of a go tbh, prefer the full game. But I like your style!

[stevemc]

Manchester United – End of Season 2016/17

Following on from yesterday's update, regarding the senior players performing poorly for me when it mattered most, I decided to play most of the younger players, plus tweaked my tactics, I finished the season with two wins, two cleans sheets, better performances and also managed to beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final

Can't beat a winner in the 93rd minute against your rivals

Chelsea romped home in the title race, so I need to make some big changes in the Summer:

The changes started with me sacking assistant manager, Steve Round, and employing Ryan Giggs as my new number two:

I also released a number of staff, and youth team players, and I'm going through a new staff recruitment drive now. Also, after Everton's buy out, they seem serious in spend the cash, they bought Evans off me for £9m, plus Zivkovic (who was struggling to get games for me) for £40m , and gave him £195K p/w…

The stadium expansion was halted But we are starting work on improving the youth facilities, and now the loan is paid off, we are filthy rich

I'm just at the start of pre-season, and I've managed to move on Evans, Zivkovic, Van Persie and Balotelli, while signed Rooney to a new contract to ensure he becomes a club legend. Fellaini will be next out of the door. I've brought in 2 regens, both model professionals, this kid for £3.6m:

And another lad, central midfielder, who has 5 star world class potential, with amazing stats already for an 18 year old, for around £50m (not got a screen shot of him). He will replace Fellaini. Also signed Isco from Real Madrid. I'm struggling to sign top players, as my targets of Alaba, Busquets and Lewandowski are only available if I pay upwards of £100m.

In other news, Kagawa (who I sold to Barcelona for £30m), played 10 games in 3 seasons, and has been sold to Roma for £3.5m.

I'll continue with this tomorrow night now.

[Geordieboy52]

That is one tought looking newgen!

[stevemc]

Bet there is a pony tail behind it though

[joep724]

Just finished my first season with United, After seeing Moyes try and get the ball out wide at every opportunity I decided to do the opposite and play more through the middle.

My formation was a 2-3-2-1-2 with 2 wing backs, A defensive mid, 2 midfielders an amc and 2 strikers.

I won the league after being unbeaten and only conceding 17 goals all season, my stand out player was probably Januzaj, Who occupied the advanced playmaker attack position behind the strikers having an average rating of 7.65 in the 27(5) appearances he made in all competitions scoring 9 whilst making 20 assists !

I managed to also win the FA cup, League cup and champions league ! the only team to cause me any problems all season were Chelsea who i met in the FA cup final and Champions

league semi's.

I disabled transfer budgets at the start of the season and brought in a transfer listed Ricardo Rodriquez from Wolfsburg for £9 mil in January and I've let the contracts of Vidic and Evra

run out to mimic what will happen at the end of the season in real life.

I've been given 55 Mil transfer budget and I'm looking to add to my midfield and defense over the course of the summer, I've had a bid accepted for balanta at 6.5 mil and a bid of 6.25 mil accepted for Denswil at Ajax, although i was wondering who others on here would pick ? Balanta seems to be a bit of a legend on this years FM but he has been toned down a bit on the latest update.

I'm considering selling Hernandez although he has tendinitis ,As i'm looking to mold James Wilson into the same type of player but only playing 2 strikers at a time but having a possible 5 doesn't make it easy to keep all of them happy.

Wilson was one of the surprises last season, After winning the league with a few games to go I decided to give him a run out after him being tutored by RVP he played 3 league games

scoring 4 goals whilst making an appearance against Chelsea in the Semi's of the champions league home leg and scoring twice !

Hoping for the same sort of success next season, whilst getting rid of players like Nani and Young who Didn't make an appearance.

[D0bi]

Just starting my fourth season as United. I too started it as a bit of a throwaway save like RTHerringbone but I've really got in to it.

First season I won the Community Shield, Premier Division and Champions League (vs Juventus). Second season I won Community Shield, Club World Championship and the FA Cup. Third season I won the Premier Division and the Champions League again.

In this Fourth Season I've won the Community Shield again (vs Norwich) and I'm about to face HSV in the European Super Cup (that + the league cup are the only trophies evading me at the minute). I've also just taken the England job after we didn't make it out of the group stages of the 2016 European Championships.

Here are my transfers for the fourth season.

Ins:

After Evra's contract finally expired (I kept doing 1 year renewals as he performed so well) I finally had to sign a replacement. Shaw is his natural heir as he combines attacking and defensive skills and Jonathan Silva brings great competition to the position. He's much better than Shaw defensively but not attackingwise.

Mangas: Think of him as a 20 year old Busquets, Argentinian but with Spanish nationality after Barca paid £4.5m from River for him 2 years ago. They beat me to his signature then and I've chased him ever since. Should perfectly hold down my midfield for the next 10 years.

Outs:

At 28, I was surprised to see Jonny Evans valued at £19m. I was even more surprised when I offered him out at £25m that I got two takers in Chelsea and Arsenal. He's now paid a massive £140k a week. Silly Arsenal!

Caicedo - I signed him on a free 6 months before selling him. A.C. Milan paid £6.25m plus 50% of next fee. He performed alright with us, scoring 3 goals in 10 games but he was only ever signed to make a profit.

Ince - Like Caicedo, he was only ever signed to profit from him. He spent two years out on loan to Hull and then Everton before being sold to Stoke for £5m + 50% of next fee.

Zaha - never truly developed well, but scored some important goals for the club. £30.5m was too much to turn down though.

Fellaini - Once Mangas issued a come and get me plea, I knew I had to free up some space. Fellaini wanted a new contract at £130k and so had to go.

____

Surprise of the window though... after this happened:

Due to So'ton being relegated, Valdes wanted out. However, I decided to look around to try and find another second choice keeper. I managed to find Curtois for free and reasonable wage demands. I now have the best two goalkeepers rotating

[stevemc]

Here is my Fellaini replacement, Werner Meier:

[D0bi]

Here is my Fellaini replacement, Werner Meier:

He looks exceptional. I love a player who can play from defence through midfield as well. Great find!

[stevemc]

He's got a professional personality too. I'm hoping to build my team around him.

Also signed this lad from Brazil, model professional, but have to wait until next Summer:

[D0bi]

Looks like he'll be a solid player, just needs his Composure, OTB and Anticipation working on but they'll come in time.

In to the fourth season and I have £206m to spend and £875k left in the wage budget each week. Really want to sign a "star" player, looked at Ronaldo (31 years old) but Real want £200m for him, Bale (27) they won't sell. Likewise with Neymar who's now the best player in the world but Barcelona won't listen. Hazard is around his peak, but at just 25 I may try and tempt Chelsea to sell - since the start of the game he's had 64 assists and 34 goals in 106 games.

That said, he'd be competing against Mata, Januzaj and Kagawa for a spot on the wing.

[RTHerringbone]

I'm now in December 2016 and we're progressing well.

Images below of the two kids who are coming off the bench for us, and who will be starters as we aim to defend the Club World Championship.

That one is just silly, and has the potential to be a World Class attacking midfielder.

This guy is a year older and can operate across the AML/R/ST slots, and again could be World Class:

[D0bi]

Those two look quality ^^ Definitely capable of developing in to top quality players.

Just tried to see where £200m would get me. Barcelona refused £180M for Neymar, the board intervened at £200m and accepted the offer but Neymar wanted £20m in bonuses for him and his agent plus £325k p/w.

Looks like another year of letting that transfer budget sit there. I've accepted the England job and named 9 United players in my first squad - the papers picked up on that fairly quickly and criticised some of the inclusions. For two matches against San Marino and Finland I'd say I'm entitled to "experiment"

[roo-naldo]

Liking the look of Caspers especially RTH, me likey indeed. At 16, his stat base is ridiculous

I hate fixture rescheduling Good job I've already won the league, as after the FA Cup Final on May 6th, I've got games Tues 9th, Thurs 11 and Sun 14th, with a potential Champions League Final after that.

[stevemc]

Those two look quality ^^ Definitely capable of developing in to top quality players.

Just tried to see where £200m would get me. Barcelona refused £180M for Neymar, the board intervened at £200m and accepted the offer but Neymar wanted £20m in bonuses for him and his agent plus £325k p/w.

Looks like another year of letting that transfer budget sit there. I've accepted the England job and named 9 United players in my first squad - the papers picked up on that fairly quickly and criticised some of the inclusions. For two matches against San Marino and Finland I'd say I'm entitled to "experiment"

I'm in the same boat now, I can't add a special player to my squad as team won't sell for less than £200m.

[D0bi]

It's annoying, but I'm on course to make a £796m profit this season, so I'll just try and boost the stadium/facilities again.

These two are the only newgens in my team so far. Mangas is like a Busquets/Javi Martinez-esque player I'd had my eyes on for ages. Cuffie is essentially a new Rooney, signed from Everton at 17 for £13.25m. He's not scored many so far (5 in 22 career league appearances) and came through as a Target Man type player but I've really focused on his Speed and he now looks excellent.

And these are the most promising 3 players in the U18's. All from the academy too.

Rory May got two assists on his debut this season as well.

[sendoh86]

Recently picked up my Man U save again. Currently in 2018/2019 season. So far won the CL 4x (lost to Madrid last season), won the FA cup 3x, Capital one cup once, Super cup 4x, club world cup 4x

Current standings:

still in it in the CL as well just got this result against PSG:

My star regens that are currently carrying my team:

Roman Ienca (picked up for 1.4m in Argentina, developed quicker then expected)

Lucas Lopez (found him in Argentina, signed him for 1.3m but had to wait till he was 18 till he came over)

Julio Ordonez (was injured for a while sadly, picked up for 1.3m from Castilla)

Gerard Bueno (my starting RB after I sold Corchia, picked up for 725k in 2014)

these 4 are now starters for me, I got 7 other regens now in my first team as well but they still need to develop a bit before they'll be effective enough to be regular starters. Got 7 more guys with 4 star or higher potential in my reserves as well but they're quite a way off to being good enough for the first team. But either way looks like I can continue to dominate for a few more seasons.

[tomtuck01]

So what has everyone been doing with United on the latest patch? Has been a case or tearing the squad to pieces and starting again? Or having a bit of patience? Haven't seen anything of what the players look like after the patch you see as I've been on just one save from release date.

[scott MUFC]

struggling to rotate is what i have been doing, just say i'm thankful Balanta can play DL as backup for Evra

[20LEgend Razman]

[At the start of 16/17 now]

I started a save on the latest patch from January 2014 with the first window off. I simmed through to May and the league table ended up:

1. Chelsea

2. City

3. Arsenal

4. Liverpool

5. Spurs

6. United

- Moyes got sacked so I took over.

- First season I sold Rooney since he wanted Champions League football for £29.5m I think, sold Nani and Smalling (maybe others too) but only got 30% of the sales .

- I signed Howedes, Eric Dier (who spent the first half of the season at Stoke to get used to the league), Juan Bernat and Sven Bender after missing out on Lars (to Chelsea), Toni Kroos (City) and Gundogen (signed a new deal). [The German theme is unintentional]

- I started well, but injuries to Bender and Robin Van Persie saw me drop off a bit.

- January I had Christian Eriksen and Quintero both agreeing to join me but Eriksen was having a poor season so I went for Quintero who had no agent so was on low wages. (Eriksen went on to join Real Madrid).

- I ended 2nd after a poor end to the season, and lost the FA Cup final. Meaning it was 2 years trophy-less.

- Being back in the Champions League I tried for Fabregas but he wanted really high wages so I signed Goretzka for about £9m. I also signed Callum Chambers and David Santon (Madrid). ter Stegen was on the free agents, so I offered him a trial and signed him eventually (I didn't really want to, but he played nearly every cup game and had a run in the league after a 3-6 defeat to Sunderland). I also got James Rodriguez for a very cheap (17m I think) and he has been great. Dier really turned up in the big games this season, as a broken leg to Bender forced me into playing Jones in CM a lot.

- Won the League 2nd season, but was knocked out by Chelsea in the Champions League Semi-Finals, leading to me falling out with Rafael over his red card (we since patched it up )

Off the top of my head my squad is something like this:

De Gea - ter Stegen (free)

Rafael - Chambers (6m) | Shaw (25m+, couldn't get it down - tried for over a year) - Bernat (very cheap)

Jones - Evans - Dier (~1.2m) - Howedes (14m) - Denswil (free)

Fellaini - S. Bender (14m) - Goretkza (9m) - Powell

Januzaj - Zaha (2 season at N'Castle) | Rodriguez (~17m)

Mata - Kagawa - Quintero (22.5m+5m, been great in the cups)

Van Persie - Welbeck - Hernandez - Henriquez

I play with a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Maybe missing someone from the list, not sure. Been after Ward-Prose all summer (well, after quickly finding that Vidal wasn't going to happen) but can't get him under 30m and he seems to be quite loyal, having said he wants to come but yet to request a transfer (which I'd been hoping for after Chambers & Shaw both did). He looks really good though and was one of about 5 players who came back after a filter of what I felt I needed.

Also Arsenal's Diego Costa is interesting me, he requested a transfer due to lack of Champions League football and was available for 23m (just not to me). They since raised it to 28m but I think I'd have to pay more - is he worth going after? He's not been great for Arsenal and is only 3 & 1/2 stars from my scouts but he seems to have what I'm looking for attributes wise. This would probably spell the end for Hernandez, as he's not got much game time as it is.

City and Chelsea have spent 80m+ each, but on players who I wasn't interested in. I have just beat Swansea 3-2 in the Community Shield and I'm expecting a difficult season with City and Chelsea improving on poor 15/16 seasons. I'm in a position where there aren't really many players that I can sign who I feel will improve the squad, and if I am interested, they're pretty much all key players from other top sides. The optimistic target is Champions League this season, but retaining the title is most important I think.

Just off the top of my head, might add some screen shots at some point and some more details.

[RTHerringbone]

Finished season four last night, and it was preposterously easy.

We won every competition we were involved in (3-0 vs. Bayern in the Champions League), and went through the league season with 37 wins and a draw (at Watford (!)) Over 100 goals scored, less than 15 conceded.

I continue to kick out members of the original squad, and have accelerated the integration of some youth players to make things a bit trickier. As an example, Fellaini was offloaded to Madrid for just £15m at the age of 29, and replaced with an 18 year old newgen Brazilian called Juca.

As is always the case, I rotate my whole XI from match to match, and this is our current squad; original squad members in bold, newgens in italic:

GK De Gea / ter Stegen

DR Rafael / Peruzzi

DL Dodo / Grimaldo

DC Doria / Balanta / Jones / Caulker / Ginter

MC S Bender / Strootman / Lucas Silva / Pogba

AM Kagawa / Mata / Powell / Rafinha / Roberto / Juca / Caspers / Fernandez

ST Berardi / Barbosa

Financially we are very stable, with the debt clear and the capacity increase to around 100,000 due to complete before season five starts.

If I remember correctly, our transfer budget is around £170m, with £500k+ of slack in the wage budget.

With the increased match day income and no debt to service, our projected balance is on an upward trajectory.

Biggest transfer outlay by miles was on Pogba, who was finally prised from Juventus at the start of season four for £62m after heavy negotiation.

Everyone else was really reasonable, with Peruzzi, Dodo and Rafinha all around £22m, and the rest below that.

Whilst those fees are high, they are more than offset by the funds generated from selling the likes of Rooney, Valencia, RVP etc. over the years.

Kagawa and Mata will be the next "originals" to be shown the door, and depending on what's available, I'll aim to do that in the coming transfer window.

Even if I can't find anyone, I have 8 players rotating in my 3 AMC line slots, so we already have enough to rotate from game to game even if we lose 2 of them.

I'm searching hard for players to refresh my MC line (Strootman and Bender could also be on the way). I generally use a DLP (D) and CM (S) there, occasionally an AP (S) and CM (A) if using a different shape. I'm finding that I can spot plenty of AMC line candidates, but there's relatively little MC line talent on my save.

[stevemc]

Manchester United: Start of 2017/18:

Decided on a Summer clear out of most of the old guard, and rebuild around my youth products, promoting from within, and also signing a few new talents, leaving my ins and outs like this:

I had around £200m to spend but could spend it, as the targets I wanted would not be sold by their clubs, no matter what I bid.

After not winning the league last season, I needed to address playing against the big sides, and also balance my tactic better, rather than being so attacking, the tweaks I made have worked perfectly as I am now still unbeaten in the league in January, along with winning the Charity Shield, I also dominated the Manchester derby:

And also making light work of my Champions League group:

Rooney became our all time leading goalscorer;

And my faith in Gabriel Barbosa is being repaid is great fashion:

[scott MUFC]

Brooklyn Beckham?