Barcelona'ing the way through the lower leagues part II - FM15 edition

[Nobby_McDonald]

The skiing tempted you.

[noikeee]

The skiing tempted you.

I've earned a total of 2.4M€ in my career... perhaps I should starting using some of that for some leisure time.

Wondering at the moment whether I should fit Igor as my deep-lying forward, as my advanced forward, or change the tactics to try to make him a trequartista...

[deltablue]

You're definitely the man for the job.

[noikeee]

Well, this is an interesting draw. My previous club, the club I almost took over, and the club that helped name this thread (though I've never managed them... maybe one day).

[nie jem frytek]

That's some serious coincidence. Quick, buy lottery ticket!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Just not the £2 lotto one where you have virtually no chance of winning.

[noikeee]

We've got a superstar.

[noikeee]

2025/2026, Lyon

Transfers

(Transfers)

I could ask as much as I wanted but the board were not giving me more money - I had agreed to an almost non-existant transfer budget when I had signed, despite lots more money having been put in the club since. So pretty much my first move in the club was to get rid of goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar to try to fund some meagre signings as much as I could. I ended up making just two: my former Kayserispor left-back and captain Jimmy Vallejo; and striker Moritz Salz on loan from Real Madrid. Neither would do much - I quickly realized Vallejo might have been quality in Turkey but this was a whole new level here; whilst Salz never became more than 4th choice despite puzzlingly playing regularly for Germany.

By mid-November however, the board magically realized they had a big bag of cash in waiting and told me to go spend it. I identified two big holes in my squad and figured out there was just about enough cash to fix them. For a start, we badly lacked a left-winger as Thauvin was way past it, Serepas was a decently competent youngster but without much potential, and Jemal was similar but worse. So to replace them I probably overspent a little on Omar Michel, my most expensive signing ever at 18,5M€. Meanwhile, I could also see my defence was way weaker than my attack, and I wasn't too happy with the performance of Alexis Blin and my other DMs at holding my midfield. So once I found out about Domen Vidmar's release clause of 7M€ it was a no-brainer to grab him.

That turned out to be an AMAZING pair of signings. Seriously, the difference in quality in the team was immediately noticeable and completely changed our season. Meanwhile, the winter transfer window also marked the departure of homegrown youth DM Cedric Linord, whom I hated because of his PPM of "gets forward whenever possible". Not nice when you're trying to tell him to hold a midfield on his own...

Notice I never sold any of our really big stars like Igor, Lievens and Bingölbali. There was interest, but the only time I got a bid was Schalke for Lievens and at most they offered me 58M€ including installments. I wanted 60M€ bare minimum, if not lots more, and rejected it. I'd completely regret it later. By midseason he broke a leg, hadn't been playing that amazingly before the injury anyway, Bruma replaced him seamlessly, and I found an amazingly cheap right-winger that's even better than him that I already have lined up for next season. I wish I can get a bid like that again now...

Ligue 1

Our start was extremely positive - 6-1 vs bitter rivals Saint-Étienne then 5-0 over Lille promised great things. Only to get beaten 5-1 at Marseille the very next match (ouch!) after their incredible Mexican regen forward Mario Alberto Velázquez went on a rampage and scored 4. That instilled a seed of doubt in my team and we struggled to get a run going. Two consecutive defeats at Auxerre and Nantes were a particularly low point. We seemed to settle at around 4th/5th position which was dangerous as the board wanted Champions League qualification (a minimum of 3rd place); whilst PSG grabbed a massive lead at the top.

The first signs of recovery were already in December with 4 consecutive wins but PSG, Marseille and surprise overacheivers Reims were holding on firmly to the top 3. But it was in January when new boys Michel and Vidmar arrived that we started turning it around seriously. We beat Rennes 6-0 away and PSG 5-2, but PSG even after that still had a 7 points lead. Surely they were going to run away with it?

Amazingly, they entered a bad slump and completely blew it. Not even when we nearly bottled it ourselves by losing points to Auxerre, Toulouse and Metz did they manage to regain any advantage; and by the time we beat Reims 4-2 away, in April, we were now at the top of the table and PSG no longer had games in hand. However they did wake up in the final stretch of the season. With 3 games to go, we went 2-0 down at Guingamp and somehow survived 5 clear cut chances to still draw the game. PSG were now on equal points with us - we had the advantage on goal difference - and it remained that way as we went into the final match.

By chance the final fixture was away at our fiercest rivals' Saint-Étienne. We scored early in a corner, but so they did a few minutes later, and the result of 1-1 dragged on. Desperately I even brought in Olivier Lievens for the final few minutes, straight from returning from his broken leg injury, and one of his crosses eventually ended up in the net, scored by Bingölbali. It was well timed, as PSG had just gotten the lead in their own match at Rennes. A little later, Igor scored another for us, and confirmed the championship. OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS ARE FRENCH CHAMPIONS!!!

(Positions Graph)

Coupe de France

Truly a big failure and a low point of the season. We scrapped past Lens with a slightly rotated side, but in the next round we found second division Troyes were up for it more; and not even after I brought in some star players out of the bench, did we score any. It went all the way to penalties and Bingölbali, Serepas and Bruma missed theirs to put us out of the cup in humiliating fashion.

Coupe de la Ligue

This, however, went a little differently. A gritty match vs Lorient put us in the following round vs Toulouse where by mistake I fielded a full strenght side, and ended up with the heaviest win of the season - 8-0. I knew I had to repeat the mistake, now deliberately, if I wanted to beat Marseille and so we did, putting us in the final vs our feeder club Le Havre who play in the second division.

... and so nearly the final played out like the fateful match that had previously knocked us out of the French Cup. The ball just wouldn't want to go in, despite a comical stat of a total 44 shots to 2. The players seemed overwhelmed by the occasion even if they were much superior to the opposition and even if this was France's lesser trophy. Eventually, however, Bingölbali finally found the net in extra-time and repeated it a few minutes later. LYON WIN THE LEAGUE CUP!

UEFA Champions League

This didn't start great, as my return to Kayseri proved humbling, us throwing away a 2 goal lead after I had already substituted star players to rest them. We'd turn the group around quickly however, as we beat Shakhtar, had two magnificent performances vs Barcelona, then absolutely hammered my former club Kayserispor 6-1 to confirm qualification with one match to go. Again I got a little cocky for the final match vs Shakhtar and rotated things a bit. The result was a heavy 3-0 defeat and losing the group lead to Barcelona, which could've proven costly.

Except the next round draw was actually a little kind to us - compared to all other group winners, Liverpool seemed very beatable. And we were much superior to them in the first leg. However Memphis Depay scored from an impossible angle for them, giving them the lead; and only an inspired match by youngster Grigoris Serepas, scoring twice after coming out of the bench, turned the game around in our favour. It was an unconvincing lead to bring to Anfield, and Liverpool were this time the superior side, eventually scoring in the second half by Harry Kane, and knocking us out in away goals. The famous curse of Lyon, who always struggle badly to go far in the Champions League once they reach the knockouts, struck again.

What next?

By midseason I was wondering what had I done by moving to France, as it looked like my least successful season ever since switching to the 4-4-2 diamond, still back then in the Compostela days. We languished 5th and were clearly underperforming. The signings of Michel and Vidmar changed all of that, and completely turned things around; and I'd be now much more positive even if we hadn't won anything, just looking at the improving trend. Ultimately, winning the league and a minor cup is a very positive start to my French career.

However the one big goal is the Champions League and we've got a lot to improve there. If I wanted to, I could just splash cash carelessly as the board has gone absolutely insane and given me a 13M€/month wage budget. We're spending 8.5M€ at the moment and I already feel it's not sustainable! It's the most the club has ever paid and we lose money every month! Still, I have quite a big margin to play with - perhaps lots more if I finally manage to sell Oliver Lievens as I intend - and there's few excuses not to win more trophies and progress further next season.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

Slight tweak as I turned the advanced forward into a poacher, to try to give us a more permanent presence in the area. I barely noticed anything different at the beginning, but then Bingölbali started scoring tons of goals.

I also started playing a slightly more cautious variant when trying to shut out games, by switching to Control, turning off Look for Overlap and turning on Retain Possession.

Youth watch

We had a quality intake where these three lads stand out:

Ishak Kehiha (DL / DR)

Lamine Ture (DC / DL)

Said Mbae Youssouf (AML / ML, AMRC)

Meanwhile lots of players have been developing well enough. Fullback Fodé Kamaté is a regular starter. Striker Salah Derrag is now a "wonderkid". Keeper Abdelaziz Abdouni and forward Bruno Hamon developed immensely. Winger Fabien Collomb got first team games at the age of 16. It's a happy successful school of football players, this place.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Milan Kacunic (AMC) - I'll always be a little biased towards attacking players. In truth, defenders Luiz Gustavo, Kyle Walker-Peters and Uros Spajic all had considerably higher average ratings (although I'd never choose Spajic for the top players after his FOUR red cards). But I feel in my tactic the AMC gets slightly understated ratings and his performances surprised me a bit, with 10 goals and 16 assists.

4. Bruma (MR) - I could barely feel the absence of 37M€-valued Olivier Lievens as the experienced Portuguese winger, frankly, did a better job. 11 goals and 15 assists.

3. Domen Vidmar (DM) - His fellow winter signing Omar Michel was also excellent with 11 assists, but I truly feel Vidmar was THE key to the turnaround in this season. In this tactic the DM is absolutely vital as he holds the midfield on his own; and Vidmar's supreme combination of physical excellence, well timed tackles, intelligence and calmness on the ball and accurate passing, is simply perfect for our system. And he only cost 7M€! I honestly think he's one of my best signings ever.

2. Bakan Bingölbali (ST) - Looked amazing in pre-season. Scored a hat-trick in the first match. Then disappeared, completely. Had a total of 4 goals by November. I even started picking Salah Derrag ahead of him. However, a little later after I turned him into a poacher, he suddenly turned into an absolute beast, and remained so for the duration of the season. Soon he was scoring shitloads of goals, and even overtook Igor in the scoring charts at some point - at the end they finished tied on 36. Also got 11 assists.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Igor (ST)

When he got the Ballon D'Or, I'm going to be honest, I felt it was a little bit too much. Sure, he'd been great, but he doesn't really dominate matches. He just walks around until he randomly scores one or assists one. But then I realized I was holding him to insane expectations, maybe under memories of my insane FM11/FM12 strikers who'd score 50 or 60 a season thanks to broken match engines. Let's put it this way: quite simply, he got 36 goals and 22 assists in 48 appearances. That's over a goal per match he scores or directly influences. And many (most?) of these aren't even full matches, as I tried to sub him as much as I could to preserve his energy. What could you ever ask for more from a deep-lying forward? (a role I gave him that ended up fitting him perfectly - I look at previous seasons and whilst his goal numbers had always been great, he never got any assists at all; this year he broke both the club and the league record for assists)

Nevermind the fact he never responds badly to team talks. That his wages, despite being a Ballon d'Or, are a third of the world's highest paid player, purely for his love for the club. That he rallied his team-mates for all the decisive league matches, despite not being captain or even subcaptain. That the only times he's ever been upset, was first because he wanted a move (understandable, he's the world's best player and plays for Lyon) and I told him I'd sign better players, once Michel and Vidmar arrived he was now happy; the other time was because he wanted me to be harsher with Thauvin who missed training, instead of siding with his slacker, unprofessional team-mate. Players on this version of FM tend to be absolute spoiled brats. Not this guy, who just seems to be a top bloke, as much as FM simulates "personalities".

[b]Season   League                   Cups                          International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd         ----                          ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st         Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd     ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th      Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd          ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)     
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th      Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd          ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th     Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd          ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th     Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd          ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th      Copa del Rey 4th Rnd          ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs
21/22    Liga Adelante - 2nd      Copa del Rey 4th Rnd          ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Promoted
22/23    La Liga - 11th           Copa del Rey 4th Rnd          ----                            Harold Villa (ST)
[b]*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kayserispor (Turkey)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
23/24    Super League - 1st       Türkiye Kupasi winners        ----                            Orkan Çinar (ML)            Champions, won the double
24/25    Super League - 1st       T. Kup. 1/2f, TSC winners     Champions League 1st KO rnd     Eduardo San Miguel (MR)     Retained the title
[b]*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Lyon (France)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
25/26    Ligue 1 - 1st            CpFr 10th rnd, CpLg winners   Champions League 1st KO rnd     Igor (ST)                   Champions, won League Cup

[deltablue]

Igor's a beast!

[noikeee]

Igor's a beast!

He's been having a decent Summer, too.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Christ you banged in some goals.

[noikeee]

Christ you banged in some goals.

We seek to entertain!

First match of the league in the new season, our young defender on loan to our opponents handballs in the box within 7 minutes. Thanks mate.

Hell, this is quite the match. Now my keeper has decided to try to dribble an opponent and ended up gifting the path to an empty net. Has never happened to me in 6 years of playing a sweeper keeper.

[Cheesey1975]

wow looking good

[noikeee]

This new season has just gone stupid. I'm halfway through the league in mid-December. 19 fixtures played. 80 goals scored, 28 conceded.

I've never ever scored this many goals on FM. It's like hockey scorelines every match. Insane stuff.

[oneronaldo]

Igor really reminds me of the kind of guy who if you asked him to run through brick walls, he'd ask "how many?" and then do it without hesitation. A manager's dream, really:D

[noikeee]

Igor really reminds me of the kind of guy who if you asked him to run through brick walls, he'd ask "how many?" and then do it without hesitation. A manager's dream, really:D

Ha, it's exactly like that!

It's January 2027 and Igor's been busy breaking ancient records, plus renewing some of his most prestigious awards:

BUT! He's not the only one of our players getting some recognition at the moment. This season's new signing Jesús Meza is starting to make quite a name for himself too:

(notice our other Mexican winger Omar Michel also came 3rd there)

Whilst Bingölbali won the yearly award for best foreign player playing in France:

[dllu]

Bingölbali - clearly a legend in the making, if only because of the name!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Bingo balls is easier to say.

[noikeee]

2026/2027, Lyon

Transfers

(Transfers)

(Transfers) (2)

We got an amazing break in the transfer market to have found world class winger Jesús Meza for just 11,25M€... even if we didn't need another right-winger. We also poached centre-back Djibril Badji from rivals PSG, and Brazilian AMC Wendel from Flamengo. With Meza and Wendel being both non-EU nationals, this meant we had 5 players for 4 slots so Jimmy Vallejo was loaned out... whilst I also received a large offer for my other left-back Kyle Walker-Peteres - sold for 21,5M€ to Juventus. I was forced to bring in two left-backs then, and went for Brazilian (with Italian second nationality) Diego plus youngster Andre Trevor.

In the winter transfer window, we received another large offer for an aging player we couldn't refuse, this time Valencia paid 21M€ for Alexis Blin. As a replacement we brought in Scotland's Nicky Scott - a great example of nominative determinism!

Trophée des Champions

We had beaten Monaco 4-0 in a testimonial to Anthony Martial just one week earlier, but this proved a little more difficult as they got the lead early. We didn't take long to overturn it though, and started the season winning a trophy. LYON WIN THE FRENCH SUPERCUP!

Ligue 1

When the fixture list looks like this, there's not much of a point writing much - we just rampaged past everyone (well, everyone bar PSG) all season long. Particularly in the first few matches, when we had a ludicrous tendency to concede way too many goals and then score twice as many.

There was a very annoying heavy 4-1 defeat at PSG in October - our only all year - but even then they only cut our lead slightly. This advantage would expand again progressively over the course of the following few months, and I even had the luxury to play heavily rotated sides often to save energy for the crucial matches in other competitions. When PSG came to our stadium in March, they got got a 2-0 lead which would've put them (barely) back into contention, but even then we managed to draw with a late goal and that made the league as good as won. We confirmed it with 3 matches to go, beating Monaco at home. LYON RETAIN THE LEAGUE TITLE!

Coupe de France

I really wanted to win this competition after failing early last year, so we often saved some players for these cup matches, but we had some difficult draws, having to face mostly Ligue 1 sides and invariably away from home. Regardless, we kept on barging our way through and eventually made it to the final, where we had little trouble beating Nantes. LYON WIN THE FRENCH CUP!

Coupe de la Ligue

The least important of all trophies, both due to its lower reputation and the fact we had already won it last year. However we were soon into contention so I had to take the semi-final and final matches at least mildly seriously. And we ended up making probably our best performances of all season of the many times we faced national rivals Monaco and PSG, beating them convincingly to lift the trophy again. LYON RETAIN THE LEAGUE CUP!

UEFA Champions League

We were given a fairly beatable group, with Anderlecht, Vitesse and Real Madrid, and I set out to try to win it, as I've learned from past seasons qualifying in 2nd puts you in trouble with difficult draws. This meant we had to win all matches against Anderlecht and Vitesse - which we did comfortably - and try to hold our own against Real. A terrible performance at the Bernabéu didn't bode well but as we won the home match, it was enough to top the group.

This did meant an "easy" draw for the next round.... Hull. Hull are on a bit of a bizarre patch as they'd end up dead last of the Premier League after a wonder season that put them all the way up in the Champions League. Presumably they used up all their energies against us, as they surprisingly went 2-0 up, we managed to draw, yet they still had the strenght to win 4-2, putting us in an extremely difficult position into the second leg. Which we completely dominated, yet we kept on lacking the 2nd goal up until the 84th minute, Wendel scoring and putting us through on away goals.

Chelsea were next - a hugely difficult draw, as they've been dominating the Premier League recently and won back-to-back Champions Leagues a couple years ago. In the first match, they scored 2 goals in the first half - one a massive blunder from our keeper Meunier - but thankfully Igor scored a second half brace. A 2-2 result to bring home looked fine. However the return leg was a disaster. Chelsea again scored 2 goals early. Amazingly, we eventually drew and now anything could happen, only for veteran Eden Hazard to score from a direct free-kick and kill all of our hopes.

What next?

This career has turned a little weird. For a start the number of goals in our games is absolutely insane and completely unrealistic (although I concede this is due to my extremely open tactics). Despite the lack of realism this is still fun, I enjoy winning and seeing super numbers from my players, but the other strange particularity is that I appear to have put myself again in a "big fish in a small pond" situation, where dominating at home is extremely easy yet we cannot crack Europe - despite the French league being hardly a "small pond" at all.

I still want to win the Champions League, it's the end goal at Lyon, at the same time I'm starting to get a itch to grab FM16, and I don't know now whether to keep going here, or buy the new game and start over.

[noikeee]

Squad and tactics

Same setup, the only tactically interesting note is that I'm trying to turn Oliver Lievens, one of the world's greatest wingers, into a full-back. It's a little crazy, but this way I can accomodate both him and Jesús Meza in the same side.

Youth watch

We seem to be able to get huge talents every season, and this years pick is probably Molinaro - although he doesn't look like fitting in easily in any of the positions in my setup:

Piergiorgio Molinaro (MC / AMC)

Francisco Marques (AML / ML, AMR)

Evans Osei (AMC / MC)

Jean-Claude Martin (MC / AMC)

Of course, we continue to use a large share of young homegrown players in our first team squad. We now have an incredible 4 homegrown wonderkids: duo of strikers Salah Derrag and Bruno Hamon did brilliantly with a total of 43 goals scored between them; winger Fabien Collomb and keeper Abdelaziz Abdouni keep on progressing well.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Djibril Badji (DC) - Wasn't rated particularly highly by my staff when I hired him, but proved the best out of all my centre-backs.

4. Bakan Bingölbali (ST) - Was on insane form earlier in the year, but an injury that stopped him for 2 months killed his momentum. Still, 27 goals isn't a bad return.

3. Omar Michel (ML) - One of our two incredible Mexican wingers, benefitted from having less competition than Meza on the other wing to accumulate lots of playing time. 13 goals, 26 assists.

2. Jesús Meza (MR) - I call him the Mexican Cristiano Ronaldo for his incredible dribbling ability and speed down the right wing which recalls me of CR7 when he was a 20 year old like him. Except, Jesús is way better than a young CR7. 18 goals and 30 assists is just ridiculous.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Igor (ST)

I think I've already said everything there was to say about Igor, except that he had an even better season this year than the previous. 48 goals and 27 assists in 53 matches.

[b]Season   League                   Cups                          International                   Player of the season        Notes
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Compostela (Spain)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
14/15    Segunda B1 - 3rd         ----                          ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
15/16    Segunda B1 - 1st         Rey 1st Rnd/RFEF Prel Rnd     ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)         Champion, promoted
16/17    Liga Adelante - 9th      Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd          ----                            Hicham Khaloua (ST)     
17/18    Liga Adelante - 5th      Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd          ----                            Iván Pérez (AMR)            Lost in promotion playoffs
18/19    Liga Adelante - 13th     Copa del Rey 3rd Rnd          ----                            Julio Pleguezuelo (DC)
19/20    Liga Adelante - 13th     Copa del Rey 2nd Rnd          ----                            Francesco Urso (MC)
20/21    Liga Adelante - 5th      Copa del Rey 4th Rnd          ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Lost in promotion playoffs
21/22    Liga Adelante - 2nd      Copa del Rey 4th Rnd          ----                            Luigi Falcone (ST)          Promoted
22/23    La Liga - 11th           Copa del Rey 4th Rnd          ----                            Harold Villa (ST)
[b]*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Kayserispor (Turkey)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
23/24    Super League - 1st       Türkiye Kupasi winners        ----                            Orkan Çinar (ML)            Champions, won the double
24/25    Super League - 1st       T. Kup. 1/2f, TSC winners     Champions League 1st KO rnd     Eduardo San Miguel (MR)     Retained the title
[b]*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Lyon (France)
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************[/b]
25/26    Ligue 1 - 1st            CpFr 10th rnd, CpLg winners   Champions League 1st KO rnd     Igor (ST)                   Champions, won League Cup
26/27    Ligue 1 - 1st            TrdC win, CpFr win, CpLg win  Champions League 1/4 final      Igor (ST)                   Won all 4 national trophies

[Deisler26]

Magnificent season. FM16 is surely calling.

[deltablue]

Pity about the CL, you really were stomping all opposition otherwise.

[noikeee]

Magnificent season. FM16 is surely calling.

Yeah. I was waiting for the patch but got tempted by the Black Friday deals and bought it. I think we're done here then. I'm already planning the new career and there shall be a new thread soon.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Trust Chelsea to spoil things.