Any clubs outside the big five leagues in Europe thread

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 hours ago, luka_zg said:

I'm playing with Anderlecht in Belgian 1st division. The club has major debt in the 1st season, paying 7.5mil/month which takes you to 60 milion euros in the red in the end of the 1st season. But I had a tycoon takeover, with UAE investors buying the club and investing 150 milion in the bank and clearing all debts.  Great times ahead!

Also the club has some major youth talents..Verschaeren, Kana, Lokonga, Sardella are superb players in the 1st team already but also there are some great prospects in the academy.

The league rules in Belgian league make you have 6 players trained in Belgium for 3 years before the age of 23 in the match day squad so it's a nice challenge also to develop belgian talent along with my oil money atm.

Guindo is really good as well so try give him some game time as he develops very nicely. Also touted as the new Lukaku on FM.

[Geordieboy52]

3 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Guindo is really good as well so try give him some game time as he develops very nicely. Also touted as the new Lukaku on FM.

I couldn't convince him to sign a new contract and he left on a free - grr.

 

Managed to get a couple of great free transfer signings in summer 2024 - Troy Parrott, was agreed in January and Mikael Cuisance was spotted as being released and was snapped up on a decent contract.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 minutes ago, Geordieboy52 said:

I couldn't convince him to sign a new contract and he left on a free - grr.

 

Managed to get a couple of great free transfer signings in summer 2024 - Troy Parrott, was agreed in January and Mikael Cuisance was spotted as being released and was snapped up on a decent contract.

Oh ok. I played him a lot so maybe that helped convince him. Maybe you can bring him back to the club eventually.

[Geordieboy52]

Ok, so performed massively above expectations qualifying from a group with Liverpool and Juventus (they strangled each other and I swooped it), I managed to get favourable draws right through and ended up reaching the final. Heartbreakingly, we lost in Extra-time to PSG.  The board's reaction annoyed me though:

So that meant we qualified for the CWC, great you say?  This happened... We limped through the group, due to having one of the easier groups (Corinthians and Ulsan) because 6 of my starting line up and all my subs were on bloody international duty! Leaving us to go against PSG in the quarter final with literally 11 men (all the reserves have been sent on bloody holiday)!

Plus points?  The boosted reputation from the cup run should hopefully allow me to keep and raise/get rid of the release clauses for my two best players.  Top goal scorer Niek De Waal and midfield dynamo Thomas Dijkstra

 

 

 

I have had some corkers come through the academy for the last few years, so much so that I have not had to pay a transfer fee for a season and a half and have spent less that £20 million overall.

The latest off the conveyor belt - I am retraining him as an advanced forward.

 

Took a while to convince this gem to stay with us (I forgot I'd promised to try and loan him out and he kicked off big time [that's why he has a pretty high contract])

This guy should have developed even more but had a cruciate injurt when he was 17 and missed 10 months, his potential dropped a touch.  Still awesome in the Belgian league

Came through my 1st intake and immediately became a 1st team player, due to me selling pretty much everyone who earned too much

 

Got a couple out on loan who show great promise too but I'll reveal them if and when they break through.

 

As I mentioned, finances are pretty great - I think that I can pay off remaining bank loans now (if the board choose to).

 

 

 

edit: this happened!  Thanks Josef Gvardiol for a reckless 7th minute tackle 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by Geordieboy52
Extra info

[Geordieboy52]

Well Sh*t...I might have to call it quits on this save now. Because I started it as an in-game challenge there is only Belgium loaded so I have nowhere to go from here.  I might see if I can keep my young stars bujt beyond that I think a new save is calling.  Thanks Anderlecht, I will be back again some time.

[Geordieboy52]

Got my top scorer to sign a new contract removing his release clause, then 3 weeks later he complains he wants to move.  My best CM left for Ajax when they paid his £39.5m release.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, Geordieboy52 said:

Well Sh*t...I might have to call it quits on this save now. Because I started it as an in-game challenge there is only Belgium loaded so I have nowhere to go from here.  I might see if I can keep my young stars bujt beyond that I think a new save is calling.  Thanks Anderlecht, I will be back again some time.

Well done on your save with Anderlecht. What team are you going to manage next then ?

 

[Geordieboy52]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Well done on your save with Anderlecht. What team are you going to manage next then ?

 

I might revisit TNS.  I haven't managed them since FM16 and think that getting the welsh league as a whole to be competitive is a fun challenge. I really enjoyed a prepatch save with Salzburg last year, managing to keep Haaland from the clutches of Real Madrid, then selling him for a huge fee, then unsettling him the next year was awesome.  I might to to a league I know very little about like Sweden or Denmark.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 minutes ago, Geordieboy52 said:

I might revisit TNS.  I haven't managed them since FM16 and think that getting the welsh league as a whole to be competitive is a fun challenge. I really enjoyed a prepatch save with Salzburg last year, managing to keep Haaland from the clutches of Real Madrid, then selling him for a huge fee, then unsettling him the next year was awesome.  I might to to a league I know very little about like Sweden or Denmark.

Make sure you try keep John Madley as someone had him in a Sheff Wednesday save and sold him for £38.5m after 6 seasons.

[Geordieboy52]

20 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Make sure you try keep John Madley as someone had him in a Sheff Wednesday save and sold him for £38.5m after 6 seasons.

Will do - one of my favourite newgens from this FM has come from them and I spotted a few others in previous saves, that could help a bit too. Cheers for the heads up.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Just now, Geordieboy52 said:

Will do - one of my favourite newgens from this FM has come from them and I spotted a few others in previous saves, that could help a bit too. Cheers for the heads up.

Yeah no worries mate. One of my favorite ever saves was with Burton Albion where I only signed free transfers from Home Nations and Gibraltar.

I managed to get a good Welsh regen on a free and sold him for £20m after a few seasons.

[Geordieboy52]

Just now, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yeah no worries mate. One of my favorite ever saves was with Burton Albion where I only signed free transfers from Home Nations and Gibraltar.

I managed to get a good Welsh regen on a free and sold him for £20m after a few seasons.

Class - I signed this lad from TNS, born in Owestry so local to them, £100k with no real hope other than maybe selling for a bit more.  He went out on loan a couple of time, the last to Spurs and ended up as an 50 cap international and club legend at NUFC.

[Welshace]

4 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Make sure you try keep John Madley as someone had him in a Sheff Wednesday save and sold him for £38.5m after 6 seasons.

I'm not sure what to make of that transfer given his value was only 300k or so

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 minute ago, Welshace said:

I'm not sure what to make of that transfer given his value was only 300k or so

Yeah true. I thought the same but you never know. In my Burton Albion save a few years a go I signed a newgen Gibraltor striker on a free and sold him a few years later for £25m so it does happen but I understand what you mean.

[Welshace]

2 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yeah true. I thought the same but you never know. In my Burton Albion save a few years a go I signed a newgen Gibraltor striker on a free and sold him a few years later for £25m so it does happen but I understand what you mean.

I mean we've all had transfers where we take a player on a free or low cost and build his value up... 

 

But a player apparantly worth 300k selling for 40mil? i dunno, not seen it myself.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Just now, Welshace said:

I mean we've all had transfers where we take a player on a free or low cost and build his value up... 

 

But a player apparantly worth 300k selling for 40mil? i dunno, not seen it myself.

Yeah maybe he used an in play editor.

I don't understand why people cheat anyway. It ruins the fun for me. Same as I don't understand why some of the biggest threads in here are for teams like Liverpool, Arsenal. Man Utd. They are the easiest teams to manage in the game. Where is the challenge in that.

I suppose we are all different.

I just get bored if I am a big team.

[Jogo Bonito]

3 hours ago, Welshace said:

I mean we've all had transfers where we take a player on a free or low cost and build his value up... 

 

But a player apparantly worth 300k selling for 40mil? i dunno, not seen it myself.

You should manage Carlisle in the new update and try to sell Dean Furman. His value has been affected by an error on ability set in the data so he is now worth quite a bit but I can't imagine many teams paying the asking price 

[Geordieboy52]

7 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

You should manage Carlisle in the new update and try to sell Dean Furman. His value has been affected by an error on ability set in the data so he is now worth quite a bit but I can't imagine many teams paying the asking price 

I’ll have a look, sounds fun.

[Welshace]

8 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

You should manage Carlisle in the new update and try to sell Dean Furman. His value has been affected by an error on ability set in the data so he is now worth quite a bit but I can't imagine many teams paying the asking price 

 

[BadAss88]

Anyone interested in a Sparta Praha save?

[AddicksFan]

Decided to try out a save in Denmark, went for FC Nordsjaelland, disabled the first transfer window..

They have an insane number of prospects, really difficult to fend off the attentions of bigger clubs.

Just finished the first season:-

The transfer business first season - The sale of Kofod to Lyon was a blow.

This man is a beast

Atanga is a class act at this level, great stats despite stropping for the 2nd half of the season after I turned down bids for him

Onto the 2nd season, just played first two league games, here's the summer business, got Richards on a 2 year loan

The squad

Edited March 25, 2021 by AddicksFan

[AddicksFan]

Made it to the Champs League Group Stage after beating Craicova. Not the easiest of draws to be honest 

[goonergez]

Is this the right thread to post for a save in South Africa?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, goonergez said:

Is this the right thread to post for a save in South Africa?

Yeah carry on mate. South Africa is a great place to find some bargain players so I am curious how you get on.

What team are you going to manage ?

 

[goonergez]

6 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yeah carry on mate. South Africa is a great place to find some bargain players so I am curious how you get on.

What team are you going to manage ?

 

I’m currently plodding along with the Ultimate challenge but have hit a wall on hitting Europe. Unsure whether to head back to South Africa (in 2038) or to start a brand new save. If I start a new save I’m thinking of Black Leopards.

[Grifty]

I'm currently 23 years into a save in Sweden, 21 of them at Brommapojkarna. I've managed to win the Premier Division 11 times now and the Swedish Cup 7 times. Got the stadium up from about 6000 at the start to a 24,126 seater. Got £162m in the bank and spending roughly half of my £850,000 wage budget.

In terms of Champions League, I've only ever made the Quarter Final once and am now starting to regularly finish top of the group stage, but seem to fall at the First knockout round, normally due to fatigue issues due to the timing of the matches and when the Swedish League ends/starts.

14 of my 25 First team players came through my youth system and another 4 are Swedish players I've bought from elsewhere so am trying to keep it very local to help improve the Swedish National team.

I can't quite break the 3 and a half star reputation barrier which I guess would happen if I get further in European competition, however I have got the club to 15th in the coefficient table.

[Ewan0404]

I have decided to start a game as FC Porto as I was wanting to manage a big club in a smaller league compared to the top tier leagues. I have always enjoyed the Porto squads ever since Mourinho's tenure at the club.

As one of Portugal's 'Big Three' we have a large trophy cabinet already but are just behind Benfica domestically in terms of league titles and Portuguese cups.

In recent years while Benfica seem to have been free spending FC Porto have had to contend with monumental debts as seen in the game.

We will have to be shrewd in the transfer market for the next few seasons and continue to sell players for a profit to try and stabilise the financial situation.

I will post my transfers later today when the window closes.

[ParanoidBuddha]

I am going to start with FC Midtjylland my first save not using Juventus. Anyone playing in the Superligaen? I chose to use the FC Midtjylland because I love their ''scientific'' approach to the game investing a lot on the data analysis.

[Ewan0404]

Transfers Out

The poor financial situation at the club meant we needed to sell players before we could bring anyone in. We quickly sold Marchesin to Ajax for £8.75 million as I had decided I was going to use Diogo Costa as our first choice goalkeeper straight away.

Loum was also sold to Werder Bremen for £1 million as honestly he just wasn't going to play for us at all.

Marega was sold to Arsenal for £8 million.

Mbemba was the last major name to leave and was sold to Real Sociedad for £9.5 million.

A number of others players left for free or on loan aswell.

Transfers In

Henry was signed to be our starting left back and for £9 million I think we have found our starter for a good few seasons.

Ajer was next in the door for a structured £20 million deal from Celtic.

Last but not least was Arezo who arrived for £2 million from River Plate Montevideo, he will arrive in January and it another player I hope to have for a long time to come.

[John Joe O'toole]

Would anyone know why a team would start with a reserve team thats not in an actual league? (Swedish league)

[Stu_UBJ]

4 hours ago, John Joe O'toole said:

Would anyone know why a team would start with a reserve team thats not in an actual league? (Swedish league)

Often it's because the league / tier they would normally be in is too low down (as in below where FM is playable) - they'll appear as "Lower Division" on editor sometimes. 

[Stu_UBJ]

Currently plodding around Europe on a journeyman of sorts. Spent 4 seasons in Austria with Austria Klagenfurt, winning promotion 1st season, before solidifying our spot in Bundesliga. Won the Austrian Cup 3rd season in, along with leading Austria to the u21 Euro title in 2023. We pulled a massive upset and won the league and cup double in our third season in the top flight. 

Found great success scouring the lower leagues of Spain, signing up promising youth, before selling for big profits. Also managed to sign Zagadou on a free, after leaving Dortmund, nobody wanted him, so signed for us about 8 months after being released.  Biggest success story of our time there was the signing of Eddy Ouattara (young ST from Lille), who absolutely annihilated the league after signing initially on loan, before we paid £2.8m to sign him up. 

After winning the league, I decided to resign, and have now moved onto Russia's 2nd tier, signing on for FC Ufa, recently relegated from the Premier League. Was given around £5m Transfer Budget, however managed to keep hold of the majoity of players, whilst adding good depth. 



Vides signs from my previous club on loan - always done a job for me there, so will add some quality up top. Andrenacci is the new number 1. Musaev is a solid rotation option in the centre of midfield or DM. Minaev might well be the bargain of the season, already looks very good, and loads of room to improve at just 19. Khabibov has a fair bit of potential hopefully, whist Kingsley is a cracking all round midfielder. Final signing is Kakkoev, who gives cover at DM.

Made plenty of money on the outgoings as well; 



N'Jie was on big money, and also is a FGN, so was an easy decision. Klement wasn't ever going to be in the team for me (plays AMC), and Stulic just not good enough to be our ST. I was unhappy to see Samoshnikov go, but they matched his release clause. 

Plan is to do well at Ufa, get into PL and then get ourselves around mid-table, when hopefully one of the "bigger" sides will be interested in my services. I think it would take a long time to win the RPL with Ufa, something I haven't ruled out, but think a move elsewhere is more likely.

[John Joe O'toole]

8 hours ago, Stu_UBJ said:

Often it's because the league / tier they would normally be in is too low down (as in below where FM is playable) - they'll appear as "Lower Division" on editor sometimes. 

This is the top league, the reserves arent in a U21 league but some other teams reserves are. Seems pointless having a reserves team. Thanks

[Stu_UBJ]

29 minutes ago, John Joe O'toole said:

This is the top league, the reserves arent in a U21 league but some other teams reserves are. Seems pointless having a reserves team. Thanks

Which teams in particular aren't in the u21 league?

[John Joe O'toole]

7 minutes ago, Stu_UBJ said:

Which teams in particular aren't in the u21 league?

Kalmar (My team), AIK, Mjallby, Sirius

[birkelse]

Proud  

Proud moment in Linfield. After 900 games, its a great thing for Linfield and me  

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by birkelse

[birkelse]

Lucky to get a 3-3 against City,  now Barca.  It must be the end , but we will see, if Linfield can beat them over 2 matches. 

 

[birkelse]

Found my old game, first match in season 39/40.   It was a great game

[birkelse]

Over 500 goals in all competions,  . Dont know, if i can see stats, for all seasons. Hope he will see his football out here in LInfield. Just turned 26 years. 

 

[Hootieleece]

Started a Thread in the VNS with Welling United!

 

[Mackem742]

Ive still only got my 2 saves going with Ajax and Sunderland but Im looking for another save to get stuck into in a different league entirely compared to where I normally manage, my first thoughts was Dinamo Zagreb as im looking for a famous club who regularly do well in their respective league but struggle to make an impact in Europe. Maybe even the likes of Red Star or Steaua.

[K94]

Have played just one season so far as I've just moved on from FM22, but having an absolute blast with Wisła Kraków, fallen giant currently sitting in the second division of Poland. Strong side for the league, you start off as a top 2 favorite for promotion and have a really young squad with a couple of really talented youngsters. Check out Piotr Starzynski and Mikolaj Bieganski in your saves. I have no idea what their PA is as I prefer to not have any insight from the in game editor, but after a season of regular playing time they look like genuine gems. Shame I've had to sell Bieganski to Stuttgart (although was at least able to keep on loan till the end of the season) already, but 1.5M (and a 40% future sell on clause) is a lot of money for a lower division polish team, couldn't pass it up

[Gee_Simpson]

10 hours ago, K94 said:

Have played just one season so far as I've just moved on from FM22, but having an absolute blast with Wisła Kraków, fallen giant currently sitting in the second division of Poland. Strong side for the league, you start off as a top 2 favorite for promotion and have a really young squad with a couple of really talented youngsters. Check out Piotr Starzynski and Mikolaj Bieganski in your saves. I have no idea what their PA is as I prefer to not have any insight from the in game editor, but after a season of regular playing time they look like genuine gems. Shame I've had to sell Bieganski to Stuttgart (although was at least able to keep on loan till the end of the season) already, but 1.5M (and a 40% future sell on clause) is a lot of money for a lower division polish team, couldn't pass it up

Damn, I wasn't even aware that Wisla Kraków had been relegated. Sounds a fun save for sure 👍🏻

[K94]

10 ore fa, Gee_Simpson ha scritto:

Damn, I wasn't even aware that Wisla Kraków had been relegated. Sounds a fun save for sure 👍🏻

Highly suggest it, or even just to check out a Polish save with a different club. Poland has little to no squad registration rules in the first division, just a couple of extra ones in the second tier (starting eleven must include one U20 polish player and no more than 2 non-UE players) which make for a fun time. Basically no money of course, at least at the start, but it's also an extremely balanced league where anyone can win at any given time, especially when the top teams qualify for European group spots and have to manage the balance of playing every three days. For instance... To my surprise, I got to the Polish cup final from the second division and only lost 1-0 to Legia. Had I won, I would've qualified for the Conference League playoffs directly from Division 2  

Edited January 26, 2023 by K94

[Pablo Sanchez]

looking for a fun save idea while building an old shool 442

[Mackem742]

I started a save with Red Star Belgrade last night. Ill post updates once I get a fair way through the season.

[Maviarab]

On 25/01/2023 at 12:56, Mackem742 said:

Ive still only got my 2 saves going with Ajax and Sunderland but Im looking for another save to get stuck into in a different league entirely compared to where I normally manage, my first thoughts was Dinamo Zagreb as im looking for a famous club who regularly do well in their respective league but struggle to make an impact in Europe. Maybe even the likes of Red Star or Steaua.

Lot of fun (and damned hard work) getting CSA Steaua București back to where they should be.  Doing it myself, think you'll enjoy it and for different, Liga II in Romania is not exactly 'high profile' haha.

[dothestrand]

On 26/01/2023 at 13:04, Mackem742 said:

I started a save with Red Star Belgrade last night. Ill post updates once I get a fair way through the season.

Should be an embarrassment of riches on the youth intake front. 

[JawZy]

Started a save in Turkish third tier with Sunliurfaspor, things are going fairly well so far. Thugh at this level I am not allowed foriegn players, so gotta rely on domestic players, until we go up into second tier - After 6 games we sit second.

 

 

[JawZy]

It ended up being a super close season, we were rather clear part way through the season, then striker got injured, and i went with a strikerless formation to grind out some results

we got knocked out by Nazilli in the third round of the cup.

we have ben told we only got 14k to spend in the summer, considering we are nearly 200k in the red, im pleased with that