This is not the end, this is just the Start

[ToMexico!!]

Player Sale - Jan 2041

Browne has never played for us but was promoted to the first team for the coming season but first Tottenham, then Chelsea and Liverpool placed bids for him. Signed for £15k and sold for £8m plus 50% profit. 

[_Ben_]

9 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Browne has never played for us but was promoted to the first team for the coming season but first Tottenham, then Chelsea and Liverpool placed bids for him. Signed for £15k and sold for £8m plus 50% profit. 

I love this! As well as the tracker on the 50% clause. You're absolutely rolling in the money! 

Definitely need to get a scout in Wales if you're finding players like this. He does not look good enough for Chelsea but it's more easy money for you.

[karanhsingh]

What you gonna do with all this money 

[ToMexico!!]

11 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I love this! As well as the tracker on the 50% clause. You're absolutely rolling in the money! 

Definitely need to get a scout in Wales if you're finding players like this. He does not look good enough for Chelsea but it's more easy money for you.

I think the next time I start a new save I will track clauses from the beginning, then I can see how much we've really made. I more often than not sell the clause because if a good player for us leaves for a team like PSG, Chelsea, Bayern etc they just sit there in the reserves/not playing and then wind down their contract and get released on a free, then I don't get any profit clause money. I've been trying to avoid selling to bigger clubs in recent seasons like Helstad going to St Etienne and I had a Nigerian winger go to AZ, both with clauses, if they do well then they could get snapped up by a bigger club again. 

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

What you gonna do with all this money 

I wish I knew what to do with it, I don't want to sway away from my style of playing by splurging, £20m plus on some players when I can find a player for under £1m who will do the same job. Both the training and youth facilities have been downgraded so I do need to upgrade them but the board are being stubborn at the minute. 

[karanhsingh]

Just now, ToMexico!! said:

I wish I knew what to do with it, I don't want to sway away from my style of playing by splurging, £20m plus on some players when I can find a player for under £1m who will do the same job. Both the training and youth facilities have been downgraded so I do need to upgrade them but the board are being stubborn at the minute. 

Fair enough. I don't like spending big money on players either.

One thing you could potentially do though is get your wage budget increased and give your best players bumper contracts to keep them at the club - and hopefully as a result become even more competitive in Europe?

[ToMexico!!]

51 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

Fair enough. I don't like spending big money on players either.

One thing you could potentially do though is get your wage budget increased and give your best players bumper contracts to keep them at the club - and hopefully as a result become even more competitive in Europe?

So far I've managed to keep most of my best players at the club on their demands alone, I've been quite proactive in renewing their contracts on a more regular basis rather than letting them run down to a year left. I think it would be unrealistic but not impossible to overpay and thwart interest from the bigger clubs in my players and its something I could look at in the future. 

[ToMexico!!]

Clause Sale - June 2041

Its early days for Connor at Chelsea but he hasn't played for them nor has he been loaned out, I think this will be the classic case of stagnation and release at the end of his contract. 

[ToMexico!!]

Matt Pickering - June 2041

Matt was signed for £375k from Tottenham and spent 12 years with the club. In that time he was selected for numerous England squads but only made 4 sub appearances, he actually qualified to play for Norway this season. Sold for more than we paid despite his age, his physicals were really starting to decline. 

[ToMexico!!]

Wonderkid - Nov 2041

Runar joined for £5m from Bodo/Glimt last year, he'd completely flown under my radar up until that point. He's continued to develop well especially his mental's; work rate +2, decisions +2 and anticipation +1 which are key as well as his physicals which look great for a 19 year old. 

I've been knocking back bid after bid for him from the likes of Mainz, Stuttgart and Hannover. He's more than happy to stay with the club at the minute. 

[ToMexico!!]

2041 Season Review - IK Start

A 12th successive league title for Start and another pretty easy one. 19 points clear of 2nd placed Valerenga who pipped Rosenborg by a point. Carnarius was in imperious form, smashing in 36 league goals in 28 games whilst his strike partner Comper notched 25 in the same amount of games., both contributed double figures for assists too. 

We were poor once again in the Norwegian Cup but remembering correctly we had about a dozen first team players missing on International duty, we lost the Super Cup again, not that I'm bothered about that competition. 

In Europe we beat Red Star in the 1st KO Round of the Europa League before losing to Arsenal over two legs in the 2nd KO Round to round of last seasons competition. In the 2041/42 European Season we beat Ferencvaros (7-0 agg), Cluj (9-1 agg) and Basel (11-3 agg) to reach the group stages once again. We were drawn alongside Barcelona, Inter and Zenit. Wins over Zenit home and away, draws home and away to Barcelona and a draw and a loss to Inter was enough to see us reach the 1st KO Round of the CL once again, as Barcelona lost to Zenit on the final day of the group stage. 

Carnarius was undoubtedly the star of the season scoring 55 goals in 45 games in all competitions and he has very much outgrown the club. Comper scored 37 goals in 46 games with 17 assists. The departing Ferreyra (to Bayern at the end of his contract) made 26 assists and scored 20 goals whilst Juninho on the other wing made 25 assists and scored 19 goals. 

Financially we made shed loads again, £38m in prize money, £55m in transfers including clauses, sponsorship is at an all time high of just £2.4m. We've made huge profit off the back of this and sit with £325m in the bank. 

[ToMexico!!]

Resignation - Jan 2042

After the success at Start I think its time to move on a improve another club, I am going to resign and apply for a job or two that tickles my fancy. I've recently added the Finnish league system to the game with my preference to manage there. 

I don't think that any of these staff members will take the pay hit and join me elsewhere. It will be interesting to see where some of them end up. 

I leave the clubs with a wealth of talent and a warchest in the bank for which ever manager they decide to hire next. I can see wholesale changes with the amount of players wanted by some of Europe's elite and I will check back over time to see what's happened to them. 

[_Ben_]

Wonderful work! You've made Start a really strong club and I hope you find somewhere equally as fun to go next. I'd step back from looking at Start though as the AI has the tendency to absolutely destroy all of your had work!

[ToMexico!!]

8 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Wonderful work! You've made Start a really strong club and I hope you find somewhere equally as fun to go next. I'd step back from looking at Start though as the AI has the tendency to absolutely destroy all of your had work!

Thanks! I spent about 20 minutes summing through but nothing of note came up except top tier German clubs which I'm staying away from. Rostock job is insecure but I would prefer Finland. 

Well in those 20 mins, Start got destroyed as such. Comper and Carnarius both gone  

[ToMexico!!]

New Job - Feb 2042

Not a Finnish job I wanted but having thought about it, I'd only just added that league to the game so I'll give it a couple of seasons to mature a bit. 

Anyway, Rostock, underperforming in 3.Liga, expectation was 5th and they're currently 12th. I've signed a two-year contract which I expect to see out and then maybe move but lets see how things pan out first. 

 

New stadium and decent facilities to start off with! 

The finances are horrific but I knew that from the interview.

This is encouraging though, I never saw this much green at Start and this is my first golden generation of the save.

 

[ToMexico!!]

(Brief) 2041/42 Season Review - Hansa Rostock - 3.Liga

We climbed two places to finish the season in 10th place. This squad is pretty poor overall and we need defensive reinforcements and a new strike partnership. 

We lost plenty of money over the course of the season but the board kept the wage budget the same as last season. However, I will take the opportunity to clear the decks and reduce the wage budget greatly. 

Bodin is a winger who was playing CM, just shows how poor the strikers are to be outscored from midfield. 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Offer - Mar 2043

I rejected the interview offer purely on the basis of wanting to see out my two year deal with Rostock. I would also like a project for the next job, not saying a mid-tabled Hamburg isn't, I would rather move to a 2.Liga side and get them promoted. 

[ToMexico!!]

Player Sale - April 2043

Our back up keeper goes to my former club, Start. They offered less than half of what I got in the end, a guarenteed £200k plus £150k in apperance fee's. He's highly rated and Start sold their star keeper back into Brazil last season. The 50% profit clause could be pretty valuable to us in the future. 

[ToMexico!!]

2042/43 Season Review - Hansa Rostock - 3. Liga

So we ended up getting promoted in 5th place which was totally unexpected but the goals from new signing Mohammed Sunday did the business. The problem was though the money, or lack of it as we ended up hitting the negative four million mark despite the board pumping three lots of £600k in the club. So with no transfer budget or enough quality in the team I jumped ship to Darmstadt who are in the Bundesliga 2. 

Darmstadt have been very much a second tier side in this save, apart one brief foray into the top tier in 2033/34 when they were subsequently relegated again. They have a 17400 capacity stadium with decent facilities and OK recruitment/coaching but importantly they have a better squad and money, well £3.5m but that's more than enough. I signed a two-year deal worth £10.75k per week.

I brought a coach with me from Rostock and then my first business was to sign Harry Kane, Ben Godfrey and Ben Gibson as coaches, whom all had been with me at Start. We don't have a 2nd Team so I'm looking to trim the squad by about 6 players as we have too many but I also need to look at strengthening the attacking players at the squad. 

[ToMexico!!]

Summer Transfers - Sept 2043

We've got a lot of deadwood which unsurprisingly no one wanted permanently but I did manage to loan out the majority of them. One player I didn't want to lose was Ozdemir but he had a release clause of £3.6m and contract demands we couldn't afford. The four incoming freebies were pre-arranged before I joined, would I have signed the Rostock players, probably not. Kaiser joins to become first choice striker and his compatriot Hein replaces Ozdemir at left wing. 

We're still a little light quality wise on the bench but I didn't want to over do it on the finances first season when we're only expected to finish mid-table. 

[ToMexico!!]

2043/44 Season Review - Darmstadt - Bundesliga 2

The board wanted midtable, the press said 12th, we finished 10th. A reasonable but uninspiring season. We really struggled early on in the season, we were hovering just above the relegation places and the kick in the teeth was that Rostock who I had left despite getting them promoted were above us. A team meeting or two helped rally the guys and we were better in the 2nd half of the season. We were given £10m for achieving a 10th place finish. 

We had an excellent run in the DFB-Pokal eventually reaching but bowing out heavily in the semi-finals against winners Leverkusen. That run netted us around £5m in prize money which helped massively.  

We made another player sale in January, as right winger Sergan Yesilbas left for Frankfurt in a deal worth up to £5m. The Austrian signings were a real Jekyll and Hyde story, Hein was poor at left wing, 3 goals and 5 assists whilst Kaiser top scored for the club with 22 goals with 20 in the league which meant he was crowned the leagues top scorer. 

Financially we're better off than when I took over but even with receiving £7.5m in transfer fee's and £15m in prize money we only have £11m in the bank. I'm looking further still to reduce the wage budget and try and stem the flow of money leaving the club. 

 

[Halezadinio]

Really enjoyed this thread and your work with Start. Inspired me to give a Norwegian save a go and I'm really enjoying it.. Although I went for the easier option of Bodo/Glimt! 

[ToMexico!!]

13 hours ago, Halezadinio said:

Really enjoyed this thread and your work with Start. Inspired me to give a Norwegian save a go and I'm really enjoying it.. Although I went for the easier option of Bodo/Glimt! 

Thanks for reading and your comment! Scandinavia seems to be a real hotbed of saves for this edition of FM so far. Good luck with your save! 

[ToMexico!!]

2044/45 Transfers - Darmstadt

I'm a bit behind with this update as I'm nearing the end of October.

I had a budget of £4m to spend on new players and I've spent nearly 1/4 of that. A couple of freebies in Cemba and Meier first, the former is a winger that can play either side whilst the latter is a CB and will be first choice. I then spent £450k on Tappe, a MC/AMC from 3rd tier Munster, I was originally quoted nearer the £1m mark, so this is a good deal. Reis is another winger but can play up front, signed from Guimaraes who seem to be producing some good talent on this FM. Schlesser is a Luxembourgish central midfielder who left Wolfsberg at the end of his contract. Singer is a left back from fellow 2nd tier side Union Berlin, he adds competition in that position and on loan Graham joins to be first choice ST alongside Kaiser. 

Outgoing are both the Rostock lads, Nielsen and Bodin both featured last season but were poor. A couple of loans out to reduce the numbers slightly. 

[ToMexico!!]

2044/45 Season Review - Darmstadt - Bundesliga 2

Quite a pleasing season overall as we finished an impressive 5th, the clubs highest finish since back in 2036/37 when they also finished 5th. We soon found our rhythm and sat anywhere between 2nd and 6th from game weeks 5 and 29 but a blip in April cost us 9 points and we dropped down to 8th. We rallied with wins in the final three games of the season, even beating league winners Koln in their back yard. 

We were unlucky in the Pokal with a 2nd round draw against Leipzig, we succumbed to 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the top flight club. 

Despite a 5th place finish it was a disappointing season for our players, just one player finished with a average rating over 7 and that was our goalkeeper so that tells me we were quite lucky to finish this high up. Kaiser once again top scored for the club with 15, less than last season but he had a strike partner that scored 13 of his own in the on loan Graham from Everton. Kaiser, Hein and Schubert were the pick of the creators with a combined 23 assists. 

Financially we have a problem, despite spending less than £1m on new players this season we made huge losses, all of last seasons earnings were gone by the time we ended the season but luckily 5th place netted us £13.7m in prize money which puts us back into the black. We're currently 40k p/w under the wage budget with 4/5 decent earners due to leave when their contract expires. I need to look at further stemming the flow of outgoing cash. 

  

[ToMexico!!]

Poached - May 2045

This is the first time its happened on this save. 

[ToMexico!!]

Interview Offer - June 2045

Glad to be shortlisted for the top job in Denmark but declined the chance for an interview. Their manager, Petter Abrahamsson has left after 6 years for the Bayern job. 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Interview - July 2045

I decided to take this interview as its a natural step up from 2nd tier to top tier aaannnnddd.....

Wolfsburg have been on a steady decline since finishing 3rd back in 2029/30, last season they finished 11th and have been pretty trigger happy on managers in the past decade. Ruben Neves, Josip Brekalo, Jeffrey Bruma, Josh Sargent and Arne Meier all sacked in recent seasons, hopefully I can turn the tide and set the club straight. 

Home is still the 30000 capacity Volkswagen Arena, the club has Superb training and youth facilities with Excellent Academy coaching and Exceptional Youth Recruitment. The club has £63m in the bank but a modest transfer budget of £14m with £2m p/w wage budget. 

The board wants me to finish in the top half of the table which I feel is achievable with the players I have at my disposal. Johannes Fuchner (GK), Ricardo (CB), Arne Lassoff (CM) and Francois Awono (ST) providing me a good core to build around. 

Joining me at Wolfsburg are the following staff members who I chose to bring with me.

[ToMexico!!]

2045/46 Transfers - Wolfsburg

We had some money to spend, players to sell and a wage budget to reduce. 

Awono wasn't my signing but he's a decent one at that, although he's currently injured. Pacheco replaces Jesse in central midfield with age and wage being a major factor in the sale and buy. Bocek is a winger/striker that joins from our neighbouring nation. 

We sold a lot of older players; Jesse (32), Popa (31), Gonen (30), Aryee (32) who were either surplus to requirements or wanted to leave, that reduced the wage budget by circa £200k for those players alone. We also loaned out another four players reducing the wage budget further. 

As things stand we're £300k p/w under the current wage budget and have £9m left to spend if required. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Jan 2046

One in & one out. 

29 year old Martin Camargo leaves for £41m rising to £53m to league rivals but it was a good deal for a player with one year left on his contract. We replace him with;

Goossens is 18 years old, a wonderkid and on less than half the wages Martin was on. 

[ToMexico!!]

2045/46 Season Review - Wolfsburg

A pleasing season as we finished in 5th place and in the Europa League spots. We had a mixed start to the season, almost felt like every game finished 1-1 (it didn't of course) but we had a good November and December which left us in contention for a top 4 finish. We started the new year poorly after the mid-season break but found some form in February, a tough March saw us slip slightly but we fought back in April with three good wins including hammering Freiburg 7-0. A 4-0 loss to Bremen looked like it would hurt our chances of qualification for the EL but we hammered a lowly Leipzig 4-1 on the final day of the season to take 5th. 

New signing Kamil Bocek was the pick of the players for me, his 18 goals and 7 assists from right wing was a great return, Goossens on the opposite flank had a good start to life in Germany with 3 goals and 5 assists. Arne Lassoff made 11 assists from central midfield whilst strikers Awono and Ayovi scored 12 and 21 apiece. 

We've been given £50m to spend on new players for the coming season so I need to look at a new LB for sure and a back up striker as the ones we had offered me nothing. 

Financially we were in trouble until the end of the season when we were given £66m for our 5th placed finish. We also have a new sponsorship deal to be struck, last seasons deal was for £71m so hopefully it will be the same, if not more. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Former Club Watch - June 2046

We're now entering our 28th season on this save and I'm at my 5th club, lets take a look at my former clubs. 

Slagelse - Denmark

The club this all began with in the #DanskeDanske thread. In our four seasons in Denmark we got promoted twice from the 3rd tier to the top flight but I jumped ship to Start before the club even competed in the league. Unsurprisingly the club was relegated back to the 2nd tier after just one season in the top flight but instead of plummeting they spent 7 seasons in the 2nd tier before being promoted again, they faired slightly better by finishing 11th this time in 2032/33 but were relegated once more. Two more seasons in 1. Division saw them promoted again before finishing 11th again and relegated again. They've since been in the 2nd tier finishing between 4th and 9th. 

Start - Norway

The club that made me, I took them over in 2025 when they were in the 2nd tier, we immediately were promoted as Champions and went back to the top flight. A 5th place finish was followed by our first league title but back to back 2nd followed. We then never looked back with 12th consecutive league titles, numerous cup wins and a Europa League win. Upon leaving for Germany, the new manager Holmvik dismantled the squad and led them to 2nd place, disaster. He then guided them to three more consecutive titles before leaving for the Dortmund job. 

Rostock - German 3. Liga

We spent 1.5 seasons at Rostock and got them promoted in 2042/43 but I did the dirty and left again, the club was in a mess financially and I felt we wouldn't survive. However, they did with a 13th place finish but were relegated a season later finishing in 17th. They then finished 13th in the 3.Liga, a poor season. 

Darmstadt - German Bundesliga 2

Just two seasons at Darmstadt but two successful ones in relative terms, finishing 10th and then 5th, their highest finish in recent times. I then left for Wolfsburg, they hired Mohamed Cisse and he got them relegated to 3. Liga, good work 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Summer 2046

Just three players in this summer as we solve our left back problem with the signing of Waltorp from Denmark's top club for £21m and the loan signing of Malinowski from Chelsea on loan which adds depth up front. I originally signed Cezary for Start back in 2040 from Legia, he was sold to Chelsea for £8m when I left. I also spent £1m on Colombian, Hernan Rodriguez to offer back up at right wing. 

I reduced the wage expenditure further this season by selling Dworok (77k p/w), Wohlfarth (30k p/w), Gyan (50k p/w) and Balogun (40k p/w) and loaned a few more out. We're now only spending £1.42m p/w of a £2.04m wage budget. 

[ToMexico!!]

2046/47 Season Review - Wolfsburg

Another improvement from last season as we finished 3rd and qualified for the Champions League. I feel we achieved 3rd because teams around us were less consistent, Leverkusen, Hannover and Dortmund, all have better squads than us but struggled at times. 

In the Europa League we finished runners up in a group of Zenit, Rangers and Atalanta. In the 1st KO Round we defeated Lazio 4-0 on aggregate, then Sevilla 4-3 (agg) and fellow German side Hannover also 4-3 on agg to reach the semi-finals and play another German club Bayern. We struggled and lost both ties, a valiant effort for our first time in the competition. 

.

A much better performance in the Pokal too, reaching the Quarter Finals before losing to Werder Bremen. 

Awono top scored with 21 goals this season whilst striker partner Ayovi got just 10. The on loan Malinowski got 14 whilst wingers Bocek and Goossens both hit double figures also. 

Financially we're becoming more stable despite losing money hand over fist each month. We got £85m for finishing 3rd in the league whilst also raking in another £15m from other competitions. We also still have sponsorship to come in the new season which was worth £84m to us this season. The board have announced plans to build a new stadium but we're some way off yet being just at the planning stage, looking for a site and funding. 

I signed a new contract with Wolfsburg, increasing my wages to £32k p/w and keeping me with them until at least 2051.