[FM21] Maltese Mayhem

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2029

Almost...

Continued plundering the Dutch lower leagues, and also signed a number of Maltese players. Ochiai is a Japanese-Dutch double national, a decent striker.

The adventures of a semi-pro club... Tinoco out after only a few months at the club. I saw he is now earning more than 100k p/a at his new club, so good for him.

We had an incredible pre-season/qualifying. I thought we could beat the Slovenian champions, and we did, but beating Malmö was very surprising, as was honestly beating Sheriff. We also started the league with a huge 4-0 win away at Valletta, which should be the hardest game of the year domestically. The Czech champions finally were much too strong for us in the play-offs, but this does mean one thing...

 We should lose 6 times, but that money will come in handy!

[MarcxD]

Fall 2029 & Transfers 2030

We did not lose six times in the EL group, managing to draw twice against Fenerbahçe! Other than that, domestically we have had some very big wins but also dropped more points than we should have. 

Meaning that once again this could be a tight title race. On the one hand that's not that great because really we should be running away with things now but on the other hand it is fun that the domestic season still has some weight to it. 

Also got this fantastic news. 

I signed another Dutch player and lost more youth players. Magro was a pretty big talent, so him leaving is quite annoying.

[MarcxD]

Title Race & Youth Intake

Shouldn't be a problem, really. Perfect since the start of the year and not any troublesome games remaining.

Huge decrease in relative PA, there are some players that could definitely be of use though.

[MarcxD]

2029-2030

Almost perfect second half of the season after our run in Europe, and a nice dominant performance in the FA Trophy too, and with the supercup win we have another perfect domestic season. Still pretty close in the league, with Valletta managing to keep up pretty well still.

The stats for Mncwango aren't accurate, he left in february to another club where he has had a poor average. 

Just became pro so I have started signing players to deals. 

My topscorer... very capable for now obviously but at some point it would be nice to have a player who can jump, is stronger, taller and has a better personality... 

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2030

Predicted first for the first time!

Even though I'm professional I still don't really want to spend money on transfers. I have been able to scout more widely now, so I've signed some players from the southern europe region, including Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. The easiest way to sign improvements to the first team is via loan transfers, but I don't want to overdo that. 

Quite a few players leaving on frees, these were all players that I did not sign on full-time contracts.

Once again I've been able to make it to the play-off rounds where RB Salzburg was just a little bit too strong, but only a little bit. They should be a much stronger team than us. 

Of course all these teams from big leagues should be easily beating us, but maybe we can get a point or two. 

[MarcxD]

Fall & Winter

Two draws against Valencia! 

Valletta is having a nightmare of a season, meaning it will be an easy run to the title for us.

In January I raided Andorra for some options, yes, there are still players there that can be of use to me. We have a long way to go.

[MarcxD]

2030-2031

A few ones to watch out for, especially the top two here. I am not signing all players from the intake anymore (because I have to actually offer them wages now), but I do still sign most of them - either if they have good potential, decent attributes or just a good personality to have around in the u19 squad.

Comfortably ran out the season, almost perfect in the new year.

By far the most comfortable league win yet, and Valletta didn't even qualify for Europe... 

23 assists in 24 appearances (21 starts) and highest average rating. Speed and okay technicals are all you need at this level. Happy to have youth players performing that well though.

[MarcxD]

2031 Pre-Season

Had a bit of a break from FM and getting back into the save again. 

While we have money now I am still wary of spending money as we are growing quickly now in reputation and better players should be able to join us each year as we grow. Spending too much money on the type of player that would want to join us now is likely going to be a waste.

A tough draw in the third qualifying round against Zenit, but we comfortably won the last qualifier for the EL round so another European run keeping the momentum.

The league is less interesting now, but we did remarkably start the season by playing more or less the three best teams in the league, especially showing our stuff in the opener against Valletta.

Difficult to guage Slavia and Olimpik, obviously they should be beating us but perhaps we can nab a result or two.

Nothing too outlandish as far as other teams are concerned, although it is interesting to see Clermont qualifying from the French league.

Edited August 12, 2021 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

2031

Very dominant in the league, although we did lose to Valletta in the away game. We started really well in the EL group, but couldn't keep that going sadly. 

Zejtun keeping up with us, we just need to win our games like we have been. We still have to play them once.

[MarcxD]

2032: Transfers & Youth Intake

Quite a busy January, including some notable transfers.

I had my first 'big' transfer in Ochiai who was sold for 550K. 

Although he scored a lot of goals for us, his mentality and length+jumping reach are too weak for the longer term so I thought this was too good a deal for us at this point in time to refuse. 

I spent some money on Bah, from the lower Dutch divisions

I think he is better suited for us as I use the deep playing forward role and he has better mentals and physicals.

Not too exciting, but with quite a lot of players having okayish CA to start out with I think a few of them will play for the first team at some point.

[MarcxD]

2032 End of Season

Almost perfect domestically in the new year and easily won all the trophies.

[Jolanthustrel]

Enjoyable read so far. Unlucky you couldn't hold Slavia in that last game and pinch 3rd to grab a knockout spot in the Europa Conference League but you seem to be not far off if you can snag a favourable group. Hopefully you're not grabbing too much attention from the mainland yet and have clubs unsettling your players with promises of playing in better leagues.

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, Jolanthustrel said:

Enjoyable read so far. Unlucky you couldn't hold Slavia in that last game and pinch 3rd to grab a knockout spot in the Europa Conference League but you seem to be not far off if you can snag a favourable group. Hopefully you're not grabbing too much attention from the mainland yet and have clubs unsettling your players with promises of playing in better leagues.

Cheers, it would be nice to not finish fourth! Clubs abroad have not really hassled me too much so far although the interest is slowly increasing, especially for foreign players. 

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2032

Only team in the single digit odds now.

Not  a lot of outgoing transfers except loans, but I was forced to sell Sekiguchi, a Japanese left back whom I'd signed last January - he had demanded a limited fee which was paid by Wolfsburg.

The best caliber of players which I can easily find is still through the loan market, Tsaftaridis who was here two seasons ago returns again on loan, joined by Manzari and Den Otter who will be good options for the wings. 

Piroe is an old striker who should be good rotation and de Bode is a left back who I signed just to have a replacement for Sekiguchi, but honestly he was probably a miss buy

Somehow, we qualified for the Champions League having beaten the Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian and Norwegian champions along the way. We were quite lucky especially against Fehérvár, but the other ties we definitely deserved the win.

I guess it's not the toughest possible group but obviously anything other than six losses would be surprising. 

[MarcxD]

I haven't often seen this many players of a club of mine being called up!

Maybe I should start thinking about the Malta job if it opens up with this many of my players playing for the national team...

[Jolanthustrel]

2 hours ago, MarcxD said:

Cheers, it would be nice to not finish fourth! Clubs abroad have not really hassled me too much so far although the interest is slowly increasing, especially for foreign players. 

I'm struggling with homegrown regulations for Europe at the moment because any youth product that's good enough to play group stage champions League for me and do well, gets poached pretty quickly. Hope you have better luck holding on to your talent and if not, are able to command a reasonable price for them.

[MarcxD]

20 hours ago, Jolanthustrel said:

I'm struggling with homegrown regulations for Europe at the moment because any youth product that's good enough to play group stage champions League for me and do well, gets poached pretty quickly. Hope you have better luck holding on to your talent and if not, are able to command a reasonable price for them.

I can see that definitely. To be fair, I don't really think I have any players yet that are CL group stage quality per se... 

The thing with Malta is that the domestic rules are actually more strict than the European ones - I need 10 players trained in the nation in the match squad. Of course on the other hand it matters much less as I can easily play more of my youth prospects in the league without having the fear of losing. 

[MarcxD]

2032: Fall

Well, the CL has had some interesting results. We managed to grab 4 points in total against Lyon, and a draw against Ajax at home. Also, we lost 9-0 away to them. 

Still only fourth, but we did a lot better than I had expected.

[MarcxD]

2033: Transfers & Intake

I lost a right back for a decent sum to VVV, a good enough deal I thought, as I have got a good amount of right backs at the team who can fill his place.

Statia is another striker for rotation, the others are more young or back-up players. 

A strong intake!

[MarcxD]

2033: Spring

Perfect in the remaining domestic games of the season; we once again won all the trophies.

Unbeaten season and reached exactly 100 goals scored. Nice.

Most minutes played by a youth product, that is always good to see. Also an incredible 9 players who scored more than 10 goals this season - including Statia who managed to score 15 in only 8 appearances! Loanee Tsaftaridis barely played because of injury but I'll likely retain him for next season.

[MarcxD]

2033 Pre-Season

Ever increasing the gap in odds between us and the rest, including Valletta.

Paid the biggest transfer sum yet for a Dutch central defender/defensive midfielder. The best players I can still get are loanees and I can now loan players from the biggest clubs out there. I don't want to have more than three or so at the club though, and I mostly use them in Europe.

Nothing too big; a lot of players playing elsewhere in Malta on loan. As we don't have a reserve squad this is really compulsory to get them more game time.

Remarkably comfortable qualifiers, although we were definitely lucky to win against Zenit, a team so much bigger and richer than us it almost beggars belief. 

Great, teams from the three biggest competitions, including two of the biggest teams in Europe. Another fourth place it is then.

[MarcxD]

2033 Fall

Well, two draws was better than I expected in the CL. Some nice big wins domestically as well.

A pointless exercise really, but good money will help in the long run.

Hoping to go for the first 100% run in the league, while giving young players game time.

[MarcxD]

2034 Winter & Intake

A new goalkeeper and a new midfielder for free, while I paid some money for (yet another) striker

One defender back to Holland.

Some players of note, although as we continue to grow it will be harder to get youth players in the first XI. 

[MarcxD]

2034 End of season

Another season of winning all the games, and therefore every single trophy.

Tsaftaridis will be joining permanently next season. 

Steadly rising...

And finally within a few seasons we should be playing in a stadium of our own.

[MarcxD]

2034

Predictions

Incoming summer transfers

Outgoing summer transfers

Pre-Season and European qualifiers

UCL Groups

Games in 2034

Champions League will just remain impossible like this, I would rather qualify for the Europa League or even conference league for a season to see if we can get further in those competitions but we keep winning the qualifiers!

[BML]

How are the other Maltese teams doing in Europe?

From experience you really need at least one of them to step up and start winning games if you want to start your qualifying in later rounds.

[MarcxD]

On 13/09/2021 at 15:28, BML said:

How are the other Maltese teams doing in Europe?

From experience you really need at least one of them to step up and start winning games if you want to start your qualifying in later rounds.

They usually go out in the first round or second if they have a good draw in the first round. Valletta is still the only other professional team, so that is to be expected. 

You're probably right about that. It's going to be a matter of many seasons to see progress on that front

[MarcxD]

2034-2035

Incoming transfers January

Outgoing transfers January

Games played

Best Eleven 2034-2035

Squad 2034-2035

[MarcxD]

2035 Pre-Season

We're going to have our own stadium, named after me!

Predictions

Incoming transfers 1

Incoming transfers 2

Outgoing transfers

Well, I got my "wish", we aren't playing CL this year but Europa League. I hope we'll be able to get some results there.

I think we should have a chance at finishing second in this group. 

 

[MarcxD]

2035

Happily surprised with how we competed in Europe - we even managed to keep Napoli to two draws. Knockout football in Europe for the first time!

[Jolanthustrel]

Nice, it's a bit of a money hit, but you're probably not hurting for money. At this point the rep going further will be more beneficial.

[Jtomsett11]

Really enjoyed reading this,  well done on your progress in Europe, fingers crossed for a good draw in the knockout round!

[MarcxD]

23 hours ago, Jolanthustrel said:

Nice, it's a bit of a money hit, but you're probably not hurting for money. At this point the rep going further will be more beneficial.

My thoughts exactly! Besides, the EL money is still good enough for the club at it's current size. With the facilities now at their max and the stadium being built, the only thing I'm spending money on are wages and transfer sums. Both of those aren't extremely high as I am choosing not to spend too much on players. If only because the player valuations in Malta are still low.

5 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Really enjoyed reading this,  well done on your progress in Europe, fingers crossed for a good draw in the knockout round!

Cheers mate! 

[MarcxD]

2036

Incoming transfers January

Outgoing transfers January

We had a tough draw, seemingly, but surprisingly we managed to beat Porto! Spurs was too tough for us of course, but the games were actually closer than I would have thought. 

Best Eleven 2035-2036

Squad 2035-2036

[Jolanthustrel]

15 hours ago, MarcxD said:

My thoughts exactly! Besides, the EL money is still good enough for the club at it's current size. With the facilities now at their max and the stadium being built, the only thing I'm spending money on are wages and transfer sums. Both of those aren't extremely high as I am choosing not to spend too much on players. If only because the player valuations in Malta are still low.

I'm in my tenth season in Iceland, I've gotten to the EL semi final, and I'm still struggling to get any decent sale price for my players. So I'm still on a buy low and hold on to someone as long as I can and hope they make me money in Europe instead. I currently have a player on a loan back after sale. Had to sell for less than 100K and has had the golden boot in EL and CL.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Jolanthustrel
where I'm playing

[MarcxD]

9 hours ago, Jolanthustrel said:

I'm in my tenth season in Iceland, I've gotten to the EL semi final, and I'm still struggling to get any decent sale price for my players. So I'm still on a buy low and hold on to someone as long as I can and hope they make me money in Europe instead. I currently have a player on a loan back after sale. Had to sell for less than 100K and has had the golden boot in EL and CL.

Ouch, yeah that's rough. Player valuations are generally under 100K for me, except for players who I've relatively recently paid more money for. The biggest sale I've had was for about 1M (at least until this next update).

Edited September 19, 2021 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

2036 Pre-Season

While it's good that we go up it's not really good news that the other teams from Malta now start a round further up, even less of a chance that they will win games..

Predictions

Incoming Transfers 1

Incoming transfers 2

I went on kind of a rampage signing lots of young players with potential for relatively cheap. I am especially building a large South African contingent at the club. The hope is that some of these players will become homegrown in the nation. The problem though is that I will have to loan players out even if I am rotating heavily in the league; and the players probably won't be wanting to join another Maltese team.

Outgoing transfers

I have my biggest sale so far, with just over 2M for Kristiansen, who I had spent about 800k for to buy in the first place (his value was around 300k at this point). 

The draws were pretty easy in the qualifiers, although we did need extra time against Trencin. We're back in the CL again.

Hard to judge, but I am not expecting much.

[MarcxD]

2036-2037

Games in 2036

Back to old things... the idea of current real-life Hertha was in my head and so I thought we might be able to beat them; actually they were the strongest. I am having a hard time progressing to the next level, actually being able to compete in the CL.

I am sure I've never reached this milestone before. While it's fun, it would be nice if the other teams had any opportunity to improve. The slight money from Europe and increased league rep haven't helped yet.

Incoming Transfers January

Outgoing Transfers January

Another 2M+ sale, this time for a youth product! My GK. I definitely got a very good amount of money for him as he's not that good, but I am still not 100% about the sale. It is important to keep a lot of homegrowns at the club and it's always good to have youth products in the team.

Games 2037

Best Eleven 2036-2037

Squad 2036-2037

[BML]

Hertha are an absolute beast in FM21.

In my N.Ire save I had to pump money into the other clubs to try and hurry them along on their progression, but it was rarely successful.

[MarcxD]

On 20/09/2021 at 16:43, BML said:

Hertha are an absolute beast in FM21.

In my N.Ire save I had to pump money into the other clubs to try and hurry them along on their progression, but it was rarely successful.

I generally dislike doing that, as you said it often doesn't even really work. I am hoping with the league rep increasing they will at least improve somewhat, especially if the money increases. This is very much a long term save anyway, so as long as I can keep myself invested in the save we'll see how they'll do

[MarcxD]

2037 Pre-season

Predictions

Incoming transfers 1

Incoming transfers 2

Outgoing transfers

Much movement happening with many new talents coming, a few sales and a lot of loans. There are a lot of South Africans now at the club.

Some new players, early on in the summe we just weren't really ready yet for FCSB, who we normally should be able to beat. Another Europa League run it is.

Normally we should be fighting for second place with Brest after RBL. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

2037

Amazing run so far, with some huge wins against Brest and ending the group with a bang with a 5-4 away win in Leipzig.

[MarcxD]

2037-2038

Incoming transfers January

Outgoing Transfers January

Probably the worst intake ever relatively speaking

We had to face Hertha again, who demolished us last year in the CL. It was closer this time around, but they were clearly stronger again. 

Best Eleven 2037-2038

Squad 2037-2038

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2038

Predictions

Transfers incoming

Outgoing Transfers

A lot of exits including a new record sale of 6.5M for the young striker Henden who only really played for us last season. The president thought it was too good to refuse.

We are back in the Champions League - we had pretty easy draws this time around in the qualifiers. We also started the league with a 11-1 win, but that's mostly business as usual at this point..

Any CL group is going to be tough, this is no exception. Hopefully we can fight with Benfica for the third spot. 

[MarcxD]

2038

Well, this was a noticeable news message! Of course the players we have produced are mostly playing in Malta, but still. 105 is a lot.

We had a really tough start to the CL, but incredibly we finished the group with a 4-0 home win against PSG!

Hopefully we can take some of that form with us in the Europa League 

 

[MarcxD]

January - April 2039

Transfers incoming

Transfers outgoing

I sold two of my rightbacks for a total of around 4M, and I signed one replacement for 3.4M. 

Definitely better than last year. Not sure if anyone of this batch will make it here, perhaps not, but at least a few of these should definitely make it elsewhere in Malta or abroad. With the need for homegrown players though, perhaps some could be back-ups or rotation players for the domestic games at least.

We dominated against Brugge and did very well against Atalanta too, meaning we managed to go further in Europe than ever before.

We were the weaker team against Ajax, whom we have face a couple of times in Europe already, but luckily made it out on away goals.

A 1-2 away loss against Lyon in the semi final, meaning we definitely still have a chance of making our first final.

Yet another perfect league win with 130+ GD. After a few years of lesser fortunes, Valletta have clearly made it back up to be the second team of the country. Not so strange as they are still the only other (full time) professional team...

Edited September 29, 2021 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

May 2039

We made it to the EL final after a great semi final return win on extra time against Lyon - all the goals were scored by Maltese players as well!

Arsenal sadly was just on another level from us in the final.

Player values have had a big boost, with our reputation and the league's reputation rising.

It definitely seems like Cannuni (yp17a) is by far my best youth player ever, he actually is good enough to play for the Italian national youth teams. His stats are ridiculous. The combination of his pace, decent technicals and great crossing ability is definitely OP for the Maltese league...

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2039

Transfers incoming

Transfers outgoing

First 10M sale (a limited fee).

Easy run through the qualifiers with comfortable winst against relatively weak opposition. 27 goals scored in the first three league games isn't bad either.

Hopefully we can beat Young Boys to get third spot in this group.

[MarcxD]

2039

We started incredibly well with 7 points from the first 3 CL games, and got away with a very important 1-0 win in the last game against Young Boys...

Incredible that we made it through this group, now to face a group winner..

[Rikulec]

Amazing work in the Champions League!