Budget barmy in bargain basement Barcelona. Are we heading for Serie B? (4 Season save).

[Djecker]

Try low crosses if your players are smaller? Good work on getting scouting moved to worldwide.

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Here is Pjanic.

I haven't even registered him for the Champions League I don't think. 

I’m surprised he’s not registered.

[Jimbokav1971]

53 minutes ago, Djecker said:

Try low crosses if your players are smaller? Good work on getting scouting moved to worldwide.

Good suggestion,  but as I pointed out in the last post, the issue isn't crossing from open play, it's crossing from dead ball situations. 

In the 1st game after the change, we attempted just 36 crosses as we completely dominated against Valencia. 

In the preceding 8 league games this season, we have attempted 56, 22 (against Atletico who battered us), 49, 57, 49, 55, 53 & 56. 

So by my reckoning, I think we have reduced the number of crosses by about 15-20 which equates to approx. 35-40%. 

@Djeckermakes a good point about crosses from open play though and it's something that I will consider when Milik isn't playing, or when he covers for Aguero at DLF. 

[Jimbokav1971]

47 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

I’m surprised he’s not registered.

I want to upset both Pjanic & Umtiti. We would lose out by them not being available for league games, but they probably wouldn't play that much in Europe as it's very much secondary to the La Liga in terms of goals this season. If I can get rid of either of them when the window opens in January then great, but if not, (and Umtiti's expires in the Summer so he is gone anyway), but Pjanic is here until 2024 so at the very least I want to get rid of him in the Summer. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Djecker said:

Try low crosses if your players are smaller? Good work on getting scouting moved to worldwide.

 

44 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

@Djeckermakes a good point about crosses from open play though and it's something that I will consider when Milik isn't playing, or when he covers for Aguero at DLF. 

I've had a re-think. I don't think low crosses are the answer because we are more often than not attacking a crowded penalty area with teams dropping deep against us in numbers. I think whipped crosses are the answer here because they are harder to defend. 

The next problem to overcome however is being caught offside at attacking corners that are taken short. Pjanic is taking it short, (generally to Fati), but Pjanic is too slow to get away from the corner and is getting caught offside when the return ball is played. I have stopped Pjanic from taking the corners and now have him lurking, (with 2 dribblers now in the corner), and although it seems to be better now, I will have to keep an eye on it. 

I also think we're moving the ball too slowly, but don't want to change too many things at once. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Oct 2022. 

La Liga. We're very hit and miss at the moment. The Sevilla game was bad, (but they are decent), but Mallorca are pants and after I thought we had grabbed a more than deserved late equaliser, they then went and grabbed a completely undeserved, (and even later), winner. It's been a while since I wanted to throw my laptop out of the window....

You might notice the Pjanic hat-trick against Granada, (which consisted of 2 direct free kicks and a strike from the edge of the area). This was then followed up by another hat-trick, this time from Fati against Milan in the Champions League, (which is a particular turnaround since they demolished us 6-0 at the San Siro). 

It's not lost on me that I tinkered less with the formation in the 2 games where we scored a hat-trick. No change to the 4312Asym AML. 

Champions League. We battered Wolfsburg, but somehow still lost, and then went and absolutely battered Milan. I've confused myself all over again now with how we should be playing. They're really fine lines, but it seems to make such a significant difference. 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (£23.9M down on last month), and our net debt is now , (up £1.4M).

Edited September 24, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Nov 2022. 

Champions League. I will be completely honest with you. I did consider manipulating the results so that we would finish 3rd and drop into the Europa League, but in the end I didn't think it was befitting of Barca to do that so I decided against it, (and it happened anyway). We are absolutely prioritising the league, (and it hasn't really worked so well, but I think the Europa League is possibly more our level than the Champions League at the moment. 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (down £24M on last month), and our net debt is currently at , (up £1.7M from last month). 

Squad development. 

We have 3 World-class players at the club. I personally wish Pjanic wasn't here, but if he scores some more goals then maybe I can off-load him in January. 

We have 3 Wonderkids at the club. 

We have 7 players at the club who have 5.0 PA. 

In terms of CA, we have 1x 4.5 CA player, 2x 4.0 players and 6x 4.0 players. 

[warlock]

6 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I tinkered less with the formation in the 2 games where we scored a hat-trick

Might be something in the Spanish air - I'm 2 years into my first Spanish save and constantly tinkering. Normally I figure out a tactic in the first month and then barely touch it for years. So far this time, I've used 442, 433dm, 4231, 4411 and several major or minor variations of those systems.

Especially with a squad as good as yours, I think there's a lot to be said for trusting the players and letting them get on with it. Sit on your hands for the next few games and see 

[Jimbokav1971]

Friendlies. Barca. Dec 2022. 

I know you've all probably heard me say this before, but adding a "friendly" clause to an out-going sale can bring in serious income when you have a decent sized stadium and are selling to a big club. It doesn't matter how good the player is or if they are paying millions or you are letting a player leave effectively on a free. To not include a friendly clause is really just throwing money away. 

This £6.7M, (from matches created through clauses), allows us effectively to cover the wages for Pjanic and Umtiti for 3 months, (so I'm less bothered about them still being here now).

[Jimbokav1971]

4 minutes ago, warlock said:

Might be something in the Spanish air - I'm 2 years into my first Spanish save and constantly tinkering. Normally I figure out a tactic in the first month and then barely touch it for years. So far this time, I've used 442, 433dm, 4231, 4411 and several major or minor variations of those systems.

Especially with a squad as good as yours, I think there's a lot to be said for trusting the players and letting them get on with it. Sit on your hands for the next few games and see 

Yep, that's the plan. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Awards. Barca. Dec 2022. 

Fati wins European Golden Boy for 2nd successive year. He's the 1st person to win it twice ever and the 1st Barca player to win it since Messi in 2005.

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Dec 2022. 

Friendlies. What concerns me here is that of the 16 goals we scored, only 4 of them were scored by strikers. 

La Liga. Needless to say, when the competitive football started again the trend continued and our midfield were unable to bail us out. 

R.Madrid seem to be on a different level to everyone else and my aim to to try and hang on to Atletico. 

Copa del Rey. The strikers scored a couple against weaker opposition, but Matt Grimes equalled that tally on his own. 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (up £1M from last month), and out net debt is now , (£25M down on last month). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Jan 2023. 

La Liga. 4 wins from 4 in the league means that we're now surprisingly just 4 points off both Madrid sides, (although R.Madrid also have a game in hand).

Copa del Rey. Our fringe players have done well in the Cup so far.

Awards. I have completely dropped Aguero from the starting XI now and he won't be back if I can help it. I've offered him out for not much money, (his contract expires in the Summer), but there has been no interest surprisingly. Moukoko scored 5 goals in 4 games in the league this month, and also bagged a hat-trick in the Cup to make it 8 goals in 7 games in January. 

Records. 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (a loss of £71M), and our debt is now , (an increase of £50M, which largely relates to a player transfer who will be shown in the next update). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan Transfer window. Barca. Jan 2023. 

We only made 1 permanent transfer in during the Jan window, (although we did also being 1 player in on loan). 

I know that I've spent more than I've managed to being in, but I had a deal of about £60M for Trincão that fell through and the 2 main targets that I wanted to off-load, (Pjanic & Umtiti), are unfortunately still here.  I've offered to pay up to £500k per month of their wages to encourage a deal, but still no takers.

Núñez *** is what I call a "cheat player", because of his physical prowess. Of course he isn't really a cheat player, but I'm old enough to remember the likes of Orri Freyr Oskarsson who was a cheat player and who looked pretty like this, (but better). His off the ball attribute looks a little concerning, (at 23 I'm not going to be able to change it much), 

If you look at our strikers in all 3 squads at the club, you will see how far down Milik is, 10 goals in 17 appearances since joining in the Summer, and also that Aguero has fallen down the rankings. In Moukako & Demir we have players who I believe will put the ball in the net, and the challenge now is to get someone in who will act as a foil for them. I think both Millik and Núñez *** can do that. We also have the "Generational Talent" Mendy currently playing and scoring in the B Team. So I think things are well set up front. 

The other player to arrive was Konaté 6'4" who came in on loan from Liverpool. He had already been loaned out to Sevilla, (and had played 19 games for them), but I decided I wanted him so tried to take over the loan deal and Liverpool agreed.

[Sonic Youth]

It’s getting to that phrase: spend money to make money. I’m surprised by Aguero dropping off so much, but then it’s kind of what happened at Man City. Not sure what to make of Nunez yet, but he looks like a strong physical player. A foil to the technical players? Konate  looks like you pulled a Tottenham!

I think top 3 looks certain again, and if you go on a good run while the Madrid sides stumble enough could tighten up the race for La Liga.

 

[Sonic Youth]

43 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

the 2 main targets that I wanted to off-load, (Pjanic & Umtiti), are unfortunately still here.  I've offered to pay up to £500k per month of their wages to encourage a deal, but still no takers.

Could you try releasing by mutual consent with Pjanic at the end of the season?

[Jimbokav1971]

32 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

It’s getting to that phrase: spend money to make money. I’m surprised by Aguero dropping off so much, but then it’s kind of what happened at Man City. Not sure what to make of Nunez yet, but he looks like a strong physical player. A foil to the technical players? Konate  looks like you pulled a Tottenham!

I think top 3 looks certain again, and if you go on a good run while the Madrid sides stumble enough could tighten up the race for La Liga.

 

I'm ahead of target in terms of clearing the debt by the end of the 4th season. I don't get any extra points for clearing it early so there isn't really a benefit to doing so. 

I've actually extended Aguero's contract now, (2 more years at a reduced rate). He isn't going to start but still has something to offer. 

I'm happy that Nunez will contribute. A foil to players more able to finish. (I generally want to play 1 "finisher" with 1 deeper "link" player. 

There seems to be only 1 striker needed at the moment. After I commented recently that the strikers weren't scoring, 1 of them has gone absolutely mental and scored 18 goals in his last 8 games. I've never seen anything like it. Not a single goal was as a result of a set-piece. All open play. 

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Could you try releasing by mutual consent with Pjanic at the end of the season?

He winning me round at the moment. He's playing very well and while I don't like the money we're spending on his wages, we've saved so much money elsewhere that it's not really an issue. That being said I will try again to get rid of him at the end of the season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Feb 2023. 

La Liga. It seems that Nabil Fekir saves his best games of the season for us, and he was instrumental in over-turning a 3-1 deficit and driving his team on to a late 4-3 win.  Moukoko went a bit goal crazy this month and scored 9 league goals in just 4 league games. 

Europa League. I'm not sure why the Knockout Rounds are over just 1 leg. (I'm sure that isn't correct). Either way, we're into the 2nd Knockout Round, (which is also over just 1 leg). 

Copa del Rey. For much of this month I have been sitting open-mouthed, staring at the screen as Moukoko scores goal after goal after goal. His 4 (FOUR) against Atletico literally had me laughing by the end. I hoped that should a big defeat would have caused a knock to their morale/confidence and lead to a slight drop in form, but this hasn't been the case and they still top the table. 

Moukoko. He has somehow scored 17 goals in 7 games this month...... Yes, that is correct SEVENTEEN goals in his SEVEN games this month.  

He's now up to 29 goals this season in 22(8) appearances, and if we can keep him fit then God only knows what he's capable of. He has a £74M release clause in his contract, so I'm thinking of negotiating that so that he can't be nicked off us. I should add that he isn't on penalties, doesn't take free-kicks and hasn't scored from a corner either. 

I've honestly never seen that many goals scored by a single player in 1 month before.

Finances. We have  in the bank, (a loss of £28.8M which relates to me converting the Konaté 6'4" loan deal into a permanent transfer as of the end of the season). The net debt is now , (and increase of £6.3M). I'm confidant that we will have players to sell in the Summer, so expect this to give our debt reduction efforts a bit of a boost. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Mar 2023. 

La Liga. We dropped points against Bilbao, but our recent good form has seen us move up to 2nd and close the gap to Atletico in 1st to just 3 points. R.Madrid are level with us on points bit have a game in hand and surprise package Villarreal are showing that last season wasn't a one-off and sit 1 point behind us, (albeit having played 1 game more). 

Europa Conference. I rested a few players for this match and it almost cost us. Luckily a late Fati penalty was enough to see is through. 

We play Lyon in a 2 legged Quarter Final and then, (assuming we win), we play Atalanta or Lazio in the Semi. 

Youth Intake Day. Xavi?  

Awards. 

Facilities. 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (down £58M on last month), and our net debt is , (up £35M on last month).

[Jimbokav1971]

La Liga Profit. Apr 2023. 

This is pretty decent when you consider that we have spent £63M more this season on bringing players into the club than we have received by selling players. 

[Rikulec]

The one-legged knockout rounds in the Europa League are correct and related to the 2022 World Cup.

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Apr 2023.

La Liga. 5 games and 5 wins with only Villarreal putting up any kind of serious challenge. Moukoko scored 9 goals in 4 league games this month, (he was carrying a knock so I rested him against Granada).

Europa League. It was the Moukoko show in the Europa League as he scored 6 goals in 3 games in this competition, (and would surely have scored more than 1 in the 2nd leg against Lyon if I hadn't rotated almost the whole starting XI). 

Copa del Rey. We win the 2nd trophy under my tenure and Moukoko surprises me by only scoring 2 goals in the Final. 

Records. 

Moukoko. He scored 17 goals in 7 games in March and in April he scored 17 goals in 8 games. That's 34 goals in 15 games!  He's scored 49 goals in 34(8) appearances this season. He's literally just exploded into life in the 2nd half of the season. 

He was only earning £80k per week and has a minimum fee release clause of £74M, so I have just signed him to a 5 year deal where his min fee release clause is £154M. 

This has just got to go down as my best ever signing in FM. £1.6M he cost me! 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (up £1.6M from last month), and out net debt is now , (down £24M on last month). 

[Jimbokav1971]

16 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

The one-legged knockout rounds in the Europa League are correct and related to the 2022 World Cup.

Ah yes, of course. The shambles that is Qatar 2022. 

[DaneBramage]

22 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Moukoko. He scored 17 goals in 7 games in March and in April he scored 17 goals in 8 games. That's 34 goals in 15 games!  He's scored 49 goals in 34(8) appearances this season. He's literally just exploded into life in the 2nd half of the season. 

That's insane, what a hero. I can go whole seasons with all my strikers combined not getting that many.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, DaneBramage said:

That's insane, what a hero. I can go whole seasons with all my strikers combined not getting that many.

I have had good scoring records before don't get me wrong, (Christ, I think I've scored either 24 or 25 goals with a GK in a season), but I have never seen anything like this. 

And what's more I had never heard of Moukoko before this save. 

Everything has just sort of fallen into pace. I decided that I wanted to play quicker so I upped the tempo this season, and while we were working ok on the left, IW(a), we weren't clicking on the right W(s). I had been toying with moving the IW(a) on the left from the ML slot to the AML slot, but it was a little inconsistent and was leaving is exposed at times. I realised I had both full backs playing as WB(a) so I changed the left one to WB(s) in the DL slot and then I also inverted the winger on the right. This allowed me to play Trincão, (who was out on loan in the 1st season), and at the same time as all this happened, I dropped Aguero from the DLP role and replaced him with Milik. Everything just sort of clicked at the right time and I also stopped rotating quite as much as I would do normally, (where I often start young players who are not ready). In the 1st season my young players were Pedri, Fati, Garcia & Moukoko, but all of them have come of age now. The 3 Spaniards are all capped at International level and surely it's only a matter of time for Moukoko. I almost forgot. On top of all that, Pjanic was back from his loan and I couldn't get him out again, so he was starting league games and I obviously signed Kalvin Phillips as my B2B. It seems like it just took until Christmas to gel and then WHAMMO!

I have honestly never seen anything like this at any level. 

This year, (2023), we have played 28 games in all competitions. and have scored 102 goals at an average of 3.6 per game. 

Moukoko has scored 45 goals in these 28 games, but has only featured in 25 of them, so he has scored at a rate of 1.8 goals per game, (which seems ridiculous. 

He has scored 6 hat-tricks in 2023 and in 2 of them has added a 4th. 

I have never really understood how people score 100+ goals a season before I do now. 

He's not even taking pens! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Wages to turnover. May 2023. 

I think it makes sense that A.Bilbao have a relatively high % of turnover because they have such a small pool of players to choose from and possibly have to pay them more to either get them there or keep them there. Villarreal are trying to break into the top 3 and done really well the last couple of seasons, but they appear stuck in limbo between 3rd and 5th. 

A.Madrid and R.Madrid seem to have been more conservative recently in terms of wage spend and I wonder if they are following our lead? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. May 2033. 

La Liga. When we lost the El Classico I was worried that we had blown it, but we bounced back to beat Atletico to win the 3rd trophy of my tenure here,

Europa League. How's our luck? We drop down into the Europa League and who do we find down there? PSG!  It was a good game and there was very little in it. They won because Mbappe scored 2 individual beauties. It's never good to lose a Final, but this is the Europa League Final and we are Barca. We shouldn't even be in this competition as far as I'm concerned. 

Awards.

Finances. We have  in the bank, (down £34M from last month), and our net debt is currently , (up £10M from last month). 

[Number seven]

Congrats for winning the title! That is a great achievement.

[Rikulec]

Moukoko's doing quite well, isn't he?

[Jimbokav1971]

38 minutes ago, Number seven said:

Congrats for winning the title! That is a great achievement.

With Barca? 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Rikulec said:

Moukoko's doing quite well, isn't he?

He "only" scored 11 goals in May after 17 in each of the previous 2 months. I think I need to discipline him or something. 

[Djecker]

Winning the title while shedding that many players and debt is a good effort! Well done!

[Sonic Youth]

Very good season 

Moukoko has been awesome. Are you buying Konate? Very curious next transfer windows strategies (can wait). Mbappe?! 

So close to a treble too. If Barca definitely shouldn’t be there, neither should PSG!

Time win Champs League now 

[Number seven]

54 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

With Barca? 

Considering were you startet, with the complete mess the club was in, it was a great achievement doing it so quickly.

 

Under normal circustances it would have been a disaster not winneing the first year.

[Jimbokav1971]

9 hours ago, Djecker said:

Winning the title while shedding that many players and debt is a good effort! Well done!

Yep. Was quite pleased with how it all came together in the end.

The challenge now is selling some more of them to keep the debt coming down while replacing them and keeping the performances high. 

[Jimbokav1971]

9 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Very good season 

Moukoko has been awesome. Are you buying Konate? Very curious next transfer windows strategies (can wait). Mbappe?! 

So close to a treble too. If Barca definitely shouldn’t be there, neither should PSG!

Time win Champs League now 

Thanks. 

Yes, apologies if I haven't mentioned it but I have done a deal for Konaté 6'4" to join permanently. 

I was really happy with the deal I did at the time but I can't see where to find the exact deal info now. 

I think it's £20M cash + £10M over 3 years and I think he was the one I agreed to 50% of future profit, (because the game won't get that far so who cares). 

[Jimbokav1971]

9 hours ago, Number seven said:

Considering were you startet, with the complete mess the club was in, it was a great achievement doing it so quickly.

Under normal circustances it would have been a disaster not winneing the first year.

Yeah thanks.  I think I'm still just a tiny bit bitter that I sold both the full-backs too early and it cost us the La Liga title in the 1st season. I've made a few mistakes but that was the biggest I think. 

[Jimbokav1971]

My challenge for the off-season is to see how much transfer income I can generate without selling a single 1st or 2nd choice player. 

If I can sell loads then I might consider keeping Pjanic & Trincão, but otherwise they might be off-loaded. 

Both of them completely converted me last season. 

The non-EU players are also at risk so Phillips, Thomas (loanee), Chambers, Grimes, Gilmour, Abe, Maia & N'Diaye.

Although I have signed Aguero to a new contract, his pace has dropped off the planet so I think I will see if I can get a few quid for him too. 

[Jimbokav1971]

European Club rankings. Jun 2023. 

Despite getting to the Final of the Europa League, we have dropped in the European club rankings. 

As it stands we will drop to 5th next season unless we can out-perform Liverpool, Man City & Man Utd. We lose 30.00 points next season 

[Jimbokav1971]

New contract. Barca. Jun 2023. 

If the Barca board weren't such a shambles, you would expect them to offer me a long-term contract. As it is, this is a bit of a surprise. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad depth. Barca. Jun 2023. 

I'm thinking about the next 2 years of the save, (and wondering what it might be possible to win), but I'm also very aware that at the half-way stage we still owe a lot of money. 

GK. ter Stegen is obviously 1st choice and unless I need to cash in on him during the 4th season of the save, he will remain 1st choice I think. 

1st Team. 
Marc-André ter Stegen
Arnau Tenas

B Team. 
Iñaki Peña LOAN (if he goes on loan Tenas plays for B Team). 

U19's. 
Luis Miguel Bonet
Marc

DL. B.Mendy might have real life issues, but in this FM save he is a left back God.

1st Team. 
B.Mendy. 
Luke Thomas has been here on loan for 18 months, but injury reduced his involvement last season. I'm not sure if he will be back next season. 
Balde

B Team. 
 Àlex Valle (new contract) & LOAN
Mika Mármol LOAN
Arthur Zagré LOAN
Moussa N'Diaye LOAN

U19's. 
Aitor Puigmal

DR. 

1st Team.
 Sergiño Dest
 Malo Gusto (I have a £20M fee agreed, but not sure I want to pay that much). I think I'm going to go for it though. 

B Team. 
Sergi Rosanas LOAN
Guillem Jaime LOAN
Calum Chambers (I loaned him to Nice after his injury). SELL (valued at £8.5M)

U19's. 
Sergi Escoruela
Rodrigo Palacios 5'10"

DC. 

1st Team. 
Konaté 6'4"
García 6'0"
Araújo 6'3"
Acerbi 6'4"

B Team. 
Santi Ramos Mingo 6'1" LOAN
Mingueza 6'0" SELL (valued at £18.5M).
Chadi Riad 6'0" LOAN
Igor Gomes 6'1" LOAN

U19's.
Carles Gasol 6'3"
Alfons 6'3"
Pablo Acerete 6'4"

MC. 

1st Team. 
Gavi. (Didn't play him enough last season). 
Nico (Didn't play him enough last season).
Kalvin Phillips
Pjanic SELL (Valued at £21.M)
Riqui Puig

B Team. 
Iñaki Alkorta LOAN
Txus Alba LOAN
Ronaldo Camará SELL? (valued at £11.75M)
Àlex Collado SELL? (valued at £10.5M)
Billy Gilmour LOAN? (Valued at £5.5M) Spent season on loan at relegated Reims but despite relegation averaged 7.05
Matt Grimes SELL (Valued at £12.75M)
Marc Casadó LOAN
Jandro Orellana LOAN
Lucas de Vega SELL (valued at £1.1M)
Kays Ruiz SELL (valued at £275,000)

U19's.
Ferdino Loukili
José Luis Medrano
Luka Perić
Àlex Rico
Pere Vinyals

ML & MR. This is a real area of strength. Surely there is some money to be made here? 

1st Team. 
Fati 1st choice. 
Akhomach 2nd choice. 
Pedri 2nd choice. 
Trincão 1st choice. 

B Team. 
Alarcón LOAN 
Hiroki Abe LOAN 
Nils Mortimer LOAN
Gustavo Maia LOAN

U19's.
Joshua Tienda
 Edu Venzal
José Ramón
Lluís González
Pere Arribas
Sergio
Francisco Colina
Bruno Luna LOAN
Adil Bellarabi
Daniel Lescano

SC. 

1st Team. 
Moukoko 1st choice. 
Demir 2nd choice.
Milik 1st choice.
Núñez *** 2nd choice. 

B Team. 
Mendy LOAN?
Luzzi LOAN
Escobar 6'3" LOAN
Agüero SELL (valued at £6.75M)
Peque LOAN

U19's.
Nicolás Díaz
Manu Peris

Edited September 26, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. End of Season summary. 2022/23.

La Liga. Really pleased to have won this after throwing it away with my transfers out last season. 

Europe. I thought we did really well and would surely have won the Final against a proper Europa League team rather than PSG.

Cope del Rey. That makes it 3 trophies won. 

Squad by Appearances. 

Awards. 

Mendy, (he of the Generational Talent from the 1st intake(, came 3rd place in the U20 World Cup Golden Boot. 

Facilities. 

Transfers.

Players in. Spending £139M on players might seem a little strange when we are only bringing in £11.25M by selling players, but this is the half point in the save and I think that we will benefit more by selling players a year from now than we will by selling them now. 

Male Gousto was in on loan and we have paid £20M to make the deal permanent. 
Konaté 6'4" was in on loan and we have paid £30M to make the deal permanent. 
Gabriel Veron *** was a bit of a surprise purchase, but at £15M it was too good an offer to turn down.

Players out. Nothing significant in this window so far. 

Finances. We have  in the bank and our net debt currently stands at . At the half-way point of the save we have already reduced the net debt from £1.2B to under £350M. We have a transfer budget of £78M, (with no plans for me to sign anyone at this stage), and we have a surplus wage budget of £2.3M

Pjanic is still at the club, but Umtiti has finally left. Pjanic is the only player getting paid more than £653,000 and his is also the only contract that expires before the end of this save. Pjanic is 33 now and valued at £21M, but he was so good last season I'm thinking of letting him stay and see his contract out, (but I will probably offer him out 1st to see who is interested because his wages will cost us £14M over the next year. Selling him now for £21M is effectively like selling him for £35M.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Meanwhile in Italy.... Jul 2023. 

[Sonic Youth]

That’s amazing! Could you get anyone from them cheap and sell someone for big money? 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

That’s amazing! Could you get anyone from them cheap and sell someone for big money? 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Discovery! Barca. Aug 2023.

I've just made a startling discovery that has previously passed me by and I wonder is it something any of you have missed previously too. 

I made a number of free signings early in the 1st season, (that arrived later that season), and some of them I have since moved on for a tidy profit. 

Calum Chambers & Matt Grimes were both signed on a free in Jul 2022. 

If we look at the transfers out screen for cash/claused transfers for the period of this save you would see this. 

That would suggest that they are either still at the club, or if they have left, then they left with no fee involved. Seems pretty straightforward. 

The only problem is that they have both left the club, and both left for cash. 

We got £6M cash for Chambers. 

We got £8.5M for Grimes. 

I'm pretty sure that the reason we don't see them on the out-going transfer page is because they were both in the B Team when I sold them. My only concern is that we didn't get the money because technically they weren't at our club. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this and check the next one I do, because there have been a significant number of transfers like this, (for players who I inherited), and who have been sold for cash but who don't appear on our transfers our page. 

It's interesting that the same thing doesn't happen when a player in the U19's squad is sold. 

Has anyone noticed this before? 

Edited September 27, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Business as usual. Barca. Aug 2023. 

Opening day of the 2023/24 season and Moukoko continues as he left off. 

It took him 5 and a half minutes to open the scoring. 
He completed his hat-trick in the 48th minute. 
He finished the match with 5 goals. 
The 6th goal was a penalty that he didn't take. 

If he stays fit is he capable of 100 goals in a season I wonder? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Summer Transfer window. Barca. Sep 2023. 

It was a relatively quite transfer window in terms of signings, (although quite a few left and LOADS on loan). 

I was looking for a left-sided centre-half, not just for this season, but also for next season when I expect 36 year old Acerbi 6'4" to be gone. I was also looking for a bargain and didn't want to spend close to £50M on him. The only stipulation was that he had to be a physical player rather than a technical player and Pongracic 6'3" fits that bill nicely. 

In terms of out-goings, I managed to get Aguero off the wage bill, (and got £5M in the kitty), and also got £14.5M for our English duo of Chambers and Grimes. 
Comas 6'3" went for £1.6M and both Lucas de Vega & Kays Ruiz went for smaller fees. I'm sure there were more but because I sold them when they were in the B Team there is no record. 

B.Mendy got injured during pre-season, (hip injury), and when it seemed like he was going to be out for ages I arranged to get Luke Thomas in again, (for a 3rd season), as cover. The problem is that when it came to registering him I didn't have a spare slot after the arrival of Pongracic 6'3", so if I was going to register Thomas then it would mean de-registering B.Mendy, (one of the stars of last season who was now only going to be out for about 6 weeks after a ridiculously quick recover), or his back-up Balde, (who was also able to play further forward at a push). In the end I just couldn't register a left back owned by someone else and de-register one of our own of as similar ability, and there was no way I was de-registering B.Mendy. So basically Thomas will just be playing in Europe. I don't think he's going to be happy. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Barca. Aug 2023. 

La Liga. There is no separating ourselves and R.Madrid who have both scored 10 and conceded 1 in our opening 2 games, but Atletico have already dropped 2 points, (away to R.Sociedad). 

Finances. We have  in the bank, (£41M up on pre-season), and our net debt currently stands at , (a reduction of £88.2M). 

I've managed to get it to the stage now where because we are so far under our wage budget, (£2.8M per month), that we are starting to save money over and above our loan payments each month even without selling players. When we do sell players it's just an added bonus.