[FM23] Athletic Club (Bilbao) - Aupa Athletic!

[Doyce7]

Pre Season 2030/31

This summer has been very tame, zero ins, and only a few outs. 

As talked about in my last post, Julen Jon Guerrero, Aymeric Laporte and Mikel Merino have left. Guerrero joins Shakhtar for 7.5M, Laporte goes to Roma for 3.6M and Merino to Al-Jazira for 6M

They are replaced from within the squad by players who may or may not be ready but only way to find out is to throw them in. None will be regular starters and will not be expected to carry a massive weight, but they will play upwards of 20-30 games this season. 

This is how the team will look heading into the season, white is the class of 23, green is 24, red is 25, blue is 27.

Three players are joining the big club full time this season. Martin is the pick of the bunch, I have big hopes for this guy and think he will be the long term Vencedor replacement, I got him into 4 games towards the end of last season and he performed well with a 7.1 rating. Badiola doesn't have huge potential but he can fill in at multiple positions in the midfield and up front if we have an injury crisis, he got into 7 games last season and was not great with a 6.71 rating but he was only 18. Blanco is not an academy product, he joined the club from las Palmas in the summer of 2027 for 425k, he had 1 sub appearance in the final game of the season but played well for the B team and will be a rotational option this season.

[ernemann]

Started all over but finally got the first season finished and a very good season it was. Third place in the league and a win in the cupfinal against Barca after we have sent Real Madrid out in the semis. Inaki were absoluty rocking all season and became most scoring all over Europe with a total of 44 goals

We have said goodbye to alot of players including Lekue, Villalibre, Vesga and Berenguer, while Raul Garcia have retired. The other way we have only signed Ander Herrera as he was too good not to buy. But thats also the only one we will buy as this save as always will be a youth only save and then Herrera. Finally we got some decent youth prospects including to in the defence so it will be nice to how good they will become in the next years

[dothestrand]

Woohoo! It's taken a lot of persuasion and promises I may come to regret but he's coming in January....

[bowieinspace]

He looks awesome @dothestrand - what did you have to promise?

[dothestrand]

37 minutes ago, bowieinspace said:

He looks awesome @dothestrand - what did you have to promise?

It took dozens of offers and players talking him up to the press before he would even listen to an offer and even then he wouldn't entertain whatever was thrown at him. Basically I added anything and everything - crazy salary, star player status, promises of trophies, promises to act as a stepping stone, promises to improve the coaching setup etc. In theory, all doable. Eventually he accepted at about the third attempt, just after the window closed! He and Yoldi, my talented regen CM, will take over from Sancet and Vencedor nicely now. 

[MattyC78]

On 02/01/2023 at 21:50, bowieinspace said:

2032/33 Season Review - The End of an Era

 

This season we have said goodbye to some legendary faces due to age, and we had a lovely old time in their final season.

La Liga - Winners, 96 points
Copa Del Rey - Winners, beat Real Madrid in final
Supercopa - Lost in SF to Barcelona
Champions League - Winners!
UEFA Super Cup (August 2023 - current season) - Winners!
Club World Cup - Winners!

An unbelievable way to wave goodbye to Unai Vencedor, Oihan Sancet, Hugo Guillamon, Dani Vivian and Unai Simon (albeit the latter two will stick around for one more year). We handled everything thrown at us this year, and the quality of our squad came into it's own with some ridiculous late season fixture congestion. We now move into something of a new era with the core of the old guard moving on. Our fixture congestion was very problematic, basically playing every 2 days for a 8 or 9 day period (Tues, Thurs, Sat, Mon, Wed). We prioritised our Champions League semi final during that period, played the strongest team we could against PSG and then relied on our other players for the easier games. It worked out well - we lost vs Real Madrid but were otherwise successful at navigating that period.

Highlight of the league season was winning 19-0 aggregate across our two games vs Deportivo La Coruna....lol.

Champions League overview: We ripped through the league phase and comfortably finished top 8 to secure our spot in the last 16, where we would meet Napoli. Napoli had been a real tough opponent for many years, but their star is waning somewhat now and we comfortably dispatched them 3-0 away in the first leg - we rotated in the second leg and had a wonderfully entertaining 4-4 draw, to go through 7-3 on aggregate. We then had a quarter final tie against rivals Real Madrid. We were unfortunate to lose the first leg at the Bernabeu 2-1, having had the better of the game, however we weren't to be denied to San Mames in a 3-0 destruction to go through 4-2 on aggregate - two goals from forward Javi off the bench saw us home. In the semi final we drew last years opponents at the same stage, PSG. Having lost on penalities last year we had a point to prove this time around, and prove it we certainly did - we beat them 4-1 at San Mames in the first leg, and then went away to Parc Des Princes and took a 3-2 win their as well having been 1-2 behind, this time it was Ignacio Goikoetxea's turn to get in the goals. 

Our final was against AC Milan who had an insane comeback against Man City in their semi final. I was pretty pleased about this because City are very very good, while AC Milan I felt we were definitely favourites. So it proved - we took an early lead courtesy of Nico Williams, and then Mikel Gallego showed his star quality with 2 goals, sealing a 3-0 win and our second Champions League title. We've now reached the final 3 times and have been lucky enough to win it twice.

We then went into the Club World Cup in an effort to be National, European and World Champions. This is a trophy I'm not sure I've ever won on this game because it's always felt like a farce, but we actually managed to keep our squad healthy this time around. We beat out Kaizer Chiefs and Palmeiras in the group phase (albeit a 0-0 draw with Palmeiras saw us only progress on goal difference), and we then beat Bayern Munich 3-2 in the quarter final (rather fortunately as they were the better side), then a 3-0 win against Spurs in the semi final setting up a final against PSG. We comfortably outplayed them against as we did in the Champions League, however this ended up being a bit tougher. We went 1-0 down and had to claw our way back into it. A Javi equaliser in the 94th minute sent the fans (e.g. me) wild, while my wife looked slightly confused and concerned. Javi then struck again in extra time to take a 2-1 win. The combination of Goikeotxea (pacy, on the shoulder type striker) and Javi (big unit, well rounded striker) is absolutely fantastic as we can adjust our style to suit our opponents on the fly. 

 

Career Honours

It seems like a good time at the end of this era to overview my honours to this point:
La Liga Winners - 2027, 2028, 2030, 2032, 2033
Copa Del Rey Winners - 2026, 2028, 2031, 2033
Supercopa Winners - 2028, 2032
Champions League Winners - 2026, 2033
Uefa Super Cup Winners - 2026, 2033

Spanish League Manager of the Year - 7 times

In other news - Nico Williams over the last 12 months or so has won basically every individual award, winning the Ballon D'or and FIFA mens best player, coming second in the Goal50. We have also seen Ignacio Goikoetxea win the nxgn award.


Squad Building/Transfers

A big summer for us with a significant shift from old to new. Unai Vencedor (32), Oihan Sancet (33) and Hugo Guillamon (33) have all moved on after wanting new challenges. Our squad felt quite deep with young players coming through, so while I was open to keeping these guys for another year, in the end I was actually happy to have them request new challenges because I wanted to make room for younger players. Dani Vivian (34) has one year left and will stick around, as will Unai Simon who is still our best keeper. We have welcomed Jorge Santisteban, a 24 year old centre back from Cartagena who originally came through at Osasuna - he's not as good as Vivian/Guillamon, but a great option for us in the coming years. His first appearance came off the bench for an underperforming Dani Vivian in the Super Cup and he was exceptional.... I now plan to use him and Lozano as the first choice pair with Vivian available as back up - finally our defence has some aerial ability. We also welcome a couple of youngsters I am really excited about - Jesus Arrizabalaga (who I hope to be the future of our central midfield in a BBM role) and Arkaitz Martinez. Martinez is a young CB who comes in as a back up option who will get plenty of minutes this season - I hope he will become first choice before long. 

In the 2032/33 season the whole team was fantastic, but I have to give some praise to Alvaro Ojeda who has become an important midfielder for us - he started as a young player looking for experience, but became key when Oihan Sancet ruptured his ACL as the first option off our bench - his contributes were excellent and he has completely displaced Alain Garai. I now have Garai up for sale as I can't find a place for him - Aimar is 31 now but has a couple of years left in him, and Oscar Jimenez is improving well (I am trying to find a loan for him this year). Endika Etxabe is a natural so I've shifted him their to rotate with/cover Castro, meaning Villar can shift back to LB and we can make room for Martinez to come in. I have another young CB who looks capable and should replace Vivian next season - he will play for the B team this year.

 

GK - Simon, Jauregi, Westerveld 
RB - Larrea, Barrenetxea
LB - Lacruz, Villar
CB - Lozano, Santisteban, Vivan, Martinez - N.b. it says he's a FB on the screenshot above but he's a CB for sure.
DM - Castro, Etxabe
CM (BBM) - Aimar, Arrizabalaga
CM (Mez) - Gallego, Ojeda, Garai
RW - Nico Williams, Rubio
LW - Pascual, Aguirre
CF - Goiketxea, Javi

 

 

 

 

Congratulations on the Champions League victory.  

[JacobSi]

I am currently 7 years in to my save, was wondering if anyone has been able to build a new stadium or should i just buy the stadium and try to expand it

[ernemann]

1 hour ago, JacobSi said:

I am currently 7 years in to my save, was wondering if anyone has been able to build a new stadium or should i just buy the stadium and try to expand it

Just buy it and expand it. Why would you have a new stadium when the current is from 2013 

[dothestrand]

4 hours ago, JacobSi said:

I am currently 7 years in to my save, was wondering if anyone has been able to build a new stadium or should i just buy the stadium and try to expand it

I convinced the board to buy San Mames in my current season. It took a lot of persuasion for this so I don't think they would want to build a new one. 

[Doyce7]

1 hour ago, dothestrand said:

I convinced the board to buy San Mames in my current season. It took a lot of persuasion for this so I don't think they would want to build a new one. 

Buying the stadium in my save as well, purchase is scheduled to complete in July of 2031

[bowieinspace]

I’m in 2034 and purchased the stadium a.m few years back. In some past games you could expand San Mames up to 65k but you can’t this year. I’m trying with the board to build a new stadium but no luck yet, it’s been 20 years since San Mames was built so should be becoming doable 

[MattyC78]

55 minutes ago, bowieinspace said:

I’m in 2034 and purchased the stadium a.m few years back. In some past games you could expand San Mames up to 65k but you can’t this year. I’m trying with the board to build a new stadium but no luck yet, it’s been 20 years since San Mames was built so should be becoming doable 

I am in 2028 and I have also have bought San Mames but I have been unable to expand it.  It looks like I am going to have to wait a while to get a bigger stadium.

[MattyC78]

It was very quiet in terms of transfers in the summer of 2028.  There were no incoming players and just two departures.  Gonzalo Saenz left go to Arsenal after throwing all his toys out of the pram and indicating that he would leave at the end of his contract.  We got £4.1 million for him but expect the 50% of his profit to be worth quite a bit more in the future.  We also sold on Alex Padilla.  He had been our third-choice goalkeeper.  He never looked like he could offer anything else and he wanted an obscene pay rise so we sold him on for £850,000 and cleared the route for Aitor Merino, our promising 17 year old keeper to move up to the first-team squad.

In the second half of last season, we left ourselves a little short of squad options.  I spent the summer looking for cheap options and trying to get some former players, like Jon Morcillo, Iker Muniain and Nico Serrano back to the club but was entirely unsuccessful.  In the absence of any real transfers, we have moved up some of the youngsters earlier than planned.

Let me introduce to them, starting with Ekain Albistegi who is fine young centre midfielder who looks to have a great future at the club.

Jon Saizar has had a couple of successful loan spells at Besiktas and Copenhagen in recent years and is now coming in as our first choice attacking midfielder.

Oier Neto got a few games at the end of last season and he has now been promoted to our back-up striker.

Borja Undabarrena was brought in a couple of seasons ago for £24 million from Osasuna and is going to be promoted to start getting some game-time.

The final player to introduce is Zigor Perez.  He is a midfielder that I have been converting to a right-back who came in as emergency cover last year in an injury crisis and he played 23 games.  He is in the first team squad on merit for this season.

[sgevolker]

Hi Guys,

Happy new year to all of you . 

I just finished my first season at San Mamas and was able to qualify for the Europa Conference League. I was a long season with a very good start and some problems at the end of the season. So I'm glad I was able to secure the qualification for international games next season.  

So a really good start into the save. Best players were Iker Muniain and Inaki Williams who both had a lot of goals and assists. But also Nico Willams and Asier Villalibre scored a lot of goals. 

I lost a lot of core fans over the season, honestly don't know why. Maybe it was the type of football I was playing (counter, low block)?

I played a 4-1-2-3 like most of you and this is my team of the season.

Also the under 19 Team did very well and won the league. We didn't lost a game. 

Our run was stopped in the half final by Racing Santander in penalties. It's a pity, I thing we were the better team. 

Our second team was able to secure the league. Next year I would like to bring them into the playoff spots. 

The Youth Intake was good, given us three remarkable players who should be able to play in the senior team later. And also the rest isn't that bad. 

Next Season:

I was able to get Hugo Guillamon from Valencia who should play a key role in the central midfield and Javi Martinez as a backup central defender or defensiv midfielder. 

Both signings helping us to improve the squad and play a better role next season. So this is the team for season two

I also improved the second team and added some of the come back from loan to the squad. Overall target is to bing them into the Secunda Divison.

Last but not least our under 19 squad for the new season, a lot of talents. Of course, target is to win the league again.

Most fun atm. is the squad building. I really enjoyed to plan the three teams for the next season. I also think I found a proper tactic with a counter based basic formation and a possession based alternativ. Really enjoy the way the team is playing. 

Take care 

Volker

Edited January 5, 2023 by sgevolker

[bowieinspace]

@sgevolker you won’t have ‘lost’ core fans, more that your overall fan base has increased a bit from a higher number of fair weather followers, this reduces the % that the core fans make up, but doesn’t reduce the total number necessarily 

[sgevolker]

vor 6 Minuten schrieb bowieinspace:

@sgevolker you won’t have ‘lost’ core fans, more that your overall fan base has increased a bit from a higher number of fair weather followers, this reduces the % that the core fans make up, but doesn’t reduce the total number necessarily 

Thanks, good to know. Then I'm satisfied 

[bowieinspace]

47 minutes ago, sgevolker said:

Thanks, good to know. Then I'm satisfied 

All good! As you go on and increase the clubs stature you will see the trend continue. Much like any big club, as they progress they pick up a lot of fair weather or casual fans often from outside the local area, whereas the core support numbers stay a touch more stable - while they will also increase, as a % the casual/fair weather numbers will go up a lot more

[dothestrand]

Anyone had a weird table like this midway through a season (currently December 2029?). A number of unfancied teams could win the league.

I've lost away to Espanyol and Sevilla and at home to Barcelona. Villarreal have Myron Boadu up front and he is on fire - 20 La Liga goals already!

[MattyC78]

23 minutes ago, dothestrand said:

Anyone had a weird table like this midway through a season (currently December 2029?). A number of unfancied teams could win the league.

I've lost away to Espanyol and Sevilla and at home to Barcelona. Villarreal have Myron Boadu up front and he is on fire - 20 La Liga goals already!

I've had seasons with Real or Barcelona (not both) outside the top four or the odd unexpected challenger but not as many as that.  It'll be interesting to see how it settles by the end of the season.  Real and Barca have always recovered in mine and scraped into the top four (if only just).

 

[sgevolker]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb dothestrand:

Anyone had a weird table like this midway through a season (currently December 2029?). A number of unfancied teams could win the league.

What happen to Real Madrid? 

[Doyce7]

3 hours ago, MattyC78 said:

I've had seasons with Real or Barcelona (not both) outside the top four or the odd unexpected challenger but not as many as that.  It'll be interesting to see how it settles by the end of the season.  Real and Barca have always recovered in mine and scraped into the top four (if only just).

 

Real Madrid and Barcelona have both finished outside the top 4 twice each in my save. Barcelona hasn't had a top 3 finish in 5 years now, 6th 4th 4th 6th and 4th. Bearing in mind, both Valencia and Atletico Madrid had tycoon takeovers in my save. Valencia in 23 and Atleti in 26. Valencia has actually been the second best team in Spain overall the last 5 or 6 years, they have finished top 3 for 6 straight years. Here's what the table looks like on Jan 1 2031, that top six has been the top six almost every season in some order, I'm usually around 3rd at this point in the season and then storm back in the new year but we are currently on like a 32 or 33 game unbeaten run in all comps.

Another interesting thing in my save is that, Real Betis was relegated in 25/26, only 3 years after finishing second in the league, and spent 3 seasons in the Segunda before coming back up and narrowly avoiding relegation. Sevilla was relegated in 28/29 but bounced straight back up

[dothestrand]

2 hours ago, sgevolker said:

What happen to Real Madrid? 

They've been poor for a few seasons. City buy their best players up. Even when Real Madrid and Barcelona have poor seasons and drop points to average sides they play like world-beaters against us. 

[bowieinspace]

My save has been largely dominated by Real Madrid. Barcelona are a total farce on my save, their last 6 years have seen them finish 7th, 4th, 9th, 6th, 4th, 3rd. On the other hand we've seen Real Betis and Real Sociedad regularly finish in the top 4, we also saw Cadiz finish 4th last year.

Spanish teams in my save have been awful in Europe though, despite Athletic's success, La Liga has dropped to the 5th best division in Europe this year and now only gets 3 Champions League spots. I feel like the domestic success ourselves and Real Madrid have had in terms of unbeaten records etc is largely because the rest of the division is hot garbage.

[bowieinspace]

For reasons I cannot fathom, Real Madrid have sold their only decent goalkeeper on deadline day to Chelsea, and haven't replaced him.

Their other playable goalkeeper hasn't been registered for La Liga, so they are playing a greyed out 15 year old in goal now...

[sgevolker]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb bowieinspace:

For reasons I cannot fathom, Real Madrid have sold their only decent goalkeeper on deadline day to Chelsea, and haven't replaced him.

Their other playable goalkeeper hasn't been registered for La Liga, so they are playing a greyed out 15 year old in goal now...

Sounds like a bug to me. This would never happen in real time, even when Real has a bad phase.

[amathews3416]

Hi all,

Getting ready to purchase 23 and get this save going.  Curious, what kind of price is Karrikaburu going for this game?  Usually that is first order of business as he solves the striker position for years to come.  In past, he’s had affordable release clause and willing to join.

Thanks 

[dothestrand]

25 minutes ago, amathews3416 said:

Hi all,

Getting ready to purchase 23 and get this save going.  Curious, what kind of price is Karrikaburu going for this game?  Usually that is first order of business as he solves the striker position for years to come.  In past, he’s had affordable release clause and willing to join.

Thanks 

He has varying potential in the game I think. He's not good in my save. His finishing is only 11. I never signed him as Villalibre, Garcia and the Williams were always better options. 

[sgevolker]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb dothestrand:

He has varying potential in the game I think. He's not good in my save. His finishing is only 11. I never signed him as Villalibre, Garcia and the Williams were always better options. 

I don't know why, but Luis Bilbao is working very well as Pressing Forward. I've got him a a Joker and he scored a lot of goals in the first games auf my second season. Also secured me some points.

He's a Player from the B-Team.

[Doyce7]

2 hours ago, amathews3416 said:

Hi all,

Getting ready to purchase 23 and get this save going.  Curious, what kind of price is Karrikaburu going for this game?  Usually that is first order of business as he solves the striker position for years to come.  In past, he’s had affordable release clause and willing to join.

Thanks 

I brought him for 8.5M in the summer of 24 but he wasn't good and sold him two years later for the same price. I say give Villalibre a shot this year. He was great for me scoring 20+ goals a season until he started having injury problems and was surpassed by academy boys around 27/28. 

[bowieinspace]

7 hours ago, amathews3416 said:

Hi all,

Getting ready to purchase 23 and get this save going.  Curious, what kind of price is Karrikaburu going for this game?  Usually that is first order of business as he solves the striker position for years to come.  In past, he’s had affordable release clause and willing to join.

Thanks 

I bought him in very early on for somewhere around 15million I think and he was superb for me for about 6 years or so

[JacobSi]

On 05/01/2023 at 20:27, MattyC78 said:

I am in 2028 and I have also have bought San Mames but I have been unable to expand it.  It looks like I am going to have to wait a while to get a bigger stadium.

What is the benefit of buying the stadium then? 

[JacobSi]

On 05/01/2023 at 19:29, bowieinspace said:

I’m in 2034 and purchased the stadium a.m few years back. In some past games you could expand San Mames up to 65k but you can’t this year. I’m trying with the board to build a new stadium but no luck yet, it’s been 20 years since San Mames was built so should be becoming doable 

What is the benefit of buying the stadium then?

[bowieinspace]

2 hours ago, JacobSi said:

What is the benefit of buying the stadium then?

Some financial benefits longer term I think, honestly it’s made no difference really to my save

Edited January 7, 2023 by bowieinspace

[bowieinspace]

Quick opinion poll…

Would it be wrong for me to add a second manager next summer transfer window to overhaul Barca and make them more competitive? Haha

[bowieinspace]

10 hours ago, sgevolker said:

Sounds like a bug to me. This would never happen in real time, even when Real has a bad phase.

Yeah I think so too, completely unrealistic. I don’t want to pay for the editor to fix it for them so will prob just leave them to figure it out in Jan

[MattyC78]

9 hours ago, amathews3416 said:

Hi all,

Getting ready to purchase 23 and get this save going.  Curious, what kind of price is Karrikaburu going for this game?  Usually that is first order of business as he solves the striker position for years to come.  In past, he’s had affordable release clause and willing to join.

Thanks 

I paid £5 million rising to £10.5 million with add-ons and he took a little time to take over from Inaki Williams but for the last few seasons he has been fantastic.

[MattyC78]

2 hours ago, JacobSi said:

What is the benefit of buying the stadium then?

There is no real benefit.  I did it because I have never been able to persuade the board in previous years and I hoped to expand the capacity.  Sadly I have never had the option to do this.  After a few seasons in the Champions League, money is an irrelevance anyway and I'd rather own the stadium than pay the tax man millions on the profit we make.  

[MattyC78]

We have reached January 2029 and we agreed to sell Alvaro Odriozola to Nice for £2.2 million.  We had six months left of his contract and was unhappy with not getting lots of games so he will be leaving us.  Having reviewed the number of games played by some of our youngsters we let a few of them go out on loan for the rest of the season to make sure that their development is not hampered too much. Robin Le Normand

There was one incoming transfer.  A 32 year old was available for £8.5 million on reasonable wages so he improves the first team but as importantly he buys us time for us to find a youngster to come in at centre back.  Urko Santana was sent out on loan now his route to game time has been blocked further.

[Doyce7]

This January(2031) has been the most frustrating window I have had in years. First my starting RB Joseba Arberas gets a bid from Valencia and he is unsettled because they "have a stronger squad," bear in mind we have won LaLiga the last 3 and 4 of the last 5 years, are the highest rep team in Spain. Nobody else agrees with him and he has 4 more years on his deal after this one so not too big of a deal. My backup RB Inigo Bidaurrazaga also gets a bid from Valencia and gets unsettled for the same reason but half the squad ends up on his side, even though he had just signed a new 5 year deal in September, He ends up leaving to Nice on deadline day. Unai Vallejo gets upset wanting to join Arsenal because they "can win the Champions league" we just finished top of the league phase, and Arsenal are about the 5th best team in England, I had to promise getting to the latter stages this season to get him to shut up. 18 year old RB Kike Agirre wants to join Chelsea to "be a key part of the squad," he's not even ready for the Segunda division so why the hell he thinks he is going to be a key player for Chelsea I have no idea, he's on a 5 year deal and not a part of the first team so he can sulk. Bidaurrazaga leaving is a real proplem, I have no backup LB that is first team quality other than my true backup RB Alvaro Barandiaran, who is really backup LB and RB so I have had to either call up Agirre(who again, is not ready) to be 4th choice FB or call up Unai Jauregi who, at 5'5" and 20 years old, and has more CB skills than FB skills. In the end I made the more prudent choice of Jauregi who can at least defend and is currently better though not by much. 

There seems to be exactly 1 Basque, good, true LB in my save and he already starts for me. All others are CBs that can play FB and would cost me 20M while not being as good at CB as any of my current crop and not being much better than Jauregi at playing LB. I am seriously considering trying to find a midfielder somewhere with a left foot to convert to LB. I'm getting desperate. 

Rant over.

[bowieinspace]

2 hours ago, Doyce7 said:

This January(2031) has been the most frustrating window I have had in years. First my starting RB Joseba Arberas gets a bid from Valencia and he is unsettled because they "have a stronger squad," bear in mind we have won LaLiga the last 3 and 4 of the last 5 years, are the highest rep team in Spain. Nobody else agrees with him and he has 4 more years on his deal after this one so not too big of a deal. My backup RB Inigo Bidaurrazaga also gets a bid from Valencia and gets unsettled for the same reason but half the squad ends up on his side, even though he had just signed a new 5 year deal in September, He ends up leaving to Nice on deadline day. Unai Vallejo gets upset wanting to join Arsenal because they "can win the Champions league" we just finished top of the league phase, and Arsenal are about the 5th best team in England, I had to promise getting to the latter stages this season to get him to shut up. 18 year old RB Kike Agirre wants to join Chelsea to "be a key part of the squad," he's not even ready for the Segunda division so why the hell he thinks he is going to be a key player for Chelsea I have no idea, he's on a 5 year deal and not a part of the first team so he can sulk. Bidaurrazaga leaving is a real proplem, I have no backup LB that is first team quality other than my true backup RB Alvaro Barandiaran, who is really backup LB and RB so I have had to either call up Agirre(who again, is not ready) to be 4th choice FB or call up Unai Jauregi who, at 5'5" and 20 years old, and has more CB skills than FB skills. In the end I made the more prudent choice of Jauregi who can at least defend and is currently better though not by much. 

There seems to be exactly 1 Basque, good, true LB in my save and he already starts for me. All others are CBs that can play FB and would cost me 20M while not being as good at CB as any of my current crop and not being much better than Jauregi at playing LB. I am seriously considering trying to find a midfielder somewhere with a left foot to convert to LB. I'm getting desperate. 

Rant over.

Sounds like my last couple transfer windows..same stuff

[Doyce7]

The season is not over yet but I wanted to introduce you to someone. 

This is Iker Hernandez. Iker is very young. Iker has a bright future. Iker was called up to the squad due to a season ending injury. Iker, scored an 88th minute game winner in the Copa Del Rey Final, not a bad way to make your senior debut! 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Doyce7

[dothestrand]

Unrealistic player complaints is a real bugbear of mine. Why your players side with a guy who's being disruptive and trying to divide the dressing room, I don't get - even when you say we'd be weaker with the player leaving that doesn't help.

Then the squad revolted when City beat us in the CL. We were unlucky to draw them in the last 16 but did they really think we had a 50-50 chance of defeating a side that routinely spends 100m on any player it fancies? And if we didn't beat them look at yourselves as much as me, guys! 

[bowieinspace]

So I’ve actually progressed my save through into the following season now:

La Liga - Winners

Champions League - Winners

Copa Del Rey - Winners!

Very dominant domestically and two consecutive champions league titles! This time beating Man City in the final, 3-1. 

I’ve saved a copy of my game from October in charge of Athletic, but Barcelona are an utter shambles (like honestly it would probably be a super enjoyable rebuild, they have no value in their squad and half their team are 35+ and out of contract at the end of the season. They are expecting a mid table finish!

I decided to keep my game world going and took a job near the bottom of the premier league, simply because of the lack of competition in Spain due to Barca being so poor and Real Madrid selling all their goalkeepers (seriously wtf). At least in the premier league the teams are pretty stacked and they spend their way through poor squad building. 

So for a change of pace I’ve taken over at 19th place Aston Villa where I’ll be playing a box 4-4-2 system which is my absolute favourite to do. Keeping my Athletic save file to one side for when I fancy revisiting. When the winter update drops in Feb I might do a save with one of the small basque clubs…Barakaldo maybe, we’ll see! 

[Doyce7]

2030/31 Season

Well well well, what a season this has been. The title race was tighter than any season of the save so far. 5 teams had a real shot of winning it going into April, at that point the top 5 were separated by about 5 points, if memory serves. Atletico Madrid were top with Real 2nd followed by Valencia, Barcelona and then us in 5th. We lost to Real Madrid 3-0 at the start of April and somehow that would be their final win of the season, Madrid would go on to draw 5 and lose 3 in their final 8 games of the season to finish a distant 5th. Bilbao on the other hand would go on a 6 match winning run from that point and place ourselves in position to win the league. Going into the final two league games just needing to keep winning, after beating Atletico to go top, the title is in our hands. 

To set the scene, with 2 games to go, we sit on 83, Atletico sit on 81, Valencia on 81 and Barcelona on 79, Valencia play Barcelona away from home in game 37. We draw away to Vallecano, Atletico beat Real at home, and Barcelona beats Valencia at home. That means that all 4 teams can win the title going into the final day but we sit top, thanks to beating Atletico head to head. On the final day, Atletico beats Betis at home, Barcelona beats Vallecano away, Valencia beats Las Palmas at home, and we draw away to Sociedad. With that, we finish 3rd. two 0-0 draws, all we needed was one goal from either game and we win the league for a forth year running. 

I have detailed our struggles in the cup competitions on previous posts and my last post I showed you that we had won the Copa Del Rey for the second time in this save.

Now I present to you, the Champions League knockout run to the Semi Finals. It's the second deepest run we have had but still no UCL glory for us. Inter was able to score in the 93 minute of the second leg to push it to ET and when nobody scored I knew it was over, I have very few decent penalty kickers and it was never going to turn out in our favor. Much better showing though, after not getting past the R16 for 3 straight years, progress. 

Nobody new really forced themselves into the starting conversation this season, I will shout out Unai Martin, who played a key role, often off the bench, in midfield. He is developing nicely, if a bit slower than I would like. He should be ready to take over for Sancet in a couple seasons time. I am now at a point where only 7 real players remain in my team and 5 of which that start at the club, Simon, Vivian, Sancet, Vencedor and Nico Williams. Williams is still only 28 but Vencedor is 30, Vivian(and Guillamon) and Sancet are 31 and Simon is 33. The time of transition is coming and I do not know if we will be ready. Especially at the back, Aritz Losa has stopped developing and is just ok, Blanco still has some room to grow and Gil(the newgen from last year hasn't developed much yet) is still years away. There are a couple of Basque CBs in the world that I am keeping tabs on and if my players do not develop enough then I will dip into the transfer market for them. 

That's it for now, I plan to take a break from this save for a bit, maybe a week and play other saves. 

[dothestrand]

Season 29-30: A hat trick of titles

La Liga: Champions, 89 points (-7 from last season)

Champions League: Round of 16 (lost to Man City)

Super Cup: Semi Final (lost to Atletico Madrid)

Spanish Cup: Quarter Finals (lost to Real Madrid)

Squad Performance

The objective this season was to retain the title that we'd won in the past two years and supersede the legendary Clemente side of the early 80s - and we did it! As previously mentioned, it was a hairy first half of the season with several teams in contention for the title. Our own form had been erratic. But with Real Madrid and Barcelona seemingly out of the picture, there was always the chance that those sides that were flying high in January would fall away. So it proved. Espanyol and Sevilla really slipped back, whilst the two La Liga giants didn't recover their form - Real Madrid a dismal 8th and Barcelona only in 6th. Valencia got relegated too! Our form in the second half of the season was much better and that allowed us to put some distance between ourselves and our closest challengers - who happened to be a surprising Villareal - Myron Boadu was still scoring for fun. Apparently this is a record low (in this game) for a title-winning side, which speaks volumes about how La Liga is at the moment. 

The cups were a disappointment. We finished in the top eight in the Champions League, but were unfortunate to be drawn against Man City in the last sixteen, who defeated us without much fuss. The domestic cups were a missed opportunity too. The Super Cup defeat came during a run of poor form, and it doesn't really matter if Real Madrid are in bad nick, they'll turn up when they play us, and they dumped us out of the Spanish Cup at the QF stage.

No major standouts in terms of performances. A lot of OK but not amazing performers. Garitano is my wonderkid RB (who may eventually become a CB) and has now been capped several times for Spain. Armendiriz and Roldan are two regen wingers who've been out on loan and immediately stepped up into the first team - we sold Aimar Oroz and Dani Rodriguez to find space for them. Ander Ibanez doesn't appear in the front three, but he was top Spanish goalscorer with 20 goals. I'd have liked a bit more from Yoldi, my 20-technique CM, who has dizzying potential. But he needs to dominate games more. 

Transfers and Youth Intake

We have loads of cash in the bank, and we spent a lot! We signed Garcia, the 18yo Alaves CM for 41m and he played very well in the second half of the season. With him and Yoldi, we don't need to worry about Sancet (30) and Vencedor (29) when they move on. Hugo Guillamon became available for 57m and we swooped for him. With our main CBs being a couple of years older (and no real regens), we should get a good few years out of him. He's struggled so far, and probably fancies playing DM, which we don't need him for. We'll likely rotate him, Laporte and Vivian going forward.

Youth intake wasn't a good one, which was probably overdue. We've been very lucky over the last several years and don't need any more wingers!

Looking Ahead

Much like some other posters, after nearly a decade, I've found that La Liga has become much less competitive and the challenge has probably gone in terms of domestic competition. We underperform in cups, particularly in Europe, but those are the only real concerns.

In terms of squad development, we'd be looking to potentially move Unai Simon on this Summer as I've been playing the regen ex-Real Sociedad keeper in the second half of the season. We've lost Nunez and will probably move Le Normand on, so we can bring some younger defenders into the squad - particularly in the full back positions. We're stacked in CM now and are fine here for another couple of years. The wide positions are a neverending production line. I have 3-4 guys on loan who could play in the first team whenever I need them. We have a promising young striker, much more of an all-round striker, but he's a few years off the first team squad.

So in short, we've got a very strong squad of the best 'real' Basque players we could possibly sign and top-quality regens. Unless Barcelona/Real Madrid up their game, we'd dominate La Liga for the foreseeable.

This may be the point where I take a break and try a Premier League save.

A Few Wonderkids/Regens

Edited January 10, 2023 by dothestrand

[sgevolker]

Hi Guys,

I've got a question. I would also like to see the Stats fro the U19 Squad and I've got two Performance Analysts. But didn't get any results so far. 

What else is needed to see season and performance stats from the B Team or U19 Squad? 

[bowieinspace]

2 hours ago, sgevolker said:

Hi Guys,

I've got a question. I would also like to see the Stats fro the U19 Squad and I've got two Performance Analysts. But didn't get any results so far. 

What else is needed to see season and performance stats from the B Team or U19 Squad? 

Just a guess but you may need to take control of the team 

[sgevolker]

vor 38 Minuten schrieb bowieinspace:

Just a guess but you may need to take control of the team 

Thanks. I've got control of the team. I assume there are no league stats available for the U19 Team? 

[MattyC78]

We have completed our 2028/29 season.  The signing of a 32 year old Robin Le Normand for £8.5 million hon reasonable wages helped us seal our fourth title in five years.  We also won the Copa Del Rey beating Barcelona one nil in the final and the Spanish Cup by beating Villareal 2-1 .  We failed in the Champions League again!  This time, losing by the odd goal to Liverpool in the semi-final.

 

It was a very close season with only four points between us and Real, with us winning the title with a game to spare.

Jon Karrikaburu was phenomenal again with 45 goals in the league and 64 in 45 starts in all competitions.  The biggest weakness in the team remains at left back and there is not much coming through the youth teams at left back or wing back to improve matters.  This is clearly going to be my weak point this year.

One final thing to note is the new scout arranged by my technical director.  He has found someone who might be a touch over qualified!!

 

[vvegg]

Are there any purists who purge the staff on day one and terminate non-basque staff?

I know it's not the club's policy in real life but I keep doing it in all my Athletic saves.

I'd be pleased to hear any staff advice from those who do it.

Personally hiring Edorta Murua as HOYD is the first move I do. Not sure him remaining Qatar U19 manager as well affects his job efficiency though.