[FM23] Deportivo La Coruna: Redemption and a return to the top flight?

[Jtomsett11]

On 05/04/2023 at 21:39, SweetFA said:

Just seen this thread and have signed up to comment as it is very similar to a save I started few weeks ago.

I was looking for a side I could take over to bring back the glory days alsousing a back 3/5 system.

I’ve seen a lot of talk about how it is difficult to make a possession based back 3/5 system to I wanted to try and build a shape that would allow a high line, pressing and possession football as well as being flexible enough to progress through the leagues and changes in opponent quality without needing to make large changes to shape or set up.

In my third season so far in a 3421 and so far so good. Won the league season 1 with record division points total, record number of goals and player top scorer record with over 65% possession.

Season 2 lost in playoff final to Granada after both my keepers were injured in training the week prior to the semis as well as missing Villares through injury.  Top scorers in the league.

Half way through third season and I’m currently top of the league, only conceded 3 in the last 8 games and we are top scorers and top of the league for possession (61%). We have often got mid 70% with the highest at 78%.

So far the shape has only needed small tweaks to the central midfield role and support striker role depending on opponent and if home or away.

Yet to make a signing for a fee, relying on frees and loans but I’ve retrained Zalazar to a support striker who has been incredible and regularly scores a beauty.

I’m expecting a drop off soon though where some bigger changes will probably be needed as it seems to be going too well at the moment and it can often change quite quickly.

I’m also kind of joint we don’t go up this season as the squad quality is way off la liga (we were predicted to finish 14th this season in this league) and we have very little money to spend though I have invested quite heavily in back room staff. Particularly the u19s who have just had a golden generation come through (one of them a 16 year old keeper who played in the playoffs for me last season).

 

Good luck and I’ll keep popping in to see how you are getting on.

As you can see from my post just now, things haven't gone great and I have ended up using downloaded tactics for a while and now loathing that I made that decision! It's interesting that you got 3 at the back to work, kudos as I just couldn't get it to work! I'm going back to the drawing board slightly and creating my tactic from scratch again as I'm pretty sure I've ended up with a formation that doesn't really fit my instructions this season as a result of tinkering. 

[Jtomsett11]

Club developments during tactical frustration period October-Feb!

While I've been having my tactical dilemmas, the club has still continued to tick along. 

Our training facilities were upgraded, which is great. 

We've also had some significant progress for our loan players.

Vallejo is top of the progress charts and I've been really impressed with his growth in the last two seasons.

Work to do, but he looks like he could be quite a solid keeper if he continues to grow. 

We also lost one of our home-grown players in January due to a buy-out clause.

Bloody annoying to be honest as I didn't see the bid come in so could do nothing about it. We've signed a young player on loan, but he's injured for 4 months so we're down to 3 CB for the remainder of the season.

A couple of our young players have done really well this season (downloaded tactic partially responsible?).

Rubio was promoted from the U19s for this season and is doing great, while Gomez nearly went out on loan but has repaid my faith/ nobody really offered to take him on loan.

Both players have signed new deals now to reflect their performances.

 

 

[Sonic Youth]

I’d say your season is a success so far, be that DL tactics or not. You still have to play the game. It’s also your player development strategies working helping whichever tactic you use. It’s hard to sink a lot of time into FM when RL calls. I’ll keep reading for as long as you decide to document your adventures 

[Jtomsett11]

9 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

I’d say your season is a success so far, be that DL tactics or not. You still have to play the game. It’s also your player development strategies working helping whichever tactic you use. It’s hard to sink a lot of time into FM when RL calls. I’ll keep reading for as long as you decide to document your adventures 

Thanks - this is much appreciated! I've played two months now with my own tactics and while less successful, I'm enjoying it more again. We're playing nice football still, but we don't win 6-0 for no apparent reason, which was taking the joy out of it for me. 

[Jtomsett11]

End of Feb-March 2026

The Racing game onwards was me using our new tactic. We're still playing 4-2-3-1, but it's my version of the gegenpressing tactic now, and clearly it doesn't work as well! We've won 2, drawn 2 and lost 2. However, we're playing well and we've been a little unlucky and a little lacking in clinical finishing and that can explain why perhaps we didn't pick up more than 8 points from the 6 games.

Racing de Santander 1-2 Deportivo

We recovered from going behind early on to score two good goals. Although our build up play was pretty good, we did rely on scoring from a re-working of a corner for our second goal. Still, a good start.

Deportivo 1-1 Getafe

A frustrating one as we created enough chances to win, but didn't do enough to get over the line. Rubio continued his excellent season with a really well taken goal from a brilliant through ball from Zalazar. Looking at our xG, you can see that while we had lots of low quality chances, we also had some reasonable chances that we possibly should have taken.

Leganes 1-0 Deportivo

Ah, the sucker punch injury-time-own-goal! Trilli deflected a shot over Suarez and I really don't feel we deserved to lose. We may not have deserved to win either, but it's a hard one to take.

We're a little short on players after the Leganes game. That's our first choice AMC, LB and then backup AMR and AMR injured, while we're still down to 3 CBs. We're fine, but it's not ideal!

Deportivo 2-0 Badajoz

Okay, there's too many shots here being taken, but this was really positive. We created some good chances and deserved the win. Another injury followed, Val, who's been a regular fixture this year.

Las Palmas 1-0 Deportivo

We can't have loads of complaints here, but we were undone by one good counter attack (0.6xG) and other than that dominated the game. We're not creating enough clear cut chances and a lot of our shots are from corners or are blocked/ deflected. Food for thought.

Huesca 1-1 Deportivo

Another draw. We definitely should have won this game as we missed at least 3 great chances. Quiles' goal was from a very low xG shot. 

We're obviously not picking up loads of points, so we're not in contention for automatic promotion, but we are for the play-offs and we're still in there at the moment.

[Jtomsett11]

April 2026

Deportivo 3-0 Lugo

Things worked perfectly here, with three really good, well worked team moves leading to the goals. Mella and Narro have been key this season, and with the latter's minimum release clause below £1 million and interest in him mounting I decided to renew his contract.

When you consider he's scored 5 out of 12 career goals for us just this season and also consider that at one point he couldn't get in my third-division side, I think he's done brilliantly to develop and now perform on a regular basis. I love players like Narro who you could easily have sold (and I nearly did for £400k) who then go on to develop and perform way above what you expected.

Deportivo 1-1 Tenerife

Tenerife came, we battered them, and we still drew.

What I'm pleased about it the xG, you can see that while we still have quite a few shots of low value, there were numerous decent chances and at least one sitter. If we were a little more clinical we'd have won this easily.

Castilla 1-1 Deportivo

When you consider the fact that the goal was a penalty, there's 2-3 other pretty decent chances (0.25xG plus) in there again! I'm potentially looking at dropping our tempo a little so we take a bit more time over things, but plenty of positives to take in that we should be winning these games.

Our loanee striker is going to miss a few weeks.

Mirandes 1-1 Deportivo

Well, we rescued a point here. Again, Quiles missed a sitter at the start. I'm starting to think that we need a better and more clinical forward next year as Quiles is now 30. 

6 games to go, 5 points clear of Oviedo who are the next eligible team to play in the play-offs. That's the aim really.

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake April 2026

This is good. This is really good. Probably 6-7 players capable of playing for the first team on the first day of the intake.

By the end of the month, quite a few more were rated highly.

The top 4 when the intake came through are below:

A great personality and pretty solid attributes for a 15 year old. A potential star?

Not the best personality, but he is at least determined. He looks great, especially physically!

If he didn't have 5 star potential I might not be excited about Oca, but let's see how he develops and if he lives up to his perceived potential. 

Another striker, this time with mentals, but with a bit of growth his physicals wouldn't be bad either. 

What an intake!

Attribute wise, there aren't too many surprises, although Queijeiro definitely looks a better inside forward than pressing forward which I'm now using. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Jtomsett11

[Jtomsett11]

May 2026

6 games left. 

Deportivo 2-0 Barcelona Atletic

A solid start with a penalty; it was a bit of relief to get the second and avoid 4 draws in a row! 

Oviedo 2-3 Deportivo

When Zalazar passed across our goal line in the first minute, past Suarez and straight to Borja Baston, I thought we were in for another tough day. We then let them in two or three times for chances they really should have scored, but it was still 1-0 at half time.

We changed things in the second half, going more attacking but changing the roles of the wing backs to support and dropping the tempo slightly. This meant we were caught out slightly less and to be honest, we were brilliant. The late goal conceded made me nervous, but we held out for 2 wins in a row for the first time since I started using my own tactics again!

I thought we did this last season, but perhaps it was a new objective set this season?

The league has suddenly gotten interesting. Next up? We're home against Eibar.

Deportivo 3-0 Eibar

We're in the mood again. For 40 minutes I didn't think we'd make our dominance pay, but then we scored from a corner and sealed it in the second half through Narro and Quiles.

Play-offs look pretty secure now with 4 games to go, but we're now believing we could do even better. We'll have to pick up 4 points on Alaves though as our head-to-head favours them.

Leganes 1-0 Deportivo

Probably should have scored, didn't and then went too offensive and left ourselves open. I should have settled for a point in hindsight!

Still 3 points off as Alaves lost as well.

Currently our best performer this season by average rating, Panzo also had a really low release fee clause and was happy to accept the same wages to push it up to nearly £5 million. If teams want our best players, I want them to have to pay properly for them!

Deportivo 4-1 Alcorcon

Our best month by far since I resumed tactical responsiblities! Villares was in the right place at the right time for the first two goals and then we let him take the penalty for his hat-trick. 

So we head in to the final game, knowing if we better Alaves' result we go up automatically, otherwise we're in the playoffs!

We should probably both win our games...

 

[Jtomsett11]

June 2026

Castilla vs Alaves + Hercules vs Deportivo

We started the game on top, missing a couple of good chances as usual. Around 15 minutes I changed my view to be able to see the latest scores for Castilla vs Alaves.

Wow, 3 goals in 3 minutes!

Now, can we find a goal?

We're dominating, but no breakthrough yet.

Towards half time I make a couple of adjustments, deciding we're dominating, so I'll add the wing back overlaps and attacking wing backs coupled with supporting IFs that I've used a few times against teams who sit back a lot. No real clear cut chances before half time. I'm tempted to make some substitutes, but wait until the 62nd minute when Garner comes on to replace Val, who is looking tired, Zalazar comes on at AMC to replace Cirjan who isn't having the best game and Bravo replaces Quiles. 

Then, 68 minutes in, a poor ball forward by Narro is headed up in the air by a defender and Narro wins the contest and suddenly the CB is well out of position. Bravo collects the nod-down from Narro and the inside forward sprints through. A beautiful ball from Bravo sees Narro in space on the edge of the area and he bends a lovely shot around into the bottom left hand corner with his left foot. We have lift off!

We go more defensive. Hercules scare us a couple of times, but then as we enter crunch-time, Mella collects a ball over the top near the byline, cuts back and finds Garner on the corner of the area. He has a lot to do, but jinxes his way across the box diagonally and then lashes home from the six-yard box. It's 2-0!

Narro going off injured meant we spent the last few minutes with 10 men, but we held on. The question now, is did Castilla?

Alaves would have had to score 5 to stop us going above them, and they didn't!!

We're going up!

I immediately wanted to check how we'd done with our new tactic compared to the downloaded one.

Now, would we have gone up without the downloaded tactic, almost certainly not because of our terrible start. However, over a whole season my new tactic would have seen us promoted, and with that in mind I'm having this one! Our last 6 games have seen 5 wins as we've grown familiar with the approach and this has seen us finish second despite having only been second for 23 minutes of the entire season!

It's certainly not Premier League budgets, but we'll take this!

 

[Sonic Youth]

Now that’s an end to a season! 

Congrats on winning promotion  

[Jtomsett11]

On 30/04/2023 at 06:17, Sonic Youth said:

Now that’s an end to a season! 

Congrats on winning promotion  

Can't quite believe we've ended up in 2nd place to be honest! 

[Jtomsett11]

End of season summary

Well, in an unexpected turn of events, we've been promoted back to La Liga in our fourth season. Now the real challenge starts: maintaining our La Liga status and working our way back towards winning the title. 

The board want us to attempt to avoid relegation and then establish ourselves over the next 5 years as a La Liga side. 

Player performance

Goalkeepers

Suarez has done generally well this season as our defense stepped up from last season, conceding far fewer goals. His save % were much better this season as well. Klaesson has done well as a backup, but really that's all he is. We were slightly starved of penalties this year, but Suarez finished 80% of them.

Defenders

I always find it fascinating how vastly different defenders can perform with just a slight variance in average ratings.

Panzo as a CB has won possession 24 times per 90 on average, compared to just 19 and 21 for Lapena and Saenz, so he clearly reads the game very well (high interceptions as well) but then Lapena has had much more success in the tackle and makes more clearances. Is then, the difference in average rating just down to Saenz getting 6 goals and Panzo 4? 6 mistakes for goals between them is also a slight worry, but understandable when we play out from the back. 

With just 3 CBs in the senior squad, this is definitely an area we need to reinforce with at least one player, and preferably one with some height.

Our wing backs have all has pretty good seasons, although Williams underwhelms in terms of attacking output and this is probably why his average rating is much lower than the others. Trilli and Varela have produced 16 assists between them which is just superb. I do wonder if the step up to La Liga will be too much for Varela or whether I should offer him a new contract. I worry that defensively he isn't good enough. 

Midfield

Ignore Williams in this list.

If you ignore Olabe's 7 assists, a lot of which are from corners, then Villares and Garner stand out as the most creative, playing the most progressive passes and fulfilling the segundo volante role very well. Val has also been one of my favourite players this season, he wins his tackles and does an all-round decent job. Olabe doesn't want to renew his contract and Camilo has been a bit-part player for the last two seasons so again we're one short at DMC.

Attacking mid

Narro and Mella have been superb at AML and AMR. Narro has 20 goal contributions from 39 appearances, of which only 29 were starts: phenomenal! Behind them Zalazar and Gomez have posted good returns, 10 and 12 contributions respectively. However, behind is statistics Gomez failed to impress once I was using my own tactics and I feel the step up would just be too much next year. Zalazar's future largely depends on who we can attract. He's a useful option to have though. Mella won't be coming back on loan, leaving us probably two AMLs and possibly an AMR down!

At AMC, Cirjan should arguably have contributed more goals and assists, but 12 contributions for his debut season is pretty good. Rubio created 0.44 chances per 90 but got no assists, suggesting he's been a little unlucky we weren't more clinical than we were. He hasn't done as well as Cirjan, but for his first season for us I think he's done well. The beauty of Rubio is he's right footed and we currently have no right footed AML I trust for next season, so there's a chance he could play understudy there if we can't find 2 AMLs. 

Forwards

I don't think Quiles or Bravo covered themselves in glory this year. 26 goals between them is fine, but neither set the world on fire and I'm not sure either is suited to a pressing forward role. Santamaria is on his way out if anyone will pay his wages!

We could be strikerless going into the transfer market!

[Jtomsett11]

Attribute growth and squad plans

GKs

Suarez has probably hit his peak, so it's now a game of when, not if, I risk Vallejo or another young keeper in some first team action to speed up growth. I may look to loan Vallejo and Angueira once more to allow them to develop a little bit further before featuring in La Liga.

I may look to bring in a better young player to play back up if I do that so I can get rid of Klaesson, who hasn't done anything wrong but we've been promoted now and he was only back up at La Liga 2 level.

CBs

Saenz, Panzo and Lapena I'm happy with. If we picked up another RB we could easily move Trilli or Hoever over to CB, although they only have 13 for jumping. My main concern here is the lack of depth in the youth academy. Cousillas (below) isn't really up the standard in my opinion. We perhaps need to stock this area via the transfer market as we seem to be constantly trying to buy CBs.

WBs

Varela remains the best wing back despite a slight decline this season. Funny that Trilli does really well despite being average attribute wise. Huarte has quite a lot of potential, but it's Colley I like the look of as a young prospect.

So what's the plan with this area of the squad? I'm going to explore bringing in a LB as I'm not sure if Varela will cope with La Liga and I'll keep a close eye on the younger players for loans/ development in the U19s.

Seg V

My plan here is to keep the top 3 and promote Padilla for next season. Is this a risk? Absolutely, but it's also the best way to develop players.

 Jimenez has been negatively affected by my move from a RPM to Seg V and so I have a new plan for him. 

Inside forwards

Bravo and Mella are leaving, as are Ares and Delgado so this area will thin out slightly. Lots of prospects here, but it's whether I can fit another into the first team squad. I definitely need another AML with a right foot as we currently have 0 (maybe Rubio if we shift him from AMC). 

Attacking mid

Yusuf has improved while on loan, but the question is, can he keep improving with his personality? He's got great mentals other than determination and work rate. Very frustrating as you can see from his value that he must have decent potential!

We have a number of options here, but I may look to bring in a better player as it's a key position and I'm not sure my youth were ready for La Liga 2, let alone La Liga.

Jimenez will be retrained in this position I think as it may suit him better than being retrained as a DM. 

Pressing forward

Our most concerning area to be honest. Quiles may be sold if I can get some money for him as his mentals do not suit a pressing forward role at La Liga level and he's 31 now. That would leave us with 0 strikers though!

Players to be promoted to first team squad

DM Padilla

GK Vallejo (potentially)

Transfer plans

GK young backup (potentially)

LB 

CB

AML inside forward x1 or x2

AMC (if good target available)

ST (potentially 2 if Quiles sold)

[Sonic Youth]

A thorough run down, which looks like it leaves you with a bit of squad development ahead 

Happy hunting 

[SweetFA]

On 27/04/2023 at 20:31, Jtomsett11 said:

As you can see from my post just now, things haven't gone great and I have ended up using downloaded tactics for a while and now loathing that I made that decision! It's interesting that you got 3 at the back to work, kudos as I just couldn't get it to work! I'm going back to the drawing board slightly and creating my tactic from scratch again as I'm pretty sure I've ended up with a formation that doesn't really fit my instructions this season as a result of tinkering. 

Just catching up with this again.  I started to tread water in the top flight and ended up having to tinker a lot to keep results.  So much so it felt like it was just tinkering for tinkering sake to cling on.  That coupled with work and limited time I lost a bit interest and once I knock myself out of the habit I always end up starting a new save.

On with Wrexham now, again with a back three and have back to back promotions and currently top 6 in league one despite projected being to avoid relegation and I’ve not changed anything at all in 2.5 seasons in this new tactic so might test it for other sides as I’m not sure if Wrexham are just ridiculously overpowered.

For some reason I really struggle with a back 4 (especially 442)and can never get consistent results but with back 3s I do well. I did come up with a version of Guardiolas  235 that got Haaland scoring over 90 goals

[Jtomsett11]

On 07/05/2023 at 23:01, SweetFA said:

Just catching up with this again.  I started to tread water in the top flight and ended up having to tinker a lot to keep results.  So much so it felt like it was just tinkering for tinkering sake to cling on.  That coupled with work and limited time I lost a bit interest and once I knock myself out of the habit I always end up starting a new save.

On with Wrexham now, again with a back three and have back to back promotions and currently top 6 in league one despite projected being to avoid relegation and I’ve not changed anything at all in 2.5 seasons in this new tactic so might test it for other sides as I’m not sure if Wrexham are just ridiculously overpowered.

For some reason I really struggle with a back 4 (especially 442)and can never get consistent results but with back 3s I do well. I did come up with a version of Guardiolas  235 that got Haaland scoring over 90 goals

Ahhh, you see once I've got the bug for a club I rarely leave and sometimes last 2 versions of FM on the same club. I've managed one decent journeyman save, but am usually a 1 save per FM person. I can see this Deportivo save lasting a while now!

On 05/05/2023 at 09:31, Sonic Youth said:

A thorough run down, which looks like it leaves you with a bit of squad development ahead 

Happy hunting 

The hunting has been difficult, but I think I'm happy now!

[Jtomsett11]

Transfers ahead of 2026/27 season

Obviously some of the incomings and outgoings are from last season (it really annoys me that the season cut-off is when it is!)

We've bought in McAtee, Yaakobishvili, Nicolaisen, Cheddira, Capone, Mara, Ludewig and Gonzalez and we have said permanent goodbyes to Trilli, Camilo, Quiles, Klaesson and we also released Olabe. 

Wow, that's quite a lot isn't it!

This gives you an idea of where those players fit in.

GK

Yaakobishvili comes in on a free from Barcelona as I wanted someone who could potentially replace Suarez sooner rather than later as he's probably only La Liga 2 standard. He played really well for Barcelona's second team last season so is an exciting signing. Klaesson leaves as we don't need three keepers when we have young ones in the wings.

Defenders

Trilli decided he wanted out when a bid came in from Sevilla, and I decided I didn't want an unhappy player around. Ludewig comes in to replace him and was the main target due to his price. He's not played loads and loads of football (42 games in 6 years at Red Bull), so it's risk, but for the price he looks good.

Nicolaisen is a definite upgrade on Barcia who left in January. I'd potentially like another CB but I don't want to risk completely ruining tactical familiarity and team cohesion.

Midfield

Late on in the window I realised that we were very vulnerable to injury and wanted to bring in someone else to reinforce the midfield. Gonzalez is actually our most expensive signing but I think he'll offer good stability in the middle; he's strong and an all-rounder and I think that's what we need more of. 

Attacking midfield

McAtee is an exciting free transfer, I'm hoping he has a similar impact to Garner. He'll be our first choice AMR.

Capone is one I signed based off excellent stats at Brescia last year, 7 goals and 7 assists and excellent key passes and dribble stats mean I'm confident he'll make an impact at AML, a position we were left with nobody in!

Strikers

Two new strikers as we ditch Quiles who wasn't suited to the role of pressing forward. Not a popular move at all with players or fans, but he's 31 and you've got to make tough decisions as a manager! We bring in two players to replace him, Cheddira who was crap at Levante last year, but he suits the role perfectly, and Mara who comes in on loan as a high potential young player.

The new signings are all improvements on people they replaced attribute wise. 

[Jtomsett11]

Pre-season July and August 2026

I've edited my pre-season training, but kept the pattern from last season of the cups. I've played some decent teams and beaten them, so let's see how this goes in the league.

Club developments

Some other developments after my persuasive arguments!

The money we've brought into the club through TV revenue has meant we've been able to do this and strengthen the squad nicely, although to be fair we've spent less money than we received!

At the start of August, finances looked like this:

One massive plus for us is our match day revenue. I'm amazed that as a promoted club, our revenue was so much higher than other sides in La Liga. Our excellent fanbase gives us a good chance of survival.

The media are slightly less favourable about our chances this season.

The fans are optimistic though!

We have three fixtures in August which are pretty favourable. This will be a good insight into our chances of survival. If we get 4+ points, excellent. Less than 3 and we're probably not looking great.

[Sonic Youth]

Looks like all that’s left to do with the pre-season is to start the season 

Where is Real Madrid? I’m missing them in your league table above 

[Jtomsett11]

17 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Looks like all that’s left to do with the pre-season is to start the season 

Where is Real Madrid? I’m missing them in your league table above 

Woops cut them off the top 🤣

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Woops cut them off the top 🤣

Oh my, I see my headache was affecting my reasoning 

Of course they are in the top spot, seeings as they are the holders.

[Jtomsett11]

August 2026

Probably a good enough start to give us hope that we'll have a good chance of surviving the top flight.

Deportivo 4-3 Elche

Wow, what a start!

You can see from the xG story that we had a good chance before the penalty that sent us into the lead, and we were playing really good football. However, we were then sucker-punched three times in quick succession. Everything Elche did for 10 minutes lead to a goal. I had faith and didn't need to change much and we got a goal back through Capone slotting in at the back post just after half time. Our full backs then did brilliantly to create two more chances in slick moves that saw us take the lead. We then managed to hold off a late rally from Elche to claim the three points.

Osasuna 0-0 Deportivo

There wasn't much in this game to be honest, although Mara had one really good chance late on. A point on the road is good though! The real bonus was Yusuf who played really well, with 4 key passes including the through ball for Mara which he should have buried. He's the low determination, unambitious attacking midfielder who is rated really highly so it's good to see a strong performance on his La Liga debut. Yakoobishvili also did really well on his debut in goal.

Deportivo 1-2 Tenerife

Our first really disappointing game. We conceded early from a poor Suarez parry which Gonzalez knocked in from essentially an open goal; (how long he remains number one is to be seen) and never really recovered. Another set piece goal meant we were always struggling despite Panzo getting one back late on. 

Still, not a bad start, especially when you consider our wages.

We're way down on even the teams with reasonable budgets in the league.

Early days obviously, but 4 points from 3 games keeps us above the required ratio for survival.

[Sonic Youth]

On 14/05/2023 at 07:29, Jtomsett11 said:

Early days obviously, but 4 points from 3 games keeps us above the required ratio for survival.

Keep that up and if my calculations are correct, you’ll finish around the 50 points mark. Not sure how that translates into positions though.

[Jtomsett11]

September 2026

I'm really happy with this month. Things took a little while to click but we finished off with our best result yet in the league.

Deportivo 2-3 Real Sociedad

This was a really good and really even game for the most part, but after going ahead we let them back in with two good goals and then despite Mara's second and looking good at the start of the second half, we allowed Real Sociedad to score a direct free kick to take the lead again. Mara was fouled in the last minute, but then smashed his penalty wide of the post to throw away a chance at a hat-trick and a point.

Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Deportivo

Capone scored from a superb through ball from Val and we then missed two huge chances with Mara missing an open goal and a decent one on one chance. The red card for Saenz then came back to bite as we conceded from a free kick to a header from the player he would have been marking. Undeserved equaliser for Rayo Vallecano, and we take just the 1 point from the first two games of the month.

Espanyol 1-2 Deportivo

Well, if we deserved the last game, we didn't this one! Mara scored a wonderful chip and then Hoever drilled in from 20 yards, both goals coming from 0.15xG in total! We defended really well though and I was relieved when the final whistle blew as we kept up the point tally momentum. 

Deportivo 3-1 Sevilla

A scalp! This was an excellent performance; we looked shell-shocked in the opening 25 minutes and I thought Sevilla would run away with it, but the team talk worked at half time and we came out a different side. Mara equalised and then we caught them cold on the counter twice in stoppage time, with McAtee getting his first goals for the club. 

Early days, but we're picking up points at an excellent rate and look like we can score a lot of goals as teams play a high line against us.

Our success on the counter is highlighted by the data analysis. We don't play many crosses, but they tend to be when we counter quickly and our inside forwards get in great positions to cross for each other to score.

October

October brings some winnable games and a mouth-watering fixture against Atletico!

[Jtomsett11]

On 19/05/2023 at 09:52, Sonic Youth said:

Keep that up and if my calculations are correct, you’ll finish around the 50 points mark. Not sure how that translates into positions though.

We're now above this following September!

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, Jtomsett11 said:

We're now above this following September!

With an excellent result against Sevilla too 

[Jtomsett11]

October 2026

We started the month with a couple of annoying injuries, first to keeper Yaakobishvili which was disappointing as he'd been key in our last two victories, plus LB Varela, who, against all assessment of his ability, has shown he is competent at this level in the twilight of his career. With Williams, our other LB, coming back from injury, this puts a strain on our squad. Panzo can move across in the short-term, one of a number of players who can cover multiple positions for this eventuality. 

If the end to last month was good, then this month was an absolute triumph. 5 wins from 6 league games for a promoted side is phenomenal, and we add another scalp to our name by beating Atletico Madrid.

Villareal 1-4 Deportivo

We may have gone 1-0 down here, but we came storming back and thoroughly deserved our victory. I was particularly pleased with two youth products, Yusuf, who continues to show he can do it despite his horrible personality, and Hector Rubio who has been playing at LW as backup to Capone to accommodate Yusuf and hasn't had a great time so far. Here, he came on and provided two lovely assists, the first a great through ball and the second a wonderful cross for Cheddira.

That was Cheddira's first goal for a very long time (only a short number of those games were for me).

After this game, I took a look at our coffers and thought we could afford a couple of investments. One in me and one in the training facilities.

Deportivo 0-2 Mallorca

Our most disappointing game of the month and perhaps the one I'd been banking on winning! Neither side produced too many shots on target, but the difference was we missed out chances and gave away a penalty and they scored theirs! One issue here is that I played some of our backup team, Narro, Rubio, Cheddira and unlike against Villarreal they proved not quite up to the task. 

After the game I was offered a new deal and accepted!

Real Valladolid 1-2 Deportivo

Yusuf! The young man strikes again, with two really well taken goals to see us come from behind again to win. I really enjoy it when a youth player is given the time to play and rewards you, and Yusuf is doing exactly that right now. If we can see some personality development from him perhaps he'll develop towards his 5* potential.

Deportivo 4-1 Atletico Madrid

A simply sublime performance. For about 20 minutes I thought we were cooked to be honest, as they dominated possession and went 1-0 up. However, once Cheddira scored we started to play and Val played a superb ball over the top for Cirjan to finish to help us into the lead. Then, similar to the Sevilla game, it was a case of hitting them on the counter attack late on. I have to say, Suarez has played superbly since Yaakobishvili got injured, keeping our goals against much lower than our xGa.

There's now way we finish in the European positions, but after 11 games 20 points sees us halfway to a total that should keep us up. 

This is a reminder that La Liga is not the Premier League, where you absolutely rake it in. Without the investment in the facilities we're still losing £500k per month, and okay as long as we stay in the division we'll get another £20 million up front for TV rights next year, but we are still going to have to manage finances carefully.

November

It's a really tough month ahead. We'll probably be trounced by Madrid so we just want to bounce back and keep increasing our points tally. 3 or 4 points here would be excellent I feel.

[Jtomsett11]

November 2026

We're having to play friendlies during the international periods as only 4 or 5 of our players actually play for their national sides!

Well it was a tough month, but we got 3 points from 3 games so that's decent enough.

Real Madrid 4-1 Deportivo

Honestly, the gulf in class was apparent very, very quickly.

Garner smashed in a 25 yarder to get us excited, and the Madrid showed us what real football is. They were just delightful to watch. If I hadn't gone quite defensive after 30 minutes I think it would have been a lot more. Still, we're nowhere, nowhere near their level so we just move on!

Deportivo 2-0 Getafe

Did I say I love a youth team player?! Padilla came on after 65 minutes and then popped up with two goals to seal the victory. McAtee, our other sub, is in line for a new contract as he's worth more than his minimum fee release clause of £5 million and showed that again with two lovely passes across a packed box to find the late-arriver Padilla. 

Even better than the win... beating a former player.

Deportivo 2-4 Athletic Club

A very odd game, as anyone called Williams found a way to score against us, while we contrived to miss a number of really good chances. 

It's hard to see due to the colours, but essentially the 4-1 scorelines at halftime was not a fair reflection on the number of really good chances we'd had. We then went on to have a good second half where we dominated, so although we've lost 4-2 I'm not too upset. Mara hasn't been as consistent recently so it's good to get him scoring again.

We're still 6th at the moment. More importantly we're 11 points clear of the relegation zone.

I'm not looking forward to Barcelona away if I'm honest. Another 3 points would be good, 4 or higher and I'll be delighted.

[Jtomsett11]

December 2026

A superb December all round. 

Barcelona 1-0 Deportivo

Bearing in mind I played almost an entire second-string, including Villares who was unfit, I was really pleased as we more than held our own against Barcelona. In fact, if it wasn't for Yaakobishvili's second error-leading-to-a-goal, we'd have possibly held them to a draw. As it was he was caught in no-man's land from a free-kick giving Kounde the easiest header over him. It's been an interesting season for my keepers; both have had moments where I've been really unhappy the other isn't playing, but Yaakobishvili hasn't recovered from his injury it would seem and is in poor form now.

Cadiz 0-1 Deportivo

A super satisfying victory in which we kept Cadiz largely at bay and scored a lovely goal, with Williams picking up just a second assist of his time here with a brilliant driving run and cross for Cheddira. It's the sort of play I signed the athletic full-back/ winger for but we just haven't seen enough of that sort of thing. Sadly Cheddira got himself ruled out for the rest of the year at the end of the game. I feel he's just started to turn his form around and has 3 goals in his last 5 appearances now.

Deportivo 3-0 Real Betis

Betis started the day one place behind us in the table, so this was a real statement.

Mara scored from a great through ball from the increasingly-impressive Yusuf and then we scored two excellent long range strikes, the first from a free-kick as Varela scored from 25 yards and then, more impressively, Val curled in a beauty with his right foot after impressive work from Garner. Gonzalez and Padilla started the game in the midfield and also impressed, so I feel our 4 plus Villares as backup is working well. Yet again, Suarez was positive in goal, keeping the goals out. 

Terrassa 0-2 Deportivo

Progress in the cup is assured. Zalazar started his first game of the season up front as Cheddira was injured and he's the reason this only finished 0-2 as he missed quite a few chances. Excellent performances again from the youth academy players and a first goal for Gonzalez. His joy was short lived though.

At least his injury is over the winter break!

We're in a scarcely believable 5th place at the end of the first part of the season. The aim now is just to finish as high as possible as surely we'll collect the 11 points we will need to usually guarantee survival. 

 

[Jtomsett11]

Mid-season 2026-27 player analysis

Goalkeepers

They've split the minutes this season, but it's definitely been a tale of two halves (of the first half) as Yaakobishvili looked better earlier on in the year and Suarez has made up for a poor start with some much better recent performances, noted by his much better pts/gm. Both appear to be conceding more than they should, but Suarez is overall performing better in all metrics. We have some top-notch talent coming through in terms of keepers, so this is an interesting battle for the number 1 spot.

Centre backs

When I compare them to each other, it's hard to really draw conclusions as while Lapena might be the best at tackling, he intercepts the least, blocks the most and clears the most but then has the lowest average rating by quite a margin. In terms of league averages...

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the 4 of them, although there's very limited room for growth here.

Full/ wing backs

5 assists and 3 goals from full backs is good going in our first season in the top flight. Ludewig has the most minutes as Hoever spent time out injured, but it's the latter who has impressed the most according to average rating. While Varela appears to be created the most, if you look at his open play key passes, it's clear his contributions mainly come from set plays. Interestingly, Hoever has contributed 2 assists despite making the second-fewest open play key passes and the least progressive passes, so perhaps the others are just unlucky that the chances they create aren't being finished. 

Defensively, Hoever's height helps him significantly and probably boosts his average rating (that and he's mainly appeared in victories), but he also is consistent across the other measures. I'm again pretty happy, although against better opposition it is noticeable that Varela struggles. LB is an area we're looking to develop ahead of next year, but again we do have youth prospects who may be able to make the step up.

DM's

Probably the area that I've been most impressed by as I've never had much success with midfield contributions, yet here we have 7 assists and 6 goals from this department. Villares was dropped because he looked dodgy coming on as a sub and often lost the ball, and when you look at him he's the second worst for pressing, worst for tackling success, interceptions and only moderate for clearances and blocks. He has created two assists, but expected assists are higher from all others players. 

Val has had a brilliant season so far, with 1 brilliant goal and 3 beautiful lofted-through ball assists to his name from just under 700 minutes of football. However, it's youth player Padilla I'm most pleased about. Yes, he's contributed two goals to win us a game, but it's his underlying stats that please me the most. 3rd best presser, 3rd best tackler, best interceptor, best clearer and the best with progressive passes. He's not in the team on potential alone anymore and his holding his own. 

Garner has made the step-up well and after an initial shaky start, Gonzalez is looking solid. 

Attacking mid and wingers

McAtee is probably the star of the show, with 10 goal contributions so far, but solid contributions can also be found from Cirjan and Capone. Yusuf is the only other player with 5 or more contributions, with 4 goals and assists in his breakthrough season. His defensive contributions leave a little to be desired (presses are very low) but he's contributing progressive passes and is getting in to the right place at the right time to finish chances. He's actually top for minutes which shows he has my trust despite Cirjan's very positive average rating and return. 

Realistically, I'm not sure Rubio is going to make it although perhaps I don't give him enough credit with the highest chances created per game and the only player above 2 assists bar McAtee. Narro is definitely short of the quality required so far and Zalazar will leave whenever someone comes in for him.

Strikers

Cheddira has slightly underperformed his xG but has improved recently, while Mara is dead-on his xG. Both summer signings have done well. Mara is on a contract with Southampton until 2027 so there's an opportunity here if we deem him good enough for the next stage of our development and if he wants to join us. No assists from either player yet.

Pre-transfer window developments

In light of recent performances, I've taken steps to nail down a few players.

Yusuf has Wolves interested as well as Monaco, so I took steps to up his release clause. I am very impressed that his personality isn't holding him back so far, but if we did get a big bid I'd have to consider it for someone who may not be able to develop to his full potential.

McAtee is our player of the season so far, so it made sense to increase his release clause as well despite a lack of interest.

I've also offered Padilla a new contract as some teams in the La Liga 2 are interested; his release clause will still be just £2.5 million after being limited by his agent, but hopefully that'll dissuade clubs from making bids.

[Jtomsett11]

Transfers January 2027

It's been quite a while since I've been really active in a January window, but I've been much better this season at going through my scout assignments and reports and therefore having targets for January. One thing I am aware of is that I initially set out an aim to bring in some South Americans to give a nod towards the Deportivo legends heralding from the continent, but due to my English nationality I've currently filled my non-EU players with three English players (all of whom are playing well this season) which has restricted me in this department. Therefore, I will be setting up a scouting assignment looking for South Americans with dual nationality to see if we can start getting some of that flair into the squad.

We bring in 5 players, with essentially four of those being young players scouted/ recommended by my scouts and one first team player, Basso.

Basso was out on contract in the summer, so we snapped him up for £90k and he comes in essentially as an early replacement for our weakest CB, Lapena who has started to allow some significant errors into his game during January. Basso scores 75.91 on the attribute tracker for ball playing CB and so becomes our best CB technically. He's very unfit, however, so will need to be eased in to games.

Arsenijevic is a £45k buy from lower league football in Spain and as such may be one of those rare high potential, lower league finds that pop up now and again. I had no qualms about buying him based on his excellent attributes as a 17 year old, although he wanted 'squad player' and realistically we'll just give him the odd game to bed him in. For a 17 year old he has very few 'cons' as you can see below. As you can see above, he becomes our second most valuable player immediately so this signing could potentially earn us a pay-day in the future, or perhaps he can help elevate us to that next level. He'll play as an AMC and his attributes mean he's technically our second best; if we can improve his physical a bit he'll be superb.

Next up is Tortosa, who cost £110k.

He's nowhere near Arsenijevic, but he's got good potential and at such a low cost, I was happy to buy him. 68 for his attributes isn't bad at 17. 

Ahlmann is a free transfer signing who we agreed to sign when I thought we'd be in La Liga 2 for a few more years. I'll probably keep him this year and see how he develops before sending him out on loan. He's more inside forward than pressing forward, but has work to do to get into the first team.

Salas is the most expensive signing at £130k, but his attributes look pretty reasonable for 17 years of age and we don't have much potential in our youth team at RB.

The transfer window didn't see any major outgoings, Narro turned down a £2 million move to Almeria in La Liga 2 and Kevin has agreed to join Parma at the end of his contract. A shame we didn't get any money for him, but good that he's going to continue his professional career. One minor outgoing was sanctioning the return of Zalazar to Uruguay to the place of his birth.

He was a serious player in our title winning season 2023/24 and has contributed to our promotion into La Liga, but now just isn't at the level required and didn't get a chance this season.

One final, and very important bit of transfer news is the permanent signing of striker Mara.

This is a massive deal as he turned down Udinese to join us. He's got 8 goals so far and has led the line really well. We may be able to improve on him in the future, but for now this is great signing I feel, especially on a free transfer. 

 

 

 

[Jtomsett11]

January 2027

This was a really tough month, with our only home tie being against Valencia and then 4 away games in a row, including to Celta Vigo and Elche who are right up there with us in the league. Overall, therefore, this has to be seen as a great month.

Deportivo 1-2 Valencia

We played a friendly cup over 26th and 27th December (what a mean manager!) and picked up some injuries which really didn't help us, including to Garner and Padilla leaving us with just two midfielders, while Panzo went off for the month to represent Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations. 

We still should have won this game, but an unfit Garner had to be subbed for an unfit Villares. Williams got his second assist of the season, but then Valencia came back into the game and Suarez made a poor error at the front post for their winner. 2.6xG from 13 shots shows we're creating quality chances, but didn't finish them here.

Granada 2-1 Deportivo

Cheddira missed 1.3xG on his own in this game. What this game has shown me again is that our backup ST, AML and AMR aren't really good enough, and possibly time is catching up to Varela, who scord 6.9 for his rating but looked poor in-game. Still, when you look at the xG you see we should have won and performances are what I tend to look for when assessing if things are going wrong because of personnel not quite being good enough or the tactics not quite being good enough. We're still performing. Arsenijevic made his debut here, smashed the bar twice in the opening 5 minutes then drifted out of the game. 

Celta Vigo 1-2 Deportivo

Victorious in the derby!

Mara celebrated signing a deal with us by scoring his 9th goal of the season and the winner to earn us all 3 points.  If you consider that they scored from a penalty, then this was richly deserved and our first points of 2027. Having criticised Rubio in the last game for not being good enough, he played a superb assist for Mara here and I felt bad about fining him for his poor performance (although perhaps that's why he played so well when brought on?)

Elche 5-2 Deportivo

I played Basso and Lapena at the back, the former having his debut, and it would be fair to say it didn't work. Saenz came on after 33 minutes, and that didn't really help either as he gave away the penalty. I switched things up a bit at 3-0 down, going more defensive, and Mara and Garner brought us to within a goal, but our hope was quickly extinguished. Probably our worst performance since we lost 5-3 to Athletic.

Tenerife 0-1 Deportivo

Considering it was our third away league game in a row, and that we shipped 5 goals in the previous game, I was delighted by winning 1-0 here. Garner is on a hot-streak and arrived late in the box for his 4th of the season, while Varela (who I picked accidentally as Williams starts in the games we want to win as he's in a strongest XI) missed a penalty which could have made this a lot more comfortable.

There's been an interesting shift in goal, as Suarez has made poor mistakes and conceded 5 in one game this month, while Yaakobishvili played in both wins this month.

The only downside from this game was Yusuf and Cirjan both going off from AMC with injuries. Cirjan is out for 4 weeks, which may allow new signing Arsenijevic to get some more game time in February. I also hope Mara is back for our next game.

The win over Tenerife sees us lie in 7th on 35 points from 21 games, a whopping 20 points above the relegation zone. I'm delighted that we've continued to increase our points tally in 2027 and in 7th we stand a chance of entering the Europa Conference League dependent on the cup winners. Early days obviously, and we could easily drop back down the league into mid-table with some poor results, just as we could end up fighting for 5th or 6th with some good ones. 

February sees us play  3rd and 8th away, 17th, 19th and 10th at home. I think we should be picking up a minimum of 6 points here, but 7-9 points would probably be my ambition based on the teams we play. 

[karanhsingh]

Amazing thread man , just going through it. Love the writing style. Keep up the good work 

[Jtomsett11]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Amazing thread man , just going through it. Love the writing style. Keep up the good work 

Thank you,  I appreciate it! It's been a real journey so far, I thought it would be much more straight forward getting promoted to La Liga so the fact that took 4 seasons, two tactical crisis and some soul searching has actually made it a much more enjoyable and rewarding save. La Liga seems the easiest part so far to be honest but the real challenge will be to keep up the good form and build on this over the years to challenge at the top!

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake preview

I realised I missed this and had to go to the development centre to find it. Defensive midfielders and full backs would be pretty good to be honest, but we'll wait and see! Last year's intake are looking very good so anything close to that would be good. 

The top 6 here by potential are from the 2026 intake, with the next 3 all recent purchases. Colley and Cano make it 8 players with 4.5 star potential or higher from that intake. Very good! The only other intake with two players in this group in the 2023 intake, but we also have 3 players in the first team squad from that intake. 

Real potential for quite a clutch of homegrown talent to emerge and play in La Liga, but of course it's all about their development from this point and fitting them all in to the first team squad won't be easy.

 

 

[Jtomsett11]

February 2027

9 points at home and 0 away, but the two away games were really tough. I'm a very happy manager!

Deportivo 4-0 Osasuna

I've bemoaned my lack of depth beyond the starting eleven, and then Cheddira gets a hat-trick, assisted by Rubio for two goals and Narro also scores! A phenomenal performance this was from Cheddira as he scored 3 from 0.96xG and he even missed his easiest chance! He scored one from such a ridiculous angle that I thought it had gone into the side netting at first. 

Deportivo 2-1 Rayo Vallecano

Rayo won the league when we were promoted last year, so I knew this would be a tough game. Arsenijevic scored his first goal from yet another Rubio assist, but we were pegged back immediately and to be honest a draw would have probably been fair. However, Saenz scored from a corner to seal the 3 points. It was pretty tense late on as Gonzalez went off injured after we'd used all 5 subs. A really tight game so it's always nice to win those! The only downside is a fractured arm so Gonzalez, but this is why I kept 5 midfielders in the squad as Villares can come in again to partner Padilla in our second string midfield.

Real Sociedad 4-2 Deportivo

Honestly, 4-2 is not really fair, and 6-2 would be more accurate despite the low xG for Sociedad. They showed us why they're in the top 4 with a performance that made me sub 3 of our back 4 very early on! Another Yusuf goal from another Rubio assist and a carbon copy of Saenz's goal in the last game made this less of a one-sided game than it was. To be fair, I did play the reserves knowing we'd lose!

Sevilla 2-0 Deportivo

Ah, we were so close here! The 2-0 in this case feels very unfair. We were matching Sevilla, who sat just below us before this game, for most of the first half before Saenz gave away a penalty. We pushed in the second half but couldn't score and they got another on the counter and that was that! 

Deportivo 2-0 Espanyol

This was an interesting game, as we dominated but also were the benefactors of two horrible deflections, the first a Mara shot that ricocheted off their defender and left Yusuf with an open goal, and the second with the ball looping up off a defender from a Mara shot to beat the keeper. Still, we played well defensively, with Basso particularly impressing in the air and on the ball. He's slowly winning his way into the side after a dodgy start. 

This leaves us 5th which is incredible for this point in the season. I include this view because Tenerife were smashed for 10 in the last game!

March 2027

4 games coming up, with two winnable home ties and possibly an away winnable tie before Atletico Madrid which will probably be a painful high-scoring away defeat!

The finances are looking 'secure' which is a fair summary as we're losing money monthly but are pretty much guaranteed the La Liga TV money now as we're on 44 points and won't be relegated. 

Training facilities are now 'excellent'. Every little helps!

 

[Jtomsett11]

March 2027

A month of complete contrasts as we lose two games by 3 goals but also beat third place Atletico at their gaffe. 

Deportivo 0-3 Villarreal

This was a pretty even, if uneventful first half, but ultimately we failed to turn up while Villarreal built on their first goal and caught us out with very good finishes and quality wing play. We were toothless really, but we've won so many at home that I can't get too upset that we've lost.

This is annoying, but we do have Cirjan back from injury and fully fit now, plus January signing Arsenijevic. 

Deportivo 4-0 Real Valladolid

This game changed dramatically on the red card. Up until then, we'd plugged away trying to open them up to no avail. In the 73rd minute there was a particularly dodgy play which involved two massive chances, both missed, for each side. However, 3 minutes late Ludewig went on a brilliant run, cut into the box and chipped it over the diving keeper. From then on, we destroyed them as we stretched the game. Mara is now up to 13 league goals this season, the first a superb ball over the top by Val which he only didn't get the assist for due to it being Mara's second attempt on target that got the goal. In the end, we were convincing, but I'm not sure we'd have won if Crivelli hadn't picked up two yellows in the same minute!

Mallorca 4-1 Deportivo

Oh wow, this wasn't great! We were torn apart with balls over the top, through past the central defenders, both of whom made errors for goals. We did create quite a few chances and could have gone ahead before their first goal, but Mara passed it to the keeper when through on goal. We did strike back late on with Cheddira picking up his 8th league goal of the season, not bad for a backup! However, we finished with 10 men, with both Mara and Narro having to go off late on with injuries.

We're going to be stretched against Atletico Madrid, especially as Villares is also banned for the game after picking up too many yellows!

Atletico Madrid 1-3 Deportivo

We went much more defensive and boy did it pay off! Three really good, well worked moves that must have involved a good 15-20 passes from back to front. We really kept Atletico at bay too, which is no mean feat. 

What an odd month! Huge defeats and then a surprise victory at the end. It's our first away win for a while so that's good as well as it restores my faith in our away tactics.

Costa made his debut due to our slight injury crisis and played reasonably. He's probably ready for a few games before the end of the season, although I wish he had 5 star potential. He has 26 goals and 22 assists for the U19s this year...

With that result, it's confirmed we can no longer be relegated!

I think staying up is worth the £600k in bonuses paid out to be honest!

I didn't realise we were so close to 4th, although Sociedad have two games in hand. We are in a reasonable position to fight for European football, but look at our fixture list.

There's one easy game in there really, Cadiz. Otherwise, we either play very good sides, or play teams who have beaten us, sometimes handsomely. We did just beat Atletico though, so who knows!

 

 

[Jtomsett11]

Contracts March 2027

Garner was attracting a lot of attention and his minimum fee release clause was just £7 million or so, so a new contract more than doubles that. The interest is still there from Real Sociedad, but we'll at least get decent money for him if he goes.

Elsewhere, I have some decisions to make as we start to consider next season. Quite a few players have performed admirably this season, but probably aren't of the standard to push us on. However, they also have very low release fee clauses which makes not offering them contracts a risky decision.

Take Rubio, he now has 7 assists and 1 goal, but is he good enough to be our second AML behind Capone or should we look to strengthen here? However, at £4.2 million I'm sure he should get a new contract as he's got to be worth more than this with some potential and great performances, but then we're stuck with him. Capone is probably worth more than his £7.25 million release clause while we're thinking about AMLs. 

The most difficult case for me at the moment is Williams who has interest from Bordeaux and Sociedad. He's got clear ability and if anything I'd like to make sure the LB we get in the summer (we will replace Varela who has fallen off a cliff) improves upon him rather than just replaces Varela. However, he's English so takes up one of 3 non-EU spots, so we can't really have him as a backup. So do I leave his contract where it is and accept he goes for very little, or give him a new one to increase the release fee, knowing we might get someone better in (but also we might not!). Difficult decisions! 

[Jtomsett11]

April 2027

Wow, that was a tough month! No wins, but 3 points from 5 games against either decent, or top notch opposition, means I'm not upset by the month as a whole.

Getafe 2-2 Deportivo

We probably didn't deserve the draw, but got one anyone courtesy of 17 year old Costa who grabbed his first for the club with a lovely volley at the back post after Mara challenged for the ball in the air and both he and the CB missed it. McAtee also scored a lovely goal to put us 1-0 up, but a draw is probably a fair result.

Athletic Club 3-1 Deportivo

I'm not entirely sure how we lost this, but our reserves contrived to miss chance after chance. The injury to Rubio isn't great as it limits our rotation options and he's been playing well, but does give more opportunity to Costa.

Deportivo 0-0 Real Madrid

A superb team performance all round secures us a point even after playing 60 minutes with 10 men! We even had one or two good chances, but it wasn't to be!

Deportivo 0-5 Barcelona

Yeah, we were battered here. We couldn't stop conceding free kicks and they used them very effectively. We had a few chances, but never looked like we were going to get back into the game. In games like these the quality of our back line is very obviously below par!

Real Betis 1-1 Deportivo

This game was shifted forwards for TV I think; I'm not sure that was the best decision as we played a very defensive game, coming away with a point thanks to Gonzalez's header which I think was his first in senior football. We nearly nicked it, but Costa was somehow offside when Narro scored, I watched the replay and I'm still not sure how!

I can't see us qualifying for Europe now to be honest, Villarreal can move above us and Espanyol are 2 points clear. We'll give it a good go in our three remaining games though as I'd like to finish on a high.

Three very winnable games, finishing against our rivals!

 

[Jtomsett11]

Profits and transfer spend

I think these two tables show you where a lot of clubs are in La Liga, with most teams unable to spend much more than they receive. We're definitely going to have to be very smart in the transfer market to deal with this, or qualify for the Champions League within a couple of years.

With that in mind, and the fact the Villares, our fifth choice midfielder, is moving on, I've given Val a new contract.

At just £8k a week, he's an affordable player who's shown he can compete at this level. We probably won't make any money off him, but hopefully in time can replace him in our midfield. However, with us likely not being able to spend more than we receive, he's better to tie down to a new deal than let him go on a free at the end of next year.

By the way, if you noticed Barcelona making a huge amount of money from sales, it was mainly from these two:

£320 million for those two!  Huge fees!

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake 2027

Wow, this is an intake! 6 5* players, 5 of whom have good personalities! 

Attribute wise, we've got some players technically good enough to be rotation options in the very-near future.

Here's the profiles of the 6.

It'll be interesting to see how he develops, some fantastic attributes and then a complete lack of physicality!

Physicality lacking again, but mostly positive.

I really like this guy, apart from his crossing and ridiculous jumping which could pose a problem.

Fondevila wanted a release clause of £15 million, suggesting that he's got reasonable potential at least. He leaves a lot to be desired in the mentals, but is clearly going to be quite pacy.

Edu is probably my favourite of the new intake, I think he's already quite a complete player at the age of 15. If he was left footed I'd be tempted to have him in the first team squad next year as backup at LB!

No complaints here for a 16 year old!

Honestly, this is one of my best intakes in a long time, with the caveat that a 4 gold star player for us is currently worth around £11 million and a 'good La Liga' player. However, if we can get a few to that level, and maybe 1 or 2 a bit higher, we could have a really good source of good players for the next few years.

 

[Jtomsett11]

May 2027

An excellent end to the season, but was it enough for European football?

Valencia 0-3 Deportivo

Counter-attacking football at it's finest. Suarez missed his pen, but slotted in the rebound (first time I've had that with a goalkeeper) which counted for 1.6xG (which it really shouldn't have being in the same move), so we're not as dominant as it seems, but still, this was great. Mara's goal was due to the high press which worked really well in this game.

We're up to 7th! Villarreal still have a game in hand though, which they promptly won.

Deportivo 2-0 Cadiz

We really toiled in this game, considering we had a massive 3.89xG and they barely had a touch, it took us 84 minutes to make the points safe. Cirjan with two classy finishes here.

Into the final game, we'd need to better Villarreal's result. 

Deportivo 2-1 Celta Vigo

We win the derby courtesy of a lovely finish from Mara after Garner's through ball. He also got one earlier so ends the campaign with 16 league goals, which is excellent and exactly why I decided to seal his transfer on a free for the end of the season.

3 points for us, but was it enough?

No! An 81st minute winner for Villarreal against 10 men means we finish 8th, missing out on Europe. 

62 points and 19 wins in our first season back in the top flight is nothing to be ashamed of however. Deportivo La Coruna are certainly back and on the path to redemption!

[Jtomsett11]

Season review 2026/27

Improvement all across the board except the cup. The one area we'd want to see higher is finances, as we're set for a low (£7 million) transfer budget for next year which will leave us wheeling and dealing again.

Team of the year

Capone was signing of the season, but McAtee and Mara were also key signings who contributed significantly, while RB Ludewig also did really well.

Garner has been superb since joining last year. 

Player performances

Neither goalkeeper really stands out, both performing worse than the other keepers in the league. Suarez got his first goal from open play technically, although it was a rebound. 

The rest of the players are as below:

I've decided not to break this down too much, as it takes a lot of time and I find it tedious. Therefore, I'll pick out some key performers. I've already mentioned Garner and Ludewig above, but Williams and Val deserve a mention. The former is really solid at the back at the moment, but also improved going forward, adding 3 assists to his name. Val with 4 assists and the highest open play key passes of our midfield has been really effective despite his relative lack of ability (La Liga 2 quality).

Cirjan played well across the season, with 6 goals and 3 assists, but of the forward players Rubio had the highest number of goal contributions after Mara, Capone and McAtee. That's despite just 16 starts in all appearances. Cheddira also did well with 8 league goals after a poor start; good numbers for a backup.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Attribute growth June 2027

I waited until June 30th until contracts expired as I had about 12 players leaving and doing attribute analysis on those seems slightly pointless. I've also released the entire Deportivo Fabril squad as I've been reading about B Teams and it seems that it's just random when they're promoted to playable leagues and until that point nobody is going to progress in there, and keeping players in there to 'be competitive' seems to make no difference (from what I've read). 

Goalkeepers

Yaakobishvili has made progress over the year and is now our standout keeper by his attributes, even if I didn't trust him at various points this season. Behind him, I really feel I should promote a young keeper to replace Suarez who is at his peak and below the level we need really. Vallejo has the most potential (5 stars) so is probably worth the punt, but Cano has also made really good progress despite only having 3.5 star potential. Perhaps a loan spell for him is needed. If we could bring in a better goalkeeper, we should really. 

Centre backs

The top 4 are our 4 CBs, so no surprises there, but you can see we aren't exactly flush with options here. Neither young player is likely to make it either. Panzo has at least grown by 4 points. If we can make transfers here, we will, including young options as we have nobody with decent potential.

Full backs/ wing backs

We're actually playing with full backs more often than not, but that's due to our need to be a little more defensive. Bernabei is our new LB, replacing Varela. I'm pleased our other wing backs are above 70 now, with marginal progress made by all of them this year. Behind them we have quite a lot of potential. Huarte is physically lacking, but has made the most growth in this area, with Colley stalling a little, perhaps needing a loan spell next year. We have the 27 intake who are 5 star potential, plus Salas who will go out on loan. The bottom three are nothing to shout home about, but they will stay and go out on loan to see if we can take a fee from selling them after a bit more development. 

Segunda volante

Val is now over 70, while Padilla has grown massively from his exposure to the first team. He's still not massively suited to the role, but I like what he brings to the team. Oca, Pablo and David are the three other potential stars in this role. The two former (26 intake) have made good progress in the U19s this year. 

Attacking mid

This is an easy one to score highly in, as a few of the attributes are low weighted in terms of CA. I'm a bit torn here, as Cirjan, Yusuf and Arsenijevic have shared the minutes here since January when I signed Arsenijevic due to the interest in Yusuf. He must have high potential (or reasonably high potential), but his growth hasn't been great despite game time and I'm very tempted to cash in on him now. Napoli have put a bid in of £9 million so I might see if I can get a bit more and a sell-on fee. £9 million for us would be quite a bit of money for a player I'm convinced won't make it at the top level. Tortosa was a January cheap signing and I'll be interested to see how he gets on with a loan next season.

Rubio's growth should also not go unnoticed. He's really developed as a player, despite mostly playing second fiddle at AML.

Inside forwards

A long list here! Man is the new signing as backup to McAtee who is our standout player really. Yusuf's development in this position is slightly better actually. Question is, is he going to improve by another 10 attribute points to become a really good La Liga player with his awful personality?

Lots of players will need to go out on loan here. 

Pressing forwards

Mara is now our player after signing on a free. Home grown talent wise, Alende and Torres came in with high hopes, but haven't really grown that much yet. Escabros was a minimum fee signing from the lower leagues and already looks a good bet in this role. 

[Jtomsett11]

Transfer plans July 2027

Having done my attribute analysis and already knowing some areas of the squad I want to improve, here's the shopping list.

Must-have

A new left wing/ full back. Varela was leaving on a free having declined last season.

A new AMR inside forward. Narro just wasn't up to the standard last year.

Nice-to-have

An improvement at CB, perhaps replacing Saenz who is the worst and oldest of our CBs.

A goalkeeper who can take us to the next level.

Positions to consider for the future

Another striker - is Cheddira a good enough backup? 

Segunda volante - Val did great last season and Gonzalez was solid, but they're probably not going to take us to the next level, whereas Padilla might grow to and Garner is really good.

Transfers so far (ignoring the ones from before 1/7)

Out

We've said goodbye to some of the players who I've had since the start - Villares, Narro, Lapena. Combined they bring in  £2.7million, which we cannot sniff at and covers the signing on fees of our new players. The fact that they got to La Liga level is impressive; all of them will be playing at La Liga 2 level next year (Osasuna have been relegated this year from La Liga)

In

Bernabei is extremely attacking, but he comes in at a good age and with good resell value and is Italian second-nationality so doesn't take up a non-EU slot. That's the LB sorted.

Man was by far the best player I could attract at AMR who was left footed, and as he was coming in on a free I decided to act quickly and bid to get ahead of the clubs queuing up for him. £97k, but a high wage; he'll be competing with McAtee but this means I won't end up relying on the former Man City player and will instead give him rest when he needs it. That's the AMR done.

Escarbos has dropped in potential since arriving, but has great attributes for the pressing forward role. I'll probably give him 6 months in the U19s and then send him out on loan I'd imagine. At £230k, he's a punt so if it goes wrong that's fine.

A free transfer, again located by our scouts, Oliveira has the potential and unlike Yusuf, he has reasonable determination to go with his unambitious personality. He definitely needs some work, but he's 17 so has time on his hands.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Deportivo Fabril July 2027

I've been really annoyed that since getting rid of all the staff and players, I've been having constant inbox notifications about approaches for staff, despite me being in control of all staff appointments. I kept stopping them, and then suddenly there was advert after advert.

When I read closely though, I realised that Fabril are now playing at Segunda Federacion level.

T

his must have happened at the end of season date (which I don't really remember clicking through). This is fantastic, as it means it's actually worth having the B team. Annoyingly, the squad has been filled with a bunch of random newgens. However, over this year I'll develop a plan to put my 18 year olds into this squad if they need football but can't get it at Primera Federacion level. If we can get them promoted to La Liga 2, it'll essentially be a superb way to get my young players decent experience.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Pre-season July and August 2027

Pre-season for me is all about getting in the transfers and setting up the squads, but it's nice to have decent results like this too. I feel like the squad are ready to hit the ground running.

It hasn't been all plain sailing though, as we've had some real dilemmas within the squad.

Transfers

Firstly, I made the call to let Yusuf go after this bid came in from Inter. He had turned down a move to Napoli the week before, and I reckon that this is too good a bid to turn down considering his personality.

We immediately used this money to improve our youth and training facilities.

However, following this, we've had contract demands from Cirjan, Ludewig, Capone, while McAtee has demanded to leave after a £9 million bid from Brighton. I've now offered contracts to Cirjan and Capone after they eventually dropped their demands and McAtee had his minimum fee release clause met and won't renew his contract.

As a result of this, expecting our starting AMR to leave, I brought back an old favourite...

Mella comes back after a poor loan season with Celtic last year. We've agreed a £48 million future fee, which would actually be £24 million due to our 50% next sale fee, but I doubt we'll bid that high for him. 

He's not as strong as McAtee as an inside forward, but he's not far off and he's certainly progressed significantly since our first season!

However, McAtee has thrown a spanner in the works by rejecting Middlesbrough. I can't imagine that he won't be signed, but if he isn't I'll be left with too many players at AMR!

We also improved our CBs, signing Bella-Kotchap for just £250K.

He's our best CB, and this allowed us to let Saenz leave. 

We did bring in one extra player following the U21 European Championship, with Enrique joining from the lower leagues for £250k.

He'll go out on loan this year, but could be another brilliant find! He'll probably slot in at AMC for next year, although he could easily play this year!

So we're about to start the season and we have one too many players across our forward lines.

We're expected to finish 15th, but I want top half again. I'd love to finish in the European places, but it's probably asking too much!

[Jtomsett11]

August 2027

A superb start to the season!

Sevilla 0-1 Deportivo

We won here due to a Panzo header from a Garner corner, but the overall performance was really pleasing. We kept them out almost completely, and while we didn't have lots of great chances ourselves, Mara could have easily had one from two decent half-chances. An away win is always good, but against Sevilla it's really impressive.

Deportivo 2-0 Villarreal

Another set-piece goal sees Bella-Kotchap get his first for us, with Garner's second assist in two games. I was a little concerned about not scoring from open-play, but then 16 year old substitute Pablo (who is in the second string squad due to Val's injury) played a wonderful through ball and Mara got his first of the season to make it two wins out of two.

Tenerife 2-3 Deportivo

This was the first run out for the second string, including new signing Bernabei and Man. Both delivered assists in this game as we produced a really good offensive display. Defensively, we were a bit suspect, with 20 year old Vallejo looking every bit the La Liga 2 keeper his coach report says he is. Still, we win, and I want to give time to Vallejo as he has the potential to be a decent keeper.

We won't be there long, but it's a nice start!

September

Some winnable games here, but Valencia is a tough start to the month.

[Jtomsett11]

Transfers end of August 2027

We've let Suarez go, which is a bit of a risk after Vallejo's performance in the previous game, but I feel like this will be better for our long term development even if it costs us some points this season.

The other big outgoing transfer is McAtee.

In the end, it's a loan with permanent transfer agreed. The transfer is only worth £7.95 million with 20% sell-on fee, but the loan fee is worth around £4 million in loan fee alone with the potential for £5 million if he isn't used. So, around £12 million in guaranteed fees and 20% sell-on for a player who didn't want to be here anymore. Hopefully that'll generate more than the £15 million release clause. 

Unfortunately, as it's a loan, all of my players are still annoyed that I haven't given him his promise of leaving...

[Jtomsett11]

September 2027

6 points from 4 games is pretty good, although the losses were frustrating, if understandable this month.

Valencia 2-0 Deportivo

We did really well to beat Sevilla away last month, but here against Valencia we came unstuck. There wasn't a whole lot of difference between the two sides apart from quality up front essentially. I am pleased with how Bella-Kotchap has started the season, he looks great on the ball and is really solid in defence.

Deportivo 4-1 Almeria

We played the first string again here, prioritising this ahead of the Atletico game, and it paid off, although we were certainly made to work for the victory, as 20th placed Almeria really could have had more than just 1 goal. The best goal of the game saw Mara finishing brilliantly from a beautiful through ball from Val. 

Deportivo 0-3 Atletico

A game to forget! Their xG is higher than the reality of the game, as two of their goals came from open goals from a block and a save, but they dominated and we never really stood a chance. We had two decent chances, but they have Jan Oblak in goal still so he kept them out with brilliant saves.

Celta Vigo 0-1 Deportivo

A really important derby victory over Celta Vigo. This was incredibly tight, with Cirjan scoring a good finish after the ball bobbled about in the box a bit. Really pleased to keep the clean sheet.

We end the month top after that win, but I just cannot imagine us staying there very long. We're aiming for 7th, so with that in mind we're doing brilliantly.

October

I'd take another 6 points from these 4 games, as we're capable of losing all 4 of these; they're all teams who are technically better than us.