[FM 23]Manchester Is Red - The Quest To Surpass Our Noisy Neighbours

[Swaban]

 

In something of a change of pace from my usual saves, I've decided to take over Manchester United, in the hopes of being able to restore them to their former glory & to cement their position as the best club in Manchester, over their noisy neighbours.

 

As we are all no doubt aware, the club has so far failed to reach the heights that they enjoyed under Sir Alex Ferguson who many, myself included, would call the greatest manager of all time! Since his retirement in 2013, Manchester United, have failed to win the league. In fact they have failed to win much of anything, at least by  United's high standards. 

Over the previous 10 years, United have won a Europa League, FA Cup & Carabao Cup (not including this years Carabao Cup that they have won irl this season) by comparison,  Manchester City have dominated English football, winning 5 Premier League titles (orange line in the graph below), an FA Cup & no less than 6 Carabao Cups.

City have also finished above United every year since Sir Alex's retirement

 

Over the past Decade, Manchester United have become synonymous with poorly run football clubs. Giving out huge contracts to sub-par players meaning that they then struggle to offload said players as no other club will match the wage that they're currently on. This is something that I will be looking to change ASAP in getting rid of as much of the deadwood as possible, ideally through selling them on but if not, we will allow contracts to run down (a prime candidate of this is likely to be De Gea who earns an eyewatering £375,000 per week). In addition to this, I will be looking to make smart recruitment choices when we do dip into the market, something with United have struggled with over the past decade.

We are currently spending £4,775,000 per week on wages. A figure which is far to high, particularly given some of the players that we have.

A look through the squad shows that we currently have 21 players earning above £100,000 per week, 8 of which are paid at least £200,000 per week. So there is plenty of room to reduce this spend over the next couple of years.

 

Although Premier League clubs effectively have a licence to print money, a quick look through United's debt makes for worrying reading, £750mio net debt & monthly loan repayments of £11mio mean that I will look to be careful with both the transfer spend, as well as the wages. The financial projection also makes for some grim reading. We currently have £133mio in the bank, however we are predicted to be £72mio in the red by the end of the season.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

Expectations

The board expects us to qualify for the Europa League, in reality I am aiming for Champions League qualification in the first season & will consider the season to be a failure if we dont manage it. 

They also want us to reach the latter stages of both the FA Cup & the Europa League this season. Whilst I'm keen to have a decent run in the Europa the Premier League is our main focus, meaning that I will rotate players in the cup competitions, particularly in instances where we play a top half team in the league either side of the cup fixture

The season preview has us finishing in 4th place. A result that I would be happy with this season, with a view to build upon that once we've managed to get rid of some deadwood & bring in players that will fit our system better & are on the right side of £200,000 per week in wages. The preview also has rivals City as overwhelming favourites to win the league this year, a gap which I will be looking to close ASAP.

 

The Squad

As mentioned previously, whilst there are no doubt a number of talented players in the squad, some of them are vastly overpaid in my view e.g. Jadon Sancho on a cool £350,000 per week, De Gea on £375,000 who we will almost definitely let leave at the end of the season, unless he's willing to sign a new deal at closer to £150,000. An injury prone, albeit excellent Raphael Varane on £350,000 then last but not least Harry Maguire, on £200,000, his agent may well have pulled off the heist of the century. 

I will be looking to phase out players that I consider to be overpaid, not good enough & the wrong side of 30 (where possible) over the first few seasons. I am however keen to avoid bringing in 10+ players all at once because I think its unrealistic. Whilst I have left the first transfer window on, I dont plan to buy any first team players unless a good offer comes in for a player that I then need to replace.

Tactics

I've decided to somewhat try to emulate Ten Hag's tactical approach for a couple of reasons. First of all, because It fits in with a lot of the players we currently have at the club & secondly, because I enjoy his football.

I have a good idea of my preferred starting 11. When everyone is fit, the only positions im not fully set on are Right Back, with both Dalot & Wan-Bissaka being good options competing against each bother as well as Right Wing, where I will have Sancho & Antony competing. Other than this, the remaining positions practically pick themselves when we have a full squad. We then have our second 11, who will provide rotation options

       

 

Transfer Targets

I dont intend to buy any first team players in the first window, as Im intending to at least get to January with the current squad before we make any changes so that I have time to assess the players properly & address the most glaring weaknesses first. 

My initial thoughts are that we need a goalkeeper, as I will almost definitely not renew De Gea. I'm not looking to spend £50mio on a new keeper, so will be looking for the right player that can come in either in January or at the end of the season for a fairly small fee. 

We also need another Striker. Martial is a decent Deep Lying Forward, so im torn as to whether I bring in a young player/back up for him or whether we bring in a top striker to take Martial's place. If we do the latter, then it is likely that Martial will be moved on, as £250,000 per week is far to much for a backup striker. However, we will be giving him this season to stake his claim for the starting spot in the following seasons. Weghorst is unlikely to be kept on past the end of the season.

Im keen to bring in another Centre Back, Maguire will likely be moved on within the first 2 years as he's not good enough to be a starter & £200,000 is to high a wage to be a rotation option. Varane will also likely only be here a couple of years due to a combination of him being injury prone, as well as his wage. at £350,000 it is more than I am likely to pay any player, regardless as to how good they are.

 

[Swaban]

Transfers

In

We make 1 signing in the summer window, 21 year old Mohammed Diomande comes in from FC Nordsjaelland for a fee of £4,300,000 & is loaned back to his former club for the season. At the end of the season we will make the decision as to whether we integrate him into the first team, or send him back out on loan again.

Out

The only player of note that we see leave is Anthony Elanga. If im honest, I planned on keeping him around until January, letting him develop in the U21's whilst keeping him as an option in case we pick up an injury to any of our attacking players. However, when Borussia Dortmund offered us £22,000,000 along with a 10% future profit clause I felt I couldn't turn it down.

Aside from Elanga, we saw a number of youth players leave that wont make the grade at United, whilst the fee's / wages saved are negligible. This does mean that with less players in both the U18 & U21 squads, our stronger players will get more game time & hopefully develop faster.  

 

Pre season

We had a strong pre season, where I organised a number of friendlies against weaker opposition in order for the players to build both morale & fitness. We also had some tougher friendlies against the likes of Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid (De Gea testimonial) & Barcelona to see how we compare to the top teams. So far, Im very impressed with the squad.

[karanhsingh]

This will actually be an interesting challenge, i am definitely following as a real life united fan

[Hootieleece]

Following as an interesting change of pace around here.  Manchester United is a "Fallen Giant"

 

[Swaban]

August 23 - December 23

full disclosure, I have already played through to March before deciding to post about this, so the updates for the first part of the season will be less details than they will be once we've caught up as I didnt take screenshots etc so am having to do them retrospectively. 

Whilst there's no doubt we've got a strong squad, or more specifically a strong first 11. We get off to a flying start, which has exceeded expectations so far. A 2-1 defeat away at Southampton in August had me concerned as we dominated the ball, but couldn't finish the many chances we managed to create. We managed to turn things around & remained unbeaten in the league until November, winning 11 in a row in the league!

Despite this unbelievable run, at the end of December, we find ourselves second in the league, 1 point behind Manchester City & level with Liverpool, only ahead on goal difference. This just shows how competitive the Premier League is at the moment. 17 games in and we have only dropped 8 points yet it is still not enough to sit top of the league. Should the form continue exactly has it has done for the rest of the season. We would finish on 96 points & still find ourselves behind City who would be on 98. 

[Swaban]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

This will actually be an interesting challenge, i am definitely following as a real life united fan

 

2 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Following as an interesting change of pace around here.  Manchester United is a "Fallen Giant"

 

Thanks lads, hopefully we can achieve success whist keeping the finances somewhat under control!

[Swaban]

Transfers

Having decided at the beginning of the season that David De Gea would almost definitely leave at the end of the season, I've been scouting & monitoring a number of goalkeepers since July in order to find the right level of quality : price ratio. Due to us needing to replace a number of players over the coming years, as well as being conscious of the finances I didnt want to spent £50,000,000 on a new keeper, particularly as De Gea will be leaving for free.

By the time we reached January, 28 year old Dominik Livakovic of Dinamo Zagreb was at the top of my shortlist. A release clause of £6,000,000 meant he looked an absolute bargain with my scouts grading him as a quality signing. However, when it came to the contract negotiations, he was absolutely adamant that he was to be a "Star Player" which I was unwilling to offer him. As a result, negotiations broke down & we didnt progress any further with him. 

Second on the list, was Robert Sanchez of Brighton. Who my scouts believed that we would be able to get for around £14,000,000. We managed to talk Brighton into accepting £11,500,000 plus 10% of future profit & with that, we print off De Gea's P45 & put it somewhere safe, ready to hand it over to him in the summer. This also makes it very likely that Dean Henderson will be moved on in the summer, as at £120,000 per week, he earns double that of the new man whilst in the opinion of both myself and the scouts, being no better than him. Not only do we get a good keeper for a reasonable price, but a wage of £60,000 per week for Sanchez means that we save £315,000 per week from replacing De Gea. This means that we will have effectively made back the transfer fee of £11,500,000 in a mere 36 weeks. Sanchez joins us in the summer, as I didnt want to pay for both him and De Gea for the remainder of the season. Good business all round.

We also sign 16 year old goalkeeper Woody Williamson from Ipswich for £500,000, he will also join us at the end of the season. At 16 years old, he is definitely one for the future. A look through our youth teams highlighted a lack of quality young keepers & for a fee of £500,000 if things don't work out with him, we are almost guaranteed to make a profit on him in a couple of years time.

 

Youth Intake Preview

Quite possibly my favourite day of the season and what a day it is! my HOYD is touting this years intake as a potential "golden generation" which at Manchester United means it could well be something special! Whilst we've definitely been underwhelmed by such predictions in the past, Im hoping that my HOYD's ability, along with the facilities we have at our disposal means that this is a somewhat accurate representation of what is to follow later in the year.

 

January - February 24

A busy couple of months, with 14 matches played across 3 of the 4 competitions that we currently find ourselves in. A strong league performance, where we extend our unbeaten run to 10 league games. However 4 draws in that time, means that we still find ourselves in second place, with Liverpool 3 points ahead after 25 games played. City however, have now slipped to third. They sit 4 points behind us in the table & 7 behind league leaders Liverpool. 

In February, we pick up our first piece of silverware, beating Brighton 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final! Whilst the board felt that the competition wasn't important, I was more than happy to win something & get the first trophy of the new era into the cabinet.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Swaban

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March 2024

First up, we faced Manchester City in the FA Cup & what a game it was! If we were playing pretty much anyone else, I would have likely rotated in order to rest some key players due to the congested fixture schedule of still being a part of 4 different competitions. However, with it being City, we decided to play a full strength team, with the exception of Varane, who is out for 2 weeks having picked up a knock last month. He is replaced by Maguire, who had an excellent game. We dominated the game & our finishing was impeccable, with Anthony Martial bagging 4 goals and 2 assists (please don't adjust your television set) all from an xG of 2.23! At the beginning of the season, I was unsure what to do with Martial, we need to bring in another striker next season, however he is paid to much to sit on the bench as a rotation option. So it was up to him to stake his claim to be our number 9 & he has certainly stepped up! So far this season, he has bagged 26 goals & 3 assists from 30 games in all competitions.

After a 2-1 defeat away to Napoli in the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 left us with it all to do. In the second leg, we were poor for the first half, conceding a further 2 goals, meaning we unfortunately left ourselves with to much to do, even after 2 injury time goals from McTominay & Maguire to level the score we were unable to overcome the deficit from the first leg. To make things even worse, Bruno Fernandes damaged his cruciate in the match, meaning he's not only out for the rest of the season, but will also miss the beginning of next season. he has been our highest rated player this season, with an average rating of 7.40 over 30 matches, picking up 12 goals & 7 assists. This means that I will likely move Christian Eriksen forwards into the AMC spot & have Sabitzer & Fred take on the deeper role

At the end of March, with 27 league games played, we find ourselves second in the table, behind leaders Liverpool on goal difference. We do however sit 3 points above City and have a game in hand over them

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Swaban said:

Bruno Fernandes damaged his cruciate in the match

Huge blow! Hopefully, you'll be able to keep momentum without him.

[Swaban]

Youth Intake!

An exciting youth intake, with a number of players who look like they could become top players if we manage to nurture them properly. We have also ended up with a decent mix of nationalities too, we have a couple of Welsh & Scottish players, as well as Simon Kyambadde from Uganda, Vinicius de Lima of Brazil & Riccardo De Keyer of Belgium.

Welsh DM Luke Jackson looks to be the pick of the bunch, he's good with both feet & is Fairly Professional. I have high hopes for him. Scottish Striker Robert Murray, isnt too far behind him but is Unambitious, meaning we will have to get a decent mentor to train that out of him. Simon Kyambadde, Riccardo De Keyer, Ethan Walker, Jake Hart & Michael Peacock all look promising. 

[Swaban]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

Huge blow! Hopefully, you'll be able to keep momentum without him.

Thanks mate, Im somewhat confident that Christian Eriksen can do a good enough job in Bruno's absence, I must admit though I am slightly concerned about Fred / Sabitzer filling in as the DLP. Time will tell

[Hootieleece]

Ethan Walker looks like a Good CB prospect. No too sure about the Striker though.

[karanhsingh]

Wow look at those player values on your youth! 

Good going this season 

[Swaban]

April 2024

As we move into April, I'm greeted with this news piece. Who says Football Manager is unrealistic?

April has been a tough month, with 8 games this month (7 in the league as well as the FA Cup Semi Final) the congested fixture list is starting to catch up with us as we are beginning to pick up more and more knocks as players are having to play at less than 100% fitness even with additional rest/recovery sessions added into the training plan. These past couple of month have highlighted the need for me to bring in rotational players who are of sufficient quality  if we are going to continue to compete in 4 different competitions each season.

Dropping points against Brighton & Villa meant that we were unable to capitalise on Liverpool also dropping points. As a result we find ourselves 3 points ahead of Liverpool however they have a game in hand over us & a better goal difference. With 4 games of the season left to play (5 for Liverpool) the title race really is going to go down to the wire, im addition to this, City are only 3 points behind so they are by no means out of the race. Liverpool also beat us 3-1 in the FA Cup Semi Final where they face Chelsea in the final. 

On a more positive note, with 5 games still to play Leeds have already been relegated, with a mere 18 points from 33 league games. 

[karanhsingh]

Wow you could win the league in the first season itself! Good luck for the run in

[Swaban]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Wow look at those player values on your youth! 

Good going this season 

Some of those values are insane, DM Luke Jackson already valued at upto £41,000,000 at 16 years old! 

If we weren't involved in a title race going into the final games of the season, I would be giving a few of those lads their debuts. I'm sure we will find a way to give them a game next season

[Swaban]

May 2024

Heading into the final month of the season, we sit top of the league. 3 points ahead of Liverpool who do have a game in hand and a better goal difference. Whilst Liverpool will almost definitely win the league should they win they 5 remaining games, It's up to us to ensure that we do the same to either capitalise on any slip up they have or to overcome the +2 goal difference at which point we could still win the league even if they do win all of their games. 

First up, we played Chelsea & 2 goals for Anthony Martial, who has been unreal all season wasn't enough. a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge is a huge blow to our title chances. 

Southampton are up next & we respond exactly as I'd hoped for. Thrashing them 4-0 with even Weghorst chipping in with a goal.

The penultimate game of the season see's us travelling across town to the Etihad, where we play rivals & villains of this save, Manchester City. They turn us over 3-1, in what is the final nail in our league title hopes for this season. A look at the stats has me absolute furious, not only should we have won based on the numbers, but outgoing David De Gea finishes the match with a 5.9 rating, 2 of the 3 goals should have been saved. His performance was inexcusable, he will not play for the club again.

 

With our final game of the season, at home to 20th place Nottingham Forest we find ourselves 3rd in the table. 2 points behind league leaders Manchester City & level on points but behind on goals difference with Liverpool. With City playing 14th place Leicester & Liverpool up against 18th place Bournemouth, we need to win our game, and for both City & Liverpool to not win. 

We beat Forest 2-0, still too angry to look at De Gea we give a debut to Jack Butland in goal, who manages a 7.30 rating. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough with both City & Liverpool winning their final game of the season meaning that we finish 3rd in the table. If i'd have been offered 3rd place at the beginning of the season, I'd have likely taken it. However the way it happened, I cant help but feel disappointed, particularly as this now makes 10 seasons in a row that we have failed to finish above City in the league. 

There will be somewhat of a rebuild in the summer, a number of players will be moved on, however I'm expecting the starting 11 to largely remain the same next year barring any big offers for players or some good value in the transfer market. However we are starting to see a couple of ageing players in the line up who we will need to start thinking about replacing over the next year or two e.g. 30 year old, injury prone Varane, 31 year old Casemiro & 31 year old Eriksen

 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Wow you could win the league in the first season itself! Good luck for the run in

We gave it a good go, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. We go again next season

[karanhsingh]

Tough luck, and typical DDG isn't it 

Nevertheless, a great first season. 88 points is a fantastic return. 

[rich ruzzian]

You came close. Next season with some good transfers the title could be yours 

[Swaban]

 

1 hour ago, karanhsingh said:

Tough luck, and typical DDG isn't it 

Nevertheless, a great first season. 88 points is a fantastic return. 

I know mate, thankfully he will be leaving the club shortly!

59 minutes ago, rich ruzzian said:

You came close. Next season with some good transfers the title could be yours 

We are looking to strengthen the squad in the summer if we can find good value in the market. I am however very aware that the other top teams in the league will also be strengthening too

Edited May 25, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

End of Season 1

Competition Results

We finished third in the league, behind both City & Liverpool. We did manage to win our first piece of silverware in the form of the Carabao Cup

The FA Cup was won by Liverpool, who knocked us out in the Semi Final. They beat Chelsea in the final & Graham Potter was sack immediately after the game. 

Napoli went on to win the Europa League, having knocked us out in the round of 16

Real Madrid beat Liverpool in the Champions League Final to win it back to back making it 5 times in the last 8 years & setting themselves up for the threepeat as they did between 2016-2018

 

Team of the Year

Team of the year is dominated by league champions Manchester City who make up 5 of the 11 players. Luke Shaw & Anthony Martial make the team, however Marcus Rashford is unlucky to miss out to Southampton's Mislav Orsic despite having more goals (8 vs 6) assists (9 vs 6) and a higher average rating (7.21 vs 6.84)

Individual Stats

Anthony Martial, who has had a wonderful season, finished as the 3rd highest goal scorer in the league, 4 goals behind joint winners Haaland  & Salah having players 4 games less than Salah & 2 less than Haaland 

Jadon Sancho finished as joint second in the Assists table, level with De Bruyne & 3 behind Allan Saint-Maximin despite only playing 22 league games as he was rotated regularly with Antony on the right wing.

De Gea finished second in the golden glove, behind Alisson. He would have almost definitely levelled Alisson's tally if I had played him in the final game of the season against Forest however after his performance against City, which all but handed them the league title I felt that he didnt deserve to play for the club again.

Casemiro finished with an impressive 15 yellow cards & 1 red this season, from a total of 25 league games. 

 

Team stats

We finished as the second highest goal scorers in the league, 3 behind Liverpool & 1 ahead of City. 

We had the most shots in the league at 805. The fans want to see attacking football & it looks as though they're getting their moneys worth 

We are third for shots against, Its nice to see that we are able to be somewhat defensively solid whilst still playing expansive attacking football

Continuing with the theme of being defensively solid, we find ourselves joint first for clean sheets (22) & in second place for fewest conceded (23) with Liverpool ahead of us

 

[TelcontarTargaryen]

As a United fan I must follow this.

[Swaban]

Transfers

Out

We expected a number of players to leave at the end of the first season, as we start our rebuild . The big news is that Anthony Martial leaves us, I always knew that we'd need to buy a new striker with Weghorst going back to Burnley after his loan expired. I was unsure what to do with Martial, as at £250,000 per week he is paid far to much to be a rotation option, which left us with 2 choice: keep Martial as our first choice striker & bring in a budget friendly option to compete with him, or sell Martial & buy 2 strikers. With 1 year left on his contract & him being unwilling to take a pay cut to sign a new contract, likely due to the excellent season he has had I was leaning towards trying to move him on this summer so that we could get a transfer fee out of him. When Bayern Munich  came in with a bid of £40,000,000 I snapped their hand off. We are now in the market for 2 strikers.

Donny Van De Beek also leaves us, he was a player I was keen to let go as he didn't really have a place in the squad. Even when Bruno Fernandes got injured, we opted to move Eriksen forward into the AMC spot, with Sabitzer & Fred competing for the deeper midfield role. Somewhat surprisingly, Barcelona we're interested in him & came in with an offer of £22,500,000 which we managed to negotiate up to £28,500,000

David De Gea was let go on a free, we opted to not extend his contract. We did try offering a contract on reduced terms prior to signing Robert Sanchez but he still wanted over £200,000 per week. He has since joined Osasuna, where he earns £53,000 per week. Prior to his awful display against City I would have happily hung on to him for that kind of money. However no I just wanted to see the back of him.

Dean Henderson was the only one of the four keepers we let leave at the end of the season that we managed to get a fee for (the other keepers to leave were De Gea, Heaton & Butland) . He isn't as good as new signing Robert Sanchez and I'm not willing to to pay a backup keeper £120,000 per week. He moves to Fenerbache for a fee of £9,000,000

Eric Bailly's loan to Marseille was made permanent for a fee of £8,500,000. Given we were paying him £100,000 per week I would have been happy with any kind of fee for him.

Hannibal moves to PSV for £9,000,000. He's a good young player, but I just dont see a way into the first team for him. As a result, we decided to cash in rather than cling on to him and stifle his development

Alex Telles moves on to OGC Nice for a fee of £2,000,000. Much like Bailly I'm just happy to get him off the wage bill. If he stayed at the club, he'd be third choice Right Back on a wage of £100,000 per week

In addition to these, we also see a number of young players (plus Phil Jones) leave either for small fee's plus a percentage of future profit or on a free having not extended their contracts

 

Incoming Transfers to follow!

 

[Swaban]

47 minutes ago, TelcontarTargaryen said:

As a United fan I must follow this.

Welcome along mate, hopefully next season we can build upon what we achieved in the first season.

[warlock]

6 hours ago, Swaban said:

we start our rebuild

A good start! About £90m in fees, plus must be close to another million a week in wages saved. I guess that gives you some nice wriggle room for incoming players.

[Swaban]

Transfers 

Out

I realise that I missed an outgoing player off of the previous post, Brandon Williams joins Hoffenheim for a fee of £10,000,000 which I was more than happy with given we were paying him £50,000 per week to be our third choice left/right back. He played 3 games all season.

 

In

With Anthony Martial leaving & Weghorst returning to Burnley at the end of his loan, we are in the market for 2 strikers. Having sold a number of players for a combined value of £98,000,000 we have a healthy budget to spend in order to improve the squad. I decided to spend the majority of the budget on Harry Kane. When putting together my shortlist for a striker, if money was no object & I could sign any player in the world to be my number 9 it was Harry Kane. Undoubtably an expensive transfer for a 29 year old however I feel that he is the player to help us take the next step. At £300,000 per week, his wage is 20% higher than that of outgoing Anthony Martial 

Having spent so much money on Harry Kane I was looking for a relatively cheap option in terms of both transfer fee & wages for our second striker. I really liked the look of Wolfsburg's Jonas Wind however, he was demanding to be a regular starter & I wasn't willing to offer him anything more than squad player & he broke off negotiations as a result. In the end we went in for Gabriel Barbosa of Flamengo who had a release clause of £15,000,000. I wanted to pay him in the region of £50,000 per week however ended up settling on £75,000 due to his ability to play anywhere across the front line. Whilst being higher than I'd have initially like to commit to, we are still paying him £5,000 per week less than we were paying Weghorst last season. 

With Van De Beek leaving, I was undecided whether to bring in an AMC who would be a rotational option for Bruno Fernandes or to move Christian Eriksen into being that rotational option & bring in a first choice playmaker, who can function as either a DLP, RPM or RGA depending upon the game. Due to spending big on Harry Kane I decided to opt for the former & give Christian Eriksen 1 more season as our first choice playmaker. We bring in Enzo Le Fee of Lorient for a fee of £16,000,000 on a wage of £60,000 per week which is less than half of the £140,000 we were paying Van De Beek. Im very happy with this transfer on both the wage & the transfer fee. With Bruno Fernandes still recovering from his cruciate injury, Enzo Le Fee will start the early part of the season

 

Promotions

With us losing all 4 first team goal keepers in the summer, we needed a backup for Robert Sanchez. Rather than bringing somebody in, I decided to promote Matej Kovar off the back of a successful loan spell at Sparta Prague. Whilst he may not be the best keeper in the world, I very rarely use my backup keeper, opting not to have a keeper on the bench.

With Sabitzer returning to Bayern Munich in the summer, we were short a midfielder. I did look into signing him permanently, however his agent let me know that he would require a wage of £140,000-170,000 which I felt was far to much given what we are trying to achieve. As a result we decide to promote Kobbie Mainoo who we gave a couple of cup games last season & he look good.

With the departure of Brandon Williams as third choice left back / right back we promote Ethan Laird from the U21's. He looks about as good as Williams & is paid £15,000 per week, in comparison to Brandon Williams £50,000. As he will likely rarely feature, he's also been made available for the U21's

[Swaban]

Finances

The finances are looking somewhat healthier than they were this time last year, the wage budget has been reduced from £4,775,000 last year to £4,079,000 this year & this is without moving on the likes of Harry Maguire (£200,000) who I haven't been able to get rid of over the summer. Varane (£350,000) is now our highest paid player & we will likely look to move him on at the end of this season unless we can negotiate a new contract on reduced wages. The same may be said for 31 year old Christian Eriksen (£170,000) who will likely become a squad player after this season. Lindelof is already a squad player & is paid £170,000. This will likely be his last season at United. Sancho had a good season last year, however at 23 years old and on a wage of £275,000 he will likely want a wage increase when it comes to signing a new deal. Something which at present im unwilling to do, however he still has 3 years on his contract so theres plenty of time to deal with it one way or another.

We have also managed to reduce the number of players who are earning over £100,000 per week from 21 last season, to 13 this season. The number of players earning £200,000 falls from 8 last season, to 7 this season. We are moving in the right direction.

 

Our debt has been reduced from £754,000,000 to £663,000,000 thanks to our monthly loan repayments of £11,000,000. On paper, our financial projection looks worse than it did this time last year, however we started last season with £133,000,000 in the bank. Where as we currently have £10,000,000 in the bank. With the Champions League money, as well as reducing our wage spend by £700,000 per week things arent as dire as they look.

[karanhsingh]

Harry Kane Woohoo!

[Swaban]

1 hour ago, karanhsingh said:

Harry Kane Woohoo!

Hopefully we can sign him irl this summer too!

[karanhsingh]

10 minutes ago, Swaban said:

Hopefully we can sign him irl this summer too!

Levy will definitely ask for 100m plus

 

[Swaban]

Squad

I am sticking with a similar tactical approach to that which we used last season, due to the success we found with it. Going into the new season, I've identified my strongest 11, as well as my rotational options. Much like last season, there is still stiff competition down our right hand side with Dalot / Wan-Bissaka & Sancho / Antony staking their claims to the respective positions. We will be looking to get Kobbie Mainoo & Amad Diallo involved where possible too.

          

 

August 2023

We kick the season off with a 3-0 home win against Arsenal, a great performance all around & goals for new boys Enzo Le Fee, who is filling in for an injured Bruno Fernandes & Gabriel Barbosa who makes his debut off the bench. We also just about scrape past a Newcastle side that have strengthened significantly, bringing in both Toni Kroos & Milan Skriniar among others thanks to a late goal from Amad Diallo off the bench. Finally, a 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa see's us round off a perfect first month of the season, the only team to do so which see's us sit 2 points clear at the top of the table. City dropping 5 points from a possible 12 is a welcome sight!

 

Champions League Draw

We are drawn against PSG, Fenerbache (who have Dean Henderson in goal) & Rangers. Whilst PSG are undoubtably tough opponents, we should have enough to overcome both Fenerbache & Rangers to progress to the next round,

Edited May 27, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

12 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

Levy will definitely ask for 100m plus

 

Yeah, I think that the only way we can possibly sign him is if he actively tells Spurs that he has no intention of signing a new contract. That way I can see Levy wanting rid of him this summer as theres no way he will risk losing him for free. 

If Kane doesnt do that, then I see him signing a new contract with Spurs & at that point he will likely never leave, remaining there until he retires 

[paulmctevez]

Love this - will keep following for sure

Where did you get your graphics from?

[Swaban]

26 minutes ago, paulmctevez said:

Love this - will keep following for sure

Where did you get your graphics from?

Thanks mate!

player faces are: sortitoutsi cut out megapack 

regen faces are: NewGan

logos are: FMG standard logos

stadiums are: FMT Stadium Megapack

kits are: FMEnhanced Kit Pack

[Swaban]

September / October 2023

First things first, Bruno returns! After 6 months out with a damaged cruciate, Bruno Fernandes resumes full training! He will be eased back into the team due to such a long absence, as well as Enzo Le Fee performing well in his absence. 

 

A strong 2 months see's us play 12 games in all competitions. We remain undefeated in the league after 11 matches, which see's us remain on top of the table, 1 point above second place Chelsea & a huge 10 points above City who languish in 5th place. Highlights include 2 wins against City including a 90th minute Harry Maguire winner. Who says he isn't worth £200,000 per week? (me, I say that!)

I also managed to talk the board into improving our junior coaching, which is now graded as exceptional. Unfortunately I was unable to convince them to upgrade either the training or youth facilities however this may well have something to do with our bank balance being 50,000,000 in the red. bank balance being. Im hoping that a decent run in the Champions League will go some way to alleviating our financial problems.

 

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

November / December 2023

Another undefeated month in November, however we see a dip in form early December, where we lose 3 games in a row to Chelsea, PSG & Liverpool yet somehow, we remain at the top of the table! (albeit only on goal difference). We also qualify for the Champions League round of 16 in second place, behind PSG where we will play Inter Milan

 

Goal50

We have 3 players voted into the Goal50, new signing Harry Kane (12), Raphael Varane (35) & Bruno Fernandes (39)

Contracts

We were able to talk Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane & Victor Lindelof into signing new contracts on reduced wages, in order to further reduce our weekly wage cost by a total of £145,000 (Sancho - £45,000, Varane - £50,000, Lindelof - £50,000) this brings our wage budget below £4,000,000 per week for the first time!

 

Youth Intake

Despite increasing our junior coaching to "Exceptional" we have what looks like a poor preview. Hopefully things are better than this looks come March!

Edited May 27, 2023 by Swaban

[argento]

Enjoyed reading this, well done for trimming the fat.  Good luck this season

[Swaban]

2 hours ago, argento said:

Enjoyed reading this, well done for trimming the fat.  Good luck this season

Thanks mate! Hopefully we are able to build upon what we achieved last year & take the next step

[Swaban]

January 2024

Heading into the new year, we face a congested fixture schedule with no less than 8 matches this month, across the Premier League, FA Cup & Carabao cup, where we face Brentford in a bid to retain the trophy that we won last season.

A strong month in the league see's us not only unbeaten in the league, but also extend the gap at the top to 3 points over Liverpool & a huge 22 points above City who now find themselves in 7th place! Guardiola is still in post, although I dont think that will remain the case for long unless the drastically improve results.

A horrendous first leg of the Carabao cup Semi Final saw us beaten by Brentford thanks to both Scott McTominay & Harry Maguire who were filling in for Varane  & Casemiro who both suffered knocks prior to the game. McTominay got himself sent off in the first half, before Maguire decided to give a way a penalty just after half time. At 2-0 down, playing with 10 men we decided to bring on once of our best youth products of last years intake, 17 year old Jake Hart with 15 minutes to go & he bagged a goal, closing the gap to a single goal for the second leg. We were back to a full strength team for the second leg & with both Maguire & McTominay banished to the bench, we managed to overcome the deficit to secure a place in the final! where we will play Spurs

In the FA cup, we faced off against Woking, who sit 20th in the National League. As a result, we decided to play a number of our most promising youth players in order to both give them game time & rest our first team players. The youth players (shown below) had an unreal game, with every single one of them finishing the match with a rating of 7.0 or higher. A particular highlight was Michael Peacock who came off the bench after 60 minutes & bagged himself a hattrick! Our youth looks excellent & we will be trying to integrate as many of them as possible into the first team when time/fixtures allow.

Transfers

In

Generally speaking, I don't like to bring in first team players in January, preferring to wait until the summer. However, I spotted that Teun Koopmeiners was currently unhappy at Atalanta, so I decided to put a bid in, given that he was already on my shortlist to replace Christian Eriksen in the summer. After a fair bit of back and forth with Atlanta we have a £50,000,000 bid accepted. Whilst it is undoubtedly an expensive transfer, I think he is absolutely worth the money given his attributes & he is currently performing at an average rating of 7.34 in Serie A having played 18 games so far. I opted to have him join us at the end of the season, rather than immediately so that I don't have to pay both his and Eriksen's wages for the remainder of the season. Koopmeiners will join the club on a wage of £130,000 per week. £40,000 less than we are currently paying Eriksen. 

 

Out

Having still been unable to shift Harry Maguire due to his wage demands, despite offering him out to clubs, I hadn't planned on selling any first team players. However, Juventus came in with a bid of £41,000,000 for Scott McTominay which was to good to turn down for a backup option. It also helped that the bid came in 2 days after the first leg against Brentford where McTominay cost us the game by getting himself sent off for an unnecessary foul. We will make do with Fred as the backup option to Casemiro for the remainder of the season, before assessing our options in the summer. This will have the added bonus of giving Kobbie Mainoo a few more games in the second half of the season. However if we sustain a couple of lengthy injuries to midfielders we will find ourselves in trouble, but its a chance im willing to take for now.

Teden Mengi also leaves us, at 21 years old he isnt going to be good enough to be a regular part in the first team squad. When AJ Auxerre offered £3,500,000 for him along with 20% of profit we decided to accept it & allow him to make the move in order to secure first team football. 

 

Luke Shaw has decided he wants to leave, after being unsettled when I rejected a £50,000,000 bid for him from Juventus which resulted in me agreeing to sell him should a bid of £70,000,000 come in. I'm hoping that I can turn things around with him as he is a top class left back & I dont want to lose him if possible as there are very few players that I think we can replace him with, especially if we are looking to be financially responsible. 

[Swaban]

February / March 2024

Luke Shaw update: After begging him to stay, Shaw let me know that he was desperate to win the league, which may or may not have lead to me promising him that we will win it this year. This has placated him for now, but may well blow up in my face in the summer. I have began to scout left backs, just in case this does happen and we have to let him go at the end of the season. 

In our first chance at silverware this season, we manage to beat Spurs in the Carabao Cup Final to retain the trophy, having won it last year!

Another strong couple of months see's us retain top spot in the league with 7 games left to play. A Draw against Crystal Palace & a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal see's the gap reduced to 1 point by Liverpool. Unfortunately we are less successful in the remaining cup competitions, being knocked out of the Champions League, by Inter Milan despite winning the first leg 1-0. City also end our FA Cup run with a 3-1 defeat in the quarter finals. As much as its disappointing to be knocked out of both competitions, particularly within the space of 3 days, it does mean that we can focus our efforts on the league (and fulfil our promise to Luke Shaw), where as Liverpool are through to the quarter final of the Champions League

Interestingly, Alejandro Garnacho has opted to play for Spain rather than Argentina & received his first call up this month.

 

Youth Intake

Having had an unbelievable intake last year, with 6 of those players having already made their debuts for the first team, it was always going to be hard to top. The preview in January didnt fill me with much confidence & very little had changed by the time the players came through in March. Only 2 players look to have any promise about them & even then, I'm not sure either of them are as good as the top 4-5 players we had come through last year. Striker Andy Forrester is the pick of the bunch, with Congolese Wing Back Jules Mawete being the other promising player

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

NXGN 2024: The 50 best wonderkids in football

There are no less than 3 Manchester United players in the list, 2 of which are in the top 10! Kobbie Mainoo (7) & Alejandro Garnacho (10) have both featured in the first team throughout this season. Isak Hansen-AAroen (15)  remains in the U21's, having played a single game for the first team so far this season.

 

 

[Swaban]

April 2024

In what is definitely my biggest ever victory in a competitive match in any FM, we demolish Burnley 10-0 in the league, thanks to Agent Weghorst who having returned to Burnley this season after his loan expired, got himself sent off early in the match, leaving Burnley with 10 players.  Due to Isak Hansen-Aaroen being named in the NXGN 50, I decided to start him in this game to give Bruno Fernandes a rest & what a performance it was! a 10.0 rating, scoring 4 goals & assisting another 2. I took the decision to promote him to the first team squad immediately after the game. 

          

Aside from this ridiculous match, we have arguably our worst performance of the season against Middlesbrough, losing 3-1, despite them having a man sent off with 25 minutes still to play. This is particularly annoying as Liverpool were beaten 4-0 by Aston Villa earlier in the month, which we should have capitalised on. As a result, the gap remains at 1 point with only 3 games to go.

[Hootieleece]

Quite a tight Title race between you and Liverpool. Really surprised about Man City but it is good to see.

 

[Swaban]

May 2024

Going into the final month of the season, we find ourselves top of the league by a single point. We do however also have a superior goal difference over second place Liverpool, which could be vital given that last season the title race went down to the final match. 

First up, we faced Newcastle & a Harry Kane masterclass see's us beat them 5-0, with Sancho grabbing the other 2 goals

This result could prove to be massive, with Liverpool drawing 0-0 with Crystal Palace on the same day meaning that we find ourselves 3 points ahead with 2 games left to play. A win in our next game all but confirms our status as champions given our superior goal difference. Last season, 88 points was only enough for us to finish third. However, this year thanks to goal difference, we can win the league with a tally of 87 (providing Liverpool don't have a +23 goal difference in their next 2 matches).

Disaster strikes, as we are beaten 3-2 by Erik Ten Hag's Spurs. 2 goals from Bruno Fernandes wasn't enough to overcome a poor team performance. We threw away our chances of winning the title in the final few games of last season & I'm desperate to ensure that we dont do the same again here!

Thankfully, it looks as though Liverpool are are also doing everything they can to ensure that they dont win the title, dropping 5 points in their previous 2 matches. Thankfully, City are still 16 points behind meaning they cant repeat last years performance & clinch the title on the final day.

going into the final day of the season, we face 10th place Southampton & the table looks like this. Liverpool would have to overturn a goal difference of +22 on the final day in order to have a chance at winning the league & even then, if we got a single point, we win the league anyway! As a result, I will be playing as many decent youth prospects as I can fit into the team & hoping that we don't concede around 20 goals!

This is how we line up going into the final day of the season, with no less than 7 youth players in the starting 11

We concede a goal to Southampton inside the first minute, not the best start. we cant concede 20 can we? Thankfully we win went on to win the game 4-2 with Isak Hansen-Aaroen putting in another unbelievable performance, finishing the game with a 9.4 rating. In the end the result didnt matter, as Liverpool were some 23 goals short.

We've done it! Manchester United's first league title in 11 years. The first one since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. After last years heartbreak at the end of the season, I'm overjoyed to win it this year

Edited May 29, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

End of Season 2

Competition Results

Premier League Winners: Manchester United!

Champions League Winners: Liverpool who beat Inter Milan in the final

Europa League Winners: AC Milan who beat Chelsea in the final

FA Cup Winners: Manchester City who beat Chelsea in the final

Carabao Cup Winners: Manchester United!

 

Team of the Year

We have 4 players in this seasons Team of the Year, up from 2 last season. With Luke Shaw earning a place both this year and last year.

Luke Shaw Update:

Individual Stats

Harry Kane had an excellent first season at the club, finishing only 3 goals behind Haaland despite playing 6 fewer league games than him this season.

We dominate the assists table, with Rashford & Fernandes finishing joint top with 11 assist each. Luke Shaw finished in 5th place with 8 assists from Left Back.

Rashford & Fernandes also finish the season as the two highest rated players in the league, with Harry Kane finishing 4th, just behind Haaland

Chelsea's Edouard Mendy wins the golden glove with 23 clean sheets. Robert Sanchez finishes in 5th place with 15

 

 

Team Stats

We scored 104 goals this season, a club record which is 27 goals more than second place Liverpool

We also had the most shots in the league, which was probably to be expected, given the amount of goals we scored. 

Chelsea conceded both the fewest shots & the fewest goals this season which is unsurprising given how Mendy was runaway winner of the golden glove

 

Facilities

We manage to convince the board to increase our Youth Recruitment which now stands at exceptional. Hopefully this will bring us more youth intakes like the incredible one we saw in the first season.

The board also agreed to improve our training facilities over the summer, which will be completed in November

  

 

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

Transfers

Out

The big news is that we finally manage to shift Harry Maguire, an accomplishment that rivals winning the league! He moves to Napoli for a fee of £28,000,000 we are however stuck paying him £100,000 per week for the coming season. Typically this is something that I hate doing, however in this case I think it was worth it as he was our 4th choice centre back & earning £200,000 per week. We are now in the market for a new centre back.

with Koopmeiners now joining the club this summer, having bought him in January we were looking to get rid of Christian Eriksen. He moves on to Everton for a fee of £11,250,000 however once again we are having to pay him £50,000 per week for the coming season. 

I was more than happy with our goalkeeper situation after a strong defensive performance last season, however when Dortmund's Gregor Kobel signed for Spurs, it meant that Dortmund then came calling for Robert Sanchez. I let them know that he could leave for £50,000,000 however when they came back in at £42,000,000 I accepted the offer as I felt it would be a realistic thing to do given we'd make £30,000,000 profit of  a player we signed 12 months ago & it was still early enough in the window for me to find a suitable replacement.

Facundo Pellistri also leaves us, at 22 years old there were to many players ahead of him for him to realistically break into the first team. he moves to Mainz for £10,500,000

Isak Hansen-Aaroen moves to Real Betis for £32,500,000. Whilst I would have liked to keep him, the offer was simply to good to turn down given that he is behind both Bruno Fernandes and Enzo Le Fee

In

Teun Koopmeiners who was bought in January, now joins the club. We paid £50,000,000 for him from Atalanta & at £130,000 per week he's paid £10,000 less than Eriksen was last season.

 As soon as my scout let me know that Diogo Costa had a release clause of £27,500,000 to foreign clubs I stopped looking at anyone else & went straight for him. With such a low release clause, it made me wonder why neither Spurs nor Dortmund went for him instead. However Im very happy with how things have worked out.

With Maguire leaving, we were in the market for a centre back. Our options were to either bring in a cheaper rotation player for Varane, or to bring in a stronger player, who can compete with Varane for the starting spot, alongside Martinez. With Varane being 31 years old & my staff deeming him as injury prone, I was leaning towards the latter. In sticking with the theme of release clauses, we activate Josko Gvardiol's £67,000,000 release clause from Leipzig. This does however leave me with a new puzzle to solve, with our 2 strongest CBs being left footed, do we play them together? or do we go with Gvardiol & Varane at the back, moving Martinez into DM to compete with 32 year old Casemiro? Both Varane  & Casemiro will need replacing over the next year or two, so its not a bad problem to have.

 

Contracts

We managed to get Casemiro & Varane to sign new deals on reduced wages. Varane is now paid £230,000 per week, down from £300,000 last season & £350,000 when we initially took over. Casemiro agreed to £240,000, down from £300,000 however he wanted a shorter contract than was already in place, meaning that he would leave on a free at the end of the season unless we extend him further in the next few months. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Swaban

[warlock]

Congrats on the league title, and on the departure of Maguire

[Swaban]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

Congrats on the league title, and on the departure of Maguire

Thanks mate, I'm not sure which one im more proud of!