[FM23] For The Beauty Of The Game

[Carambau]

15 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Comfortable in the end, a job well done.

Great stats from Abi - quite an achievement to be league top scorer in a relegation-threatened team! it will be interesting to see how he does at Bologna (that was a smart transfer move made by them).

So Toaster was a bit of a butter-fingers? Not heard that phrase used for about 20 or 30 years 

A good youth intake by the look of it too.

Thank you  We will have an eye on Abi  

Oh yeah, Toaster has been relegated to the reserves in the meantime. He was toast literally...

I am considering promoting some talents from the U18s to the first team squad for the new season.

14 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Good Job Staying up other than you didn't gain any places in the table it was a time of fine form.

Thanks  Yes, a pity we didnt climb some places despite winning most of the last matches... wouldve resulted in getting some more TV money as well I guess.

[Carambau]

July 2024

As you can see, we changed the skin to a light one. NY Light by NY.

 

Transfers

So Abi has gone to Bologna. Gassama was already 34, so we did not extend his contract. Kadima, Abdallah and Mulaj are no players for the top league level.

 

We didn´t have transfer money to spend so all came in on a free. Mischa Eberhardt provides cover in central midfield, Gillardinho and Samuel Armenteros are both strikers who I think could be some kind of replacement for Abi. Marvin Martins is a right back, but will be loaned out right away as he is not as good as I thought. Yanis Cheikh joins from Olympique Lyon´s youth academy and is a great central defender talent. Petar Gluhakovic is an experienced right back who spent his career in the Austrian leagues, Lukas Mazagg can play as left back and central defender and Felix Gebhardt will be our new backup keeper. His predecessor Toaster is still rotting in the reserves as no one is wanting to buy him.

 

The Squad 2024/25

I am not too satisfied with our transfers but it was the best we could manage with our limited resources. I am glad we have a proper backup keeper now, maybe I will let him play the cup games. Our defense looks solid, with experience on the right back position in Gluhakovic and Obexer as one of our best players on the left. Efecan Cakir was promoted from our U18 team as he brings bags of potential and can play on both sides. Our Kosovar central defense with Dallku and Hajrullahu still stands, with Yanis Cheikh a great talent as a backup. Eberhard brings competition for a place in central midfield. The fight is on with Salama, Huser, Nkemby and Opoku! On the wings we still have Bayard and Okou. Topken and Armenteros can play there as well. And we promoted another talent from our U18s: Sofien Carnot, full of potential. In attack, we now have new signings Armenteros and Gillardino plus Florian Danho who is still going strong and super sub Thilo Topken. Miles Berry is another U18 player but he got loaned out.

 

 

Season Preview and Board Expectations

We take on the challenge!

I like that our Board is sensible.

 

Pre-Season Friendlies

Some results there! Bring on the new season!

Edited September 13, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

August 2024

 

A good start into the season.

 

The Matches

 

We were lucky to draw here. Obexer with a beautiful screamer from 25 m out.

 

Nice to see our talent Berry score. He was loaned out soon afterwards though.

 

A tough game. We had all to do to keep von Moos from scoring more than one goal and in the end we succeeded.

 

Our new strikers score their first goals. It was against an amateur team only but it had to start somewhere.

 

Our central midfielder decided this game.

 

 

The start went well for us.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

September 2024

 

3 wins this month.

 

The Matches

 

Armenteros scores his first league goal.

 

Armenteros scores again, again with a penalty but we lose this time. We had hope for a comeback but the own goal sealed our fate.

 

Super sub Eberhard helps us into the next round.

 

Nice to see Danho score his first goal of the season. We like late goals.

 

The score lets it seem closer than it actually was. We were in control the whole time but took the foot from the throttle in the last minutes.

 

 

We hope to settle in a midfield position.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

October 2024

 

Our good form continues.

 

The Matches

 

Servette are on a different level. The brace by Gillardinho was nice though.

 

Armenteros scores again, again with a penalty.

 

A wonderful derby win with ANOTHER brace by Gillardinho!

 

Super sub Topken scores in extra time to set up a quarter final at FC Sion.

 

 

This looks good. I hope we can keep it up.

 

 

Stray Observations

I laughed hard at this name in the tweet. "Wichser" means "******" in german 

Edited September 18, 2023 by Carambau

[Hootieleece]

Good work so far midtable is good place to be. Maybe? get a Championship split spot.

[Carambau]

15 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Good work so far midtable is good place to be. Maybe? get a Championship split spot.

Thanks It is still early days... but that would be a dream of course!

[Carambau]

November 2024

 

Our good form continues.

 

The Matches

 

Armenteros scores and it is NOT a penalty!

 

Von Moos ALWAYS scores against us.

 

Bayard saves us a point at home.

 

Armenteros again. And it was a penalty again.

 

We are above the line. Wow.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

December 2024

 

We really play wonderful football at the moment.

 

The Matches

 

 An own goal secured a point for us at Neuchatel.

 

Our best game of the season. Both strikers scored braces.

 

Danho is in good form at the moment.

 

Servette are just on another level.

 

Another nice derby win for us.

 

Looking good after half of the season.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

January 2025

 

Just 2 friendlies during the winter break.

 

Our favorite Twitter fan is back!

[Carambau]

February 2024

 

Only one win in the league. In the Cup we performed much better.

 

The Matches

 

Dominant win by the favorites.

 

They weren´t that good but we were even worse.

 

Gillardinho rescued a point for us in the dying minutes.

 

Sion are beaten in the last minute of extra time. Bitter, but good for us. We will play FC Luzern at home in the semi finals.

 

After 30 minutes it was all over already.

 

The game was a bore until the last 10 minutes when it all happened. 

 

We thought we had secured a point when Topken scored but N'Diaye punished us for celebrating too early.

 

It´s getting tighter.

[Carambau]

March 2024

 

Six points in five games.

 

The Matches

 

I don´t know why this happens so often! Are we celebrating too early? 

 

Momoh silenced us.

 

Okou & Opoku - duo of dreams!

 

A really, really convincing game from us.

 

The FC Bayern of Switzerland.

 

So... 2 matches to go before the league splits.

 

These 2 games will decide our fate.

 

 

The News

The board trusts me.

Edited September 10, 2023 by Carambau

[Jogo Bonito]

Loving the updates even if I can't keep up easily! Great to see the short match summaries and good to keep an eye on the other clubs influential players too. Hopefully you can emerge successful in the two matches before the split, but either way it's been a very encouraging season. Of course you have suffered losses and heartbreaks, but still way above where you rightfully should be.

[SixPointer]

Just catching up! Great work as always. Really enjoying your fast paced update style. Something I may need to borrow, I’ve been struggling to strike a balance of speed writing while giving enough info you have it nailed on.

Hopefully you can make the spilt and challenge for a euro spot!

[Jogo Bonito]

Agree on that. Easy to follow style of updates.

Forgot to add, I love the twitter fan contributions 

[Carambau]

18 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Loving the updates even if I can't keep up easily! Great to see the short match summaries and good to keep an eye on the other clubs influential players too. Hopefully you can emerge successful in the two matches before the split, but either way it's been a very encouraging season. Of course you have suffered losses and heartbreaks, but still way above where you rightfully should be.

Thanks bud  We are WAY above our expectations, oh yes!

9 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Just catching up! Great work as always. Really enjoying your fast paced update style. Something I may need to borrow, I’ve been struggling to strike a balance of speed writing while giving enough info you have it nailed on.

Hopefully you can make the spilt and challenge for a euro spot!

Hey there  I am playing long sessions every time and put everything into split monthly posts then afterwards, that causes the high frequency at times  sometimes I think its not enough to describe what happened during the game but mostly it feels right... glad to hear you enjoy this style!

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Agree on that. Easy to follow style of updates.

Forgot to add, I love the twitter fan contributions 

Yeah, our most prominent fan Walter Wichser - you just gotta love him 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

April 2024

 

What a month!

 

The Matches

 

Concentration and clinical finishing was the key to winning this important derby.

 

Armenteros likes his penalties. 7 of his 14 goals came from penalties. But what is way more important: We made it into the top group!

 

We are in the final! The lads deserve it! FC Basel awaits.

 

 

5 more games to go even further maybe...? We dare to dream!

 

 

The Youth Intake

An excellent intake. Though we dont play with an AMC.

Edited September 10, 2023 by Carambau

[Hootieleece]

The AMC can be retrained to MC easily enough. Use RPM-MC Training until 18. Then change to the specific role for your team.

[Carambau]

4 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

The AMC can be retrained to MC easily enough. Use RPM-MC Training until 18. Then change to the specific role for your team.

Thank you! I don´t do the training myself, so I did not know that this could be done easily!  

[Hootieleece]

2 minutes ago, Carambau said:

Thank you! I don´t do the training myself, so I did not know that this could be done easily!  

You might have to take over the training for that specific player if he is in the youth teams when you get a training report on him.

I usually hand the General training schedules to my staff and try and train the players in the first team in their individual training. Most often is having position and role in primary formation and any PPM's I want to add.

Youth team trainings are run by my staff but I often control Individual training so I can train ppm's of the players I am interested in.

[Carambau]

13 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

You might have to take over the training for that specific player if he is in the youth teams when you get a training report on him.

I usually hand the General training schedules to my staff and try and train the players in the first team in their individual training. Most often is having position and role in primary formation and any PPM's I want to add.

Youth team trainings are run by my staff but I often control Individual training so I can train ppm's of the players I am interested in.

Well, in the end I ended up releasing the AMC... he wasnt that good anyway  

[Hootieleece]

1 hour ago, Carambau said:

Well, in the end I ended up releasing the AMC... he wasnt that good anyway  

With Youth you often have to be patient.

[Jogo Bonito]

Great form in the last few games. Good luck in the Final against FC Basel, hoping you brush off their challenge.

[Carambau]

On 11/09/2023 at 12:37, Hootieleece said:

With Youth you often have to be patient.

True. And thats where I am often failing  

On 11/09/2023 at 16:01, Jogo Bonito said:

Great form in the last few games. Good luck in the Final against FC Basel, hoping you brush off their challenge.

Thank you  Update incoming!

[Carambau]

May 2025

 

We got hammered quite a bit but recorded an important win. 

 

The Matches

We can live with that.

 

 

Some harsh hammering at home. Those 2 players defeated us single-handedly.

 

Here comes the next beating! But you have to be fair and say that 4 of these goals happened after we were down to 10 men.

 

 

...aaand another one! It´s time the season comes to a close!

 

No, wait! We wanted to reconcile with our fans before the end of the season and we managed to do it.

 

 

We even went ahead shortly before the break. And while we were enjoying our leád a bit too much and thought we could take it into half time, they struck to level it. And when we came back on the pitch after half time we were still in the dressing room, mentally. Thats when they struck a second time. And that was the Swiss Cup Final for you. 

 

 

Look at the most important 4 letters for us this season: UECL

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

 June 2025

 

The Season Stats

Well, our 3 strikers made up for the departure of Abi, each of them scoring double digits. What worries me is that only 2 players got an AVR of above 7.0... Don´t exactly know why this is the case but then again we took some real serious beatings which could have affected the ratings negatively. Again, it was the usual suspects like Bayard and Hajrullahu who drew the plaudits but also the aforementioned strikers. Youngster Carnot had a convincing pro debut, same as Cakir although the latter did not play that often. New signing Eberhard blended in well in midfield and Gluhakovic was solid. Now that we will play in europe, we will need to invest in a broader squad.

 

The Finances

For the first time in this save we have at least a bit to spend on the transfer market.

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Carambau

[Hootieleece]

What a Season for your team. I'm hoping for something similar in my save.

What position is a must upgrade for your team to compete in UECL?

[Carambau]

11 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

What a Season for your team. I'm hoping for something similar in my save.

What position is a must upgrade for your team to compete in UECL?

Fingers crossed  

I´d say EVERY position could need an upgrade but yeah, most urgent looks the RB  position and we definitely need a better Central defender... 

[Carambau]

July 2025 Part I

 

Transfers

Super Sub Topken did what he was signed for and now he can leave as a happy man. Gluhakovic has no future as we want to improve and I don´t see him doing that. Toaster gets loaned out for 2 seasons until his contract runs out. The rest are youngsters who need match practice.

 

Finardi joins from Atalanta and strengthens our central midfield. Gonzalez is a solid central defender, Dickenmann replaces Gluhakovic on the right back position and Mphahlele provides competition for Obexer on the left side. Additionally, we promoted 2 players from our U19 team, central midfielder Pelletier and striker Berry, both come with bags of potential.

 

The Squad 2025/26

I think we were able to improve our defense by quite a bit with the new signings. I can see our back line with Obexer, Hajrullahu, Gonzalez and Mphahlele coming good once they gel. Same goes for central midfield, Finardi looks like a real steal. We did not do anything on the wings as I thought we have enough power there already. In attack, I am excited to see our young talent Berry perform. Hopefrully this squad is good enough to master the -hopefully- many games that await us this season.

 

 

Season Preview and Board Expectations

Not as bad as the season before but I was expecting a bit better...

I like that our Board is sensible.

 

Pre-Season Friendlies

Only wins. This looks good. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Carambau

[Jogo Bonito]

Unlucky in the Swiss Cup Final but a great effort to get so close. In the league that was a very good season too, you have every reason to be delighted with that.

I like the squad review stuff, and hopefully the new players will give you added strength to make another good challenge. The extra fixtures of Europe will make that tough, I guess, but it's good to see you have little pressure to achieve anything in any of the competitions.

It looks like you replaced Abi well, but it might be worth having a look at Tresor Samba if you need any extra depth there (or when the creaking bones of Armenteros prevent him from even walking to the penalty spot).

[Carambau]

20 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Unlucky in the Swiss Cup Final but a great effort to get so close. In the league that was a very good season too, you have every reason to be delighted with that.

I like the squad review stuff, and hopefully the new players will give you added strength to make another good challenge. The extra fixtures of Europe will make that tough, I guess, but it's good to see you have little pressure to achieve anything in any of the competitions.

It looks like you replaced Abi well, but it might be worth having a look at Tresor Samba if you need any extra depth there (or when the creaking bones of Armenteros prevent him from even walking to the penalty spot).

Thank you  I will check on Samba, because as you say Armenteros isnt getting younger  

[Carambau]

July 2025 Part II

 

Transfers

Because of the injury of Okou and the upcoming fixtures being a lot, we decided to bring in another winger to bolster the position and in came Kiko Carmona for 92K. We also tried to make an offer for Tresor Samba, but he was not interested...

 

 

 

Let´s kick off the season.

 

The Matches

 

This is basically the only thing that happened in the whole game. One shot, one goal, luckily for us. The crowd must have cursed us.

 

We were tired. They were not. This is what happens then.

 

We had a very good first half and a not-so-good second half. Complacency set in and in the end we were happy to get away with a draw and getting into the next round against danish outfit Odense.

 

 

One game.

 

I just love this screen so much I thought I´d share it with you. What a wholesome home screen. Just look at the tiny house! And the canal with the ships on it! So Cute!

Edited September 20, 2023 by Carambau

[Hootieleece]

What skin are you using?

[Carambau]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

What skin are you using?

this one:

https://www.fmscout.com/a-ny-light-fm23-skin.html

Edited September 15, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

August 2025 

 

So many games this month, man!

 

 

The Matches

We like Thun. We mostly win against them.

 

Text-book counter attacks from us! They had the most of possession and were in control until the last 20 minutes when they got more attacking and we hit them on the counter 4 times.

 

We repeated the same counter "trick" in Geneva and it worked there too.

 

In the end we refused to lose this game although we would have qualified even with a 0-1 defeat.

 

The amateur team played well but in the end we made the next round.

 

A great team effort lead to this fantastic result. We pressed them early and they were not used to this obviously. 

 

One point is enough here and we are happy with that.

 

They beat us in the 2nd leg but it was not enough. We go through to the new "League Phase" of this competition. And the money we receive for reaching that round ain´t bad either.

 

"Let´s finish this month with a bang, lads!" ... "Ok, Boss!"

 

 

Now we can say it has been a pretty good start to the season.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

September 2025 

 

No win in the league...

 

 

The Matches

A good game and the draw is absolutely ok.

 

This was easy. And in the next round we will play another amateur club.

 

It´s them again. And it´s van Moos again. And of course he scores and we lose again.

 

Youngster Berry scores once more, rescueing us an important point.

 

 

And here we are, back in 7th place.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Carambau

[SixPointer]

Incredible august, **** September! The ups and downs of a football manager. Still a good start your only 2 points of Basel 

[Carambau]

24 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Incredible august, **** September! The ups and downs of a football manager. Still a good start your only 2 points of Basel 

Yeah, but thats why we love this game, right?  

[Carambau]

October 2025 

 

A month with a lot of games but without a defeat.

 

 

The Matches

 

They were wasting their chances in the first half, then we struck twice in the second half. 

 

 

We led 2-0 but they managed a comeback. Nevertheless we take the point gratefully.

 

 

A great Danho double helped us win this tough game.

 

 

Those Irish suckers scored a freak goal early and decided to park the bus to embarass us. Thank god we were able to punish them late in stoppage time with Armenteros´ favorite set piece. 

 

 

This could have easily been a home win but we squandered most of our chances and they took their few.

 

 

The amateurs stood no chance. Next is FC Basel away in the quarter final.

 

 

Back in the top 5 again.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

November 2025 

 

Lots of goals and 3 defeats.

 

 

The Matches

A good game and we gladly take the point but it could have been more for us after leading 3-1.

 

 

Another brace by Danho secured us 3 european points.

 

 

Oops! What happened there? We lost to our favorite team Thun? Yes, we did. And they even were the better team.

 

 

We were tired and they were all over us. The european journeys take their toll it seems.

 

 

This must have been a great game for the neutrals. We were dead after the red card but managed to score 2 more goals. That´s why I refuse to be disappointed.

 

 

This was nice. A win to end the month at least.

 

 

Still in 5th.

 

 

The News

This guy is just soo injury prone. I guess thats his season ended.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

December 2025 

 

A mediocre month but at least we secured european playoffs.

 

 

The Matches

A boring draw. Boo!.

 

This was a real tight game, but in the end we went home with nothing. And a suspended player.

 

This was a huge upset! No one gave us a chance against favorite Brondby but a brace from Gillardinho secured us 3 points!

 

 

Talent Berry strikes again! This time with a nice brace.

 

 

I shot the Sheriff... no, this time it was the other way round!

 

 

Midfield madness.

 

 

 

The Europa Conference League Final League Phase Table

We finished just outside the automatic qualifying spots. The next round will be drawn in february.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Carambau

[Jogo Bonito]

Powering on! Still very tight there in mid-table, enough time to push up a few places if you can find some more consistency.

Close in Europe, but the Play-Off still leaves the door open to continue. Having some 'luck of the draw' will be important!

Really easy to follow style of updates, and I like seeing who the other league 'top performing players' are each time.

[Carambau]

6 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Powering on! Still very tight there in mid-table, enough time to push up a few places if you can find some more consistency.

Close in Europe, but the Play-Off still leaves the door open to continue. Having some 'luck of the draw' will be important!

Really easy to follow style of updates, and I like seeing who the other league 'top performing players' are each time.

Thank you for your positive feedback, mate  It IS indeed close, but I like this pressure, hopefully we are able to withstand it.

 

P.S.: I love your new Avatar look! 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Carambau

[Carambau]

January 2026

 

 

Those 2 friendlies during the winter break weren´t exactly a source of optimisim.

 

The News

Thank you UEFA! We already played them in the League Phase, so what the ****? The good thing is - we defeated them back then.

 

No thanks. I got a job to finish here.

[Carambau]

February 2026 

 

We keep scoring a lot and we are conceding a lot lately. But our european journey will continue!

 

 

The Matches

A boring draw in the derby.

 

We did the best we could against far superior opposition.

 

Trademark Armenteros goal again.

 

It was a tight game for most of the time but in the dying minutes they just collapsed and we will play B team in the 2nd leg for sure.

 

This is when you know you got FM´ed... 3 goals in stoppage time!!! WTF?!?

 

 

Who cares? We are into the next round!

 

The lads made up for the last league game in style. And it looks like Armenteros has learned to score regular goals. Maybe signing for Osters for next season gave him some relief.

 

They sealed the deal in the last minutes. We can have no complaints.

 

 

It is tight around midtable. What worries me is that we are conceding quite a lot of goals lately. This has to stop.

 

 

 

The Europa Conference League round of 16 draw

We did not expect anything. And then this happened.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Carambau

[Sizeman21]

Disastrous draw in the Europa Conference League. Come on Lausanne Ouchey!

[SixPointer]

Well at least the playoff was an incredibly exciting tie! Inter will spin you some money but very tough to see a way past them 

[Carambau]

3 hours ago, Sizeman21 said:

Disastrous draw in the Europa Conference League. Come on Lausanne Ouchey!

Thanks for your support, @Sizeman21  

2 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Well at least the playoff was an incredibly exciting tie! Inter will spin you some money but very tough to see a way past them 

Yes, we have to be realistic. This is the end of the road but the fans will get some entertainment  

[Carambau]

March 2026 

 

Let us entertain you!

 

 

The Matches

This is a good result even though they scored so late in the game.

 

Boy, that was a spectacle! And I am sure our fans loved it despite the defeat! We trailed 0-4 and 1-6 when Gillardinho decided to score 2 goals against Internazionale!

 

Thun are always welcome guests.

 

Kadak thought he killed us off just before Bayard emerged in the dying minutes.

 

The lads enjoyed the walk in the big city before the match.

 

A very bad display from us. But we would play them again just 3 days later...

 

...and were able to take all the points at home this time. Well done, lads.

 

This comes as no surprise. YB are yet to lose a league match this season!

 

 

The good thing is we have a game in hand.

 

[Hootieleece]

I noticed that you have the two players with most yellow cards. Are you purposely playing that way to make up for a quality difference?