FM24: Manchester United - Same old problems?

[stevemc]

Following on from here...

Manchester United: Season 2034/35 - Complete

I've had a career spanning Chesterfield, Burnley, Tottenham, Real Madrid and West Ham before joining Manchester United in 2034 after Luis Enrique was sacked. Thankfully, the Glazers have sold-up, they are owned by an Australian consortium currently, no real debt, just £115m for transfer debt, so they're in a good place. Still having issues with the stadium though, they won't upgrade or build a new one.

The team finished 7th last season so no Champions League, squad was bang average bar 3-4 world-class players, but they've been handing our ridiculous contracts so as part of my summer overhaul, I also aligned everyone to new long-term bonus enhanced contracts, there's couple still on £700K p/w + insane bonuses which I'm not happy about, so might try to move them on after a season or so. Staff were also all over the place.

First port of call was sacking the majority of the staff and bringing my own in, Dan Ashworth came in as Director of Football (who I worked with at Tottenham) with Darren Fletcher and Nick Cox retaining their Technical Director and Head of Youth Development roles. Kieran Trippier came in as my Assistant Manager, who was also my under 21s Manager at West Ham for 4 years. First team staff are all quality now, with notable ex-professionals joining like Danny Welbeck, Mile Jedinak and Robin van Persie who are now have excellent staff profiles and personalities.

For under 21s and under 18s I'm big on the correct personalities for staff like, Model Citizen, Model Professional, Professional etc so brought Phil Neville in as U21 Manager and Louis Carey as his assistant with Kevin O'Connor (Manager) and Brian Kerr (Assistant) taking up the U18 roles. 

Scouting department was overhauled too, with Giuseppe Lupo heading up a 25 strong team of scouts.

Into transfers, we sold off 12 players, most notably Mason Mount and Rasmus Højlund raising £416m, bringing in 8 players of my own including previously managed Dennis Seimen (£55m) from West Ham, 25-year-old elite striker Martin Šindelář (£250m) from Tottenham, 25-year-old elite right-back Batata (£107m) also from Tottenham and world class, model professional centre-back David Braddock (£63m) from West Ham. Picked up a late bloomer gem in 26-year-old Guilherme for a £14m release from Flamengo too, followed by a couple of highly rated youngsters in the shape of Luca Femia (£23.5m), Osian Thomas (£23m) and Patrick Meeth (£24m) to try and bring the age and contract size of the squad down.

January also saw a further 9 player leave, including Valentín Carboni, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Claudio Echeverri, Destiny Udogie and Noah Atubolu. We went back to my former club West Ham to sign world-class Brazilian defensive midfielder Erivaldo on deadline day for £116m having already secured wonderkid left-back Ron Peretz (£95m) and a couple more highly-promising youngsters Alejandro Ivars, Germán Morales and Fábio José.

 

Premier League

Rather surprisingly finished as Champions, board wanted top 4, I felt I'd built a top 4 squad, but the rest of the big clubs dropped so many points we ended up winning quite comfortably in the end. Manchester United's first title in 6 years and only second title in 27 years, but we are still just out in front on 22. Martin Šindelář hit 24 goals in 29 games finishing just 2 goals shy of 34-year-old Erling Haaland in the golden boot.

 

Carabao Cup

Made it to the final knocking out Everton, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester City along the way before losing the final to Liverpool 0-2 after extra time, I felt like we were going to knick it before Batata's red card, then it was an uphill task from there.

 

FA Cup

We came unstuck away at Tottenham in the quarter-final, losing 2-0 having previously knocked out Hull City, Blackburn Rovers and Crewe.

 

Europa League

Farce of a competition this, it's so easy to win  We won EVERY game against the likes of Lazio, Legia, Beşiktaş, Derry City, Freiburg, HJK, Slovan Bratislava, Anderlecht, U Craiova, Fenerbahçe and finishing off with a win against VfL Wolfsburg at Celtic Park in the final.

 

We already made a start on Summer business with the signing's of 18-year-old fullback Florian Tuba from Bayern for £76m and 21-year-old centre back Jorge Linha from Wolfsburg for £69m and adding a couple more highly rated youngster; Kady Maxted, João Serrador, Gaz Gowshall and Luis Pérez. We've probably got one more in us, I'm chasing just one world-class players and have my eye on Chelsea's left-footed inside forward Michael Siller.

Edited March 11 by stevemc

[Matty89]

Is it possible for you become manager of a national team and still be club manager

Want to have a United save with my aim to win everything at United and also the world cup if possible

[BigV]

41 minutes ago, Matty89 said:

Is it possible for you become manager of a national team and still be club manager

Want to have a United save with my aim to win everything at United and also the world cup if possible

You could so I assume you still can

[mcgaffer]

To anyone managing Man Utd after 24.2 or the march update. You have absolutely no money, and you need a left back and a striker. I loaned out lindelof, mc tominey and martial for nice enough loan fees and got in larrios the lb from southampton who is a decent sub for shaw and offered a huge optional future fee (around 130 million) for moukoko from dortmund to get him on a cheaper loan deal.

Saved up about 25 million by selling clauses around oct/nov, especially Garner at everton who goes over 7 million euro by nov (cash in then, it doesn't get better). 

Won the domestic treble but lost the CL final because I couldn't score, strikers had a nightmare. Was then told we would fail the FFP rules but that was wrong so when the sponsorship comes in your sorted. Got 65 million to spend after qualifying for the CL. Enjoy your save.

[milan_manutd]

Half way point of seaseon 3 and Bruno want 1,4mil£ weekly !!!!

F* off man - he is not satisfied with doubling his current wage

 

 

 

 

[BigV]

Sell and get the best of the best on cheaper wages. 

[stevemc]

Following on from here...

Manchester United: Season 2035/36 - Complete

Summer transfer business was busy with the signing's of 18-year-old fullback Florian Tuba from Bayern for £76m and 21-year-old centre back Jorge Linha from Wolfsburg for £69m and adding a couple more highly rated youngster; Kady Maxted, João Serrador, Gaz Gowshall, Torben Epp and Luis Pérez. We did manage to wrap up Chelsea's left-footed inside forward Michael Siller for £205m along with world-class midfielder Hristo Vandev joining from Fiorentina for £175m. To offset those, we did sell off the likes of Kaiky, Noah Atubolu and arguably the best striker in the world, Prasert Nimkul - I felt I needed to sell him as when I joined he was on one of the craziest contracts I've seen, with his basic pay at £700,000p/w + 25% yearly rise onto of ridiculous bonuses (like £1m for 5 goals etc) - he had no interest in negotiating a new contract, so shipped him out, which free'd up the finances.

January was supposed to be quiet, but we received bids of £50m for Nicolás Herrera, £100m for Antony Arévalo from Atletico and £134m for Songül Delibalta from Real Madrid, the later two I was happy to accept due them having wages higher than I thought they were worth, and they didn't enjoy big matches.

To replace, I signed my number one target, who I tried to sign when he was 21, Jonathan Maes for £300m from Tottenham, slightly overpaying but he's THE best midfielder in the game currently. Then on deadline day, my ex-West Ham striker was transfer listed for £105m, Simone Bindi.
 

Premier League

Winners, by 8 points. Lost 5 games though which I was dissappointed with but I was tinkering with a new tactic until January, which I ended up binning and reverting back to my trusty 4-2-3-1. Martin Šindelář was second in the goalscoring charts with 24, but Michael Siller was sensational with 21 goals and 13 assists in 30 games.

 

 

Champions League

Winners! Beating Liverpool 4-2 in extra time at my ex-teams stadium, end-to-end game with Dimitris Masouras having the game of his life! Thought we'd blown it when Evan Ferguson equalised in the 95th minute, but extra time a no contest, as I'd used no subs up to that stage, I completely refreshed the team and Liverpool couldn't keep up. We topped the league phase too, beating the likes of Tottenham & Juventus twice, Barcelona and Monaco along the way.

 

 

FA Cup

Winners! Tricky run too, beating Manchester City, West Ham and Arsenal (all away) along the way to playing out the most one-sided final against relegated Brighton, running out 3-0 winners

 

 

Carabao Cup

Made it to the Quarter Final before Arsenal dumped us out on penalties, again, a tricky run having beaten Manchester City away in the previous round. Still have not won this cup for United yet.

 

FA Community Shield

3-2 win in the curtain-raiser against Leicester City:

 

 

UEFA Super Cup

3-1 win against Arsenal:

Just wanted to finish this post with a mention to  Alfie Hudson, came through the youth intake, 16 years old, looks legit - dropped him in the first team, mentoring off a Model Professional, but he's scored the winner in the Champions League Semi Final and also scored off the bench in the Champions League final against Liverpool. Also picked up a goal in the FA Cup final. He's been dubbed the new Paul Gascoigne.

5 goals in 2 starts (9 appearances total) from inside forward.

 

I'm now 2nd in the Hall of Fame behind Pep Guardiola.

Edited March 23 by stevemc

[BigV]

Your save is getting more ridiculous by the season 

Incredible stuff

[Matty89]

Starting a save using the winter update

What to have a high pressing tactic in a 4-3-3 (with a dm) with also high possession 

Any advice on how to set up a tactic to make this happen on the pitch 

Can never get the match engine to do what I want it to

Also any advice on signings and sales would be great as update leaves very little money now lol

[BigV]

I myself am using 433 but my DM's ratings and stats in game are always below 6.7 on a press more often tactic. 

High possession would assume, low tempo and short passing and maybe playing narrow to create overloads and have one winger PI to stay wider for the switch/1v1. 

[milan_manutd]

Just need quit button

 

 

[sedge11]

Finally decided to start my new Man Utd save. I did a save in the beta but this is going to be my proper Man Utd save.

Started this save slightly differently though, I downloaded an update with the real life results, and decided to start in January.

I decided to start in January for 2 reasons, there isn't many games in Jan so gives me time to sort staff, tactics etc. The other reason is we had just come off a terrible December in real life with these results, and were probably at our worst.

 

So we start the save with us in 7th, 9 points off of top 4, so thought it would just bring a nice challenge at the beginning of the save and something a bit different.

On the cups, the update can't replicate those, so we are still in the champs league. But to keep it semi realistic I am going to holiday those games to get knocked out, though we have Bayern so will probably lose anyway haha.

Disabled the Jan window, but I am bringing in some staff.

All of these I have used on previous saves and are great coaches, there are a couple more who I can't get at the moment so will finish my staff rebuild in the summer.

The main focus on my save is I want to build the team around Mainoo, Garnacho, Hojlund, Amad plus one or 2 others like Lacey and Amass if they develop well.

To start with I am just using a standard 4-2-3-1, but I want to build the team to my tactic from my last save which is this:

So far have done 1 game which was the fa cup 3rd round against Middlesborough in which we won 5-2, with Garnacho, Amad and Mainoo all scoring.

 

Edited March 29 by sedge11

[Eckauskas]

Does anyone else find the club is really badly run in the game? Currently £420m in the red and haemorrhaging money at the end of season 3. 

[milan_manutd]

This is new to me. Have anyone seen this?

This player is not part of my youth intake, it is 3rd of may, I've already signed players from youth intake.  I don't have any permission to negotiate contract with this player, but City "poached" him somehow

[BigV]

2 hours ago, milan_manutd said:

This is new to me. Have anyone seen this?

This player is not part of my youth intake, it is 3rd of may, I've already signed players from youth intake.  I don't have any permission to negotiate contract with this player, but City "poached" him somehow

Been in since fm20 if im not mistaken. It basically means they've poached a player you would've seen in next years youth intake. Similar to what happens irl between the manchester clubs and academies. Its a rare thing in the game. 

[DavutOzkan]

On 02/04/2024 at 16:21, sedge11 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

So I ditched this and went with a slightly different idea.

Instead with the real life results update, you can also have a different start date so I started the save just before this weekends Brentford game. With the idea of taking over Man Utd at the end of the season, picking up where ever we finish and rebuilding from there.

 

 

 

Where is the real results update? And how do I apply it? I've been looking everywhere for info and keep running into a wall. Yes, I know, the editor, but how in the editor. 

[sedge11]

2 hours ago, DavutOzkan said:

Where is the real results update? And how do I apply it? I've been looking everywhere for info and keep running into a wall. Yes, I know, the editor, but how in the editor. 

Don’t think it’s allowed to share to the page so I will inbox you.

[Zeonflux]

On 30/03/2024 at 14:57, milan_manutd said:

This is new to me. Have anyone seen this?

This player is not part of my youth intake, it is 3rd of may, I've already signed players from youth intake.  I don't have any permission to negotiate contract with this player, but City "poached" him somehow

It basically means that he would have been in your Youth Intake when you got it but he signed with City before then. To be honest i don’t think it affects anything in game as I’m pretty sure it’s more of a random event than anything else.

Or to put it another way, he was always going to be in City’s intake but the game has randomly said that he was poached and sorted out transfer details to show that.

Additionally I may be wrong but if you look up the player history it should say that he was with United and then went to City to show that

[vrig]

Something seems badly wrong with the finances regarding the new investment. After turning a transfer profit of £131m and cutting the wage bill by £1m-a-week, the finances are down as 'okay' with the club bleeding money at the start of season 2.

I've still got a £211m transfer budget mind you, but with the balance at about £60m and less every week, I don't feel I should be going near it!

Edited April 27 by vrig

[rstebbi1]

Decided to start my final long term save with United, to mix things up a little I have set some ground rules when it comes to transfers.

1. When selling a player the first option must to be to promote from within the clubs youth team. For example season one I sold Varane to Al-Nasser and have promoted Will Fish to the first team 

2. If there is not a suitable youth player to replace the player sold I must then look for an English player 25 or younger. 

3. If no suitable English player 25 or younger can be found I must then look for an English player of any age.

4. If no suitable English player is available I must then look for any player aged 25 or under

5. If no suitable player under the age of 25 is found then I can then go for any player of any age.

6. No purchased player can cost more than the player they are coming in to replace.

So far in to season 4:

Players promoted to the first team:

Ehlyr Harrison, Will Fish, Dan Gore, Shea Lacey, James Scanlon, Shola Shoretire and Joe Hugill

Players Purchased:

Tino Livramento, Ronnie Edwards, Jarrad Branthwaite, Archie Brown, Conor Gallagher

Players Sold/released:

Tom Heaton, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Rafael Varane, Brandon Williams, Alvaro Fernandez, Willy Kambwala, Tyrell Malacia, Casemeiro, Christian Eriksen, Jadon Sancho, Amad Diallo, Facundo Pellestri, Hannibal, Omari Forson, Anthony Martial and Antony.

Playing a 4231 with 2 CWB 2 DMs 3 Shadow Strikers and an advanced forward meaning we're free scoring but are prone to the occasional game where we concede a lot. 

Notable team achievements so far:

Season One: 3rd in the league, Final of the Carabao Cup, Winners of the FA Cup, Semi-Finals of the Champions League

Season Two: 1st in the Premier League, Semi-Final of the FA Cup, Winners of the Champions League 

Season Three: 1st in the Premier League, Final of the Carabao Cup, Final of the FA Cup, Winners of the Champions League

Notable Player Achievements:

Bruno Fernandes - Balon d'or winner season one.

Marcus Rashford - Balon d'or runner up season 2 and 3. 35 League goals Season 3

Rasmus Hojlund - 41 goals in all competitions Season 2

Other notable things:

1. Scott McTominney and Donny Van Der Beek have both developed into excellent players who I now wouldn't sell unless very large offers were to come in.

2. Andre Onana is the best keeper in the world.

 

[rstebbi1]

Season Four Review:

This season saw us take a step back domestically dropping from league winners last season to fourth place this year. We also fared no better in the domestic cups being knocked out of the FA cup in the quarter finals by Brighton and the League cup in the 4th round by Leeds. 

Europe was a different animal as we went on the threepeat the Champions league with a 4-3 extra time over Barcelona. 

Individually there were some solid performances this year too with: 

Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Mason Mount and Donny Van der Beek all scoring 10+ goals across all competitions. Rashford and Hojlund getting 25 and 27 respectively. 

As we move into pre-season for season 5 we have some decisions to make around where we cash in on players and look to build on our philosophy set out in the post above. With that in mind the following transfers have taken place so far:

Transfers:

In January Luke Shaw moved on to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli for an initial £77m rising to £92m with add-ons. Luke had been a regular starter for us but this kind of money was far too good to turn down. This sees Harry Amass bought up into the first team squad as his replacement.

Next Joe Hugill left the club for £6.25m moving across to Blackburn after a decent first season in the main squad. This means that Gabriele Biancheri has now been promoted to the first team squad to replace him. 

Then James Scanlon left to join Burnley for £5.75m after two seasons on the periphary of the first team he had stagnated and there were better options available out there. In his place Argentine 18 year wonderkd Carlos Motta joins from San Lorenzo for an initial £4m rising to £8m with add-ons

Next a slew of youth player who had not made the grade left the club with Harrison, Wheatley, Nolan, Fletcher and McAllister leaving for a combined £1.7m 

We then saw some big business occur with first a massive offer of £57m coming in from Inter Milan for Donny Van der Beek. Despite two seasons of real good performances from the Dutch midfielder at 29 years of age this was too good to turn down. Dan Gore is now ready for more first time football so we could afford to let him go.

Lastly club captain and season 1 balon d'or winner Bruno Fernandes leaves the club to move over to the Saudi Pro League and finish his career off making more money than he could have ever dreamed of growing up, a fee of £111m upfront confirming his departure to Al-Hilal. Alex Scott joins for his £93m release fee from Bournemouth as his replacement.

That leaves us with a first team squad going into season 5 of:

GK:
Andre Onana, Altay Bayindir and Radek Vitek
RB: Tino Livramento and Diogo Dalot
LB: Archie Brown and Harry Amass
CB: Lisandro Martinez, Jarrad Branthwaite, Ronnie Edwards and Dimitar Ganchev
DM: Kobbie Mainoo, Conor Gallagher, Scott McTominey and Dan Gore
AM: Alex Scott, Mason Mount, Shola Shoretire, Shea Lacey, Gabriele Biancheri and Alejandro Garnacho
FW: Rasmus Hojlund and Carlos Motta

Since taking over we now have a net positive transfer spend of £415m, have promoted 11 players from the youth teams into the first team squad, 7 of which are still here and added 5 additional home grown in nation players. 

Edited May 2 by rstebbi1

[rstebbi1]

Season 5 Review: 

Competitons: 

Premier League: A Great season as we retain the Premier League title with 88 points, we finish 4 clear of Liverpool in second place 

We finished with the most goals scored 105
Rasmus Hojlund finished the season top scorer in the league with 22 goals, Mr. Robot Erling Haaland only managed 21
Archie Brown won player and players player of the year with Shea Lacey picking up young player of the season 

FA Cup: 

Another win here for us with a 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the final.

Carabao Cup:

Yet Another final but unfortunately a loss here as we go down 5-4 to Newcastle on penalties.

Champions League:

We finally lost our grip on Europe's premier competition with a 2-1 Semi final loss to PSG who went on the beat Man City in the final.

There have been some fantastic individual performances this year, not least from Shea Lacey who in his first season in the first team squad took home the Golden Boy Trophy, with 5 goals and 17 assists. 

Rasmus Hojlund finished as the league and Champions League top scorer

Season 6 Preview:

Transfers: 

Another busy pre season, first we see Diogo Dalot leave to join Real Madrid for £65m Diogo has been a great servent for the team but has pretty much played back up to Livramento since he joined. As soon as Madrid made their offer he wanted to leave. This sees fellow Portugal wonderkid Miguel Morais join from Rio Ave for £30m.

Next Lisandro Martinez was subject to a £43m bid from Al-Hilal and confirmed that he too wanted to leave. Martinez has been a consistent starter for us so losing him is a blow but this will now hopefully give Branthwaite the opportunity to step as our first choice CB. Belgian wonderkid defender Laurentius Geys joins from Club Brugge as the long term replacement costing £22m

Back up defender Ronnie Edwards was next to leave he has done a solid job for us when called upon but we have a fantastic looking player in our youth team who came through in season three's intake so Welsh 18 year Mark Joyce is promoted into the first team to serve as back up

Moving up the pitch Shola Shoretire has stagnated in the past two season and contributed 0 goals or assists in the 21 games he was involved in so when Borussia Dortmund came in with a £7m offer it was a no brainer. Once again we had player waiting in our youth team with Portugese Winger Vadio Barreto now ready to make the step up.

Finally Altay Bayindir leaves the club, over the past few years he has been a solid number 2 for us but Radek Vitek is ready to step into those boots and German Youngster Philipp Eidinger is a capable number 3 following his signing from Koln for £14m. Bayinder joins Fulham to be their new number 1 for £14.5m.

There has been one more incoming, which has broken our rule set out in the first post as we have not sold a player for this one to come in and replace but we have been tracking French youth striker Enzo Poulain from Lyon for 3 seasons now and after a break out year of scoring 23 goals in 30 Ligue 2 games out on loan last season we pulled the trigger on bringing him to Old Trafford for his £6m release fee.

Squad for Season 6:

GK: Andre Onana, Radek Vitek and Philipp Eidinger
RB: Tino Livramento and Miguel Morais
LB: Archie Brown and Harry Amass
CB: Jarrad Branthwaite, Dimitar Ganchev, Laurentius Geys and Mark Joyce
DM: Kobbie Mainoo, Conor Gallagher, Scott McTominey and Daniel Gore
AM: Mason Mount, Alex Scott, Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Shea Lacey, Gabriele Biancheri and Vadio Barreto
FW: Rasmus Hojlund, Carlos Motta and Enzo Poulain 

We now have 9 players promoted from the youth teams/intakes into the current first team squad. 

Our net transfer spend is now +£474m and the clubs overall debt has fallen to £61m with just one outstanding loan left to be paid and our wage bill is the 8th biggest in the league and well below Man City who have finished 5th and 8th in the past two seasons

[sedge11]

So its taken a few non starters and attempts but have finally got this Man Utd save on the go.

So as previous with downloaded real life results, I started in March then holidayed until the end of the season. This took 1 or 2 attempts as I wanted Man Utd to finish outside the European places as looks likely in real life and also just adds an extra challenge.

So got one where we finished 8th.

Ten Hag was then obviously sacked, and I took over.

First off the staff needed sorting out and I brought alot of new staff in.

Now the transfers I wanted to keep semi realistic in who I thought would leave and possibly come in etc, but have my touches in there as well.

Start with the outs.

A tip to sell Sancho if anyone does, at the very beginning of June I offered out a loan extension for him, and Dortmund came back with an offer, my from there I was able to negotiate the sale, which is 26 mil up front 14 mil in instalments. I did have to pay 60k a week of his wages, but I was happy to do that.

Casemiro wanted to leave as we had no European football. Varane had signed a new contract so I was able to sell him for money which was quite handy.

Antony goes on loan with Monaco paying 70% of his wages, with an optional fee of 35 mil in the deal, which I'm hoping they take up as I have no intention to use him.

So on the ins.

So with a lot of outs the rebuild begins and I wanted to be fairly sensible and not buy 9-10 players all at once.

Zambrano is a young cm, who goes straight back out on loan.

Tosin on a free and Guirassy for his release clause are both deals I think we should do in real life so I wanted to bring them in.

Todibo is another player I think will join in real life and I needed a top CB to play in a new system. Neves I have never used before, as lot of people usually do so thought why not he can be the perfect Casemiro replacement.

Illing my last signing is to play as a wingback and I wanted someone young and who I could develop.

I also got the wages from 4.6 mil a week down to 3.2 mill a week, with 4 out of 5 of the top earners leaving the club.

I wanted to use a different tactic to a usual Man Utd save and to what I would usually, so this what we are going with.

So a 3 at the back, with more attacking wingbacks in Illing and Dalot. Shaw will mainly be used as left sided CB. Guirassy is my main striker but had been rotated when I took this, otherwise this is my best 11 that am using.

We have had a good start as well.

The Arsenal loss we conceded a late goal in a very even game, and the Liverpool game we were 2-0 up and Martinez got sent off and Liverpool scored 2 late goals to give them a draw. The 3-4-3 is so far working very well.