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. 

[sedge11]

Spoiler

On 29/03/2024 at 09:38, sedge11 said:

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.

 

 

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.

Kind of predicting real life, if Ten Hag goes at the end of the season.

So I holidayed until the end of the season and this is how the season finished.

So 6th place means I'm taking over with no champions league football and will have to settle for the Europa league, but all adds to the fun.

The summer is going well, I have managed to sell a few of the players I wanted to and wanted to keep it semi realistic with maybe 4-5 out and then 3-4 in, then I got this offer.

I had a plan to keep Bruno for a season or 2 before potentially selling him, but Saudi have been sniffing round, at first they offered 50 mil up front, with 59 mil in installments which I rejected. They have now come back with this offer and I have just got to accept it, so this summer is going to be bigger than expected.

 

[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 21 hours ago by vrig