[FM24] Lichen grows anywhere, Liechtenstein needs die Alpensonne

[Ceching You Out]

Welcome! I'm dipping my toe back into Football Manager, returning a few years removed from a youth only challenge in Andorra and a similar one in Luxembourg in the more distant past. Those both ended when the inevitable became obvious - our youth intakes topped out far too low to compete in Europe despite a burgeoning league and club reputation. In the meantime I've daydreamed of other ways to build a fun youth only challenge using players from a European minnow. An outdated laptop and other life put those on hold ...until now.

Our goal: introduce the newly evolved FC Liechtenstein to Europe while growing the national team from bottom dwellers to something more competitive.

So what's different this time? Well, a lot. I've used the Pre-game Editor to change FC Dornbirn (chosen for the low reputation and proximity) in the Austrian second division into FC Liechtenstein. Outside of the updated name and some backend modifications to make sure we generate Liechtensteiner youth, the only other changes are tinkering with the Chairman's vision to be more youth friendly; from what I've seen so far, I'm not sure these are going to take anyway.

FC Liechtenstein will operate with a focus on our own youth intake with two transfer exceptions:

1. We can sign previous players from our youth intake
2. We can sign players who qualify for Liechtenstein

Whether either of those becomes substantially relevant is a question awaiting an answer.

My hope is that a more reputable league structure will take the ceiling off our youth intake and allow us to (eventually) produce players capable of playing in top leagues. Because I want to better understand the quality of players we're creating and reacquaint myself with how youth development works, I'll also use the In-game Editor to watch the CA/PA and track a few metrics. No monkeying with attributes, but I do want to better understand whether this challenge is possible. Or ideally, something even more ambitious once I'm back in the FM groove.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

The media picks us to finish 15th (out of 16), having narrowly staved off relegation last season. That paints a picture of the task at hand. Our first goal will be to stay up.

Our facilities are roughly comparable to our league-mates, but lots of room for improvement here if we can find the cash.

Immediate wrinkle as the Chairman insists on a vision we have no intention of meeting:


Well, quick fix since I've got the IGE fired up. So on to our squad.

**WARNING/SPOILER for the remainder of the thread** You'll see the CA/PA of some real players here, albeit just those that play for FC Dornbirn in Austria. This will be limited to the starting squad, plus potentially Liechtensteiner players from the default DB in the future.

 

Looks like our players range from 3 to 4 stars in PCA which maps to 80-100 CA. Our players with the highest upside mostly fall in the 110-120 PA range. For reference 130 is usually considered average for the Premier League. Not a bad standard and frankly that's about where my last two challenges peaked after a decade plus of success in making European competitions, so promising start at least relative to that low bar.

More to come as we start piecing together a tactic that fits our players but we're young and do have room to grow.
 

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Sizeman21]

Nice concept here, CYO. Love a good Austrian save on the forums 

[Ceching You Out]

Much appreciated! It's the style of game I've always wanted to play but struggled to find the right set up. Let's see if I can shake off the cobwebs and do it justice.

We're midway through the 1st season and game #15 about sums it up - not quite what I expected and still not sure what to make of it:

 

We sit midtable, but with only four points separating us from being one of the three (!) teams that gets relegated. Prior to the barnstormer of a last match our defense would've been in the top 1/3 with our offense in the bottom 1/3, but now most signs align on midtable.

Despite that, I'm a bit nervous because (1) I'm still shaking off the rust and don't quite know what I'm doing but (2) this picture painted by our form. 

 

We won our first three games which had me, in a moment of award-winning hubris, wondering whether we'd be in promotion contention this season. But then our form hit the skids and we picked us as many points in the last twelve as those first three. Not good, and likely more ominous given we lost a lot of points against the bottom of the table. Can't count on any "easy" opponents to buoy us if our form starts taking on water.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

These have historically had little relation to the actual quality of an intake, but this earned a chuckle. Projecting our best players are Cs at best, but yet an "Excellent Intake"!

[Ceching You Out]

8 points from our next four games culminated in this, easily our best performance yet. Away at the league leaders and a wide open game where we filled our boots:

 

[Ceching You Out]

Time for the big day. Drumroll please...

 

1. Liechtensteiners across the board, huzzah. I didn't botch my pre-game editing.
2. A couple of promising players in (24a) Goop and (24b) Nickel. If things go well, they'll just about contribute by the time they're nearing their potential.
3. (24h Agsten), (24l) Simon, (24n) Doerner, and (24o) Eppert are longshots given our worst starters are ~85 CA.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

Took a little persuading but we're off to the (improvement) races!

[Ceching You Out]

Quick wrap on our season and then we'll do a little reflecting and strategizing:

• In the end, we were comfortably not in the relegation battle. We started the second half of the season (below the blue line) in solid form only losing three in twelve and piling up 22 points. At that point we were mathematically safe, so heavy rotation for the last three games means they weren't indicative of much.
• We scored the 6th most goals and allowed the 9th fewest. Those underlying numbers are better than our finish, and likely even a cause for optimism if you adjust for the last 3 games we punted for development opportunities
• Our striker finished second in the golden boot with 14 goals, largely because he tailed off over the last few games including a couple of 5.8 ratings in the home stretch.

 

We played a 4-2-3-1 throughout the season with small adjustments here or there. I won't take much credit here since the foundation is pretty stock and my changes were generally to make it less aggressive or distinct. The starting lineup here is reflective of a nearly set first 11. We don't quite have the depth to chop and change, but more on that soon.

[Ceching You Out]

As mentioned above, we've settled into this 4-2-3-1 for the foreseeable future. Most of our goals come from our IFs or WBs crossing or cutting back, creating a good number of chances for Fetahu. He led the league last season in xG so a lot to like there.

Our two CMs generally will join the attack only after sustained possession which is exactly what I want. I want them to prioritize moving the ball around and winning second balls over getting into the attack.

We're maybe fractionally too attacking with both WBs, but we struggle to get numbers forward otherwise given what I ask of our CMs.

When you look at our best players by CA, you can start to see the logic here. Three of our best five players are defenders; the other two are CMs. These are our "leading" players for the division so as they go we go.

During last season there was a question of whether we'd be able to hang on to a couple of the top five. Cavafe and Nussbaumer decided pretty early on that they wanted to explore their options. Ultimately they returned, which is probably the difference between us looking to consolidate at the top of the table versus trying to avoid the relegation battle.

Despite being picked to finish 13th by the media, I think we have a realistic shot at the top third of the table. Then, depending on the player growth and our luck in retaining players (most have contracts for the year + another year option), we could push for promotion in the next 1-2 years if things break right.

Over the last year Bitsche (our best player) grew by 5 CA points starting every game. That's not nothing, but it's sobering when looking at the relative distant but good PAs. Some of our young players won't reach anywhere near their potential if that's the growth rate we should expect.

I'm blaming a lot of that on being a Semi-Professional club with average training facilities. Both are going to be reliant on cash that I don't expect to see until we get promoted, especially when I'm using any clout I build with the board to push for youth recruitment and junior coaching improvements. Players first, then the money should come.

 

[Ceching You Out]

3 points better than last year at the halfway mark. Hard to decide how I feel about it. On one hand, we're clearly better and we've been more competitive in the games where we've dropped points. On the other, we've hardly clicked relative to the second half of last season. Our ST is sputtering for goals and we've not always been value for the points we've picked up.

 

[Ceching You Out]

If this doesn't get you excited... (then you can probably recognize the cognitive dissonance).

[Ceching You Out]

Before we get to see the spoils of our recruitment we did sneak in these, although my understanding is the effect is phased in over a 4-5 year period so impact would be marginal this year. Interesting that once again one of the requests (Youth Recruitment again?) required pushing the Board.

 

Tangentially related, but more of a digression - I had already written off my ability to find any Liechtensteiner players worth signing (despite giving myself that latitude as part of this save). In a pique of brilliance, or really more an idea that should've already occurred to me, I started manually looking through FC Vaduz's roster. For the uninitiated they're a proper Liechtensteiner club based in the Swiss league, but limited in terms of European participation by hardcoded restrictions (no CL qualification via league, maybe not Europa either). That limitation was enough to prevent me from trying a similar save setup there, but they're potentially another (the only?) consistent source of Liechtensteiner players.

My intention is not to use the editor to check the CA/PA of transfers since that feels a bit much. However, I'd forgotten that my baseline report with those attributes is applied when I look at other clubs. So since that genie is out of the bottle let's take a look behind the scenes and theory craft since the lack of an actionable path forward will become clear.

Salaries for the first teamers pretty quickly dwarf our budget which is ~$900K per year in total and currently maxing out at ~$55K per year for our highest rated player. No real disappointment there since I'll naturally be more interested in the youth. But while at least one first team player is within my scouting range, but apparently the youth teams aren't. Strange. But I can force the issue at a few $K per report, which is worth at least a cursory glance since an Transfer Inquiry was immediately knocked back.

I'd snap their hand off to take any of the top four, but likely Caroccia too. When I scout Maier, I see his transfer value is $180K-$550K. Woof. Moving every available dime from salary into transfer budget would give me a shot at the lower end of that (if accurate). That's technically doable but I'm concerned on the squad/board impact of paying a relatively massive fee (at the expense of future facility upgrades) for a player. Heaping pressure on a young kid who still needs to substantially grow to be a serious rotation player feels like a luxury move. Still, 130 PA potential means Bucher could be an average Premier League player and the others a little below. The next four would in our top five by PA as well.

Actually, Bucher has an agent so I can ask there. No interest in joining us and he thinks Vaduz would want $230-750K. Another data point.

We'll have to revisit Vaduz and the wider Liechtensteiner diaspora once we've got a little more cash to spend. Supplementing our academy with 120+ PA players could be an extra way to stock our youth pipeline.

[Ceching You Out]

A couple CM-types to like here based on potential and decent-ish starting CA. I think we'll start only signing the youth above a certain PA since apparently you can't cancel a youth contract anymore? Either that or the club won't let me, or I'm too thick to figure out where it is in menus.

 

[Ceching You Out]

Well, our striker Fetahu had been uninterested in negotiating with us until we assured our stay in the division (which is all but a formality now) but before he'd discuss a contact this happened. Side note - realized I'd missed my planned mid-season update so suffice it to say we're about where we were last season on points but better in rank.

Okay, let's discuss then. Oh no... that is expensive. Doubling our current highest salary. Don't think we'll be able to get a deal done.

 

The good news: he agreed to the above. The bad news: I'm not sure he'll actually take this deal over the offer from Albania and it is a ridiculous overpay under any other circumstances. There's a pretty steep drop off after him, either to one of our STs from the academy or shifting an IF and then backfilling there the same way.

If he does sign, we're going to need to make a hard push for promotion next season and/or get creative in finding an Liechtensteiner ST. Otherwise we're taking a big step back unless one of our young 'uns performs way over their head as a below caliber starter.

[Ceching You Out]

He signed it. Too soon for regrets? I wouldn't have been too sad if he hadn't, although it would've been a minor setback. I think the phrase is something like "a fair negotiation leaves both sides hurting a bit". Hopefully he left something on the table to stay with us, otherwise we outbid ourselves like summer fools.

[Ceching You Out]

We finish the season in seventh on 44 points, four spots better and the same in points. It's less progress than it had felt like, especially considering last season I fully rotated to youth for the last three games essentially punting them. Looking at Goals For/Against, xG For/Against, and GD we're basically where you'd expect.

I find that a little disheartening, honestly. At this rate it will be a slog to challenge for promotion and any thoughts otherwise might have been wildly off base. So let's go digging for some optimism...

(1) We've seen significant development year over year is possible

Not common (level of our facilities? Semi-pro?), but possible. 10-12 points isn't bad and gives us some hope that a 16 year old coming through with a CA in the 50s can max out at our current starter level (~90s).

 

(2) Florian Dankert

He's made the biggest strides we've seen so far, finishing the season at age 18 with CA 83. Florian started the save in our academy as essentially youth intake 2022. He may hit his PA ceiling at 107 with two more good years, plus he has a lovely personality. I'd love to see his physicals pop next. He's been called up to the senior Liechtensteiner team once already but didn't make an appearance. Still pretty cool.

 

(3) We've managed the above without me really understanding U18 sides in Austria

Okay maybe I'm reaching here but our U18s didn't play any matches that I can tell outside of a few friendlies. It looks like maybe I need to send players to our affiliate in the Austrian Youth Academy League? Not sure. If they're not playing competitive games it's hard to imagine figuring that out would hurt our chances.

 

(4) Last but not least - we've upgraded both our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment twice so far in as many years

Hopefully this accelerates the contributions of our academy in the near future. So far we've been stretching to give youth opportunities despite ridiculously low CA, but if I squint I can see better and more players on the horizon. (I may just need glasses.)

[Ceching You Out]

Here's how our roster looks at the end of the season, with some work to do to keep a couple of our starters:

 

[Ceching You Out]

This is interesting. Vaduz is willing to negotiate for one of their high potential players, but the odds of getting to something within our $100K transfer budget is pretty negligible. That's all in wondering if we could, much less should.

[Ceching You Out]

I'm humbled. But not that humbled, because I didn't actually win.

[Ceching You Out]

Such a bizarre turn. Signed a contract on June 4th, then three weeks later this:

 

He's one of our most influential players (in fact, our captain) and I was already on the fence about re-signing a 30 year old who slightly regressed over the last year. Time to see what interest his agent can drum up.

 

EDIT: Hmmm, Bitsche is unhappy now too after a similar situation. I wonder if our reputation reset from the end-of-season high and now they're regretting signing. Far less keen to let Bitsche go, however.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

$450K? Deal! Suppose it's time to see if Vaduz will let one (or more) of their promising Liechtensteiner youngsters go then.

[Ceching You Out]

Oh aren't I clever [facepalm].

[Ceching You Out]

Missed the typical update at the halfway mark because our internet connection stopped working for a few days. In the meantime I'd finished the season so let's start with the end result:

We finished 11th with a GD of exactly 0. We were a top 4 sides on Goals For and relegation material on Goals Against. That's a change, I suppose. There were no changes to tactics or radical personnel shifts but I'm going to chalk it up to what I think was the story of the year. Santin and Popovic, two starters, left us before the season started and despite feeling clever I couldn't buy any of Vaduz's youngsters that I had my eye on. But more importantly our starting CM pair Nussbaumer and Bitsche both went through periods of significant unhappiness at remaining with the club. They're significant figures in terms of morale and I think that left us a bit frayed. We flirted with the edge of the relegation, but obviously had enough quality to not (quite) get sucked in.

 

This however was [chef's kiss].

Labels are missing because I had load a bookmarked save for the screenshot, but 8 (!) players over 105 PA and 5 (!) over 120. Some decent personalities sprinkled in too. We may just have to raise our expectations now.

 

Finally convinced our Board to upgrade these at the end of the season. Turns out I just need to say it's very important to me rather than arguing logic. That might hit a little too close to home!

 

[Ceching You Out]

Squad by PA:

 

Squad by CA:

 

Given:

1. Our morale woes from wantaway players
2. Our influx of high potential kids which should only get better with the next round of improvements
3. We are in need of small amounts of cash to stay positive
4. Our personalities aren't the best, especially in our influential players

I'm considering clearing out many of our non-intake players if I can get reasonable sums. Our CB pairing of Cavafe, Marceta, and (maybe) Mathis will likely be the only non-native survivors of the bloodletting. I'd have kept Rush too but he's already leaving us on a free after refusing to even negotiate a contract. That means shopping Bitsche, Nussbaumer, Fetahu, Moosbrugger, and Mandl. I extended most of their contracts where I could in anticipation that this summer I'd be trying to maximize a fee. Not sure it will work.

As far as players I'd still consider buying, that list has shrunk knowing the type of quality my academy can produce now. But there's still Otto, whispering sweet nothings with his CA 97 out of 123 PA. He'd cost a bit more than the $400K deal that fell through due his disinterest at the beginning of the season but manageable. My hang up is his request to more than double his salary from $52k to $124k on the low end. Disrupts our wage structure a bit, 

[Ceching You Out]

After sleeping on this (as much as you can with a newborn) and further pondering, I've decided that #4 above is the key factor. I want to focus on better cultivating the personalities at the club. We'll likely take a hit in performances in the near-term but I'm expecting that we'll stay clear of the relegation battle and, crucially, get our squad personality moving while we're still pretty flexible.

So that means:

SELL

Mandl - 84 CA / 98 PA @ 22. Solid contributor but he'd likely be demoted next season regardless, and that low Determination is a problem.

 

Nussbaumer - 96 CA / 113 PA @ 26. One of our locked on CM starters to this point. Unlikely to develop further and getting eclipsed by others in PA already; CA might follow. Want-away and I think I can get towards the higher range of his value. Adequate Professionalism (9) and Determination (10) at best and a big voice in the locker room.

 

Moosbrugger - 86 CA / 101 PA @ 21. Backup DC with okay CA and a PA that's definitely getting eclipsed. Adequate Professionalism (9) at best.

 

Bitsche - 101 CA / 118 PA @ 23. Another huge locker room influence and a player who I'd slightly rather keep since he's adequate in Professionalism (10), Determination is good (13), and there's a significant drop off to his replacement. He's already asked to leave if we receive a significant bid; I pushed it to $1.2M but will likely take what we can get so we don't start another season with him spreading bad vibes because he wants to leave.

 

KEEP, unless circumstances change

Fetahu - 96 CA / 114 PA @ 23. Starting ST although he's been very inconsistent outside of the first year. May be down to my tactics, honestly. I rather like the look of him too. Determination and Professionalism are both 9, so barely adequate. It would take him asking out or a significant bid for me to let him go next season, but he's likely on the chopping block after that.

 

Marceta - 101 CA / 117 PA @ 26. Starting DC and a good player but another one whose performances don't quite match his ability, although not to the same extent as Fetahu. Good Determination but Professionalism is 9. He'll stay another season unless he asks out or a sizeable bid comes in (I've got an extension clause).

 

Mathis - 94 CA / 108 PA @ 22. I've been happy with his performance all three years, especially as a converted CM played AMC. Determination is good (13), Professionalism is adequate (9). Low value for some reason so I find it hard to believe we'll see him leave, plus I'd rather hold on to him anyway.

 

Cavafe - 97 CA / 116 PA @ 27. We'll keep him another year since he's a good player, our captain, our best "mentor" for other bad personalities in the squad (being very generous with that word) now that I'm paying attention to that, and I'm loathe to disrupt both ends of the team at the same time. We'll need either our attack or defense to keep us out of relegation. Good Professionalism (13) but borderline Determination (8).

[Ceching You Out]

Laughable for a fresh youth player with (relatively) high CA and PA. But I think it's a result of our Liechtensteiner players in general being valued very low relative to other Europeans. Maybe a quirk of how reputation works?

[Ceching You Out]

I'd decided to keep Bitsche after the market dried up quickly in the summer, leaving expected offers of <$300K. We started the season hot, 7 points from 3 games. Leoben made a paltry offer (well, actually decent - $525K). I got cute negotiating it and they agreed to $1.4M. Still tempted to cancel but I'd promised him he could leave if my valuation was met. Not sure where to check that figure but needless to say it was less than this fee.

I wouldn't be sad if he turns them down. Looked like he would require some persuading by Leoben.

 

EDIT: He gone. Although for a 10x pay increase I can see how he was convinced.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

That money (and more) quickly becomes training facility upgrades, both youth and senior.

 

[Ceching You Out]

Maybe those upgrades weren't the best idea... because now we've got ownership stepping in to do this, leaving us incredibly short of quality at the back. Woof.

[Ceching You Out]

The hits just keep coming. Quite the battering to ensure we only take 1 point from our next 4 games, despite starting the season with two wins and a draw. We're in trouble.

[Ceching You Out]

This makes for grim reading, and to be completely honest I'm absolutely shocked I've held on to the job this long. Hanging on by my fingernails now after two meetings with the board.

We are short on quality but it's more than that. Once we started losing we simply couldn't stop. Solidly midtable in attack but not nearly good enough to overcome our defense which simply can't stop leaking. Selling Marceta was cruel. If we could just win one, there's a chance of rebounding. Next game is against 15th place Bregenz so we either take a step the right direction or it'll be time for v2 of this "challenge".

[Ceching You Out]

I could laugh or cry... stoppage time equalizer off a needless free kick. After we'd only converted 1 of 2 penalties and won every other metric.

 

I don't think we'll be around to appreciate this, but... yay?

[Ceching You Out]

Well, a draw (versus #15, above) and a loss (versus #11) is apparently enough to restore the Board's confidence? If only it was enough to restore mine.

[Ceching You Out]

Not a bad intake at all, although maybe my expectations had been higher. I'm this close to just not labeling them - ready for the Board to put me out of my misery here.

Let's come back to this if we stay up. In more important news:
 

WE DID IT! Against the team that kicked off the losing streak. Now we've got 10 games left to catch a team 6 points ahead of us (more like 7 given GD) and 2 games in hand. Surely we've left it too late.

[Ceching You Out]

(26f) Voigt strikes in stoppage time to lift us to victory over the 4th place side in a game with few scoring opportunities. What does that mean for us?

Well, somehow, between the terrible performances by clubs around us and a mini-run of form (two win and a draw) we're 1 point back from safety. Stripfing has a game in hand, however, and the GD advantage. We play them on the last match week in what could be a very consequential match.

 

[Ceching You Out]

A win versus fellow relegation contenders Poelten and a loss to Liefering, RB Salzburg's B Team, and we enter the final match week like this:

Other results went our way, leaving us a very simple scenario. Win or draw versus Stripfing and we miraculously survive a season with a 17 game losing streak. I'm feeling confident, and that feels strange.

[Ceching You Out]

Live Commenting Match Day 30 - relegation on the line

 

10' - Tattermusch wins a header from a corner. My heart climbs up my throat - we've given up a lot of goals like this. The ball loops harmlessly over.

 

 

20' - (25b) Draxler chops the ball back and lays it off just outside the box for a charging (25a) Klinger. His low, powerful drive can't be stopped. LIECHTENSTEIN 1-0!

 

 

43' - (26f) Voigt drives a free kick to the far corner of the 6 yard box. (26g) Bender, an injury enforced starter, heads goalwards. The keeper Kretschmer flaps at it over his shoulder, keeping it out of the goal but pushing it into the dangerzone. Dankert stoops for a tap-in header. LIECHTENSTEIN 2-0! We've done it! Wait, no... called back for offsides.

 

 

Halftime - we finish the first 45 with momentum solidly in our favor, a decent advantage in xG (.90 to .34), and 66% of possession. Stripfing's risk-adverse 5-3-2 isn't causing too many problems.

 

 

50' - (25b) Draxler plays Fetahu through in the final third and he fires confidently back post. Has our offside king has gone too early yet again? The linesman hesitates... and then retreats back the line. Fetahu knee slides. Replay shows he was a step onside. LIECHTENSTEIN 2-0!

 

 

74' - Cavafe, our captain who's already made a huge fuss about leaving in the summer, subs off for what could be the last time. (25b) Draxler also makes way.

 

 

83' - Mathis picks up the ball from a few yards outside the corner of the box, accelerates towards the middle, and bends his shot towards the top bin. Put the cherry on-- nooo, it hits the post and comes back out. The man who's carried us this season perhaps the most doesn't add his name to the goal scorer's list in this de facto final.

 

 

85' - Mathis and (26f) Voigt make way, although tired legs are littered across the pitch. (26a) Behm also joins them on the bench as we use the full complement. The rest will have to see it out.

 

 

Fulltime - job done. We've somehow, someway salvaged our season. More analysis to come!

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[TelcontarTargaryen]

Talking about the narrow escape...

[Ceching You Out]

1 hour ago, TelcontarTargaryen said:

Talking about the narrow escape...

Honestly, it was a ridiculous escape. We figured it out with very little time to spare. That's 17 weeks in the relegation places! We finished the last five games with top 3 form, and that was needed to stay up.

[Ceching You Out]

2026-2027 Season Review

 

My days of religiously creating season reviews is likely over, but I think this one deserves special attention. It may genuinely be my favorite season I've ever played of FM - both humbling and vindicating.

We were projected 11th, which would have matched our finish last year. That felt accurate, insomuch as we were very unlikely to challenge for promotion. Given our more tenured players were already a struggle to keep and our youth intakes had come a long way, I decided to bite the bullet and treat it as a transition year. You can find the post above where I hemmed and hawed on how deep to cut. Ultimately I landed on keeping Mathis, Fetahu, Cavafe, Marceta, and Bitsche (at least for the season). The latter was a bit of a surprise but his value on the market peaked early in the cycle at $500K and I thought he was worth more. We agreed he could leave if we received an offer of $1.2M; waiting it out only led to lower and lower offers. I was not heartbroken.

We win two and draw a third we really should've won. "I've nailed it," I thought, conveniently forgetting that hubris is my toxic trait. DSV Leoben then decides to throw money at us for Bitsche. $400K doesn't move the needle, so I counter with $1.2M. They raise their offer to $600K. I laugh and counter with $1.4M, shrewdly negotiating them into giving up. Then they pay it. I stared at the screen for five minutes contemplating which kind of right I want to be - as I'd originally planned with an absurd fee or with Bitsche in the team another year. Because of the promise, I ship him off.

 

We are now thin in terms of depth, but where I'd originally targeted. Flush with $1.4M cash, I negotiated with Vaduz for Julian Otto. Otto is very talented with some room to grow (~95 CA at the time, 123 PA), which would immediately make him a top 3 player for us. Lovely personality too. After a few attempts, we're able to settle on $350K. But now, two months later to be fair, Otto is no longer interested in the $75-100K salary range I'd talked his agent into. Now it's $20K more when even $75K would make him our highest paid player by $5-10K. We're tough negotiators so I decide to wait for another option to talk his agent down.

It doesn't come. After a month he signs a new contract with Vaduz. Now he costs an extra $100K because he's signed for another year and even less interested in a lower salary. "Opportunity missed, but our balance sheet is important." Is probably what someone who is getting a normal amount of sleep and not playing in between feeding a newborn would say.

Fearlessly, I fire off two requests to upgrade our training facilities. "They won't say yes to Youth, so let's ask for both," I reason, in a very unreasonable way. I am stunned when the Board drops $2.2M on both, throwing us into a financial hole. A paltry offer comes in for Marceta, one of our starting DCs. I am uninterested in losing him. After flat refusing a few offers on deadline day, the Board says I am indeed very interested in losing him for $425K to throw into our bottomless pit that is supposed to resemble a bank account.

Now I know we're in trouble. We have youth defenders to very loosely bandaid one starting spot between a couple of options. We do not have two. At least not on top of the other glaring tranches I carved into our midfield and attack. This is where our form absolutely craters. I would've once considered myself very tactically adept, but those years have like the hair on my head - both mostly receding at this point. I try more defensive, more offensive versions of our 4-2-3-1 but our defense is always the weak link. If we try to outscore it, we give up more goals. If we try to lock down, our attack is non-existent and we're still vulnerable to crosses lumped into the box against our relatively short defense designed to play higher up the field.

As far as I recall, for the first time in my FM career I'm expecting to get the sack mid-season. You simply can't employ someone who's still gleefully adding to a ten match losing streak. That's executive malfeasance. The Board wants to talk to me. "I'm turning the ship around," I lied to them. "This squad can still stay up." We lose again to Stripfing by 6-2.

The Board wants to meet again, reiterating that I will be fired if I don't show up. Showing up is all we've been doing this season, so let's just see the thing out. The Board is easily convinced by claims that the easier part of our schedule is coming up, so they give me another month. To be fair, we do play a couple teams in the bottom five. We draw the first after not seeing the reward for generating lots of xG and then conceding in stoppage time, take a long holiday break to eat up the rest of that month, lose the other when (1) Broemer, our GK punches a corner, (2) breaks his arm and collapses, (3) they volley directly into the net.

Somehow our Board looks at those results and decides "Yeah, this is the guy. He's got this." I'm not taken out of my misery. I begin speeding through, match to match, unable to quite quit but reading the 98 point font Comic Sans on the wall. Youth intake looks great, sure. Every tactical tweak fails, why not? In desperation and not at all in anyway a coherent tactical change, I swap our AML/AMR to Winger and DR/DL to IWBs because they match the skillsets of the players. Do those DR/DL instructions make sense when neither of our CMs leave that space and, in fact, our initial set up was designed so they would nearly always occupy that space to win second balls? I think you know it doesn't. It doesn't at all.

We beat Steyr in a relatively low xG affair, Fetahu scoring 2 minutes in and suffocating (but controlling) the rest of the match. A drowning man will grab any branch, so we stick with what feels a nonsensical tactic through the rest of the season sparking a mini-streak of form.

Once we smothered Poelten to climb out of the bottom three and saw how wretched form was around us, safety felt inevitable. Liefering punched us in the mouth late, but earlier in the season it would've been a disaster class hiding. Our GD reflects how many games where we simply capitulated. This time we battled, and results elsewhere were as good as a win. Just a draw was needed for safety and struggling Stripfing were in no shape to defend themselves, only suffer.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

2026-2027 Season Reflections

In FM I have, generally speaking, always prioritized improving the possibilities several years down the road. I sell veterans and start youngsters too soon, I make long-term prudent but short-term aggressive financial decisions, I look for a tactic that can be maintained versus recreated. You know the type. This season I did too much and our margin for error was razor.

Now we're in an absolutely fascinating spot. A few of our young players, over their heads at the beginning of the season, turned into quality players by the end. More, I genuinely think, spitting in the face of any aforementioned hubris, that we're now a promotion-challenging team in the next 2-3 seasons because their trajectory is ridiculous.

These PAs are absurd. For reference, players like Bitsche and Santin who we sold reached CAs of ~100. We've got a whole page of players that could reach that. I think ~110 is solid Austrian Premier League level. For example, Altach dropped down to our league in the 2024-2025 season, won 2025-2026, and now finished comfortably midtable in the Premier League. Their players are all between 100-120 CA. The top of the table with RB Salzburg is a different story, but we're not dreaming anywhere that big yet.

We've got a couple gems that I'll share mostly without comment. These don't even include any of our class from 2027!

(26a) Behm - 90 CA / 131 PA @ 16 (!)

 

(26f) Voigt - 85 CA / 121 PA @ 17

 

(25a) Klinger - 84 CA / 118 PA @ 18

 

Easy to look at those players, hear the optimism, and think "Sure, 'exciting' maybe but 'fascinating'? Really?" Here's the other part of the equation.

Our financial hole has gained gravity, threatening to suck everything into it. Our Academy is triple exclamation point expensive. We ended up spending nothing on transfers, excised our payroll of several $100Ks versus expectations, and yet we're heavily negative. If we take out the facilities and Bitsche's transfer, it's closer to a $200K loss. But that includes ~$900K of player sales. Simply put, we're generating crazy quality youth but we can't afford it at this level without sales.

 

Sell some players then surely? The type of gems mentioned above would put a dent in that gap. Well, here's the wrinkle - they're not worth much at all. We fought off derisory bids for our players in January that capped out at $50K. Capped out at $50K! That's nothing. Some combination of our financial state, reputations of both club and players, and contracts means the AI just will not value our young players appropriately. I received a dozen $0 offers for our best youth that made me want to call up a Board Chairman and yell.

I think in a roundabout way it's a double edged sword. The players can't be sold to shrink the event horizon of our financial black hole, but the Board also hasn't stepped in to force the issue (largely because I think they're not worth enough to even make the slightest dent). In real life, I'd expect a player like (26a) Behm to get sold for a few million to a top league side. But in real life, it's incredibly unlikely a Board would sanction the kind of profligate spending on our Academy in the first place.

Where it gets fascinating, at least for me - I have no idea how the Board will approach our finances. Will they eventually force austerity measures or desperately start selling players for pittances? We have one original player (Fetahu) under contract for next season and he'll fetch maybe $400K. That strategy probably won't actually help unless they "sell off" facilities. Will they try to paper things over with a hefty bank loan? Not sure where those payments are coming from unless we get promoted quick-ish. Can we actually get wound up?

Are there other options? We're about to test the FM financial module in a unique way.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

In light of all that, this feels... wildly aggressive. I appreciate that they're largely rolling over our transfer budget but we wouldn't survive a nearly $4M transfer outlay.

[Ceching You Out]

Board leapt at this offer, although to be fair to them it's quite fair. My only annoyance is I'd just set up a mentoring group for Fetahu!

 

EDIT: Well that's a surprise. Must come back in for him, right?

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

1. I'd mistakenly thought Covafe was on an expiring contract in earlier posts. Not sad that he's not.
2. That makes this an interesting decision point. How much is enough to part with him? Same club that significantly overpaid for Bitsche last summer.

 

EDIT: I decided to ask for $1.2M which they promptly refused. That's an okay outcome.

[Ceching You Out]

What a difference a year makes. Last year we'd slumped into the halfway mark on 8 points and were deep in the middle of a losing streak. This year, slightly better I think?

We are a free-scoring, free-defending side. Best and worst in the division respectively. I don't think we're tactically set up for end-to-end affairs but apparently we are. One contributor, that frankly I just need a place to vent about, is our defense on corner. We're not a massively tall side but each of our seasons I've winced whenever we give up a corner. We seem just so disproportionately vulnerable. I had tweaked our balance between Aerial and Markers, tried Zonal vs Man, and it was all deck chairs on the Titanic.

Lo and behold, I check who has been assigned to Aerial category and the coach responsible for set pieces is a lunatic. (24b) Nickel, a DM-type at 5'9" is one of our top 3 Aerial Defenders. Ostensibly because he's Strong and good at Positioning. I didn't see an option to grab the coach by the collar and shake him. Madness, absolute madness. I suspect that will help our leakiness.

Fetahu, our last representative from our initial squad, realized no further offers were coming in and dropped his concerns. I re-signed him for an extra year + option; he may very well not be our first choice by that point but at a minimum I'm hoping to lock in value for an eventual sale. Our Board seems to have taken the unexpected option regarding our finances - do nothing. We're racking up quite the bill, but no panic selling either (yet).

The back half of the season sets up an interesting title race that, on least on paper, we're firmly in. Liefering is ineligible for promotion as a B-side so we're only 3 points (and a substantial GD) back. We've historically been better in the back half as we capitalize on in-season player growth. I don't think we can quite pull it off - we're playing a bit over our heads and we don't match up well with either side above us, losing to both already.

Even if we do get promoted, our time in the Austrian Premier League would likely be incredibly short. Just not enough quality, although we would only have to be better than a single team to stay up. I'm assuming the money and reputation boost would mean a sale or two would more than fix our budget woes.

 

EDIT: Two other notes:

1. We went until match week 14 before drawing our first game. Swingy.
2. 28 points for the leader is about even with the worst league-winning pace we've seen (54 by SV Ried in the first season). Since then the winners have been on 64-68 points.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Ceching You Out

[Ceching You Out]

I'm beginning to think this is, once again, not very informative. Reads like my favorite kind of Amazon Review. "Terrible product. Too many sharp edges, my child lost a finger. 5/5 stars."

 

[Ceching You Out]

Another twist in the tale (before we even push for promotion). Altach banged down our door for (26f) Voigt and it became unavoidable. Pretty moderate sum for an 18 year old who's 91 CA / 121 PA but feels realistic given our finances (terrible).

NOTE: I do play around with transfers when the Board accepts an offer over my head. I think the way FM implements owner logic here is poor - I'd much prefer they tell me "We've decided we're selling this player given the fee; you're welcome to try to beat it."

In this case, they accepted a $400K fee. I reloaded a save from shortly before and tried different variations of upping the fee, changing the structure, etc. knowing that I'd always make sure the outcome was a sale. Ultimately I got a friendly and sell-on clause which makes everyone happy.

There were a couple ways to ensure (26f) Voigt stayed, like continuously offering him out for an excessive fee until the deadline passed or agreeing to a fee then cancelling the deal. But I'm not looking to game the system, just maximize in a way I'd expect the Board to actually do.

[Ceching You Out]

We got to test ourselves against Vienna (2nd in Premier League) in the Cup Quarterfinals and it was a mixed bag. A late penalty for them made the score line look worse, but it also wasn't close before that.

[Ceching You Out]

More of a spread of nationalities here, but significantly worse than last year. Only one 120+ and one 110+ so we'll be hoping the rest of the 100+ are contributors. General low CA too unless we have fast growers. Bah.