[FM24] Vigo - Rise of the Celts

[DavutOzkan]

All that money and the board still is taking 30% of transfer revenue. 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, DavutOzkan said:

the board still is taking 30% of transfer revenue

Yeah, at the start of the save there's a big ground expansion, and now they're already talking about building a new stadium. Boards doing board things 

[warlock]

August 2026

Transfer window

This was probably the most difficult window of the save so far and it confirmed my dislike of transfer release clauses.

Even before the window opened, Benfica came out of nowhere with a bid for LWB Fredrik Bjorkan. Yes, it was for £25.5m and represents a huge profit on the £3m we paid for him, but it presented us with a particular problem as good LBs are hard to find and the better ones tend to be very expensive (which is probably why Benfica were interested). And the same thing happened with star CB Igoh Ugbu and a bid from Real Madrid... again, £30m is a big profit on the £10.75m we paid but he wasn't easy to find and would be hard to replace.

Of the business I wanted to do, we moved on DM Hugo Sotelo. He had looked great at the start of the save but didn't develop and I was glad to accept £4.7m from Valencia. We also shifted wantaway RB Sergio Carrera, who joins Stuttgart for £10.25m. Altogether, we raised £70m to add to the £40m provided by the board.

In return we brought in five new signings for a total of £67m.

Our replacement for Carrera cost us £24m from Portugal's Sporting:

Fresnada is a good backup, decent defensively even if he lacks a little going forward.

On the other side, a replacement for Bjorkan was much harder to find. I set up an urgent recruitment focus and threw our best scouts at it and eventually we settled for another player from Sporting:

I wasn't entirely convinced by Lelo but he was the best available (other targets would have smashed our wage structure or just weren't interested), but he's impressed me since he arrived and looked good in pre-season friendlies.

Sotelo's departure left a backup-shaped hole in defensive midfield, which was filled by a signing from Osasuna:

Munoz cost us £6.75m and on paper looked very much a backup, but he was a key player in his first pre-season friendly as he scored one and setup another. He's also looked good in his first two competitive games, earning a 7.5 average rating.

When faced with the prospect of replacing Ugbu it quickly became obvious that a like-for-like replacement was going be both difficult and expensive. I decided on a different route. We had Taylor Harwood-Bellis coming back from a season-long loan and I thought he could do a job as backup to Rafa Marin. So with Starfelt declining with age at LCB I went back to Sporting again for a long-term prospect on the left:

I agree with the coaches that he's not far off first-team level, and he has plenty of time to develop. I'll be trying to give him game time to help him along whenever possible.

I had two lesser problems in the squad: backup AMR Rodriguez is another whose development has stalled after a bright start to his Vigo career, and backup striker Dejan Loveljic has failed to impress in his year at the club. With money available I decided to bring in a long-term prospect to help out up front:

A graduate of the Barcelona academy, Guiu comes in for £15m and we'll be giving him a lot of substitute appearances to try to drive his development.

Our squad for the season looks like this:

We've generally looked good in the opening games of the season:

An early away day to Barcelona provided the highlight - they were by far the better team but we frustrated them, and a PoM performance by GK Hedl secured a point. Less impressive was an identical result away at Valladolid, but three clean sheets can't be bad and eight different scorers in two games also bodes well for our attacking threat.

Aims for this season: the board require us to gain Champions League qualification again, and the media prediction is for us to finish 5th. I'd like us to win our first silverware of the save and the Copa del Rey is probably our best chance.

[warlock]

September 2026

A good start to the season means little if we can't keep the momentum going. Happily, we did that (with one notable exception):

A convincing victory against Cadiz opened the month, quickly followed by a visit from Benfica to get our Champions League campaign underway. Benfica gave us a severe spanking in the competition last season so I was keen to extract revenge and we managed to secure the win with two first-half goals.

The game against Atletico couldn't have been more even:

We took the lead inside 5 minutes but couldn't add to it. Within 5 minutes of the second half, Atleti equalised and only a supersub appearance by Rodriguez scoring inside the last 10 minutes gave us the points. If that game was a struggle, our next Champions League fixture against Spurs was nothing of the sort - we simply capitulated:

The media called it a humiliation and I couldn't argue with that.

For out final game of the month against Athletic I challenged the players to produce a better performance, and they did but only just:

We got off to the worst possible start as the visitors scored within three minutes, and we didn't get our own game going until the second half after the hairdryer was applied during the interval. Only a superb display of goalkeeping from Hedl saved us from another embarrassment.

To be fair, we were severely hampered by injuries this month as we lost three of four fullbacks - on the right we lost Mendy with a dislocated shoulder and he's been out since the end of August, while we also lost both leftbacks - Bartesaghi with a month-long ankle injury, and new boy Lelo with a twisted knee that meant he missed the second half of the month. Having to play two centrebacks out wide meant we were stretched defensively but also lost much of our attacking thrust out wide.

On balance, and the Spurs match aside, we did well enough and that's reflected in our league position:

 

[warlock]

October 2026

Our excellent season continues and we actually managed to improve in October with a set of results that has me dreaming of things that we have no business dreaming of at this stage of the save:

That's a great set of results, although we need to bear in mind that we faced no top class opponents this month. Also, while the results were impressive, performances were no quite so clear cut. We needed three goals in the final 15 minutes to see off Betis, and more late goals to secure the wins against a tricky Las Palmas side and Villareal.

Other things of note include an immediate return to form by Bartesaghi after a long injury layoff, Strand Larsen putting together a good run to score 6 goals this month, and young striker Marc Guiu bagging his first senior goal.

And where does that leave us?

We're one of only two unbeaten teams alongside Barcelona, but they have failed to win 5 of their games while we have dropped points in just two. We boast the best offence in the league, and the fourth best defence:

Hedl leads the league with 6 clean sheets, and our scoring performance is bolstered by the fact that we get goals from a variety of sources:

We begin November with a trip to Leipzig in the Champions League, which may give us a bit of a reality check. Otherwise, we continue to dream...

[warlock]

November 2026

Another month in the books and - by and large - another good one. But I highlighted our game against RB Leipzig as a potential obstacle and I wasn't wrong:

The Germans opened a 2-0 lead in the opening half hour but we responded well to level the game before halftime. Unfortunately, Leipzig scored again within 10 minutes of the restart and we couldn't find another equaliser. Not a terrible result, but it underlined the fact that we're still some way short of Europe's best.

The remainder of the month was pretty straightforward with three league victories and a resounding hammering of Anderlecht away. It was also another good month offensively, with Larsen picking up another 6 goals to take his tally for the season to 14 in all competitions. This could be his most prolific season of the save so far.

December will be true test of our credentials as we face Real Madrid, Valencia and Real Sociedad in LaLiga. We're still 4pts ahead of Madrid but they have a game in hand, while Valencia and Sociedad are fighting it out in 5th and 6th positions. If we do well we could open a definite gap at the top of the table; if we struggle we could slip to third below Real and Barcelona. 

[Stuniverse]

I've been away for a week and am just catching up, @warlock.

What a fantastic start to the season!

[karanhsingh]

I've caught up with this thread and quickly your Saints one as well. Making some quick work of FM24! I like that you are never buying superstars though. Keep it going!

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Stuniverse said:

I've been away for a week

Cheers, mate. Hope you had a good time in Scotland 

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

I've caught up with this thread

I doubt you've been in Scotland so assume you've had real-life issues - the curse of the FM manager 

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

I doubt you've been in Scotland so assume you've had real-life issues - the curse of the FM manager 

No "issues" as such, we had twins 10 months ago making it 3 babies in total, which as you can imagine has made the 24 hours in a day seem very less indeed...

However FM24 has been gathering dust on my shelf for months (I know it's a digital copy so figuratively) - so I am intent on sinking my teeth into it now that work season is a bit lighter over the summer.

[warlock]

December 2026

A tricky month but we came through with one major high, and one minor disappointment:

We entertained RB Salzburg in the latest round of Champions League fixtures and did well. A goal in each half gave us the victory without too much drama. And the same was true when we returned to LaLiga action with a straightforward win over Valencia.

Then came the surprise... away at Real Madrid we not only won but won in style with a dominating performance:

AML Rego got us off to a flying start with a goal inside 2 minutes and we were 3-0 up before Madrid got a foothold in the game. But if they harbored hopes of a fightback we quickly snuffed that out with an early goal in the second half as Larsen completed a fantastic hat-trick. From there we restricted their chances and GK Hedl was equal to every opportunity.

However, the disappointment soon followed. Sociedad have been our closest rivals to the title of "Best of the Rest" throughout the save and they're hot on our heels again this season. But at home I feel we should have been good enough to claim another victory. We went behind inside 20 minutes but battled back to take the lead with goals either side of the interval. I was confident we could hold on to take the points but they went to an all-out attack late in the second half and we couldn't keep them out.

Instead of opening up a gap over Madrid we have to settle for a slender 2pt lead:

With the transfer window about to open we have one big cloud on the horizon - major interest in Strand Larsen from Chelsea, and the media reporting that the interest is mutual. The only thing in our favour is - for once! - his minimum fee release clause, which stands at £87m and quite a bit above his quoted value of £65-70m. He won't be leaving for a penny less.

Inevitably, there is reported interest in our other leading players - Bayer Leverkusen are looking at RB Mendy; Swedberg is a target for Liverpool, who are also watching first-choice CB Rafa Marin; while the Saudis are circling for LCB Aldarete. 

We'll see what happens.

 

[warlock]

25 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

we had twins 10 months ago

That's a dramatic increase in workload . My youngest celebrates her 25th birthday next week - don't know where the time went 

[Alejandro_FM]

Great start to season 4. Brilliant display against Real. Who's managing them at the moment? I can't recall if you've mentioned in an earlier post. 

[Stuniverse]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

Then came the surprise... away at Real Madrid we not only won but won in style with a dominating performance

 Awesome, @warlock

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Alejandro_FM said:

Who's managing them at the moment?

Still Ancelotti, still playing the diamond 

Marco Rose is now at Barcelona, playing the infuriating Brazilian box system. Lots of other managerial changes in this world... Luis Enrique is at Man City, Guardiola now at PSG, Zinedine Zidane at Liverpool, Tuchel at Man Utd, Xabi Alonso went to Inter, Klopp retired at the end of season 1 and hasn't worked since.

Edited April 29 by warlock

[SixPointer]

That Real Madrid result!! Battered at the Bernabéu 

[warlock]

February 2027

Transfer window

January turned out to be quiet with little of the reported interest in our players amounting to much. No-one bid for Larsen, which was a relief, and the only minor issue was a Liverpool bid for CB Rafa Marin - he wanted to go, I said I'd agree when someone met his £66m release clause, he said that was fair... then immediately put in a transfer request. However, he seems happy enough to wait for the big money bid.

I did have a number of backup players I felt had reached the end of the road with Vigo and we managed to move most of them on. Disappointing striker Joveljic joined Al-Wehda for £7.5m, a small profit; AML Luca De La Torre had been declining rapidly and was sold to Leicester for £7.5m; and AMR Miguel Rodriguez was loaned to Vitoria de Guimaraes who are paying £130k a month with an optional £3.8m future fee. Finally, we were forced to sell CB Taylor Harwood-Bellis after he complained about a lack of game time and couldn't be persuaded. He went to Lazio in a deal that should reach £10.75m.

With the existing squad depth we had adequate replacements for most of these, but I brought in reinforcements for two positions. At CB I found what I think will be a major upgrade on THB:

Mane joins for £11.25m from Dortmund. He needs some development but at 21 he has plenty of time to improve. He's already made 5 first-team appearances and proved himself to be a capable backup to Marin.

I was uncertain about a replacement for Rodriguez at AMR but when the scouting team flagged a player who had done extremely well in my Southampton save, I decided to renew our acquaintance:

He's not quite the same player in this universe but he's not at all bad, and he's just the kind of small, tricky, elbows-out winger I like - fast, agile, good with the ball and a decent finisher. For just £3.1m from Uruguayan outfit Penarol he was also an absolute bargain, as shown by the immediate uptick in his value. He already has two goals and 6 assists in his short time here.

Results

The defeat to Barca in the Supercopa was irrelevant, although we did well to push them all the way. But a week later we went one better and beat them in the league. An honourable draw at Old Trafford in the Champions League was another good result but we finished the month with the players pretty much dead on their feet... a narrow defeat to Leverkusen meant we would have to play the Champions League knockout round, and a disappointing draw at lowly Osasuna was a major disappointment after we grabbed the lead after just 3 minutes.

If we were struggling at the end of January, we flew through February, racking up some seriously impressive performances - beating arch-rivals Sociedad in the Copa del Rey, home and away victories against Fiorentina in Europe and a remarkable thumping - again! - of Real Madrid. Strand Larsen has been on fire, finding the net four times against Madrid and adding another 5 strikes this month. When he needed resting, youngster Marc Guiu has been an excellent deputy with 4G/3A in 5 starts and 13 sub appearances.

Larsen now has 32 goals from 35 appearances in all competitions and his radical improvement is, at least in part, due to a tactical switch. I started experimenting with a 433dm towards the end of last year. The double-pivot in the previous 4231 was excellent defensively but - since I don't have anyone capable of playing a progressive role like a volante - it lacked support in attack. Paradoxically, the 4231 also crowded out Larsen as the front four jammed the opposition area in attack. I hoped the 433 would give us a better balance but I didn't anticipate Larsen's incredible response to the extra space.

Since New Year, we've been playing the new system exclusively:

It's largely based on the 'control possession' preset with much simplified TIs - shorter passing, work ball, counter-press and a compressed defence with a higher defensive line and a mid-block. I'll usually start on 'balanced' or 'positive' and switch according to the game state.

We go into March fighting on multiple fronts. The league is a close two-horse race between us and Real Madrid:

Incredibly, we remain the only unbeaten team in the league. March will also see us play Spurs in the Champions League R16 and the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final against Madrid.

[AlfieLucas]

Doing very, very well indeed. Hopefully you can surpass Real and win La Liga. I hope you do well in the CL, just not at the expense of Spurs

[warlock]

April 2027

Let's not keep @AlfieLucas on tenterhooks:

To put a positive spin on it, honours were shared across the two games... if  you overlook the fact the we won on penalties 

The home leg was a comfortable win for us, although I was always nervous until the second goal went in. Away, Spurs dominated and we were penned in our own final third for much of the game. But they couldn't find an aggregate lead until the first half of extra-time. Luckily, we grabbed a late equaliser when CB Mane headed home a corner and took it to penalties. The shootout looked like it might go on forever until Spurs CB Van de Ven had his attempt saved and we won 8-7.

That sets up a daunting semi-final against PSG.

On the domestic front we have continued our excellent form (although we got out of jail with three goals in the final 12 minutes against Vallecano):

Yet another win against Real Madrid sends us to Copa del Rey final to face Barcelona. And three wins in the league not only maintains our unbeaten season so far but sends us back to the top of the table ahead of Madrid and with a game in hand:

A bit of a dry spell for Larsen this month but, fortunately, understudy Guiu continues to do well and has taken his season tally to 8 goals and 3 assists.

Dare to dream? Not quite yet, but we're getting close!

[Stuniverse]

6 minutes ago, warlock said:

Yet another win against Real Madrid sends us to Copa del Rey final to face Barcelona. And three wins in the league not only maintains our unbeaten season so far but sends us back to the top of the table ahead of Madrid and with a game in hand:

6 minutes ago, warlock said:

Dare to dream? Not quite yet, but we're getting close!

I'm saying nothing as I don't want to jinx it for you, @warlock

[warlock]

April 2027 - First silverware

Still lots to play for midway through the month but I felt this was worthy of its own post:

Barcelona might feel hard done by - we edged the possession but they had more and better chances. A combination of great goalkeeping by Hedl and poor finishing by the Barca players cost them. We created two good chances and finished them both. Tactically, I was desperate to find a way to counter their narrow box system and thought playing Allende as a raumdeuter instead of an IF might work, and it did. Logically, there should be a ton of space in their wide-midfield areas but it's always hard to exploit.

Thankfully, we managed it this time and picked up our first trophy of the save.

[Jogo Bonito]

Congrats on the Copa del Rey success, great to bag a trophy. Going very strong in the league too, could this be the breakthrough you've been close to? Every chance, best of luck mate.

[Stuniverse]

Congratulations on winning the Copa del Rey, @warlock

Now go lift the La Liga Trophy  

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

could this be the breakthrough you've been close to?

It feels close. Very close. It'll be devastating if we throw it away from here but Real Madrid just won't quit, so we need to be pretty much perfect.

1 hour ago, Stuniverse said:

Now go lift the La Liga Trophy  

Yessir! 

[Jogo Bonito]

4 minutes ago, warlock said:

It feels close. Very close. It'll be devastating if we throw it away from here but Real Madrid just won't quit, so we need to be pretty much perfect.

Exactly how they are in real life. Not always the best side, but definitely find a way of winning more often than not.

[SixPointer]

Congratulations on the Copa del rey! A league and cup double at this stage would be truly remarkable.

Love your system as well, nothing over complicated well balanced and very effective!

[Carambau]

Congrats on winning the Copa del Rey  

Hope to see you win the league in the next update!

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Carambau said:

Hope to see you win the league in the next update!

Working on it 

[warlock]

11 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Love your system as well, nothing over complicated well balanced

Thanks, mate.

Warlock's Rules of Football Tactics:

1. Find something that works.

2. Understand why it works.

3. Understand what (and why) to change when it doesn't work.

Rule 3 is the difficult one and usually takes me half-a-season to figure it out 

Edited May 3 by warlock

[SixPointer]

4 hours ago, warlock said:

Thanks, mate.

Warlock's Rules of Football Tactics:

1. Find something that works.

2. Understand why it works.

3. Understand what (and why) to change when it doesn't work.

Rule 3 is the difficult one and usually takes me half-a-season to figure it out 

It’s a very good plan! I’m very similar this year. I’ve only ran with two systems, both same philosophy but offer slight difference for certain opponents. But am starting to look at things a lot differently defensively which I’ll cover at some point if I get a minute. 
 

I think the crucial bit is you know why it’s working, your not winging it and hoping for best. Allows you to make adjustments and makes it more enjoyable when the game-plan works as you’ve seen what you what to see from the team. 

[warlock]

May 2027

The penultimate month of the season turned out to be a tough one, the price of success when you're still competing for multiple trophies.

In the league we were imperious, pulling off a string of victories and, as already reported, lifting the Copa del Rey with a famous win against the might of Barcelona.

In the Champions League things were a little tougher. Losing at home to PSG suggested our run was coming to an end but we dug deep and pulled off a remarkable 2-0 win in Paris to set up a semi-final against AC Milan. Even though we lost the away leg I was still somewhat confident we could get a result at home and we did, dominating the match and winning 2-1. Unfortunately, that meant the dreaded penalty shootout and we came up one kick short as Joao Rego pushed his attempt wide of the post:

But we were still fighting for the LaLiga title.

We opened the door to Real Madrid early in May with a disappointing draw against Valencia, followed by what was almost a title decider against Madrid, who at that point were two points ahead. Fortunately, we maintained our run of good results against the giants from the capital and beat them for the fourth time this season:

That left us 1pt ahead but with a game in hand, which we won against Athletic of Bilbao with a storming performance. And before we played Sociedad Madrid suffered a defeat to Barcelona, which meant a draw in our next game would ensure we were champions. In the event, we did enough to pick up another win and claimed the title, and the league and cup double:

With two games remaining we can also claim an invincible season:

Sevilla and Valladolid will be the teams trying to deny us a monumental achievement. 

Edited May 3 by warlock

[Stuniverse]

3 minutes ago, warlock said:

That left us 1pt ahead but with a game in hand, which we won against Athletic of Bilbao with a storming performance. And before we played Sociedad Madrid suffered a defeat to Barcelona, which meant a draw in our next game would ensure we were champions. In the event, we did enough to pick up another win and claimed the title, and the league and cup double

An absolutely superb season domestically, @warlock. Congratulations 

[warlock]

27 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:

An absolutely superb season domestically

Cheers, Stu. It has, indeed, been a good one 

[SixPointer]

What a phenomenal season mate! If it goes unbeaten then it’s truly remarkable at this stage of the save. Unfortunate in champions league but that’s not far away my friend 

[Jogo Bonito]

Fantastic, well done indeed! Winning La Liga with games to spare and possibly going unbeaten is an amazing achievement. Even if that doesn't happen, it's been a season of dreams - and very nearly even better than that if not for the unlucky loss to Milan.

[Carambau]

Congrats and hats off to the new Champions 👍 and damn about that CL semis shootout... next time!

[warlock]

Thanks, all! I'll post a season wrap-up later - I've just been tasked with mowing the lawn  

[AlfieLucas]

Congrats on winning La Liga.

[warlock]

End of season, 2027

This Vigo team has become something of a footballing machine this season - unbeaten in LaLiga and recording just 6 draws (Arsenal's famous Invincibles drew 13 in their unbeaten season), and in Europe we fought past the likes of PSG, Leverkusen, Spurs and Leipzig. We were, I think, very unlucky to lose to Milan on penalties in the semi-final.

As a result, we're looking for incremental gains in terms of squad development rather than needing radical change. But so many of the transfer windows in this save have required urgent replacements for player departures because of release clauses being activated, and this one could be similar. Even at this stage, before the season has ended, our best players are being stalked by top European clubs - Mendy (Chelsea, Dortmund), Bartesaghi (Man City), Prestianni (Chelsea), Marin (Newcastle), Nyheim (Man City), and Strand Larsen (Juventus).

Top performers

Up front Larsen was our key player with 38 goals from 47 starts, a significant improvement on his previous seasons. Backup Marc Guiu did well with 12 goals from 13 starts and 20 sub appearances. 

Our creative midfield duo, Swedberg and Nyheim, bagged 13 goals each but were also our main source of assists with 14 and 12, respectively. Wide players Allende (15G/9A), Rego (8G/4A), Prestianni (6G/9A) and new boy Gonzalez (4G/8A) also did well.

We were also good in defence, maintaining the fourth best record for goals conceded while achieving the best scoring record in the league. Special mention to GK Hedl who kept 16 clean sheets in 37 league appearances, and 8 in other competitions.

Potential recruitment

Backup GK Gebhardt has had little opportunity to feature since Hedl's arrival and, consequently, has not developed. With his contract expiring in June we have a decision to make whether to renew as a backup or look for a replacement who could, eventually, become the No. 1.

Club captain Carl Starfelt is also on an expiring contract and will be allowed to leave. We signed youngster Joao Muniz as his long-term replacement and the 21-year-old has done well in his 7 starts and 6 sub appearances but is it too soon for him as a  regular backup? Another decision to make.

Elsewhere in the team we have a lot of younger players who we can reasonably expect to improve, in some cases significantly.

Other business will depend on the dreaded release clauses, but all of the 'wanted' players would generate considerable fees and the board have been generous with budgets for next season: £60m for tranfers, and a doubling of our wage budget that leaves a cool £1m spare.

[SixPointer]

Invincible………. Says it all

[warlock]

34 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Invincible………. Says it all

Well, almost... we were 2 penalties and 90 minutes away from European glory. Having lost to Milan, I was irked to see that Madrid - who we beat 4 times this season - overcame the Italians to claim the Champions League.

We have work to do!

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Great wrap up mate, nice to see the side did not lose focus and ended with two 3-0 wins. How has Sevilla done in the years you have been at Celta?

 

[AlfieLucas]

Didn't even see you could've gone unbeaten in the league, glad you did. Amazing acheivement.

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

How has Sevilla done

Finished 8th in the first season, then back-to-back 7th, and 6th in the season just finished. Most recently they got to the Europa League semi-final but lost to Juventus 0-2. The Europa League in 2023 (just before the save started) was their last trophy. Been through a couple of managers - Setien Flores was sacked in February 2024; promoted Juan Diaz internally to take over but he only last 18 months before the sack. Current manager is Iban Cuadrado - former Barca u18s manager - who came in from Montpellier and has been in position for about 20 months.

They're described in-game as 'rich' but that may be because they sold Idumbo Mozambo to Newcastle for £57m in January and haven't yet spent the money.

For now I'd still put Vigo as 'best of the rest' behind Madrid and Barca, with Atleti and Sociedad behind them. Sevilla are consistently in the chasing pack with Valencia and Villareal but can't seem to push into that Top 5 group.

[Stuniverse]

19 hours ago, warlock said:

This Vigo team has become something of a footballing machine this season - unbeaten in LaLiga and recording just 6 draws (Arsenal's famous Invincibles drew 13 in their unbeaten season), and in Europe we fought past the likes of PSG, Leverkusen, Spurs and Leipzig. We were, I think, very unlucky to lose to Milan on penalties in the semi-final.

What a season, @warlock

Sensational.

[warlock]

8 hours ago, Stuniverse said:

Sensational

Cheers, Stu.

Someone once said, your reward for success in football is that you get to do it again next season. So, we do it again next season. Hopefully 

[g1nh0]

Very well done, a fantastic Invincibles achievement!

[Stuniverse]

On 04/05/2024 at 01:22, warlock said:

Cheers, Stu. It has, indeed, been a good one 

How do you follow that?

Is Champions League your priority now @warlock or still La Liga?

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Stuniverse said:

Is Champions League your priority now @warlock or still La Liga?

Yes 

Less flippantly, I think we have to keep prioritising the league because we must continue to reap the money from Champions League qualification. I'm under no illusions that Madrid, Barca and the rest will just sit back and allow us a free run at LaLiga every season so we're going to have to fight for league position. But, like everyone, we also have the ambition to achieve European glory and we need to keep building towards that goal.

There's currently quite a drop off in quality from the First Xi to the backups but the recruitment team are not doing a great job of finding the right players to improve the squad overall. And we don't have the cash to go out and buy three or four well-known stars that would allow us to push the current first-choice players down to backup status. The recruitment policy is not exactly moneyball - I don't have the patience for that deep statistical analysis - but we definitely focus on buying potential, because 'current ability' is very, very expensive.

To put it another way, our priority is to maintain our Top 3 status. If the opportunity to win a trophy presents itself, so much the better.

[warlock]

August 2027

Another transfer window has come and gone and it's been the quietest one so far. I went into the window hoping no-one would trigger CB Rafa Marin's release clause; by the end of the window I was disappointed that no-one made an offer... he's become a major annoyance. Week after week he turns in the poorest training performances and on the pitch he's been no better than average. Unless he makes a significant attitude adjustment I'll be dropping his asking price and actively trying to move him on in January.

Coming off the back of an unbeaten season and a league and cup double, it's probably no surprise that I wasn't looking to sell anyone else and, with the exception of a couple of loan deals for players that will never feature in the first team, there were no outbound transfers. Two first-team players did leave: CB Carl Starfelt reached the end of his contract and had declined to the point where a renewal wasn't on the cards; and backup GK Felix Gebhardt hadn't developed as we hoped so he was allowed to leave when his contract expired.

We did make three incoming deals for squad depth, first and foremost a replacement for Gebhardt:

Brazilian Callai joins us from Sporting in Lisbon for £24m. He's already better than the departing German and might just have the ability to overtake Hedl as first-choice 'keeper.

Next in was another youngster from Portugal in a £20m deal:

The recruitment team were impressed by the Benfica player, who has the clear potential to be our best DM in a year or two. He made an immediate impact with a goal on his debut.

Finally, we had suffered a string of injuries during pre-season and we looked like starting the league campaign missing three of our 6 AMs. I decided to bring in a utility player who can cover all three positions behind the striker:

He's not great, but at less than £4m from Barcelona's academy, he's a useful option to have around and on the bench.

We started the window with £80m in the kitty and still have £35m available. Early signs are that we might need to spend some of that in January as both of our regulars in the AMR spot have been distinctly unimpressive so far.

Speaking of so far...

A pretty good start, although the draw away at Sevilla was a poor show against a side that had just one point from their opening three games. And life gets a bit tougher in September when we face Atleti, Sociedad and Barcelona in LaLiga, as well as starting our Champions League campaign.

We drew another tough group of opponents (although there are probably no easy draws in the new format):

Board expectations are Champions League qualification in the league, and to reach the latter stages of Europe; I'm looking for another Top 3 finish and Champions League quarter-finals at least.