[FM24] Network Save | Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona | Trophy Count: 19 - 13| Seasons Complete: 8

[santy001]

From time to time myself and @oliscott like to partake in a head to head on the FM series. It may be a challenge to build up a nation, or get teams to rise up through the leagues. There is one we often pick up though every few years which is a Real vs Barca save where we got to teams where the shackles are off and in more recent years, levers have been pulled. These saves are aimed at creating the ultimate teams with no holds barred, trophies are the only measure of success. @oliscott has taken Real Madrid and I have taken FC Barcelona. 

So we go into it once more and the 23/24 season begins with the first match of the season being Real Madrid at home to Barcelona. 

[santy001]

The First Meeting - Real Madrid Dominance:

A comfortable win in the end for @oliscott. I have let Lewandowski go following a £40m bid from a Saudi side and my replacement Umar Sadiq really didn't trouble his side. Gavi scoring from a defensive mix-up and Ter Stegen putting in a heroic performance is the only reason the score remained respectable. Bellingham was predictably brilliant, but Valverde was a surprising driving force for the Real Madrid team. Practically unstoppable against my side. Not exactly the best of starts for my Barca side...

[santy001]

First Transfer Window Activity:

Real Madrid have begun the season unbeaten with 4 wins in 4, while after losing the first match my Barcelona side bounced back and won the next three. 

Transfer business has been limited with Real Madrid picking up Ouédrago from Schalke. I was a little busier at Barcelona after letting Lewandowski go for £40m bringing in a handful of players.

Barcelona's recent business:

Real Madrid's business:

The League Table as it stands:

[santy001]

Notable Signings - Barcelona:

Umar Sadiq has started with 5 goals in 4 games, hopefully one to lead the line for the next few years while I build up funds and identify some top tier talent to sign.

Spoiler

Kofi Amoako at £200k is a player with potential I am hoping can kick on. Cheap and looks to have a positive attribute spread this was definitely a bargain signing I feel:

Spoiler

Then the third one to review for Barcelona is Candelari, an entirely speculative cheap purchase. The player is good physically and so I felt like taking a risk and seeing what happens over the next 18-24 months with his development was low risk. 

Spoiler

Notable Signing - Real Madrid:

Ouédrago is well known in FM I expect, and while I rivalled @oliscott for the signing he picked Madrid over Barcelona. 

Spoiler

 

[santy001]

Season 1 - Midseason Break:

A phenomenal start from Real Madrid saw an unbeaten run until mid-November when an unexpected loss to Granada who were in the relegation zone at the time put an end to @oliscott plan for an unbeaten season. At Barcelona things have begun to settle in and while the players in the midfield positions all feel very similar, results have been strong. Entering the midseason break my Barcelona side lead Real Madrid by 2 points:

Both of us are wanting to make some considerable changes to teams to build them in our preferred style but there have been good performances across both teams as would be expected. The Real Madrid squad having two players leading the charge with strong goalscoring in Bellingham and Vinicius Jr:

Meanwhile over at Barcelona Umar Sadiq has been the single figurehead for goals. 18 Goals in 23 games means he is already looking to be an excellent acquisition on much lower wages than Lewandowski and for half the fee. Elsewhere in the team there are a lot of spread goals, some players like Ferran Torres, Joao Felix and Raphinha have performed better than I expected. Fermin has been surprisingly effective and even at 16 Lamine Yamal is proving dangerous:

[santy001]

First blood goes to Real Madrid and @oliscott with a win in the Super Cup held in Saudi Arabia. It was overall a very easy game, both squads somewhat depleted with injuries I felt I had it wrapped up when Joao Felix scored but a careless backpass from Ter Stegen gave Joselu a relatively straight forward finish. While there were a couple of strong chances late in extra time for my Barcelona side and Noah Darvich having a goal disallowed it wasn't meant to be as the game went to penalties and ended with a Real Madrid win.

[santy001]

January Business - Season 1:

While Real Madrid were blessed with a £120m budget coming into January over at Barcelona there were no extra funds. As a result I sold Raphina to Man City in a deal worth up to £70m to raise some funds. With players returning from loan in the summer there is going to be an abundance of players across the AM positions. That being said, the board only freed up £8m out of the sale so it limited my options.

Real Madrid:

Luciano Rodriguez

Spoiler

Michael Kayode - £22m:

Spoiler

Viktor Gyokeres - £35m:

Spoiler

Barcelona:

Yannick Eduardo - £2.5m:

Spoiler

Scott McTominay - £5.75m:

Spoiler

 

[santy001]

End of Season 1:

An incredibly tight title race, a slip up by @oliscott in the second to last game and drawing 2-2 meant everything was to play for on the final day of the season. Both sides were level on 98 points but Real Madrid were top on the head to head record. While my Barcelona side overcame an early set-back going 1-0 down to bottom of the table Almeira to win 4-1 it was redundant as Real Madrid ran out 6-0 winners. A high bar set for both sides as we finished level on 101 points with Real Madrid having a +108 goal difference while Barcelona had a +107. Real Madrid went on to win the Champions League against AC Milan with a comfortable 3-0 win, my own Barcelona side crashing out to Inter Milan in the quarter finals just not converting dominance to a result. My consolation trophy this year being the Spanish cup. 

Real Madrid Trophies: 3

Barcelona Trophies: 1

Best XI's from this season:

[santy001]

Summer Window - Season 2:

At Barcelona I had a rather paltry £25m budget to play with, the ongoing financial struggles really imposing restraints whereas Real Madrid had a more generous £80m available. As a result I spent the summer looking to free up more wages and get players out with low-budget or academy replacements. Brandon Williams, Toni Kroos and Gaius Makouta on frees at the end of their contract. The money on youngsters I hope will come good in Joao Veloso and Nelson Weiper. I had tried to sign Weiper the season before only for a lack of budget to ruin those chances. Letting Ilkay Gundogan, Oriol Romeu, Sergi Roberto and Frenkie de Jong go (de Jong went in June so is just missing from the first screenshot). With around £140m raised from those sales. I had tried to structure a deal to bring Joao Cancelo back with a very low upfront fee but overall package skewed a bit too high and I couldn't afford it in the end. 

Real Madrid had a much busier summer, an early signing of Joao Neves followed by Scalvini, Silva, Barco, Restes and Rego with the pre-arranged transfer of Endrick. Some high value sales to Saudi Arabia freeing up additional funds for this spending spree. @oliscott did pull out of a deadline day deal to sign Musiala - perhaps something he will regret in the future but looking at the rest of his squad it's likely not to be the case.

[santy001]

January Window - Season 2:

Having missed grabbing a screenshot at the midseason break as we end January here is the table:

Tighter than last year, with my Barcelona side having gotten the win in the league in our first meeting so I've currently got top spot held by virtue of the head to head results. It's looking like this season could be an even higher points total from both clubs than last year. In terms of transfers let last years signing Umar Sadiq leave the club for £37m (rising to £44m) as he had begun making unreasonable contract demands and then took an approach of signing some youngsters and cheap players to bolster the squad:

Over at Real Madrid meanwhile there was no business in January. @oliscott was trying hard to make something happen with either Haaland or Mbappe but couldn't get the clubs to part with the players, a lack of sales also meant he didn't have any further gaps arise in his squad to target some other replacements.

Here are the signings since they're obscure/regens.

Ramon Mierez:

Spoiler

Joao Silva:

Spoiler

Soren Birk:

Spoiler

 

[santy001]

End of Season 2 - Another Real Madrid dominant year:

Up until the international break in March the league was tied neck and neck with my Barcelona side still sitting at the top with the head to head record this year. From January onwards though I'd been in an unfortunate cycle of recurring injuries and it came to a head at this point where so many players were missing the squad just ran out of steam. From 29th March I went 7 league games until I won again. That comfortably handed the title to @oliscott and Real Madrid. Despite this downturn in form I still managed to get to the Spanish Cup final, however, despite a dominant display in terms of stats the game finished 1-1 and I went on to lose on penalties. 

The Spanish Super Cup was a resounding 4-0 defeat against Real Madrid in January, with ter Stegen injured after 3 minutes and not putting a goalkeeper on the bench Eric Garcia had to deputise and while 4-0 is a terrible score it feels somewhat respectable given an outfield player was in goal for 87 minutes. 

I had the misfortune of meeting @oliscott in the semi-finals of the Champions League, however, despite thinking my squad was not read for this a 1-1 draw in the first leg and a narrow 2-1 win in the second saw my side face PSG in the final. A resounding 4-2 win saw my Barcelona side wrap up the Champions League as our only trophy this season. So Real Madrid finished with another 2 for the league & Spanish Super Cup, I finished with one in the Champions League.

The gap at 10 points seems quite large, but I'm not as concerned given I was down 7-8 first team regulars during March/April when my side fell away. Additionally after 2 years of heavy cost cutting and operating on bargains the board have freed up a £196m budget which is getting put to use. 

[santy001]

Best XI's

Barcelona:

Real Madrid:

[santy001]

Season 3 - Early Summer Business

A very busy start to the Summer for Real Madrid with some big money signings coming in and a few departures albeit most just loans:

Over at my Barcelona side I've also begun spending some of the funds made available, with considerably more departures:

[santy001]

Screenshots of the likely lesser known signings for Real Madrid:

Chris Rigg

Spoiler

Jesus Diez

Spoiler

Jorrel Hato

Spoiler

Bertrand Matip

Spoiler

For Barcelona:

Nico Gonzalez:

Spoiler

Luca Lipani:

Spoiler

 

[santy001]

End of Season 3 - Another strong Real Madrid Year

A fall off in the middle of the season from my Barcelona side combined with an even stronger performance from @oliscott and his Real Madrid team saw them comfortably win another league title. Meanwhile in the Champions League we met in the final and I won my second successive CL with a careful countering performance that saw me run out 3-0 winners really against the run of play. A lot of the youngsters signed by Real Madrid mean I'm staring an uphill battle to close the gap in terms of squad depth but the board at Barcelona are finding more money to try and compete. While I've been able to get the better in head to head matches a couple of times with Real Madrid recently season-long consistency has been a problem.

Messi got to return for a swansong year with a CL win, department with 10 goals and 5 assists from 8 starts and 21 sub appearances. 

Barca Best XI

RM Best XI

[santy001]

Unfortunately, following on from that immediately bad news strikes me hard...

We both went in big with our summer budgets and Haaland picked Real Madrid over Barcelona. This makes that uphill task even steeper.

[santy001]

Bit of missing transfer history from last season as we blazed through it without updates tonight:

Barca Transfers In/Out:

RM Transfers In/Out:

[santy001]

As we're in the territory now where regens are coming through and beginning to look like they could feature soon here are a few of my top prospects. 

First of all is Soren Birk, signed for £17.5m during the second season scouts uncovered him early and rated him highly across 3-4 scouting missions. I moved quickly as I worried Real Madrid interest wouldn't be far behind. 42 goals and 20 assists with the under 19's and I'm retraining him to operate as an inside forward on the right hand side. I probably need to get him working on his weaker foot but during the next 18 months he will start to be integrated into the team.

Alfred Delmas is a product of the club academy, came through almost looking ready to play for the senior squad but I've decided to take it easy and let him develop with the U19's once he turns 17 I might give him some limited first team exposure but I feel there's time to let him grow organically and no pressure to come in too soon.

Antoni, another club prospect who may be likely to feature sooner rather than later as I consider letting Jules Kounde go. Very raw technically but has some good physical and mental attributes already, if he can develop the technical side this could be the kind of player who has a spot cemented 15 years from now.

Josep Lluis Brugue is a little less impressive at first glance, but I like the mental attributes and both footed nature of the player. A couple of strong technicals to start him off and he could be a good player in the future, certainly one I'm keeping an eye on over the next 2-3 years.

 

[santy001]

Season 4 - The Summer Business

A pretty busy summer in terms of outgoings for my Barcelona side as a number of players were entering the final 12 months of their contract already on big deals. The choice between renew on higher wages for probably their last or main big contract or move them on made for a difficult choice. As Real Madrid procured Haaland there has been a couple of high value sales on their side and a whole batch of youngsters too it seems.

Barca Transfers:

RM Transfers:

[oliscott]

Its been some start to the season and Haaland is already repaying his transfer fee.

 

[oliscott]

Just approaching the end of the January transfer window, no signings from me as I cant really find anyone to vastly improve the team at the moment so focusing more on youth signings in the summer window.

League table is below and not to ruin it it but Im aiming for the unbeaten season this year, Ive already played @santy001 twice already and got wins so dont have to worry about him ruining things.

The squad is in good shape with Haaland scoring for fun averaging almost 2 a game in the league alongside Musiala who is averaging one a game in the league.

 

[santy001]

My own January business consisted of me having a bit of a recognition that neither my striking options in Vitor Roque or Victor Osimhen could get much out of the Real Madrid defence. Haaland was always going to be a decisive signing once Man City were open to offers. Changing things around in my side I decided to give Nelson Weiper, a 6'4" forward I signed a couple of seasons back a run in the side. Osimhen with more space playing a little deeper and someone to run off of became more effective. With that in mind I turned my attentions towards signing essentially the target man style forward who could lead the line. I tried my luck with Sesko but Leipzig would not negotiate at all and when I looked at Ferguson at Brighton they were wanting close to £200m. I turned my attentions to 29 year old Tammy Abraham who I hope at £30m can help demonstrate across the remainder of the season whether this is an effective approach or not. My Transfers in this season proving quite costly, MIchael Sjoquist has already begun proving himself and I'm hoping the January additions of Suarez and Rodriguez can be ones for the future.

[oliscott]

The streak..................Is over! So damn close to an unbeaten season in all competitions and after a 4-0 demolition in the first log I thought I had @santy001 number.

[santy001]

Took a deep dive through his fixtures to look to see what teams he has struggled against, not just this season but in previous years too. AC Milan have always fared well against his side and they play a narrow 4-1-2-1-2. Not really suited to my side outright but I gave it a go and while my side faded away (6-2 at full time which took the game to extra time) and it turned up results. Once Oli changed formations mid-match I struggled again and the goals dried up, if Osimhen had his goal in the 68th minute count I'd have gone through 7-6 on aggregate. 

As that fixture list shows though, I've fallen up short in every other fixture this season. Overcoming the might of the squad @oliscott has assembled is now almost a case of waiting them out to retire rather than being able to identify genuinely better players. 

[santy001]

End of Season 4 - Nearly a Perfect Season and the Ghost of Gyokeres Past

While @oliscott completed an unbeaten season in the league and finished with a 37 wins, 1 draw record the unbeaten season nearly extended to all competitions. While my Barcelona side put that to rest in the Champions League final former Real Madrid front-man Viktor Gyokeres put 4 past Real Madrid as part of a 5-3 win. My only trophy this year being the European Super Cup compared to the haul over at Real Madrid of the League, Spanish Cup and Spanish Super Cup my team are falling behind in the overall trophy race. 

Barcelona Best XI:

Real Madrid Best XI:

[santy001]

Season 5 - Early Summer Business

So after the previous seasons disappointing campaign resulting in losses each time Real Madrid turned up I knew really it was time to try and further add some variation to my side. Pedri despite being a genuinely good player didn't make the Best XI last year because he struggled to get a look in. With Osimhen and Roque on the left & right respectively of the central striker and Lamine Yamal starting to cement that role in the middle there was no space for Pedri and I couldn't see a viable retraining like I did with Gavi. I let him go in part to focus on bringing through youngsters as well. A couple other sales of Alex Valle for £30m and Milinkovic-Savic back to Saudi Arabia for another £50m have bolstered the clubs sizeable coffers. Another summer of mostly low profile hoarding youngsters for Real Madrid bringing in a further 6 young players. 

Barcelona Transfers:

Real Madrid Transfers:

[oliscott]

Feed him.

[santy001]

Heading into the first international break it's probably the tightest start we've had in the league. A 4-4 draw between us in the league in which I really failed to capitalise on Real Madrid missing Courtois and not having a decent backup keeper, but both sides have won every other game. Sesko missed the first couple of matches of the season with injuries, but is pursuing Haaland for goals already.

[santy001]

January - Season 5

In January the £300m battle for Warren Zaire-Emery concluded with him signing for my Barcelona side over Real Madrid. Not exactly cheap, but after last season especially it feels like only the top tier players can potentially make a difference. That being said it didn't help in the league as despite arguably having the better of the game on the stats I lost 2-0 to Real Madrid and a 3 point gap has emerged between teams. Effectively 4 given the head to head sorting of the league. 

Barcelona Transfers:

Real Madrid Transfers:

*No permanent departures from Real Madrid, only loans.

[oliscott]

What could go wrong going into a two leg Champions league tie with @santy001 and courtois being ruled out for three months just prior and then you not having a backup goal keeper registered. Playing this guy in both legs.

[AlfieLucas]

Both doing very well, Madrid especially. That's one of the reasons i got bored playing online with my mate, he went a bit OTT with the transfers, then i would have to do the same to keep up with him

[oliscott]

Early on when certain players are known due to the Database its going to be that way, its when we get to the 15 year mark and its scouting the best regens it starts to get interesting.

Our Harrogate/Salford save from a few years back is a good example. 

 

[santy001]

Despite the resources out there in terms of shortlists for the starting DB I never particularly bother with them myself as being a researcher I can tend to assess players rather well directly, and a particular strength is finding niche players who can perform very defined roles well. So in terms of getting to line up promising youngsters that probably does give Oli an advantage, especially in the early game. There aren't really the players ready to go in the game now that are of the strength to compete with the Real Madrid squad, so I'm in a position of having to develop them myself through training or find something else tactically. 

[santy001]

Season 5 Complete - Back to Back Invincible Seasons

Another domestic campaign in which Real Madrid did not lose a league game, and another season in which my Barcelona side finish runners up with over 100 points. Having begun tweaking things tactically to introduce a Libero in defence and a Segundo Volante in midfield I'm hoping I can close the goal gap a little more and hopefully get those few more results necessary but the reality is I do need Real Madrid to slip up too. At this point the only positive to take is statistically it cannot go on forever. Courtois has to replaced soon, but the rest of the team are pretty much in a position where they have years ahead of them. A clean sweep of all 4 trophies including the CL has been the case this year however.

Sesko did well in his first season proving competitive with Haaland for goals. Haaland has played less games but still gotten more, but that is one of the few areas to hope maybe some recurring injuries and fitness issues are going to pose some problems for the Real Madrid team in the future.

Barcelona Best XI:

Real Madrid Best XI:

 

 

[santy001]

Season 6 - Early Summer Business:

A few early deals done as usual for both clubs. Real Madrid hoarding more youngsters as ever, meanwhile I've aimed to be rather precise with my signings this year to fill specific roles. Kobel as my new GK, Thuram to play as my Libero although Kai Evans and Antonio are speculative youth signings.

Barcelona Transfers: 

Real Madrid Transfers:

[oliscott]

Couple of updates after finishing last night, transfer business was kept minimal despite the massive outlay for Caicedo. Camavinga had been making noise about wanting to leave for the last year and entering the last year of his contract this summer with no change I had to cash in. I went through the intermediary and got an offer for 150 Million from Man city which would then help fund his replacement. Would have sooner kept him but was able to move pretty quickly and bring in a like for like in Caicedo. Geovani is another highly rated youngster that will offer competition in the DMC role.

Still on an undefeated run again this season and will be looking to make it a third year undefeated in the league at least but the ultimate goal is to have be undefeated in all competitions. The game with @santy001 was a close affair this year and he had a number of players out so the return leg should be tough fight.

 

[oliscott]

A lot of my focus in the last few years has been towards signing the best youth players I can find, the 1st team is top tier and in most positions below the age of about 27 so still have there peaks to hit apart from Courtois whos replacement in Restes I already have in the squad. Thought behind this is that Ill already have the next generation ready to go when the current squad tails off and be ready to fight against @santy001 inevitable youth purchases that he makes with his researcher knowledge of players and what to look for. Below are some of these purchases.

Fabio was one of my first purchases in the youth mold costing about 60 million. Hes developing nicely with sustained exposure to the first team these last two years, would just like his physicals to pick up a little.

 

Agra is someone who I got a scout report through for about two years ago but at the time I already had Camavinga, Touchameni, Valverde, Neves for the DMC role and didn't sign him. in January last year the scouts came back again with a glowing review and with a 22 million release clause I snapped him up. He was sent out on loan for six months to Fiorentina where he continued to shine. Fast forward to this year and with Camavinga and Valverde leaving he has time to shine and as you can see below hes taking the opportunity with both hands.

 

A few years back Carvajal in his 30's had a bit of a resurgence so I had my backup to Kayode sorted until he decided to retire and I needed to find a back up. Finding a backup left back seemed easy with a lot of options out there but right back was a task. This guy popped up for 30 million so I pulled the trigger, he probably plays 50/50 with Kayode at the moment and is thriving. Both are under 24 so Im set now for the next 10 years at least.

 

Gary Thompson is another youngster who had A+ scout reviews but I felt I was pretty covered in the AML position, when I looked a bit more he had a low 20's release clause which I thought id activate and looked to loan for a year or two and see if he could then fit into the first team. Hes gone out this year to Villa who can offer him Premier league football and hes killing it, including coming on against me in the Super Cup and setting up an equaliser! This will certainly be a one year loan with the aim of having him playing next year in the first team, his only downside being his height which is at least a foot smaller than @santy001 demands.

[oliscott]

Duquesne is more of an impulse purchase than anything if Im honest, his stats and scout reports were decent and again for a low fee it made sense to pick him up. Both of my wings however are stacked and he isn't going to get in upfront with Haaland, Endrick and now Matip sniffing around. Unless he has an absolute standout season at PSG this year it'll be a series if loans until I can find space or sell him for a decent profit with a sell on.

Besancon is another one who has been in the under 19s for a few years now, one of the first youngsters I bought with a view of getting him into the DMC role. Hes out on loan now and with competition around him for that role exceeding him hes another that will likely be sold on for a profit in a few years.

Estevao is one who I had good scout reports on for a few years but he never really fit into the team. He moved to Atletico Madrid and after a year some other teams started bidding for him due to him not playing, at around 30 million I thought he would be a decent investment with his dribbling, finishing and first touch he might develop into a decent inside forward for the team. Due to Bellingham and Guler playing the AMR role for me currently his path is blocked so hes out on loan with Gary Thompson at Villa, hopefully there developing my future wingers for me.

Currently at CB I have Silva, Scalvini, Hato and Santos vying for a spot so its proved difficult for Chacha to get into the team, hes been out on loan the last two years to get regular football, this is the year I need to get him to the 20 game mark for his own development. That 6 foot 5 frame is screaming future star CB at me.

[oliscott]

Geovani is someone I spotted doing my usual youth intake sweep a few years back, Hes come in this year and hasnt played as much as I would have liked but my hope is he will partner Agra at DMC for years to come.

Russo is another that had glowing reviews for his position and at 13 million it seemed like a good bit of business. Truth be told I should have loaned him out this year as Musiala is my regular AMC with Guler stepping in to deputise alongside another youth pickup in Diez. Likely one to sell for a profit is Russo.

Adri was a late signing this year in the window after stumbling upon him whilst having another sweep of the youth instakes. Theres enough there to like about him especially at the age of 15, hopefully he will have a Ryan Shawcross inspired growth spurt between now and his 18th birthday.

Diallo is one of the rare decent youngsters Ive had come through the youth intake, compared to @santy001 at Barcelona who could sell his for spare parts he gets that many each year. I have quite a bit of competition at Left back though so will likely sit in the youth team until hes 18 then go out on loan unless he has some rapid development.

[oliscott]

Another decent scout report for Hossoz meant I pulled the trigger at 10 million, another to likely have a year with the youths and then a loan spell to see if hes ready for any first team football.

Ballesta is from my youth intake a year or two ago. Hes got some decent stats but with the ST role being held by Haaland, Endrick and Matip its going to be a struggle for him to break through, likely going to be a loan spell or two away for him and then a few games in the first team before being sold.

Salas is another product of the youth intake who has been in and around the first team now for the last two years where hes been getting about 10 games a year mostly as a substitute. I really like the look of Salas but the AML role is currently held by Vinicius who wont be moved any time soon with Rego backing him up this year. With Thompson also coming back next year game time is going to be hard to come by for Salas but time is on his side so maybe a loan move or two and well review again in time.

Diez is someone I spotted at 16 and took from Sevilla for a small fee. He has played a bit in the last two years as I think he has the potential to be a mainstay AMC, luckily for him Musiala was out for 3 months last year so he got a good run in the team getting double figures for goals and assists. Ill continue to give him time this year in the hopes he kicks on further.

[santy001]

Season 6 - Summer Window:

A quick look back over the finalised transfers for the summer:

Barcelona:

*No transfers out besides loan deals

Real Madrid:

[oliscott]

Both games against @santy001 played now so will likely be another unbeaten season (Famous last words). The streak continues.

 

[santy001]

Season 6 - Winter Window:

Not too much in the winter window from this season. I made a few signings only at Barcelona but all future prospects.

[oliscott]

Another youngster I forgot to get a screenshot of the other day is Matip, signed at 16 with some great stats, hes been out on loan the last three years getting experience and this year hes ready to start playing his part. At 6 foot 4 hes going to become dominant for years to come I hope.

 

[santy001]

End of Season 6 - Three Years Unbeaten for Real Madrid

Were I not hosting the save myself at this point in time you could almost be thinking someone would be cheating to go 3 full league seasons unbeaten. However, @oliscott has managed it and all the posts you see about the game scripting losses for people over in general discussion, I partly wish it was true at this point. I had a few mistakes mid-season, a loss to Atletico Madrid and a few more draws although my previous high of 104 points still wouldn't have been enough this season. My main hope is just that perhaps there is a weakening of the Real Madrid squad as their point totals decline. 

I managed to salvage some pride with a 2-1 win after extra time in the Champions League final against Real Madrid but another season in which the trophy count skews the way of Real Madrid.

Barcelona Best XI:

Real Madrid Best XI:

 

[santy001]

Season 7 - Early Summer Business:

A bit of a quiet one for both clubs, acquiring youngsters. I've added Harry Kane on a free to replace the retiring Lukaku. An experienced player is something I often find to be a benefit to the club.

Barcelona Transfers:

Real Madrid:

[santy001]

Season 7 - Summer Transfers:

Both sides just picking up a couple of youngsters, furthering on from the earlier business. Shipped a lot of younger players out at Barcelona who weren't going to make it. Diomande was against my will more due to Liverpool hitting his release clause, the bid for Lipani on deadline day felt too good to turn down. Another defeat to Real Madrid in the early season meeting means @oliscott is 3 points ahead in the title race.

Barcelona Transfers:

Real Madrid:

[santy001]

Season 7 - Real Madrid Unbeaten Run Ends

After 135 league games without defeat, a 1-0 defeat to Sevilla on 9th May 2026 was the last loss in La Liga until I finally broke the stream in a 4-1 victory at home on 19th January 2030. Aided massively by a red card when 2-1 up I still half expected the Real Madrid team to find an equaliser but Mbappe and Zaire-Emery adding their seconds saw us through. I mentioned it before, but genuinely had I not been the host of the game myself I'd have been racked with doubts that I was being cheated. After 20 games in the league and both our fixtures out of the way I'm now sat in first place with 19 wins and 1 loss, along with @oliscott also having the same record. It appears the head to head is in my favour as I'm top despite an inferior goal difference. Having just come into this game after the Super Cup I lost in the semi-finals to Real Madrid and so they were to play San Sebastian in the final, the surprise 3-1 defeat there likely did me some help by damaging morale a little just days before the game. 

The Match Stats:

Spoiler

The Record:

[oliscott]

Everything must come to an end eventually I guess. 135 games undefeated will look great on a C.V mind.

[santy001]

Season 7 - Winter Window:

Neither team made any transfers during January, as the squads are settling into an established form and a lot of youngsters have been purchased for the future I suppose it makes sense. We both went in on Florian Wirtz for a free transfer in the summer with him opting for my Barcelona side over Real Madrid. With Moukoko also having his contract expire I brought him in, nothing too spectacular compared to the FM's of yesteryear but hopefully I can get some performances out of him.