nsd

Argentina is probably my favourite place to manage. I've had a Belgrano save every year for the past 3 or 4 versions of FM, I've just started the FM21 iteration today. Since I've started playing as them they've been relegated, struggled to get out of the second tier and lost a whole load of great prospects, so every year it's a little bit different. I love Argentina because the structure changes quite a lot over the first few seasons and I never have any idea what to expect. Belgrano are a great option for anyone looking to really rebuild a club, too. Not a traditionally big club, 3rd place finish in 2012/13 but since relegated, decent facilities, good colours, 30k stadium. I also like that they're based outside of Buenos Aires, as there is such a concentration of BA clubs so it's nice to try and break the hold the capital has on Argentine football. There's also an inter-city derby with Talleres once you get promoted to the top tier.

Really enjoying this save and the level of detail in the posts, keep it up!

Cesnauskis looks like he could be the greatest Lithuanian player of all time! Great work on getting to the EL groups, though that does look very tough. So very close to being a CL team, hopefully that breakthrough will come in the next couple of seasons.

I signed Jairo Concha on a free transfer in January 2020, from his Peruvian club Universidad San Martin. Now, in 2023, he's the subject of £45m bids from China and interest from Man Utd. EDIT: And the offers from China are still coming in...the latest:

Fantastic progress in Europe and increasing the league coefficient, that's always one of the most satisfying things about saves like this. And some of those players are genuinely good, not just 'good for Lithuania'. How are the national team doing these days, has the domestic success translated at all?

Really enjoyed keeping up with your progress in this save so far. Good luck in Europe!

Looking forward to your Venezuela update so I can finally start my Belgrano save with a complete South America. Great work so far!

Odsonne Edouard for £16m, Donny van de Beek £25m, Lucas Tousart £9m, Ludwig Augustinsson £9m

Yeah, you got extremely unlucky...

Started a save with Casale in Serie D, and there have been a couple of issues: Serie D playoffs weren't played at all, and the Serie C relegation playout wasn't played, Series C playoffs were played only up to the semi-finals as far as I can see, and the winner of each semi-final was promoted to Serie B. I'm not sure what kind of knock-on effect this has had throughout Serie C / D because I haven't gone through it all to make sense of it. The second season fixtures have generated no problem, so I assume there are still the correct amount of teams in each league but it's still pretty strange. It may have been caused by me not using all the files provided - as far as I can remember, it was just the structure itself, team colours and maybe stadiums.

I like Samaniego a lot, he's strong in all the areas you'd want for a defensive full back, but if you want him to contribute in attacking areas that PPM would have to go. His two-footedness, personality and outstanding mental attributes, plus the fact it's a position where you currently have a player at the end of his career and a young potential prospect, would convince me to go for him, at a reasonable price and wage. Getting 5 years out him him while you bring through a young player who he can hopefully influence positively makes it worth it imo.

Use the 'discipline' feature for poor performance. Generally I give a warning for anything between 6.2 and 6.4, 1 week fine for 5.8 to 6.1 and 2 week fine for anything below 5.8. If they have a positive, rather than neutral or negative reaction, it gives a 1 point bump to work rate or determination, very occasionally both.

I've had the same problem with regards to tutoring (or mentoring, as they call it now), and I'm really not sure which course of action to take. Selling the first team is the most drastic but probably the most thorough way of solving the problem, but it puts your top-level future at massive risk. It would be a shame to have to sign players, as they'd have to be decently high profile in comparison to the rest of the squad to quickly establish themselves as team leaders. However, it's a very similar concept to what people used to do in previous years on youth only saves, where they would sign an old pro solely for tutoring purposes. The difference now is they would actually have to be an important part of the team to retain their status as team leaders and keep up the level of influence necessary to have a significant effect on squad personalities and determination levels. I've also encountered a very similar issue on FM19 with players in the AM strata, particularly playmakers, being almost totally ineffective, and I've had far more luck turning them into advanced playmakers in the MC strata or creative forwards. I just cannot get an AMC playmaker to be consistently effective, no matter what I do, so I've mostly just stopped trying.

What is going on at Dortmund!

Certainly an interesting tactic! Good to see Gabriel has started well, love it when you risk all the wages on a veteran and it works out. I also love the idea of making island clubs a powerhouse away from the mainland - I had one season with Santa Clara of the Azores, but the game never generated any league fixtures for the season season so it died pretty quickly. Good luck with the champagne football!