Jogo Bonito

Really impressive form there in Belgium, great work. I really like seeing the youngsters getting their chances, and it seems like you have some gems that with a bit of extra polish can shine brightly until the big clubs snatch them away. As for domestic success, this could be the start of a long and prosperous Purple Reign 💜

It might just he the skin that makes it show the faces in squad view. My face pack doesn't do that. Yes little FM history these days and my laptop didn't really process very well, so it became a chore to waste precious spare time on FM. However, I have just acquired a new laptop so if it means those hours can be FM fun rather than FM chore, I might be able to get something going again. But back to important matters. What a great season you had. The league form was incredible but to also win a Cup was extra special. Congrats my friend!

Cup success was very nice. Congrats. Doing consistently well in the league, each year challenging the mighty Bayern. I like seeing the squad evolution, really enjoying this one still.

Great progress with Brentford! Success in league and cups is a real achievement. Nice to see you breaking with tradition (a career update thread of your own) whilst not breaking tradition (managing Brentford) How did you get the player face icon images in your squad review page? I like that alot.

Good luck with Anderlecht. A tough balancing act of improvement based on emerging young talent whilst addressing a woeful financial status. Those loans 😫

Good work with Standard. Nice business in the transfer window too.

I set up as Juventus and reloaded numerous times, eventually I got a start where only the first year had that 'avoid relegation'. No idea why it changed but made it much more realistic than the lame default five years avoid relegation demand. So try doing that and you may get lucky as I did. I've only done pre-season by the way, so nothing to report yet.

Sorry for a slow response. I never knew that, that's a great little story I've not had any chance to play FM since my last update, and the lack of opportunities to play makes me wonder if I was being too ambitious starting outside of the top flight. Added to that, the winter update now being out gives me a nagging sense that I should take on a new top flight club somewhere. The two-year doping ban of Mario Vuskovic also tells me that I might need a fresh squad to manage. Sorry that this one at Hamburger SV may well turn out to be a false start, which is not really the fault of the club as it was enjoyable for the short time I was engaged in it.

Excellent updates as usual, and you're really turning Stuttgart in to a consistently strong contender. A shame to see Silas and Sosa leave, but sometimes these things are out of our control. Keep up the good work.

Fully agree that you made the right choice in moving clubs, and great that it has reinvigorated your passion for the save. I like watching Belgian football, it's quite a good tempo and reasonable quality. Look forward to Ried-ing all about how you raise the Standard in Liege!

Thanks. Absolutely, it will be promotion or sack I think. So sorry for slow reply. Would you believe I haven't even been able to log in to FM since my last post. And since then, there's been an update too. It's a 4132 with the DM as a BWM, another BWM in the three ahead of him, and two strikers. I'll take a screen shot next time I log in. Again, sorry for slow response!

Just caught up on this, good to see you still plugging away (and winning a trophy). I was a big admirer of Sima before he joined Brighton, hopefully he can fulfil that promise IRL but in particular for you at SV Ried. Keep up the good work.

A nice read so far, good choice of club and a fine first season.

Good luck RB. Whereabouts in Europe is Fiji?

Season 2022/23 The shambolic preparations for the new season meant we were not ready for the big kick-off We had not nailed down our formation, tactics, or preferred personnel and July & August demonstrated this perfectly We won a few games, but lost more (conceding way too many goals) and struggled to keep out of the relegation zone We must have tried five or six formations during this spell, including three and four at the back, wingers and more narrow, lone strikers and a pair up top Eventually we settled on a 4132 with a ball-winning midfielder in front of the defence and behind three central midfielders The full-back roles were changed, and after tweaks were made to the central midfielder duties too, things finally began to gel By the end of October we had surged to 4th - although only three points still separate us from the team in 9th We are also in to the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal, although that run will probably end when we host Eintracht Frankfurt in January The performance graph on the left shows just how tragic we had been at the start, but at least we seem to be heading in the right direction now The continuing form of our strikers - in particular ex-Cardiff flop Robert Glatzel - remains crucial for any hopes we have of pushing on from here In other news, we were also forced in to the sale of defensive midfielder Jonas Meffert as he made it clear he wanted to join VfL Wolfsburg when they bid The fee of €2 million and 20% of any future profit would have been rejected, but we didn't want an unhappy player on our hands At least we were able to insist on a loan-back for the year to help ease the pain We managed to find a possible long-term replacement for Meffert in the form of Sao Paulo man Luan The Brazilian defensive midfielder will arrive in January on a free transfer at the end of his contract there

Squad 2022/23 The club had already done a fair amount of wheeling & dealing in the summer, but had not balanced the squad well at all There was a ridiculous surplus of wingers & plenty of gaps elsewhere that needed plugging To remedy this, wingers Ogechika Heil (Go Ahead Eagles, €100k), Bakery Jatta (VfL Wolfsburg, €2.5 million) and Xavier Amaechi (released) were all allowed to move on Joining the squad permanently were Esneyder Mena (América de Cali, €250k), Philipp Förster (VfL Bochum, €350k) and Florian Dietz (FC Köln, €300k) Loan deals were also struck for Valentín Gómez (Vélez) and Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund) The starting squad looked like this, although William Mikelbrencis was dropped down down a level after discovering that Moritz Heyer was usually deployed as a right-back Board Expectations Pre-Season There are only two things to say about this really Firstly, we only had 13 days before the season opener - no time at all to be prepared for a season in which we are expected to win the title Secondly, the results were poor and did little to boost confidence ahead of what was clearly going to be a tricky start to the new campaign

I missed this post but well done on a great season. Poor Le Mans, the jilted partners left to wallow in mid-table by their cold-hearted former manager. Great contribution from Ndour, he looks an ideal striker for French lower league clubs.

Consider it a pit stop, and enjoy your new club in the meantime!

Thanks. I hope I may be able to help, but it's been a REALLY tough start! It's well-known in football that injured players or players transferred in late can really be set back by months if they miss a large chunk of pre-season. In our case, the issue was that the earliest game start was 4th July and the 2. Bundesliga season started 13 days later. I only had three friendlies, had not settled on a formation, tactics or made clear preferences on the players who would start regularly, and then we had to kick off and justify our tag as promotion favourites. Learning all this in competitive fixtures with such heavy expectations was far from ideal, and we have had some really poor results so far. Hopefully things will stabilise and improve before the board sack me.

@CaptCanuck Obviously very unlucky how your last season finished up, but making a really good story with Niort. I like that it's taking time to get that success, lots of hard work and commitment but it will be a nice feeling when you get there. A cracking start to the new season, and Bakayoko is giving you real 'star quality' with those numbers. Personally I'd be willing on Lorient for the title, but with the likes of ASSE, Bordeaux and maybe even Montpellier, it will be tough competition. @Ronaldo BeckhamBlimey. You've had more clubs in the last few days than I have had in FM23 combined! Shame you left Le Mans as I was really hoping you might get them to the top flight, but I can understand why you moved on. After your sojourn with Troyes, I hope you enjoy your time with the Castle-boys. Hopefully you might get more out of precious Percious too. @karanhsingh It goes without saying that you're in a really good place there. I have yet to experience the mish-mash of the new European competition format, but I guess if you're still in it, there is little to complain about! KUTGW and good luck.

Home is the very decent Volksparkstadion, which has a capacity of 57,000 that will be fit for purpose when top-flight football eventually returns Nothing too radical with the 3D kits I have created, but I added a splash of red to the home one for nostalgia I'm also pleased that I managed to get the shape of the badge imprinted across the white zones of the home version The second is 'a bit Bordeaux' but works well, and the current club sponsor has been retained on all three Now it's time to welcome a new manager to the club, who is Hamburg-born Hans Füll The eagle-eyed amongst you might spot the familiar name of our new Technical Director below Yes, I've added the out of work Jürgen Klinsmann as a Director - and endulged myself by also giving him an 'active' role too 69 times capped (West) German international right-back Manfred Kaltz was also inserted as club Director for purely cosmetic reasons Kaltz is the club's record appearance maker with 568 appearances from 1971-1989 (76 goals) and another 13 games in 1990-91 before retirement The Assistant Manager and first team coaches all saw their contracts terminated when manager Tim Walter was relieved of his duties Those positions remain vacant, but hopefully will be filled in the near future The new boss will have his 'hands full' to meet the demands of Chairperson Marcell Jansen, as automatic promotion is essential in 2022/23 I converted the currency to Euros and there is a healthy transfer & wage budget as shown below The squad is decent, but very unbalanced - hence firing the AM and all the coaches One natural striker, no natural senior right-back, seven wingers and only three proper central defenders means there will have to be a few ins & outs

Hamburg? HSV? SV Hamburg? Since 1914, it's actually been known as Hamburger Sport-Verein. So what do we associate with Hamburg, or Hamburger? Here is a snapshot.... But apart from a cult German TV series, McDonalds (from the days they were called hamburgers) and the waterside, what else? Football-wise the club used to be good. Very good Six German top flight titles and three DFB Pokal trophies reflect that They won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1977, and the European Cup by beating Juventus in 1983 (they also lost the 1980 Final) They signed Liverpool & England star Kevin Keegan when he was at his absolute peak and one of the best forwards in Europe They signed Franz Beckenbauer. They also had Felix Magath. Stop laughing, he was actually quite a decent player & managed them well too. But back to Beckenbauer, as he gave me the extra nudge to take on this fallen German giant, now in the second tier (2. Bundesliga) The reason for that dates back to my childhood when as a young boy I entered my first ever football competition via 'Shoot' magazine Much to my surprise I won it, and the prize posted out was a bright white signed Franz Beckenbauer shirt - not of Germany, but of HSV This is the shirt below, with red collar & double sleeve stripes, and black BP logo as sponsor (no comment on BP profits needed) The badge suggests club colours of white, blue and black but even in current times they wear red shorts - hence the nickname 'Die Rothosen'

Nice update, a lovely 'Ried' as usual. Very pleased to see your striker Kulenovic still on form. Had a look at him myself for my new game and he is the sort realistic target I would buy too (I won't of course, need to be different). Enjoy your holiday and will try to keep track of your progress when you return.

Don't want to take your thread off track, but 3rd was SK Rapid Vienna 2nd was SV Werder Bremen And the winner was.... Oh blimey, somebody at the door

Shame it didn't work out well for you in Italy. I wanted to start there but need some easier transfer rules before doing it. Speaking of which, I have decided on my new club, designed the kits etc. You can take the man out of Darlo but not the Darlo out of the man, right? Excellent stuff with The Quakers and I'm sure the VNN will not halt your progress.