dothestrand

@ernemann Gosh, I wouldn't turn that money down, though you shouldn't need it! And crazy to need 102 pts to win the title! I've got a youth player here I'm struggling to work out what to do with. He's a natural striker but doesn't have the technical ability to be a regular option there (plus I have strikers aplenty already). He can play wide right, but again I don't really need him there. I am weaker in CM but again, how long can I wait to improve those technical stats? As you can see, he is a wonderkid and has a high value, so whilst I can't work out what to do with him, I don't want to

He usually had good loan spells but didn't develop enough to be a first teamer. Always had better regens for squad depth. Sold him to Elche for around 5m after a couple of seasons.

Replacing Garitano with Marcelino seems to have made a huge difference already!

I lucked out with Serrano. He's about as good as in @ernemann game. I play him as an AML but could easily do a fine job as a striker. I sold my Artola fairly early. My scouts rate him but I've always had better options with Williams, Navarro, Barrenetxea and various regens.

The 2024-25 season is over! Going into the last two games, I was 2pts ahead of Barcelona, who I played next. I was away to Atletico Madrid in the last game, so I needed a positive result - and I got it! We needed a record wins/points haul. Barcelona were flying for most of the season and we had to be at our best to match them. Just look at how far Real Madrid, who had won the title the previous season and won the CL this season, were behind. In the cups, we reached the Super Cup final (losing to Atletico Madrid), the Spanish Cup SF (losing to Real Madrid) and the first knockout stages of the C

Aha, I see. I don't think he's going anywhere in my game, but hopefully an EPL team signs him!

@ernemann I may have missed this but how did you sign Oyarzabal?

I think I've seen more French Basques in three seasons or so of FM21 than I've ever seen in the game. I've got 3-4 in my youth teams, a couple home grown, others bought from the other Basque teams.

I started my Arsenal save, taking over after one season (where they have no European football) and wanting to create a UK and Irish squad only, whilst trying to buy enough young players to keep the board happy. So it was a fire sale of most of the squad, then mopping up as many domestic replacements as possible. I spent around 30-40m with these transfers and crucially saved huge, huge amounts in salaries. Ins: James Ward-Prowse (25.5m - Southampton relegated), Lewis Cook (9.75m), James Maddison (36m), Harry Winks (17.25m), Aaron Ramsey (22m), Dean Henderson (32.5m), Ethan Ampadu (60m), Wa

If a player's contract is in its final few months, they almost certainly won't accept a mutual termination. They would want to be paid in full.

I wonder if an Arsenal save would be too easy, but given their current woes, it would be good to return to the Wenger era and complementing French talent (Guendouzi, Saliba and good enough players from League 1) with young English players like Saka, Maitland-Niles, Tierney, Willock, Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah. New signings would need to be English or French and under 21 and the oldies would be sent off to the glue factory ASAP.

WBA look a harder job than Fulham. Well done for keeping them up.

If I was starting an EPL save, it would be a toss up of Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle or Sheff Utd, I think. Brighton have a strong defence and need some improvement in attacking areas, but have some good young players. Burnley or Sheff Utd have a strong British spine and should help with any Brexit restrictions. I'd want to keep that going. Managing a Mike Ashley club should be interesting and the whole Newcastle squad has interest from the outset so you can make changes quickly. Newcastle probably seems the club you can do more with quickly. So it might be one of the othe

2023-24 season finished and it was a slightly sobering follow-on from the dizzying heights from the season before. We had a very tough start and were W4 D6 L0 from the first ten games, I think, so we were behind the big guns from the outset. Still, there was daylight between us and Real Sociedad, so CL was easily secured. We reached the QF of the CL before losing to Inter (and we won our group, which was impressive given Liverpool were in Pot 2!) so that was a positive sign. I want us to kick on in Europe, though finishing 4th will make that job harder as we will inevitably be in a tough group

Season 3, 2022-23 done and dusted and we brought the title back to the city. It was a close run thing as you can see. You may notice that us and Real Sociedad were level pegging going into the last day but we had the superior head-to-head so GD wasn't going to be a factor. Luckily, our game was home to Osasuna, who we demolished 4-0 to win in style. Otherwise, it was another strange season. We were humiliated in the CL with 1 win and 5 losses against Inter, Dortmund and Marseille. Not much in the way of star performers - just Yeray, Nunez and Unai Lopez with an average rating of 7 or greater.