dothestrand

I'm always curious how Atletico Madrid seem to decline in every Spanish save. I'd expect they have good youth facilities and recruitment, and lots of money. But without fail, they fall into mid table obscurity after a few seasons.

I've finished the 2029-30 season and whilst we couldn't retain our title, we finished a very comfortable second. Barcelona were just way too good, finishing on 98 points. They won 15 of their first 16, so there was no catching them. In the CL, we had the misfortune to run into Man City in the first knockout stages, so we didn't make much progress there. In terms of performances, our star striker Iker Larrazabal won the Golden Boy award and scored 24 in 34 coming back from an ACL injury. We'd be struggling without him. Our other youngsters in the first team are doing well - Jon Cordoba is probably the best all round CM in La Liga, Roberto Simon is a mercurial winger who is phenomenal on his good days, whilst Vencedor's days are probably numbered because of Marcos Pena. As you can see though, they're getting itchy feet, but have long term contracts. Remember, these guys are all Lezama products, and we've been pretty lucky to be super competitive with the academy, whilst we phase out of the older players. Yeray is with the B team until he retires. Unai Nunez has a year left in him, probably. Unai Simon is still the Spanish first choice and even at 32, should be good for a couple of years yet. Oihan Sancet is in and out of the side, and at 30, we're close to letting him move on. Nico Serrano and Inigo Gomeza are the other two 'originals'. Nico is great and in and around the Spanish squad, whilst Gomeza has just been a good, solid LB - a Dennis Irwin type really. I might try to get another couple of seasons out of the game before FM22, though I'll see how quickly I jump with that.

Thanks to those who pulled me back into this save. Just finished the 2028-29 season and defended our title. With three games to go, we were 9 points ahead of Barcelona. Their goal difference was superior, so just 1 point needed. Can you guess what happened? Lost 0-1 to Almeria, then lost 0-3 to Barcelona. Just needed 1 point at home to Villareal, whilst Barcelona had to win at Valencia. Villareal took an early lead, and Barcelona raced into a 2-0 lead. Luckily Valencia eventually got it back to 3-3 but we were still losing. A 93rd minute equaliser for us made it safe, but crikey.... CL was hilarious. We were drawn against Man Utd, Inter and Celtic (I don't recall ever having a kind CL group). We got 11 points at still went out on head-to-head against Inter. We were in an incredibly stacked Europa League tournament, getting knocked out in the QF by Real Madrid. Domestic cups were a write off. Squad-wise, we're pretty well covered, though the full back positions are long-term concerns. We haven't had a good natural full back come through; either pretty middle of the road or just retrained players. Inigo Gomeza, a real-life youth player is my first-choice LB and is solid. Our RB is a retrained CM. A few of my main players/wonderkids. Larrazabal is a 19yo striker, whose taken a bit of a dive between of his cruciate ligament injury. He scored 25 in 27 last season. He'll be back a few weeks into the new season and hopefully recovers his pace. Cordoba is 20 and is probably the best all-round regen I've ever had. He could almost play anywhere. He's played a number of times for Spain. Pena is 19 and moved up from the B squad this season. He will replace Vencedor long-term, who has been decent but has been eclipsed ability-wise already. I've also got various players in the 18-21 bracket who are in the first team or soon to be there. A GK or full-back would be nice though. We'll be OK when Unai Simon leaves, but we've not had a decent youth keeper for a while! I'm even trying to hang onto Ezkieta as long as possible as a third-choice emergency keeper. Yeray will move down to the B squad (rather than sell him) probably. He had a big injury that's just killed him. Nunez is still one of three CBs/two RBs. Sancet is one of my main CM options. Serrano has been an elite winger and Spanish international for a few years (still only 26!) Everyone else who started has moved on.

Anyone had a dumber injury than this? He's not a first choice player, but still - use shower gel, lad!

You've dragged me back in! I'm more or less where you are, just starting the 28-29 season.

Well done @ernemann for getting that far. I'm not sure about firing the save up too much as the new game isn't too far away. I do like getting to the point where the real life players have all gone though.

When I played a Dinamo Zagreb save, I had the Serbia league running. It was ridiculous how many quality regens came up.

Hi all - I was just wondering whether anyone knows how the relationships between these clubs work in FM21. I know FC Liefering and RB Salzburg are official affiliates. I don't think RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg technically are, but obviously in practice there is movement between teams. Presumably with RB Salzburg you'd get first dibs on any talents coming through at FC Liefering and can loan players to them. But can RB Leipzig do the same with RB Salzburg? Are you competing for their players just as you would with any other club? Can you move players to RB Salzburg or would any loans have to be requested by the AI manager (if you're managing RB Leipzig, say). I don't think I'd start an RB Leipzig save in FM21 - maybe FM22 - but I'm curious as to how the dynamics between these three clubs have been absorbed into the game.

@ernemann Great achievement. How many seasons is that? Well over 20? I've left my save dormant for a couple of months. I should check how many games I've done!

@AlfieGillard I assume your Argentine player has Spanish second nationality? Did you sign him at 16? Unless he's switched nationality, I'm surprised he would have been eligible.

@AlfieGillard Your Nico Williams is miles better than he's ever been in any of my saves! I usually sell him by the time he's 23 because he's never kicked on anything like what he's done for you.

Without checking, the main players who are with you long term do get big wages - Simon, Yeray, Nunez, Williams - and you'll find that promising young players get greedy too (I try not to include annual salary increases and just pay more). Ultimately though, since we're competing for the title and doing well in the CL every season, our percentage of income spent on wages is usually the lowest in La Liga.

I think in older saves I bought Herrera back in from Man Utd but that's harder in this game since he has only just signed for PSG. Thinking of other big names formerly at Athletic Club, you'd only need Kepa if Simon was picked off, Laporte would probably be a decent short term option by the time Man City transfer list him, and Javi Martinez deteriorates quickly. IRL, they don't tend to bring those guys back. Llorente was never an option either. The players who return to Athletic Club tend to be those they let go, who then thrived elsewhere, e.g. Ibai Gomez.

Great progress @Ronaldo Beckham I thought I'd started a Brentford save in Fm21 but seemingly not! Replicating the Brentford model in the game seems the best way to do it - under the radar players from Denmark and France and the English third/fourth tier. Hopefully they'll make some more strong signings (after Ajer and Onyenka) this Summer to make Fm22 a fun game!

End of the 2027-28 season in my Lezama save and we brought the title back to Bilbao! It was a real tussle with Valencia all season. They were my main rivals in the league before they tailed off a little in the last few games, finishing third behind Barcelona. Valencia beat us in the Super Cup on penalties, whilst we beat them in the Spanish Cup. We crashed out of the CL to Juventus after losing a two goal aggregate list. But overall, an excellent season! In terms of the squad, no signings of course and we let Inaki Williams leave on a free in the January as he was declining massively with no game time. Most of the youngsters I've talked about over the last few seasons have kicked on very nicely - Alkorta is our rock of a CB, Martin and Cordoba are a formidable CM partnership. But we have loads of guys coming through Lezama that indicate that we'll be challenging for trophies for a long time to come. Iker Larrazabal is my main striker, scored 16 in 33 this season at the age of 18 and is worth nearly 40m. He's getting antsy about moving for a bigger club but he's signed up for five seasons. Roberto Simon broke through at the end of the season after some terrific performances for the B side. An 18yo inverted right-sided midfielder, hopefully he's my Arjen Robben. We have wide options though, so he may get a loan move if a top flight side take him. Marcos Pena may not break into the first team yet, purely because of the insane CM/DM options we have. He too is 18yo and if he bumps his marking stats , I may retrain him as a CB as his physical stats are good for his age. Roberto Aizpurua took Williams' place this season. 21yo, he can switch wings nicely with Serrano and has great trickery, even if I wish his crossing was better. Inaki Albisu is quite similar. A 20yo AMR, he has better all-rounded winger attributes and he's shared the spots with Serrano and Aizpurua. Gorka Pascual is predominantly a DM but had potential as a RB, which is where I've developed him over the last couple of seasons. At 20yo, he has lots of room to grow and will take over Yeray's role there. Borja Esnaola did well on loan at Osasuna in La Liga. Just 19yo, I may give him one more season on loan in the top flight before looking to ease him in ahead of Vencedor in that role. Fernando Garde is in my B side and has endless potential as a 17yo. I'll develop him as an AML, though we have so many options! There are other guys in the B side and below with not quite as much potential but still have a lot to offer if I need to. If I could be greedy, I'd like some more defenders and maybe a 'keeper. Each new intake seems excellent - my technical director is practically 20s throughout and Roberto Samaden is my HOYD - so that's made this save much easier.