dothestrand

Quiet close season in 2019, just a few players in. A couple of youngsters from Osasuna and Sociedad's third choice RB (behind Zaldua and Elustondo). Gorosabel should offer good competition for De Marcos though. In terms of departures, one keeper had to go so Herrerin seemed the obvious one as the oldest keeper and with only a year left on his deal. As mentioned, San Jose was sold for 8m to Chelsea, and Capa eventually was let go for 3m to Betis after he complained. One thing I find in this game is a lot of players get unhappy about things like players being sold, and also captains don't want to get involved in chatting to those unhappy players. Susaeta was terrible for this, so he was replaced as captain by Dani Garcia. A captain has to do his job! Three games into 2019-20 and seven points - including a 3-0 home win over Real Madrid! That felt good! New signings:

No mention of the mighty Bees? How are Barnet looking in this version?

I thought Tymon was pretty much the LB with greatest potential in the world in FM18. He's less good in FM19.

I was alternating between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-2-1 and we really struggled from October to Christmas. I struggled to get a good defence going, which was doubly hard because, like yourself, it was hard scoring. Yuri was disappointing and Ganea took the LB role in the end. De Marcos and Capa struggled at RB. With CB, well one decision has been made already because San Jose wanted to leave and I kept refusing bids at below his value. Chelsea eventually offered the 8m value so I accepted. Martinez and Yeray should be first choice CBs now and I have Etxeita and Nunez as back up. Valencia are sniffing around Capa and tbh, if they come in with something decent, he may well go too. I've sold Herrein too as we have three GK. Berenguer seems the most likely addition this Summer but I'm anticipating a quiet one.

Offer Stoke the world for Josh Tymon.

This was a difficult first season. By November we were in the relegation zone and the P45 was on its way, but we started to stable and started moving in the right direction. A disappointing season though as we ultimately finished 13th. On the transfer front, Bautista came in from Sociedad for 3.2m but that was largely it and we shipped out Balenziaga, Rico, Lekue and Arduriz (contract expiring and had only scored 4 in 20 league games by Christmas). Everyone I wanted to keep was signed to new contracts, and Etxieta and Vesga will return to add a bit more depth. So a chastening experience and I don't have the board's full confidence so it needs to be a good pre-season and then hit the ground running. In past games, I usually didn't start too well, only really hitting the European spots to mid-table before kicking on as the youth players came through.

Oh wait, this guy is Basque and was on a free at the start of the game, so hopefully he is in all games. Good physical stats already, just need to work on his technique and he could be in the first team in a couple of seasons.

Not found any yet. I'm hoping Sancet and Nolaskoain kick on. Their technical stats are fine, they just need to beef up. I got some decent youths in the first intake, as did Sociedad, but they're not coming.

This will be my first save game. You start with a lot of players with contracts running out in 2019 - Arduriz, Munain, De Marcos, Garcia, Susaeta, Iturraspe, Rico, Balenziaga, Remiro and more. I'll offer Munain, De Marcos, Susaeta, Iturraspe and Remiro new deals and sit on Arduriz, Garcia and Rico for now. I'd like to see the first two would accept lower wages for new contracts later on. Given we're strong at LB, I'll move Balenziaga on. 22m for transfers but not many options. I don't think we'll get very far pursuing any Sociedad players. The regular first season options I've gone for in the past; Roberto Torres, Ibai Gomez may be options but the squad looks strong enough as is. Aim for the European spots with what we have and plan to raid the youth prospects of other Basque clubs next Spring

Brescia look very decent. If you get them out of Serie B you should be able to aim for Europe within a couple of seasons. Not just Tonali, but they a quite astonishing Albanian kid up front.

Yeah I might start it again. I'm trying to find the best English club to try if you just want English or at worst, British, talent. Everton have signed a lot of new guys I'd need to get rid of But they're as good a team as anyone to try. And I'd have to hope the top six have English guys to sell!

I think Leon Bailey has accepted a call up for Jamaica irl, but he always plays for Belgium in my games.

FC Midtjylland is usually the one team I raid when managing in England. I can't remember if FM officially links them up with Brentford or not. But it's always easy to get their quality players at a decent price. The teenage LB Poulsen looks like he could become a wonderkid. I've never played a game long enough to see him develop. Kraev is the one player though who they'll charge a huge amount for. I've never been able to sign him but looks potentially world class.

In the Summer of 19, we strengthened the FB positions by getting in Trippier and Shaw, both transfer listed (the former is already annoyed that we haven't strengthened the defence - erm, we have loads of defenders!). Keane was being chased by the big clubs but nobody was willing to pay the 30m we wanted. Spurs came in for him and I asked for the 19.75m he was valued at plus the transfer listed Tarkowski, so that turned out to be a decent deal. Charlie Austin was a cheap back up striker, whilst Chalobah came in to alternate with Drinkwater in the more defensively minded role in the centre of the park. James McCarthy was the only big departure. Overall, a pretty quiet window as we tried to keep the squad together we'd want for the next 2-3y.

I've started an Everton game and skip the first season every game I play, so I've started in May 2018 in effect. Also, I play every game with the ambition to create a domestic-only squad within one season. So that demands a huge fire sale of the playing squad over the course of a season. What this means is often underselling players and paying over the odds for English talent. So over 18-19 a hell of a lot of money was raised and a hell of a lot of money was spent. There must be some happy agents out there. So Bolasie, Sigurdsson, Coleman, Schneiderlin, etc. - all gone. In terms of replacements, well I was glad Liverpool were transfer listing players because getting Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ings in was pivotal and they were my two best performers (none had qualms joining rivals). Jadon Sancho came in from Dortmund and was well worth the price tag as he really kicked on in the second half of the season. Reece Oxford was our biggest outlay and other big fees were spent on Wilshere, Mawson, Onomah and Drinkwater. We also got Winks in at a bargain fee once Spurs put him up for sale! The midfield was a worry at the start of year. We have a lot of depth there now. Attack is an issue going forward as Abraham played 19 games without scoring! At Christmas, we were 12th and I was looking at the job centre, but we kicked on and starting an excellent run of form that gradually moved us higher up the table. We finished 7th, comfortably ahead of Watford in 8th. Can we make the top six next season? A big ask. The players reckon we should aim for the CL. So I'm expecting some unhappy players next season. On the finances front, we're losing money heavily and Moshiri is pumping money in to keep us afloat. We have a transfer budget of 50m going into next season but I want to see how the finances improve first. Let's hope Spurs and the like transfer more of their English talent - Trippier and Lingard have turned me down in the past. Let's try again.