dothestrand

I'm tempted to start a homegrown only save, e.g. not buy any players and just rely on the regents. But I'd probably want to start the save a few years in to have a couple of intakes to work with.

2030-2031 Season Update: Four In A Row After a break, I've resumed my Athletic Club save, and taken home the La Liga titles for the fourth consecutive season. It was a bit touch and go with half a dozen games to go, when we had FIVE away matches remaining, but luckily it was us who held our nerve, whilst our closest rivals, Real, lost back to back away matches to Atletico and Espanyol respectively. This meant our last game, away to Real, was a dead rubber. A familiar tale in the cups; a QF defeat in the CL to Liverpool, lost the Super Cup Final to Villareal, and an early exit in the Spanish Cup to Mallorca. Could've done much better in the domestic cups. In terms of the squad, we had a bit of turnover of the fringe players. Aimar Vicandi went to Saudi Arabia for 20m, Martin Zubimendi went to Nice for 8.5m, and we moved a regen winger onto Nice for 18.5m. In bigger news, we sold Unai Simon to Man Utd for 25m. Man Utd also took Dani Vivian on a Bosman. This gave us a chance to bring some youngsters into the first team, most of whom I've already highlighted. We are approaching a transition period as we have a few guys well into their thirties; a 37yo Laporte and a 34yo Le Normand need replacing soon, which means we may need Vivian back, or else we could be light in defence as we're not blessed with regens just yet (I've a 17yo with 4.5 potential and he's been in the first team squad with the odd game). Outside of the first team, we've got several promising players who should be first team potential soon. Loans really help them kick on. Some have had remarkable accelerations in their development. I've got a couple of decent keepers, a wonderkid LB and more right-wingers than UKIP, all knocking on the door. I'm still amused by the cheek of the wage demands of several youngsters. One RB in my under 19s - very promising but a few years off first team football - wanted 90k per week! We're well behind on the wage budget, but I was tempted to sell him with a release clause just to sting him on wages. A few small changes to the backline then, but otherwise not too many massive changes for the next season.

If you want to go for European glory (domestic leagues could be a walkover) then Red Star Belgrade and Dinamo Zagreb could be fun with non-stop academy prospects. If the Right to Dream academy works with FC Nordsjælland then they could be fun too.

I won Serie A with Atalanta in 23-24 by 2pts, despite having a 7pt lead with three to go. True to form, you buckle a bit in FM when the title is within grasp, but fortunately Sampdoria couldn't prevent us winning 1-0 on the last day. Milan, Napoli and Roma finished 2nd-4th. Out January signings (above) made a difference (we signed Gabbia from Milan too as a rotation CB) and will help the squad remain strong. We have a nice kitty for next season, which will allow for some squad changes. Belotti, Zappacosta and Zortea (replaced by Bellanova for half the money) will move on, and I'll take bids for Pessina. Scalvini and Valeri will attract bids and I'd be OK with selling the latter in particular as Luca Pellegrini is joining. Otherwise, we have about 40m left to bring any first team players in, plus build our youth squad up with talented youngsters from within Italy. Really exciting is the signing of Simone Pafundi from Udinese for 12m. In real life, he has already made his Italy debut at 17!

Having simmed the first season, I took over Atalanta from the Summer of 2023. They had qualified for the CL in 4th the previous season, so that was nice. I wanted to do my usual thing of rebooting the squad as a totally home-grown squad of younger players (ideally under-23). This meant a huge fire-sale of nearly 200m worth of players. The board were very kind to give me 15% of that back! I spent the 15m I had left in the kitty on Empoli's wonderkid AMC, Tommaso Baldanzi. Also incoming were: Filippo Mane (Dortmund, 6m) Nicolo Tresoldo (Hannover, 5.5m - the new Christian Vieri!) Tommaso Pobega (Milan, 8m) Andrea Belotti (Roma, 3.2m - not quite fitting my youth policy but he will provide depth and he'll only be here one season probably) Nicolo Rovella (Juventus, 10m) Lorenzo Pirola (Inter, 4m) Cesare Cesadai and Fabio Miretti came in on loan from Chelsea and Juventus respectively. Andrea Cambiaso came in from Juve on loan as backup in the wingback positions We line up in a vertical tiki-taka, 5-2-2-1 formation. GK: Carnesecchi (Gollini, Sportiello) CB: Mane, Okoli, Scalvini (Pirola, Cittadini) RWB: Zappacosta (Zortea) LWB: Valeri - who the AI has signed from Cremonese the past season for 1.8m (Ruggeri, with Cambiaso able to play both flanks) CM: Pobega, Rovella, Miretti AM: Cesadei, Baldanzi, Pessina (generally, all of the six midfielders besides Baldanzi are flexible enough to play either CM or AMC) ST: Tresoldi (Belotti, Piccoli, Cambiaghi) 14 games in, we have a 7pt lead at the top, but that's based on playing weaker teams by and large, so I wouldn't expect that to hold. Top three would be nice. We've got through the CL group stages as we had a favourable group. The board have given me 50m (we have 180m in the bank!), so I've made Miretti's transfer permanent and will have around 40m left for the January window. I'm pretty happy with the squad at the moment, but we could do with some more depth in AMC, ST and wingback positions. I signed Lucca, Zainolo, and Terracciano, the Verona RWB, to replace Zappacosta (who will leave at the end of the year).

Has anyone tried to manage Man Utd with a ten Hag-esque approach to recruitment, signing either: Players from the top Eredivisie clubs (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, AZ): both Dutch players like Teze, Rensch, Timber and Simons, but also foreign players like Kudus, Alvarez or Sangare. Dutch players from other European leagues (Dumfries, Frimpong, Gravenberch, etc.) as and when they become possible transfers.

Managing the salary budget when the B team is in the second division is frustrating, partly because your young players ask for ridiculous wages when they sign a second contract, say. It's hard to keep a good young squad together. I end up loaning out the higher paid youngsters and filling the squad with cheap veterans. Not ideal. It's crazy that you get young guys without a first team game asking for 20k per week.

I tend to like high mental attributes - composure, concentration, decisions, determination, work rate and vision. Strength is a bonus but I'd take stamina and natural fitness over it. First touch and technique of the more technical stats.

If you're qualifying for the CL your balance will just naturally grow. Usually a few seasons in, with CL football in the bag, you'll never have to worry about money and you'll have a healthy transfer fund. It's only the first season or so where you look like you may slip into the red. Generally, your youth development is going to be your greatest way of succeeding in the game. There are only a few good current Basque players who will join you and those who won't will need to be sold (by mainly Real Sociedad) to other clubs and become transfer listed. Your own youth production line, and he youth players of other Basque clubs, will really come good a few seasons in.

Do you have a bigger release clause fee than that? Well done if so! You can't easily sign players so I'd be reluctant to let my best player leave unless there was a like for like replacement. You won't really need the money as it won't do much for you. If he isn't desperate to move I'd hang on.

Dortmund could be an interesting save this year. Despite the reputation for bringing through young players that can be sold on for huge profits, in the last few years they've reinvested that money on older players on ridiculous wages. There is a lot of chaff you can move on, and Germany is always a good source of young talent to replace them with.

Should be an embarrassment of riches on the youth intake front.

Malik Thiaw is excellent. You can get him on loan with an optional purchase clause of around 15m which is good value if you have the funds.

I've started an Everton save. This is quite a difficult challenge early on because you have a) reasonably high expectations, b) no money, c) loads of injured players, d) players on ridiculous money. All in all, this makes moving players on and signing new ones tough. I've sold Tom Davies (9.25m), Salomon Rondon (1.7m), Seamus Coleman (1m) and Abdoulaye Doucoure (3m - way below market value) - these guys were on crazy wages and selling them seemed the easiest way to give us room to manouevre in the transfer market. How is Doucoure on 120k per week? Jeez. In has come Roberto Gagliardini (1.7m), Andrea Schjelderup (8m), Malick Thiaw and Yacine Adli (both on loan from AC Milan) and Philip Billing (6m). I'd love to sell Idrissa Gueye (130k per week!) but I can't find a buyer. Newly signed and with 2y on his contract, he's going to hard to shift. I have enough CM options without him. Michael Keane started listed and is still here - I may try to move him on still. We've got enough CB options and I want another RB ideally. Holgate can cover CB. No interest in ever playing Yerry Mina or Andros Townsend. Both have long term injuries and are out of contract next Summer. I just hope I can shift them in January for whatever I can get. First three games were losing 2-0 to Man Utd (A) and then three home wins against Leeds (1-0), Wolves (2-0) and Liverpool (2-0!!!), so I'll take that start - especially those with longer term injuries start to return.

Season 29-30: A hat trick of titles La Liga: Champions, 89 points (-7 from last season) Champions League: Round of 16 (lost to Man City) Super Cup: Semi Final (lost to Atletico Madrid) Spanish Cup: Quarter Finals (lost to Real Madrid) Squad Performance The objective this season was to retain the title that we'd won in the past two years and supersede the legendary Clemente side of the early 80s - and we did it! As previously mentioned, it was a hairy first half of the season with several teams in contention for the title. Our own form had been erratic. But with Real Madrid and Barcelona seemingly out of the picture, there was always the chance that those sides that were flying high in January would fall away. So it proved. Espanyol and Sevilla really slipped back, whilst the two La Liga giants didn't recover their form - Real Madrid a dismal 8th and Barcelona only in 6th. Valencia got relegated too! Our form in the second half of the season was much better and that allowed us to put some distance between ourselves and our closest challengers - who happened to be a surprising Villareal - Myron Boadu was still scoring for fun. Apparently this is a record low (in this game) for a title-winning side, which speaks volumes about how La Liga is at the moment. The cups were a disappointment. We finished in the top eight in the Champions League, but were unfortunate to be drawn against Man City in the last sixteen, who defeated us without much fuss. The domestic cups were a missed opportunity too. The Super Cup defeat came during a run of poor form, and it doesn't really matter if Real Madrid are in bad nick, they'll turn up when they play us, and they dumped us out of the Spanish Cup at the QF stage. No major standouts in terms of performances. A lot of OK but not amazing performers. Garitano is my wonderkid RB (who may eventually become a CB) and has now been capped several times for Spain. Armendiriz and Roldan are two regen wingers who've been out on loan and immediately stepped up into the first team - we sold Aimar Oroz and Dani Rodriguez to find space for them. Ander Ibanez doesn't appear in the front three, but he was top Spanish goalscorer with 20 goals. I'd have liked a bit more from Yoldi, my 20-technique CM, who has dizzying potential. But he needs to dominate games more. Transfers and Youth Intake We have loads of cash in the bank, and we spent a lot! We signed Garcia, the 18yo Alaves CM for 41m and he played very well in the second half of the season. With him and Yoldi, we don't need to worry about Sancet (30) and Vencedor (29) when they move on. Hugo Guillamon became available for 57m and we swooped for him. With our main CBs being a couple of years older (and no real regens), we should get a good few years out of him. He's struggled so far, and probably fancies playing DM, which we don't need him for. We'll likely rotate him, Laporte and Vivian going forward. Youth intake wasn't a good one, which was probably overdue. We've been very lucky over the last several years and don't need any more wingers! Looking Ahead Much like some other posters, after nearly a decade, I've found that La Liga has become much less competitive and the challenge has probably gone in terms of domestic competition. We underperform in cups, particularly in Europe, but those are the only real concerns. In terms of squad development, we'd be looking to potentially move Unai Simon on this Summer as I've been playing the regen ex-Real Sociedad keeper in the second half of the season. We've lost Nunez and will probably move Le Normand on, so we can bring some younger defenders into the squad - particularly in the full back positions. We're stacked in CM now and are fine here for another couple of years. The wide positions are a neverending production line. I have 3-4 guys on loan who could play in the first team whenever I need them. We have a promising young striker, much more of an all-round striker, but he's a few years off the first team squad. So in short, we've got a very strong squad of the best 'real' Basque players we could possibly sign and top-quality regens. Unless Barcelona/Real Madrid up their game, we'd dominate La Liga for the foreseeable. This may be the point where I take a break and try a Premier League save. A Few Wonderkids/Regens

Unrealistic player complaints is a real bugbear of mine. Why your players side with a guy who's being disruptive and trying to divide the dressing room, I don't get - even when you say we'd be weaker with the player leaving that doesn't help. Then the squad revolted when City beat us in the CL. We were unlucky to draw them in the last 16 but did they really think we had a 50-50 chance of defeating a side that routinely spends 100m on any player it fancies? And if we didn't beat them look at yourselves as much as me, guys!

He has varying potential in the game I think. He's not good in my save. His finishing is only 11. I never signed him as Villalibre, Garcia and the Williams were always better options.

They've been poor for a few seasons. City buy their best players up. Even when Real Madrid and Barcelona have poor seasons and drop points to average sides they play like world-beaters against us.

Anyone had a weird table like this midway through a season (currently December 2029?). A number of unfancied teams could win the league. I've lost away to Espanyol and Sevilla and at home to Barcelona. Villarreal have Myron Boadu up front and he is on fire - 20 La Liga goals already!

I convinced the board to buy San Mames in my current season. It took a lot of persuasion for this so I don't think they would want to build a new one.

It took dozens of offers and players talking him up to the press before he would even listen to an offer and even then he wouldn't entertain whatever was thrown at him. Basically I added anything and everything - crazy salary, star player status, promises of trophies, promises to act as a stepping stone, promises to improve the coaching setup etc. In theory, all doable. Eventually he accepted at about the third attempt, just after the window closed! He and Yoldi, my talented regen CM, will take over from Sancet and Vencedor nicely now.

Woohoo! It's taken a lot of persuasion and promises I may come to regret but he's coming in January....

Season 28-29: Back to Back title success La Liga: Champions, 96 points (+2 from last season) Champions League: Quarter Finals (lost to Real Madrid) Super Cup: Final (lost to Real Madrid) Spanish Cup: Quarter Finals (lost to Barcelona) Squad Performance To show that last season wasn't a fluke, we brought the title back to San Mames, with more points and wins than the previous year. We were in a tussle with Barcelona across the season and things were neck and neck by around week 30 (with Barcelona having the better head to head). We won 7 of our last 8 games (losing at Atletico Madrid), whilst Barcelona wobbled, losing at Real Sociedad (thanks, neighbours!) and Valencia, whilst dropping home points to Villareal and Almeria (who were the season's dark horses!). I was surprised it was so comfortable in the end. Real Madrid continue to struggle, which is nice to see. We performed better in the Champions League than past seasons, finishing in the top eight of the group stage for the first time. We then defeated Nice in the last sixteen in extra time of the second leg, and we were optimistic in our QF against Real Madrid after an undeserved away draw. We then bottled it at home, losing 0-2. Madrid had the wood over us that season in the cups, beating us in the Super Cup final. When we were unfortunate to draw Barcelona at an early-ish stage in the Spanish Cups, the board and a few players were miffed at the prospect of no silverware. La Liga should be more than enough compensation. Strong performances again across the first team, with the regular starting XI averaging 7.0 besides Zubimendi. But many of the other first team squad averaged over 7.0 too - Nunez, Nico Williams, Yoldi (our regen CM), Aimar, and Aritz Gil (a regen DM). Dani Vivian was the worst performer of my defence, which doesn't bode well given he's captain. Ander Ibanez is a 21yo homegrown striker who's spent a couple of seasons on loan but has now plugged the Griezmann shaped hole in the side. We're more optimistic in the STC position than we've been for a while as we've got some good-looking regens now. Transfers and Youth Intake Only one big purchase this season - bringing Aymeric Laporte back to the club. 34m is a lot for a 34yo but he shows little sign of decline and we'll get two good seasons from him. He'll hopefully be a good influence on the younger players too. Otherwise, it was a case of picking up Basque regens with decent potential. A promising GK at Villareal and a bargain of a RB at Pamplona (the non-Osasuna club!) are the main standouts - others tend to be inexpensive punts from smaller Basque clubs, so I'm fine if only the odd player comes off. No real outgoings, just a series of loans of our younger players across the top two divisions, which has really accelerated their development. We were promised a golden generation with the intake with 4-5 positions suggesting A grades. OK, it wasn't quite that good and nobody is within first team range for a few seasons at least, but we had a few decent strikers and defenders come through. We'll watch how they develop, but I'm not expecting fireworks. Looking Ahead We let Yeray, Munoz and Odriozola leave last season, but we still have an ageing backline. Laporte is 34, Nunez and Le Normand are 32, and Vivian is 29, but I'd only want to lose one of these at most this Summer. The first three are out of contract next Summer and I may just let them see their contracts out. The other position we need to think about this Summer is the AML/AMR positions. Armendariz and Ojeda, who were highlighted as wonderkids in the last season's update did well enough on loan at Vallecano (midtable in La Liga) to suggest they could contribute to the first team. We also have three wingers out on loan who are now wonderkids. A crazy embarrassment of riches for two positions we're already well stocked in. This means Aimar Vicandi, Aimar Oroz and Dani Rodriguez may be vulnerable. The last two are out of contract next Summer so I'll need to decide on their futures sooner rather than later. It's unlikely we'll do much transfer business. We've got some players from the 2029 intake coming in already. That amazing young CM at Alaves keeps rejecting me. I'm hoping they get relegated to force him to rethink. Having matched the back to back titles of the early 80s Athletic Club squad under Javier Clemente, we're looking to go one further and make it a hat trick. A cup win and more progress in the Champions League would be nice!

Many of my players, across all squads, are in constant demand by so called bigger clubs across Europe and often get unsettled. Sometimes I let them go, particularly if I don't think they will make it here or there even and am happy stiffing the other club for the money. A couple of times you lose a player on a release clause fee - that happened this season with a C team defender. Again, I can't see him doing the business at San Mames so I'll take the money but he'll cost a crazy amount to bring him back. I usually find players are more antsy during transfer windows and won't back down during those. But once they close they usually change their minds about wanting to leave.

@bowieinspace I had a look at your saved game and you've some excellent regens. Your LB is some player! I'm a few seasons back and will have your issues too. Fortunately we have a good GK we signed from Real Sociedad and a homegrown wonderkid CB, plus a few more defensively minded players who could be good squad options. With the intakes now I'm forcing anyone with any half decent defensive attributes to retrain as a defender. Likewise any winger who looks like they could play up top.