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Thank you! I've got another season update I should do, but I'm halfway through the next season after so may just do two years at once at this point. Staff wise I stay flexible, I always look out for Basque staff but I'm happy to take the best available option to be honest.

Season Review 2029/30 La Liga - 2nd, 93 points Supercopa - Winners Copa Del Rey - Winners Champions League - Lost in QF to Man City So close to the league title, but a domestic cup double is a pretty good result overall. In the league we were ahead with 3 games to go, but two draws in our final 3 games meant we lost to Real Madrid by 4 points - they did deserve it overall though, scoring 125 goals they certainly dwarfed our stats, and our closely fought games eventually came to bite us at the end. In the Champions League we lost again, outclassed by Man City. The loss to Man City and ludricous riches we have in terms of young attacking talent has prompted a tactical shift for the 30/31 season. We've kept some of the same overall ideas within this system, but moved things a touch wider in the attack, opting for an offset 4-2-3-1 (which basically plays like a 4-2-4 a lot of the time). We needed to find easier ways to get all of our attacking players into the team! GK - Simon, Alvaro Fernandez, Iker Alvarez RB - Nico Williams, Unax Urrutia LB - Eneko Cordoba, Gaizka Alboniga-Menor CB - Dani Vivian, Josu Blasco, Jose Jimenez, Aitor Etxeberria DM - Hugo Guillamon, Javi, Ibon Marin, Mikel Guruzeta RW - Jon Martin, Isaac Gomez LW - Jon Ibanez, Julen Aguirre AM - Oihan Sancet, Jon Castro CF - Aitor Gorrotxategi, Juan Etxabe You may notice a few familiar names who have been moved on - Unai Vencedor was allowed to leave to accommodate having one less central midfielder spot in the squad, while Aimar was also sent on loan for a year to be reviewed in the summer...this was a tough call as he has been exceptional for us over the years, but Sancet is a better player and Jon Castro is younger and arguably better (albeit doesn't always show it output wise). This allowed us to welcome Isaac Gomez and Juan Etxabe to the first team! We also brought Aitor Etxeberria up from the B team, while Carlos Saenz was sent on loan. Seemingly excellent potential here for Etxabe, he will be back up to Aitor Gorrotxategi this year. Meanwhile Isaac Gomez (who appears to be a Jon Ibanez clone) also comes in, he is providing cover for Jon Martin at right wing. Aitor Etxeberria is my third and final new academy addition - an excellent defender, albeit not a tall one, he comes in at centre back this season and is honestly immediately in consideration to start. Vivian will need to be phased out in the next year or two as he starts to decline, so I'm very comfortable now with my options in this area. Where I am not so comfortable however is GK - Simon is starting to show signs of decline at 33, but he probably has 2 seasons left at the top level I think. Alvaro Fernandez is one year younger, so he won't be far behind. Unfortunately there hasn't been a single good Basque GK come through since my save started, which poses a real issue. As it stands, once Simon declines too much, we are going to be down to some very average options in goal. I may purchase Julen Agirrezabala back as a stop gap as he's a couple of years younger, but there's a HUGE issue with not a single Basque goalkeeper out there worth looking at, there's barely any who are even La Liga standard. I have one in my youth ranks (17 years old) who might be a decent La Liga keeper eventually, but he's far from a Simon replacement. This could spell major trouble for my save. In other news, we're now regularly fielding a team of entirely Athletic Club academy graduates, not a single purchased Basque player which is awesome.

Season Review - 2028/29 After taking December off (too busy with work and then family stuff over Christmas) I am back! La Liga - 1st, 88 points (quite a bit down on previous years) Copa Del Rey - Lost in SF to Barcelona Supercopa - WINNERS Champions League - Lost in SF to Man City Overall a pretty good year, we won the league thanks largely to Real not quite maximising their own season - 88 points isn't an amazing total, albeit not too shabby. We also won the Supercopa which was a nice bonus, and got conclusively beaten by a much better Man City side in the Champions League semi final. We are well into a phase now of being good enough to compete, but probably an outside shout to win the Champions League - we'd need the right run in the knockouts to have a chance I think. For anyone interested, my experiment moving Nico Williams to right back has been pretty successful His cuts inside from both wings trait is quite interesting on a wing back. Transfers We said goodbye to a few familiar faces this year, Aihen Munoz was allowed to depart thanks to the emergence of Eneko Cordoba, and a bit of depth in midfield meant retraining one of our CM's into left back to provide cover there. We also said goodbye to Igor Zubeldia - he did a great job for us over a few years, but again just too much depth with newgens coming through now. We also big farewell to Julen Jon Guerrero who didn't look like he would make it for us, as well as Gorka Merino (one of our hot prospects) - his development stalled and there were better options out there. We also moved on Mikel Rojo, an excellent centre forward who has been part of our team for a few years, however again just too much depth coming through to keep everyone. The departure of Gorka Merino was pushed on by the arrival of a young talent from Real Sociedad, Julen Aguirre. We paid 32million (GBP) for him. He looks an excellent prospect with some potential and some fun attributes - he's not the ideal fit for my system but that's kinda why I went for him, I wanted a different option to use within our system who may help in certain scenarios. Squad Probably the biggest highlight of this save is having 3 French Basque players in the squad, and they're all amazing! We've also shuffled things around this summer with Unax Urrutia coming into the first team as a right back, meaning Josu Blasco has been shifted from RB to CB, allowing Javi to move into a half back role which is a better fit for him i think. GK - Simon, Agirrezabala, Iker Alvarez RB - Nico Williams, Unax Urrutia LB - Eneko Cordoba, Mikel Guruzeta CB - Dani Vivian, Josu Blasco, Carlos Saenz, Jose Jimenez DM (Half Back) - Javi, Vencedor DM (DMS) - Hugo Guillamin, Ibon Marin CM (DLP) - Sancet, Alboniga-Menor AM (AMS) - Aimar, Jon Castro CF (DLFS) - Jon Ibanez, Julen Aguirre CF (PFA) - Jon Martin, Aitor Gorrotxategi I thought given the break this was a nice time to update on development of these guys, as I normally post screenshots when they first come into the squad, so apologies for the length post with more images here: First up, new signing Julen Aguirre. I like his attributes for a kinda off-type DLF or AM - his passing needs some work, but his pace, flair, first touch, composure all make for an interesting player in the space between the opposition defence and midfield. He's obviously not a playmaker, but I'm looking for something different. Next up Jose Jimenez, our new option at CB - I love this guys attribute spread for a CB and he will get plenty of minutes this season, I expect him to be with us for a long time. He's one of those guys who always had fairly average potential, but just kept improving and improving and now looks like he's going to be class. Eneko Cordoba is one of my real success stories - an incredible wing back for us. We paid a lot of money for him when his attributes needed a lot of work - if you look at him on my previous screenshot to see how much he's improved... wow, totally worth the outlay. Ibon Marin is a tidy defensive midfielder with some quality on the ball - he can play in the DM role or the DLP role for us which is great. One of our French Basque players I had doubts about Josu Blasco simply because he felt like one of those classic full back newgens... he's kind of a good right back, kind of a centre back but not really excellent at either (unless you want a pure defensive full back). I've now moved him to CB and I have to say he's really excellent there - his attribute spread, aside from slightly low jumping reach is brilliant. Carlos Saenz - I really like this guy as a CB, good attributes, just hasn't quite kicked on in the way I hoped. None the less, an excellent option at the back. It's been a long time now since Javi came into the side, or it feels that way. His move from CB to DM is definitely the right one. My concern with Javi is that he's had elite player potential for a long time but his rate of development is very slow, despite being a key starter for us. I think he will likely top out some way below the potential he has but will still be an awesome option for us... hopefully I'm wrong and he takes some big leaps forward! In contrast to Javi, Jon Ibanez just keeps improving, and improving, and improving. He's now our first choice DLF and has pushed another hot prospect, Aitor Gorrotxategi out of the team. We have SO much strength in terms of forwards coming through which is awesome. Jon Martin has been a top top player for us in recent seasons playing as both a DLF and PF. He's lost his place in the first choice XI due to Jon Ibanez but he's still a very hot prospect. He is rotating with Jon Martin for the PF role and I anticipate he will be world class in the future. Another French Basque, Mikel Guruzeta is being retrained as a left back. There's a real lack of left backs out there and we've got depth in midfield, Guruzeta is very capable as a left back so out there he goes! At one point Jon Castro and Gorka Merino were giving me headaches in terms of how I'd fit all my AM's in the team. However both have seen their potential drop off a bit, Gorka Merino significantly so... a bit less so for Castro who is still a magnificent AM, but not quite perhaps the world class potential he once had. Hopefully my future star right back. Converted from an attacking midfielder he will hopefully be a long term staple in our side.

Sorry for the slow reply on this! It's very difficult to do honestly - from my understanding the best way is to set up detailed scouting filters searching for players by place of birth, and then including every named location within Ayrshire, as well as filters based on what club they were developed at... honestly a bit convoluted and you'll always have to deal with scouts being useful and pulling in reports on all players.

2027/28 Season Review La Liga - 3rd (90 points), 1 less point than last year. Copa Del Rey - Lost in QF to Sevilla Supercopa - Lost in SF to Valencia Champions League - Lost in SF to Bayern Another good season, probably fairly reflective of where we are at this stage and also how Real/Barca are getting on. We finished 3rd on 90 point this season, Barca in 2nd on 91 points and Real 1st again on 99 points (with 109 goals scored!) - at the moment Real are perhaps just too good for us over the course of a season and they look set to continue being excellent for a long time... I look at their starting 11 and they have Endrick, Rodrygo and Vini Jr up front, with Camavinga, Tchouameni and Bellingham behind - they've then added two excellent young CBs... they're just considerably better than us. Barca are also excellent but more on our level perhaps than Real - their individuals are better but the AI squad management probably pulls them down to our level. They too have a good young squad though so will be competitive for some time. I'm happy about that as I hope the AI squad building 'improvements' will help them longer term, and SI have said this is an area they're hoping to improve with a patch also. We probably could have gotten a few more points in the league, not enough to catch Real Madrid but could have been closer for sure - we rotated a lot to prioritise our best Champions League run so far. The Champions League has treated us well in the last two years, reaching the QF and then the SF this year - both times we've finished in the top 8 and have looked capable of competing with the top teams. This time around we beat Milan in the round of 16 with a 4-1 scoreline, in the QF we then took on Porto and overcame a 0-2 defeat in the first leg to win 4-2 AET on aggregate. In the semi final we took on Bayern and were comfortably second best - we had enough chances that we could have made a fist of it, but overall quality told and we made too many mistakes and missed too many chances. In the other competitions we had defeats to Sevilla and Valencia while rotating our squad - we're still not quite strong enough in terms of depth. On the transfer front we are continuing to churn our squad and bring our talented youngsters through - we've been very fortunate with some excellent intakes in the initial years. This summer has seen us move on Jesus Areso and Dani Rodriguez - the former was a solid RB option but wasn't taking us forwards, and the latter has been great for us but we're becoming swamped in attacking talent - 50 million in the bank there (mostly Dani Rodriguez). We have more money than we know what to do with now so I've agreed with the board to purchase our stadium. Squad GK - Unai Simon, Julen Agirrezabala, Iker Alvarez RB - Nico Williams, Josu Blasco LB - Eneko Cordoba, Aihen Munoz CB (x2) - Dani Vivian, Javi, Carlos Saenz, Igor Zubeldia DM (x2) - Unai Vencedor, Hugo Guillamon, Gaizka Alboniga-Menor, Mikel Guruzeta CM - Oihan Sancet, Jon Castro AM - Aimar, Gorka Merino CF (x2) - Jon Martin, Mikel Rojo, Aitor Gorrotxategi, Jon Ibanez Ok so if you've read through that list you're probably wondering what on earth Nico Williams is doing at RIGHT BACK. Well quite simply he's pretty good at it! My full backs are very attacking in their role, so while his tackling of 8 leaves a bit to be desired, his marking of 11, positioning of 14, concentration of 13, anticipation of 14, work rate of 15 and 13 decisions are very decent in terms of his defensive capabilities. As my system is a 4-2-2-2 with no wingers, I've been using Nico as a forward, but he's just not as effective as he should be given his ability level, and with the level of youngsters I have coming through I decided it would be a fun experiment to convert him into a wing back. I have one excellent academy prospect at RB who is in the B team this year, and then Josu Blasco I feel will never suit my system that well despite him being pretty good, so my plan is to use Nico there, bring in my prospect next year as back up/rotation and redeploy Blasco elsewhere, or sell him depending on how things go. In my last update I showed Josu Blasco, Eneko Cordoba, Javi, Saenz, Guruzeta, Castro and Gorka Merino - all have taken decent steps forward this year. Javi is turning into a world class CB gradually, but I think eventually he will become a DM, while Eneko Cordoba's improvement has shown that the investment in him was money well spent. This year I get to show you two new newgens who have entered by squad - welcoem Aitor Gorrotxategi and Jon Ibanez into the forward line - I LOVE these guys. First up is Aitor Gorrotxategi - a pressing forward on my system, excellent physicals and wonderful attribute spread for a forward. He has huge potential and is one of those players I expect to be world class. Secondly Jon Ibanez. My coaches have consistently given him slightly less potential but his attributes have been pretty insane ever since he joined as an academy player. I think his modest pace/acceleration harm his CA/PA, but as a DLF on support his other attributes more than make up for it - ideal player for my system. Although Jon Martin will take some ousting given his development, I can see Jon Ibanez and Gorrotxategi being my forward line for a decade.

I've not had that issue this year so far, but I did have that problem last year. What I've done this year is basically extend everyone I possibly could (most players have 2 year extension clauses at game start) on low wages. Once you get a year or so in I find wage demands go crazy, and everyone wants too much. At that stage I just don't renew those guys and move them on, then I sign every below average youth intake player I can on youth contracts to add depth. I get two years in the B team out of most of my good youngsters without having to register them for the B team. As soon as they reach registration age they're either in the first team, out on loan or in the B team if I have salary cap space.

Thanks Pavi and @MasterFolke also, appreciate the kind words. I think the thread is great because the community gets behind it and everyone who enjoys the Athletic save and contributes here are super passionate about it, much like how the Athletic community approaches the club in real life.

Yeah personally I’ve always found there’s enough quality newgens out there to keep improving the squad rather than worsening, at least over the first 5 years. Athletic realistically have 3-4 players who are good enough for a top 16 Champions League starting XI - Vivian, Simon, Nico Williams and Sancet. Others you will be gradually trying to upgrade anyway. The challenge can be if there’s a specific position or two where your existing players at the start of the save are older and replacements are thin on the ground - then if you don’t get good newgens super quickly in those positions you can be scrambling - the full back positions are the obvious area this year. That can require some flexibility tactically, but you can usually get by with either players who simply aren’t quite as good or retraining.

@MattyC78 we’ve been given a wing play tag as well, I wouldn’t describe my tactic as being a wing play tactic though, I think perhaps something in the match engine. Not complaining though I think the match engine is excellent generally speaking. Not perfect but this is an enjoyable variation of it

2026/2026 Review - Here come the youngsters! La Liga - 2nd (93 points) Copa Del Rey - Lost in 4th round to Eibar Supercopa - Winners! Champions League - Lost in QF to Barcelona An interesting season, we played well but just lost out in the key moments. We kept up with Real Madrid during the season but eventually fell away and they finished 6 points clear - a deserving title win for them on 99 points. I was delighted to draw Barcelona in the Champions League as we'd been very good against them in the league, however going 2-0 down and having a man sent off at home in the first leg, within 15 minutes of the start, certainly ended our Champions League campaign. We did however manage to win the Supercopa for some silverware! The big focus this season was again some squad turnover, and we're definitely well into the transition away from the current Athletic players. 2026/27 saw us bring over 90mil GBP in sales - Serrano for 5.5, Alvaro Fernandez for 9.75, Paredes for 4.8, Alex Berenguer for 11, Yeray for 22.5, Imanol for 8.75, Gorosabel for 17.25 and finally Inaki Williams for 15.25. A few slightly unexpected names on this list, but it was time to get some of our youngsters up into the first team - the big ones here beign Yeray, Gorosabel and Williams. Gorosabel was perhaps the toughest call as he's only 30 and is perfect for our system, Inaki was fairly simple - we have a heap of newgens coming through that I need room for, and Inaki had one year left, a huge wage and physical decline was kicking in. Yeray I was happy to hold, but again an opportunity for a decent transfer fee alongside a very, very good newgen. On the transfers in front, nothing major, just youngsters with lower fees and a back up keeper. Eneko Cordoba at left back was my biggest addition - a newgen from Arenas Club who had already moved to Koln - disappointed I missed him initially so I had to pay a bit of a premium to bring him in, but an attacking left back was much needed and he looks great. Squad: GK - Simon, Agirrezabala, Iker Alvarez RB - Jesus Areso, Josu Blasco LB - Aihen Munoz, Eneko Cordoba CB - Dani Vivian, Igor Zubeldia, Javi, Carlos Saenz DM - Unai Vencedor, Mikel Guruzeta, Hugo Guillamon, Gaizka Alboniga-Menor CM - Oihan Sancet, Jon Castro AM - Aimar, Gorka Merino CF - Nico Williams, Dani Rodriguez, Jon Martin, Mikel Rojo Let me formally introduce the first batch of youth! First up Josu Blasco - a right back come centre back - I'm using him as a right back due to the combination of his 11 crossing, 14 stamina and 10 jumping reach. Not perfect for my system but currently the best solution I have - I'm trying to get his technical abilities up. I have another winger in the youth team I am retraining as a wing back, so that's exciting. Javi - I really like this guy. He probably is best placed to be a DM, and he may well shift there longer term as my younger CB options become first team ready, but right now he's being utilised as a centre back, and he's an exceptional one. Obviously not the strongest in the air but so well rounded at 18 - already a 50/50 shout for a starting position with Zubeldia. I paid some cash to bring Eneko Cordoba in and he looks like it'll be a wise investment. Attacking full backs are so hard to find, he's a real gem and should be a long term option for us at left back. The development of Jon Martin here is what prompted the departure of Inaki Williams. He's not the perfect forward but he's an excellent option. We have some real gems coming through up front, so his continued development will impact his long term position at the club. Jon Castro has just snuck into the first team this summer, more of an attacking midfielder but I am training him to play as a DLP(S) in central midfield, this just gives me better balance with other youngsters coming through. First game of the new season he scored a winner in the last seconds! When he's not driving for Ferrari he's a slightly chunky looking Basque defender apparently. Carlos here is a very well rounded centre back who is coming into the first team this season as 4th choice. Mikel Guruzeta, a man who has loyalty only to aggressive tackling. I've tried to improve his loyalty via mentoring but he's still a mercenary. None the less, aside from the fact he changes his mind more than an indecisive traffic light, he's a very solid defensive midfielder. Gorka Merino is a really exciting attacking midfielder with a great hair do. Finally Mikel Rojo is a pacey hitman type forward, I've not seen the best of him yet, but with his attribute spread and professional personality I've always looked on him favourably.

Full release day I had a look in the pre game editor and my god I feel like I got a bad roll of the dice on my save with variable player potential haha, fortunate I've had some decent youth intakes. Good luck to everyone starting their Athletic saves now it's released in full!

Season Review 2025/26 - Tactical Valhalla! La Liga - Champions! 99 points Copa Del Rey - Lost in quarter finals to Elche Supercopa - Champions! Champions League - Lost in quarter finals to Liverpool A double, and a much deserved one. We finally got our 4-2-2-2 working as I wanted to, and an alternative 3 at the back option for the odd specific match worked well too. We just went from strength to strength after some early season tactical tweaks, and aside from a very close loss to Liverpool in the Champions League and an unfortunate exit to Elche in the Copa Del Rey, it was a wonderful season. Star of the season was perhaps Dani Rodriguez, he played a lot of games and really came into his own. I've also been delighted with the development of Alboniga-Menor who is a great option for us now. Gorosabel in the right wing back role was the player of the season ratings wise, and suits the right wing back role very very well. Transfers and Squad Building Despite our success this season it was one which was hampered by a number of injuries - noticeably a torn hamstring for Aimar and a broken leg for Guillamon. We had to sign Aldasoro in January (375k) to fill the gap, and we also loaned in Benat Turrientes with an option to buy (we won't be taking it up). These moves aside it's been quiet in terms of transfers, more a case of utilising our young newgens to bolster squad numbers while also reprsenting the B team. We let Paredes go out on loan with an option to buy in Jan and moved on Villalibre, Serrano will also be on his way out this summer. Gk - Simon, A. Fernandez, Agirrezabala RB - Gorosabel, Berenguer + Blasco (newgen) LB - Munoz, Imanol CB - Vivian, Yeray, Zubeldia + Javi and Saenz (newgens) DM - Vencedor, Guillamon, Alboniga-Menor, Aldasoro + Guruzeta (newgen) CM - Sancet AM - Aimar, Guerrero + Gorka Merino (newgen) CF - N. Williams, I. Williams, Dani Rodriguez + Martin and Rogo (newgens) This is how I look going into the new season. In terms of first team players I'm perhaps two short (CB and CM) but the reality is that with the youngsters we have alongside the ability of Guillamon and Zubeldia to play CB, DM and CM we are actually in good shape. Laporte is coming available on a free transfer, so that might tempt me if he lowers his wage demands. The new gens are still not quite to the level of starters so I'll perhaps save them for another update, but they're making good progress. Tactics I needed to sort out my width issues with the 4-2-2-2. Basically I wanted to build up in a 3-2-5 of sorts, but couldn't get it worked as well as I wanted, and I always struggled to get the central midfielders moving wide enough. In the end I decided what I needed to do was flag the idea of trying to get the CMs or one of the forwards to stretch the width of the pitch in attack, and instead make the middle more secure and allow both full backs to go high and wide to provide the width. What I settled on in the end was having one of my DM's in a half back role, he would drop in and form a back 3 in possession, then, I had the other as a DM(S), with a DLP(S) in the central midfield strata - they would then form the two. The AM, CF, CF and two wing backs would then form something resembling a 5. In defensive situations we operated more as a 4-2-2-2 so stayed narrow and made it hard for teams to play through us. The other changes I made were tweaks to instructions... I switched from balanced/higher tempo to control/slightly lower tempo - this provided a better balance. Then I also switched the block to a mid block rather than a slightly higher press, this was just to make us more compact... we have decent pace in the back line so I was comfortable with doing that and trying to allow our pacey forwards more space to attack in transition.

@MattyC78 I wouldn’t worry about direct passing, if you’re doing well it won’t matter

@dothestrand a lot of similarities with me, but glad you managed a slightly better second season than I did! It's interesting to see the slight diversification in transfers. I took your advice and ended up signing Aldasoro btw, I needed him because I lost Guillamon and Aimar to long term injuries! Aimar 3 months out and Guillamon 6... eek! Had to sign Aldasoro and Turrientes on a loan to cover it. Aldasoro is very tidy - I don't play any box to box roles so he's not a perfect fit for me, but a very reliable option.

Yeah it’s a tough balance with the Saudi money for sure. I’ll quite happily take it for 30+ year olds who are in decline though! I have reached the point where my first batch of youth intake graduates are 17ish and are in that lovely phase where they can play for the B team and also provide first team depth, so elected to go into the season a bit short. I’m not seeing a good full back pipeline so I’m likely going to need to change my system and play wingers at some stage, trying to figure out how best to navigate that longer term!

Squad registration screen holds your salary cap info. As far as I know you can’t find a projection for future seasons as it’s based on prior season revenue levels, so until that’s calculated it’s not available. I may be wrong though.

Second Season Review - A bit less successful, but still good...I think? La Liga - 4th Place, 74 points Copa Del Rey - Lost in semi finals to Barcelona Champions League - Lost in RO16 to Man City Overall I will take this season as a positive, but our performance levels definitely declined from the first season. We achieved a comfortable 4th place finish, with Real Madrid taking 1st place with a whopping 102 points. 74 points is dissapointing for me, but it was an odd season - we had a lot of marginal games that we drew or lost that perhaps we shouldn't have. For example our goal difference was +40 for 74 points, while Barcelona had +46 for 90 points...fine margins, but ultimately too many games I felt we lacked control over, and we just didn't play as well as we did during the first season. We had a successful Champions League campaign reaching the round of 16 - we just missed out on a top 8 spot in the league phase, then beat Napoli in the play off round, before a resounding defeat to Man City. In the Copa Del Rey, we blew a 2-0 first leg lead in the semi final with two individual errors, eventually losing in extra time to Barcelona. Transfers and Squad Building This is perhaps where I consider this season to be more of a success, as we're setting ourselves up well for the future and maximising our sales/finances. We started the season with the addition of Hugo Guillamon who was a key player for us all season, then in January we were fortunate to see Gorosabel get transfer listed by Alaves for only 5.5million! We hopped onto that one and upgraded our right back position. Alboniga-Menor had a fantastic first half of the season on loan at Eibar, so he was recalled in January to take the spot of Benat Prados, who was sold to Cagliari. At the time of writing we are now in July 2025, and we've been able to do another deal with Igor Zubeldia coming in for 10.75million after being transfer listed, he was replacing Unai Nunez who wanted a new challenges, so was sold to Saudi for 10million - very happy with this business as Zubeldia is probably better and also covers the DM area. We also made the tough decision to move Iker Muniain on - not something I'd considered really but he was entering his final year, was declining and we received a very good offer from Saudi for 13.25 million. Finally Mikel Vesga at 32 and also in his final year was moved on for 8million. With a starting budget of around 11million, plus 21.25million in sales and a reduction in our wage budget/shifting money to transfers, we've been able to add Zubeldia and still have around 29million available to us. Unfortunately no good first team options available at the moment, but I have added a talented youngster from Osasuna. GK - Simon, Agirrezabala and Alvaro Fernandez RB - Gorosabel, Berenguer LB - Aihen Munoz, Imanol CB - Dani Vivian, Yeray, Zubeldia, Paredes DM - Vencedor, Guillamon, Alboniga-Menor and EMPTY SPACE CM - Sancet, Aimar, Dani Rodriguez, Guerrero CF - I. Williams, N. Williams, Serrano, Villalibre While the squad is solid we have a few issues we need to resolve - firstly we're short a defensive midfielder (or back up centre back if I use Zubeldia more as a DM), I'm keeping an eye on the transfer market here as none of our youngsters are ready. Secondly at CM Guerrero is not really ready, but as a 4th choice I may just use him off the bench and try to get him developing - he had a decent loan last season but is still a way off... I just didn't want to have Muniain around as 4th choice getting annoyed with his playing time, and generally not being an effective captain. Dani Rodriguez has been a real highlight and his development prompted the decision to allow Muniain to leave. In the forward positions we lack quality in depth here - Villalibre is functional, but Serrano in my game is not that great. I think one of our issues this season was that we just didn't have much strength in depth to rotate properly with the additional of the Champions League. Tactically I'm not planning to overhaul anything, more trying to tweak my 4-2-2-2 system to set up in the way I want. The only changes I've made was moving the HB into an anchor role, I found too often with the HB dropping to form a back 3, I was left in a 3-1-6 when building up with too much pressure on the DLP. With the anchor role, it's more of a 2-4 or 2-2 box, with the wing backs being available in line with the DMs, as they sit a touch deeper in initial build up now due to the centre backs not pushing out as wide as they did before. Ideally I'd attack in a 2-3-5, but I haven't quite been able to get the central midfielders to go wide enough in attack - if I can suss this out I could have one of my wing backs in an IWB role to form a 2-3 at the base. I think in pre season I will explore my Mezzala (A) on the right switching to a CM(A) role, with the stay wider instruction and dribble wider to try to have them providing width in the way I want - the mezzala has the move into channels instruction which may lock them a touch more central. If this works I can play my RB as an IWB(S) to form that 2-3-5 shape I am looking for, with the CM(A) providing the width and not tripping over the DLF. Work to be done here for sure.

@southside_hitmen I added your 23 affiliate guide under 'other guides' at the bottom of the posts at the top, unfortunately for some reason it wouldn't let me tag you properly. I can add this in as a regular post rather than a link, or I can leave it as a link to either the old fm23 post or if you want to make a new one for FM24 I will link it. I would have recreated it myself but there's a lot of screenshots and spoilered images and I didn't want to fail to do it justice. If you want me to include it as a regular post with credit to you in the guide section at the top, just DM me and we can sort out screenshots etc

Hey, As far as I remember the reasoning was that the policy sometimes is not 100% defined, e.g. Laporte as an example. The 16 year old thing is their interpretation of it, personally I don't agree with it and don't sign anyone unless they already have Basque nationality.

First Season Review, and a Successful one! I know what you're thinking - why hasn't he done the rest of the bloody guide? Well sorry, Jeremy, I'll get to it ok? I've got a team to manage! Just like last year the FM beta dropped perfectly in time for a long weekend for me, so I heavily invested myself and ripped through a season in double quick time - fortunately mostly via habit La Liga - 3rd place, 81 Points Copa Del Rey - Winners!! A bit of first season silverware is lovely, and we did it via the Copa Del Rey with a final win over Barcelona 1-0. We also had a very solid league campaign, in a title fight for most of the season before quality told and Real Madrid ran away with the league finishing on 89 points. That sees us nicely into the Champions League for 24/25. Transfers and Squad Building With a fairly decent 21million GBP budget for the first window, we had some room to manouvre - I went back and forth over what to do here and indentified Aimar Oroz as my primary target as he would be a superb long term signing. The challenge was his release clause of 28million and a lack of value in the squad to sell. I just about squeezed it through by selling Guruzeta, Nolaskoain and Dani Garcia for a total of around 7million - it was very tight to make the deal work but we just about got there. I then renewed the contracts of Nico Williams, Dani Vivian and Oihan Sancet to get their release clauses super high. It left us a touch small on the squad size, but with no European games I was comfortable. Pro tip - you can renew Yuri, Ander Herrera and Raul Garcia's contracts without extending the duration and get them onto a lower wage, you just have to offer an automatic one year renewal after x amount of games. This gave me a bit more wiggle room in the budget. Aimar was an excellent addition and is looking like he will be a staple for years to come. When January rolled around I decided to offload Raul Garcia for a nominal fee to Saudi, and then I also received a decent offer for Yuri (who by this point was contracted until 2025) again from Saudi. This allowed me to pivot out of the excellent, but ageing Yuri to the younger Aihen Munoz, who by January became available via transfer list for a mere 2.1million. Aihen Munoz was also an excellent pick up and played very well down the stretch. I also added Dani Rodriguez from Barcelona for depth in attacking midfield for just 375k. I felt a bit light in certain areas and was concerned about the work that would be required come the summer to upgrade for a European campaign, given a typically small second season budget and need for quality in the squad. The summer of 2024 saw the departures of Ander Herrera and Oscar de Marcos on free transfers, alongside Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta leaving for 5million. Losing De Marcos, Ander Herrera and then previously Yuri and Raul Garcia saw decent reductions to the wage budget which gave me some more room to move. Starting with an initial 11million budget, cranking excess wage budget across plus the 5million from Ruiz de Galarreta I was able to get up to around 17 million in the pot. The return of Vencedor and Unai Nunez added valuable depth so I was able to focus my attention on improvements. I wanted a right back but Gorosabel and Odriozola were not available, so time to get creative there, and the sale of Ruiz de Galarreta allowed me to get to either Moncayola or Guillamon. GK - Simon, Agirrezabala, Alvaro Fernandez RB - Berenguer (yes I am a mad man, but it makes a bit more sense with my system which you'll see later), Lekue LB - Munoz, Imanol CB - Vivian, Yeray, Unai Nunez, Paredes DM - Vesga, Vencedor, Prados, Guillamon (plus Alboniga-Menor) CM - Sancet, Aimar, Muniain, Rodriguez (plus Julen Jon Guerrero) CF - Inaki and Nico Williams, Villalibre, Serrano Hugo Guillamon was my selection for defensive midifeld! I wanted someone who could also cover CB and he's also arguably better. The big advantage also was that Valencia were open to negotiation so I got the deal done for 17.5million (10 up front, 7.5 over 36 months), with a further 3.5 in potential add ons, while Moncayola was release clause only. I then added Julen Jon Guerrero as a prospect for a very small fee of 1million, plus Alvaro Fernandez as a 3rd choice keeper. OMG for the love of god have 3 keepers in your squad. I had two period during the season of multiple weeks where Simon and Agirrezabala were both injured. That left me with a very healthy squad for 24/25 - a good core with some youngsters on the fringes to add depth. My major concern is a bit of a lack of strength in depth up front (Villalibre is solid but Serrano on my game is not good at all - if I could sign another striker I would). If Inaki/Nico get injured my plan is to rely on Sancet/Muniain or even Berenguer to slot into my front line. Tactics My theme for this year is that players need to work around me and not vice versa. This type of box formation is my favourite on FM so I wanted to get into it with Athletic, usually I play something like this on other saves I dabble with and focus on suiting the players with my Athletic tactic. I am really excited by FM this year having the position play elements, as it's made some tactics like this a lot easier to build. The goal here is to have a narrow box 4-2-2-2 out of possession, protecting the middle of the pitch and making us difficult to play through, we then play with a high line/high press as the forwards and mezzalas will press high and create an initial block, before we retreat as needed. In transition it's a quick punch type system, where we use a counter to exploit the pace of the two forwards with the mezzalas supporting them. In slower build ups we're aiming for 3 at the base with the half back forming a back 3, then the wing backs creating the width, DLP pulling the strings and recycling. I'd ideally have a second person sitting alongside the DLP to form a 3-2-5 in possession, and while there's no static person who does this, often I find the wing backs provide a wider option or the supporting mezzala will do this (i've not felt like we're getting exposed via that gap so it hasn't been a concern yet, but one I will watch as the game is updated as I'm conscious of it. In attack the two mezzalas will get into the half spaces and this causes a back 4 all sorts of issues, leaves a lot of space on the wings and the wing backs profit from that. The standard mentality makes a big difference in terms of protecting the back line also - for example the right wing back only has a balanced mentality and the left back is positive, so they're not hyper attacking, similarly the supporting mezzala is only balanced also. I have a second tactic using an IFB on the right to form a 3 ATB in possession, with the half back in a DM role instead, they achieve partly the same things, but I prefer both full backs creating the width as it causes a better situation in the final third. This second option provides a more defined 3-2 rest defence for stability, but less thrust in attack.

When managing Athletic you have a Basque nationality filter on your player search, so you use that to filter out players who are not eligible, it's very straight forward. Scouting assignments also will only show reports for players who are eligible to play for Athletic, if you scout Germany but there are no Basque players there, you'll just get no reports.

Same as last year Yeah he just totally stagnates. Still ok but a whole year of possible development lost

Thanks mate, I ripped through that section pretty quickly and need additions like this, will add them in today.

Yeah no huge changes. I expected some. Vencedor is ludicrously good to be on loan in the second tier haha, can’t recall him either. I’m two league games in already 😁