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Bit of frustration in my save with scheduling issues...I reached the Copa Del Rey final and Champions League semis, and that's left me with this schedule Tuesday - CL Semi leg 1 Thurs - League title key game vs Real Madrid Sat - Derby vs Real Sociedad Mon - League vs Almeria Wed - CL Semi leg 2 What the....

Yeah it is linked to when the unsettling club drops their interest…in my case Gallego and Castro look unlikely to have the interest in them dropped by the other club as they are keen to keep trying in the summer it seems

I think the biggest issue really is the illogical and annoying interaction options. Like for example my players were generally annoyed because they wanted to go to X team as they felt they had no chance of winning the champions league with us…like we lost in the semi final on penalties last season, reach the latter stages each year and won it 5 or 6 years ago, as well as having knocked the team you want to go to out last season…but then they are happy for me to promise they will make at least the ‘latter stages’ and that will be enough for them to want to stay…that’s only the quarter finals, which we have consistently reached for about 8 or 9 years. The other one that I get is the ‘leave to be a more important player’ one, when they are clearly going to be an obscure squad player at that other team. Just an annoying slightly flawed system, which when half of your first 11 get unsettled within a few days is quite annoying. I’m into March now and 3 key starters are still unhappy as the clubs are interested still, and looks like I’ll have to deal with that through until the early parts of next season. These guys are irreplaceable sadly.

January 2033 Update A very successful first half of the season and we are in to January with plenty to play for still. Unfortunately a few negatives hang over us... firstly Oihan Sancet ruptured his ACL and that was 6-9 months - at 33 years old this is likely it for him, Alvaro Ojeda has stepped into his spot in the first team and looks excellent, I can't see Sancet regaining his place in the team and he will be allowed to leave in the summer unless he wants to do the final year of his contract and retire at Athletic, which I'd be more than happy for him to do. Aside from this, we've bene bombarbed by unsettling transfer offers: Mikel Gallego - Unsettled by Spurs and currently unhappy Alain Rubio - Unsettled by Chelsea and currently unhappy - this has happened nearly every window with him in the last couple years and every time he goes out on the booze and misses matches haha, absolute wildcard he is. Such a good player though. Iker Castro - Unsettled by Chelsea and currently unhappy Mikel Jauregi - Unsettled by Real Madrid and currently unhappy Aitor Aguirre - Unsettled by Chelsea and currently unhappy Bit of a nightmare to deal with 5 unhappy players mid season. Chelsea just being dicks. Real Madrid's unbeaten run came to an end early in the season, losing away to Real Sociedad - they had a man sent off after a few mins and lost to a last minute penalty. Their run stretched 97 league games which is absolutely incredible - the fact we managed to steal the last title off them when they got 100 points and were unbeaten is pretty funny really. We are currently on an unbeaten league run of 64 games but getting to 97 would be an unreal feat.

Oihan Sancet has a ruptured ACL - 9 months out at 32-33 years old Think that’ll be it for him unfortunately.

Yeah Lacruz is immense, as well as Gallego…I’d say certainly my best two newgens, with Iker Castro a close third.

Sure: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CQAw1EOsi_2NohwHQH3qaqU8o2zQPhsQ/view?usp=sharing This is my most recent file, anyone is welcome to have a snoop around my gameworld. Check out the german full back at Real Madrid who is really cool (weisner I think) - amazing newgen FB, as well as the three newgens that Man City have as their AMC, AMR and AML right now...scary. In terms of Athletic you'll see my CB issues become apparent, I'm in the process of signing a guy from Cartegena who looks like he could be a good rotation up for us, he's going back there on loan for a year before joining us to coincide with Vivian and Guillamon ageing. Tactics wise I've not tweaked much long term, a couple minor role tweaks but we've largely kept the same system/philosophy. We have our primary 4-3-3 which we start games with, and an alternative 4-3-3 with a few role tweaks that we switch to if we are struggling to play through a high press. We have a 4-4-2 as well but never use it to be honest. We mainly just tweak our 4-3-3...the usual changes that I make are: 1) Removing pass into space vs low blocks 2) Switching to alternative 4-3-3 against aggressive high press (roaming playmaker becomes an AP(S) sometimes). The mezzala sits super high when playing out, so that can leave the DM and BBM with a lot of work to do sometimes. If we are getting robbed in our own third by a high press we switch the roles slightly to give us an extra man when playing out from the back. The tactical system is based on a couple key elements... 1) Play out from the back, draw them on to us and then play fast and direct once they come up the pitch to exploit the space. If this fast break doesn't work out we work the ball into the box and take our time to try to break them down. If Javi is on the pitch we often remove the work ball into box instruction and mix up the crosses to utilise his aerial threat. 2) Defensively we sit fairly high and try to force a pressing trap in the central midfield area to then open up good counter attack opportunities from there. We aren't good aerially at the back so we try to avoid getting hammered by lots of crosses.

2031/32 Season Review - Real Madrid Undefeated Again 2.5 years without a loss in the league now for Real Madrid and they finished on 100 points.... but it WAS NOT ENOUGH! They didn't even take it to the final day as we romped home with 106 points, 124 goals scored, 23 goals conceded... 34 wins, 4 draws, 0 losses. We broke the La Liga record for most points, most goals scored. Real Madrid also broke a record...most points in a season without winning the title...lol. La Liga - 1st, 106 points Copa Del Rey - Lost in final to Real Madrid Champions League - Lost in semi final to Paris Saint Germain on penalties Supercopa - Winners So Real Madrid did get a win against us in the Copa Del Rey final so it wasn't a total domination this season - we conceded two goals in the final to lose 2-1, one was a ball over the back line which Guillamon basically tripped over when under minimal pressure gifting them a free 1 on 1, and the other was a clearance that could easily have been played sideways and out for a throw, but instead went forwards straight at their attacker and it bounced off him and in. I hate this match engine sometimes. In the Champions League we lost a very tight semi final on penalities to PSG - no major complaints just one of those unfortunate ones which could have gone either way. Prior to that we had beaten Chelsea and Liverpool in the knockouts so we had no easy ties after cruising through the league phase. Transfers/Squad Building No major news on this front, however we're approaching a key point of transition across the team really because Guillamon, Vivian, Aimar, Sancet and Vencedor are all 31-32 years old, Simon is 34, Nico Williams is 29 and Barrenetxea is 30. What's quite telling is that after Nico Williams at 29, the next oldest player is Mikel Gallego at 25... so the whole generation of young Basque players who were present at the start of the game basically came to nothing, so I have a weird age gap in the team and we're on the verge of transitioning away from that whole group of existing players. Because the young basque youth players in the game basically came to nothing, the depth in the team is completely dependent on newgens - particularly problematic at CB where there is basically no good players. Once Guillamon and Vivian are moved on we are going to be scraping by a bit to be honest. We do have a few solid options coming through but it's hard to know if they'll be that good - if I had to guess they may be good La Liga players but not elite players. Mikel Jauregi had an exceptional loan spell at Cartegena and is now a legitimate challenge to Simon for first choice keeper. I am trying to decide whether to build him into the team this year or loan him out again and replace Simon next year. Otherwise, we saw good improvement from all of our young players basically. Iker Castro came on a lot this year and Goikoetxea up front had a wonderful season as well - he's my preferred choice over Javi now which has caused some harmony issues with Javi. GK - Simon, Jauregi, Imaz RB - Larrea, Barrenetxea LB - Lacruz, Etxabe CB - Vivian, Gulllamon, Lozano, Villar DM - Castro, Vencedor CM - Gallego, Sancet, Aimar, Garai RW - Nico Williams, Rubio LW - Pascual, Aguirre CF - Goikoetxea, Javi

Real Madrid have now not lost a league game since January 2030, and we just finished the 31/32 season - they only lost one game in the 29/30 season, so have now lost 1 game in the last 3 years in the league. They've only won the league once in those 3 seasons

Real Madrid are insane on my save. I am on 75 points after 27 games, so that’s 24 wins and 3 draws and I still might not win the league

Yeah the date used to be a fixed day where they all came at the same time but I think now it’s like a week period and it could be any day in that period, so just keep checking back. the only other thing that can impact this is database is - I’m pretty sure in the past I’ve had small databases where ai clubs would get very few or no newgens some years

Wow super cool player!

Friendship ended with Javi, Ignacio Goikoetxea is my new best friend

Always happy to get great contributions up there - the content in those posts has come from the community here over the years, sometimes I coordinate it and in recent years @dothestrandhas done it as well depending on time allowing, so any great bits like this that are handy resources are always welcome. Great to have you on the thread and hopefully look forward to hearing a bit about your save too

@southside_hitmen welcome! Great first post I’ll get a link to this post on the front page within the development section so people can find it, we can aim to include the content itself on those initial posts next year (with credit of course) if you’re keen to add to the guides. I agree the notebook is under utilised. I’ve never used it for affiliates but I do set player notes so I can track developments in consistency and big match comfort as players develop - it gives that little symbol next to their name which helps me remember without going into their individual reports

2030/31 Season Review - Invincibles! Not me though, I came second with 99 points! La Liga - 2nd, 99 points (1 point behind the invincible Real Madrid) Copa Del Rey - Winners Supercopa - Lost in final to Real Madrid Champions League - Lost in Quarter Final to Chelsea Well well well, I've not seen an invincible season for a little while - I've had quite a few seasons in the last couple Fm's with one loss but haven't quite managed it, and here we are looking at a Real Madrid team who did it and beat me by a single point! Fair play to them haha. I lost to defending champions Chelsea in the Champions Lague quarter finals which was a bit of a shame, they deserved it though. We did win the Copa Del Rey though and beat Real Madrid 6-1 in the semi final second leg Transfer/Squad Building No major ins or outs this year, just a lot of loan dealings. We have Mikel Jauregi on loan in La Liga which will be great for his development and he looks set to replace Unai Simon longer term. Next up with have Oscar Jimenez on loan at Tenerife in the Segunda - he's suddenely started showing some development while there at the second half of last season, so I've extended it with the hope I can recall him in January after more improvement and potentially get him playing on loan somewhere in La Liga. Stephane Chevalier has gone on loan back to France....this guy is like my in game Nemesis - I've wasted so much money on him. Alas he has shown zero improvement this year and goes on loan to Ligue 1 in a last ditch effort to salvage some value from him. Mikel Goni has gone on loan to bayer Leverkusen - he's a perfectly acceptable CB so may well be useful for us in the future, albeit he's not someone I see as a long term first 11 player. We do have a few good youngsters in the pipeline I may be ready to show off next season including a new CB who might be handy! Woo! The only new addition to the squad this year is Endika Etxabe who comes in to back up Inaki Lacruz at left back - this has been made possible because Aitor Villar has been shifted across to CB - we're so desperate for CB's I am using a left back there with 7 jumping reach haha. We do also have David Imaz as third choice keeper but I'm not going to post a screenshot he's very meh. Goikoetxea was perhaps the highlight of the season player wise as he is coming on really well and looks likely to be our go to CF for many years. Lacruz has come on A LOT and is now a top top left back, and Castro is heading the same way too just a year or so behind. Rubio is currently in a huff because I wouldn't let him go to Liverpool and the squad had a bit of a whinge about that as well, so that's a thing for me to deal with! GK - Simon, Ayeza, Imaz RB - Larrea, Barrenetxea LB - Lacruz, Etxabe CB - Vivian, Guillamon, Villar, Lozano DM - Vencedor, Castro CM - Gallego, Sancet, Aimar, Garai RW - Nico Williams, Rubio LW - Pascual, Aguirre CF - Javi, Goikoetxea

Personally I completely avoid it, for a couple of reasons. 1) I don’t think it’s very true to life so from a realism perspective I prefer not to 2) difficulty - the basque player pool is pretty decent anyway and it means you have to work a bit more with what you have. It provides a few more ups and downs within the save and makes the successes a touch more satisfying. It’s great that people can play it however they like though and I can see both sides of the coin, I’d certainly never criticise someone for doing it the way they prefer. I’ve played FM since the championship manager days for hundreds of hours a year, so my perspective on what makes the game enjoyable is obviously going to be different to people who are newer to the game. Its just nice to see people here enjoying the save

Yeah I definitely had some good results with Muniain as a mezzala as well

If you want any insight on your set up to help with that just ask. Generally speaking I find Martinez needs to have some cover for his slight lack of physicals - I try to set traps further up the pitch to avoid him dealing with high balls into the box or getting caught with balls in behind. Generally though I find on this game any central defenders who lose a few headers just get hammered on the rating anyway, so smaller central defenders look bad even if they’re actually doing other stuff well. Muniain I had a lot of success with but that was on an older version match engine so it might have changed. I reckon he’s best in a playmaker role to be honest

2029/2030 Season Review - Back on Top La Liga - 1st, 95 points (4 points clear of Real Madrid) Copa Del Rey - Lost in semi final to Real Sociedad Supercopa - Lost in semi final to Barcelona Champions League - Lost in semi final to Liverpool Very close to an excellent season here, in the end with just the league title to celebrate (albeit this was very well earned and a good result in itself). Real Madrid pushed us all the way winning 13 and drawing 1 of their final 14 games, so we had to keep pushing without much of a breather all the way until the final week. The rest of the competitions were a story of what might have been, losing three semi finals in unfortunate circumstances. The Champions League semi final I posted a screenshot of a few days ago - we won the first leg 4-0 (and deservedly so), and then back at Anfield for the second leg was just bizarre - a very even game in which they were remarkably clinical and we were remarkably...not clinical... missing a few excellent chances alongside a goal disallowed for a narrow offside, leading to a 5-0 loss. Crazy game! Similarly in the Copa Del Rey we beat Real Sociedad 2-1 in the first leg (a scoreline that massively flattered them), and then lost the second leg 3-1 where they basically had no chances and scored 3 screamers. Two very bizarre semi final results where pure bad luck came into it, and we actually played well in both. The Supercopa was a closely fought match which ended 2-0 to Barca, no real complaints there albeit we gave it a decent go. Transfers/Squad Building The sales of Moncayola and Le Normand allowed us to develop a few young players a bit more which was ultimately pretty sensible. We also sold Peio Arregi for 10million in the summer who looked set to be a backup option at best, as well as Javier Prieto who I mentioned in my Jan update I think. We signed 3 excellent young prospects from Osasuna and Real Sociedad from their 2030 intakes, one looks a bit meh but the other 2 look like they may go on to have a good impact in the future with the first team. We're in to October now and we have a young striker, Ignacio Goikoetxea, who is just firing. He came into the side for the final 2 games of last season as we were at home vs the bottom 2 teams and we had a few injuries in the forward areas anyway, and he scored back to back hat tricks. His overall level was still a bit low compared to Javi/Garai so I elected to have him play for the B team this season as he's still 17. A couple months in and he's featuring off the bench in the Champions League where possible, and is prompting me to rethink my squad. Oscar Jimenez has not really been developing how I hoped (albeit the writing was perhaps on the wall for him) despite plenty of mins in the team, so I am close to abandoning that or at least just loaning him out - if I do this I will drop Garai back into midfield and train him as a mezzala, which will give space for Goikoetxea to step up to rotate in the first 11 with Javi - I'm super excited about this guy! Aside from this we did some manouevering in the back up goalkeeper department, with Gaizka Ayeza returning to replace Iker Alvarez. He is third choice behind Simon and Jauregi - the latter will get decent minutes this season to ensure he continues his development as he's now too old for the B team and rejected a La Liga loan to Girona where he would have been first choice...I didn't understand that one at all as his profile noted he was 'hoping to go on loan for experience'. Weird. Stephane Chevalier is also now back at the club and getting amongst the first team, he looks set to be quite important for us if he develops well. I won't post a screenshot but he's a solid CB/RB hybrid type of player around the 2.5 star mark - nothing world beating right now but with our lack of CB options I imagine he will be very useful, and he has room to grow apparently as well. Simon is now 33 and is starting to show signs of decline, albeit he should be good for a while yet. We have two promising keepers in Jauregi and also another in the B team, but I don't think either will reach Simon's level. Maybe someone else appears but I need to make sure Jauregi gets games this year to keep him improving! Last season we saw a lot of impressive performances - Javi as the centre forward was exceptional leading the line while Lacruz and Larrea are taking big steps forward in the right/left back rolls. Pascual had his best season by far scoring regularly from the left wing and Aguirre was excellent as a deputy on his side - those two look likely to hold down our left wing for many years. Gallego was a tough one last season, he was unsettled in the summer of 2029 by Liverpool and remained unhappy all season (as they maintained at least a minor interest in him throughout), that did impact his performances but generally he still played well and I was largely able to keep him motivated via individual team talks. This summer he finally decided he was over it and we've been able to extend his contract further and raise his wage also to secure him. GK - Simon, Jauregi, Ayeza RB - Larrea, Barrenetxea LB - Lacruz, Villar CB - Vivian, Guillamon, Lozano, Chevalier DM - Vencedor, Castro CM - Sancet, Gallego, Aimar, Jimenez RW - Nico Williams, Rubio LW - Pascual, Aguirre CF - Javi, Garai, Goikoetxea It's perhaps a good time to post a few screenshots of certain players who have developed well since they joined the first team ranks. Gallego and Pascual I have featured recently, but let's take a look at Lacruz who has made the LB spot his own and his development continues to impress me, Castro who has always maintained a very high potential and has continued to steadily improve (he's a genuine threat to Vencedor now for his place in the team), Javi who is just a very unique forward and Larrea who has taken the starting RB spot.

Certainly will! Haha.

I've got about 10 of them haha

January 2030 Update Currently on a path to regain our league title, sitting pretty 9 points clear, as well as finishing top 8 in the Champions League to get straight into the last 16. We're also still in the Copa Del Rey but lost in the semi final of the Supercopa. We ended up doing a bit of transfer business, all outs though as we continue to bring through our young players. We saw key players depart in January, firstly Javier Prieto who was a young player in my squad - really solid but I am very confident he had peaked young, so he was sold on with a buy back clause. This has allowed me to move Aimar back to central midfield and promote Aitor Aguirre from the B team. Although centre backs are a long term concern for us, we're in a weird predicament at the moment where having Vivian, Guillamon and Le Normand means opportunities for the young options that we do have are quite limited...I wanted Mikel Goni to get more games, and also start using Iker Lozano in the first team as well here and there (he's still under 19 so doesn't require registration). Lozano is far and away by best central defender youth prospect. With this in mind when I received an offer from Robin Le Normand (who is now 33) from PSG, and saw he was going to be upset if the move was blocked, I felt it was a no brainer to move him on. A great servant for a few years! Welcome Aitor Aguirre and Iker Lozano! Player Spotlight Finally it's time to showcase one of my newgens who have made a good impression in the first team. Given he has been so good this season after underperforming this season, I feel Ander Pascual deserves to be the subject of this years January showcase. He's 14 goals from 21 appearances in all competitions so far this season, with an average rating of 7.55 from the left wing position. He's come on really nicely and is always a threat now.

I work around this by setting each player to 'not available for loan' when the first offer comes in. I try to keep my B team in the Segunda but rarely sign players specifically for this purpose. My B team have been hovering around mid table in recent seasons, going up and down depending on players being promoted to the first team. My C team were promoted to the playable leagues last season for the first time and they stayed up with a load of players the game gave me for free to fill the team up. They actually nearly got promoted. They fell away in the second part of the season because all of the players were complaining about wanting new contracts.. issue is they all want insane money for their level. I just let the C team largely fall away to be honest cause it's such a hassle to deal with all the contract BS. I generally keep players in the Under 18s until they turn 17, then they move to the B team normally. First team is just dependent on whether they're good enough!