warlock

September 2026 A good start to the season means little if we can't keep the momentum going. Happily, we did that (with one notable exception): A convincing victory against Cadiz opened the month, quickly followed by a visit from Benfica to get our Champions League campaign underway. Benfica gave us a severe spanking in the competition last season so I was keen to extract revenge and we managed to secure the win with two first-half goals. The game against Atletico couldn't have been more even: We took the lead inside 5 minutes but couldn't add to it. Within 5 minutes of the second half, Atleti equalised and only a supersub appearance by Rodriguez scoring inside the last 10 minutes gave us the points. If that game was a struggle, our next Champions League fixture against Spurs was nothing of the sort - we simply capitulated: The media called it a humiliation and I couldn't argue with that. For out final game of the month against Athletic I challenged the players to produce a better performance, and they did but only just: We got off to the worst possible start as the visitors scored within three minutes, and we didn't get our own game going until the second half after the hairdryer was applied during the interval. Only a superb display of goalkeeping from Hedl saved us from another embarrassment. To be fair, we were severely hampered by injuries this month as we lost three of four fullbacks - on the right we lost Mendy with a dislocated shoulder and he's been out since the end of August, while we also lost both leftbacks - Bartesaghi with a month-long ankle injury, and new boy Lelo with a twisted knee that meant he missed the second half of the month. Having to play two centrebacks out wide meant we were stretched defensively but also lost much of our attacking thrust out wide. On balance, and the Spurs match aside, we did well enough and that's reflected in our league position:

In my Vigo save European football has been critical. Over three seasons, my salary cap went from £500k, to £700k, to nearly £1m most recently. A ground expansion helped, increasing season ticket sales by about 50%. We're now the third most profitable club in Spain, behind you-know-who but ahead of the likes of Atletico Madrid, Athletic Club, Villareal and the other more-established candidates. So it can be done, but it isn't easy.

Tapping the 'space' bar should pause the game.

If you haven't already read it, this thread is worth studying for alternatives to the usual 'meta' tactic approach: There's some 433 discussion in there, too.

In Spain? Surely not

August 2026 Transfer window This was probably the most difficult window of the save so far and it confirmed my dislike of transfer release clauses. Even before the window opened, Benfica came out of nowhere with a bid for LWB Fredrik Bjorkan. Yes, it was for £25.5m and represents a huge profit on the £3m we paid for him, but it presented us with a particular problem as good LBs are hard to find and the better ones tend to be very expensive (which is probably why Benfica were interested). And the same thing happened with star CB Igoh Ugbu and a bid from Real Madrid... again, £30m is a big profit on the £10.75m we paid but he wasn't easy to find and would be hard to replace. Of the business I wanted to do, we moved on DM Hugo Sotelo. He had looked great at the start of the save but didn't develop and I was glad to accept £4.7m from Valencia. We also shifted wantaway RB Sergio Carrera, who joins Stuttgart for £10.25m. Altogether, we raised £70m to add to the £40m provided by the board. In return we brought in five new signings for a total of £67m. Our replacement for Carrera cost us £24m from Portugal's Sporting: Fresnada is a good backup, decent defensively even if he lacks a little going forward. On the other side, a replacement for Bjorkan was much harder to find. I set up an urgent recruitment focus and threw our best scouts at it and eventually we settled for another player from Sporting: I wasn't entirely convinced by Lelo but he was the best available (other targets would have smashed our wage structure or just weren't interested), but he's impressed me since he arrived and looked good in pre-season friendlies. Sotelo's departure left a backup-shaped hole in defensive midfield, which was filled by a signing from Osasuna: Munoz cost us £6.75m and on paper looked very much a backup, but he was a key player in his first pre-season friendly as he scored one and setup another. He's also looked good in his first two competitive games, earning a 7.5 average rating. When faced with the prospect of replacing Ugbu it quickly became obvious that a like-for-like replacement was going be both difficult and expensive. I decided on a different route. We had Taylor Harwood-Bellis coming back from a season-long loan and I thought he could do a job as backup to Rafa Marin. So with Starfelt declining with age at LCB I went back to Sporting again for a long-term prospect on the left: I agree with the coaches that he's not far off first-team level, and he has plenty of time to develop. I'll be trying to give him game time to help him along whenever possible. I had two lesser problems in the squad: backup AMR Rodriguez is another whose development has stalled after a bright start to his Vigo career, and backup striker Dejan Loveljic has failed to impress in his year at the club. With money available I decided to bring in a long-term prospect to help out up front: A graduate of the Barcelona academy, Guiu comes in for £15m and we'll be giving him a lot of substitute appearances to try to drive his development. Our squad for the season looks like this: We've generally looked good in the opening games of the season: An early away day to Barcelona provided the highlight - they were by far the better team but we frustrated them, and a PoM performance by GK Hedl secured a point. Less impressive was an identical result away at Valladolid, but three clean sheets can't be bad and eight different scorers in two games also bodes well for our attacking threat. Aims for this season: the board require us to gain Champions League qualification again, and the media prediction is for us to finish 5th. I'd like us to win our first silverware of the save and the Copa del Rey is probably our best chance.

Here's my TV income in La Liga over the three years of the save: The three big spikes come in August each year, but it doesn't look like a simple positional payment. We finished 2nd in the first season, then consecutive 3rd place finishes but we got less for finishing runners-up and more for our most recent finish in 3rd

Yeah, at the start of the save there's a big ground expansion, and now they're already talking about building a new stadium. Boards doing board things

I think prize money is a share of the TV revenue - teams finishing higher get a bigger share. But I don't know that for certain.

Welcome (back) to Spain. A good start

Me too! Champions League football has completely transformed the club:

April 2026 The main event this month was our Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United. Having seen off Real Madrid and Liverpool in the preceding rounds, could we add another giant to our list of unlikely triumphs? Sadly not, but we came oh so close! The home leg was a tight affair with neither side able to create much and the best performances coming from both sets of defenders. But we were confident we could get it done at Old Trafford. It was another close-fought game but we took the lead 10 minutes into the second half. Unfortunately, some sloppy defending allowed United to waltz into our area and equalise soon after. We went to extra time and still couldn't be separated, and so to penalties. Even then, there wasn't much to choose between us before United eventually won the shootout 7-6. Beyond that drama, we maintained our unbeaten league run which now stretches to 22 games since our loss to Real Madrid at the end of November. We also managed to concede just two goals across 6 games this month. The draw against Atletico was also important as it denied two vital points to our nearest rivals, and we clinched third place with the win over Betis: That also confirms another season of Champions League football. The board have given us a transfer budget of £41m and a much-increased wage budget of £1.3m a week. I'm not planning a wholesale rebuild but I do want to bring in four or five players to strengthen the squad - I currently have four earmarked for transfers out. Before that we have the final four games of the season, starting with an away visit to Real Madrid, and then three winnable games against Vallecano, Valencia and Villareal.

March 2026 What. A. Month! After the heroics of February that took us past Real Madrid in the Champions League I thought nothing could surpass that. I was wrong. We opened the month with a league game against Cadiz at home and duly racked up a 3-0 win, before we entertained Liverpool in the Round of 16 of the Champions League. If only for the sake of pride, I was hoping we might hold them to a draw at home before succumbing to the inevitable defeat at Anfield. We managed the first part, although it took a late, late goal from Monchu to square the tie. At Anfield, though, we produced something remarkable: We got off to a fantastic start as Allende bagged a brace in the first 10 minutes, before the inevitable Liverpool fightback. And things took a turn for the worse after the interval as the Reds grabbed two goals in quick succession. As they dominated possession and created the better chances the result seemed a foregone conclusion. Until, inside the final 15 minutes, fullback Mendy ran the right flank before playing a simple square ball into the box where Swedberg was lurking with only one defender and the 'keeper to beat. He duly converted the chance. Then with just four minutes of normal time remaining, we won a corner on our left side. Monchu swung in the kick and Igoh Ogbu rose at the near post to power his header home. Scenes of joy among the away fans as Vigo recorded an historic victory. We had barely recovered from that high when Barcelona came to Vigo. Could we despatch a third world-class opponent? Yes we could: We took an early lead, they equalised. We scored again to take a 2-1 advantage into the break, but they came back and found another equaliser 8 minutes into the second half. I was more than happy to take a draw and had already told the team to slow it down, play for set pieces and waste a little time, but when an opportunity arose in the last minute of added time the lads grabbed it. Barrenechea intercepted a loose pass on the left of midfield, surged forward to the edge of the Barcelona area, and then laid it off to Joveljic cutting in off the left wing. He burst past two defenders and then drilled a shot past Ter Stegen to give us another outstanding victory. Finally, we wrapped up the month with two high-scoring wins in the league: An incredible month that takes Vigo to the quarter-final of the Champions League - where we'll face Manchester United - and almost cements our hold on third place in LaLiga: There's a theoretical chance of overhauling Barca in second but that relies on them losing their game in hand so I don't rate our chances, but I'm increasingly confident that we can hold off any challenge from Atletico Madrid and Athletic of Bilbao. We do need to tighten up in defence, though - we shipped a boat-load of goals this month and it's a problem that could easily become a disaster.

Well played!

Impressive! Beating Madrid and Barca in the same month is a great achievement in any season. Go Valencia