warlock

Well, almost... we were 2 penalties and 90 minutes away from European glory. Having lost to Milan, I was irked to see that Madrid - who we beat 4 times this season - overcame the Italians to claim the Champions League. We have work to do!

Wise man

Tough group in Europe and there's only so much you can do against richer/better sides. League looking safe though

End of season, 2027 This Vigo team has become something of a footballing machine this season - unbeaten in LaLiga and recording just 6 draws (Arsenal's famous Invincibles drew 13 in their unbeaten season), and in Europe we fought past the likes of PSG, Leverkusen, Spurs and Leipzig. We were, I think, very unlucky to lose to Milan on penalties in the semi-final. As a result, we're looking for incremental gains in terms of squad development rather than needing radical change. But so many of the transfer windows in this save have required urgent replacements for player departures because of release clauses being activated, and this one could be similar. Even at this stage, before the season has ended, our best players are being stalked by top European clubs - Mendy (Chelsea, Dortmund), Bartesaghi (Man City), Prestianni (Chelsea), Marin (Newcastle), Nyheim (Man City), and Strand Larsen (Juventus). Top performers Up front Larsen was our key player with 38 goals from 47 starts, a significant improvement on his previous seasons. Backup Marc Guiu did well with 12 goals from 13 starts and 20 sub appearances. Our creative midfield duo, Swedberg and Nyheim, bagged 13 goals each but were also our main source of assists with 14 and 12, respectively. Wide players Allende (15G/9A), Rego (8G/4A), Prestianni (6G/9A) and new boy Gonzalez (4G/8A) also did well. We were also good in defence, maintaining the fourth best record for goals conceded while achieving the best scoring record in the league. Special mention to GK Hedl who kept 16 clean sheets in 37 league appearances, and 8 in other competitions. Potential recruitment Backup GK Gebhardt has had little opportunity to feature since Hedl's arrival and, consequently, has not developed. With his contract expiring in June we have a decision to make whether to renew as a backup or look for a replacement who could, eventually, become the No. 1. Club captain Carl Starfelt is also on an expiring contract and will be allowed to leave. We signed youngster Joao Muniz as his long-term replacement and the 21-year-old has done well in his 7 starts and 6 sub appearances but is it too soon for him as a regular backup? Another decision to make. Elsewhere in the team we have a lot of younger players who we can reasonably expect to improve, in some cases significantly. Other business will depend on the dreaded release clauses, but all of the 'wanted' players would generate considerable fees and the board have been generous with budgets for next season: £60m for tranfers, and a doubling of our wage budget that leaves a cool £1m spare.

Sounds like a great save... plenty of success but still work to do to keep the interest alive

Thanks, all! I'll post a season wrap-up later - I've just been tasked with mowing the lawn

Cheers, Stu. It has, indeed, been a good one

May 2027 The penultimate month of the season turned out to be a tough one, the price of success when you're still competing for multiple trophies. In the league we were imperious, pulling off a string of victories and, as already reported, lifting the Copa del Rey with a famous win against the might of Barcelona. In the Champions League things were a little tougher. Losing at home to PSG suggested our run was coming to an end but we dug deep and pulled off a remarkable 2-0 win in Paris to set up a semi-final against AC Milan. Even though we lost the away leg I was still somewhat confident we could get a result at home and we did, dominating the match and winning 2-1. Unfortunately, that meant the dreaded penalty shootout and we came up one kick short as Joao Rego pushed his attempt wide of the post: But we were still fighting for the LaLiga title. We opened the door to Real Madrid early in May with a disappointing draw against Valencia, followed by what was almost a title decider against Madrid, who at that point were two points ahead. Fortunately, we maintained our run of good results against the giants from the capital and beat them for the fourth time this season: That left us 1pt ahead but with a game in hand, which we won against Athletic of Bilbao with a storming performance. And before we played Sociedad Madrid suffered a defeat to Barcelona, which meant a draw in our next game would ensure we were champions. In the event, we did enough to pick up another win and claimed the title, and the league and cup double: With two games remaining we can also claim an invincible season: Sevilla and Valladolid will be the teams trying to deny us a monumental achievement.

4 pont deduction for breach of financial rules

Thanks, mate. Warlock's Rules of Football Tactics: 1. Find something that works. 2. Understand why it works. 3. Understand what (and why) to change when it doesn't work. Rule 3 is the difficult one and usually takes me half-a-season to figure it out

Working on it

Remarkable... I was just about post a suggestion that you might want to look at ways to boost your GD, given how tight the league is. A few more results like that could be very useful

It will be a while before I manage in England again - after four seasons and 60-odd games a season with Southampton I was mentally exhausted

No manager of the year award? That's an outrage Unless you have a burning desire for another save, I'd probably give it another season to secure Championship status. But congratulations on a job well done

It feels close. Very close. It'll be devastating if we throw it away from here but Real Madrid just won't quit, so we need to be pretty much perfect. Yessir!

Banana But yeah, we all have those days. Need to bounce back, though.

April 2027 - First silverware Still lots to play for midway through the month but I felt this was worthy of its own post: Barcelona might feel hard done by - we edged the possession but they had more and better chances. A combination of great goalkeeping by Hedl and poor finishing by the Barca players cost them. We created two good chances and finished them both. Tactically, I was desperate to find a way to counter their narrow box system and thought playing Allende as a raumdeuter instead of an IF might work, and it did. Logically, there should be a ton of space in their wide-midfield areas but it's always hard to exploit. Thankfully, we managed it this time and picked up our first trophy of the save.

Sierra looks awesome... I'd happily pay his release clause to bring him to Vigo

April 2027 Let's not keep @AlfieLucas on tenterhooks: To put a positive spin on it, honours were shared across the two games... if you overlook the fact the we won on penalties The home leg was a comfortable win for us, although I was always nervous until the second goal went in. Away, Spurs dominated and we were penned in our own final third for much of the game. But they couldn't find an aggregate lead until the first half of extra-time. Luckily, we grabbed a late equaliser when CB Mane headed home a corner and took it to penalties. The shootout looked like it might go on forever until Spurs CB Van de Ven had his attempt saved and we won 8-7. That sets up a daunting semi-final against PSG. On the domestic front we have continued our excellent form (although we got out of jail with three goals in the final 12 minutes against Vallecano): Yet another win against Real Madrid sends us to Copa del Rey final to face Barcelona. And three wins in the league not only maintains our unbeaten season so far but sends us back to the top of the table ahead of Madrid and with a game in hand: A bit of a dry spell for Larsen this month but, fortunately, understudy Guiu continues to do well and has taken his season tally to 8 goals and 3 assists. Dare to dream? Not quite yet, but we're getting close!

That's the alphabet for you Looking good in the league.

As I understand the rules, the cap is based on a rolling 3-year financial performance. Since Valencia was a basket-case for years, and was almost bankrupted by the Covid crisis, it would logically take more than one season of improved finances to shift the salary cap. Also, the cap is recalculated at the end of the season IRL and I imagine FM does the same so I don't think you were ever going to see an uplift ahead of the January transfer window. It's harsh but I think a pretty good reflection of real life.

That's a lot of goals on the opening day.. hopefully you can respond in the appropriate manner

Not quite. Man Utd are probably not a clear example because the debt is so enormous. But here's the budgets in 'original' mode: And here's the budgets in 'your world' mode: Summer transfers haven't/don't happen so there's a bigger transfer budget. But it looks as though the board have snaffled the extra cash. Or to put it a more realistic way, in real life the board backed Ten Hag and put up the money for Mason Mount; in FM they keep most of the money to service the debt. I'd guess that every club is treated differently.

Yes... the transfer doesn't happen so you have the money available to spend as you want.

Nope. As per the in-game description: