Sysiphus

Fired in 2028 (season 5), unfortunately. The new board had put "win Champions League" as a non-negiotable and we were knocked out in the semis against Barcelona (this Lamine Yamal kid!), and that was enough for them to pull the trigger. I was either way thinking of resigning soon, but as often goes I had gotten very attached to many players and wonderkids in my squad so I was reluctant to do so. Now I have taken over AS Roma in Italy from Thomas Frank, who has been doing a horrid job in the Italian capital, having them sitting in 14th place mid-way through season 6. The squad is aging and not flush with quality, so it will be a fun rebuild for me. The balance is 70m in the red, I have no transfer budget and we are 200k p/w over the wage budget. If this sticks I'll continue to update my progress in the Serie A thread here in the forum.

Might be coming to an end point with this year's Arsenal save. Losing interest after the tycoon takeover. I generally don't enjoy being flush with cash, never having any incentive to sell your players, being able (and in my case, forced by the owner) to build a squad of 15+ superstars making it very hard to manage gametime and all the rotations very unrealistic. No joy in developing youth as you can buy every wonderkid in the world but it will be very hard to find gametime for them. It's just not my game. I've been meandering very slowly through my 5th season. Man Utd are running away with the league at Christmas (we are second) and I haven't found my tactics to be very reliable this season, my strikers are not scoring at all. I will probably finish this season and then resign and see if something more interesting pops up as I've become quite invested in the newgen world of this save. Who knows, maybe I find the Arsenal spark again!

Yeah, for us as real life Arsenal fans it's hard to for example have to sell Nwaneri (who is quite good on my game, nothing spectacular though but I'm fond of him) because of crazy ownership demands of winning everything and bringing in superstars. It starts to feel like you are managing Chelsea. Btw, great success you are having in your game—inspiring. Could you show a screenshot of Patino's attributes in your game? He never really turned out well in my save and after a few loans and a couple of half-seasons with my team I had to sell him quite cheap. For the summer window I only brought in Lukeba (99m release clause but in my opinion the best left-sided defender in the game) to replace Gabriel (55m to Al-Ahli on 800k p/w). I was after Sesko and van Persie jr. to gut my budget a bit as Jesus was wanted by Saudi clubs plus newly-riced-in-the-world-after-takeover AC Milan and he doesn't allow me to offer him a new contract as under the new regime 30+ year old players can't have more than 1-year deals... Sesko proved to expensive (north of 100m) and van Persie joined Man Utd over me (touché). So far, the owners are "very pleased" with me spending half of the budget so I can't complain. Tomiyasu wants out now as Real Madrid approached him on deadline day. I promised to sell him in January which gives me time to sort a replacement. Current squad shown below, I like to keep a small group and rotate.

Just finished season 4. The team played really well but came away from it without any silverware. We came 2nd in the league (won the xPoints league again hah) and were incredibly unlucky with draws in other competitions. In the CL, after having won the League phase, we were drawn against Real Madrid, knocking them out in penalties. In quarter finals, we faced current holders Liverpool and took them to penalties as well, but this time we were on the losing end. In the FA, we knocked out Spurs, Villa Chelsea before falling victim to Man Utd in the semis. In the Carabao Cup, we knocked out Liverpool and Man United but lost in quarter finals to Man City. At the end of the season, we had a tycoon takeover. I hadn't bought anyone the summer before (nor in January) as I find the squad is in really good shape. Now, we have a budget of 250 million pounds and the board requires us to spend all of the budget and sign high reputation players, which I am not a fan of. I will try to make some refreshments of the squad to appease them. The board also requires us to win the PL and the CL this season, which might be very hard. There is a possibility that this will be my last season at the club and that I will look for a new challenge – let's see. Spending the money – I'm looking at long-term target Castello Lukeba from RB Leipzig. He will not come cheap but I guess that's just good now as I have to spend all of my budget either way. Gabriel has Saudi clubs after him and wants out to get a big paycheck so that should work out fine. I just hope I don't have to spend what I receive for him as well... Other than this, I don't have any areas of the squad I want to improve upon, possibly I buy a marquee striker but we really don't need to with Jesus and Evan Ferguson on our books...

It's not that I need the money, really, it's just that I like to try to play in a realistic way and it's just not really realistic rejecting offers like this for an unsettled player... I still did it because I remember how I lost interest last year after I let Saka go to Real Madrid for a similar sum.

Well, this is getting a bit hard to resist... In other news, Camavinga has gone off my shortlist as Man City splurged 269 million on him this summer and gave him 550k p/w. They now have a weekly wage bill of 8.5m, whereas the second highest wagebill (Man Utd) stands at 5.75m. They will be hard to topple this year – won the league last season and knocked me out of both cups.

I am enjoying working my way slowly through the seasons with Arsenal on this game – just finished my 3rd one now. I've not had a lot of success, which is making the process more enjoyable for me. I haven't won any trophies yet (except for one Community shield) but my consolation is that I have won 2 PL titles if you look at the xG table in the data hub (all going in the right direction!). I've had real struggles coming up with a consistent tactic but in the second part of the 3rd season the team finally started to find its feet with the one pictured below. Nothing groundbreaking, no massive PIs (just aligning some of them with the player roles). This is the first tactic that has gotten Jesus (or any of our other strikers) to over 0.5 npxG per game and it's really maximised Martinelli as a goalscoring outlet. Jesus was the PLs top goalscorer last season (despite rotating a lot with Ferguson and playing on the wings) and Martinelly the PLs player of the season. I have not made too many signings, these are roughly the personnel changes to each phase of the team: GK: Ramsdale out, Guillaume Restes in. DEF: Tierney + Kiwior + Tavares out, Marc Guehi in. MID: Partey + Xhaka + Jorginho + Lokonga out, Tchouameni + Joao Neves in. FWD: Reiss Nelson out, Evan Ferguson in. I am unsure of transfers ahead of season 4, I think I will roll my dice with the current squad and be reactive rather than proactive. Saka is a bit unsettled but I won't be selling him, I did that in FM23 as I generally don't want to keep unhappy players but it ruined my enjoyment a bit being without him. Players I am really interesting in acquiring over the next couple of seasons but don't have room in my squad for currently are Anatolii Trubin as an eventual Raya successor; Castello Lukeba, Jorrel Hato, Alessandro Bastoni or Nico Schlotterbeck as my primary DCL over Gabriel; Nathan Collins or Leny Yoro as DCR cover (I don't particularly like the height of Timber and White as central defenders (especially if I bring in Lukeba/Hato for DCL) and Tomiyasu moans a bit if he's played there); Eduardo Camavinga as my dream DL (IWB); and Eliesse Ben Seghir or Noah Darvich as a Fabio Vieira replacement (he has high standards of playing time which are hard to match). In terms of youth, Reuell Walters and Patino have not quite hit the heights I was hoping for (still useful players) so I will be trying to move them on this window with a buy back clause and/or a high sell-on fee percentage. Cozier-Duberry probably falls into the same category but I feel he still has more of an unlocked potential (so far I haven't been able to unlock it though!). Nwaneri is coming along really nicely but at 19 I don't think I can find sufficient playing time for him so he will be loaned out again, hopefully to a PL side this time. Lewis-Skelly has ruined his development for himself a bit as he's refused to go out on loan up to now which has resulted in u23s football and a few cameos for the first team, hopefully he will accept a loan move this season to kick his development off again. I have a couple of good newgen prospects but none that are close to first team level.

Bought him second season for 3.5m for Vitoria SC (Portugal). Has been superb as IW-S (great passing and vision) as an AML. Valued at 30m now in the middle of the third season.

Yeah definitely. Think I will try my best to keep hold of him, just because I like him so much and my save would be worse without him I think. Maybe in few seasons we can entertain the idea of selling him. The bid I got was 102M from Real -- I rejected that and Saka is happy with an asking price of 170M currently. January is running down so I don't think Real will manage to snap him away this window.

Anyone here ever sold Saka? He's throwing real tantrums over moving to Real Madrid in my save... I generally have the policy that I do not want to keep unhappy players to keep it realistic – I doubt that he'd be kept against his will for multiple seasons in real life if he really wanted to leave. I'm in January in season three so I will at least keep him until the end of the season, but might need to revisit this in the summer. We're having terrible season, sitting in 8th in the league and falling out of the CLs "group" (new format) stage after having pushed City for the title last season and won the CL. Not making the CL this season will likely see Real return for Saka and make it difficult for me to reject their approaches.

Season 2 review Before the season I wanted to strengthen my midfield with a Partey cover (half back) and a Xhaka replacement (CM-a or -s). I went with Mikel Merino (£39m release clause) as my Partey cover who can also play in the Xhaka role, and then for the other spot I bought one of my favourite young players in the PL, Moises Caicedo (£61m), for much needed energy, speed and agility along with passing and defensive skills. I thought I had overspent a bit for Caicedo at the time, but Arsenal yesterday bid the same amount for Caicedo in real life so I won't worry too much about that! Xhaka and Elneny both left for West Ham and Inter, respectively. Other notable departures were Nicolas Pépé, Nuno Tavares, Pablo Marí, Maitland-Niles and Rúnarsson. We had a rocky start to the league and halfway through only had 36 points, sitting in 6th place. Rob Holding left in January as he wanted more playing time and I used the opportunity to bring in a left sided, ball playing, central defender. Micky van de Ven (£25m release clause), who has been playing very well for Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga this season. He can also play left back and has great pace and dribbling skills, along with desirable traits. I also chose him over some of my other targets (Gastón Ávila, Piero Hincapié, Castello Lukeba and José Marsá partly because of his height. Signings in the spoiler below (including Asensio who was signed in Jan last season for £3.2m). The second part of the season we were imperious, collecting 53 points to finish on 89, which was unfortunately not enough to topple City. We went out in the semis of the Carabao Cup and early in the FA cup, against oppositions I would have liked to win. In the Champions League however, we managed to go all the way and bring the first big-ears to Islington. Overall delighted with the season. For next season, I am keen to add a quality right sided central defender. This season I rotated White, Saliba and Tomiyasu for the DC and DR positions (Tomi only in DR though) and those minutes were too many for them, so we need an extra body there. White plays much better as a right back for my so I want to play him there in rotation with Tomi and bring in a player to compete with Saliba. Unfortunately, Saliba has not developed a lot for me despite the playing time and his performances have not raised any roofs, so instead of bringing Zach Awe into the mix as his understudy (developing quite well on loan, may come into the fold later in the save) I want to bring in a good player. I am looking at Giorgio Scalvini from Atalanta and António Silva from Benfica whose price tags are currently not prohibitive (around £45m–£55m)—I would love Pierre Kalulu, who is one of my favourite players, but AC Milan want over £150m for him.

I try not to overpay. If I cannot get a high price down by declaring interest or trying to unsettle the player in any way or if I'm outbid by another club, I move to the next target. I try to think well in advance about first team upgrades so I have a chance to assign a scout to the target to get constant reports and declare interest to unsettle them over time, if they are coming from a smaller club. I haven't been able to with N'Dicka as he signed a contract early on in the save, so he's moving down the list of my targets, due to Leverkusen's asking price.

Season 1 review After skipping managing Arsenal in the last edition, I've returned to my favourite team this edition. This time, it's not as much of a challenge but as I don't like a big overhaul of the squad, I think it suits me better this time, where I can focus on bringing in fewer players each year, and have them fit my exact needs. I am not overly fond of huge spending -- but I am coming a bit round to it as that is the trend of real life football and it is not and will not be a big outlier for a team like Arsenal to spend about £60m on a player. I will deliberately not be going for Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham in this save, at least for the first 5 years at least, as I feel the team will be a little too complete for my liking by bringing them in right away. I finished the first season yesterday. I had the first transfer window turned off and only made a single acquisition in January -- keeping my powder mostly dry for the upcoming summer. I felt the wings could do with a bit more cover, especially the right side, and it would be nice if that player could step in for Odegaard and/or allow Odegaard to take Xhaka's starting place now and then. Fabio Vieira had not exactly set the world alight but I'm keen to give him chances to impress and with the extra body in Marco Asensio (£3.2m), I could shelter him a bit from the very important games while still giving him minutes in the smaller games and off the bench. Asensio was really good for me, operating as an inverted winger on the right side when Saka needed rest and as an attacking mezzala in the right half space in midfield when needed (Odegaard's usual position). No silverware in season one, but I am still quite happy with it. 3rd place in the league nearing 80 points, a healthy progress from last season. Next time on we are aiming to pressure the top sides a little more while dealing with the added pressure of the Champions League. We lost in the final of the Europa League and in the quarter finals of the FA cup against Man Utd, who are quite good in this version of the game. Liverpool were our banes in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, so the only teams to knock me out of competitions or finish above me in the league were Man Utd and Liverpool, who are both off to a good start to the summer of 2023 making impressive additions to their squads. This is the tactic I use for most of my games, tweaking it a bit here and there and in-game, depending on opposition, their formation and game state. I wanted to use an inverted left back but then I get done a lot on the counter in that space, even though I put Gabriel on stay wider. We have some expected outgoings in the summer, as Xhaka has handed in a transfer request on the basis that he feels like he has done everything he can at the club. Fair enough, it is also a policy of mine to not keep unhappy players so he will leave if we find a suitor who is willing to pay up to £20m. Elneny wanted to find a new challenge as well and will join Inter at the end of the season on a free. It is clear that I will need to bring in at least two players for them, a starter in the CM-s spot and a cover for Partey who can take over the mantle in the next few years. Some names that I've extensively scouted for the CM role are Moises Caicedo, Youri Tielemans and Lorenzo Pellegrini. For the Partey cover I am keen on Mikel Merino (who can also play CM), Manuel Ugarte, Manu Kone, Khephren Thuram, Joao Palhinha and Anton Stach. Romeo Lavia may also be available as Southampton were relegated but he needs a couple of years. Cedric left in January for a minimal fee (£4.3m). Rob Holding made some noises about first team football a couple of times in the season so I may take the opportunity to move him on to a team that gives him a bigger role while bringing in a left-footed player who can compete with Gabriel. I have my eyes on Evan N'Dicka, Goncalo Ignacio, José Marsa, Piero Hincapie, Arthur Theate and a Brazilian prospect named Robert Renan. As I mentioned above, Southampton were relegated so I may take the opportunity to sign Mohamed Salisu, who is a very good player, but I am a little concerned about his ball playing ability. I doubt I'll have more money in the coffers than for those three players, but it will also be supplied by a few sales of the returning loan players, for example Nuno Tavares, Nicolas Pepe, Pablo Mari and Runar Runarsson.

Given that this thread only amassed 16 replies over the entirety of FM22 there is maybe not a need for a new one. I am playing with the Tangerines, Dundee Utd, and liking my save a lot. I just finished the first season and it was a a difficult one. We ended up in the 7th place before the league was split up but well outside of the top half, which meant that we played in the relegation group. We managed to hold on to the 7th place which I think is an OK season -- as we also managed to win the League Cup along with it (avoiding Celtic and Rangers for the entire competition). However, the board was not happy with our league campaign and that we failed to get past the Europa Conference League knockouts and into the group stage, which meant that I had numerous board meetings over the course of the season but managed to convince them to keep me on a bit longer each time. I started with the window closed and did not due any changes in January either due to money problems. There is also no transfer budget for me to change the squad much before the next season, but I will try to get 2-4 freebies in who can strengthen the team. Not at home currently so I cannot provide any screenshots, but maybe later.

Fun read -- and the team is clicking big time. Couple of very exciting defensive prospects coming through who will overlap a bit with your current strong attacking players.

Thank's for starting this thread @ShaunG95. I'm currently trying out Dundee Utd in Scotland, will see if I have time for an English side in this edition as I want to stay a bit in Scotland and maybe try Scandinavia when I get bored with that save. I'll be an avid reader of this thread though, good luck!

Thank's for the heads up, but I'm banking on there not being a goal in the first game -- and the England game is the second one of the tournament.

Pre-tournament Bonuses: How many goals will be scored in the tournament? 148 Who will be top scorer for the whole tournament? Harry Kane How many hat-tricks will be scored in the tournament? 0 How many own goals will be scored in the tournament? 6 Who will win the tournament? Brazil Who will be runner up? France Group Stages Bonuses Which player will score the first goal in the tournament? Harry Kane Who will score England's first goal? Harry Kane How many goals will be scored in the Group stages in total? 108 How many goals will England score in the Group stages? 6 Who will be the top scorer for the Group stages? Harry Kane How many yellow cards will there be in the Group stages? 72 How many red cards will there be in the Group stages? 7 All times BST Group Stages Sunday 20th November - November! Group A 16.00 Qatar 0-0 Ecuador Monday 21st November Group A 16.00 Senegal 1-2 The Netherlands Group B 13.00 England 1-0 Iran 19.00 USA 1-1 Wales Tuesday 22nd November Group C 10.00 Argentina 2-0 Saudi Arabia 16.00 Mexico 2-1 Poland Group D 13.00 Denmark 2-0 Tunisia 19.00 France 3-0 Australia Wednesday 23rd November Group E 13.00 Germany 2-1 Japan 16.00 Spain 2-0 Costa Rica Group F 10:00 Morocco 0-2 Croatia 19:00 Belgium 2-0 Canada Thursday 24th November Group G 10:00 Switzerland 1-0 Cameroon 19:00 Brazil 2-1 Serbia Group H 13:00 Uruguay 3-1 South Korea 16:00 Portugal 3-1 Ghana Friday 25th November Group A 13:00 Qatar 0-1 Senegal 16:00 Netherlands 1-0 Ecuador Group B 10:00 Wales 0-0 Iran 19:00 England 3-1 USA Saturday 26th November Group C 13:00 Poland 1-0 Saudi Arabia 19:00 Argentina 3-1 Mexico Group D 10:00 Tunisia 2-1 Australia 16:00 France 1-1 Denmark Sunday 27th November Group E 10:00 Japan 2-0 Costa Rica 19:00 Spain 2-1 Germany Group F 13:00 Belgium 2-1 Morocco 16:00 Croatia 2-0 Canada Monday 28th November Group G 10:00 Cameroon 1-2 Serbia 16:00 Brazil 2-1 Switzerland Group H 13:00 South Korea 1-2 Ghana 19:00 Portugal 2-2 Uruguay Tuesday 29th November Group A 15:00 Ecuador 1-2 Senegal 15:00 Netherlands 2-0 Qatar Group B 19:00 Iran 1-1 USA 19:00 Wales 1-3 England Wednesday 30th November Group C 19:00 Poland 1-1 Argentina 19:00 Saudi Arabia 1-2 Mexico Group D 15:00 Australia 0-2 Denmark 15:00 Tunisia 0-2 France Thursday 1st December Group E 19:00 Costa Rica 0-2 Germany 19:00 Japan 1-2 Spain Group F 15:00 Canada 1-1 Morocco 15:00 Croatia 1-1 Belgium Friday 2nd December Group G 19:00 Cameroon 0-2 Brazil 19:00 Serbia 1-1 Switzerland Group H 15:00 Ghana 1-2 Uruguay 15:00 South Korea 0-2 Portugal

Unfortunately sacked! We had a difficult schedule in Jan after the World Cup and couldn't manage to turn our fortunes. It's the first time I've been sacked in FM in the last 4-5 editions I think and to be honest I quite like it. It seems that I have to put more effort into tactics and micromanagement now, and that's a good challenge. I tried the 3-man defence with Torino which I usually do not use and got nowhere close to getting it to work, let's see what my next team brings. I will be starting a new game rather than continuing this. Think I'm going to give the Scottish league a go.

I have started a Torino save for the first time in my FM career. I follow them quite closely as they are my second team in Italy, my in-laws live in Torino so I've spent considerable time there--great city. However, I'm off to a pretty bad start. The squad is suited to a 3/5 man defence which I never use in FM, but I've decided to give it a go this time. I've been fiddling a lot with the tactic after we had horrendous first 5 games (1 point) and have arrived at something like this, with rigid counter attacking instructions. GK(D) CD(D) - CD(C) - CD(D) WB(A) - DM(D) - DLP(S) - WB(S) SS(A) - AM(S) AF(A) Having the attacking midfielders sit narrow is working a lot better for me than having them playing outwide. I am currently in the World Cup break, and having had the first transfer window turned off I want to make some changes in January. I am looking at left wing back competition for Ola Aina, a deep midfield rotation for Samuele Ricci and Sasa Lukic and maybe trying to make Nikola Vlasic (my star player, on loan from West Ham) permanent, but he has quite a high clause of 13 millions, when I have only been given 2 millions to spend. There will be some outgoings though. We are currently sitting in 17th place but the board is giving me more time--hoping that we can turn this around. It's a struggle, but still good fun!

Fiorentina have a really fun FM squad, Sassuolo are always a popular choice. From this list you gave I would do Napoli for variety in the thread!

Found an evening to play, finally. Just started the 26/27 season and we've had a rocky start with 7 points from 7 games. I made some exciting signings this summer but I of course lost my two best players in Stipe Biuk and wonderkid Iván Mancisidor. Will go into better detail of that when I finish my season later this month hopefully. This guy is getting real good btw... And this one I got through the intake and he's making big strides already:

Yes I'm quite excited for it, it's a bit of a changing of the guard with Kane, Sterling, Henderson, Maguire, Stones, Walker and co getting over the hill. Plenty of good players around 25 but the talent pool of U-21 players is shallow. In other news: Another blow for my Sheff Wed team as a release clause has been activated for my star man. Now I've lost my two best players and am struggling to find adequate replacements. I'll probably go for potential rather than ability here (as I can't find anyone that matches their ability and is available for me), and hope that I can safely stay clear of relegation while the young players grow.

Two big pieces of news from my save. First, I couldn't manage to hold on to Stipe Biuk any longer, and he leaves for European football with Leverkusen for big money. It will be tough to replace him.. I also venture into my first national managerial job since FM12—if I recall correctly—as I accepted Englands spontaneous job offer. The position had been vacant since the resignation of José Mourinho (of all people) after England's shameful exit against neighbours and 2026 World Cup winners Wales. The squad is quite exciting but lacking in young talent, there have been a few exciting regen centre backs and a couple of strikers that have caught my eye, but no one with superstar potential. We'll see how it goes, I have a large window until the next World Cup.

Not related to my team but Wales just won the WC 2026—not in an easy manner!