Swaban

I'm a sucker for a 343 & with me currently managing Ajax, I have gone with a Cruyff / Van Gaal inspired system, which seems fitting for Ajax & the football they try to play (current season not withstanding) does anyone have any recommendations as to how it can be improved?

Stadium: Ajax Arena Capacity: 55,500 Training Facilities: Superb Youth Facilities: Excellent Junior Recruitment: Excellent Youth Recruitment: Excellent Finances: Rich Transfer Budget: £30,000,000 (normal mode) Media Prediction: 1st Board End of Season objectives Eredivisie: Challenge for the title Europa League: Reach Knock Out Play Off Round KNVB Becker: Reach The Final Transfers:

If only! I dont think they've ever released early have they?

The Squad We have a pretty big squad, as was to be expected for anyone that follows either Chelsea, or the Premier League in general. In addition to this, we have 11 members of the first team squad out on loan this season. Tactics I've opted to play a 3 at the back system, in keeping with how Chelsea typically play, which will allow me to get the best out of Ben Chilwell & Reece James both of which I would consider to be world class wing backs. There are unfortunately, a couple of players that dont fit into my plans, such as Mykhaylo Mudryk, who will be difficult to move on, given that he has only just arrived. As well as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. If we can move on a couple of players, I'd like to bring in a left footed centre back. My expected first 11 & second 11 are listed below however, we are yet to play a single pre-season game so as always, this is subject to change.

Expectations The board expects us to get to the latter stages of the Champions League, which I'm guessing means quarter final? in the Premier League they want us to finish top 4. This would have been my aim for the first season anyway, I imagine our main competition will be City, Arsenal, Liverpool & United. Whilst they want us to challenge for the FA Cup, I'll very much be using this as a chance to rest players so that we can focus on the Premier League & possibly the Champions League depending upon our league standing once the group stages come to a close (presuming I make it through the group stages!). Thankfully, they don't care about the Carabao Cup, as I plan to rest the starting 11 for every match in the competition, this however may change if we manage to reach the semi final. The season preview has us as finishing 3rd, behind City & Liverpool, a result I'd be happy with for season 1!

The RNG has given us club number 6, Chelsea. due to me being a Manchester United fan, I've always avoided managing other top 6 clubs, so this should be interesting!

Having not played the game for around a month or so, due to my long term save becoming stale & not knowing who to start a new long term save with, I've opted for something of a change of pace. Rather than setting up a club for long term success, through developing youth, upgrading facilities etc I've decided to opt for a (hopefully) shorter term strategy, with the objective of winning the Premier League (easier said than done in many cases) at which point my time with the club will come to an end. I have decided that each time I win the league with a club, I will start over from the 22/23 season so this will be a series of (again, hopefully) shorter saves rather than a single long save game. We will be keeping track of our finishing position each season, as well as results in any other competitions that we are involved in as I feel it could well lead to interesting results. e.g. we may win the league in our first season with Manchester City which will give us relatively slim chances to win the Champions League, particularly as the Premier League will be our priority. Where as with a smaller team that will take much longer to win the league, we may well have a few opportunities at doing a job in Europe. In order to do this, I will use the crudely made spreadsheet below, however I'm sure that this will be refined over time. In order to choose my club, I've opted to use a random number generator (1-20) based upon the teams alphabetical ordering before the season starts in the table below: I'm looking forward to this challenge as it will be somewhat different to my usual playstyle. I am unlikely to worry too much about upgrading facilities & developing youth. Instead I will be looking to improve my squad as quickly as possible, for short term success rather than building for the future. This may have to change somewhat for the smaller clubs in the league as the challenge will take longer & I don't want to find myself in a position where I'min need of an extensive rebuild all of a sudden, however we shall see as time progresses!

good luck mate, I love a Gibraltarian save so will definitely be following this!

Hopefully real life mimics my FM save & United go on to win back to back Premier League titles over the next 2 seasons!

October 2025 Our incredible form see's us not only unbeaten this month, but also extend our lead at the top of the table to 5 points over City who were beaten 3-1 by Spurs. Additionally, we are seeing a number of players grabbing goals rather than relying purely on Kane & Rashford as has been the case previously. City however do currently top the champions league group stage with 3 games played, albeit only on goal difference. At the other end of the table, Napoli are having a stinker with 0 points after 3 games played.

September 2025 The takeover has fallen through, due to differences in the valuation of the club, however our owner status is now "looking to leave" so im hopeful that they will still sell up, but wont hold my breath! We drop our first points of the campaign, with a 2-0 loss to Arsenal which was fully deserved. Thankfully, city also dropped points this month with a 1-1 draw away to Fulham meaning we sit 2 points clear at the top with 7 games played. City also somehow lost to Milwall on penalties in the Carabao Cup which could be huge for us, in our quest to emulate City in winning it 4 years in a row.

Art imitates life!

A look through the weekly wage spend of each club highlights not only how well we've done in reducing our spent, but also how much of a juggernaut City are. They are currently spending an eye watering £6.25mio per week on wages! with second place Liverpool spending a mere £5mio. We sit in 6th place, spending £3.5mio. Ideally I would like us to reduce our weekly spend to a level that is around the average in the league. £2.7mio in this case, however I dont see that being possible without weakening ourselves. I've managed to put us in a position where we have 2 strong players in each position, with the exception of goal keeper, where Matej Kovar is significantly weaker than Diogo Costa & is only played in cup games against weaker opposition & wont feature in the Champions League City also find themselves topping the commercial income list, all of which is clearly above board!

good luck mate, ill be following this!

It was arguably the best performance we've put in so far, particularly when you look at the strength of their squad (below) & the fact that they went 1-0 up just before half time

August 2025 As the new season kicks off, the takeover rumours are still persisting. Usually the current owners of any club I manage tend to quash the rumours however that hasn't happened. There is no mention as to whether or not the new owner would be willing to spend money yet so fingers crossed! Steve Roberts is apparently the favourite to take over & the media have said he has the "daunting task of trying to clear the clubs debts" which currently sit at around £193,000,000. I feel that they should at least give me a bit of credit for reducing the debt by over £500,000,000 in 3 years! We win our first trophy of the season in the Community Shield (if we win it, then its a trophy. If we don't, then its tinpot) beating Arsenal 3-2 despite a 60th minute sending off for Gabriel Barbosa a mere 5 minutes after coming off the bench. In the league, we had 3 of the easier fixtures against Fulham, Leeds & Leicester where we were able to secure maximum points before welcoming rivals City to Old Trafford in the final game of the month & hope to stop Haaland from adding to his tally of 8 goals in the first 3 games of the season! We were unable to stop Haaland from scoring as he got the opener, just before half time. However incredible performances from both Sancho & Bruno Fernandes ensured that his goal counted for nothing! As the first month of the season draws to a close, we top the league level on both points & goal difference with Spurs

He has been unreal on the right. I only played him there out of necessity due to a couple of games where both Antony & Sancho were injured. It resulted in him going from being out backup left winger to our first choice right winger. His left foot is considered "fairly strong" & we are still training him to develop it

Finances Our net debt is now down to £193,000,000 from £754,000,000 when we took over 3 years ago! We are still paying the debt off at a rate of £11,000,000 per month however our position has improved drastically. The goal is to be debt free to the extent where I havent even taken on any additional transfer debt. All players that I've bought have been structured so that 100% of the fee is paid upfront meaning that our transfer debt, which started off at £183,000,000 3 years ago now sits at a mere £1,400,000 As a result of the above, our financial projections now make for enjoyable reading, as apposed to 3 years ago when a quick glance at them struck fear into my heart. We are currently spending £3,500,000 per week on wages against a budget of almost £5,300,000. When we took over the club was spending £4,775,000 per week largely thanks to a number of ridiculous contracts for players that were worse than those which we currently have. In clearing out the dead wood & replacing them with players that are not only superior, but also paid less we have managed to reduce our wage bill by around £1,300,000 per week! A look at our player contracts shows that we are currently paying 6 players a wage of £200,000 + per week (down from 8 when we took over) perhaps more impressively, we have been able to reduce the number of players paid more than £100,000 per week from 21 when we took over, to just 12 going into this season. With our top 3 earners being Harry Kane, Bruno Fernandes & Marcus Rashford. Raphael Varane & Jadon Sancho are in joint 4th at £230,000 per week. Varane is no longer first choice due to the arrival of Upamecano & as a result, If we cant negotiate a substantially lower wage with him this year, he will be sold at the end of this season with 1 year left on his contract. Tactics Our tactical shape has changed very little since last season, due to the success we've had with it. Below is how we will line up at full strength going into the season, along with our rotation options. However as always, this is subject to change!

same here! I knew that I would need a DM to replace Casemiro & a LB to replace Shaw. However Upamecano was very much a spur of the moment transfer done out of spite to stop City from buying him haha I honestly cant remember the last time I had a takeover in FM so I wont holds my breath. With that said, we may be into FM24 by the time the real takeover goes through

The disappointed mentioned above quickly subsided after seeing the below pieces of news! please, Glazers. Do something good for once in your lives & sell!

The good news, is our stature has increased over the past year. The bad news is that City are currently considered to be the most reputable club in football. My disappointment is somewhat eased by the fact that Liverpool have taken a sharp decline having finished 8th last season

Transfers Out Casemiro leaves us on a free, having signed a pre-contract agreement with Napoli in January. I'd have liked to have kept him for 1 more year, however he was unwilling to accept less than £240,000 per week. A figure which I didnt want to shell out. As a result, we are looking for a first choice DM whether that will come from the market or be filled by a player we already have is currently has been a dilemma for me since January. Luke Shaw unfortunately leaves us this summer. I really didnt want to see him leave, however I was left with no choice, as he wanted to consider his options next summer. I already had to promise him I'd win the league top get him to stay previously & he wanted me to promise we'd win the Champions League this season in order to stay. Atletico Madrid bid for him & we managed to get them up to £40,000,000. The fans were furious that we sold him & I'm not particularly happy with it myself. Amad Diallo moves to Juventus for a fee of £42,000,000 (38+5) & Im over the moon with this piece of business. I didnt really have a place for him in the squad & was considering loaning him out when the bid came in. Ethan Laird moves on to Bristol City for a fee of £10,000,000. Im pretty happy with this, as he was our 3rd choice left / right back & we have decent option in the U21's that can fill in if/when called upon. Fred told me he wanted to leave in order to win trophies, which doesn't make sense as we have won the league twice in a row. I'd have liked to keep him as he's a good back up option & doesn't complain about playing time however I dont tend to keep players that want to leave providing we get a decent bid for them. In order to win these trophies that he craves, Fred decided his best option would be a move to Everton?? We accepted their bid of £30,000,000 Mohammed Diomande also leaves us after a good loan spell at PSV, Spurs came in with an 18,500,000 bid (15.5+3) which we accepted In The big signing of the summer is Dayot Upamecano In all honesty, I wasn't really in the market for a new centre back however when I saw that City had a £30,000,000 bid accepted for him I decided to throw my hat into the ring, as I didnt want him to go to City & that price looks like an absolute bargain! In order to replace Casemiro we bring in Maxence Caqueret for £40,000,000 off the back of a disappointing season at Real Madrid where he only played 13 games all season. He looks more than good enough to do a job for us & will compete with Lisandro Martinez for the DM spot, who moves into midfield due to the ridiculous amount of talent that we current have at centre back, With Luke Shaw leaving, I toyed with the idea of moving Gvardiol to left back, however he was just too good at centre back to justify this. As a result, Tyrick Mitchell comes in from Crystal Palace for a fee of £35,000,000. He will compete with Tyrell Malacia at left back. Whilst he certainly isnt an upgrade on Shaw nobody is for the money I was willing to spend. Contracts Victor Lindelof agrees to a new deal, on a reduce wage which im very happy about. He's a great backup option & has never complained about playing time Luke Jackson, probably our best youth prospect signs a new long term deal having been promoted to the first team last season. Simon Kyambadde another of our strongest youth prospects signs a long term deal, he will be loaned out this season. Ideally to a championship side.

End of Season 3 Competition Results Premier League Winners: Manchester United! For the second year in a row Champions League Winners: Manchester City who beat Bayern Munich in the final Europa League Winners: Real Madrid who beat Aston Villa in the final FA Cup Winners: Arsenal who beat Leeds in the final Carabao Cup Winners: Manchester United! For the third year in a row Team of the Year 5 of our players make the TOTY this year, compared to 4 last year. Shaw makes it 3 years in a row. A fantastic achievement that makes his imminent departure all the more disappointing , Rashford & Kane all both make it 2 years in a row, with both new man Gvardiol & Dalot making the grade this year. Individual Stats Unsurprisingly, Haaland tops the goalscoring list. Rashford finished in 3rd place on 22 goals, with Kane in 5th with 16 & Garnacho in 9th with 13 goals, despite only featuring in 20 league games this season. Haaland finished the season with the highest average rating, however we dominate this list with 2 of the top 3 & 5 players in the top 7 Diogo Costa finishes in 2nd place in the clean sheet stats. A great first season all things considered Team Stats Once again, we top the goalscoring list, despite scoring 10 goals less than we did last season We also had the most shots in the league, which was to be expected, given we scored the most goals City conceded the fewest shots this season, slightly ahead of Arsenal, who topped the clean sheet list. Where as Chelsea conceded the fewest goals, only 2 less than both us & City Facilities Once again, we manage to convince the board to upgrade both our training & youth facilities prior to the start of the new season.

a mere point behind City is incredible work, I believe!

May 2025 - The Title Race The first of our final 3 games comes against 6th place Newcastle who beat City last month, so I wasn't expecting an easy game. I was worried when they went 1-0 up after 14 minutes, thanks to an unbelievable through ball by Anthony Gordon however we dominated the game & were able to come back thanks to goals from Rashford & Kane both of which were assisted by Sancho who has been in great form recently & has even seen Bruno be benched in recent matches. Next up, we are at home to title rivals & villains of the save, Manchester City. Going into the game, we find ourselves 5 points clear of City however they have a game in hand & I would expect them to win both of their remaining games against Crystal Palace who are sat in 9th & Southampton who are in 16th. We do however have the added advantage of an extra few days rest, the game comes exactly a week after the Newcastle match. Where as City had a mid-week Champions League Semi Final Second Leg against RB Leipzig. A tie they managed to win, meaning they face Bayern Munich in the final. Hopefully Bayern can do us a favour and beat them, so that at least in this world the Champions League eludes City! De Bruyne bagged a goal after 3 minutes & panic set in. As you can see from the stats, City were at their best & dominated the game in true Guardiola fashion. In a last ditch attempt to salvage a point from the game & with it, our chances of winning the title, we threw everyone forwards & substitute Gabriel Barbosa grabbed the equaliser in the 91st minute! I'm not exaggerating when I say that I reacted in a similar way to how I would have if this had happened in real life. I was however quickly brought back down to earth when I had to explain to my girlfriend that I was jumping around the room due to a goal in my spreadsheet game, where I don't control the players myself. Going into the final game of the season against Wolves, who have climbed to 8th place we are 2 points clear at the top with a superior goal difference of 13 meaning that a draw would be enough to clinch the title. Typically I like to play my youth players in the final game of the season, however so far in this save the title race has gone right down to the final day meaning that this isn't possible. We get off to a strong start & a first half hattrick from Marcus Rashford & coast to victory. City beat Southampton, as to be expected however it wasn't enough & Manchester United are Premier League Champions for the second year in a row!