Swaban

August 2024 The first game of the season see's us beat Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley (a feat im hoping we can pull off irl tomorrow), before going on an unbeaten run in our first 5 Premier League matches, picking up 13 from a possible 15 points. Despite a great start, we find ourselves behind Manchester City in the table, who have had a perfect start to the season.

As much West Brom would have probably made it easy for you to then take over a Premier League, or top Championship team, I like the idea of staying in Switzerland with Young Boys, it feels like a more realistic option

love the premise of this, good luck mate! Long live the 442

It has been a combination of the two. Players that you'd consider to be "deadwood" e.g. Telles, Dean Henderson, Maguire, Brandon Williams etc were transfer listed & offered out to clubs, in some cases (Maguire) repeatedly until an offer came in. We have however received a decent few bids and enquiries from other teams unprompted e.g. Elanga, Van De Beek, Sanchez, Hansen-Aaroen which generally speaking I negotiated up slightly (unless it was a non-negotiable bid) whilst ensuring we don't put them off by asking for to much Thankfully, because we've been playing well it has meant that a lot of my players have been "wanted" meaning that they're relatively easy to get rid of once we offer them out to clubs. I have kept track of which player is wanted by other clubs & in situations where I felt that we can improve upon them, even if they're performing well (e.g. Martial) I have taken advantage of the interest and offered them out to other clubs. I have upset players by offering them out, however they're either not playing in which case im not too worried about it, or if they are playing I've apologised & we've performed well which has boosted their morale

Thanks mate, I'm not sure which one im more proud of!

I've been reading this thread over the past couple of days & have finally caught up. What an unbelievable story so far! Despite a recent dip in form / unreal form from the 2 teams above you theres still the potential for some play-offs magic!

Transfers Out The big news is that we finally manage to shift Harry Maguire, an accomplishment that rivals winning the league! He moves to Napoli for a fee of £28,000,000 we are however stuck paying him £100,000 per week for the coming season. Typically this is something that I hate doing, however in this case I think it was worth it as he was our 4th choice centre back & earning £200,000 per week. We are now in the market for a new centre back. with Koopmeiners now joining the club this summer, having bought him in January we were looking to get rid of Christian Eriksen. He moves on to Everton for a fee of £11,250,000 however once again we are having to pay him £50,000 per week for the coming season. I was more than happy with our goalkeeper situation after a strong defensive performance last season, however when Dortmund's Gregor Kobel signed for Spurs, it meant that Dortmund then came calling for Robert Sanchez. I let them know that he could leave for £50,000,000 however when they came back in at £42,000,000 I accepted the offer as I felt it would be a realistic thing to do given we'd make £30,000,000 profit of a player we signed 12 months ago & it was still early enough in the window for me to find a suitable replacement. Facundo Pellistri also leaves us, at 22 years old there were to many players ahead of him for him to realistically break into the first team. he moves to Mainz for £10,500,000 Isak Hansen-Aaroen moves to Real Betis for £32,500,000. Whilst I would have liked to keep him, the offer was simply to good to turn down given that he is behind both Bruno Fernandes and Enzo Le Fee In Teun Koopmeiners who was bought in January, now joins the club. We paid £50,000,000 for him from Atalanta & at £130,000 per week he's paid £10,000 less than Eriksen was last season. As soon as my scout let me know that Diogo Costa had a release clause of £27,500,000 to foreign clubs I stopped looking at anyone else & went straight for him. With such a low release clause, it made me wonder why neither Spurs nor Dortmund went for him instead. However Im very happy with how things have worked out. With Maguire leaving, we were in the market for a centre back. Our options were to either bring in a cheaper rotation player for Varane, or to bring in a stronger player, who can compete with Varane for the starting spot, alongside Martinez. With Varane being 31 years old & my staff deeming him as injury prone, I was leaning towards the latter. In sticking with the theme of release clauses, we activate Josko Gvardiol's £67,000,000 release clause from Leipzig. This does however leave me with a new puzzle to solve, with our 2 strongest CBs being left footed, do we play them together? or do we go with Gvardiol & Varane at the back, moving Martinez into DM to compete with 32 year old Casemiro? Both Varane & Casemiro will need replacing over the next year or two, so its not a bad problem to have. Contracts We managed to get Casemiro & Varane to sign new deals on reduced wages. Varane is now paid £230,000 per week, down from £300,000 last season & £350,000 when we initially took over. Casemiro agreed to £240,000, down from £300,000 however he wanted a shorter contract than was already in place, meaning that he would leave on a free at the end of the season unless we extend him further in the next few months.

End of Season 2 Competition Results Premier League Winners: Manchester United! Champions League Winners: Liverpool who beat Inter Milan in the final Europa League Winners: AC Milan who beat Chelsea in the final FA Cup Winners: Manchester City who beat Chelsea in the final Carabao Cup Winners: Manchester United! Team of the Year We have 4 players in this seasons Team of the Year, up from 2 last season. With Luke Shaw earning a place both this year and last year. Luke Shaw Update: Individual Stats Harry Kane had an excellent first season at the club, finishing only 3 goals behind Haaland despite playing 6 fewer league games than him this season. We dominate the assists table, with Rashford & Fernandes finishing joint top with 11 assist each. Luke Shaw finished in 5th place with 8 assists from Left Back. Rashford & Fernandes also finish the season as the two highest rated players in the league, with Harry Kane finishing 4th, just behind Haaland Chelsea's Edouard Mendy wins the golden glove with 23 clean sheets. Robert Sanchez finishes in 5th place with 15 Team Stats We scored 104 goals this season, a club record which is 27 goals more than second place Liverpool We also had the most shots in the league, which was probably to be expected, given the amount of goals we scored. Chelsea conceded both the fewest shots & the fewest goals this season which is unsurprising given how Mendy was runaway winner of the golden glove Facilities We manage to convince the board to increase our Youth Recruitment which now stands at exceptional. Hopefully this will bring us more youth intakes like the incredible one we saw in the first season. The board also agreed to improve our training facilities over the summer, which will be completed in November

May 2024 Going into the final month of the season, we find ourselves top of the league by a single point. We do however also have a superior goal difference over second place Liverpool, which could be vital given that last season the title race went down to the final match. First up, we faced Newcastle & a Harry Kane masterclass see's us beat them 5-0, with Sancho grabbing the other 2 goals This result could prove to be massive, with Liverpool drawing 0-0 with Crystal Palace on the same day meaning that we find ourselves 3 points ahead with 2 games left to play. A win in our next game all but confirms our status as champions given our superior goal difference. Last season, 88 points was only enough for us to finish third. However, this year thanks to goal difference, we can win the league with a tally of 87 (providing Liverpool don't have a +23 goal difference in their next 2 matches). Disaster strikes, as we are beaten 3-2 by Erik Ten Hag's Spurs. 2 goals from Bruno Fernandes wasn't enough to overcome a poor team performance. We threw away our chances of winning the title in the final few games of last season & I'm desperate to ensure that we dont do the same again here! Thankfully, it looks as though Liverpool are are also doing everything they can to ensure that they dont win the title, dropping 5 points in their previous 2 matches. Thankfully, City are still 16 points behind meaning they cant repeat last years performance & clinch the title on the final day. going into the final day of the season, we face 10th place Southampton & the table looks like this. Liverpool would have to overturn a goal difference of +22 on the final day in order to have a chance at winning the league & even then, if we got a single point, we win the league anyway! As a result, I will be playing as many decent youth prospects as I can fit into the team & hoping that we don't concede around 20 goals! This is how we line up going into the final day of the season, with no less than 7 youth players in the starting 11 We concede a goal to Southampton inside the first minute, not the best start. we cant concede 20 can we? Thankfully we win went on to win the game 4-2 with Isak Hansen-Aaroen putting in another unbelievable performance, finishing the game with a 9.4 rating. In the end the result didnt matter, as Liverpool were some 23 goals short. We've done it! Manchester United's first league title in 11 years. The first one since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. After last years heartbreak at the end of the season, I'm overjoyed to win it this year

April 2024 In what is definitely my biggest ever victory in a competitive match in any FM, we demolish Burnley 10-0 in the league, thanks to Agent Weghorst who having returned to Burnley this season after his loan expired, got himself sent off early in the match, leaving Burnley with 10 players. Due to Isak Hansen-Aaroen being named in the NXGN 50, I decided to start him in this game to give Bruno Fernandes a rest & what a performance it was! a 10.0 rating, scoring 4 goals & assisting another 2. I took the decision to promote him to the first team squad immediately after the game. Aside from this ridiculous match, we have arguably our worst performance of the season against Middlesbrough, losing 3-1, despite them having a man sent off with 25 minutes still to play. This is particularly annoying as Liverpool were beaten 4-0 by Aston Villa earlier in the month, which we should have capitalised on. As a result, the gap remains at 1 point with only 3 games to go.

Incredible journey so far! I've never done a journeyman save as I always get to attached to my club. However this is inspiring me to consider one once i finish with my current save

NXGN 2024: The 50 best wonderkids in football There are no less than 3 Manchester United players in the list, 2 of which are in the top 10! Kobbie Mainoo (7) & Alejandro Garnacho (10) have both featured in the first team throughout this season. Isak Hansen-AAroen (15) remains in the U21's, having played a single game for the first team so far this season.

February / March 2024 Luke Shaw update: After begging him to stay, Shaw let me know that he was desperate to win the league, which may or may not have lead to me promising him that we will win it this year. This has placated him for now, but may well blow up in my face in the summer. I have began to scout left backs, just in case this does happen and we have to let him go at the end of the season. In our first chance at silverware this season, we manage to beat Spurs in the Carabao Cup Final to retain the trophy, having won it last year! Another strong couple of months see's us retain top spot in the league with 7 games left to play. A Draw against Crystal Palace & a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal see's the gap reduced to 1 point by Liverpool. Unfortunately we are less successful in the remaining cup competitions, being knocked out of the Champions League, by Inter Milan despite winning the first leg 1-0. City also end our FA Cup run with a 3-1 defeat in the quarter finals. As much as its disappointing to be knocked out of both competitions, particularly within the space of 3 days, it does mean that we can focus our efforts on the league (and fulfil our promise to Luke Shaw), where as Liverpool are through to the quarter final of the Champions League Interestingly, Alejandro Garnacho has opted to play for Spain rather than Argentina & received his first call up this month. Youth Intake Having had an unbelievable intake last year, with 6 of those players having already made their debuts for the first team, it was always going to be hard to top. The preview in January didnt fill me with much confidence & very little had changed by the time the players came through in March. Only 2 players look to have any promise about them & even then, I'm not sure either of them are as good as the top 4-5 players we had come through last year. Striker Andy Forrester is the pick of the bunch, with Congolese Wing Back Jules Mawete being the other promising player

January 2024 Heading into the new year, we face a congested fixture schedule with no less than 8 matches this month, across the Premier League, FA Cup & Carabao cup, where we face Brentford in a bid to retain the trophy that we won last season. A strong month in the league see's us not only unbeaten in the league, but also extend the gap at the top to 3 points over Liverpool & a huge 22 points above City who now find themselves in 7th place! Guardiola is still in post, although I dont think that will remain the case for long unless the drastically improve results. A horrendous first leg of the Carabao cup Semi Final saw us beaten by Brentford thanks to both Scott McTominay & Harry Maguire who were filling in for Varane & Casemiro who both suffered knocks prior to the game. McTominay got himself sent off in the first half, before Maguire decided to give a way a penalty just after half time. At 2-0 down, playing with 10 men we decided to bring on once of our best youth products of last years intake, 17 year old Jake Hart with 15 minutes to go & he bagged a goal, closing the gap to a single goal for the second leg. We were back to a full strength team for the second leg & with both Maguire & McTominay banished to the bench, we managed to overcome the deficit to secure a place in the final! where we will play Spurs In the FA cup, we faced off against Woking, who sit 20th in the National League. As a result, we decided to play a number of our most promising youth players in order to both give them game time & rest our first team players. The youth players (shown below) had an unreal game, with every single one of them finishing the match with a rating of 7.0 or higher. A particular highlight was Michael Peacock who came off the bench after 60 minutes & bagged himself a hattrick! Our youth looks excellent & we will be trying to integrate as many of them as possible into the first team when time/fixtures allow. Transfers In Generally speaking, I don't like to bring in first team players in January, preferring to wait until the summer. However, I spotted that Teun Koopmeiners was currently unhappy at Atalanta, so I decided to put a bid in, given that he was already on my shortlist to replace Christian Eriksen in the summer. After a fair bit of back and forth with Atlanta we have a £50,000,000 bid accepted. Whilst it is undoubtedly an expensive transfer, I think he is absolutely worth the money given his attributes & he is currently performing at an average rating of 7.34 in Serie A having played 18 games so far. I opted to have him join us at the end of the season, rather than immediately so that I don't have to pay both his and Eriksen's wages for the remainder of the season. Koopmeiners will join the club on a wage of £130,000 per week. £40,000 less than we are currently paying Eriksen. Out Having still been unable to shift Harry Maguire due to his wage demands, despite offering him out to clubs, I hadn't planned on selling any first team players. However, Juventus came in with a bid of £41,000,000 for Scott McTominay which was to good to turn down for a backup option. It also helped that the bid came in 2 days after the first leg against Brentford where McTominay cost us the game by getting himself sent off for an unnecessary foul. We will make do with Fred as the backup option to Casemiro for the remainder of the season, before assessing our options in the summer. This will have the added bonus of giving Kobbie Mainoo a few more games in the second half of the season. However if we sustain a couple of lengthy injuries to midfielders we will find ourselves in trouble, but its a chance im willing to take for now. Teden Mengi also leaves us, at 21 years old he isnt going to be good enough to be a regular part in the first team squad. When AJ Auxerre offered £3,500,000 for him along with 20% of profit we decided to accept it & allow him to make the move in order to secure first team football. Luke Shaw has decided he wants to leave, after being unsettled when I rejected a £50,000,000 bid for him from Juventus which resulted in me agreeing to sell him should a bid of £70,000,000 come in. I'm hoping that I can turn things around with him as he is a top class left back & I dont want to lose him if possible as there are very few players that I think we can replace him with, especially if we are looking to be financially responsible.

I have had this thread on my reading list for a while, however the fact that it had almost 600 replies has stopped me doing so, as I knew it would be a while before I managed to get through it all. I finally started reading through this morning & ended up reading the entire thread in a single sitting. Are my eyes stinging? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. This thread has been an unreal journey & I've thoroughly enjoyed every step of it. Good luck on the rest of it!

Thanks mate! Hopefully we are able to build upon what we achieved last year & take the next step

November / December 2023 Another undefeated month in November, however we see a dip in form early December, where we lose 3 games in a row to Chelsea, PSG & Liverpool yet somehow, we remain at the top of the table! (albeit only on goal difference). We also qualify for the Champions League round of 16 in second place, behind PSG where we will play Inter Milan Goal50 We have 3 players voted into the Goal50, new signing Harry Kane (12), Raphael Varane (35) & Bruno Fernandes (39) Contracts We were able to talk Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane & Victor Lindelof into signing new contracts on reduced wages, in order to further reduce our weekly wage cost by a total of £145,000 (Sancho - £45,000, Varane - £50,000, Lindelof - £50,000) this brings our wage budget below £4,000,000 per week for the first time! Youth Intake Despite increasing our junior coaching to "Exceptional" we have what looks like a poor preview. Hopefully things are better than this looks come March!

September / October 2023 First things first, Bruno returns! After 6 months out with a damaged cruciate, Bruno Fernandes resumes full training! He will be eased back into the team due to such a long absence, as well as Enzo Le Fee performing well in his absence. A strong 2 months see's us play 12 games in all competitions. We remain undefeated in the league after 11 matches, which see's us remain on top of the table, 1 point above second place Chelsea & a huge 10 points above City who languish in 5th place. Highlights include 2 wins against City including a 90th minute Harry Maguire winner. Who says he isn't worth £200,000 per week? (me, I say that!) I also managed to talk the board into improving our junior coaching, which is now graded as exceptional. Unfortunately I was unable to convince them to upgrade either the training or youth facilities however this may well have something to do with our bank balance being 50,000,000 in the red. bank balance being. Im hoping that a decent run in the Champions League will go some way to alleviating our financial problems.

Thanks mate! player faces are: sortitoutsi cut out megapack regen faces are: NewGan logos are: FMG standard logos stadiums are: FMT Stadium Megapack kits are: FMEnhanced Kit Pack

Yeah, I think that the only way we can possibly sign him is if he actively tells Spurs that he has no intention of signing a new contract. That way I can see Levy wanting rid of him this summer as theres no way he will risk losing him for free. If Kane doesnt do that, then I see him signing a new contract with Spurs & at that point he will likely never leave, remaining there until he retires

Squad I am sticking with a similar tactical approach to that which we used last season, due to the success we found with it. Going into the new season, I've identified my strongest 11, as well as my rotational options. Much like last season, there is still stiff competition down our right hand side with Dalot / Wan-Bissaka & Sancho / Antony staking their claims to the respective positions. We will be looking to get Kobbie Mainoo & Amad Diallo involved where possible too. August 2023 We kick the season off with a 3-0 home win against Arsenal, a great performance all around & goals for new boys Enzo Le Fee, who is filling in for an injured Bruno Fernandes & Gabriel Barbosa who makes his debut off the bench. We also just about scrape past a Newcastle side that have strengthened significantly, bringing in both Toni Kroos & Milan Skriniar among others thanks to a late goal from Amad Diallo off the bench. Finally, a 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa see's us round off a perfect first month of the season, the only team to do so which see's us sit 2 points clear at the top of the table. City dropping 5 points from a possible 12 is a welcome sight! Champions League Draw We are drawn against PSG, Fenerbache (who have Dean Henderson in goal) & Rangers. Whilst PSG are undoubtably tough opponents, we should have enough to overcome both Fenerbache & Rangers to progress to the next round,

Hopefully we can sign him irl this summer too!

Finances The finances are looking somewhat healthier than they were this time last year, the wage budget has been reduced from £4,775,000 last year to £4,079,000 this year & this is without moving on the likes of Harry Maguire (£200,000) who I haven't been able to get rid of over the summer. Varane (£350,000) is now our highest paid player & we will likely look to move him on at the end of this season unless we can negotiate a new contract on reduced wages. The same may be said for 31 year old Christian Eriksen (£170,000) who will likely become a squad player after this season. Lindelof is already a squad player & is paid £170,000. This will likely be his last season at United. Sancho had a good season last year, however at 23 years old and on a wage of £275,000 he will likely want a wage increase when it comes to signing a new deal. Something which at present im unwilling to do, however he still has 3 years on his contract so theres plenty of time to deal with it one way or another. We have also managed to reduce the number of players who are earning over £100,000 per week from 21 last season, to 13 this season. The number of players earning £200,000 falls from 8 last season, to 7 this season. We are moving in the right direction. Our debt has been reduced from £754,000,000 to £663,000,000 thanks to our monthly loan repayments of £11,000,000. On paper, our financial projection looks worse than it did this time last year, however we started last season with £133,000,000 in the bank. Where as we currently have £10,000,000 in the bank. With the Champions League money, as well as reducing our wage spend by £700,000 per week things arent as dire as they look.

Transfers Out I realise that I missed an outgoing player off of the previous post, Brandon Williams joins Hoffenheim for a fee of £10,000,000 which I was more than happy with given we were paying him £50,000 per week to be our third choice left/right back. He played 3 games all season. In With Anthony Martial leaving & Weghorst returning to Burnley at the end of his loan, we are in the market for 2 strikers. Having sold a number of players for a combined value of £98,000,000 we have a healthy budget to spend in order to improve the squad. I decided to spend the majority of the budget on Harry Kane. When putting together my shortlist for a striker, if money was no object & I could sign any player in the world to be my number 9 it was Harry Kane. Undoubtably an expensive transfer for a 29 year old however I feel that he is the player to help us take the next step. At £300,000 per week, his wage is 20% higher than that of outgoing Anthony Martial Having spent so much money on Harry Kane I was looking for a relatively cheap option in terms of both transfer fee & wages for our second striker. I really liked the look of Wolfsburg's Jonas Wind however, he was demanding to be a regular starter & I wasn't willing to offer him anything more than squad player & he broke off negotiations as a result. In the end we went in for Gabriel Barbosa of Flamengo who had a release clause of £15,000,000. I wanted to pay him in the region of £50,000 per week however ended up settling on £75,000 due to his ability to play anywhere across the front line. Whilst being higher than I'd have initially like to commit to, we are still paying him £5,000 per week less than we were paying Weghorst last season. With Van De Beek leaving, I was undecided whether to bring in an AMC who would be a rotational option for Bruno Fernandes or to move Christian Eriksen into being that rotational option & bring in a first choice playmaker, who can function as either a DLP, RPM or RGA depending upon the game. Due to spending big on Harry Kane I decided to opt for the former & give Christian Eriksen 1 more season as our first choice playmaker. We bring in Enzo Le Fee of Lorient for a fee of £16,000,000 on a wage of £60,000 per week which is less than half of the £140,000 we were paying Van De Beek. Im very happy with this transfer on both the wage & the transfer fee. With Bruno Fernandes still recovering from his cruciate injury, Enzo Le Fee will start the early part of the season Promotions With us losing all 4 first team goal keepers in the summer, we needed a backup for Robert Sanchez. Rather than bringing somebody in, I decided to promote Matej Kovar off the back of a successful loan spell at Sparta Prague. Whilst he may not be the best keeper in the world, I very rarely use my backup keeper, opting not to have a keeper on the bench. With Sabitzer returning to Bayern Munich in the summer, we were short a midfielder. I did look into signing him permanently, however his agent let me know that he would require a wage of £140,000-170,000 which I felt was far to much given what we are trying to achieve. As a result we decide to promote Kobbie Mainoo who we gave a couple of cup games last season & he look good. With the departure of Brandon Williams as third choice left back / right back we promote Ethan Laird from the U21's. He looks about as good as Williams & is paid £15,000 per week, in comparison to Brandon Williams £50,000. As he will likely rarely feature, he's also been made available for the U21's

Welcome along mate, hopefully next season we can build upon what we achieved in the first season.