Saintmat

Something that just occurred to me while reading about Troy Deeney's 2021 season at Watford. Frequently toward the end of a player's career, particularly if they are out of the team or have a long term injury, the club will employ their services as an additional coach. I believe there is something already in the game that allows you to discuss future career options with players in these situations, but I think I am right in that this is only an option if you have a coaching slot available? So it would be good to be able to board request an extra coaching slot specifically to be filled by a player already at the club who has made themselves available as staff. If this is already in the game please ignore!

Season 7 - July 2026 vs Weighing up my options. In the interest of maintaining my momentum with these updates, from now on I'm going to try and do some more frequent but shorter entries here. So, for my first of these posts, I wanted to briefly talk about a little dilemma I'm having right now. Before the Conference League final, my mind was made up. I would leave Jablonec at the end of the season and move on to new pastures. After handing in my resignation I applied for a range of jobs that interested me. Far from the first round of applications at the start of this save, I had accrued a degree of reputation and felt I could afford to be a little more selective in my eventual destination. Applications went in to four clubs; Rapid Wien, CSKA Sofia, Heerenveen and Ujpest. Additionally I received invitations to interview with Viktoria Plzen, Standard Liege and Zorya Luhansk. From these seven clubs I am now faced with a choice of two. I turned down the three interview offers from Viktoria, Standard and Zorya. Part of the reason for leaving Jablonec was to add a new country and a new league to my manager profile, and having won everything in the Czech domestic game, there was nothing left there for me to prove. Standard Liege are a big name, but are financially in huge debt and besides, a move to Belgium is not what I imagined at this stage of my career. Zorya Luhansk I might have considered, but FM is still a form of escapism for me and I have made a conscious decision to avoid the Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian leagues, especially given the most recent update changing how these clubs operate. With Ujpest, this would have realistically been a step down, as they are a lower mid-table Hungarian team. I initially applied as they were on my cool list, but felt that maintaining some amount of realism was important to me and eventually decided to withdraw, despite being offered the job. Heerenveen was more straightforward, I interviewed but pushed my luck and they chose another candidate. This was no biggie as ultimately I see the Dutch league as a final destination for my manager and saving the country for a move to one of the big boys there feels like a good idea for now. I was more interested in seeing how far I would get in applying to a team in the highest ranked leagues available to me. This leaves me with Rapid Wien and CSKA Sofia, who have both offered me the job. And frankly, I am a bit torn. So let's weigh up the options... Rapid Wien Historically one of the most successful clubs in Austria, Rapid Wien (along with their city rivals Austria Wien) were one of the first clubs to go on my aforementioned "cool list". As a reminder, at the start of this save I made a list of clubs across Europe who I thought might be interesting projects, based on various subjective factors but typically some combination of current and historical status, and aesthetic qualities (basically do I like the name or the kit). Rapid like many teams in these parts of Europe now have ended up victim to the new money and dominance of Red Bull Salzburg. They boast a crazy 32 titles to their name, and intriguingly a single German Bundesliga, presumably won during occupation by Nazi Germany, but last won the Austrian title in 2008 and have been a long way short of challenging for some time. In game, they have recorded a short series of mid-table finishes, rarely challenging in the end of season Championship group. They have just sacked Didi Kuhbauer (for a second time), and are offering me the following contract. I do not have great visibility of the squad and their attributes, but it is distinctly small and a rebuild would almost certainly be required. The facilities are ok, and they are not in European competition. Potentially this looks like a 2-3 year job at least, as I would be living under the thumb of RB Salzburg. CSKA Sofia So what can CSKA Sofia offer me? Well for a start they weren't on my original list, but if I recall correctly they weren't far off being included. Like Rapid, CSKA offer a similar tale of being a fallen giant now dominated by a new domestic force. 31 times winner of the Bulgarian Parva Liga, the "army men" as they are known fell into ruin in the mid 2010s, following a long decline in the absence of the Governmental support they had been receiving in the late 1990s. These days Bulgaria is dominated by Ludogorets Razgad, a team many will be aware of for their Champions League exploits. Despite being based in a small town of 25,000, Ludogorets have won every Bulgarian title since they arrived in the top flight in 2011, and are bankrolled by one of the richest men in Bulgaria via his veterinary pharmaceutical company. CSKA on the other hand were nearly dissolved in 2015, and only exist today thanks to some rather dodgy shenanigans, much akin to the MK Dons style hostile takeover of another club (in this case, Litex Lovech, who have also reformed). This caused a fanbase split, and now CSKA Sofia share their league with, well, another CSKA Sofia, named CSKA 1948 and run by a subset of the original fanbase, while the owners of the old-CSKA run the team offering this next job to me. Thanks to this video from Hitec Sevens explaining this in detail - it is worth the watch! And you might also care to watch his video on Ludogorets Razgad too. Very interesting stuff. In my save, CSKA have basically continued their trajectory as the perennial bridesmaids in Bulgarian football. The position is now available due to the retirement of... *checks notes*.... Alan Pardew! The old dog seems to have made the step up from his DoF role in 2024. Besides the time it took, it is scary sometimes how well FM imitates real life. The squad, in contrast to Rapid, is large and would probably require some amount of trimming. The club boast a wage expenditure of £3m a year, considerably more than their nearest rivals but even further from the £7m a year being pumped in by Ludogorets. The job basically looks to be to try and overturn the dominance of Ludogorets, and return CSKA Sofia to the top spot. Additionally, they will compete in a qualifying round in a weeks time to gain entry to the Conference League group stage, and so potentially I can have another stab at this competition and my objective of winning European silverware with a club in a country that has never tasted it before. If I take this on, I'll have a transfer budget of £4.7m, a wage budget of £413k and a two year deal. Notably, they are only offering £5.5k p/m in wages, less than I was on at Jablonec. Pros and Cons Rapid Wien Pros On my original list. In fact many clubs from that list are no longer realistic options as they would be major steps down. I want to manage 3 from that list in my career, so this would be a good chance to get started on it. The foundations and money are available for a rebuild. A realistic step up, a bigger club in a bigger league than Jablonec. £25k p/m contract represents a significant pay rise and would realistically be an attractive opportunity for my manager. Cons The job doesn't seem quite so interesting, and looks like it would have to be a long term project. For this next step in my career I think I want a two year job max. I don't have great opportunities here to tick off other objectives. My manager already speaks the language, and I have already toppled a big team in my league. As a watcher of Zealand's Floridsdorfer challenge, I'm actually quite familiar with the Austrian Bundesliga now and that mysterious allure of a new league isn't quite there for me any more. CSKA Sofia Pros An interesting club history in an unknown new league. I quite liked the idea of taking on one of these 'schism' clubs (e.g. Steaua in Romania), so despite their absence from my original list I think they probably ought to have been on there anyway. As long as I last I can potentially teach my manager Bulgarian, which will be my 3rd of 5 targeted new languages. A squad packed with some of the best talents in the country, and youth facilities which raise the prospect of finding some good wonderkids to work with. I already see one in the squad who PSG are sniffing about. Club philosophies that closely match my own (develop youth players and play attacking football). A shot at the Conference League (admittedly this might be quite ambitious). More of a short-term job than Rapid are offering. Cons £5.5k p/m is pitiful. I would want to try and negotiate this higher. A hard grind against the might of Ludogorets doesn't sound fun. I would have this at Rapid too though. And the decision is.... Ultimately, I think this seems like the more fun option. Passing up the opportunity of ticking Rapid off my cool list is a bit of a shame, but there are others on that list too and CSKA might as well have been on it too. The official list will have to wait. So now it's time to pack my bags for Sofia....!