ShaunG95
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Posts posted by ShaunG95
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23 hours ago, add11 said:
anyone managed to find any more tycoons since the final update??
I had a rumoured one as Everton but it never came into fruition, sadly.
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This guy looks a talent, fairly obscure too.
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Tycoon?
Now, this could make things interesting...
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Confirmation of European Football - Europa Conference League
City beat West Ham in the FA Cup final to secure our passage into the Europa Conference League, they also won the Champions League which resulted in a £1.5m fee paid to us as a clause in the John Stones deal. We've also been enjoying sporadic payments from Spurs and Newcastle respectively for Richarlison and Anthony Gordon. This money did all seem to be tot up and given I'm an installment merchant on the transfers, we were only given £49m transfer budget. It was a bit disappointing given that I'd arranged sales of two players prior to the budget announcement.
Outgoings - 2023/24
I previously mentioned about my intentions of selling Pickford and despite a massive improvement in the latter half of the season, my mind was already made up. Norwich paying us £25m up-front was a bit of a masterstroke given he'd already told us that he was considering his options at the end of his deal. We managed to squeeze £16m up-front from Fulham for Tarkowski with the rest paid in December which was good business for a player we brought in on a free - I really like him in real life but he is chronically held back by his low professionalism on the game. Maupay and Townsend were the aforementioned pre-arranged deals, I'd resigned the latter to another year extension earlier in the season to maximise what fee we could get for him. Maupay was £11m up-front and £5m in December. Previously I'd talked about rejecting a £10m bid for Gray from Lens and I was left with some regret here given that they only offered us a non-negotiable £6m but as interest was low, I thought it was best to swiftly shift him on. I was also pleased to get money up-front for Dobbin and Virginia who although both progressed while out on loan, still fell short of being in with a chance of making the match-day squad. In an alternate universe, I did consider keeping hold of Virginia as his attributes were coming along quite nicely but he's opted to play second fiddle at Hertha instead.
I was flabbergasted to see Virginia's countryman Gomes actually had any loan interest to which we instantly accepted as Gomes is usually very difficult to move on with his £120k p/w wages. He'll leave on a free in the summer. The other loans are all very much developmental loans with a view to make some money in the future. Onana hadn't really progressed at Brighton which is quite a common theme so we've dropped him down a tier to start every week at Wolves. Ben Godfrey has also joined him but I've cut his name off the image as Wolves aren't paying any of his wages (yikes).
Incomings - 2023/24
It was a busy summer! I had a plan in motion though, just like in the first season where I focused on a mixture of youth and experience, I had the same mantra this summer. The trusty installment payments were also capitalised on in order to actually get all of these players in. Stansfield was an interesting coup, the scouts managed to pick him up just after the first round of intakes and he had quite a nice attribute spread, since his arrival I discovered that as a centre-half, he only has 6 jumping reach. I've started to retrain him to play central-midfield as a result. He has a lot of work to do so chances are he'll be loaned out frequently once he hits 18. Tobiasz will be my keeper for cups and Europe, a very solid acquisition and now has a work-permit. Kilman, Ahmedhodzic and Pavlovic have all come in with good quality already and can actively still improve. I particularly like Kilman and Pavlovic given that they are left-footers. My options at CB are now reliably solid and won't be outdone by through balls over the top constantly like the now retired Dante. Ekdal came in to somewhat fill in that backup/rotational gap left by Dante.
My biggest transfers were Neto, Fornals, Swedberg and Livramento. Neto is amazing on the game given his versatile coming off-of both flanks, while Fornals is a model citizen with the ability to play virtually anywhere in midfield. Swedberg is a personal favourite of mine and will likely be Fornals' long-term successor. Livramento came in as a deadline-day signing, we paid £20m up-front and the rest in installments. I may well have overpaid here as I've seen him go for cheaper in a second season but usually when Southampton have been relegated - it was a toss-up between him and Zabarnyi but Bournemouth priced us out of a move for the Ukrainian. I think with Livramento though we've arguably got ourselves one of the best young RBs in world football and that's a transfer fee you only need to pay once in a bluemoon, think Kyle Walker for Man City, we are set for years with him and Patterson now.
Livakovic came in as our new number 1, found it quite amusing that he was happy to sign with us labelled as a 'cup goalkeeper' too. Cooper and Ruddy both arrived as further backup and to fulfill squad registration rules should we need to call upon them. Le Fee I see as a better alternative to Iwobi long-term while Thorsby essentially arrives as my Gueye replacement as the ball-winning midfielder. Pinyaev and Veloso are ones for the future but I'd imagine the former will play a lot in Europe. Galvez was already pre-arranged given his loan agreement and this was an absolute steal, I actually feel as though he'll be my starting left-back in the third season, all going well. Ait-Nouri was loaned as a bit of a reaction to Wolves taking Godfrey from us, I really like him but potentially with Garcia, Mykolenko and himself, it might be tricky to give him enough game-time. Long-term I'd like to see Galvez and Ait-Nouri as my options.
You may notice that Doucoure, Iwobi and Gueye are still knocking around the club but we will be looking to shift these on - I'm in the process of re-signing Gueye onto a year extension worth half of his current weekly wage while Doucoure already agreed to that in season one. Iwobi's demands are still enormous so he may have to be moved on in January.
Friendlies
Not much to be said about these fixtures, we tried to just bed in our usual starting eleven that will look something like this:
Fixtures - August
A last gasp Fran Garcia free-kick to equalise against Brighton (gave me Leighton Baines nostalgia) and holding onto a draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge following an Ekdal red-card was lovely to see. Joao Pedro was really building on his first season with us by netting three goals across the month.
Fixtures - September
With all transfer business done, we entered the month full of optimism at the Etihad, our optimism paid off as Sutalo and DCL netted headers in what was a game of set piece goals. Despite the latter and Pedro proving to be our penetrating forces in front of goal, we slumped against Spurs as Yves Bissouma netted a brace to end our unbeaten run.
Fixtures - October
Two braces for DCL against Servette and Anderlecht respectively showed how much the injury-prone forward was rekindling his form. Sutalo again proved potent from set-plays with a headed winner against Man Utd in the 90th minute, gone are the days of Fergie time. Though we lost graciously against Newcastle, the way we are responding to losses is much more positive than last season.
Fixtures - November
I must start with the Southampton win - Patterson was sent-off in the 83rd minute but our very own super-sub Pedro snatched victory in the 88th.
The glaring fixture in November was the drubbing at Anfield; I was devastated, the fans were devastated, extremely poor day at the office. Though most of our goals were coming from DCL or Pedro throughout the season, youngster Hayden Towey netted the second against Servette in his substitute appearance. I am however quite sad to see that his personality has dropped from 'perfectionist' to 'fairly determined' after signing his first professional contract. He is young enough to turn that around though.
Fixtures - December
Sensational form throughout the month has led us into 2024 in 2nd place behind the cyborg-led Man City. I really enjoyed how we've become such a defensively solid side this season, the 1-0s are pleasing to see. Livakovic's strength in one-on-ones is really not to be sniffed at, he's stopping so many breakaways where we'd have conceded last season.
Star Man - 17 goals in 14 (17)
He's really stepped up when I've needed him most and hopefully long may this continue. I do need to get him to sign a new deal though or else I may have to cash in on him in the summer.
Outgoings
A very quiet month for us overall for those leaving the club. I was pleased to see McAllister, Cannon and Nagalo go out for some game time. Ronning and Whitaker took early holidays in preparation for their inevitable summer selfie with Wayne Lineker. Wayne must have secured Ronning a work permit while over there though so happy days. Meanwhile, Gbamin's move was the interesting of all; earning £75k p/w, I decided to offer him out, showing a willingness to pay £37.5k p/w until the end of his deal (end of the season) and MK Dons came in for him. Low and behold, he earns £350 p/w at MK Dons and has an injury release clause, genius. So, I managed to get rid of £37.5k off the wage bill and League 1 MK Dons gained a quality played for that level.
Incomings
Curtis and Perea finally arrived after being arranged for a year. Both will become homegrown at the club so I'd imagine both will be pivotal for improving the fortunes of our u21 setup which for a change, I am looking at maximising our success there too. Oliver Arblaster came in to aid that endeavour, nothing to do with his fantastic surname. If anything, he'll be a player we can develop, loan out and sell on for a bit of profit later down the line. Pergelov arrived in a similar vein, we have a wealth of left-backs to choose from and he's very much at the bottom of the pile but he's determined and has room to improve. Paylor was someone the scouts found while out in Scotland, a 15-year old starting doesn't go unnnoticed. Again, very young, raw and will take years to get anywhere near the first-team setup.
The two most exciting signings were Roony and Mudryk, the former has everything in his game to one day becoming a Premier League star although he has had a few injury issues while at Copenhagen. I had every intention of signing him as soon as he turned 18 so I kept just enough money in the transfer budget to complete this after the summer window closed. Mudryk was a deadline day loan and the deal we managed to secure was outrageous, we're only paying £30k p/w of his wages with no monthly fee. Chelsea stipulated a £125m optional purchase fee which we were happy to agree to, with absolutely no intention of activating. Considering I'd been switching McNeil with Pinyaev for the vast majority of the season, Mudryk was a significant upgrade from the left-wing.
Fixtures - January
Liverpool proved yet again just how difficult they are to get anything against at Anfield, we've won at the Etihad, we've won at Old Trafford and we've won at The Emirates but by lord, we do not turn up there. It was pleasing to bounce back swiftly from that defeat and Calvert-Lewin's brace in the return leg was exquisite but we still fell short.
Fixtures - February
February provided us with some pitfalls while on our travels, we have developed a more defensively-solid system to play away from home but it also sometimes struggles to create enough in front of goal. As the team continues to improve, we will tinker with the prospect of implementing our more offensive setup away against teams that on paper we 'should' be able to defeat.
Youth Intake - 2023/24
Alex Barkley
Brother of Ross by any chance?!
Johnson Jimoh
This lad looks as though he's completely ambidextrous, in the same ilk as Ousmane Dembele.
Fixtures - March
I was licking my lips at the Astana draw, arguably the worst side to make the round of 16 and 10 goals scored without conceding was exactly what I envisaged. DCL scored 5 of those across both legs as we cruised to the quarter-finals. We limped to defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool with the fixture congestion getting the better of us. In fairness, I did rotate almost entirely between the fixtures but this may well have created these disjointed performances. We had our chances in both games but couldn't bypass Ramsdale and Kelleher respectively. The absolutely comedy was that was one of only two league appearances for Kelleher.
Fixtures - April
Mudryk opened his account for us against Southampton, putting on a dazzling display at St Mary's. Pavlovic obliged similarly against AZ with his first of the season but then misplaced a pass for AZ's equaliser in Amsterdam. DCL's double ensured AZ's opener at Goodison was fruitless. We rounded out the month with a friendly against PSG due to fair while without a fixture, I wanted to keep my European eleven as match fit as possible. Hakon Arnar Haraldsson royally showed Messi how it was done playing as a number 10.
Fixtures - May
Though Sporting proved to be much tougher opposition to face man-to-man, Joao Pedro proved to be the hungriest on the field across both of the semi-final legs, netting in both. Disappointingly, the Brentford fixture cost us a 2nd place finish as victory in that game would have taken us above Liverpool. Champions elect Man City gave us a good game to say goodbye to Goodison Park as we embark on life at Bramley-Moore Dock for the 2024/25 season.
League Table - 2023/24
Four titles in a row for Man City, Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland (only 45 league goals this time... perhaps he's on the decline?!) are the men to topple on this save as they also won back-to-back Champions League trophies. They've only actually added Grimaldo, Rodrygo, Kimmich and De Paul, it is going to be extremely interesting to see how they recruit over the course of this summer as they are getting a bit out of hand. I was extremely proud of getting a top four finish, although 2nd was within touching distance, a jump from 7th to 3rd is massive progress.
UEFA Europa Conference League Final
Joao Pedro continued to be the man built for big moments...
And there we have it, our first trophy, ending the barren run of 29 years without one. Comfortable throughout as it never seemed to be in doubt that we'd walk away from Bilbao (San Mames stadium) as winners. Capped off by DCL who returned from injury after a month on the sidelines. His untouchable starting berth in Europe may well transition to the Premier League as Falcao's ageing legs are catching up with him. However, that hinges on whether the Sheffield-born forward will commit his future to the club...
UEFA Europa Conference League Player of the Season
What does the future hold?
I don't anticipate that it'll be a massive summer of spending as I am quite content with my squad, however I will be looking at freeing up the wage bill somewhat and recruiting more frugally for younger players. Gueye, Doucoure and Iwobi all may find themselves shifted on to make room for new blood for the Champions League.
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Fixtures - March
I was licking my lips at the Astana draw, arguably the worst side to make the round of 16 and 10 goals scored without conceding was exactly what I envisaged. DCL scored 5 of those across both legs as we cruised to the quarter-finals. We limped to defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool with the fixture congestion getting the better of us. In fairness, I did rotate almost entirely between the fixtures but this may well have created these disjointed performances. We had our chances in both games but couldn't bypass Ramsdale and Kelleher respectively. The absolutely comedy was that was one of only two league appearances for Kelleher.
Fixtures - April
Mudryk opened his account for us against Southampton, putting on a dazzling display at St Mary's. Pavlovic obliged similarly against AZ with his first of the season but then misplaced a pass for AZ's equaliser in Amsterdam. DCL's double ensured AZ's opener at Goodison was fruitless. We rounded out the month with a friendly against PSG due to fair while without a fixture, I wanted to keep my European eleven as match fit as possible. Hakon Arnar Haraldsson royally showed Messi how it was done playing as a number 10.
Fixtures - May
Though Sporting proved to be much tougher opposition to face man-to-man, Joao Pedro proved to be the hungriest on the field across both of the semi-final legs, netting in both. Disappointingly, the Brentford fixture cost us a 2nd place finish as victory in that game would have taken us above Liverpool. Champions elect Man City gave us a good game to say goodbye to Goodison Park as we embark on life at Bramley-Moore Dock for the 2024/25 season.
League Table - 2023/24
Four titles in a row for Man City, Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland (only 45 league goals this time... perhaps he's on the decline?!) are the men to topple on this save as they also won back-to-back Champions League trophies. They've only actually added Grimaldo, Rodrygo, Kimmich and De Paul, it is going to be extremely interesting to see how they recruit over the course of this summer as they are getting a bit out of hand. I was extremely proud of getting a top four finish, although 2nd was within touching distance, a jump from 7th to 3rd is massive progress.
UEFA Europa Conference League Final
Joao Pedro continued to be the man built for big moments...
And there we have it, our first trophy, ending the barren run of 29 years without one. Comfortable throughout as it never seemed to be in doubt that we'd walk away from Bilbao (San Mames stadium) as winners. Capped off by DCL who returned from injury after a month on the sidelines. His untouchable starting berth in Europe may well transition to the Premier League as Falcao's ageing legs are catching up with him. However, that hinges on whether the Sheffield-born forward will commit his future to the club...
UEFA Europa Conference League Player of the Season
What does the future hold?
I don't anticipate that it'll be a massive summer of spending as I am quite content with my squad, however I will be looking at freeing up the wage bill somewhat and recruiting more frugally for younger players. Gueye, Doucoure and Iwobi all may find themselves shifted on to make room for new blood for the Champions League.
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Outgoings
A very quiet month for us overall for those leaving the club. I was pleased to see McAllister, Cannon and Nagalo go out for some game time. Ronning and Whitaker took early holidays in preparation for their inevitable summer selfie with Wayne Lineker. Wayne must have secured Ronning a work permit while over there though so happy days. Meanwhile, Gbamin's move was the interesting of all; earning £75k p/w, I decided to offer him out, showing a willingness to pay £37.5k p/w until the end of his deal (end of the season) and MK Dons came in for him. Low and behold, he earns £350 p/w at MK Dons and has an injury release clause, genius. So, I managed to get rid of £37.5k off the wage bill and League 1 MK Dons gained a quality played for that level.
Incomings
Curtis and Perea finally arrived after being arranged for a year. Both will become homegrown at the club so I'd imagine both will be pivotal for improving the fortunes of our u21 setup which for a change, I am looking at maximising our success there too. Oliver Arblaster came in to aid that endeavour, nothing to do with his fantastic surname. If anything, he'll be a player we can develop, loan out and sell on for a bit of profit later down the line. Pergelov arrived in a similar vein, we have a wealth of left-backs to choose from and he's very much at the bottom of the pile but he's determined and has room to improve. Paylor was someone the scouts found while out in Scotland, a 15-year old starting doesn't go unnnoticed. Again, very young, raw and will take years to get anywhere near the first-team setup.
The two most exciting signings were Roony and Mudryk, the former has everything in his game to one day becoming a Premier League star although he has had a few injury issues while at Copenhagen. I had every intention of signing him as soon as he turned 18 so I kept just enough money in the transfer budget to complete this after the summer window closed. Mudryk was a deadline day loan and the deal we managed to secure was outrageous, we're only paying £30k p/w of his wages with no monthly fee. Chelsea stipulated a £125m optional purchase fee which we were happy to agree to, with absolutely no intention of activating. Considering I'd been switching McNeil with Pinyaev for the vast majority of the season, Mudryk was a significant upgrade from the left-wing.
Fixtures - January
Liverpool proved yet again just how difficult they are to get anything against at Anfield, we've won at the Etihad, we've won at Old Trafford and we've won at The Emirates but by lord, we do not turn up there. It was pleasing to bounce back swiftly from that defeat and Calvert-Lewin's brace in the return leg was exquisite but we still fell short.
Fixtures - February
February provided us with some pitfalls while on our travels, we have developed a more defensively-solid system to play away from home but it also sometimes struggles to create enough in front of goal. As the team continues to improve, we will tinker with the prospect of implementing our more offensive setup away against teams that on paper we 'should' be able to defeat.
Youth Intake - 2023/24
Alex Barkley
Brother of Ross by any chance?!
Johnson Jimoh
This lad looks as though he's completely ambidextrous, in the same ilk as Ousmane Dembele.
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Fixtures - November
I must start with the Southampton win - Patterson was sent-off in the 83rd minute but our very own super-sub Pedro snatched victory in the 88th.
The glaring fixture in November was the drubbing at Anfield; I was devastated, the fans were devastated, extremely poor day at the office. Though most of our goals were coming from DCL or Pedro throughout the season, youngster Hayden Towey netted the second against Servette in his substitute appearance. I am however quite sad to see that his personality has dropped from 'perfectionist' to 'fairly determined' after signing his first professional contract. He is young enough to turn that around though.
Fixtures - December
Sensational form throughout the month has led us into 2024 in 2nd place behind the cyborg-led Man City. I really enjoyed how we've become such a defensively solid side this season, the 1-0s are pleasing to see. Livakovic's strength in one-on-ones is really not to be sniffed at, he's stopping so many breakaways where we'd have conceded last season.
Star Man - 17 goals in 14 (17)
He's really stepped up when I've needed him most and hopefully long may this continue. I do need to get him to sign a new deal though or else I may have to cash in on him in the summer.
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Friendlies
Not much to be said about these fixtures, we tried to just bed in our usual starting eleven that will look something like this:
Fixtures - August
A last gasp Fran Garcia free-kick to equalise against Brighton (gave me Leighton Baines nostalgia) and holding onto a draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge following an Ekdal red-card was lovely to see. Joao Pedro was really building on his first season with us by netting three goals across the month.
Fixtures - September
With all transfer business done, we entered the month full of optimism at the Etihad, our optimism paid off as Sutalo and DCL netted headers in what was a game of set piece goals. Despite the latter and Pedro proving to be our penetrating forces in front of goal, we slumped against Spurs as Yves Bissouma netted a brace to end our unbeaten run.
Fixtures - October
Two braces for DCL against Servette and Anderlecht respectively showed how much the injury-prone forward was rekindling his form. Sutalo again proved potent from set-plays with a headed winner against Man Utd in the 90th minute, gone are the days of Fergie time. Though we lost graciously against Newcastle, the way we are responding to losses is much more positive than last season.
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Confirmation of European Football - Europa Conference League
City beat West Ham in the FA Cup final to secure our passage into the Europa Conference League, they also won the Champions League which resulted in a £1.5m fee paid to us as a clause in the John Stones deal. We've also been enjoying sporadic payments from Spurs and Newcastle respectively for Richarlison and Anthony Gordon. This money did all seem to be tot up and given I'm an installment merchant on the transfers, we were only given £49m transfer budget. It was a bit disappointing given that I'd arranged sales of two players prior to the budget announcement.
Outgoings - 2023/24
I previously mentioned about my intentions of selling Pickford and despite a massive improvement in the latter half of the season, my mind was already made up. Norwich paying us £25m up-front was a bit of a masterstroke given he'd already told us that he was considering his options at the end of his deal. We managed to squeeze £16m up-front from Fulham for Tarkowski with the rest paid in December which was good business for a player we brought in on a free - I really like him in real life but he is chronically held back by his low professionalism on the game. Maupay and Townsend were the aforementioned pre-arranged deals, I'd resigned the latter to another year extension earlier in the season to maximise what fee we could get for him. Maupay was £11m up-front and £5m in December. Previously I'd talked about rejecting a £10m bid for Gray from Lens and I was left with some regret here given that they only offered us a non-negotiable £6m but as interest was low, I thought it was best to swiftly shift him on. I was also pleased to get money up-front for Dobbin and Virginia who although both progressed while out on loan, still fell short of being in with a chance of making the match-day squad. In an alternate universe, I did consider keeping hold of Virginia as his attributes were coming along quite nicely but he's opted to play second fiddle at Hertha instead.
I was flabbergasted to see Virginia's countryman Gomes actually had any loan interest to which we instantly accepted as Gomes is usually very difficult to move on with his £120k p/w wages. He'll leave on a free in the summer. The other loans are all very much developmental loans with a view to make some money in the future. Onana hadn't really progressed at Brighton which is quite a common theme so we've dropped him down a tier to start every week at Wolves. Ben Godfrey has also joined him but I've cut his name off the image as Wolves aren't paying any of his wages (yikes).
Incomings - 2023/24
It was a busy summer! I had a plan in motion though, just like in the first season where I focused on a mixture of youth and experience, I had the same mantra this summer. The trusty installment payments were also capitalised on in order to actually get all of these players in. Stansfield was an interesting coup, the scouts managed to pick him up just after the first round of intakes and he had quite a nice attribute spread, since his arrival I discovered that as a centre-half, he only has 6 jumping reach. I've started to retrain him to play central-midfield as a result. He has a lot of work to do so chances are he'll be loaned out frequently once he hits 18. Tobiasz will be my keeper for cups and Europe, a very solid acquisition and now has a work-permit. Kilman, Ahmedhodzic and Pavlovic have all come in with good quality already and can actively still improve. I particularly like Kilman and Pavlovic given that they are left-footers. My options at CB are now reliably solid and won't be outdone by through balls over the top constantly like the now retired Dante. Ekdal came in to somewhat fill in that backup/rotational gap left by Dante.
My biggest transfers were Neto, Fornals, Swedberg and Livramento. Neto is amazing on the game given his versatile coming off-of both flanks, while Fornals is a model citizen with the ability to play virtually anywhere in midfield. Swedberg is a personal favourite of mine and will likely be Fornals' long-term successor. Livramento came in as a deadline-day signing, we paid £20m up-front and the rest in installments. I may well have overpaid here as I've seen him go for cheaper in a second season but usually when Southampton have been relegated - it was a toss-up between him and Zabarnyi but Bournemouth priced us out of a move for the Ukrainian. I think with Livramento though we've arguably got ourselves one of the best young RBs in world football and that's a transfer fee you only need to pay once in a bluemoon, think Kyle Walker for Man City, we are set for years with him and Patterson now.
Livakovic came in as our new number 1, found it quite amusing that he was happy to sign with us labelled as a 'cup goalkeeper' too. Cooper and Ruddy both arrived as further backup and to fulfill squad registration rules should we need to call upon them. Le Fee I see as a better alternative to Iwobi long-term while Thorsby essentially arrives as my Gueye replacement as the ball-winning midfielder. Pinyaev and Veloso are ones for the future but I'd imagine the former will play a lot in Europe. Galvez was already pre-arranged given his loan agreement and this was an absolute steal, I actually feel as though he'll be my starting left-back in the third season, all going well. Ait-Nouri was loaned as a bit of a reaction to Wolves taking Godfrey from us, I really like him but potentially with Garcia, Mykolenko and himself, it might be tricky to give him enough game-time. Long-term I'd like to see Galvez and Ait-Nouri as my options.
You may notice that Doucoure, Iwobi and Gueye are still knocking around the club but we will be looking to shift these on - I'm in the process of re-signing Gueye onto a year extension worth half of his current weekly wage while Doucoure already agreed to that in season one. Iwobi's demands are still enormous so he may have to be moved on in January.
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Everton
Years of mediocrity, years of financial mismanagement, years of despair. Trophyless since 1995, turbulent ever since. Time for change.
I entered the job on June 27th with every intention of freshening up a decaying squad - wages are staggering, genuine quality is sparing, the collective is stinking. So, out went the following:
Outgoings
Holgate is relatively versatile but had high wages (that unfathomably increased annually). Coleman is a club icon but being a high earner sealed his fate alongside low natural fitness. Brighton opted to sign Davies after we recruited one of their transfer targets and Onana joined Davies out on loan to Brighton, Onana's low professionalism is difficult to cope with over the course of an FM season so I was looking for this loan experience to have a positive impact on his personality. We received around £17m up-front for all of the transfers, which added to our already healthy £31m transfer budget.
Incomings
Zakharyan came in as a personal favourite of mine with bags of potential. Haraldsson is a versatile option with a good personality, likely to be deployed across most of the attacking areas. Dante and Radamel Falcao arrived as mentors are purely as that, the latter can do a job up-front but Dante is a bit too slow to be starting regularly in the Premier League. Fran Garcia is a really solid option and draws parallels to the previously depart Lucas Digne so romantically I brought him. Nagalo directly replaces Holgate, filling in at centre-back and right-back. Alex Scott was Brighton's aforementioned target but he opted for a 6-year-stay in the blue half of Merseyside, unfortunately with a £100m release clause in his deal. Sivert Mannsverk, like Scott is very well-rounded and is a powerhouse in midfield, I see him as rotation option with Onana in the future. Baturina comes in as a creative spark in the midfield to succeed Iwobi in the long-term.
Galvez is a player I've always liked but never actually developed very well so I'm looking to sign him permanently at the end of his loan spell. Robson-Kanu offers backup in wide areas whilst also possessing the 'curls ball' trait which I like spreading around my players for some additional flair. Corchia replaced Coleman on significantly less wages, while Carrico is also a pleasant mentor. Ronning was purchased with every intention of him coming back and being a starter once he has a work-permit but this may well be a couple of years away yet, sadly. I toyed with the idea of acquiring Alejandro Frances as another coverage option in defence but went for the left-footed Harvey Araujo instead as he'll later become a 'trained at club' acquisition. Josip Sutalo (not to be confused with Bosko) seems a popular option this year, I've yet to use him so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about - also better than every other defender at the club. Joao Pedro arrived as the actual Richarlison replacement which has yet to come in real life. We essentially tapped him up all summer until he handed in a transfer request on the final day of the season, not my finest hour but we got our man for a mere £5m up-front. He'sssssssss Brazilian.
Friendlies
We started really, really poorly. I would be doing a disservice to Crewe if I didn't state that they played us off the park, we were abysmal. I made some tactical tweaks from that game onwards and it seemed to pay dividends. I gave some younger players game-time here and out of the lot Stan Mills shined. He's really not good enough to be a Premier League starter but given Anthony Gordon's departure, I'll be using him as a squad player over the course of the season. I'm hoping for some 'easier' cup ties to accelerate his development, perhaps - all going well, at least.
Fixtures - August
Welcome to the Premier League, Erling Haaland.
In all seriousness, we were dreadful in the opening two fixtures but resurged following a spell of me booting up 'morale manager' and criticising training and performances across the squad. Sutalo seemed to sure up the defence after a woeful debut performance against Spurs, despite not performing spectacularly himself. Controversial as an Evertonian perhaps but I'm really not mad about Pickford so I will be looking to get Dominik Livakovic at some point to replace him when my dwindled transfer and wage budget allows.
Fixtures - September
We showed a lot of character to peg Leeds back twice as they were flying high in the league but Pickford had to shoulder a lot of blame in the Merseyside derby, some turgid goalkeeping was displayed. At one point in the first-half Liverpool had 4 shots on target and 4 goals. I did think to myself: no side in their right mind would be watching this wanting to take him from us. He did improve against West Ham though, largely the loss was down to my gung-ho mentality in the last few minutes of the game where we ended up conceding twice from set-plays. The side are bereft of goals currently but some solace can be found in the shape of Dominic Calvert-Lewin's imminent return to fitness.
Fixtures - October
A month of actual good performances and consistency? Well, I never. Falcao and Haraldsson came up trumps for us this month, with the latter becoming a model citizen under the tutelage of the former. The young Icelandic midfielder has been deployed as a shadow striker and his man of the match performance against Brighton was a particular highlight, running in behind opposition defenders at will, breaking away at pace and powering home the second goal. I promised Pep Guardiola that I'd play Tomas Galvez regularly, understandably with Mykolenko and Garcia, I hadn't. He started against Wolves and duly repaid my boldness with a swift sending-off on the 12th minute, giving away a penalty in the process. What a boy.
Fixtures - November
I was quite disappointed to see us stall against strugglers Leicester but there was some consolation in the following fixture as Alex Scott put smiles on the faces of home supporters with the winning penalty. The summer purchase from Bristol City has largely been used as a substitute and hadn't quite impressed as I hoped up until this point. Alex Iwobi came back to bite Arsenal with a double but a 3-1 lead was pegged back as veterans Xhaka and Jorginho refused to go down without a fight.
World Cup
An unused Harry Kane, Tammy Abraham bagging a hat-trick and Ecuador making the final, bizarre.
Future arrival
Looking forward to Kacper Tobiasz's arrival next summer, a mere £1.5m outlay rising to £3.5m in installments and a few international bonuses. He's yet to secure a work-permit but I'm confident that it won't take him long to get himself in a position so that he can join up with us. I am hoping to play Pickford as much as possible to get a high fee in the summer but if there is some interest in January, I would replace him with Livakovic in a heartbeat.
Similarly, I am looking to offload Yerry Mina and Demarai Gray in January. Gray has excelled from the right-hand side but I would like an upgrade in that area.
Fixtures - December
Already lost countless hours of sleep over the Friendly Cup Final defeat, while Jordan Pickford was off picking up a World Cup, Andy Lonergan became well versed in how to pick the ball out of his own net. Calvert-Lewin found his fitness against Sunderland with a hat-trick and opened the scoring against Crystal Palace, alas his goalscoring exploits were bettered by Wilfried Zaha who cupped his ears towards the Toffees faithful as the wantaway star secured the 3 points for the Eagles. We responded with great aplomb against Man Utd who were frivolous against our set-piece masterclass. Dwight McNeil had a field day against his former club while Joao Pedro finally made an impact from the bench, scoring twice.
Outgoings
Although Mina came back into the side with some half-decent performances, his inflated wages left a lot to be desired for our club coffers so we decided to let him go to Wolves.
Incomings
I don't think many managers can say they've signed a 55-year-old: I am one of them. I'd chased Sanderson earlier in the season as a work in progress forward, likely to spearhead the u21s for a few years before heading out on loan. Monsalve had been shortlisted as a first window target but the scouts suggested he'd be unable to get a work-permit so I allowed him to stew until January where he arrived for a small fee relative to his potential. Deadline day arrived and the FM romantic in me activated once more, David Brooks was available for £4m up-front with the rest paid on installments so I couldn't turn the Welshman down.
We also arranged the future transfers of Oscar Perea from Atletico Nacional and Sam Curtis from St Patrick's Athletic. The pair will arrive in the following January due to u-18 restrictions and cost a combined £370k up-front. Both are raw in their development but have a lot of room to improve.
Fixtures - January
I'll gloss over the losses swiftly as we didn't deserve anything from any of those games, we are finding it tough away from home. Joao Pedro was at the double again against Forest Green and Demarai Gray put on a clinic against West Ham. Gray did attract some interest from clubs in the January window but nobody was willing to part with the fee I wanted, Lens mustered up £10m but his Premier League form (7.00 across the season) warranted a higher fee than that.
I began to trial a more balanced, defensively solid tactic against the bigger sides and although it proved to be effective against Man Utd in January, we were found out against Liverpool and Chelsea. However, the necessity to rotate the lineups did have an impact on consistency and when we were restored to full-strength against Arsenal, we scraped through into the FA Cup Fifth Round.
Fixtures - February
Well, the Carabao Cup wasn't on the agenda as Chelsea's free-spending reigned supreme over the course of the two-legs. I was happy for Radamel Falcao who equalised on 90+3 against his former club. Brooks debuted against his former club and helped us to a 3-1 victory. He continued by helping himself to the opener against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. We then exacted revenge against Brentford who couldn't handle the wing-play of McNeil and Gray. I then decided to recoup millions in wages by fining the majority of starters after the away fixture against Tottenham, an utterly toothless display.
Youth Intake - 2022/23
For a first intake, this could be the best I've ever had.
He may be fickle but I think I've potentially got a world-beater in the making here with Preda. I've yet to actually develop a word-class player from the entirety of my intakes but I genuinely believe he's already got the base attributes to fulfill that for me. Towey and Heald both look handy too. As I played a 4-2-3-1, I have every intention of retraining Heald to play from the left (AMR/ST currently) so potentially the trio form a front-three in the future (Towey is a striker).
Fixtures - March
I genuinely believe I'd pulled off some sorcery against Liverpool in the cup despite being quite anxious at the prospect of drawing them. Don't get me wrong, we had our chances in the game and Calvert-Lewin missed a guilt-edged chance to secure victory in normal time, his misery was further compounded by missing our first penalty but former Liverpool academy man Conor Coady scored the winning penalty to send us into the Quarter Finals. Brave displays against Man City and then United did follow but Haaland is difficult to keep quiet for 90 minutes and added to his absurd league tally in 90+4. Fred broke our hearts at Old Trafford in similar fashion, netting a 90th minute winner. Two goals in two minutes from West Ham was enough to prolong our trophy drought even further as they also dispatched of Man Utd in the semis. A tough month.
Fixtures - April
Lots to shout about here, I'd settled on the previously mentioned 'defensively solid' setup in most of these games and it set up a nice balance between offensive prowess and defensive muscle. The pairing of Sutalo and Tarkowski at the back was seriously solid despite neither performing greatly in match ratings. I enjoyed the win at St James' the most given that Anthony Gordon opened the scoring, to which I shouted a lot of expletives and we showed a lot of great character to get back into the game and then sure up when protecting our own goal. DCL's five goals across the month helped tenfold.
Fixtures - May
Beating Southampton and then Villa got me a little giddy, I won't lie. I don't believe my optimism was necessarily misplaced however as we hadn't lost since early March but Leeds managed to pull-off a shock at Goodison after Falcao's early opener. I then played a young, entirely rotated side against Fulham on the last day as we couldn't improve on our league position whatsoever - had we even won our last two we'd have finished behind the side above us. I did dish out a first and only Premier League appearance to Kazuyoshi Miura who made history against Fulham. At the age of 56, he becomes not only the oldest debutant in the league but also the oldest player, surpassing Stanley Matthews' previous record by 6 years.
League Table
A season that surpassed expectation. We passed our 'become the best of the rest' board goal by three years and chalked up a very respectable points tally in what is an extremely competitive league. We still await our continental fate as West Ham play Man City in the FA Cup final.
Wolves, Leicester and Nottm Forest going down offers me some temptation to raid their squads. I can see myself going for Max Kilman, Pedro Neto and maybe even Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves. While Victor Kristiansen offers an alternative option at LB from Leicester and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall appeals as a long term replacement for Doucoure. Brennan Johnson is also attracting a lot of suitors. We shall see what happens, I am looking at overhauling a lot of the squad though.
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Cyborg doing cyborg things
I'm actually speechless at how truly ridiculous this is, I have never even come close to having a player break Dixie Dean's 60 league goal record before and yet Haaland almost managed it in the first season.
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Fixtures - March
I genuinely believe I'd pulled off some sorcery against Liverpool in the cup despite being quite anxious at the prospect of drawing them. Don't get me wrong, we had our chances in the game and Calvert-Lewin missed a guilt-edged chance to secure victory in normal time, his misery was further compounded by missing our first penalty but former Liverpool academy man Conor Coady scored the winning penalty to send us into the Quarter Finals. Brave displays against Man City and then United did follow but Haaland is difficult to keep quiet for 90 minutes and added to his absurd league tally in 90+4. Fred broke our hearts at Old Trafford in similar fashion, netting a 90th minute winner. Two goals in two minutes from West Ham was enough to prolong our trophy drought even further as they also dispatched of Man Utd in the semis. A tough month.
Fixtures - April
Lots to shout about here, I'd settled on the previously mentioned 'defensively solid' setup in most of these games and it set up a nice balance between offensive prowess and defensive muscle. The pairing of Sutalo and Tarkowski at the back was seriously solid despite neither performing greatly in match ratings. I enjoyed the win at St James' the most given that Anthony Gordon opened the scoring, to which I shouted a lot of expletives and we showed a lot of great character to get back into the game and then sure up when protecting our own goal. DCL's five goals across the month helped tenfold.
Fixtures - May
Beating Southampton and then Villa got me a little giddy, I won't lie. I don't believe my optimism was necessarily misplaced however as we hadn't lost since early March but Leeds managed to pull-off a shock at Goodison after Falcao's early opener. I then played a young, entirely rotated side against Fulham on the last day as we couldn't improve on our league position whatsoever - had we even won our last two we'd have finished behind the side above us. I did dish out a first and only Premier League appearance to Kazuyoshi Miura who made history against Fulham. At the age of 56, he becomes not only the oldest debutant in the league but also the oldest player, surpassing Stanley Matthews' previous record by 6 years.
League Table
A season that surpassed expectation. We passed our 'become the best of the rest' board goal by three years and chalked up a very respectable points tally in what is an extremely competitive league. We still await our continental fate as West Ham play Man City in the FA Cup final.
Wolves, Leicester and Nottm Forest going down offers me some temptation to raid their squads. I can see myself going for Max Kilman, Pedro Neto and maybe even Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves. While Victor Kristiansen offers an alternative option at LB from Leicester and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall appeals as a long term replacement for Doucoure. Brennan Johnson is also attracting a lot of suitors. We shall see what happens, I am looking at overhauling a lot of the squad though.
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Fixtures - December
Already lost countless hours of sleep over the Friendly Cup Final defeat, while Jordan Pickford was off picking up a World Cup, Andy Lonergan became well versed in how to pick the ball out of his own net. Calvert-Lewin found his fitness against Sunderland with a hat-trick and opened the scoring against Crystal Palace, alas his goalscoring exploits were bettered by Wilfried Zaha who cupped his ears towards the Toffees faithful as the wantaway star secured the 3 points for the Eagles. We responded with great aplomb against Man Utd who were frivolous against our set-piece masterclass. Dwight McNeil had a field day against his former club while Joao Pedro finally made an impact from the bench, scoring twice.
Outgoings
Although Mina came back into the side with some half-decent performances, his inflated wages left a lot to be desired for our club coffers so we decided to let him go to Wolves.
Incomings
I don't think many managers can say they've signed a 55-year-old: I am one of them. I'd chased Sanderson earlier in the season as a work in progress forward, likely to spearhead the u21s for a few years before heading out on loan. Monsalve had been shortlisted as a first window target but the scouts suggested he'd be unable to get a work-permit so I allowed him to stew until January where he arrived for a small fee relative to his potential. Deadline day arrived and the FM romantic in me activated once more, David Brooks was available for £4m up-front with the rest paid on installments so I couldn't turn the Welshman down.
We also arranged the future transfers of Oscar Perea from Atletico Nacional and Sam Curtis from St Patrick's Athletic. The pair will arrive in the following January due to u-18 restrictions and cost a combined £370k up-front. Both are raw in their development but have a lot of room to improve.
Fixtures - January
I'll gloss over the losses swiftly as we didn't deserve anything from any of those games, we are finding it tough away from home. Joao Pedro was at the double again against Forest Green and Demarai Gray put on a clinic against West Ham. Gray did attract some interest from clubs in the January window but nobody was willing to part with the fee I wanted, Lens mustered up £10m but his Premier League form (7.00 across the season) warranted a higher fee than that.
I began to trial a more balanced, defensively solid tactic against the bigger sides and although it proved to be effective against Man Utd in January, we were found out against Liverpool and Chelsea. However, the necessity to rotate the lineups did have an impact on consistency and when we were restored to full-strength against Arsenal, we scraped through into the FA Cup Fifth Round.
Fixtures - February
Well, the Carabao Cup wasn't on the agenda as Chelsea's free-spending reigned supreme over the course of the two-legs. I was happy for Radamel Falcao who equalised on 90+3 against his former club. Brooks debuted against his former club and helped us to a 3-1 victory. He continued by helping himself to the opener against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. We then exacted revenge against Brentford who couldn't handle the wing-play of McNeil and Gray. I then decided to recoup millions in wages by fining the majority of starters after the away fixture against Tottenham, an utterly toothless display.
Youth Intake - 2022/23
For a first intake, this could be the best I've ever had.
He may be fickle but I think I've potentially got a world-beater in the making here with Preda. I've yet to actually develop a word-class player from the entirety of my intakes but I genuinely believe he's already got the base attributes to fulfill that for me. Towey and Heald both look handy too. As I played a 4-2-3-1, I have every intention of retraining Heald to play from the left (AMR/ST currently) so potentially the trio form a front-three in the future (Towey is a striker).
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Fixtures - October
A month of actual good performances and consistency? Well, I never. Falcao and Haraldsson came up trumps for us this month, with the latter becoming a model citizen under the tutelage of the former. The young Icelandic midfielder has been deployed as a shadow striker and his man of the match performance against Brighton was a particular highlight, running in behind opposition defenders at will, breaking away at pace and powering home the second goal. I promised Pep Guardiola that I'd play Tomas Galvez regularly, understandably with Mykolenko and Garcia, I hadn't. He started against Wolves and duly repaid my boldness with a swift sending-off on the 12th minute, giving away a penalty in the process. What a boy.
Fixtures - November
I was quite disappointed to see us stall against strugglers Leicester but there was some consolation in the following fixture as Alex Scott put smiles on the faces of home supporters with the winning penalty. The summer purchase from Bristol City has largely been used as a substitute and hadn't quite impressed as I hoped up until this point. Alex Iwobi came back to bite Arsenal with a double but a 3-1 lead was pegged back as veterans Xhaka and Jorginho refused to go down without a fight.
World Cup
An unused Harry Kane, Tammy Abraham bagging a hat-trick and Ecuador making the final, bizarre.
Future arrival
Looking forward to Kacper Tobiasz's arrival next summer, a mere £1.5m outlay rising to £3.5m in installments and a few international bonuses. He's yet to secure a work-permit but I'm confident that it won't take him long to get himself in a position so that he can join up with us. I am hoping to play Pickford as much as possible to get a high fee in the summer but if there is some interest in January, I would replace him with Livakovic in a heartbeat.
Similarly, I am looking to offload Yerry Mina and Demarai Gray in January. Gray has excelled from the right-hand side but I would like an upgrade in that area.
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Everton
Years of mediocrity, years of financial mismanagement, years of despair. Trophyless since 1995, turbulent ever since. Time for change.
I entered the job on June 27th with every intention of freshening up a decaying squad - wages are staggering, genuine quality is sparing, the collective is stinking. So, out went the following:
Outgoings
Holgate is relatively versatile but had high wages (that unfathomably increased annually). Coleman is a club icon but being a high earner sealed his fate alongside low natural fitness. Brighton opted to sign Davies after we recruited one of their transfer targets and Onana joined Davies out on loan to Brighton, Onana's low professionalism is difficult to cope with over the course of an FM season so I was looking for this loan experience to have a positive impact on his personality. We received around £17m up-front for all of the transfers, which added to our already healthy £31m transfer budget.
Incomings
Zakharyan came in as a personal favourite of mine with bags of potential. Haraldsson is a versatile option with a good personality, likely to be deployed across most of the attacking areas. Dante and Radamel Falcao arrived as mentors are purely as that, the latter can do a job up-front but Dante is a bit too slow to be starting regularly in the Premier League. Fran Garcia is a really solid option and draws parallels to the previously depart Lucas Digne so romantically I brought him. Nagalo directly replaces Holgate, filling in at centre-back and right-back. Alex Scott was Brighton's aforementioned target but he opted for a 6-year-stay in the blue half of Merseyside, unfortunately with a £100m release clause in his deal. Sivert Mannsverk, like Scott is very well-rounded and is a powerhouse in midfield, I see him as rotation option with Onana in the future. Baturina comes in as a creative spark in the midfield to succeed Iwobi in the long-term.
Galvez is a player I've always liked but never actually developed very well so I'm looking to sign him permanently at the end of his loan spell. Robson-Kanu offers backup in wide areas whilst also possessing the 'curls ball' trait which I like spreading around my players for some additional flair. Corchia replaced Coleman on significantly less wages, while Carrico is also a pleasant mentor. Ronning was purchased with every intention of him coming back and being a starter once he has a work-permit but this may well be a couple of years away yet, sadly. I toyed with the idea of acquiring Alejandro Frances as another coverage option in defence but went for the left-footed Harvey Araujo instead as he'll later become a 'trained at club' acquisition. Josip Sutalo (not to be confused with Bosko) seems a popular option this year, I've yet to use him so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about - also better than every other defender at the club. Joao Pedro arrived as the actual Richarlison replacement which has yet to come in real life. We essentially tapped him up all summer until he handed in a transfer request on the final day of the season, not my finest hour but we got our man for a mere £5m up-front. He'sssssssss Brazilian.
Friendlies
We started really, really poorly. I would be doing a disservice to Crewe if I didn't state that they played us off the park, we were abysmal. I made some tactical tweaks from that game onwards and it seemed to pay dividends. I gave some younger players game-time here and out of the lot Stan Mills shined. He's really not good enough to be a Premier League starter but given Anthony Gordon's departure, I'll be using him as a squad player over the course of the season. I'm hoping for some 'easier' cup ties to accelerate his development, perhaps - all going well, at least.
Fixtures - August
Welcome to the Premier League, Erling Haaland.
In all seriousness, we were dreadful in the opening two fixtures but resurged following a spell of me booting up 'morale manager' and criticising training and performances across the squad. Sutalo seemed to sure up the defence after a woeful debut performance against Spurs, despite not performing spectacularly himself. Controversial as an Evertonian perhaps but I'm really not mad about Pickford so I will be looking to get Dominik Livakovic at some point to replace him when my dwindled transfer and wage budget allows.
Fixtures - September
We showed a lot of character to peg Leeds back twice as they were flying high in the league but Pickford had to shoulder a lot of blame in the Merseyside derby, some turgid goalkeeping was displayed. At one point in the first-half Liverpool had 4 shots on target and 4 goals. I did think to myself: no side in their right mind would be watching this wanting to take him from us. He did improve against West Ham though, largely the loss was down to my gung-ho mentality in the last few minutes of the game where we ended up conceding twice from set-plays. The side are bereft of goals currently but some solace can be found in the shape of Dominic Calvert-Lewin's imminent return to fitness.
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1 minute ago, lukegraham1991 said:
At the moment I have a load of good options at RB unfortunately, I'm still loaning out two quality RB's at the moment too!
How are you doing in your save?
I'm about to start a new save with the latest update, just planning out who I want to sign in season 1. On my save from the last update I'd had one or two top four finishes and a Carabao Cup win in five years, so I wasn't doing too badly. My eleven was really good though:
GK: Hedl
RB: Livramento/Patterson
LB: Mykolenko/Garcia
CB: Zabarnyi/Ahmedhodzic
CB: Pavlovic/Daniliuc
CM: Berge/Seiwald/Haraldasson
CM: Swedberg/Wanner/Zakharyan
AMR: Brooks/Bardghji
AML: McNeil/Neto
ST: Sesko/Beljo
ST: Broja/Weiper
I just ended up having a Chelsea-esque squad that was bloated though which took away some of the enjoyment as it was becoming difficult to keep all of the squad happy and tight-knit.
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Great to see Coventry join you, I really thought you were building something positive with them but I can understand why an £83m kitty would be alluring. What is the budget looking like for next season?
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I always find it fascinating how others manage Everton, given I do a save with them every year. Livramento might be worth looking at too given that I saw that it said Southampton were relegated when signing Lavia.
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23 hours ago, BoobyBlah said:
Not sure if he was updated but I had never seen him before - Kacper Tobiasz.
Looks a brilliant young keeper and cost me just under 4m second season.
He had high potential prior to the update (could roll at a high level Premier League standard), I think he is unchanged! A goalkeeper who has had a bump in potential is Noah Atubolu who looks quite promising from Freiburg.
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On 13/03/2023 at 21:44, causticgrip said:
Everton Season 3
Retained the league convincingly, with my best ever defensive tactic that got a lot of players performing great. I did put all my eggs in that league basket though, rotated for other comps and flopped hah.
I suppose the goal now is to achieve something in Europe. Most of the squad still has potential to grow and I can't foresee changing too much. I mean for this season just gone, the only change in the first 11 was Hickey coming in.
How on earth do you only concede 9 in an entire season?! Teach me the ways!
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Started a new save from the update, managed to recruit this guy via my youth intake in the first season (applied a picture for him).
Given that I am of Austrian heritage, I am very excited about this guy!
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1 hour ago, ThomasHK1979 said:
Does anyone know if Rasmus Højlunds PA an CA have been upgraded in the Winter Update? IRL He is one of the biggest forward wonderkids out there.
As far as I know his CA has increased but his PA is still the same - he is in the 140-170 range, varying from save to save. His CA is quite close to the low-end of that range so it does show he is highly thought of in world football.
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On 24/02/2023 at 19:27, ShaunG95 said:
Not a full update but...
This guy is saucy for a first year intake player from League Two! Makes it even sweeter that he's from an obscure nation.
This guy is going from strength to strength! He doesn't perform incredibly well as of yet but averaged a 6.8 over the course of his first senior season as a player in League 1. We are in the Championship now and he is tied down until 2033 due to additional optional extensions...
We won League 2 comfortably (Glen Taylor carried hard with his aerial ability) and then made some shrewd business with free transfers to prepare us for League 1: Conor Masterson, Paul Kalambayi, Luke Matheson, Paul Glatzel, Yannik Luhrs, George Williams, Daniel Batty and Jonathan Leko. We also formed a partnership with Man City who gave us Tomas Galvez, Oscar Bobb and Mikki van Sas on loan without any wage contributions from us. The board were relatively generous with the transfer money they awarded to us based on some okay cup runs the season prior - we signed Jovan Milosevic (£250k up-front, £450k over 3 years and £300k after 50 league appearances) as a long-term successor to the ever-present Glen Taylor. Taylor has since departed for pastures new as I felt his wage demands were a bit astronomical given his limited qualities for a Championship season.
Himself and Hector-Ingram proved to be absolute heroes and the pair shot us up to the Championship in some style.
Quite frankly we run amok on the competition, Leko and Glatzel alternating on the wings with those two firing up-top was lethal.
Not a bad valuation for a free transfer at the start of the current database. He'll either lead us to the Premier League eventually or move on for a big fee - his trajectory is giving me Ivan Toney vibes currently.
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Peter Thomas never really developed on my save, ended up releasing him at the end of the first season. Thank you for the heads up on Hector-Ingram, I signed him on my save and he was brilliant. I recommend Glen Taylor from Spennymoor, that guy was unreal for me in League Two.
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[FM23] Misery needn't be everlasting
in FM Career Updates
Posted · Edited by ShaunG95
Outgoings - 2024/25
Lots of development loans here for some new signings as well as shifting on high earners. Anthony Rouault was signed well in advance but was declined a work-permit, Norwich came in to loan him and he magically got one... Completely baffled me but he's a player I'm looking to integrate once he returns. As anticipated; Gueye, Iwobi, Gomes and Doucoure departed, Doucoure is out of contract so is very much not my problem anymore after agreeing to a loan at Sunderland. Reece Welch was a great sale considering he'd never be a starter and technically he is still very deficient in his game. Brentford giving us over £16m for both him and Dobbin over two seasons has been daylight robbery given they'll probably never be starters there either.
Incomings - 2024/25
The first four signings were made as reserve squad players, rationale behind this was the fact our quality in that side was pretty poor after releasing a few players in the same summer. Irvine came in as a promising left-back, plucked from AFC Wimbledon who got a healthy sum for him. Asllani and Tahirovic add depth into our midfield with Asllani likely to contend for a midfield berth after Enzo Lo-Fee's disappointing debut campaign with us - which resulted in him being turfed to Crystal Palace on loan. Zefi and Bica again come in to bulk out the reserve side with Gray and Smith coming in as mentors for reserve team player. Brennan Johnson arrived after Nottm Forest didn't get back in the Premier League, he arrives as a signing similar to that of Dwight McNeil and I'm quite excited by his versatility in forward positions.
Kacurri, Breckin, Soule, Hal Hal, Trilli and Perez all came in as players I am looking to develop with loans and sell on for profit. It seems to be a viable way to get some of these debts repaid that the club has accumulated (not to mention my installment purchases). Sali, Overhof, Vazquez and Popov have good potential according to my scouts. I've had Sali on a previous save and he can become an excellent player so I'm quite excited by this quartet. Ben Yedder was brought in to almost replace Falcao over the next couple of years. Gray, Zabarnyi, Slonina and Amey ate into a lot of my transfer budget for this season and the following seasons to come but I was pleased to sign these as Slonina will be our keeper for the next decade at least while Zabarnyi is a very consistent performer whose progress has been stunted at Bournemouth, so I'm hoping to reinvigorate him. Gray will likely be pairing with Scott for ourselves and England for years to come. Meanwhile, Amey arrived just after his 19th birthday but he will become trained at our club which is what I intended with his signing. Bischof was also someone we'd been looking at for a while but we couldn't afford the £19m release clause so decided to loan him in with the intention of him honing a few areas in his game that he's lacking by using our training facilities and playing for the reserve squad.