ShaunG95

That's a massive shame and also the very reason I tend to struggle getting into a proper lower league save.

League One Table - 2021/22 We found ourselves in 7th in mid-February and at which point it wasn't looking good for an automatic promotion, however, this run of form then happened... Ipswich led throughout most of the season yet somehow bottled top spot. We ended up losing on the final day to Wimbledon and I was content with a 2nd place finish but The Tractor Boys also lost at home to Charlton which meant that Wigan leapfrogged them on the final day. Justice was served when they won the play-offs against Oxford. Transfers In - £200k As we can see, it was nothing short of a loan army that propelled us to promotion. Kor was a totally free loan and was very impressive as a right-winger. Pinheiro was played sparingly and I upset Porto with his lack of game time, this was down to Mandela Egbo's consistent performances at RB. I was really impressed with him and I'm sure he'll be a key member of our Championship squad. Laikin and Shitov both came in from Spartak Moscow, if I'm honest I knew nothing of Laikin but he looked quite well rounded and proved a reliable set-piece taker throughout the season, chipping in with some really important penalties on occasions throughout the season. Shitov (excellent name) is the striker I want to build around ideally, I know that he's potentially very good on the game and scored 10 goals in his first senior season. Biuk, Simons and Morton were trusted loans that I brought in after their success in my Shrewsbury save earlier in the year - during this season Biuk was class, notching 13 in the league while Simons was consistent when called upon but I did prefer Laikin most of the time as it felt a bit too easy to rely heavily on someone I already knew was great based on a previous save. Morton's loan was short lived as he sustained a hip injury early in the season and upon returning Klopp recalled him due to a lack of play-time. I had a lot of time for both Montano and Gomes who were really good options when called upon - I often preferred Montano over Vazquez despite paying the latter more money as part of the loan deal. Bloxham, like the earlier trio was a reliable player during my Shrewsbury save, it is safe to say I didn't play him that much though as I wanted to get the most out of Shitov and Bishop. Defensive solidarity was something I felt the squad lacked so Jackson, Raglan and Salimi were brought in as professional heads to sure up our backline. Salimi was originally on trial without a work-permit but debuted for Iran in this time and was subsequently given one from there on out, great success! I can confirm that Pinheiro, Simons, Bloxham, Machuca, Vazquez, Ambriz and Wagner have all returned to their parent clubs for the Championship campaign while the rest have been extended. Very excited to see how we get on personally. Transfers Out - £190k Best Eleven

Now, this could be tasty...

Butcher and Sykes are really, really good. Arguably two of the best players they have and both gone! Little to no wiggle room in the wage budget which was really concerning to start off with, it almost put me off a bit. I decided to loan out the majority of the u23s just to get money off the wage bill currently so I could get loans in to improve the side, not to mention selling a few of the players. Notable departures have been: John O'Sullivan, Stephen Sama, David Morgan and Michael Nottingham. Ironically the former two have left in real life so I suppose it makes for a somewhat realistic experience. I've also terminated a couple of the loans they had too as I didn't feel paying their wages warranted value for money when foreign imports were much more cost effective.

I was going to start a save as AFC Wimbledon myself but as @Ronaldo Beckham is doing so marvelously well with them, I decided to punt for Accrington Stanley instead. I'm not using an updated database or anything like that as I have an aversion to edited databases in any capacity - call me strange! Overall, I'm only at the end of October and it is much tougher than my Shrewsbury save that I did earlier in the year. I was top of the league with the Shrews at this point whereas I'm 6th with Accrington. Where Shrewsbury had a core in the squad that were reliable and pretty professional, Accrington are average with only a handful of players in the starting squad who are worth keeping hold of. I've loaned in an absolute army but it is proving troublesome constantly rotating in order to ensure their loan requirements are fulfilled. I have a clear view on how I want the save to pan out, I often favour Eastern European players as it is but I envisage a couple of the Russian boys I've brought in (on loan) to be the main figureheads in my lineup for years to come. I will update in depth at the end of season one.

He's an absolute menace! How I got him was luck more than anything. He entered his last 6 months with a month injury and I sent an offer on the first day, maxed out pretty much my whole wage structure for him and low and behold because of his injury, no other club came in for him so it was a really straight forward bosman signing. My best ever on any FM by a large distance.

I loved this guy on FM20, I don't think he's as potentially as good nowadays but he became a really solid mid-table Premier League player back then.

Swedberg is awesome, was top class for me at Shrewsbury. In my last season I moved into an AM role as a shadow striker, seemed to work a treat for his average rating.

I've found on the latest update that some staple sales such as Allan to Newcastle for £30m+ (because of Bruno I'd assume) weren't doable anymore so therefore it was trickier getting cash together for quality signings. I ended up paying a silly amount over installments for Illia Zabarnyi and Pablo Fornals who I love on the game but thankfully little to nothing up-front. Dele commanded a large fee on deadline day because of his good he was to be fair to him, he had 23 in 25 from a shadow striker role in all competitions, I also kept his league appearances below 20 so I didn't pay any money for him also. The fees look massive but I paid as little as I could upfront for all transfers up until Sesko's arrival. Salzburg and Rapid Wien were quite stern in demanding most of those fees up front and I was fortunate that the board made some extra transfer budget available in December so I could sort those transfers out swiftly without competition from other clubs. My blueprint for all Everton saves is changing the personality of the squad: Wober, Mepham, Matuidi, Robson-Kanu and Fornals all came in as really good mentors for other players. I'm also fond of Easter European wonderkids so Zakharyan, Zabarnyi, Kvaratskhelia, Tyukavin and Sesko are all first season staples for me if the scouts give encouraging enough reports about them in the first window. It's interesting but I manage Everton across numerous saves on every iteration of FM and I found this save arguably probably the easiest with my hyper offensive formation from earlier posts. Liverpool are Liverpool for the first two or three seasons, they are very tough to topple at the top so I wasn't surprised that even a high points tally wouldn't be enough to conquer Merseyside so prematurely. Lineup was effectively this: (can't screenshot because I'm seasons in now) GK: Pickford WBR: Godfrey (surprisingly very good here) BPD: Mepham CD: Zabarnyi WBL: Wober HB: Matuidi IWR: Robson-Kanu (A good performer for free!) IWL: Gray/Iwobi/Gordon (No real set starter) SS: Alli (Until January)/Fornals AF: Calvert-Lewin F9: Richarlison

I've decided to rebuild Everton as my final save of the year. Currently absolutely monthly installment abusing myself to a mega line-up (at least in a few years time).

I really rate Ramos because of that. The fact he's a model citizen from the start makes him a great buy, he's almost guaranteed to reach his potential on that basis alone. I think a lot of Benfica's young players have great personalities. Rafael Luis (who I have on my save) is also a model citizen.

He's very average mate, I've not got him scouted unfortunately but he's still at Benfica, hardly played in their first team but scored a lot for the B team. I have seen him develop a lot better on other saves though. Hugo Felix, on the other hand is superb on my save for me.