ShaunG95

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.

Summer Signings As our reputation soared after out Champions League win, I wanted some big-names in our bid to compete on all fronts again. *Bold - January deals Transfers In - Ahmed Haidar for £350k (£1m), Benjamin Sesko for £50m (£58m), Josko Gvardiol for £78m, Bruno Iglesias for free, Yusuf Demir for £35m (£43m), Illia Zabarnyi for £85m (£90m), Jordan Henderson for free and Alessandro Alessa for £400k (£1.4m). Transfers Out - Chris Mepham for £18.5m to Wolves, Josh Dasilva for £10.5m to Celtic, Jan Paul van Hecke for £56m to Liverpool, Marcuss Forss for £2m to Norwich, Marino Hinestroza for £130k to Envigado, Goncalo Esteves for £35m to Man City. I also sent out masses of players out on loan but I'll be honest, I don't think very many of them are that relevant to mention! The signings I made were essentially quite romantic for me in terms of what players I really like on this game. Sesko is someone I'd looked at for years but wasn't interested in a move until this summer. We only paid £30m up-front so I believe it was quite the coup given his international profile. His wages essentially broke our structure upon agreeing terms with him, though. I moved on Mepham, Dasilva and Paul van Hecke in order to facilitate the moves for Gvardiol and Zabarnyi who are two world-class CBs who immediately took the starting positions with strong rotation in Antov, Katinic and Wood. Yusuf Demir was a shot in the dark really, he was transfer listed at Man Utd and I took a punt on him despite him not being as good as I've seen him on other saves. Premier League Table - 2027/28 We retained the Premier League! Only one lost which came against Tottenham in September away. As you can see, we set records with our goal-scoring and this was mostly down to my second-system which I employed to facilitate a much more attacking mentality. As I thought we were now definitively one of the best teams in the league, I felt every home-game had to be played with plethora of gung-ho aside from games against City and Liverpool. Excuse the myriad of players on international duty as the season has just come to a close but this was the system I decided to employ. I'd played it on an Everton save earlier in the game cycle year and it was utterly dominant to say the least. Sesko ended the season with 49 goals in 22 starts and 24 substitute appearances across all competitions, notching 40 in the league which was a Premier League record, beating Erling Haaland's 34 a couple of seasons prior. I tallied up his numbers earlier and he scored 7 hattricks in total with two instances of him scoring 4 in a game. It is suffice to say that he won the Ballon D'Or because of this form as well as scooping the Footballer of the Year in the Premier League as well as the Players' Player of the Year and Top Goalscorer award. I cannot downplay Goncalo Ramos' influence though in the false-nine role, he was absolutely superb. Champions League - 2027/28 We were really disappointing during this campaign, I tried to be clever and use the same methodology as last season by using a completely rotated eleven for Europe and the League and it backfired this time. Inter were much the better team and lessons were learned here. Ultimately though, my rotation does serve a purpose and I have a happier squad for it but if we want to win the Champions League again, we might need to upgrade on some of the rotational players as I am happy with my starting eleven for now. League Cup - 2027/28 We retained our League Cup thanks to a Josko Gvardiol header who seemingly was keen to repay his transfer outlay! Key Performers Benjamin Sesko was an outrageous signing but I've already sang his praises in this post, I've ran out of superlatives for him really. However, Goncalo Ramos was equally as incredible and we've now established a deadly partnership where both of them score goals and Sesko virtually scores every-other near-post corner because of his 6"6 frame. I am relatively happy with this season, I'm disappointed that we crashed out of the Champions League so prematurely and we still want to get our hands on the FA Cup. Newcastle dispatched us 4-1 in the Quarter-Final but I think I will put more emphasis on fielding stronger elevens in the FA Cup next season. I think we've got a firm foothold in the Premier League now though and I believe we will carry on dominating. I'm not sure how long this save will serve to quench my attention given how successful I have become but news of a new stadium would go some way to spark my motivation of keeping going!