CaptCanuck

That's an impressive season with or without the slide. Always good to have those secondary goal sources. Your league table has me less worried than I'd previous been about surviving promotion if it comes. PSG clearly ahead, then a half-dozen quality sides and then a bunch of dross. Looks like the last 6 or 7 spots in the table could go in any order. It was nice of you to take it easy on Derry City in the return leg :-)

Ha! Yeah since we took Kitala, someone else had to score their goals We had a predictable loss to OL in the Cup, but 1st Ligue 2 match post window and we thump ASSE to leap frog them into 1st place. New guy scores his first goal and gets in the team of the week! If only you could have a new player every week for their inevitable 'debut goal'. ETA: Followed by the other inevitability of a new signing

Niort Season 3 Update (Winter window and first half of the season) Like the previous season, the fast start cooled, but at the end of the transfer window we're sitting nicely in 2nd. Les Verts went on an 11 match unbeaten run to take first, while Lorient have 5 straight draws after beating us with 2 stoppage time goals. Speaking of late goals, that's our dropped points via losses and draws below, notice a pattern? To say some of those have been frustrating would be underselling it a bit, especially ASSE, Lorient, and Bordeaux; those were roll the chair away from the laptop moments. Winter Window After the damp squib summer window, the winter window saw things actually happen, including making "proper" (for Niort) money on sales, collecting 800K from our starting RWB who was going to play out his contract and a promising teenage CB who had ideas above his station. To offset that we added Alakouch from Metz to be our new starting RWB. We give up a bit of physicality and defense and gain some technically and in attack. Although listening to these 2 you'd think we're too attack focused: And then finally, we found ourselves a midfield reducer in Nuno Pina! Since the more esteemed Ligue 2 clubs kept nicking our attempted loans and signings, I took a page out of Todd Boehly's book. I saw that the lesser Ligue 2 teams during the last day of the transfer window were getting players from the Portuguese 2nd division, so I went to the league's leading tackler stats and went for another half-blind foreigner transfer, since it worked out well with the keeper. I could see the range of his attributes and he was in the last 6 months of his contract... it was meant to be. He's proper old school Nigel De Jong type and not like the modern all-rounders, so we'll see if he helps or hurts. If it's not working out, we can try him on the right-side of the back 3 and if worse comes to worse, we sell him in the summer and hopefully break even or make a few Euros. 13 league matches left, after an 11th round cup match with Lyon... we start the run in against ASSE let's see how it goes!

Ya it's one of those weird things, where he just fits at the 'tip of the spear' so to speak, enough pace, big hops, tall, and with important composure and determination. He sat on the bench the first 10 matches of season 1, lol and TBF he can flat-track bully lesser clubs with his physicals, which was really apparent season 1 with a lot of poor teams. If I was looking for a striker I'd never have picked him up based on these abilities. He's doing what you'd expect the attributes of a player like Alioune Ndour to do. With Seck, I am assuming it's because he's never been capped and only played in Europe and most of that in Sweden? I've not been able to find a few folks mentioned in this thread as well.

Ha! Give him another season when he's stuck playing on their B team and hopefully he'll be happy to get out. I decided to kick the tires Dec/Jan transfer window (24/25) just to make sure I'm not over-estimating his gettableness :-) If I didn't have a LWB I'd use 1 of my 2 self-imposed 'foreigner' slots for him:

@Ronaldo Beckham - my scouts seem to be African-rich at the moment (December 2024), these 2 look like potential major contributors: Since he's out of range in Portugal you'll either have to pay for it, wait for your own scouts to get around to him or take my word for it ... but if you need a LWB/FB Moustapha Seck from Senegal is very impressive. His wages aren't much and at least in 2024 wants to leave his club for playing time and is 'extremely interested' to come to Ligue 2 (either transfer or loan). Another guy my scouts just pointed out, Emmanuel Banda, all-rounder attacker (AF, W, AM, CM) from Zambia. Played Ligue 2 and then Sweden. Looks like he could be available out of contract or cheap transfer Jan '24 or Summer '24

This guy is a beast! Talk about your big, young, centre-forwards. He went 1 in 2 in the National league season and then had 27 in 37 in Ligue 2 in 23/24. He'll definitely start attracting some attention from the big clubs, he's ready for Ligue 1 now. Enjoy him while you've got him or at least give him a new shiny contract and hope he sticks around.

NIORT Season 3 (24/25) Start & Summer Transfer Window Transfers So how does the club get over the devastating final match day where we slid from 2nd to 6th? With some big summer signings of course! And what happens when free agents turn you down, loanee clubs agree and the player doesn't or the player wants to come but the loanee club wants 50k a month? Well you end up with the transfer window we just had Abdelli, the all-rounder AM we converted to a DM from the winter window was converted into a permanent member of the squad. 300k is a lot for Niort, but the 1.5k/pw wage was worth the initial outlay. Speaking of AMs converted to DM, that's what Youssef has in store for himself. He didn't know it on the day but it's too late now. We're hoping he's not too lightweight, but we want a spark from the DLP role and hope he can provide it. Definitely no like for like replacement for the legend that is Charles Kabore, but sometimes you have to take what's available. As the dates hint, we couldn't get anyone good (Cillard is 5th string CB cover) in and on deadline day we went back and got Matsima who played very well for us on loan last season and who we hope to sign on a free in January. Galves provided the RWB depth we haven't had in 2 seasons. All in all, we moved some chairs around, lost our captain, and otherwise stayed the same, as the 18th highest wage bill in an 18 team league. Our 3.05M a half a million behind 17th Bastia and 15M behind Montpellier. 2 out of contract players in our squad indicates the overall 'strength'. It maybe best to convert our remaining 400k transfer budget into wage budget and sign up our starting 11 for as long as we can, we'll see how things are in Jan. League start Now to the league, well here we responded brilliantly to the end of last season by getting off to a cracking start. Bakayoko continues to Bakayoko; now with 71 Goals in 76 Matches for Niort. If his on-paper attributes were better we'd surely have lost him by now, as who wouldn't take a chance on a 6'4" 22yr old goal-a-game striker?

I know I feel better you've returned to a 'lesser' club With a brand new 12000-seater getting built a couple seasons in that should set you up nicely for the Ligue 1 push. Weirdly their manager took a pop at us at the start of the 24/25 season saying how we were pants and going down. So while hopefully you do well, in my save I really want to thump them next month.

Booooo! It's like that indie band you like during Uni that goes on to do ballads for Disney movies Surely karma is setting up a Le Mans Troyes cup match now.

Pfft... Wilson didn't even score 30 goals Kidding. Nice job on the successful loan though, you never know how they'll go! Impressive sale totals, that's a ton of money to bring in for Ligue 2 and as you say can really stabilize the club. Shame about Varane though, that would have been cool to have him in the side for 2 or 3 years before getting poached. My players are so mediocre my sales total only 545k Euros in 3 transfer windows. Bakayoko 22yrs old with 63 league goals in 70 matches hasn't got a sniff Although I guess it does save me having to replace my good performers.

Phew! That Le Mans academy is pumping them out! I know his crossing isn't double digits yet, but I'd be tempted to play him as the LWB, especially with the runs often and the low positioning, always a bonus to have height on the wings. Looks like a good stabilizing season after the squeaky bum time one.

Ya an RC 2 mins into one match and then penalties in each of the subsequent matches was definitely FM's way of telling me they didn't want me promoted. I'd so rather have free kicks/corners go in, as straight reds and penalties (especially when you're not an aggressive team) feel like too much of the AI thumb on things. Shame really as we're finally going to have to let our Cpt/DLP extraordinaire Charles Kabore go, as while his mentals are still Ligue 1, his legs are gone with 5 accel/pace and 8 stamina. Shame he could have led us into Ligue 1 and played out his final season at 37, as Cpt and impact sub... oh well that 4.5k/pw is needed elsewhere!

Niort Season 2 (23/24) Finish. And what a finish! After the Winter transfer window shut, we got on a good run and then a Valentines Day (almost) massacre: Vic Lobry our starting DM does his ligaments and is out until next Autumn. As a DM(s) with 'hold position' and no dead ball opportunites, he still had an avg rating of 7.10, showing how much he did for the team. Dobry news: Fortunately Abdelli could partially fill that role, but losing the left-footed Dobry was one of those moments where I needed to quickly click 'Save' lest the scum-save monster strikes. Even without Vic, after 30 matches things were looking scarily good. In a playoff spot with 4 matches we should win, before the final 4 matches which will be tough. Unfortunately, that 'easy' run resulted in 2 pts from 9 against 3 of the bottom 5 clubs, included a loss to 19th Nimes, fortunately a brilliant 3-2 comeback win against ASSE meant we'd stayed in 3rd, as only Dijon and Lorient seemed to want to win their matches. Of course, the ups and downs weren't done yet and 2 minutes into our 36th match against Amiens we get a straight red card. What followed was our match of the season, playing a 3411 for 85 mins, that 1 AM (Chambost) ran himself to death, set up 2 goals for the big man and we cruised to victory, with the table staying largely as it was, but with us scooting up to 2nd: Red card & goals: The next match was 1-1 against Clermont, where all they could muster is a penalty, to another of our Chambost to Bakayoko goals, left the table after 37 matches as follows: Having to face another former Ligue 1 side, doesn't make for the nicest end to the season, but we beat them 2-0 on the opening weekend, so that bodes well right? As long as we don't have to put up with anymore gift penalties and take our chances, automatic promotions awaits! NSFW (joking it's fine): So all in all, that was one hell of a season! Bring on season 3. ----------------------------------------------------------- But for a couple remaining season 2 bits, on the individual honours front the club did well: - Bakayako was the Player's Player of the Season to go with his top goalscorer and inclusion in both Best XIs. He also set Niort's all-time club goal scoring record in 2 seasons... they've not been the best club, lol. Bakayako's goal of the season: - Niort players took all 3 spots in the league's top assist getters, which makes sense as we were the league's top scorers with 72. - The Club's Best XI looked a lot better than last season too, the front 3 of Bakayoko, Chambost, and Serber were class and Boto and Moutachy on the wings were pinging them into the box all season long And a special huzzah for the new keeper Gelmi who was actually in the positive quadrants of the scatter charts this season, after replacing a keeper who was so far bottom left he didn't show up on the charts. Speaking of which, what is he up to now? You can't make it up, lol, he obviously wasn't cut out to be a keeper:

Jan '24 Transfer Window done One man's trash another's treasure. That is the 3rd starter we've gotten in the last 2 windows from Les Verts. As long as they don't want them we'll keep taking them. Also needed to add some steal with quality in the middle and Abdelli my finally be that guy we've need, as a part time started and final 20-30 mins deputy for our leader and midfield general Kabore, who is soon 36 and still being dragged off to play Affcon matches. We still have annual wages a shade under 3 million Euros, 3 grand more than Bastia and 15 grand more than Annecy... and only 5 mil or more less than the clubs we're chasing in Ligue 2. And as if on queue, a goal courtesy Abdelli's work in midfield, which is just what we hoped would happen:

^That run in is brutal Honestly I can only laugh, 4 clubs with Ligue 1 bonafides you have to eek out points against?! Bonne chance!

Halfway stage of Season 2 reached. That early start couldn't be sustained and we settled in about where I thought we could be, which is on target for mid 60s... if we can somehow eek out enough points to hit 70, maybe in with a playoff shout. Ligue 2 is definitely harder this season, trading 4 teams we could flat-track-bully for 4 former Ligue 1 sides. Think any of the Top 10 could make it into the Top 5, with Lorient being the big surprise so far how mediocre they have been, but expect Sochaux to run away with it eventually, their squad is just too strong. I do always get a kick out of the assman's advice, most of the time it's a quick click past, but then you see something that is genuinely chuckle-worthy: Cheers for that update! I know it's based on their attributes and not output, but still silly.

I like those Ligue 2 'quality' players... free transfer, free transfer, free transfer... I know that feeling, just about clearing wage room. And that is a brutal start to the Europa campaign, will some clubs slide down to Conference then? Not that you can't finish high enough up!

Bordeaux and Lens that early is not the easiest of starts and for sure with cobbled together squads the streaks are so much more pronounced; like the awesome ending for promotion and then the dismal start. If you're going to sign players who play under an African flag, you have to have a Toure on your team, lol. IDK how things will play out in your save, but at the 19 match mark, Koffi is going to play out his contract and become a free agent, so maybe hope for you yet? Right now he is on loan at Clermont. There's a French-born Congolese all round Midfielder/Winger named Tchimbembe (Metz) who is playing out his contract too and looks a good Ligue 2 player, agent is touting him at the moment, incase he's free on yours as well. Way to stay strong and reject ASSE's advances ;-)

Start of 2023/24 season update (transfer window time) One interesting bit about scheduling is Ligue 2 ends up 8 matches into the season by the time the window closes, which makes it harder for 0% contribution loans when you don't want to wait so many matches. Transfers* It also leads to some panicky buys when you're 2 weeks from the start of the season and don't have a GK. So what do you do? Go to Italy of course! Atalanta had 8 GKs in their 1st team squad and they can't all play, so we took a flier on Gelmi (who got an A+ scouting report when it finished, weeks after we signed him) who looks decent, bar the doesn't like big matches... not the greatest for your #1 keeper, but after the howlers from last season he cannot do worse. Overall though for a 425k net spend we acquired 6 new starters (LWB, AM, CB, GK, SS, CB) and a potential wildcard sub in Kitala, who my save's Havre AC didn't want. Silly really as he's a quality all-rounder who we'll play at AF and SS. Speaking of SS, Serber becomes our big money splash on a whopping 6k/pw and early returns are positive. FM really is 'morale manager' and streak runs, we won our 1st match against demoted Lorient, lost at the death to Grenoble, and then kept the vibes going and are that Grenoble match late winner away from 1st! Had we lost that opener to Lorient I could see us down in 15th, but we'll ride this wave as long as we can. That wave due in no small part to our backup striker Bentil, who in the first 5 matches scored in minute 87, 87, 90+1, and 87, earning us 4pts in the process. Never seen a sub have such a run like that, especially at the start of the season. 90pts left to play for, so let's see what happens. *More Real Sociedad than Bilbao, we're going to have a 2 non-French born limit, since I got desperate and grabbed at Italian keeper and Kabore our 35yr old club captain and talisman, who I inherited is from Burkina Faso, that seems fair.

Loooooove the look of Ugochukwu (seriously in that pic it looks like he's ready to eff someone up, lol) he's the exact type of DM I've been trying to get on loan that keep turning me down, lol. Either as a club icon if you can keep him for a decade or for big money in a few seasons, that's a great pickup. Funnily enough my save's Le Havre weren't so keen on Kitala I need to check my Brighton save, I think I paid for Joao the season earlier, great pick up! Edit: apparently I bought a Joao Veloso in that, too many Joaos about.

Oh ya, I didn't mean to imply you were messing about as his attributes looks like a natural progression from his 18yr old level in my save, but already there. He has decent pace, determination, and crossing at 18 even in mine, but I was thinking I was going to have my LWB sorted out for the next 5 years Nice pay day out of it for a National ligue club though, you can finance half a new side with 300k!

Me too. You playing with a custom DB or something? It's like he's at his ~28yr old ability (most optimized too) 10yrs earlier.

General Q: how have loanees/clubs been on FM23? I'm struggling to get legit starter-worthy loanees in, so I want to at least get a couple squad players in for CB and RWB cover. I thought I could say ya sure your guy will be a 'regular starter' and then suffer the consequences, when barring injuries or a cup run they'll see limited action On FM21, when I was in the EFL it was really easy to get 19-21yr old starlets in who really help your squad, guess Ligue 1 doesn't quite have that depth outside the top teams plus us not being a good enough destination yet.

Are players like this (screenshot from Aug '23) too good/expensive for Le Mans at this point? I get a fair few random recommendations from scouts and agents. Anticipation and composure aren't the best, but otherwise has the makings for a pacey, goal-scoring IW/IF: