jmarchand

Haven't decided where I'll play this time around. I hesitate between Greece (we'll be visiting next year!) and Portugal (with a 4 tier system and playing alongside @Thebaker would be a nice bonus...!). So far, I'm holidaying both and will likely pick a spot in the next few days...

Lifting these again from the Youth Academy thread.. Argentina - January 1st Austria - Belarus Belgium - June 29th. Save March 30th for different teams Bulgaria - June 17th. Save May 24th for different teams Brazil - Chile - China - Croatia - June 19th. Save June 8th for different teams Czech Republic - June 30th. Save 28th May for different teams Denmark - June 30th. Save May 30th for different teams England - June 24th. Save on May 24th for different teams Faroe Islands - Finland - France - June 19th Germany - June 19th. Save May 25th for different teams Greece - June 19th. Save May 12th for different teams Hungry - June 19th. Save May 26th for different teams Iceland - December 10th. Save October 8th for different teams Indonesia - Israel - Italy - June 29th. Save May 28th for different teams Japan - 15th January, save on 30th November for different teams Lebanon - Mexico - Northern Ireland - Norway - January 13th Poland - Portugal - Romania - Scotland - June 24th. Holiday until 4 May. Holiday one day to generate playoff and see team you like. Save and then replay until promoted playoff team wins. Serbia - 15 June 2024. Save on 25 May 2024 for different teams. Slovenia - 30 June 2024. Save on 25 May 2024 for different teams. Slovakia – 28 June 2024. Save on 25 May 2024 for different teams. South Africa - Spain - July 9th. Save June 23rd for different teams. Sweden - 25th December. Save on October 15th for different teams Switzerland - June 29th. Save on May 17th for different teams Turkey - Ukraine - Uruguay - Wales –

Turns out that Bertalan Végh is indeed a superstar, but Istvan Süli kinda stopped progressing at 19 and eventually I cashed out on him for 15-20M€ and now he's lingering elsewhere.

Cash to spend, you say....? Here is my current balance and transfer budget in Dunaujvaros... I have too much money, can't spend it all!

Alright, I'm coming to a close on that save with FM24 around the corner, but it's going with a bang. First in the world, after winning our second Champions League in 3 years. I guess my job there is done! The Squad

At 31k seats, this is the largest stadium in Hungary by ~10k seats... Our previous stadium was an expansion of the starting one, it is now at 20k seats, but with terracing so we still have to move out during Champions League matches.

First time this ever happened to me in all my FM saves: the club names the new stadium after me!

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2037-2038 | Season 15 | CHALLENGE COMPLETED: Well, that was easy...! Well that was easy... The only thing I needed to do to complete this challenge was to sign Erling Haaland! But I actually think I skipped one update, in 2036/37... But it was a fairly calm year, apart from the insane goal difference in the league (+90... 103 for, 13 against). In the Champions League, we beat PSG, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid (with an insane 120th minute goal in Madrid to break a 0-0 deadlock over 2 legs) before crashing against Liverpool in the semi-Final. They were just better than us. Which actually brings me to this year... Transfers The obvious one is that I noticed that Erling Haaland had decided to evaluate his options at the end of his current contract with Manchester City. Yes, 37 year old Erling Haaland who scored only 23 goals across all competitions for him and was falling off their team. I decidded that I would go for him, offered a generous contract for the size of my club and he actually signed with us, against all odds. I was expecting a decline in his physicals, but I figured he would be able to do the job quite well for us and offer a nice complement to Elliot Leveque playing in front. Turns out that I underestimated him. Over the course of the season, he lost 1 point in Acceleration and Pace, but for the rest he was still insane, 15 years in the future. He went on to score 44 goals, including 10 in the Champions League and 26 in the domestic league (in 15(7) appearances!) who had never been that terrified in a striker before. Apart from him, I mostly signed kids for the future, but notably made 285M€ in transfers out of the club, some I was willing to and some who twisted my arm a bit. Champions League There were quite a few close calls in this one. In the League Phase, we played great, winning 6 matches and drawing the two remaining, finishing on top of the League for the first time ever. We did have a fairly easy draw, but a 2-0 win against PSG and draws against Manchester United and Tottenham were pretty good. We then drew Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 and, in a very typical fashion this time, we lost 1-0 away, before coming back with a convincing 3-1 at home. In the Quarter Final, we got Barcelona and, again, 1-0 loss at Camp Nou before coming back with a great, great 3-0 win at home. The Semi-final was drawn against Juventus, where we proceeded to lose 1-0 again in Torino. This time, the comeback was harder, forcing overtime with an 90th minute goal and getting through on penalties, with 3 saves by the best keeper in the world (who happens to be playing for us...!). In the final, we were facing off Manchester United, whom we had drawn 1-1 in the League Phase. It turned out to be a pretty even match, with everyone getting their chances and us dominating in the second half. Turns out that we didn't push hard enough and this all went to penalties. Patrick Atlebäumer, once again, came up big and saved the day on two occasions to get us a nerve-wracking win. The Team I'll go a bit more in details about the team in a recap-y like mode, showing the team of the year, but also going back over the save a little bit, in another post coming up. Other News I'm having a problem, I can't spend enough money. I had 567M€ in the bank balance at some point. We sit in 4th place in the European club coefficients (behing Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and in front of Manchester United). With an underwhelming season dropping off next year, we can realistically push to 2nd spot if we perform well. Next best team is Vasas in 60th place. Ferencvaros has dropped massively, only qualifying for Europe 2 times in the last 5 years (and doing pretty badly). Hungary is still 9th in the nations coefficient league, other clubs never really doing anything in Europe. We're still playing in our original stadium, which just got expanded now to 22603 (14k seats), but the board is finally looking to build a new one (32k seats), but will probably take a while, nothing is formally announced at the moment.

Dunaujvaros > Manchester City.

Just for fun, here are a few of the best newgens that I have in my save. Eddie Farr is currently the only player with a 4.5 star world reputation, a legendary winger who came from the Freiburg academy and has been tearing it up in the Liverpool squad for a few years already. Ivan Delgado is the highest earner in the save, with 750k€ per week (!) at Atletico Madrid (!!). He's too good for La Liga and has not scored less than 25 goals (across all competitions) for the last 8 seasons. Givanildo Henrique is, by far, the save's most highest valued player at 324M€ - 388M€, bossing the midfield at Liverpool. Signed for 20M€ in 2030, he's been just OK over the last few seasons and I'd never pay 300M€ for him. Cristopher Kuri is probably one of the most terrifying strikers to play against, at Bayern. At 27 years old, with 114 caps and 133 goals, he's likely the most prolific international player. Consistent as a metronom in the Bundesliga, he's insanely productive with Mexico... For the record, Haaland in my save has 146 goals in 150 caps with Norway at 35 years old. Kuri is only 27... and playing in CONCACAF, so plenty of landslide wins against Haiti, Curaçao and the likes of Trinidad and Tobago... Finally, probably the most highest rated keeper in the world at the moment, Sten Van de Looi, playing at Manchester City. Fun reminder, we put 6 past this guy in two legs in the Champions League Quarter final this year. Averaging less than one goal per game in the Premier League and with the 2033/34 season where he raked in 36 clean sheets across al competitions... He's rather good at football, I think. Well, this guy is not a regen, but I heard he's pretty good. Well, that was fun... Who's your most spectacular regens in your save?

He was actually featured in the best players in the world, at the 42nd place, if I remember correctly. There are a few completely insane regens in my save, whose values are around 250-300M€, with around 500k€ per week... I'll send a few screenshots just for fun later.

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2035-2036 | Season 13 | Step by step (oh baby!) I'll try to be brief on this update, as I've been holding on to my game until i wrote this report (and I really want to keep on advancing!) Transfers Again, a year where the out column is pretty filled in. It is, however, filled with players I'm just cashing out. The two notables are Bruno Laborda, which broke - shattered! - the transfer record for someone out of Hungary. I did sign him for 5 M€ in 2032, because he seemed too good to pass up. In two full seasons with us, he got 40 goals in 59 matches and added a 0 at the end of his weekly salary, so I wasn't able to compete with that. Also, 80 M€. You will also notice Marcelo Gadea, which I haven't talked much about, but was our starting keeper since 2031 and he offered us 4 great seasons, cementing himself as the starting keeper for Uruguay at the tender age of 19. He was good, but there were a couple of other good options floating around so when Bayern decided to come forward with substantial money, I decided to make a move. it's been somewhat of a mistake as Cristian Rosa, his replacement, got injured a few times in the season. I _think_ I was just unlucky, but Luis Cid, who was signed as a promising backup, got quite a bit more playtime than he had expected... including having to field a 16 year old youngster in the Champions League Quarter Final against Manchester City because Rosa was injured for 2-3 weeks. On the way in, apart from the goalkeeper situation, it's been mostly lottery tickets and cover for the first team, with the notable exception of Héritier Ndzila (yes, I name him Godzilla in my head). He's been doing a pretty great job in the center of the defence and is progressing tremendously. Champions League A pretty great result this year in the Champions League, losing our first game only in the round of 16 against Real Madrid, but overcoming that defeat in dramatic fashion in extra time with a 5-2 win at home. Then came probably the biggest ever result of that save, an emphatic win away to Man City in a match that I was dreading. They had eliminated us over the course of previous continental competitions and turns out that this game was a complete domination by our guys, even without the 20th minute red card they suffered. And that is with my 16 year-old keeper getting the start. We managed the game in the second leg, en route to a 7-1 aggregate win against the best club in Europe, they were ranked 1st in the coefficient table by a rather comfortable margin... We then came back to earth against a very strong Arsenal side (5th in Europe) and couldn't quite get it done. We lost a closely fought 2-leg tie, but ultimately conceding in the 89th minute in the first leg was what cost us. Still, Semi Final in the UCL, that's the farthest we've been and with a bit more luck, we were through to the final. Things are going well, trust the process. League A vintage season in the Hungarian League, probably our most dominant one ever. 30 wins, 3 draws. But most notably, we conceded only 9 goals during the entire season of 33 games. Yes, a single digit goal allowed season, I didn't think I'd see that one day. The Squad Without going into too much details, let's look at a few standouts from this year's squad, which is pretty much in continuity from previous year's. Elliot Leveque - The Belgian star did pout a bit when large teams wanted to come for him, but he was under a long enough contract and I decided to have him wait it out. He eventually come to his senses, stop being unhappy and renewed for a few more years with us, rewarding us with 39 goal contributions in 40 appearances. Eduardo Neyra - Our new threat up top, a bit one-dimensional player, but it's been working well this year for him. He ended up being our main goal scorer with 27 goals, including a few heroic goals in continental competitions as you've seen above. Victor - Not great on the rating side of things, but this ball winning midfielder coming from our academy now has caps for Spain at 20 years old (and is sad because I don't let him leave for PSG...) Marko Bozic - A rock in our defence, he doesn't let anyone go through. Summary table Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average 3 25-26 DII 1 4 62 38 5th round NA 872 Csanad Novak (20) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Average Average 4 26-27 DI 6 11 48 14 4th round NA 2066 Csanad Novak (19) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 5 27-28 DI 2 10 62 29 WINNERS NA 2684 Nico O'Reilly (18) Simone Pontisso (10) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 6 28-29 DI 1 3 72 40 WINNERS EL Qtr Final 167 3566 Donat Varga (20) Noam Emeran (15) Below Avg Adequate Adequate Good 7 29-30 DI 1 1 91 76 WINNERS CL League (27) 105 3950 Karim Konaté (39) Ömer Beyaz (16) Average Average Good Exceptional 8 30-31 DI 1 1 90 77 WINNERS EL Final 51 5062 Tomas Moravcik (34) Ömer Beyaz (23) 9 31-32 DI 1 1 86 79 WINNERS CL R16 33 5154 Karim Konaté (31) Predrag Manojlovic (19) Excellent Great Excellent Exceptional 10 32-33 DI 1 1 87 61 WINNERS CL Semi-Final 20 6802 Luis Fernando (17) Juan Britos, Marcos Iglesias (12) Superb Great Excellent Excellent 11 33-34 DI 1 1 88 81 WINNERS CL KO Round 19 6245 Luis Fernando (30) Ales Dukic (18) SoA Excellent Exceptional Exceptional 12 34-35 DI 1 1 85 79 WINNERS CL Qtr Final 12 7802 Bruno Laborda (31) Elliot Leveque (18) SoA Excellent Exceptional Exceptional 13 35-36 DI 1 1 93 60 WINNERS CL Semi-Final TBD 8281 Eduardo Neyra (27) Elliot Leveque (14) SoA Excellent Exceptional Exceptional

And this is why we do these saves. #2 and #7 are both products of our Youth Academy. Future is looking bright...!

Yup, trust the process. I don't feel we're quite there yet, the first team is getting pretty good, but I feel that we are missing a bit of depth in the squad to be able to cover for injuries, suspensions and other assorted surprises that the game throws our way. In other news, the board has FINALLY decided to invest some money in our stadium, going from a 10000 capacity to 11500, hopefully they'll be adding seats too, as we have 8000 people that comes on terracing, but that's not working for Champions League games, so our capacity is limited at 2000 for these matches (there is a bug in the game where this constraint is missing for the UCL group stage, so we don't move stadiums during that time).

Dunaujvaros PASE | Hungary | 2034-2035 | Season 12 | Trying to push to the top... Transfers The story of not having a high enough reputation to held our players keeps being true again this year, I hope that it starts to resolve soon - there are early signs of it - but in the meantime we took another plunder this year, as our strikers got raided pretty hard... Luis Fernando had been kicking a fuss about wanting to play more, but he was clearly unhappy and trying to move on. It was a shame, as he was our most profilic scorer in the first half of the season, with 20 league goals in 14(5) appearances, so when Villareal came knocking I decided to move him on to make sure he didn't bring the team dynamics down with him. Mostly because I had Lenon Damato, but I forgot that the only way I was able to get him here in the first place was to grant him a 15M€ release clause. I tried to renegotiate the contract, upping that to ~30M€, but Gladbach came in with an offer matching the clause and he's gone. He's my first player who was described as "World Class" for a little time and he was averaging 1 goal per game across all competitions. he is now worth 120M€ in Gladbach and I am still a bit sad about it. The offer that came in for Benjamin Carcamo Varela was in the too good to refuse category, there was a small bidding war and I was able to get the fee up to 26M€ + 30% going over to Aston Villa, where he did score 10 goals in the Premier League this year, in 15(13) apps, so not a bad move for him, in a side that is competing for European places year in year out in the Prem. Not bad (and he's now paid 84k€ p/w, a nice 8 times more than with me...) Antonio Velazquez was more often than not a rotational player in our defence, probably our 3rd best center-back, so a 26M€ deal for him was a pretty good deal. In the In column, mostly youngsters and lottery tickets, but José Chacon who finished his season on loan in his club in Costa Rica really looks like a winner at advanced playmaker up front and a great deal for 54k€... Competitions - League I'm trying to get some of our players out on loan over to the other Hungarian sides, to help them perform, but I'm still rolling through the league without any concerns. Conceding 13 goals throughout the whole year, including with some pretty heavy rotation towards the end is rather impressive. Funny note, Lenon Damato ended up the 4th best striker in the competition, despite playing only 12 games with us this year (16 goals). Competition - Champions League We had a pretty strong League Phase, with only hiccup being a 1-2 loss against PSG in Paris and a 0-0 draw at home against Barcelona, but all in all, very impressive displays. (side-note, our stadium doesn't respect the minimum requirements, but there is a bug which was fixed in March (on new saves) which make us play there regardless. So we have 2000 seats instead of the 8000 minimum, losing quite a bit of money in the process). This was enough to get us 19 points, and a very nice 6th place in the League table. Our reward was a matchup against Gladbach (who had signed Lenon Damato from us by then), which we drew 1-1 away in Germany, which had us quite hopeful for the second leg, which ended in a very very even 2-1 win for us. Revenge against Damato! The next round got us drawn against Manchester City, and they've shown that they are not in the same class as us (no wonder they are ranked 1st in the world in the club coefficient list). They beat us 2-1 in Hungary, in a match where de defended quite well and won 3-2 on the return leg, in a match where they were the better side, without any doubt. At 34 years old, Erling Haaland is still scoring 30 goals across all competitions, but he's showing some signs of slowing down, at least in the Premier League. The Squad With some of this movement, we ended up the year with a smaller squad than expected, but I'm quite happy with the talent level that we have. Keep in mind that, at this point, we are 19th in the world, so 4 star is pretty good and 5 star potential is pretty great. Up front This is the strength of this team and where I was able to get most of the talent. Elliot Leveque - AMR/ST - 29 goals, 18 assists, 6 PoM Largest ever signing in Hungary at 30.5M€, the young Belgian international was in the too good to pass up category. After a slow(er) start, he picked up is stride and was ever present for us, both when scoring or assisting. At 39k€ p/w, he is also the highest earner at the club, but I don't regret it one bit (see screenshot of finances at the end... Spoiler, we're doing fine!) Bruno Laborda - AML/ST - 31 goals, 11 assists Became our main man up front when Damato left, he got us 31 goals and was a good complement to Leveque, either when playing up front or on the left wing. In his second full season with us, I can now say that he was a 5M€ well spent. Eduardo Neyra - AM(RC) / ST - 19 goals, 15 assists He's the future of this team up front, with already 19 caps and 7 international goals at only 19 years old, he can play both as a shadow striker, up front or on the right. Marko Bozic - DC - 34(2) apps, 2 goals, 7.18 avg. rating. Came in on 11.25M€ from Red Star Belgrade, he was an integral part of the defense, at all levels. He marks well, heads well, is always well positioned and works hard (and is a big Serbian dude defender, which is a plus in itself!), he has been great for us, in a defense that doesn't see that much action throughout the course of the season. https://imgur.com/a/A1LSFQV The Youngsters Knocking on the First Team's door Victor - DM - 30 apps, 3 goals, 4 assists, 7.09 avg. rating He came through my youth intake a few seasons ago and has been battling for a starting job this year (which he is going to get next year for sure), he is the local boy I've been cheering for all year. He's not yet good enough to earn great ratings at the European level, but I'll keep playing him and I have a feeling that he'll get there. https://imgur.com/a/vTtREfx Bertalan Végh - DC - 28(10) apps, 4 goals, 1 assist, 7.01 avg. rating At only 17, he's already a Hungarian international and has been developing like crazy over the past year. Attributes: https://imgur.com/a/b5tf1Ai Development (not quite safe for work) Istvan Süli - DR He's been on the fence of the first team, used as a rotational player but getting plenty of sub appearances at only 16 years old. https://imgur.com/a/wJzY6Ci Other News With 286M€ in bank and a 168M€ transfer budget, I don't think I'll have to worry about money for a little while... My biggest problem is spending it. We've won our 8th Magyar cup in a row, while rotating very heavily. (yes, it's in the Other News category now) Other Hungarian Clubs in Europe Mol Féhervar: Did not get through the UCL Qualifying rounds, knocked out by Istanbul Basaksehir FK. They went on to qualify in the Europa League League Stage (after finishing 22nd), before losing to FC Groningen 2-1 on a very disappointing showing. Vasas: Great showing in the Europa League League Path, with a 10th place finish, won their knockout round against Craiova, then lost in the round of 16 against a very strong Newcastle team, 5-0. Vasas failed to have a single shot on target over the two rounds... Gyori ETO: Knocked out in the Conference League Qual round against SC Freiburg (who is playing the Final!), in a somewhat close match. Mezokovesd: Got through the Conference League League (18th!), dominated Olympiakos in the Knockout Round, then lost to St-Étiene in the round of 16 (who are also through to the final). Ferencvaros, the historically biggest club in Hungary, has been missing in Europe last year (and will also miss this year). They've been in all kinds of bad form over the last 2 years and if we want Hungary to get somewhere as a footballing nation, they'll have to sort themselves out at some point). Youth intake: There are 2 somewhat promising AMC's but nothing like Victor and Végh. We'll see if they feature here, but at worse, they'll feature in a good Hungarian side at some point. We're the 12th club in the world and Hungary will actually get 6 clubs in Europe next year, as we're 6th in the coefficient table. We'll really need to have the other sides start to show up now, though to keep up with the pace. We're still only 9th league in terms of reputation, though, that takes a while to rise! We'll need European silverware at some point to push that even higher. Summary table Year Season League Position Media Pred Points Goal Diff Cup Europe Europe Ranking Avg. Attendance Top Scorer Top Assist Training Youth Junior Youth Rec 1 23-24 DII 9 17 47 -1 5th round NA 796 Zsombor Novak (10) Szablocs Varga (7) Basic Below Avg Average Below Avg 2 24-25 DII 4 6 46 17 5th round NA 861 Donat Varga (19) Szablocs Varga (11) Basic Below Avg Average Average 3 25-26 DII 1 4 62 38 5th round NA 872 Csanad Novak (20) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Average Average 4 26-27 DI 6 11 48 14 4th round NA 2066 Csanad Novak (19) Baba (13) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 5 27-28 DI 2 10 62 29 WINNERS NA 2684 Nico O'Reilly (18) Simone Pontisso (10) Basic Below Avg Excellent Average 6 28-29 DI 1 3 72 40 WINNERS EL Qtr Final 167 3566 Donat Varga (20) Noam Emeran (15) Below Avg Adequate Adequate Good 7 29-30 DI 1 1 91 76 WINNERS CL League (27) 105 3950 Karim Konaté (39) Ömer Beyaz (16) Average Average Good Exceptional 8 30-31 DI 1 1 90 77 WINNERS EL Final 51 5062 Tomas Moravcik (34) Ömer Beyaz (23) 9 31-32 DI 1 1 86 79 WINNERS CL R16 33 5154 Karim Konaté (31) Predrag Manojlovic (19) Excellent Great Excellent Exceptional 10 32-33 DI 1 1 87 61 WINNERS CL Semi-Final 20 6802 Luis Fernando (17) Juan Britos, Marcos Iglesias (12) Superb Great Excellent Excellent 11 33-34 DI 1 1 88 81 WINNERS CL KO Round 19 6245 Luis Fernando (30) Ales Dukic (18) SoA Excellent Exceptional Exceptional 12 34-35 DI 1 1 85 79 WINNERS CL Qtr Final 12 7802 Bruno Laborda (31) Elliot Leveque (18) SoA Excellent Exceptional Exceptional