Shrewnaldo

Thank you all. Really much appreciated. The trophies might not be the overarching goal of the save but it sure is nice. Interesting point re Hugo. I had him immediately pegged as a 10, looking to get into the box and exploit his creative and finishing ability. The lack of strength had put me off any ideas of using him further back but I can see what you're saying. I'm currently using one of my DMs as a segundo volante which has been a little hit-and-miss. Saúl Gonzaléz has been playing there but is much less effective than he was as a CM(A) in the 4-3-3. However, this has been a necessary sacrifice for the overall system to work. Nevertheless, that's the one role that I'm thinking hasn't really been properly optimised. Something like an RPM or regista may well work there, so long as I can still get him forward enough. I wouldn't want to lose the additional presence in the box I can get from the SV.

Real Sporting de Gijón Copa Del Rey Winners 2033 That'll do very nicely. The first silverware of the save and the first senior trophy that Sporting Gijón have ever won. In the end, the final itself was relatively straightforward and I never felt in any danger of losing. We dominated possession and whilst we didn't create a huge amount of chances we were clinical with those we did create. Most pleasingly, the winning team shows the absolute commitment to youth development through the save. The starting XI had 9 Mareo graduates in it with 2 real players (José Gragera and Diego López) complemented by 7 newgens (Carlos Gil, José Carlos Ferrer, Sergio Lozano, Carlos Rojas, Hugo Quiñones, Javi and Aguirre). The two odd ones out being centre back Zeben Adán (Spanish, from Tenerife signed from Liverpool) and Mexican midfielder Saúl González. Add to that 7 more guajes on the bench and another Mexican, plus Pablo Aguilar - an Asturian by birth but developed at Rennes. It might have taken a long time for a trophy but it's incredibly satisfying having done it within the initial parameters of the save and with a clear focus on homegrown talent. Sadly it came at the cost of the Europa League as I needed to play a second string in Rome, losing out to Lazio. Worth it though.

The tenth intake... somehow A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón And so we take this: Into this... Initial signs are... mixed. It's dropped from 5* 'golden generation' standard in the preview, to 4.5* for the actual intake. But it's not our first time at the rodeo, we know these things are often massively misleading so let's see how it goes. Elite Talent (singular) Hugo - Boss: Playmaker-ish Personality: Professional An awful lot to like right off the bat - personality most of all. He also has some lovely traits, although I'm not sure about the last one. For 15, his starting physicals are just fine and I really like the combination of Technique and Flair, to go with the Aggression. Looks like he could become a very, very handy 10 or perhaps a segundo volante if the Work Rate increases naturally over time. The Dribbling might be a little low for that but I really like the look of Hugo. Two-footed with natural Flair and already a decent finisher. Definite potential. Top Talents Alfréd Váczi - Inverted wingback? Personality - Spirited A Hungarian but no Mexican, btw. Nice physicals and I really like that he has the more static Mentals like Aggressions and Bravery already. His Positioning, Marking and Tackling are a bit yikes for a left-back but the rest of his attributes lend themselves very much to an inverted wingback. Given those deficiencies, I'm thinking he's probably going to be a more traditional winger with solid starting attributes for the requisite Technicals. José Antonio Cortés - Inverted wingback? Personality - Realist 6' and really decent starting Physicals and excellent starting Mentals, there's a lot to like here. The Technicals are where he's obviously lacking with just two in double figures. I've found Technicals the hardest to reliably improve so we'll have to wait and see. The likes of Montial and Navarro came through looking very similar to Cortés and their technicals just never took off enough to become first-teamers. So I'm afraid I'm rather sceptical this one will make it. Carlos Serra - DLF Personality: Light-hearted Fantastic mental attributes with only Work Rate looking a bit on the unhealthy side (Vision should increase naturally with time). His Technicals aren't great but 4-5 on Finishing and he'll do a decent job. The physicals are clearly lacking - particularly as he's an 'old 15', turning 16 in 4 days and so with less high-grade development time. Still, it's not a bad start but he'll be unlikely to hit the heights of Aguirre et al. Good Talents Alejandro Carvajal - Left-wing Personality: Fairly Professional Amongst some dross in the 'good talents', Carvajal looks like a rough gem. Strength aside, his Physicals are decent and Dribbling of 15 is a lovely start. It's a shame he can't cross and Anticipation of 6, Composure of 5 and Vision of 5 would look to be prohibitive for first-team development but we'll see. ---------------------------------- The rest of the 'good talents' are, erm, not good. But that's fine. We've progressed to the point where I'd expect only one or two per intake are going to be good enough to break into the first team. So as long as we're only losing one or two out the door, then we should be able to maintain numbers of Mareo graduates whilst steadily increasing the quality. So far this season, we're doing rather well. The league campaign has been decent but one or two poor results have tripped us up recently as we're trying to fight on three fronts. That sees us in 6th but with games in hand that could see us jump to 5th and within a couple of points of even 3rd. Barca are miles clear at the top, then Real 9 points behind and then Atléti have fallen back into a chasing cluster with us, Sevilla and Villarreal. In Europe, we've progressed via the playoffs into the knockouts and will face Lazio in the quarters. Should we get through that, it'll be the winner of Real Sociedad or Man Utd in the semi and then, I would expect, the impossible task of Man City in the final. I think that run is challenging, shall we say. Perhaps we'll get the luck I said we needed in the Copa del Rey. We managed to avoid the big three until the semi-final when we drew the all-conquering Barcelona. Away in the first-leg, we went down 2-0 - Carlos Gil keeping us in the game but still conceding two unfortunate goals. In the return leg, it was absolute stalemate until we got the stroke of luck I'd been crying out for. Puigdollers saw red after 39 minutes for a shocking challenge to bring down Hugo Quiñones mid-counter. Within 9 minutes, Ander Aguirre had scored a hat-trick to put us ahead and then he sealed it with a fourth late in the second half. Without that red, we were nowhere. But games, and seasons, can turn on such events and, with Barca having put Real out in the quarter, we'll face Valencia in the final - themselves having dispatched with Atléti in the fourth round. This, then, is our big chance for silverware. We couldn't really hope for a better chance. Sadly, we'll head to the Bernabéu just three days after the second leg of the Europa quarter against Lazio - so I may have to sacrifice continental progression for the chance at a trophy.... Worth it.

Thank you all. Always appreciate the feedback. As long as the game is fun then I'll continue playing it. The starting points of each season are always a bit of a slog. I'm finding that most of the benefit to youth development comes from two things: personality and game time. Poor personalities are almost insurmountable, I'm finding. I had two right backs come through one intake, I think it was the fifth - Cordero who had great attributes and a shocking personality, and Ferrer who had the opposite. I sold Cordero to Juve 3 seasons later and his attributes had barely moved. Ferrer is now a valuable squad member with over 2000 minutes this season. And then game time at the right level. It's a bit of a balancing act and knowing when to give people loan moves to decent leagues is a bit haphazard. The game time also has to be positive game time - preferably in a winning team. The morale boost seems to be important for development too. So I'll turn down any loan bids from teams that are predicted to finish in the bottom half of any second tier or lower. I think a title winning third tier campaign is going to boost a player more than a bottom half second tier season, regardless of training facilities. My basic model is under-19s until they're too old and then two years in the B-team to prove themselves before being promoted, but there's definitely scope for some accelerated promotion. Mostly I'm going with a 4-2-3-1 at the moment. This is driven by the personnel available - Javi is nothing but a left-winger, Quiñones is a classic 10, Aguirre needs to play as an AF and I have options to rotate on the right flank. I started off looking to play short passing at a higher tempo but have figured out that I actually want to play the opposite - direct at a lower tempo. I'm looking to draw teams out and then exploit the pace that we have in the front four. It's really working a treat. I have experimented with a switch to a 4-4-2 with double DMs. This is just due to the number of strikers I have coming through and the fact Quiñones can play at right mid as a playmaker to provide the balance. It looks like a viable option but I really don't want to experiment too much at the moment as we're having a rather successful time of it.

One more season... maybe more A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Having managed to extend the contracts of Rojas, Javi and Aguirre I decided that keeping a hold of my favourite players entitled the club to at least one more season. One more chance to win that elusive silverware. In addition to those three, I do genuinely feel that we have the makings of a really decent first XI. Just looking at the guaje newgens, then we have the likes of: Mouriño is clearly outstanding at either right back or centre back - the only downside is that there's only one of him and the rest of the defence needs to be filled out with non-academy players. Rojas is now our captain and outstanding ball-winner in the middle, usually part of a double pivot with Mexican star Saúl González, if not Elvira steps in. The front four of Lozano on the right, Quiñones at 10, Javi on the left and Aguirre up top is, in my view, more than good enough for a top half La Liga side. Fernando is the latest off the production line and has been promoted to the first-team this season. I remain convinced that we should have enough goals in this team for some silverware. Goal involvements last season were solid with a very pleasing spread across the attacking players. The only attacking worry is the lack of a lethal goalscorer. Aguirre's 1 in 2 is decent but I feel like an elite team needs either one striker who gets towards 2 in 3, or two positions running at 1 in 2. Our typical attacking 5 are Aguirre (1 in 2), Saúl (1 in 4), Quiñones (1 in 4), Javi (1 in 4) and Lozano (1 in 4). That's an average of 1.5 goals a game, supplemented by the occasional set-piece goal. The drop off to the second string, however, is significant whilst we've struggled for consistent clean sheets. Just 15 in the league, we've had some horrendous defensive runs including a ridiculous 4-0 drubbing at lowly Rayo Vallecano - coming between the two Europa League quarter final games against Feyenoord when I rested the entire first team. Like I said, the drop off to the second string isn't ideal. But I want to keep committing to the premise of the save and have let a number of players go this summer. Goalkeeper Gaizka Ayesa joined Ecuadorian centre-back Alex Cabeza in Nantes, leaving for £32m (rising to £43.5m) and £10.25m respectively. A sizeable profit of ~£38m. Three B-team players (Carlos Cerro, Miguel Heredia and Santiago Caballero) brought in £9.7m between then. Sadly that B-team managed to get itself relegated and will play next season in the third tier, perhaps stifling development for a season or two. Regarding transfers in, I'm continuing to double-down on the premise of the save. Ricardo Santana finished 22nd in the NxGn awards last season and joins us for £4.7m from Deportivo Guadalajara - the latest in a long line of Mexican imports. He's joined by veteran goalkeeper Dani - a former Mareo graduate who will play second fiddle to Carlos Gil, whose title-winning stint on loan at Midtjylland appears to have done him the world of good. Finally, I brought in Robert Setvalls as an experiment in developing a more creative inverted wingback from the left = with the physicals and attributes to make a passable left-back, I just couldn't turn down those creative attributes. So far we're doing... ok. One look at the Europa League table make me doubt our chances of a trophy there - the Manchester clubs primary on my list of unassailables - and so I've been giving a bit more priority to the league so far. That was working wonders until we stopped defending - conceding three to Getafe, two to Villarreal, Alavés, Granada and Girona - not to mention Malmo and Feyenoord. This defensive leakiness, rather than profligacy at the other end, is holding us back somewhat. Yet we remain there and thereabouts for the Champions League spots, even if we are miles off the quite ridiculous Barcelona, and should qualify for the Europa League knockout playoff. The Copa is clearly where the main focus is going to be though. Semi-final last season, we'll need the luck to avoid the big 3 as long as possible and then even more luck once we eventually face them. With £116m in transfer kitty and £500k headroom in the wage budget, I could just buy my way into contention but I really want to keep within the parameters of the save and win some sort of trophy through the development of the Mareo youth. Ok there are clear gaps in the team but it's great to see the newgens developing well and we are, at times, playing some wonderful football. I'd just love to turn that into (at least) one trophy before putting the save on the shelf.

Update coming - at least one more season...

Not really in this save. I don't think I'm really Gijón'd out, more just FM'd out. Not unusual for this time of year. My only real thought is that I'd quite like to pick up the Feralpi / Hellas journeyman again. But I can't say it's a huge burning desire yet.

Something of an anti-climactic end to the season. Our league form really suffered for the prioritisation of the cups, but we were 7th since the start of December and ended 13 points from 6th, 15 points from 8th. That feels a little weird, have to be honest. Atlético were just too good for us in the Copa del Rey semi, beating us 5-2 on aggregate and I can't really complain. Chelsea... well that was an opportunity missed. I should have played more conservatively in the away leg but an horrendous mistake from Carlos Rojas gave them a tap-in for the first and they secured a second with a high turnover before I learned to start by-passing the high press. We came into the game a little late on but were lucky to save a penalty in injury time. In the return leg we were by far the better team and took a deserved lead shortly after half-time. But Chelsea shut the game down expertly and we fluffed the two good chances we had late on to take it to extra time. Chelsea went on to comfortably beat AZ in the final. Two semis isn't bad but another trophyless season. And now I have some decisions to make, the first of which is - another season?

The ninth intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón A few days after the disappointment of a Copa del Rey semi-final exit at the hands of Atlético, we have the best day of the year. Taking this... And seeing how it turns into this... Early signs are promising but, as always, I'm posting this 'live'. My first thought is: no Mexicans again, but another Moroccan, an Argentine, an Ecuadorian and a Maltese... because why not?! Elite Talents Juan Sanchis - 9 Personality: Fairly Professional A solid start. Helpful personality with some decent mentals - although his Bravery will stifle his aerial ability irrevocably. The physicals are fine and will develop naturally over time but he's another where there's just one or two gaps for every proposed output. Finishing of 8 isn't ideal for a goalscorer, Vision of 8 isn't ideal for a playmaker, Crossing of 7 isn't ideal for a winger... My experience so far is that the most I can expect these to increase by is 6, possibly 7. So definitely potential of one of them getting to a reasonable first-team level, particularly with his Professionalism, but I'm not blown away. Boubacar Diatré - Right wing Personality: Fairly Loyal The physicals are great but the rest of him gets a bit of a yikes. The defensive technicals immediately rule out any shift backwards, and his Strength rules out any more inside. Staying high and wide makes sense so I'd really like to see higher Flair and Off the Ball particularly. First Touch and Passing also have a long way to go. I'd say Diatré's a little off it. Top Talents Félix - not a cat Personality: Balanced Hmmm... that Determination clearly needs to be increased but other than that, his mentals as a defensive player are probably perfectly fine. The physicals have a decent enough starting point. The technicals are once again the weakest point with Heading the clear worry at centre back, combined with Passing for anything further forward. If I can mentor him into a better personality, I certainly think Félix has potential as a ball-winner though. Marcos - Centre back Personality - Unambitious I really need centre backs but Determination of 1 and an unambitious personality? Is there even any point? And that's a real shame because he definitely has potential - albeit the Strength is a big red flag. For the moment, I'm not sure I'll even sign him. Amine Amlal - Right wing Personality: Light-hearted Decent. His physicals are great for a winger and a lot of his mentals are great. But Anticipation 6, Composure 4 and Vision 6 - those are quite restrictive influences for any advanced player. Technically, I can't see him ever being a winger - his natural starting point is more as a finisher or creator (notwithstanding those mentals). Another with potential but big gaps. Juan Carlos Brítez - left-back Personality: Light-hearted I don't mind the physicals starting point at all - the acceleration and strength should tick over into double figures quick enough and, at 6'2", he's going to do just fine aerially. I'm also happy with his starting mentals and technicals - the obvious ones that are a little short (Anticipation, Concentration, Positioning, Teamwork) will all increase naturally even without targeted training. I think Brítez is the best of the intake so far and can definitely see him getting into the first team (if the save lasts that long) Jesús Romero - the right flank, all of it Personality: Balanced Defensively he's a non-starter (see Marking, Tackling, Strength, being short). Going in the other direction the physicals are more than acceptable but his movement is lacking and his technicals don't inspire. Doesn't help him that Amlal plays the same position and is clearly better so every chance Romero falls by the wayside. Good Talents An unambitious centre back, an unambitious left-winger and these three. Ramón has a couple of standout technical attributes which would already make him better than Carlos Gil, my current attempt at a guaje goalie. But there's also a couple of big gaps. Aguilar has that thing where double figures looks good until you realise they're all 10s and actually he's got a long way to go. Núñez, however, looks pretty good in my opinion - I'm thinking he'd make a decent midfield runner rather than the ball-winner he's listed as. But I wouldn't be confident. And four decent talents that really aren't worth noting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I can't say I'm overly enamoured with that intake. The personality pull-through from Caers looks sadly lacking, and there simply isn't a massive standout talent. Juan Sanchís will likely be considered the star graduate and I think that's probably fair. With the hindsight of having looked through the later dross, he does look quite handy and gaps in his attributes aren't that far off double-figures - a decent starting point. Other than that, Brítez has the makings of a decent inverted leftback and Félix could do well if mentored correctly. Better than last year, for sure, but not exactly awe inspiring. EDIT: Sergio Lozano (the golden boy of the 6th intake) wins the NxGn award as the world's best wonderkid. Jonathan Mouriño (5th intake) is 6th and Mexican centre back Ricardo Santana of Deportivo Guadalejara is 22nd... and will join us in the summer. A second Mexican centre back from teh same club, Diego Nava, is 33rd and I may have to bring him in too.

Loving the fact that Sindelar is both awesome and a creative 10, potentially false 9, to reflect his famous namesake - albeit a much more physically imposing version. Beljo was great for me in a Toulouse save on FM18, maybe 19? I struggle to recall but he was great and then seemed to get a bit of a bump in the next iteration so certainly has potential to do a job.

Home and Away A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Another odd start to the season and for the second campaign in a row we're a bit off it in the league. Where results have stuttered, performances haven't and it feels like we've been really unlucky - with something of a trend developing. Our priorities at the start of the season were clear and that's been reflected in the European results in particular. We've had a couple of soft games but a 2-0 win in a Sporting derby in Lisbon and 4-0 thumpings of AEK and Celtic have helped propel us to Europa League knockout qualification. Our remaining game is against Chelsea but it's unlikely to give us much of an idea of our true quality against the bigger sides as I plan to rotate in the second string. We just don't have the squad depth to give it a good go and we have a big league game against Sevilla followed by the Zaragoza cup game up next. Lose the former and we're probably out of the running for continental qualification through the league, whilst the latter continues to offer us a real chance at silverware. Although, in truth, the Europa League might be the easier competition for us to win - only Chelsea and Napoli would really worry me from the teams left in the competition. Domestically, the real concern has come down to one factor and one factor alone - our away form. 9-2-0 at home is phenomenal. 1-1-8 on the road is abysmal. Obviously the 4-2-3-1 was great at El Molinón but I needed to adapt for away games. Right? Wrong. Excluding the completely understandable beatings at Atléti and Barca, are our away league matches: Yikes. Yes our xGA isn't great, averaging just over 1.1 per game, but we've been creating sufficient chance - and chances of quality - to win almost all of those away matches. Averaging 1.7xG per 90 is completely acceptable as far I'm concerned. Converting at 0.75 goals per 90... not so much. So why the disparity from the home form where we're averaging just over 2 goals a game and have conceded only 5? How can we outperform our xG at home but perform away from home in everything except, you know, the important bits? I have no idea. I would have guessed it was an age thing and younger players perform poorer away from home - but it's the same players from last season and, this may come as something of a surprise, they're one year older than last season when they did just fine. So I'm, once again, at a loss. All ideas welcome. --------------------------------------------------------------------- In other news, we've had a takeover. I'm choosing to interpret this as a corporate rebranding rather than a takeoever as we maintain the affiliate links to Club América, Santos Laguna and Atlas Guadalejara. I will certainly be maintaining the Mexican recruitment focus. Indeed, we've continued that approach this January with back-up 'keeper José Juan Ruiz joining from Leones Negros for £250k. He was required due to my latest attempt to get a tune from the eminently frustrating Carlos Gil. His potential remains, whilst his attributes creep us across the board - but without really hitting the numbers I'd have expected at 22. His performances still cost us goals - twice specifically when the ball went straight through him at the near post. Eventually I got so frustrated that I nearly sold him but figured I'd give him one last chance. But somewhere else. A loan deal to Midtjylland feels perfect. They're second in the Danish league and had two Champions League games left... and in the first of those, Gil shipped 4 to register a 5.3 rating on debut. Sub-optimal. With luck, his performances will improve in the second half of the season - whilst Midtjylland have excellent training facilities that will help his continued growth. If not, a long-term goalkeeper will be on the shopping list for the summer. The other likely recruitment priority will be centre back as José Gragera has advised us that he'll pursue other options when his contract expires in 18 months. The perennially injured Guille Rosas will be doing similarly this summer and so gaps are appearing at the back. I brought José Carlos Ferrer back from a loan spell at fellow LaLiga side Elche, performing well enough to convince me that he's a decent squad option even if his lack of height will be exploited by back-post crosses. I also signed Josiah Musa - a player I like a lot more than the game does - on an accelerated Bosman from Villarreal; £250k representing a risk free bit of cover for this season at worst. Meanwhile, guaje Carlos continues to develop really well in the B-team - so much so that I've turned down bids from Liverpool and Inter so far. And the January recruitment didn't end there with Pablo Aguilar joining for £5.5m - another accelerated Bosman deal. Whilst he's not a Mareo graduate, I did outline the following recruitment priorities right at the start of the save: I thus have a saved search which looks for players born in every Asturian location contained within the database. Aguilar came through at Rennes but has been on my radar for years, having been born in Blimea 40-odd kilometres south of Gijón. He offers cover at all four attacking positions and has let me send Vicente Cuadrado out on loan to re-start his development. It is possible that we'll see one more deal in each direction, with Mexican centre back spitting the dummy after I rejected a bid from Dortmund. Eventually, player power has forced my hand and I've agreed to offload him. Should that go through before the end of the window, he'll be replaced by the next Mexican on the line, Héctor Martínez of Orlegi affiliate Santos Laguna. Lastly, I should also mention that Carlos Cordero (fourth intake), of undoubted potential but a personality that will guarantee it is left unfulfilled, left for Juventus for £6.5m. I know, I was as surprised as you. That nicely covers another year of the youth system with a player that was never going to break into the first-team. And talking of that youth system, it looks like we're back on track. With luck, this points at last year being a one-off. If Thomas Caers' personality can pull through like it did in last year's disappointing intake then I'm hopeful we'll get some real prospects back into the funnel. It's feeling a little light at the moment, with very few under the age of 18 that I'm really paying any attention to. For now, it's the cups that remain our absolute priority. A cup double would be fantastic - so good that it might precipitate the end of the save. Certainly if it goes hand-in-hand with our squad being picked apart. Giants of the game are now showing concrete interest in Carlos Rojas, Iván Elvira, Hugo Quiñones, Javi and Ander Aguirre - all my favourite players in other words. Lose some or all of them and I think I'd genuinely lose quite a bit of interest in continuing. But that's tomorrow Shrew's problem. For now, let's just try to win some silverware.

Wow, that's some going - particularly Atlético. Did they play a weakened side against you? I'm sure I'd catch them eventually but I'm not sure I'll do it within my patience for the save. It's already exceeded my usual span for a save. I guess the youth development side lends itself to that additional longevity. If my squad gets picked apart by the big teams this summer then it might be a different story.

I would 100% take a team consisting of only Model Professionals or Model Citizens. I don't mind boring Schulz is a funny one. Looks like he's going to be great but the output technicals look just a little short to have him really produce - crossing, finishing and passing all being just below what you'd want for an elite player. I know passing is in your DNA and if you're looking for him to be the DLF will that be your training priority? The work rate would concern me for a DLF

Thanks, always appreciate the feedback. It's not taken the 4-4-1-1 long to evolve into a 4-2-3-1. The way I was using the wide midfielder on the right just made us way too one dimensional playing through the middle third so I've jettisoned that idea for now. I'd certainly that, Barca aside, I'd associate 4-2-3-1 with Spanish sides. The variable wage cap in the league really helps the big sides too (not that I'm using anything approaching our cap limit). Real's salary per annum is currently £318m, Barca's £282m and Atléti £186m. The next is Villarreal on £70m and we're on £35.5m. That's just a crazy disparity. Yeah I was sad to see Polo leave but I think I've got to that point where I have to look past the nostalgia. He was probably good enough as a squad player but I have so many Mareo options coming through that could use that game time and then end up far better than Polo that I just had to let him go. When I played Real in the final they had a full strength side - David Raya, Buongiorno, Bellingham, Valverde, Vini Jnr, Rodrygo, Osimhen... it's tough. But there's definitely scope to get lucky and hit them at the right time. When Real got knocked out by Villarreal last season, they'd played Levante in the previous round just 3 days previously. That fixture congestion meant they played a (relatively) weakened team and, crucially, a B-team goalkeeper which ended up costing them. Having said that, the big three tend to take the Copa del Rey seriously - evidenced by the three of them winning it in every season so far. Albeit with just one final, in 2025, where two of them played each other. Us, Betis, Villarreal, Girona and Getafe have all been losing finalists... surely one of us has to buck the trend soon.

Pushing On A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón At some point we will have to turn potential into delivery. All of this development of the Mareo graduates has to have some sort of end goal. Sporting are famous for being 'nearly men' in Spain, never having a single senior trophy. We came close in 2029, losing to Real 3-0 in a final blighted by Chiquete's early red card. We've reached the semi the following year and a Europa League quarter-final in 2028. This season, I really want to push for silverware. That absolutely will not come in the league - Real, Barca and Atléti are just far, far too strong to catch. Fourth is still a realistic goal for us but I'm absolutely going to prioritise the Copa del Rey and the Europa League - competitions at which I feel we should have a realistic chance of winning. To get there, I'll be relying on what we've developed so far, with very little in the way of transfer activity this summer. Christian Hernández becomes the latest arrival from Mexico - walking a fine line between ability to supplement the B-team and wages that won't bust the £75kpw salary cap for LaLiga2. In the opposite direction goes the first of the Mareo newgens for decent money - Francesc Polo being one of the first to break into the first-team and performing admirably as a wide playmaker or a deep-lying forward. He scored 26 goals across 2028-30 but was just too streaky to become the consistent 20+ goalscorer that we need - whilst he was never quite as creative as I'd hoped he'd become with those attributes and traits. £13.25m and 20% of any profit if he's sold back to Europe represents a healthy intake and covers two seasons' worth of the Youth Setup costs. One of the factors in letting Polo leave was the desire to move to a new system that would see us get the best out of Ander Aguirre. My previous post highlighted the concern about the big boys circling to pick off my best players but we managed to get Aguirre, Javi and Carlos Rojas - the subject of the most elite club interest - all to sign new deals that should keep them here for at least one more season. All three are key components that I would like to build the team and the system around - something which I spent most of the close season thinking about. So I started building some basic blocks around which to premise a tactic. I will bow to the inevitable and prioritise the 9 as the goalscorer, using an AF that primarily looks to stay high and threaten in behind the defensive line I really like double 10s on the ball. This doesn't mean that I need to have two AMCs on the tactics screen - only that two players should get into these positions with their in-possession movement Javi necessitates the use of a winger and isn't suited to being a wingback. That means two wide players in the defensive shape I rarely play with a two-man midfield in the defensive shape as I feel it leaves us too exposed. A three-man midfield and two players in the wide areas makes it clear it's a 4-man defence and 5-man midfield. I don't like how slowly attacking wingbacks move up into advanced positions when playing through the thirds. This leads nicely into my general preference for minimising transition distances. When I first came up with my idea of using inverted wingbacks (before they were even in FM), this was the primary driver - pulling fullbacks into the middle means they are much closer to their natural positions to recover into a solid defensive shape. This is equally true for the players that I want to perform the high and wide roles. This is easy on the left with Javi being a natural winger but will be something I look to do on the right too. Keeping the wide midfielders wide, means the fullbacks can come inside in possession to form the holding shape (I truly despite the term 'rest defence') In the past I'd had a preference for a 2-3 build-up shape but I've really liked the way the wide players in the 3 play in a 3-1 or 3-2 shape. In the 4-3-3 we were playing for the last few seasons, I've been using a 3-1 in build-up but I've found that the 1 often has to recycle the ball backwards which gives the opposition time to shift across and fill gaps. Add another into the second line to make a 3-2 shape allows a quick shift of angle without retreating with possession and, in conjunction with the double 10s, allows for simpler 'progressive passes' through the lines to bypass a pressing midfield - something that would have been classed as 'packing' in German statistics, I guess To get there, I started off with this idea. Nothing complicated but two banks of four in defence and into the 3-2-5 shape on the ball. The AM moves to the right to allow for the segundo to come in as the second 10 on the ball. The wide midfielder on the right is asked to 'hold position' and play more risky passes - the intention being that he will draw the press from the opposition left-back and allow the AM or AF to exploit this space, something which I used very effectively at Hellas Verona. This hasn't worked very well and so I've decided to switch the positions of the holding pair - moving the segundo to the right, allowing him to provide the mobility and run from deep to exploit the space created by the WM. The AM then moves to the left and provides a much better link to the winger, allowing for one-twos into space. The fullbacks then also switch with the covering centre-back moving to the left. So far it's been.... frustrating. We've probably deserved to win both these games but have failed to consistently create quality chances. Defensively, we've been great and only conceded in Seville from a combination of a defensive mistake and poor goalkeeping. From that base, I *should* be able to work out the attacking prowess and how to create better quality chances. To do this, I'd like to create some key metrics for the output I would like to see from each of the players on the ball - minimum shots and xG/shot from the 9; minimum number of passes I'd like to see from the 10 and a percentage of those passes which create chances / shots. For now, I'm relatively pleased that this should get us into the shape that I want on the ball and allow our best players to play in their best positions. Aguirre as an AF makes sense, Saúl and Rojas as a DM pairing is outstanding, Javi out wide. I've also set up a much more conservative system using the same shape which will keep the defensive 6 back and then allow the front four to be the counter-team - for use against Real etc. The only concern for me is at 10 and Mario Martínez. Undoubted potential, he showed some flashes of genuine output two seasons ago when playing in centre-mid. I feel like he should be an excellent 10 but has struggled to make much of an impact in pre-season. A switch of role might help and I'm keen to just give him the game time in order to help him develop his clear potential. That, though, might run contrary to the desire for some silverware and a need for output now. On wider club matters, I let my 72 year-old assistant Paco Ayesterán leave the club this summer - imagining that this was a good time for him to retire. To replace him, I went through the staff at our Orlegi affiliates and appointed former Man Utd midfielder Quinton Fortune. In a nice bit of game narrative, Fortune has 'graduated' through the system - first being Assistant at Atlas Guadalajara, then Santos Laguna and now Sporting. In a rather lovely touch, Santos have replaced him with the other option I considered - Atlas' Rubén Guerreo. Conscious that I've written a lot I should probably just stop there! Tl;dr - I've switched up tactic for the next 10 matches before I switch back to 4-3-3 and generally lose the will to live.

The other issue I have with this bit is the 3 non-EU limit in Spain. So it's hard to take a player straight into the first team. Mexicans, like other Hispanic countries, only take two years to be given Spanish passports (think it's 5 years for others) so I try to have an overlap going. One year in the B-team to prove themself then second year in the first team and then they've got a passport and the next one can come in. Someone like Saul obviously goes straight into the first team. Spoiler - I've kept all the priority players. Totally not a spoiler - I'm still not happy tactically

He's got Determination 15 though? I'm assuming you got that from one of the fan sites? Some of them are, shall we say, less than reliable

I forget what exactly Fickle implies but isn't it just low Loyalty? Does it also imply low Professionalism? Because apart from that Sulley looks like a banger. Looking at his starting attributes and your strategy for forsaking role training and focusing on the additional foci, will you still go with the rotation for Sulley? Like you say, his physicals will naturally increase but that Pace is the only thing which would appear to be holding him back for your DNA. With the others already amongst his highest attributes, it will be interesting to see how fast they would grow and whether or not that 'costs' more CA than improving something like his Dribbling. I really like the calculation for annual increase for the DNA score - but I wonder if it would help to have the non-DNA score annual increase too, perhaps excluding Set Piece attributes and stuff which doesn't increase with training such as Bravery and Aggression? This would give you a comparator to prove that the improvement to DNA-score is caused by the training strategy and not just random variation or overall improved growth

I did know that but I thought that it was just a generated thing for homegrown status? i.e. the players aren't identified 3-4 seasons out My understanding from the Evidence Based FM videos is that the 'draft' for the newgen allocation takes place at the preview event - and that the parameters which affect this 'draft' can change up to the day before that 'draft' and still affect the quality of your intake. i.e. I can upgrade the Youth Recruitment level up to the day before the preview. The CA/PA is only set at the actual youth intake day (or the day before it starts for the highest rep club I think) and the factors affecting that can be changed up to the day before that event. So I could change my HoYD the day before and he would impact the personality of the players that come through. Although the EBFM indicate that the HoYD does not impact CA/PA, I don't recall him doing any experiments about the influence of the HoYD's scouting knowledge. And this is where I'm wondering if I've screwed up. One formation, two styles at the moment. Basically a 4-2-3-1 shape but with the wingers pulled back to the midfield line so I can use the WM(S) role that I've been enjoying recently. Maybe more on this and the counter-version in the next post. There's a lot of good newgens kicking around for sure but I've got a few constraints - one of which is, like you say, the age limit and Mexicans being unable to move abroad until they're 18. The other main problem is the wage cap for the B-team. As they're in LaLiga2, there's quite a tight cap - currently £75kpw for the squad. Mexico is definitely a hotbed of talent but it's also a high-paying league compared to a lot of the places I'd traditionally steal newgens from. Take this guy, for example - only 18 and on £33.5kpw. I could bring him into the first-team but I'd ideally like him to have a year at least in the B-team. But there's no way I can do it when he'd bust half the budget. Regardless, this is where I'm doing all my shopping. We're short of defensive prospects more than anything - although I am a little concerned about the lack of prospects currently in the under-19s. I'd say there's only two players who I expect to make it. The B-team definitely has some good options but there's a bit of a dearth coming up behind. Hopefully the intake this year gets us back on track, if not it'll be back to Mexico.

Re Fabbian's key headers - is he on near post zonal duties for corners? Key headers are just those inside the 6 yard box iirc so this and his aerial prowess could account for the seeming anomaly

I really like this shape that you've shown - particularly the way the two wide players are stretching the play high but with acceleration space for the through ball without going offside. What roles are you using for these guys? I really like the look of Ammer. What are you thinking in terms of training priorities? Physicals?

Vultures A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón After a shocking start to the season, I managed to right the good ship Sporting Heritage and steer her to a solid enough 6th placed finish and Europa League football next season. Still disappointing after two consecutive fourths and a deterioration this campaign of 7 points, scoring 6 fewer and conceding 7 more. Real regained the title from Barcelona in spectacular fashion, hitting 104 points; city rivals Atlético unlucky to miss out after amassing 99 points that would have taken the title in any of the last four seasons. They could content themselves with a Copa del Rey victory (let's not talk about our exit at the first time of asking) whilst Barcelona have reached the Champions League final and may consider that justification for a poor domestic campaign. For our part, I'm afraid that I've lost myself in a not-untypical tactical meandering - desperate to get the best out of our undoubted attacking talents. I'm switched from the standard 4-3-3 to a 5-3-2 to counter-act Arsenal's 4-2-4 and then 4-4-2 to counter-act Atlético's advanced 4-2-2-2 box. Both worked well for a total of zero points and later in the season I started going with varieties of 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-2-1. Partly, I just can't help myself and partly I feel like I'm not maximising the ability of the talent at my disposal. Javi necessitates the use of a winger, González has proven himself undroppable as a midfield runner at CM(A) and Aguirre, whilst handy at inside forward, really needs to be played at AF for us to get the most out of him. These are just three examples of what I, just like every manager, need to work around. For youth focused saves, though, that necessity is even more restrictive. Whilst I feel I've been doing a good job with Javi (6G, 9A), González (14G, 7A) and Aguirre (15G, 5A) it's how the system around them works where I'm underperforming. Yes, some of that will be my insistence on prioritising PA over CA for long-term gain, but I also just have to accept that I've got it wrong. And inconsistency in approach is as much to blame, as I've not only switched system but haven't really committed to an ethos that underpins the system. These were the simple principles that I wanted to apply at the start of the save and I feel I need to both commit to this and then, inspired both by Ben's principles of play and Trequinho's video on his blueprint, expand upon it to get back to how I want to play the game. The remaining question is going to be which good players are prioritised within this expanded framework because, sadly, the vultures are beginning to circle. Javi is attracting concrete interest from Real; where he may be joined by Aguirre - the latter also the subject of rumours linking him with Bayern and PSG. It's possible that their release clauses will prove prohibitive but Javi has already indicated he doesn't want to sign a new contract thanks to the interest shown in him. I'll be really depressed if they both leave - not only are they two of my best players, they're also two of my favourites. With very little required in terms of recruitment, I think this summer will mostly be one of trepidation every time I open the Inbox.

Eighth Intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Yuck. I may have made a huge mistake in sacking the old HoYD and appointing Caers because... yuck. We took this, which was bad enough.... And turned it into this... So what are these no-hopers actually like? (by the way, no Mexicans. But a Welshman, a Romanian and Frenchman. Because reasons) Top Talents Luis Hernández - Yuck Personality - Balanced Oh my dear lord, what in the name of the wee man is that. Let's move on. David - Slightly less yuck Personality - Light-hearted I like the Determination, Technique and Work Rate obviously. His physicals for getting up and down the line are ok and he can dribble but the low Crossing isn't great, nor are the low values for Marking, Tackling and Positioning. I can't see him amounting to much but better than Hernandez. Galder Alonso - moderately yuck Personality - Perfectionist OK, I like the personality and it's REALLY nice to see some pull through from the HoYD's personality. SI think he's better than David with significantly better, if still less than ideal, starting points for defensive attributes and better Crossing ability. His Dribbling could do with improving and he's no doubt got a long way to go but I can see a squad player in there. Good Talents Javier Espejo - not as yuck as I expected Personality - Fairly Determined Maybe this is the striker the preview talked about as our 'A' prospect. Physically he's just fine for 16 but he's certainly lacking on the technicals and mentals. Decent Determination, Technique and First Touch but his finishing lets him down for a striker and his Vision for a creative player. Possibly something there but he's a long way behind what we've got in-house. Pablo - still pretty yuck Personality - Fairly Professional Ok, again a better personality. Physicals are poor but he's only 15. I like his starting point for the playmaker Technicals as First Touch should improve nicely and his mentals aren't that far off. Add 4 to each of them by the time he's 21 and he could be a handy back-up. I'd prefer him to be stronger on both feet but there's a bit of potential there. Callum Wilkes - Welsh yuck Personality - Fairly professional Again, personality is a bonus and he's got a bit of pace about him but his technicals are abysmal. Defensively he's a non-starter with Marking 4 and Tackling 6; offensively Dribbling 4, First Touch 6 and Passing 8. Nope. Hugo Andrés - Physical yuck Personality - Light-hearted Technically and Mentally there's an awful lot to like about Andrés. An awful lot. He's also a young 15, not turning 16 for another 9 months. So those physicals have additional potential to increase. I reckon Andrés has potential for sure, if he can improve his movement and those physicals then the only remaining concern is Anticipation of 4. But are those physicals just too low? I've seen players add 7 to individual attributes but even with 7 added to everything then Andrés is going to be just about good enough. That's a tough ask. Manu - so yuck I'm not adding his screenshot. Jordi Núñez - young yuck Personality - Fairly Determined Scraping the barrel again but Núñez is another young 15, despite already being 6'4". 9 months to improve the physicals is going to see him compete easily - so that really just leave a handful of mentals and his Heading that are worries. So I reckon he's a possibility. -------------------- I'm sorry but the rest are so yuck that I'm not going to sully these hallowed pages with their presence. That is an awful, awful intake. Truly abysmal. Come back Feliu Marquez! What's nice to see is that Caers' personality has pulled through but the quality of the intake is absolutely shocking. Is this down to the HoYD? Or is it just luck? Has appointing a HoYD with no scouting knowledge of the area completely screwed me? His 'scouting knowledge' of Spain is still only 'average'. Genuinely I don't know. I'm going to give Caers another intake to prove his worth - the personality pull-through is encouraging and these things can happen with RNG so we'll see. Meanwhile, our current stable of wonderkids continues to produce the goods: Mouriño - third in the world this year - just got his first call-up to the senior Spain squad; making him the first Mareo newgen to get a senior call-up. I also then got the 'hilarious' April Fools injury notification for Javi, one of my favourite newgens. People who know me will know that I don't like jokes and don't find anything funny. Certainly not this. And certainly not after that intake. Sadly, this doesn't appear to be part of the 'joke'.

I always enjoy people's random rants on FM so don't worry about that. Particularly tactically. I'm with you on the traits - definitely very powerful and I had a post a while back where I looked at the traits that I'd like for each of the profiles in the 4-3-3. Our systems are quite similar but I think I have an opportunity to refresh things this summer. I've been held into using an attacking right-back because of my captain. But he's ageing and very injury prone so I'm considering this as an opportunity to rethink things. Taking a leaf from Ben's book and starting back to front in terms of how I want to play out. I really, really hate non-inverted fullbacks positioning in the defensive and middle third during possession. Something I can probably get rid of now.

Fit's 'Gan Doon A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón As requested by @El Payaso, I thought I'd just do a bit of an update on what's happening in the rest of the wider save world, starting with... Spain No great surprises as Real, Barca and Atlético have dominated - making up the top three in various orders across every save so far. Real have won three titles, with Barca winning three on the bounce in between and the latest title in 2030. Villarreal, first under Tite and then Vincent Kompany, have tended to be the strongest of the also-rans but the usual suspects have usually been there and thereabouts. Whilst Xavi has remained in charge of Barca, the Madrid clubs have changed between managers. Mauricio Pochettino took over from Ancelotti in 2026 and has been in charge since - winning the 2029 Champions League alongside the La Liga titles. Atlético, clearly the least successful of the big three, appointed Nuno Espirito Santo when Simeone left for the Man Utd job. Simeone went on to win the Champions League with Man Utd before being sacked and taking over the Argentine national side, then Real Sociedad and now Ecuador... quite the career path. Other interesting appointments are André Villas-Boas at Athletic and Ruben Amorim at Rayo Vallecano after stints with Granada, Portimonense and Strasbourg. In terms of player moves, probably the most interesting was Bruno Fernandes turning up at Atlético. Now 36, I'll be glad to see the back of him when he retires in the summer. He's been absolutely phenomenal for Atléti and tore us apart when we played them. Continentally, in addition to Real's win in 2029, Barca won the Champions League in 2027 - winning an El Classico final at the Camp Nou of all places. But none of the second string teams have been able to do anything in the Europa or Conference. England Whilst Man City secured a fourth title in 2024, they've only won two of the next six. However, not much interest as it's been the usual suspects in Chelsea (2), Liverpool (1) and Arsenal (1) who took the other titles. Indeed, only Newcastle has disrupted the traditional top 6 and no-one particularly interesting has been promoted - single seasons from Bristol City and Stoke being the most unusual. In terms of managers, De Zerbi succeeded Arteta when the latter left for Bayern in 2028 and Chelsea have made their way through Luis Enrique and Zidane to now land on Marco Rose. Liverpool sacked Klopp in 2029 after 13.5 years and appointed Arne Slot - only to sack the Dutchman less than a year later and appoint Vincenzo Italiano. Pep is still in charge at City, Eddie Howe at Newcastle whilst Man Utd went from ten Haag to Simeone to Pioli to Inzaghi and now Diego Martinez... the former Olympiakos manager bringing the "three cups" but really just the Europa League. France PSG have won the league every season and brought back Thomas Tuchel. And that's enough about France. Except maybe Filippo Inzaghi being Auxerre manager is quite cool. Italy Two Lazio scudetti and one Milan are sandwiched between four Inter titles. Juve are slowly coming back to the top and finished just a point behind the nerrazurri last term, whilst Roma are slipping down the league and this term are just two points above relegation. Italy is also the most interesting league for managers with Klopp now at Inter, having replaced ten Haag who in turn replaced De Zerbi. Thomas Thomasberg, who is apparently a real person, is now in charge of Juve having started the game at Midtjylland whilst Danielle de Rossi has taken over at struggling Roma just 7 years after real life - hoping to improve on the fortunes of Mourinho, Laurent Blanc, Rafael Marquez and the definitely not pasta Mattia Croci-Torti. And whilst Russell Martin has turned up at Torino, my favourite random appointment is the cultured David Moyes being entrusted with the Milan job. Delightful. Germany One Leipzig title in 2027 is all that's stopped Bayern from 18 consecutive titles - Marco Rose being sacked for his failure to win the title and being replaced by Arteta. Germany hasn't really produced much in the way of interest. Others Bayer Neverkusen no more after they won the 2030 Europa League and even Everton and Spurs won trophies - taking the Conference League in 2028 and 29 respectively. Sparta Prague were unlikely runners up in 2027. Sturm Graz finally broke the Red Bull monopoly in Austria and it looks like Hansi Flick's Salzburg may miss out two seasons on the bounce as Rapid lead this time round. Gus Poyet is currently managing AE Kifisias in the Greek Super League. No, me neither but they had a South Korean tycoon take over in 2025. Portugal also saw it's 6th-ever different title winner with Braga winning the league in 2025. It's in Portugal where we once again meet Mr ten Haag who, having been sacked by Man Utd in December 2023, lasted 7 months at Nottingham Forest before choosing to join PSV. Having taken the Eredivisie title back to Eindhoven, he departed for Benfica and won two titles before opting for Inter. He's now the Dutch national coach having decided two Serie A titles were enough. And, as always, international management is where FM brings its greatest randomness. Brendan Rodgers being German manager, for example. Sean Dyche leading the Turkish national side. Ancellotti being sacked as England manager after losing to Portugal in Euro 2028 quarters. England won Euro 2024, by the way - beating Serbia in the final; France beat the Netherlands in 2028. The Dutch using the heartbreak as motivation to win the 2030 World Cup, usurping 2026 winners Ecuador. Yes, Ecuador. This was before Simeone arrived. The guy who won the World Cup with Ecuador couldn't get a job and retired in 2028. Only in FM.