Shrewnaldo

I was thinking about that 3-2 in early possession and the tendency to just knock it about - I wondered whether it's just for lack of options to play through. Looking at the 3-2 set-up you posted earlier, I'm wondering if you're ever tempted to leave more players further forward? Or perhaps just wide? I know one of your principles is to have at least one extra player in the build-up but there you're effectively play 5v2, or maybe 5v1.5. I know it's just a snapshot but if you play the ball into your "2" of the 3-2 and the defence's front 1.5/2 are the ones to close them down, that leaves the two banks of four undisrupted and difficult to play through - at least centrally. Would you be tempted to leave a player or two further forward or wide? I think someone else mentioned it above, but leaving one of the wingbacks as a non-inverted option then allows you to play out down the flank and maybe develop a 3v2 in the wide area - or at least just stretch the play to pull the banks of four wider? I'm absolutely certain that this will have occurred to you and you've thought it all though, just interested in your thought process (apologies if this is somewhere in the thread above)

Here's us: :-D So yes, very much fighting against the odds. But isn't that how we like it? At the moment I'm using a CM(A) and AP(S) in central midfield with a DM(D) behind but I'm scrutinising this at the moment and considering going with two runners - the thinking is that perhaps the playmaker in midfield is pulling the ball away from the DLF. HOWEVER, I like my playmaker to be facing the goal and, as much as I love a striker dropping off and flicking passes round the corner, I think I'd still rather have my most creative player facing goal with runners ahead of him. Clearly Polo isn't of the level of quality that you have with Havertz but you've definitely got a point about how many options he has. If we play quickly then he's only really for the inside forward to hit early and the CM(A) on a slight delay. If we play slower then he's crowded out and can only really pass backwards. I think my biggest problem is something that's probably come thru before - I really don't feel that the team has an identity. Compare it to my Feralpi and Verona sides - we knew what we were. Big, physical sides playing with a low block and looking to hit on the break and exploit counters. I'm still not really sure what my Sporting side is supposed to be excelling at, except developing youngsters.

Looks like you're smashing it Have you adjusted those metrics for possession, compared to your average from last season? It would be useful for some of the passing and defensive metrics.

I agree that it seems entirely hit-and-miss, maybe even haphazard. I've had mixed success - with no predictability to when it works and when it doesn't. To add to that, I feel like it isn't any more effective than the entirely uncontrollable 'mentoring' effects that randomly occur without any actual mentoring groups. Players outside of mentoring groups change personality and inherit traits from seemingly random selections of players, with absolutely no ability for the manager to control or predict, and often quicker than will occur within the directed mentoring groups. Whilst I agree that the old system was too effective, this current system is awful in my opinion.

All good questions. In terms of the league, we're 9th but only a point off 6th. With the top 3 being so far clear of the rest, there's usually 1-3 teams that have a mini-league for 4th spot and then the rest in a bunch. This season we're in the bunch. The xG table says we're one goal ahead of where we should be, conceded two more than we should and bang on the money in terms of both points and position. To me, it's clear that conceding a goal and a half a game just isn't what we're looking for and it's defensively where our biggest issues are. That said, we also get games like this one against Betis. Having absolutely battered them, we've underperformed our xG by a goal and a half despite creating chances at 0.16xG/shot. These, though, are individual game issues and, taken as a whole, the problem to me looks more defensive. Regarding Polo, the creativity just hadn't been there. As far as I recall, he's only laid on one assist for Aguirre - this is exactly the sort of thing that I would be wanting to see on a regular basis, but this goal against Vallecano is the only example I can think of. Dropping off, pulling the defender with him and then playing Aguirre into the channel between centre back and full back. Perfect. But rare. My B-team do play the same system and that's prompted me to look at the creativity of Fernando - the primary DLF for the second string. Really not a great deal in it. But that brings me back to the defensive side of the game being the bigger problem within our current system. The B-team have scored 30 in 21 games (1.42/90) and conceded 14 (0.66/90). The first team has scored 27 in 18 (1.5/90) and conceded 27 (1.5/90). Ok, 9 of those have come against Barca and Real but taking those out, it's still 18 in 16 games (1.125/90). So I'm thinking defensive stability is the primary personnel issue and the Polo-shaped conundrum (no "playing in the hole" jokes here) is perhaps more a system problem.

A struggle A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón It's been a really difficult start to the 2030/31 campaign. The start of the season was bumpy as we struggled in a couple of away games against Getafe and Betis, which put us in a weak position for a really tough run of fixtures where everything went against us. Defeats to Barca and Real can happen but we were really, really poor and it compounded an already sticky start to the season. We recovered somewhat through October, November and December but I can't say we've been convincing in the majority of those games, with only the 3-0 win over Zaragoza being something of a cake walk. Even the 5-1 win over Sociedad was just one of those games where everything we hit went in. The struggles culminated in an entirely predictable defeat to second-tier Granada - a team who aren't even flying in LaLiga 2. In a reverse of the Sociedad game, Granada took their much weaker chances whilst we scraped to only match our xG - wasting an awful lot of shots off target. There's a fair shout to point at 20 year-old 'keeper Carlos Gil as the culprit. Yet such is the risk that I've been taking - accepting that results like this will happen in an effort to maximise the potential for the guajes. And where Gil has continued to struggle, the first-team game time continues to work wonders for a handful of other players who continue to cement their places in the squad. Aguirre has started attracting interest from Chelsea and Barca, so I've one eye on his replacement should the inevitable occur. The rest are attracting interest from what I would term second-tier big clubs such as PSV and I'd remain confident that we can keep them here. Whilst these players continue to impress, I have become increasingly concerned by the performances of first-choice DLF Francesc Polo. Having come through the first intake, Polo was the pioneer newgen - breaking into the first team and performing well both at 9 and when I played a wide playmaker. He's always been a bit streaky and has just come off the back of an 8 game barren spell. He's underperformed his xG by just over 2 and has become a very low-volume striker - taking just 1.2 shots per 90, with 0.4 of those outside the box. Sadly, he's not making up for it with creativity either - making just 25 passes per 90 and averaging 0.14xA. I'd have preferred to rotate Polo out of the team and perhaps experiment with a different sort of 9 - but injuries have restricted the choices available to me. Diego López, in particular, missed 3 months of the season after tearing his calf muscle. Similarly at the back, we've been without Mouriño, Gragera and Rafael González for lengthy period. None, though, can match the injury record of Guille 'sick note' Rosas. Note the scroll bar on the right. Rosas' absence is often key - he's both our captain and one of the few experienced players that we have, not to mention his quality. I've brought José Carlos Ferrer and Gabriel Vera into the first-team squad to provide cover but neither are of the quality to hold down the right-back spot long-term. Mouriño is the obvious option and has played 13 of his 20 games from right-back - but that means I lose the cover centrally and forces additional game time on Gragera and González. With some many games before christmas, both centre backs have shown signs of early fatigue and no doubt contributed to our poor defensive record. The obvious solution is to recruit additional defensive cover in January. I don't have any Mareo graduates ready to step up, with Carlos and Pablo Castillo two or three years off first-team readiness. So it looks like I'm going to need to spend some of my £114m transfer budget - potentially breaking the Spanish / Mexican duopoly that currently exists in the squad. The other developing gap, at 9, will be filled by guajes. We have a host of quality newgens coming through and I'd like to experiment a little with roles to decide what long-term profile is going to be needed. Is the DLF no longer the right option or is it just that Polo simply isn't good enough? Meanwhile, it looks like I may have made another mistake - with the intake preview indicating that the new Head of Youth Development has had a shocker. The first intake which hasn't been dubbed a 'golden generation', that could be a big problem for this game style. Just as well we have a stable full of talents already. The B-team are currently winning LaLiga2 which feels absolutely ludicrous. You can see our 'arch rivals' Real Oviedo down there in 10th - 9 places behind our B-team in the second tier. Not much of a rivalry that one.

As we will shortly see in an update to come, I may have (again) gone too far. Been a struggle this season. Appreciate the input but I don't have a great deal of choice. I'm not really sure how to develop goalkeepers, to be honest - at what point should they be loaned out, at what point should they get first team football. It feels like he really needs first-team top-tier game time to take the next step. His Reflexes have increased by only one since he was spawned - so I'm hoping that will increase by another 4, maybe 5, if he gets the right game time and 'keepers do indeed develop technically between 20 and 25. I'm happy to give him a season to test him and, if he fails, then I move on and look at Corominas as the next one up. I do have those types of partnerships. I didn't at the start of the game but I managed to successfully negotiate it. The ties were then cut and I decided to use the editor to add them back in as permanent deals of that sort - just to reflect the Orlegi ownership structure IRL.

I'm loving the recruitment posts... maybe a little bit too much as they're prompting a bit of nostalgia for my Feralpi/Hellas save. I don't get the opportunity to do this sort of recruitment much in my Sporting save... giving me some thoughts of a return to Italy... I'm also loving the bar charts you've done on cost per minute played. Really effective way of showing which players are over-valued and should be moved on. Would you think about doing something similar with other statistics? Goal contributions would be the obvious one but I wonder if it would also work with selected statistics for specific roles? Progressive passes and xA for deep creators, for example?

Going to second this. Fabbian was brilliant for my Hellas Verona side - I think he scored nearly 20 in Serie A and scored 2 in the Coppa Italia final. Should be brilliant in 2.Bundesliga

A sneak peak rather encapsulates the transfer policies... Mexicans in: Non-Spaniards / Mexicans out: Could probably have got more for the sales but we have £166m in the bank and a £116m transfer budget so, you know, YOLO.

Yeah, I remember spotting that during the alpha for FM23 when it was introduced ( But I think that's just a different means of calculating the stat rather than the stat itself not working. My concern atm is that it seems to be just wrong - or at least calculated differently for human player games than generated games. It's more of a "feel" than a "know" though. It just "feels" like the human player OPPDA is always oddly high

Ouch, those personalities. It's a real shame that Maucksh's positioning is so low as otherwise he could make a decent 'keeper. How well do your signings suit the 4-3-3? Anyone left out?

At the moment, my first team options at centre-back are 30 year-old IRL guaje José Gragera, 31 year-old Czech international Ladislav Krejčí and 22 year-old Mexican newgen Rafael González. I've just brought 19 year-old Mexican newgen Radamés Solano up from the B-team to provide extra cover too. In terms of Mareo newgens, I've only got 16 year-old Carlos - who I've just put in the B-team , Raimundo Montiel - who I see as more of the left inverted full-back and have just demoted to the B-team, and 18 year-old Federico Navarro. I could look to bring Manuel Navarro back to the club but I think Spurs would want £10m and I doubt he's worth it.

I was confused there - when I first read it you'd only given me the first answer! Haha Anyway: I like this idea - my only concern would be if Ayesa gets annoyed by the lack of game time, but it protects me in case Gil has a shocking run of form I'm 100% aligned I'm definitely shifting Aguirre to the right but I'm completely undecided on López still... I suspect you're right on game time though If I could find the right loan for Gil then I think this would be a good idea, but he isn't attracting any loan interest. I've asked the board for a new loan affiliate so I'm hoping they find a suitable non-Spanish club Same as Litmanen then and I agree with you both. I definitely have other guajes who can come in. Hugo Quiñones would be the first option I just can't decide on this one I feel you're right on Mouriño. Rosas is just too injury prone to rely upon. The problem is that I don't have many guaje centre backs to pull on so was keen to get Mouriño into the centre I like Escribano as a squad option because he can cover a few roles and won't moan about game time because of his rep. I think keep him around but prioritise Elvira for game time is the option

Dilemmas A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón So I left off the truncated last post by talking about difficult choices I'm about to face and I guess such choices are a key part of the game, indeed likely a key part of football management. Choices between tactical styles, trade offs between committing players forward or conservatively protecting your own goal, deciding recruitment priorities and which players to bring in. For me, it's about when to let senior players move on and bring the newgens through. Some examples: Dilemma 1 - Goalkeeper Gaizka Ayesa has been excellent for us, since replacing the error prone CJ Sánchez in 2028. A £5.5m signing from Bodø/Glimt, he's gone on to keep 28 clean sheets in 70 league games and broke the 7 mark for average rating this season. At 29, he's just hitting his peak years for a goalkeeper and signed a new 'star player' contract in January to keep him here for another 3 seasons. In truth, that was so that I could maintain his value and Saudi clubs came sniffing early in the window. I'm tempted to let him go but the £30-40m they've offered thus far is just too low. Carlos Gil came through the third intake alongside wonderkids Aguirre and Javi. Until the arrival of Corominas this intake, he's been my best hope for a newgen 'keeper and has been progressing relatively well this far. A loan spell at Racing de Ferrol last term and the B-team spot this campaign has given him 75 LaLiga2 games (19 clean sheets, 93 conceded). In 2027/8, I have him 19 first-team games and he did pretty well - 7 clean sheets, 23 conceded. Having turned 20, I feel Gil needs top flight football to see him kick-on. His attributes aren't great yet with Reflexes and Positioning of 10 the obvious weaknesses, so selling Ayesa and making Gil first-choice will cost us goals and points. Worth it for the long term? I can't see him getting a top-flight loan as first-choice in Spain - unless at a relegation candidate where his development might suffer for poor performances and morale... so the option might be a foreign loan for a mid-table club in Scandinavia or maybe Netherlands? We don't have any foreign affiliates with loan options and I've never noticed any interest generating naturally from such countries... So what would you do? Dilemma 2 - Playmaker Aarón Molínas joined us from Boca Juniors in our final season in LaLiga2, initially on loan and then triggering his £5.25m future fee once we were promoted. He's been an absolute stalwart of our success - first as the linking 10 in the 5-2-2-1 and then as a mezzala or centre mid playmaker in the 4-3-3. 31 league assists in 4 LaLiga seasons is decent, but then last campaign he managed only one - primarily as other players started taking set pieces. I almost let him go last summer thanks to his discomfort during big matches but the few offers we received for him were derisory. Mario Martínez came through the fourth intake and had one stellar season in the under-19s (scoring 14 and assisting 7 in 15 starts), before a successful loan spell with Segunda club Zamora. The following season he performed brilliantly for the under-19s, earning a promotion and was instrumental in the B-teams promotion from the Primera. Fast-tracked to the first-team, he played 2089 minutes this season and turned in some impressive numbers (0.43 assists per 90 [0.21xA], 1.59 OPKP/90, 5.04 progressive passes per 90). My favourite start of his is that whilst he was on the pitch the team conceded only 0.6 goals per 90 - perhaps an indication that he brings an element of control to the midfield. To a much lesser extent than Gil, Martínez's attributes are not of LaLiga level - certainly physically and he still lacks a little technically. So again, I would have to accept some drop off in quality compared to Molínas. So what would you do? Dilemma 3 - Inside Forward Diego López is my most expensive signing by quite some distance - costing me £16.5m to bring him back to Spain from Brentford. Unlike Ayesa or Molínas, López is a Mareo graduate but left for first Real and then Barca before finding game time at Valencia and a move to the Premier League. He was absolutely superb in his first season, playing as a 9, before having a really poor season in 27/28. For the next two seasons he's been moved to inside forward at AMR in the 4-3-3 and has scored 20 in 68 starts. He's a big game player with a good personality and, according to my coaches at least, consistent. My biggest problem with López has always been that he's a low volume shooter - in 3520 minutes this season, he took only 1.3 shots per 90 - 0.43 of which were outside the box, at 0.15xG per shot. Ander Aguirre has been well-documented on these pages recently - a clear talent for whom I'm struggling to find a slot in the team. He's not suited the DLF role that I'm using at 9 and has struggled to perform as a left-winger. Inside forward from the right makes a lot of sense - his physicals suit it perfectly, he can dribble and has great movement. He's also much better in the air than López which will help get the best out of left-winger Javi. This one I think is a done deal - Aguirre should be the starting inside forward next season. The question is whether or not to sell López. Listed as a regular starter, he may get irritated by a lack of game time. However, he's capable of covering the three forward positions and, at 28, is the only experienced player likely to get game time in the forward line. Feyenoord are interested and he should be bring in £30m, plus release his £42.5kpw wage. We also have no shortage of options coming through that could pick up game time if López left. Álex has done really well this season when given his chance, scoring 7; whilst Seydou Diawara is attracting interest from Inter and Benfica. Then there's golden boy Sergio Lozano - but he might be better served with a loan deal this season, guaranteeing him regular game time to get those attributes moving in the right direction. And we've got Vicente Cuadrado, Carlos Cerro, Oscar Villenueva and - according to the game the top prospect at Sporting currently - Fernando in the second string waiting to come in. How important is it to keep an experienced option around? At the risk that he throws his toys out of the pram? What would you do? ------------------------------------------- I have these sorts of dilemmas all over the park. Should I move Jonathan Mouriño to right-back where he has deputised for the injury-prone Guille Rosas so well this season, or pull him back into the centre and buy in cover for Rosas at right-back? Is it better to loan out Iván Elvira, or sell Domingo Escribano and let Elvira take his game time? Fun times and I'd love any opinions on any of these dilemmas. I think I've made up my mind on the three main ones above but opinions always welcome.

Do you think OPpDA is working correctly?

It's a fair point and I do think we're overachieving, given the constraints that I've put on team selection. We have £100m transfer budgets now and a spare £400kpw wage budget - so in an 'ordinary' save I could just go splash that to challenge the big three but it's just not my style. I think my issue with the HoYD has been the lack of pull-through on the personality - but then Márquez had "only" a professional personality with Reserved media handling. So I'm wondering whether the Perfectionist is going to give a more-rounded pull-through - with high Determination, Professionalism and Ambition. Plus he's Level Headed which implies decent Loyalty. One bad intake out of six isn't a bad record for the old HoYD but it's the personality thing that's been bothering me for three or four of those. I'm assuming your striker is not developing now? I'm finding the loan market a bit hit-and-miss, and pretty high risk. I've had quite a few players go out and just stagnate. I can't make up my mind whether or not it's any better than time in the B-team

Cheers I use this pack from Susi with the newgan manager thing https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/33/ultra-realistic-newgan-faces-megapack

Best of the Rest? A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón A successful season as we managed to negotiate continental football and retain our fourth spot to get back-to-back campaigns. The biggest disappointment of the campaign was the Copa del Rey semi-final defeat to Betis. Having beat them 2-1 in the first leg, I was left with that awkward position where I'm never sure whether to play aggressive and try to put the game out of sight early-doors - or go conservative and try to hold onto the one goal lead. And then, in typical FM style, I could tell from kick-off that we were destined to lose and a 2-0 reverse put us out. In the Champions League, we started with a hilarious game in Czechia when three of the goals were complete farces ... ...and yet took the win to combine with later victories over Olympiakos, Gladbach and Arsenal. A draw with Liverpool came between losses to Nice and Porto, before we finished off the campaign with a home defeat to Bayern. That was, surprisingly, enough for us to finish 11th but we came up against Enzo Maresca's Spurs in the playoffs where a 3-2 aggregate defeat flattered us. In the league, 6 fewer goals scored and 4 fewer conceded brought us four more points than last season - three defeats becoming three draws. Meanwhile, the B-team's first campaign in LaLiga2 was super successful - finishing 7th and one place outside of the playoffs they couldn't qualify for anyway. And the under-19s retained both their Under-19 Cup, defeating local rivals Oviedo 4-0 in the final, and the U-19 division - scoring 114 goals in the league phase and then knocking 7, 6 and 6 past their knock-out phase opponents. Dominance. Pleasingly, we did all this whilst boosting both the squad proportion and game time given to Mareo graduates. Gragera and Diego López, real life guajes, and newgens Francesc Polo, Ander Aguirre and Javi all saw >3000 minutes - whilst Mario Martínez, Jonathan Mouriño and Carlos Rojas all got between 2000 and 3000 minutes. The foreign contingent is made up of Czech centre back Ladislav Krejčí, Argentine playmaker Aarón Molinas and two Mexican defenders - Alejandro Gómez and Rafael González. The latter has been particularly good and will be joined in the summer by wonderkid Saúl González. González's arrival will mean that we have three of the world's top five wonderkids according to the NxGn award and has prompted me to consider the next stage of the squad's evolution - selling Krejčí and Molinas to make the squad entirely Spanish and Mexican, with the domestic contingent consisting of 9 Mareo graduates to every one bought in. This wasn't part of the original plan but the game has slowly been creeping in as I've subconsciously overprioritised the guajes and Mexicans. Ideally, I'd like it so the Mexican players only fill gaps in the guaje production - something which is definitely the case with Alejandro Gómez at left back and Rafael González at centre back. But Saúl is the sort of signing I never make - just a really good player in a position that I don't really need. That, together with some general dissatisfaction with the 4-4-2, prompted me into some tactical experimentation over the latter half of the season. The main impetus for the experimentation was my desire to get the most out of Ander Aguirre. The winger/striker was the undoubted star of the third intake and has developed into a hugely promising player in the four years since. He scored on his debut and in his first senior season he scored 10 in 16(9). Then in 2027/8, he scored only 5 all campaign - completely unsuited to the DLF role up top and struggling as a left winger. But I really want to fit Aguirre, Javi and Polo into the same side. Javi's technicals mean that he can only really be a winger, whilst Polo has been moulded into the link player that Aguirre isn't. The obvious option is to put Aguirre on the right as the inside forward but that slot is intended for golden boy Sergio Lozano in the long-term and is currently occupied by Diego López. So the 4-2-3-1 seemed like an obvious choice - allowing Polo to link from AM and Aguirre to play a striker role to which he is more suited. It hasn't really worked out though - results have been fine but the 9 doesn't get enough shots to make his lack of general involvement worthwhile. It also comes without the defensive shape that I prefer (4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3). So the 4-3-3 seems like it'll be back as the primary option and I have a choice to make on Aguirre versus López for right wing. Indeed, there are quite a number of choices to make as the newgens from intakes four, five and six start to challenge for places. Selling Krejci and Molinas will free up a couple of spaces, whilst Welton (22, newgen), Dani Quiepo (28) and Manu Garcia (32) are also surplus to requirements; and Romanian Florin Chiripus is the first decent newgen I've allowed to leave - sold to Cluj for £2.2m. --------------- Apologies, partial post but interrupted by family stuff and don't want to lose what I've typed so far.

Ah bloody hell. I assume "BR" was "briggs". I had no idea. What a shame.

I do remember the name. Didn't you used to post stories on TD? I do have 'fog of war' or attribute masking on. I find it a little odd the way the game treats it but I much prefer to playing without it. I think if you go to watch a game yourself then you should reveal attributes in the same way as sending scouts - or even when you play against other teams, but for some reason it doesn't work like that which I find very annoying. I think on Gonzalez, I've just accepted that I'm going to have ~75% of my players from our academy with the other ~25% either other Spanish players or Mexicans. And he is properly good so I couldn't pass him up two years on the bounce. Lozano is still listed as 'Fairly Professional' which is another reason for my disappointment in his development so far. He's had nearly 1000 first-team minutes this season but seems to be in a similar position to your players - he isn't playing that well so his morale is relatively low and therefore he doesn't develop? How long are you planning on sticking at Leverkusen? If the non-active promotions are based on reputation then you could get into 3.Liga within 3 seasons? Not sure how much the B-team would cost you but worth a shot? But I'd definitely agree that Bundesliga2 games with Duisburg will be much better - the only downside there is that you can't control the system they'd be playing in, or influence the game time the same way you can with a B-team. I'm absolutely with you on this intake. Underwhelming is definitely the word I'd choose. I do like Corominas a lot and I think Carlos is pretty decent but it's way behind all of our other intakes in terms of excitement factor. I ended up sacking our HoYD and bringing in Thomas Caers. Little bit of an experiment this one but I wanted the personality more than the attributes or the nationality. I have no idea if his lack of scouting knowledge in Spain will affect the intake at all. I don't think it does and I don't recall seeing anything in Evidence Based FM's videos about it, but it's always possible. Hopefully Caers can help us back into a better intake next year AND see some pull-through with the personality. Agree, I really like him. I'm just not sure what role is best suited for him - which is weird for me because I never sign a player unless I'm absolutely sure where he'll fit into the planned system.

indeed, some of them are just personal favourites too. Polo is now our top scorer even though he can be a bit streaky and Escribano is a really solid option in the middle. So far, I'm finding it no different. The board have no great expectations and so I'm willing to take the risk that we miss out on Champions League football by just playing them. We don't really need the money and I'm liking the slow burn rather than just bounding straight to the top. The only one who is causing me any concern is Lozano - the wonderkid from the last intake. He's actually regressed since spawning and I'm wondering whether I should have left him in the unders for a bit longer. I know there's 'official' feedback about players developing better if they play unders until 18 and whilst that obviously isn't always the case it certainly seems to have been with Lozano. One year in the under-19s might have been best. Or the b-team. Now that they've made it to LaLiga2, I've noticed a big difference in the development players are getting from their game time - so it's definitely a really important bridge for my side. At 3rd and 4th tier level... it was useful but no doubt that the step up to tier 2 is hugely beneficial. Leverkusen have a B-team?

The Seventh Intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón It's that time of year again, as we turn this... ...into this... And there's even a Mexican newgen hiding in there for the first time. Elite Talents Guillem Corominas - Goalkeeper That's a really solid start. Really solid. At 15, he has double figures for everything that I want in a 'keeper bar One-on-Ones and Agility, both of which should tick over pretty soon. The Aerial Reach should increase quickly with his physical development and let's assume he gets 3-5 attribute point on the rest of the Technicals and Mentals... he's a winner. The only question will be if the save lasts long enough to see him into the first team. As a 'keeper, we're talking another 5-6 seasons realistically... Antonio - Winger? All tattoos are terrible but neck tattoos are particularly terrible. We'll forgive the newgan picture development that though. Potential, for sure. His clear strength is in his Physicals and Technique, with good Flair and Teamwork. I can see why the game has put him as a winger despite being natural up top. If he wasn't identified as an Elite Talent then I'd probably put him in the 'decent' pile with a hope of developing, rather than expectation. Top Talents Melvyn Jarry - French Rather stereotyping with the terrible moustache there but Jarry seems to have washed up in Gijón after a heavy night out in Clohars-Carnoët over there on the south coast of Brittany. And I can't say I am terribly impressed. Physicals are fine and will develop, his technicals are ok for a midfielder I guess but those mentals are shockingly bad. Very much a meh, for me. Carlos - Centre back I really wanted centre-backs so this is a welcome one. Carlos looks decent and I'm really pleased to see that his starting technicals are already really solid for a centre back. I've struggled to get Heading, in particular, to increase for my newgens so far - with one or two points on the key three technicals then we should be on to a winner. The physicals should shoot up over the next two years and the mentals are fine, if unspectacular. My coaches also think he's already consistent - a massive boost for a defender. Really pleased with this one. Ivan Jiménez - Wide Targetman Don't mind a 6'4" winger at all, not one bit. On the other hand, Strength of 4 isn't ideal. And Off the Ball of just 6, Composure of just 4, Passing of just 6... there's some red flags there for sure. I really like the Work Rate and the Teamwork but his low Bravery, not to mention that Strength, is going to limit his effectiveness as an aerial threat. I think he'll dominate the youth leagues but struggle to kick on once he gets to senior football but we'll see. Pablo Castillo - Beard Quite the beard for a 15 year-old. Best personality so far and it's nice to see the Bravery that is so lacking in Jimémez but there are gaps galore with Castillo. If that personality helps him kick-on early and boost Heading, Marking, Positioning, Jumping Reach and Strength by 3 a-piece then perhaps he'll make the squads but... I'm not holding my breath. Good Talents There are 8 of them and they're all terrible. None more so than our first Mexican newgen... Juan Javier Jaramillo - Meh Triple J has a shocking personality and is poor physically, but perhaps has the Technicals to do something... in the b-team... maybe? Not really - I'm clutching at straws massively here. He can control the ball really well and he can probably dribble, really slowly, quite nicely and put in a half decent cross... but that's about it. -------------------- 2 Elite Talents, 4 Top Talents, 8 Good Talents and 2 Decent Talents. Of that I think Corominas is the big dub here, whilst Carlos is probably going to end up first-team material. Then there's maybe Antonio and... not a lot else? That probably makes this our worst intake yet - but the most disappointing aspect is undoubtedly the personalities of those 16 newgens: Balanced - 7 Fairly Loyal - 2 Unambitious - 2 Low Self Belief - 1 Fairly Professional - 1 Light-hearted - 2 Fickle - 1 My HoYD is Professional, so where's the pull through? I think a shake-up to refresh it all would do nicely so I'm going to sack Feliu Márquez and go on the hunt for a new HoYD. EDIT - in other news... Aguirre is the second-best wonderkid in the world and Jonathan Mouriño is fifth. Meanwhile, Saul González at affiliate Club América is this year's winner... and is joining Sporting Gijón in the summer for £8.6m.

OK, that's handy. But nothing on promises? Don't know why I'm asking. I'm way too much of a control freak to let my DOF do this

I like the look of Krassnitzer a lot. Got to love Austrians I've never let my DOF negotiate contracts etc, can you not set some limits or parameters to it? Seems a bit rubbish that he has free rein to set something like playing time. If not, will you just stick with that approach or try something else? I think you can choose to negotiate the contract yourself, set the playing time and promises and then handover to the DOF?