Shrewnaldo

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?

The Schulz stuff is very, very weird. I don't have many in my Sporting save but I loaded the Hellas / Feralpi save there's 90 or so. I think it was created on the same patch as your current game is? So maybe a patch with recurring newgen names - there was a thing with recurring IDs wasn't there, so maybe a crossover.

More outs than ins A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Some relatively significant departures from El Molinón as I pushed out three players who I think were costing us those big games. Jesús Orozco Chiquete, whose red card after 20 minutes cost us any chance at the Copa del Rey final, went to Saudi for £18.5m and was followed by Jonathan Varane - Raphael's little brother bringing in the princely sum of £42.5m and 20% of his next fee. Between them, winger Gaspar left for Greek football for a surprising fee of up to £14.5m. Gaspar is a guaje and I did consider keeping him around but that lack of big game mentality just forced my hand - besides, there's plenty of newgen options for his position now. With over £100m burning a hole in my pocket I only brought in two players - both Mexican centre backs. Rafael González joins the first-team as a direct replacement for Chiquete - combining aerial dominance with an ability to play out from the back. Solano joins the B-team to supplement for a general lack of guaje centre backs that have come through and gone on to prove their worth. At just £6m and £1.9m respectively, I still have quite the funding available to me should I have decided to use it. Instead, I'm once again just sticking the youth into the first team - Champions League and all. The senior squad now has 19 players classed as 'trained at club' and they continue to demand >50% of the side's game minutes. Indeed, these numbers are skewed somewhat by Manu Garcia and Dego López who are Asturians that started their careers at Sporting but not for long enough to be classed as 'trained at the club'. I've also brought in a few more newgen guajes to the senior squad, so that we now have the following. I've linked the posts with the intakes themselves, on the off-chance you want to go back and compare the players to when they spawned: First intake: Welton - Centre back Domingo Escribano - DM Florin Chirpus - DM Francesc Polo - DLF Second intake: Raimundo Montiel - inverted leftback Carlos Rojas - DM Hugo Quiñones - centre mid Third intake: Ander Aguirre - left-winger / 9 Javi - left-winger / midfield runner Carlos Gil - goalkeeper Fourth intake: Álex - DLF Mario Martínez - midfield playmaker Fifth intake: Jonathan Mouriño - centre back Sixth intake: Sergio Lozano - golden boy Whilst a couple of them might be borderline not good enough, 14 newgen academy players from each of the six intakes so far is a healthy return. And there's plenty coming through to add to that. With the B-team now in LaLiga2, I'm really giving the best prospects free rein to develop at the higher level in second team rather than go out on loan - and so far they're holding their own with a solid mid-table position. There are a couple of noticeable gaps - right back primarily, and centre back where Mouriño is clearly excellent but a lot of the other options tend to tail off about 19/20 and never kick on. This led me to almost splash £12m and bring Manuel Navarro back from Spurs but his technical weaknesses put me off and I've left him there in the hope he'll develop himself a bit better. With all that cash, I probably "should" have invested in some real talent and started challenging the three big clubs at the top of the table but, truth be told, I'm quite happy to play out a couple of seasons to establish ourselves as the fourth force in Spanish football and perhaps pick up a cup - as we can so close to doing last season. Besides, the planner is already rammed full of talent just needing consistent game time and I really don't like relinquishing control of the best players through loans. The one position I very nearly bought-in for was CM(A). Javi and Quiñones are not the finished article by any means and I was very, very tempted to bring in Mexican wonderkid Saúl González for his £8.6m release fee. Playing for affiliate Club América, González is clearly quality but isn't really a CM(A) - the position I was looking to fill. I figured I could bring him in, play him there for a season and he'd do pretty well - well enough that he'd get me a pretty chunky profit come the end of the campaign. I could then let Javi go on loan and get game time elsewhere. In the end I decided against it - we have plenty of our own prospects for DM, where González is best suited, and I just preferred giving Mareo graduates the nod over the all-too-standard 'sign a bunch of foreign wonderkids' route. Yes, it's sort of within the premise of the save to look at the Mexican market but I prefer to make things hard for myself really. So into the Champions League we go, with the average age of the squad now just a smidge under 23. Our annual salary is still only 16th in the league, too - like I say, I like to make it unnecessarily difficult. I'll probably need to figure out what to spend all that money on. A new stadium maybe? ¡Siempre Sporting!

Oooohh... In terms of realism, that's very hard to turn down. It's also a good time to leave because it doesn't feel, from the outside, like you've had enough time to build anything that you'd be sorry to leave at Bochum? Taking Raya with you then?

I decided to sell Varane (£42.5m +20% next sale) but the initial offer for Molinas was only £12m and, whilst I don't need the money, I couldn't accept that Thanks very much, always appreciated. I hope you remember the query some time

We haven't faced that level of fixture congestion so I'm thinking it's not that for us. I think for us it's that big players aren't keen on big matches - I've discovered another one in midfield. I hadn't realised that the game would consider the end of season fixtures as 'big games', but it looks like there's a switch once you get into the final 2 months or last 10 games. Both are going to be thoroughly plundered for first-team options this year. ----------------------------- A dilemma then. I've already sold centre back Jesús Orozco Chiquete to Saudi football for £18.5m, solely because he didn't like big matches and I'm looking to dispatch with the end-of-season chokers. The dilemma comes when I've discovered that two key players in midfield also suffer from the big game jitters. Varane has been our first-choice 6/8 for a while now, however he is better suited to the 6 role. Meanwhile Molinas is our first-choice playmaker and has performed really well at both 10 and CM, including 13 assists last term. Both, though, are 'not comfortable playing in big matches' and so I'm seriously considering moving both on. Some pertinent points: Varane is much better-suited to 6 than 8. At DM, we have any number of guaje options with the most obvious being injury-prone Carlos Rojas closely followed by Domingo Escribano and Florian Chiripus and Iván Elvira coming next. All three are first-team ready but not quite as good as Varane - plus we lose the obvious experience of the 27 year-old. Varane is wanted by Nantes and Al-Ahli but that's been the case for quite some time and no-one ever seems to make an offer. Molinas is clearly a playmaker and I have a couple of guaje options which are just making their way in the senior squad. Mario Martínez should, summer slump excepted, become very very good and is first-choice replacement, whilst Hugo Quiñones is preferred as the CM(A) but could definitely do a job as a playmaker. I also have Manu García, originally from the Mareo academy, and Roberto Lopez as experienced playmaking options - even if they aren't of the quality of Molinas. No-one is currently interested in Molinas. Neither are listed as favoured personnel but Molinas is a Team Leader and Varane is a Highly Influential PLayer. To sell either, I think I'd need to force through a move which would risk upsetting the squad and curtail the value I get for them. The latter is, in truth, not important. I already have a £50m transfer budget and plan to use pretty much none of it. This is just about tailoring the squad towards a more resilient set of personalities that doesn't wilt every April. So should I sell one, or both? What do you think?

Chokers A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Ok, so some simple stuff first: Champions League football at the Quini next season but that cup final loss to Real Madrid was part of an end of season collapse which is becoming the norm at Sporting. Here are the April and May results since I joined 2023/24: Played 9; Won 3; Drawn 2; Lost 4 2024/25: Played 9; Won 7; Drawn 0; Lost 2 2025/26: Played 7; Won 1; Drawn 2; Lost 4 (and we lost 3 from 4 in March) 2026/27: Played 8; Won 3; Drawn 1; Lost 4 (didn't win any of the last 5 games) 2027/28: Played 12; Won 2; Drawn 5; Lost 5 2028/29: Played 10; Won 3; Drawn 1; Lost 6 In all but our promotion season (2024/5), we've utterly collapsed in the last two months of the season. Why? Fatigue? We've just completed the final 90 minutes of the season and not a single player is above 'low' in Fatigue levels, and only 10 of the 26 senior squad are rated as 'low' at all. So is it down to mentality? Whilst I've made sure our captain Rosas enjoys big matches, we have four players who definitely don't - including the guy who got sent off in the Copa del Rey Final after 20 minutes. Lesson learned right there. But only two of those tend to play, is that enough to create a seeming crisis in confidence? Is it down to the young squad and lack of experience to get us over the line? That could perhaps be true these days but certainly not earlier in the save when I had the likes of Lemina or Ziyech bringing the experienced heads. It's a concern because whatever 'clutch' is, we are the opposite of that. We bottled it in the final - the aforementioned red card killing any hope we had of beating Real. If we're looking to push on to the next level against next season then we'll definitely need to figure out how to avoid these end of season collapses. Selling Varane and Chiquete, with their lack of big game energy, could be an option. Both have been excellent throughout and, cup final dismissal excepted, haven't shown any indication of bottling it any worse than the rest of the squad. Varane regularly attracts Saudi interest and I'm sure Chiquete would bring some bids in. Both also have potential replacements amongst the guajes and are, clearly, not from the Mareo academy themselves. I am, however, keen to avoid the mistakes of last season when insufficient squad depth clearly meant the continental adventure came at the expense of our league form. Additional depth is required and depth with quality. We already have £25m transfer budget to play with so I have no need to sell. I've also already confirmed a £3.5m (potentially rising to £6m) deal for 6'6" Mexican centre back Rafael González who will bring the sheer size that we're currently lacking in the defensive newgens. In other news, our B-team have been promoted at the fourth time of asking having made steady progress through the Primera. Next season they'll compete in LaLiga2 meaning higher reputation games for the second string. This is great news so long as they don't take a beating every week and lose morale. And the success doesn't end there: Our under-19s took home the junior double: winning both the Under19 Division 1 title and the Under-19s Cup. A remarkable achievement as I kept stealing their best players to bring into the B-team and then senior team. Driven by Álex's 37 goals and 13 assists in 31(1) games, there was no stopping them. No such clutch issues for the junior teams. All very promising.

So weird. Football fans are just bizarre. Imagine being expected to stand around and be scolded by some radge plank out of the stands. It's child-like

Thanks. Not something I do but interesting that the results for such a diverse set of roles are so close. Like Ben says, he pretty much has the ability to be anything. I'm also conscious that he's unlikely to be with us that long. Surely a big club will come along soon enough and throw money at him. So I'm thinking short-term we could probably use him most at AMR as an inside forward or raumdeuter - somewhere his starting attributes are best suited and don't require a couple of years' improvement. With Champions League football next season, he should get plenty of game time rotating with Diego López, who is also attracting significant interest from Benfica and Rennes

Typically it'll take me a week to a week and a half to complete a season but I seem to be playing faster these days. I think a lot of that is down to playing on Extensive highlights now. I'm typically a Comprehensive player with a few full matches when I'm trying to sort tactics out - but I'm keen to make sure the save doesn't burn out before the newgens are fully developed so have switched to Extensive to aid the focus of the save. I agree with you both. I just think that level of talent has to be exploited and I'm looking to push him further forward. Physically he's clearly already phenomenal, mentally he's strongest offensively and technically his starting strength is Finishing. Whilst all his attributes will increase over time, I think it makes sense to look at where he's already strong and just take it from there. So I've brought him off the bench in the last couple of games as an inside forward on the right. Sadly he didn't score this but really, really promising. ab5e23224dcbd42275cf642f4d74b95d.mp4 I have the Copa del Rey final next... I wonder if he fancies scoring a winner.

Four teams finishing on 77 points is amazing. Absolutely love it.

Or maybe he just grew a couple of inches, so he could see much further?

+4 for Arancibia's Vision when nothing else has increased by more than 2, and only three of those, is a bit crazy. How does that come about? BPD training or are you also giving him passing training? Interesting that both players have improved very little technically so far. I'll check back on my players but I think this aligns with my experience of mentals/physicals early development then technicals later

I have a couple of forwards coming through the system that I think should overtake Polo. My coaches want me to put Álex in the senior squad already whilst Villanueva is out on loan in the Primera to guarantee game time. Both have the height and should develop the physicality that Polo is lacking but neither have Polo's mental attributes which I think are where he's getting his performances from. The good thing about Polo is that no-one is interested in signing him - the game just doesn't rate him and so he should stick around even if he isn't first-choice for any of the front three roles. He's just one of those players where you know he isn't necessarily the best but he just brings it.

The Sixth Intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Our favourite time of year as we take the annual look through this... Turning into this... And hold the freaking phone... 2.5* current ability left back. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. This one could be good. (as an aside, two Brazilians... because reasons... but still no Mexicans which is really disappointing) Elite Talents Sergio Lozano - Left-back Oh my, that's a newgen. Fairly Professional personality and holy heck that's a newgen. Look at those physicals already and bleedin' nora that's a newgen. I'm pretty sure he's going straight into the first-team. Currently I play with an inverted fullback on the left which would just be a waste of Lozano. If I end up flipping the tactic to go with a left wingback that'd have a number of knock-on effects. First up, the right back would become the inverted fullback, secondly the AML would become the inside forward and it would mean putting Javi into central midfield as the CM(A)... Does that solve our Aguirre problem? Being a right-footed inside forward on the right hasn't held Diego López back this season, so no reason it would be a problem for Aguirre on the opposite flank. Anyway, back to Lozano. Yes. What a newgen. The other option is to 'do a Bale'. Maybe he isn't a left-back after all. Maybe he's... well, what would you play him as? Raphael - Brazilian 10 Hmm... it's always going to be difficult being the one after Lozano but... hmmm... ok, positives - Passing, Technique, Flair, Decisions, Bravery. Some good attributes in areas which are hard to improve with time or training. Negatives: well, I don't currently play a 10 and he lacks the work rate and teamwork to play at centre mid, and lacks the physicality to play as a deep-lying forward. A 'wait and see' I think. Fernando - Spanish 10 Absolutely shocking physicals but there's a lot else to like about Fernando. Good personality, two-footed with outstanding Teamwork and Work Rate, he's already a natural finisher and has an eye for a pass. I like Fernando a lot. Those physicals should improve with time (although perhaps not enough) and I think he'd make a very handy deep-lying forward. Very handy indeed. Top Talents Brais Manzano - Goalkeeper Decent, I guess. His lack of Determination could be an issue and his Positioning is starting a lot lower than I'd like for a goalkeeper. Another 'wait and see'. Francisco José Martin - DLP That squint likely accounts for his poor Vision, which is an issue for playmakers. I really can't see Martín turning into a player - he's got too far to go in his Mentals. Yes, Decisions and Determination are excellent but no Flair, poor movement, lack of composure, teamwork and work rate. Not for me. Pablo Peña - Ball-winner Better starting physicals, two-footed and a good personality - he's one off double figures for Passing, Bravery, Positioning, Teamwork and Vision. If those tick over then his eye-test starts to look a lot better. Potential for sure - and he's a young 15, born in March, so definitely has extra time to catch up on some of those attributes. One for the possible column. Antonio Cueto - Left wing Personality is a big yikes but good physicals and has decent enough technicals for a winger. A lot of gaps in the mentals though and is already 16 so with less time to develop than some of the others. Promise but with a healthy dose of scepticism. By the way, did you see that guy Lozano? What a newgen. Andrew Uche - right wing See entry for Cueto. Rinse and repeat. ----------------------------------- We also got 6 Good Talents and 3 Decent Talents, all of whom have about as much potential of being a professional footballer as I do. Comparing back to the preview news item, where is my centre back?! I was really hoping for a strong, physical centre back and an inside forward for AMR so it's a little disappointing that I missed out on both. On the other hand, Lozano. And conceivably, Lozano as an inside forward has some merit. Wherever he ends up playing, it's clearly not a dud of an intake as he's an absolutely phenomenal prospect. And then there's Fernando who definitely has some promise but the rest of the intake is a bit meh. Our Head of Youth Development, Feliu Márquez, is out of contact come the end of the season. Is it time for a refresh? I had hoped for more of a correlation between his personality and those of the intakes but the impact isn't as marked as I'd expected. I only use job adverts to find new staff and I can't advertise for Felix's role until he's left so I have no idea what sort of replacement might be available to me. What do you think? Replace him? If so, obviously the personality is the primary consideration but what else do you think about when picking a HOYD? And should I fire Felix after he's just brought Lozano through? Feels a bit harsh.

Sounds like you've fallen victim to an FM-special. How did Simeone want him played? Something ridiculous like BWM v BBM?

Polo is an interesting one. I'd always liked him but, as the intakes came and went, he seemed to be a bit below the primary prospects of Aguirre, Javi, Martínez et al. So whilst he started as an AML/AMC/ST I also trained him at AMR in order to fill the gap on that flank. I was seeing him as being the utility man to work around the others. This season, he came in as the DLF when Aguirre was injured and he's been outstanding. Yes, he's lacking a bit of physicality but ideal as a DLF apart from that and still has a bit of developing to do. The number of times I see him take the ball to feet and - no doubt thanks to his First Touch, Technique, Agility and Balance - be able to turn defenders and play a simple pass to create space... so good. I'm teaching him the tries killer balls often trait and I think the next one will be likes ball played into feet. With a bit of strength training after that, I think he's great. Sadly, Soriano has suffered from repeated ankle injuries - breaking it once and twisting it repeatedly. That's left him behind a bit, to be honest, and he's struggled to hold down a place in the B-team. Unfortunately, I just don't see him ever breaking into the senior squad. Good memory though! You have highlighted, however, that I haven't updated the ages on the squad planner. Polo and Aguirre are now 20 and 18 respectively - although still not exactly veterans.

Yeah there's all sorts of little bugs like this with the B-team. Keep an eye out for the staff responsibilities randomly being delegated back, and the board appointing B-team managers over your head even when you have selected the option. Also, the B-team manager seems to be able to completely alter your transfer and wage budget balances for some reason. As for the tactics thing, it does happen randomly to me too. Make sure that you've set your chosen tactic to the 'Primary Trained Tactic' in the first-team Training screen, the B-team training screen and the under-19 training screen. You'll notice that the B-team dropdown option doesn't let you choose the tactic name (if you've saved a custom name), it's just a generic description of 'Balanced Custom 4-2-3-1 DM'. Sometimes you just need to delegate training back to the B-team manager, use the option in the Development Centre to select their tactic and then take training back. Always fun. Just loads of bugs.