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Swills417

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  1. As mentioned above, the 2025-26 culminated with a first finish in the top four in the premier league since 2004-05 season. Over a 20 year absence! We also picked up the Carabou cup on the way through, beating Chelsea in dramatic fashion before a 2-1 win over Liverpool in the final. Denying Klopp's formidable side a clean sweep and first quadruple. Below are competitions screenshot and first eleven. We largely played a 4-2-3-1 deep, with the usual tweaked Gegenpress. Our season started strongly, only losing 2 games prior to December away to Chelsea and Liverpool. An equally run of form from January through to March established us within the top 4 and a potential title challenge. We remained the second until the final two game weeks, where a Chelsea side who had found some form clawed their way above us. The duo of Ramsey and Watkins, recruited from Aston Villa in the summer were core to this early form. Thiago Almada and Olise also performing with key goal contributions throughout. The midfield partnership was solid if unspectacular, both purchased for a combined £18m from Lyon and Montepellier. These both had performed high in terms of progressive passes per 90 and possession regained per 90. Not quite a money ball approach, but finding players who are good in their roles for a minimal fee worked out good for us this season. Stach and Onana slotted in and added physicality when required. The back four was disrupted at the end of the summer window as club captain Demiral was poached by Atletico Madrid for his release clause. I dipped into the market and picked up Theate and Cameron Carter Vickers from Celtic to boost our numbers with quality and physicality. Todibo was brought in in January after Theate suffered a long term injury. Full Squad below: Media Description Name Best Pos Age Nat Agreed Playing Time Wage Transfer Value Mins Ast xA Gls xG Striker Ollie Watkins ST (C) 30 ENG Star Player £7,540,000 p/a £30M - £33M 2,731 4 2.88 15 17.05 Midfield orchestrator Thiago Almada AM (L) 25 ARG Regular Starter £4,659,000 p/a £20M - £27M 2,741 8 10.41 15 12.66 Attacking midfielder Jacob Ramsey M (C) 24 ENG Star Player £7,020,000 p/a £45M - £49M 2,674 8 5.3 13 12.12 Striker Rasmus Højlund ST (C) 23 DEN Regular Starter £4,975,000 p/a £21M - £24M 1,955 0 1.09 13 15.72 Attacking midfielder Jack Grealish AM (L) 30 ENG Out On Loan £9,899,000 p/a £30M 1,911 7 4.9 11 6.29 Powerful centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo D (C) 26 FRA Important Player £8,320,000 p/a £42M - £46M 1,616 0 0.22 9 5.86 Winger Dwight McNeil AM (R) 26 ENG Squad Player £3,900,000 p/a £40M 1,821 7 8.3 7 5.59 Wonderkid Jamie Currie AM (C) 18 SCO Regular Starter £1,754,000 p/a £54M - £64M 687 2 1.74 6 2.69 Winger Michael Olise AM (R) 24 ENG Regular Starter £3,692,000 p/a £30M - £36M 2,078 10 10.68 6 6.63 Powerful centre-back Arthur Theate D (C) 26 BEL Star Player £6,500,000 p/a £32M - £36M 1,798 0 0.68 6 3.74 Attacking midfielder Mehmet Taylor AM (C) 18 ENG Out On Loan £403,000 p/a £41M - £50M 1,648 1 0.87 4 5.61 Attacking midfielder Arda Güler AM (C) 21 TUR Squad Player £3,657,000 p/a £43M - £49M 1,711 15 8.27 4 7.47 Full-back Tino Livramento D (R) 23 ENG Regular Starter £4,981,000 p/a £27M - £30M 2,540 2 4.16 3 1.28 Attacking midfielder Vasiliy Zhukov AM (C) 19 BLR Out On Loan £268,000 p/a £21M - £30M 1,055 1 1.64 2 2.2 Centre-back Marc Guéhi D (C) 25 ENG Important Player £7,206,000 p/a £23M - £25M 3,253 0 1.14 2 1.85 Goalkeeper Oliver Dovin GK 23 ENG Backup £1,617,000 p/a £8.4M - £10M 2,019 0 0.02 1 0.79 Defensive midfielder Joris Chotard DM 24 FRA Star Player £3,890,000 p/a £21M - £23M 3,127 6 4.44 1 2.05 Powerful centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers D (C) 28 USA Important Player £4,940,000 p/a £23M - £25M 1,571 0 0.34 1 1.65 Striker Evan Ferguson ST (C) 21 IRL Breakthrough Prospect £637,000 p/a £7.6M - £10.5M 91 0 0 0 0.11 Defensive midfielder Amadou Onana DM 24 BEL Regular Starter £3,796,000 p/a £36M - £44M 1,819 2 3.02 0 0.92 Midfielder Anton Stach M (C) 27 GER Squad Player £4,357,000 p/a £23.5M 1,098 1 1.79 0 0.79 Full-back Nathan Patterson D (R) 24 SCO Important Player £3,112,000 p/a £78M 2,909 3 7.89 0 2.45 Midfielder Maxence Caqueret M (C) 26 FRA Squad Player £2,964,000 p/a £14M - £15.5M 2,293 2 2.48 0 0.13 Veteran centre-back Stefan de Vrij D (C) 34 NED Out On Loan £2,770,000 p/a £4.5M 1,326 3 0.94 0 0.35 Goalkeeper James Trafford GK 23 ENG Backup £520,000 p/a £425K - £1M 18 0 0 0 0 Centre-back Levi Colwill D (C) 23 ENG Regular Starter £1,416,000 p/a £14.5M - £16M 459 0 0.08 0 0.71 Full-back Luke Thomas D (L) 24 ENG Important Player £5,627,000 p/a £50M - £54M 3,132 7 4 0 0.81 Midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall M (C) 27 ENG Regular Starter £2,025,000 p/a £18.5M - £27M 436 0 0.55 0 0.07 Young goalkeeper Lennie Seary GK 18 ENG Youngster £9,000 p/a £0 - - - - - Centre-back Harrison Murray-Campbell D (R) 19 ENG Youngster £275,000 p/a £650K - £3.1M - - - - - Midfielder Keenan Appiah-Forson M (C) 24 ENG Emergency Backup £585,000 p/a £95K - £425K - - - - - Moving forward financially, we would be in quite the hole if we did not have Champions League football revenue on the way! £471m in Net Debt £147m in Annual Wages Net Transfer Spend of £18.6m which glosses over the fact we had a huge player turnover this year! (Player Expenditure of £341.8m - Player Sold £296.2m) We also earned an extra £12m in Prize Money this season by virtue of finishing 3rd as opposed to last seasons midtable finish. Plus we won a domestic club despite having no European football for the coffers. The financial projection is currently showing us as sliding into the red to a sum of -£292m - which I think will correct itself over the 2026-27 season ticks over in game! --- Targets next season, if nothing surprising happens will be to establish ourselves within the top four, win a cup and have a good Champions League run. We will be targeting quality improvements across the pitch with an aim to sign the below profile of players: - Elite ball winning midfielders (High possession won per 90 - club current best = Anton Stach 12.95) - Elite ball progressing midfielder (High progressive passes per 90 - club current best = Chotard 7.68) - First team standard winger - (High dribbles completed per 90 - club current best = Olise 3.59) -- with Hugs Line PPM and either footededness. Our golden generation youth are due back next season from loans and have matured nicely. Sam Todd (GK) - loaned to Coventry in Championship (50 apps - 6.81) Kelvin Teague (CAM / ST) - loaned to Sunderland in Championship (43 apps - 24 goal involvements - 6.98) Dermot Dermon (ST) - loaned to Austrain division team ( 29 apps - 8 goal involvements - 6.67) Steve Parkinson (RB) - Loaned to Luton Town in Championship (44 apps - 6.83)
  2. Apologies for the quality, but Mollie has dropped some absolute filth into my inbox. PROMISED LAND This save has been a pure rollercoaster so far! From scraping out of the relegation at the start to reaching the champions league!
  3. Nice to see some people still playing through with Everton! I'm still on my FM23 save and we are absolutely flying! Going into March 2025 and we are second in the league, into the final of the EFL cup and looking for Champions League qualification. I had a golden generation youth intake first season and this batch are all about to turn 20 next season. Time to start integrating them into the first team. They are all currently on loan at various clubs but next season I will have to start making room for them! I will post a more extensive update at some point.
  4. Another brief update on my save. We are currently into February 2025, we lost both Calvert Lewin and Maxi Gomez in January. DCL departed early January as he refused to open discussions into a new contract. He moved to Napoli, who are flush with Osimhem money for £37.5m. I snuck in a £60m buy back just in case the opportunity to bring him home came back. In typical Calvert Lewin fashion, he broke his leg in his 3rd game for them and will miss the rest of the season . All save I have had him wrapped in cotton wall and 2 weeks into Pizza, Culture and Calcio he is ruined. Furthermore, Maxi Gomez had picked up the goalscoring burden from DCL and was performing really well! Atletico Madrid signed him on in late January for his £29.5m release clause which left me scrambling for a replacement. On deadline day, while searching painstakingly for a replacement I stumbled upon Maxi Gomez in the Chelsea squad on loan with Nkuku transfer listed. I figured out that Atletico had signed for for the release clause and loaned him next day to Chelsea for a loan fee and future fee of £39m I was well and truly swindled. I attempted to convince Nkuku to join, but he had no interest. We go into the final few months of the season, two key strikers light with a a 33 Duval Zapata leading the line. Our 4-2-3-1 with two deep DMs had seemed to have stopped working as we went on a 8 game winless run in the league. We reinforced with the Gomez and DCL money with a loan for Gravenberch and structured deal for Arda Guler from Turkey. We are currently drifting around 8-9th in the league, struggling to put momentum together. Luckily we are still in the Europa League and FA Cup so we have 3 all three avenues into Europe still open for us!
  5. Just a brief roundup from my previous post. We were formidable in our run in and pushed up the table to eventually finish 8th. Narrowly missing out on european football next season. However, the pinnacle of the season was yet to come. We contested the FA Cup final with Brentford and won it the hard way! Conceding to two set pieces and being taken all the way to Penalties, with Marc Guehi stroking home the decisive kick! The trophy drought is over! Dust the shelves down in the cabinet! There will also be European football under the lights at Bramley-Moore Dock! And look who will be performing under those lights and across the backwaters of Europe! Setting us back about £29.5m (potentially rising to £60m if certain bonuses and installments are paid). He also was granted the vice-captaincy. Pickford initially kicked off about this, until he found out he was to be the future captain himself! Super Jack! Performance wise , DCL was the obvious standout with 24 goals in all competitions and miraculously only missing 4% of the season through injury! Another positive note is the amount of minutes we gave to our golden generation youth intake, with 3 of our academy players featuring in the top 10 in terms of minutes played for players under 19. Across Europe, players like Gavi and Moukouko top this list. We have already ticked over into the next season, and will have a shortened pre-season as the team is settled and we only need a few additions to build. We have raided Atalanta who were relegated to Serie B for Demiral and their young Scandinavian striker who will remain in Italy on loan this season. We will also attempt to bring in Duval Zapata on a free to add depth to our striking line. The only cloud hanging over this season is Calvert-Lewin's contract situation. He has decided to consider his options and will not come to the negotiating table. I have made the decision to hang on to him and not sell. Gambling that if we have another successful season, he will commit to a new long term deal.
  6. So, a quick update on our second season, as we go into the final run-in. The season initially started really well, with a 4-3-3 vertical tika-taka (with inverted wingback) absolutely devastating Tottenham Hotspur 6-1 at Goodison. Soon after, results dipped and by the January window we were back in the familiar relegation fight. I had tried to garner a response from the players, with numerous tactical variations tried including a 4-4-2 wing-play as our strength was clearly with our wide players supplying DCL and Gomez regular service. However, this failed experiment was abandoned after a few games. We had struggled with the core of our side and taking inspiration from this thread, our recruitment was Scandinavian themed. Morten Thorsby signing from Union Berlin and Sivert Mannsverk joining from Molde. These two signings complemented our tactical switch to a 4-2-3-1 Gegen-press with two ball winning midfielders and we have not looked back results or performance wise. GK: Pickford / Todd* LB: Mykolenko/Livramento CB: Guehi / Braitwaithe CB: Holding / Godfrey RB: Pattersin /Livramento LDM: Onana / Stach RDM: Mannsverk / Thorsby LW: Calvert-Lewin / Mudruk CAM: Gordon / Stach / Daniel Ruiz RW: McNeil / Tsygankov ST: Maxi Gomez / Ibrihimovic *Regen We have also introduced some of the standout players from our golden generation youth sides from the first intake. We are also into the FA Cup final against Brentford with a real chance to end the trophy drought and qualify for Europe for our first season. Speaking of next season, we’ve made a superstar signing. Jack Grealish will join the summer, for an initial £30m deal to shine under the lights at Bramley Moore Dock in 2024/25. He had been frozen out at Manchester City under Diego Simeone and was initially reluctant to make the move to Merseyside. However, £8.5m p/a and promising him the vice-captaincy changed that! Finances The elephant in the room. We are over our wage budget by a few million and have a £56m sized hole in our budget that is only projected to get worse. I’m hoping with a strong finish and some prize money this problem goes away. I’m using the realism editor data, which I believe turns off the automatic renewal of sponsorship deals so we can’t rely on that either. Important player sales will have to be a big contributing factor to rectify this as simply removing the high earners from the wage bill (Yerry Mina, Holgate, Iwobi and all the other usual suspects). A sale of either Anthony Gordon, Mykolenko or Calvert Lewin may have to be sanctioned to generate the big revenue. Calvert-Lewin has now decided to explore his options going into the last 18 months of his deal. I hope a strong finish and silverware will bring him to the negotiating table. We’re happy to make him our highest earner, even with a release clause for champions league clubs. We just can’t work under the uncertainty of our talisman checking out early. A lot of squad players will be moved in to rebalance the books Garner, Godfrey, Holgate, Iwobi, Coleman and others have barely featured and been replaced by our golden generation youth prospects. I hope to get this down to around £100m p/a although it realise to expect as we improve developing players will want bigger salaries. The bloat is with the middling talent in the squad. Pickford, Mina and Iwobi are on the wages that do not match their footballing abilities. While Holgate and Godfrey have barely features this season unless in a injury crisis. Below is run in for the end of the season. May 2024 will see us host Leicester City and Liverpool, while having to visit Tottenham and Brighton (not the same side as real like thankfully!) Before a big curtain closer FA Cup final against Brentford.
  7. Atalanta players - Demiral, how good is he? In my save Atalanta are at real risk of relegation second season (FM23) and he looks like he might be available. Will be for my Everton side? He could be the guy we need if they are relegated. Scalvini has already been moved on but the below are all still there: Hojlund Koopmeiners Lookman Any of these worth poaching?
  8. I've enjoyed reading through these! Big win in the league! Just out of curiosity - have you had any news about takeovers or new owners in the 5 season of so that you have played? How are the club finances looking? Also what was up with that freak West Ham season? Did they do any usual manager appointments or player signings?
  9. Lots of interesting transfers there! @ShaunG95 I've just hit the January window in the second season and club are not looking good financially. We're about -£23m in the red. A number of squad players want out (and I'm likely to oblige their departures) including Holgate, Davies and Cantwell. Yerry Mina and Gordon may also follow as we need some cash in! We hit a an awful run of results between October and November that left us in the edge of the relegation zone again. A tactical shift to a 4-4-2 wing play has provided some more positive results despite not actually performing too well. Our main issue is definitely in defence. The back five have no established themselves as an effective unit. Attacking wise we have relied on DCL for goals, big time! GK: Pickford LB: Mykolenko CB: Guehi CB: Braithwaite RB: Patterson LM: Mudryk CM: Onana CM: Stach RM: Tsygankov ST: DCL ST: Maxi Gomez Livramento, Mina and Godfrey are general cover in defence. We rotate in McNeil and Gordon when the Ukrainians are not performing well. Zlatan Ibrahimovic rotates in with the strikers. There have been so many errors leading to goals by our back 5 its become a real issue. I want to recruit a more established right sided physics centre back to pair with Guehi but finances are a big constraint.
  10. Finally picked up my save again last night after a few weeks or not having the time to play. Made some slight tactical tweaks to try and arrest a slide into some horrendous form. Changed Onana from DLP to a BWM, removed play out from the back and be more expressive. Lead to two clean sheets. I realised we had the third worst defence in the league right before this tweak, but the 2nd best attack. Although, I reckon this should correct itself soon. We conceded and outrageous amount of penalties due to Tackle Harder being on and errors leading to goals due to Play out from the back and be more expressive being on. We rely on Calvert-Lewin so much for our goals, we really need a succession plan in place. I can currently call on Maxi Gomez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic for rotation but I don't feel like these are like for like. We do have a golden generation coming through so I'm hoping we can find a decent stop gap if DCL inevitably goes down with a long term injury or agitates for a move to a bigger club. I'm not on the most recent data update so that Emre lad from Stoke should still be an option. Also, I definitely need a right sided centre back option. Looking for the sort of playing who is usually picked up by one of the champions League clubs but hasn't by some miracle moved yet. The standout candidate is currently the Bosnian defender from Sheffield United. Missed out on Scalvini to Milan. Any options anyone else has turned to.
  11. @ShaunG95 That's a really good season! Broja looks like a beast for you - but also at emergency backup squad status You've got some good fees for some players. £20m for Doucoure! I gave him away for free! Progressed a little over the weekend. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joined us on 12 month deal. Chucked him straight in to Liverpool away where we were mauled 3-0 at Anfield.
  12. As you can see there are a number of new faces at the club for the final season at Goodison. A new look front line has been recruited with the duo from Ukraine being upgrades on Anthony Gordon and Dwight McNeil. Behind them we will play as a three, with an emphasis on attacking down the left with Mudryk, Dele and Mykolenko all on attack duty. Anton Stach and the reintroduction of Dele Ali should provide a higher standard of quality and consistency that last season as we struggled for a partnership. Onana will now be deployed and developed as a DLP, with added physicality. Guehi was signed from relegated Crystal Palace for and Branthwaite will be introduced to the starting eleven for this season. Maximiliano Gomez was signed as back up for Calvert-Lewin from Trabzonspor, where he hit double figures for goals in the Turkish league. Broja was initially the 1st choice for the backup role, but Chelsea demanded too high a price for a loan move. I have also explored the idea of Zlatan Ibrimihmic coming in as an impact sub. Lots of the incomings were done as staggered deals with small installments over 3 seasons, and a few payments due after 50 league games (pushing the cost into the following seasons budget). Obviously, with the £40m season transfer budget stretched we are looking at a bad financial situation exacerbated by poor league performance or lack of revenue generated if we don't end up selling one of our prized assets (Calvert-Lewin and Anthony Gordon probably being the prime assets). Handling the Dele Ali situation will require an element of game time planning. The deal to bring him was initially free but built in was £10m per 10 appearances. He will play home games and all cup games. Iwobi will rotate in for away games and tough home games, due to his superior work rate. Thus far, we have played the opening two League games. 1-1 (H) Manchester United 1-1 (A) West Ham United We dominated both games, and was easily had the superior XG which suggests we are on the correct path! Financially, when I took over we had a wage bill of £124.7m p/a which has now been cut to £105m p/a – a big one was getting Doucoure’s and Idrisse Gueye off the books for the season. There is also a lot of height in the team now so we will look to maximise this through set plays. Routines have been set up for all potential set pieces. We were also lucky enough to receive a golden generation through the u18s. A pathway has been drafted for these 4-5 players to be integrated into the first team set up over the next 18 months. There are a LOT of Irish players that have come through the Academy (possibly due to the Sligo Rovers affiliate). Anyway, hope to make some progress on the save over the weekend.
  13. Such a tough decision to make - he rejected the Besiktas contract and has rejoined my squad for pre-season 2023/24. I plan to make use of him, play him for the first 9 games and see if it draws any interest from buyers. If not I reckon the second installment can be stretched out until the 2024/25 season. By then I'm hoping some club comes along with a big offer. Plan to play him as a left sided mezzala, in home games where we are favourite and all the cup games we play. He's already had a red for violent conduct for me in a preseason friendly to some local club in Singapore. In my save, I have managed to secure some of my top targets and missed out on some due to Everton rep being below than other more mid-table premier league teams. We really struggled to score goals last season so a new look forward line was needed. I also think we need quality down the spine of the team so central midfield and center defence was a big area we needed quality improvement.
  14. It's super hard to shift some of the squad in the first two seasons on this. Still early in the summer window 2023 - looking for a central defender that is more of a pure defender and is a step above what we currently have. The first choice pairing towards to end of the season was Godfrey and Onana but I am aware that neither are natural pure central defenders. I'm not convinced by Yerry Mina or Tarkowki. Willing to heavily rotate Braithwaite as third choice. I also have this gap in in midfield as I'm looking for a technical deep lying playmaker. Missed out on Ward-Prowse to that other lot across Stanley park. Any recommendations? I'm hugely tempted by a outrageous Pjanic swoop or Benfica's Weigl. Looking for someone to sit in the DM spot and block passing lanes and use their passing and vision (as opposed to dribbling) to progress the ball forward. I also recognise that Onana could potentially be trained to do this role.
  15. It is indeed the hope that kills you! I will never again disparage Frank Lampard or any recent Everton manager in recent memory. This team is awful. This is where things are currently, 3 games left to play: We have had an absolute stinker of an April - with seven league games. Seven! Losing every away game. The defeats against West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth hurt the most. We now face the following teams to attempt to survive. I cannot see us picking up anything in these games and our best hope is that Nottingham forest don't win their games. Manchester United (H) Brighton (A) Tottenham (A) We are likely to survive - but with this side you never know. Also, I will be without DCL until the final game after he was sent off for a straight red against Bournemouth.
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