FM 12: Athletic Club Bilbao- A New Era Begins!

[ArranoBeltza]

I've been really impressed with Athletic IRL this season and have been fascinated by Bielsa, meaning I've watched a lot of their games and found they've become far and away my favourite Spanish club... and so after I finally got bored of my Spurs save I decided to give Athletic a go.

I've got to say this thread has been a big help, and although I'm only just a couple of games in to my first season I'm really enjoying it. I tend to put a lot of emphasis on youth development and the fact that that's pretty much the only option here is something I'm sure I'm going to enjoy.

A few questions...

1) Can you ever sign players directly from Real Sociedad or is the rivalry too strong? I had an offer accepted for Inigo Martinez but he turned the move down even after I met his contract demands.

2) How do you keep your scouts busy? I hired 6 or 7 great scouts, sent a couple to France and ha d the others put together reports on Spain and now they're basically collecting their wages for doing nothing.

3) Are David Lopez and Gabilondo worth keeping hold of? They're exactly the kind of players I'd usually look to move on but I'm wary of leaving myself short, with such limited option to replace them.

1) You can, though it is difficult- usually you have to wait until they're out of favor or after they've been at the club a while (i.e. you probably won't be able to poach newgens). Also, if you become successful (not hard in this year's FM, really), the reputation boost makes signing Sociedad players much easier. A few years ago, though, when they were in the second tier it was quite easy to sign players from them- I can imagine it would be the same in FM12 should they get relegated. He also has turned into a pretty good coach for me! I'd say keep them, as they will come in handy for 2-3 seasons.

2) I don't usually have many scouts with Athletic, you probably have about as many as you'll ever need. I usually have one or two scouting each of the top tiers in Spain, with another one or two scouting the second division and then another one or two scouting the U19s. If you have spares, you can always have them scout the 2B2, as I've seen lots of good newgens (especially Basque ones) down there. Then I have another who scouts the next opposition. I usually don't bother with France because it's rare to see good French Basque players. When newgens are generated, I go on a spree and scout tons and tons of newly-generated players to poach the best ones from other Spanish clubs.

3) David Lopez is in my opinion, given his utility. Especially if De Marcos is in your starting XI, David Lopez offers some good utility and has always done well for me off the bench. The fact that he can play nearly anywhere in the midfield is also good for your first couple of seasons to give your newgens a bit of time to develop. Gabilondo isn't necessarily needed, but I keep him around until he retires because he usually plays very well for me and doesn't tend to decline a whole lot.

[Dirty_ACE]

@ArranoBetlza: check your inbox, I sent you a PM with some questions regarding Athletic. Thanks

[enders357]

Thanks for your help ArranoBeltza. I may be getting a good 6 seasons ahead of myself, but what's the best bet for replacing Llorente - a regen? I can't see anyone of Basque nationality good enough, or with potential to be good enough, to fill that gap..

Excited to get started with this save. Such a unique challenge - I think it'll really get me concentrating on training and development like never before.

[Falahk]

A few questions...

1) Can you ever sign players directly from Real Sociedad or is the rivalry too strong? I had an offer accepted for Inigo Martinez but he turned the move down even after I met his contract demands.

2) How do you keep your scouts busy? I hired 6 or 7 great scouts, sent a couple to France and ha d the others put together reports on Spain and now they're basically collecting their wages for doing nothing.

3) Are David Lopez and Gabilondo worth keeping hold of? They're exactly the kind of players I'd usually look to move on but I'm wary of leaving myself short, with such limited option to replace them.

1) depends really, on my save Sociedad have been boncing between 4th and top half, which have made it close to impossible for me to sign anyone unless they are transferlisted or sold to some other club before I can pick them up

2) I have 3 scouts, puting one on next opponent, one on u19 and one on la liga, and I occationaly send them out to scout spain and france, but appart from an extremly bussy part around the youth intake time where I scout every basque youngster showing up in the game, they mostly sit idle (Im playing hardball over my cantera policy, so I only sign players that start the game with basque nationality)

3) I was a bit unlucky in that Gabliondo picked up a pretty nasty injury that ended him a bit early, so he helped my B-team to promotion before I let him go on free, on 12,2 he might also be less useful with a much improved Ibai around, David Lopez normaly do well for me and is a handy player to have, but again with Beñat beeing much better on fm12 then in the past I struggled to give him enough games and he got unhappy about it, so that was pretty much that, the general advice I would give is to keep both of them until you know for sure that you will not need them, even if you sign them to an extra year and fail to sell them, they can still halp the b-team

[ArranoBeltza]

Thanks for your help ArranoBeltza. I may be getting a good 6 seasons ahead of myself, but what's the best bet for replacing Llorente - a regen? I can't see anyone of Basque nationality good enough, or with potential to be good enough, to fill that gap..

Excited to get started with this save. Such a unique challenge - I think it'll really get me concentrating on training and development like never before.

I'd wait for a newgen to replace Llorente, as there really aren't any Basque strikers young enough to be viable options after that amount of time. You could go with Muniain upfront but I don't know how well he'd do as a lone striker. Guillermo Fernandez could also be an option if he progresses well, but would need a good team around him and/or another man in the attack with him.

I currently have four great striker prospects in my team (two poached, two from my own youth team). Llorente is nearly 33 and still my #1 striker, but he is definitely declining. I'm rotating my newgens in a lot this season to see which one performs best to become my first-choice.

[ArranoBeltza]

@ArranoBetlza: check your inbox, I sent you a PM with some questions regarding Athletic. Thanks

Sent you a response.

Also, I didn't ever see your message from last month (thought it was from January, European dating format confused me a bit) until just now! I would have answered, but it's been so long since I've played FM10...

[Dirty_ACE]

Sent you a response.

Also, I didn't ever see your message from last month (thought it was from January, European dating format confused me a bit) until just now! I would have answered, but it's been so long since I've played FM10...

Thanks

Yeah, I might have been attempting to play with Athletic in FM10 also and may have sent some questions your way then. Oh well, no worries.

Question: I restarted my save (once more) due to forgetting to add some leagues I wanted initially. I was thinking, since as Athletic you are essentially confined to just Spain in terms of transfer activity, what would be a good league load-out to have? For any other save I would usually load quite a few leagues and keep them on "playable" even though I don't manage in them. This is just to have more stuff going on around me and make sure that European competitions are competitive.

I was thinking that perhaps I should go with the "view-only" option for all leagues apart from the Spanish ones. Would this be a good idea or do the Spanish clubs begin to dominate more compared to teams from other leagues? Should I perhaps load the the top 5 European leagues on "playable" option also in order to keep Europe more competitive? I'd like to hear some ideas.

[Falahk]

I normaly load all leagues in both france and spain, then top leagues in england and italy to keep the european stuff competive, all as playable

even if good french basque players might be rare, it may still happen that you get a couple of good once

[enders357]

Loving this save! I signed Astiz, though it turned out to be waste of £600k (couldn't scout him properly as he plays in Poland and he ended up being no better than some of the other options especially when trying to develop Aurenetxe and Ramalho), and Azpilicueta for £11.5m over 48 months. Other than that the plan is to concentrate on youth development and keep an eye on Inigo Martinez and Stephane Ruffier until such time as they'd be interested in a move.

Got off to a sticky start, squeezing past Legia in the Europa qualifiers 2-2 away and 2-1 at home but have since gone on to win 4 of 5 in the league, with a sloppy goal at Villareal seeing us slip to a 1-0 defeat the only lowpoint so far. Highpoint; Ibai coming off the bench and scoring Goal of the Month to claim a 2-1 win over Espanyol.

[connort787]

Is there anybody who has a tactic that is the same as the way beisla manages bilbao cause i want to do what they have done in real life

Could you please upload it

Thanks

[TheBigBoss]

Why cant I sign non basque players, isit just for the first season or is it general

[Falahk]

Why cant I sign non basque players, isit just for the first season or is it general

becouse you are playing as Athletic?

the club dont sign none basque players irl, unless they are trained at a basque cantera...and that second part is still somewhat rare and controversial (but there's a couple examples of it happening)

[Falahk]

Is there anybody who has a tactic that is the same as the way beisla manages bilbao cause i want to do what they have done in real life

Could you please upload it

Thanks

there's a thread on Beilsa tactics in the in the tactic forum, reading that would be a start anyway if you have not already done so, I also think Zico10 made tactic based on how Beilsa played with Chile on one of the older fm's (I will post a link later if I can find that thread)

myself im probably pulling in a similar direction to Bielsa right now, by redeveloping Uysaler Emircan's barca tactic from the late days of fm11, but I use a different formation (4-2-3-1), the tactic is still very much in the development stage, so im not really sure how consistant it is, but if you feel like trying it you can find it here

[enders357]

Thanks for posting the link to that Bielsa tactis thread, Falahk - it's fascinating and has helped me hone my own tactics. The more I read about Athletic the more I love them.

[Falahk]

so I lost my first game of the 2018/2019 season by 1-2 against tycoon Genoa, Llorrente got himself sent of in the first half, after geting booked for diving on two occations, I still went ahead by a goal before half time after the Genoa keeper went way to far out of his goal, Javi Mar spoted it and scored a chip, but in the end it was not to be even if I had better and more chanse in the secound half

[enders357]

How are people getting the best out of Llorente? I've seen a lot of posts about him scoring and making as many goals as he plays games, but for me he's been a bit disappointing. 1 assist and 7 goals in 16 league games (with 3 of those goals coming in the first game of the season making his record since pretty poor).

I'm playing him as an attacking target man, with ample support from two wingers and an attaching midfielder. We're a hard working team, hassling and harrying a lot and playing with a high defensive line and control mentality. Maybe he'll come good after the Christmas break..

[james_wilko]

Decided to give Bilbao a go after enjoying some of their performances in Europe this season. That, coupled with the prospect of managing Llorente & Munian finally got me to start my save this morning.

I've gone for a narrow 4-2-3-1 formation. This is 'cause of a lack of top quality crossing wide men in Bilbao's team, and to fit the likes of Munian, Javi Martinez, Herrera into their preferred central roles.

Formation:

---------------------------------Iraizoz

Iraola ----------------San Jose------------Aurtenetxe----------------Koikili

-------------------Gurpegi ©-------------Javi Martinez

---------Susaeta---------------Herrera---------------Muniain

-------------------------------Llorente

Playing a wide, high pressing, control based game with counter attacking ticked. Herrera acting as a playmaker and Llorente as a target man with mixed supply.

Some important stats:

Goals scored-

Llorente - 8

Muniain - 5

Susaeta - 4

Herrera - 3

De Marcos/Toquero - 2

Assists -

Herrera - 6

Koikili/Iraola - 3

Martinez/Llorente/Susaeta/Diego Lopez - 2

Results have been good. Definitely better than I expected. Unbeaten in the first 7 games of the season, winning 6 with 1 draw. The draw was a mediocre 1-1 with Espanyol which I wasn't happy with. However, quality results such as beating Sochaux 6-0 then 1-0 in our first round of the Europa league, hammering Betis 6-0 in the league and beating Malaga 4-2 have given me reason to hope.

Rather unusually for me I've made no signings either in or out. None in as there's no Basque players worth signing (imo) and I've no knowledge of the players in the team so didn't want to boot out a potential star.

I've also convinced the board to improve the youth facilities & they're currently finding me a feeder club. So all in all, not a bad start.

[enders357]

When it comes to late March and you're looking at all the new youth intakes at other clubs and trying to sign them up what's the best thing to do? I don't seem to be able to get reasonable offers accepted for them. Is it best just to offer them a contract and pay the compensation?

[lucatonix]

When it comes to late March and you're looking at all the new youth intakes at other clubs and trying to sign them up what's the best thing to do? I don't seem to be able to get reasonable offers accepted for them. Is it best just to offer them a contract and pay the compensation?

Yeah that's what I do. I look at all the youth intake in Spain and scout all the ones that look promising. Then I offer the ones with good potential a contract so I pay compensation. Most of the time the compensation is only slightly more than what you would pay if you carried out a transfer normally so I take the trade off in price for speed of signing since its annoying if it takes a week to negotiate a transfer by which time the player signs a precontract and becomes more expensive.

[Dirty_ACE]

I'm having trouble determining Ander Herrera's best role and duty. I'm playing a 4-2-3-1 (with wingers). Herrera plays as the AMC. My assistant says that his best role is as an advanced playmaker on attack duty, but that is when he plays in MC position. For AMC he's best as an attacking midfielder with attack duty. What is your general experience with this player? What's his best position, role, duty?

[The_Damaja]

I'm really loving athletic at the monent. I've just finished my first season in 2nd place, Real had a shocking start and never really recovered, Mourinho got sacked and Benitez managed only 4th. My highlight of the season my 4-1 win against Real where Ekiza scored a 30 yard screamer! I knocked Barca out the cup but got beat by Real in the semis. We were seriously unlucky to lose the Europa League semi on pens to Leverkusen dispite dominating away from home. I signed Benat who scored some important goals. I was lucky to sign Monreal because Malaga were shocking and he fell out with his manager. I signed Azpillicueta in Jan and got Ruffier in the summer. My surprise player was Gabilondo, he put countless crosses on Llorente's head helping him to hit 32 goals and he got himself into the team of the year in the process alongside Llorente.

[enders357]

I'm having trouble determining Ander Herrera's best role and duty. I'm playing a 4-2-3-1 (with wingers). Herrera plays as the AMC. My assistant says that his best role is as an advanced playmaker on attack duty, but that is when he plays in MC position. For AMC he's best as an attacking midfielder with attack duty. What is your general experience with this player? What's his best position, role, duty?

He started slowly for me but has become a key component of my team towards the end of season one playing as an advanced playmaker with an attack mentality in a central midfield position. I play two formations depending on the way the opposition line up - one has an AMC (usually Muniain) ahead of him and one does not. He seems to play better when there's no AMC ahead of him and he can get forward and make things happen himself.

[enders357]

Yeah that's what I do. I look at all the youth intake in Spain and scout all the ones that look promising. Then I offer the ones with good potential a contract so I pay compensation. Most of the time the compensation is only slightly more than what you would pay if you carried out a transfer normally so I take the trade off in price for speed of signing since its annoying if it takes a week to negotiate a transfer by which time the player signs a precontract and becomes more expensive.

Thanks, just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting ripped off!

[enders357]

Ruffier. Any better than Iraizoz? My scouts say not.

[Searley60]

Ruffier. Any better than Iraizoz? My scouts say not.

In my game definitely, besides Iraizoz can't go on forever and you get a fair few more years with Ruffier.

[enders357]

What do you consider the most important signings to start? I got Azpilicueta at the start of season 1 and have Monreal coming for the start of season 2 and will probably look at Ruffier too. Aside from them there doesn't seem to be many players worth pursuing. I like the look of Inigo Martinez a lot but can't convince Sociedad to sell him to me, unsurprisingly.

One area I felt we were weak to start with but couldn't find a suitable target for was cover for Javi Martinez as a BWM CM, but both Iraola and Aurtenetxe have re-trained to cover there for me with good results. I think Mikel San jose would probably do a good job there too, but is too valuable at the back.

[The_Damaja]

The only other player I've bought that you have not mentioned is Beñat. He's got a wicked shot on him!

[drizzlynewt]

I'm interested to know if anyone has ever put any real effort into trying to do anything to increase the standings of other Basque clubs on the game in the hope that they'll produce better youth players?

I've been adhering to the basque only policy a little more strictly than some of you seem to by not signing non-Basque Spanish under 16's and, whilst I was exceptionally lucky in the first two seasons with youth prospects (I had several with 4 or 4 1/2 star potential), that's dried up somewhat in the past couple of seasons.

At present, largely due to a considerable amount of luck, I've had a highly successful first five seasons which has meant that I'm exceptionally well off financially. There is honestly noone of Basque nationality outside my team right now that I'd be interested in signing, I've already done everything necessary to get Bilbao Ath into the Liga Adelante where they've been challenging for the title the past couple of seasons and so I'm left with a considerable amount of money to spend.

Rather than just sit on that money and have it doing nothing for me, I'm considering splashing out way over the odds (somewhere around £5M) on one of Aviron Bayonnais' players in the hope that this investment will allow them to bounce back up to the French National (They were relegated to CFA-C last season) and, continued financially prosperity allowing, continue to provide them with more funds on a yearly basis in order to hopefully facilitate them eventually reaching Ligue 1 at which point, hopefully, their youth recruitment will improve considerably. I'm figuring that they're probably the best choice to do this because, since they're in the French league rather than the Spanish, my bankrolling of them is unlikely to come back to bite me by having them prove problematic to me domestically, they're more likely to be willing to sell me good youth prospects since we won't be in the same league as each other and it's always nice to have the odd French player in the team for a bit of variety.

So yeah, does anyone have any idea how successful giving them money is likely to be in terms of helping them to get promoted and improve their standing? Has anyone seen Bayonnais get promoted to a higher league in one of their saves before now and, if so, did it seem to improve the quality of players they were producing at all? As I've said, it's money that's basically just burning a hole in my pocket otherwise, so I'll probably experiment with it and post up some updates on how effective it proves if anyone is interested and noone has any prior experience of doing it, but I thought it might be an idea to see if anyone else had any advice to offer in terms of executing such a plan before I carry it out.

[drizzlynewt]

What do you consider the most important signings to start? I got Azpilicueta at the start of season 1 and have Monreal coming for the start of season 2 and will probably look at Ruffier too. Aside from them there doesn't seem to be many players worth pursuing. I like the look of Inigo Martinez a lot but can't convince Sociedad to sell him to me, unsurprisingly.

One area I felt we were weak to start with but couldn't find a suitable target for was cover for Javi Martinez as a BWM CM, but both Iraola and Aurtenetxe have re-trained to cover there for me with good results. I think Mikel San jose would probably do a good job there too, but is too valuable at the back.

Jorge Espericueta, who plays for Tigres in Mexico, is a very good buy. I got him at the start of my second season for 2.4 million and, while he was only 16 so couldn't exactly fit directly into my first team, training him up and tutoring him for a season or so meant that he was soon capable of being moved to Bilbao Ath where he was absolutely tearing things up for one season, started the next season there then got moved to my main team to cover for an injury and he quickly became my best central midfielder. I suppose he's probably not an absolutely essential guy to have in your team from day one or anything, but on the other hand if you left it a few seasons I imagine his price could go up considerably.

[Searley60]

I've been adhering to the basque only policy a little more strictly than some of you seem to by not signing non-Basque Spanish under 16's and, whilst I was exceptionally lucky in the first two seasons with youth prospects (I had several with 4 or 4 1/2 star potential), that's dried up somewhat in the past couple of seasons.

Careful with your definitions of the policy. Athletic do not ONLY sign players from the Basque Country, if it wasn't for neighbouring Pamplona, Navarre they wouldn't have Muniain, Llorente, Iraizoz to name but a few.

[drizzlynewt]

Careful with your definitions of the policy. Athletic do not ONLY sign players from the Basque Country, if it wasn't for neighbouring Pamplona, Navarre they wouldn't have Muniain, Llorente, Iraizoz to name but a few.

Yeah, I know about that. I just didn't want to go into undue detail to explain that, essentially, I'm only signing players who are already classified as Basque on the game.

[enders357]

Jorge Espericueta, who plays for Tigres in Mexico, is a very good buy. I got him at the start of my second season for 2.4 million and, while he was only 16 so couldn't exactly fit directly into my first team, training him up and tutoring him for a season or so meant that he was soon capable of being moved to Bilbao Ath where he was absolutely tearing things up for one season, started the next season there then got moved to my main team to cover for an injury and he quickly became my best central midfielder. I suppose he's probably not an absolutely essential guy to have in your team from day one or anything, but on the other hand if you left it a few seasons I imagine his price could go up considerably.

I must not have loaded the right DB's as he isn't in my game, even though I chose the large DB. Shame.

[drizzlynewt]

Yeah, I think you'd need to either load up Mexico or do a custom database that loads all basque players.

[Dirty_ACE]

I must not have loaded the right DB's as he isn't in my game, even though I chose the large DB. Shame.

In order to have Espericueta you need to either load all players with Basque nationality in addition to whatever size database you choose or load the Mexican top league.

[ArranoBeltza]

Careful with your definitions of the policy. Athletic do not ONLY sign players from the Basque Country, if it wasn't for neighbouring Pamplona, Navarre they wouldn't have Muniain, Llorente, Iraizoz to name but a few.

Navarre is historically Basque, though it is not part of the Spanish Autonomous Basque community. For example, Osasuna means "health" in Basque and the Kingdom of Navarre was the only independent Basque state in history. There are also Basque nationalist political parties active in Navarran local politics. Fernando Llorente aside, Iker Muniain and Gorka Iraizoz are also very Basque names in themselves, and I know at least Gorka is fluent in Basque. So, Navarre really is part of a "greater" Basque country even though it is not part of the autonomous community- there's good reason why most (all?) of their newgens have Basque second nationality in-game. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navarre)

You're also neglecting the fact that David Lopez was neither born nor raised in the Basque country, but came through Osasuna's cantera so is eligible because he learned his football at a Basque club. Antoine Griezmann is also technically eligible for the same reason. So that is the REAL technicality

[Falahk]

its not quite reflective of the clubs policy to poach every promesing 16 year old from Barca's, Real Madrid's or Sevilla's cantera thought, so for this reason I only sign players that start the game as basque, like I have mentioned a few times already in this thread, so I supose im doing it in pretty much the same way as drizzlynewt

and much like Arrono mention, Navarre is clearly basque enough

as for slinging smaller basque clubs, I have never really done it in the way you mention (and im not really sure if Athletic are to bothred about it irl ether, they just poach every half decent player), as for Aviron Bayonnais, they have been boncing up and down between the nationals and CFA on my save

[Dirty_ACE]

In terms of scouting for Basque regens, does anyone assign scouts to keep track of the Segunda B2 division? I believe it's the one where the vast majority of Basque clubs play. Is it worth scouting it specifically for regens?

PS - the way it goes for me is like this, "if you're young enough and good enough, you're Basque enough"

[enders357]

In order to have Espericueta you need to either load all players with Basque nationality in addition to whatever size database you choose or load the Mexican top league.

Damn, I wish I'd known that when I started. My first season went too well to start again! Ah well.

[drizzlynewt]

In terms of scouting for Basque regens, does anyone assign scouts to keep track of the Segunda B2 division? I believe it's the one where the vast majority of Basque clubs play. Is it worth scouting it specifically for regens?

PS - the way it goes for me is like this, "if you're young enough and good enough, you're Basque enough"

I scout B2. It's pretty rare that my scout there turns up any player worth considering at all and, even when he does, they're usually not that good. Just doing a search for Basque under 16's based in Spain when you get your new youth recruits through should allow you to scout and sign any who are any good, so you're not missing much if you decide not to scout the division. It's worth making sure you scout them though, I did get a couple of fantastic young prospects from Sestao in my first season.

[drizzlynewt]

Incidentally, giving Aviron Bayonnais that 5 million seems to have been a waste. They didn't spend a single penny of it during the transfer window, had more players leaving than coming in, and have had a terrible start to their season, being right down near the bottom of the table, albeit only after 5 games.

[ArranoBeltza]

PS - the way it goes for me is like this, "if you're young enough and good enough, you're Basque enough"

I generally adhere to this rule, though I am biased toward the Basque newgens. If another player is generated of similar ability, I'll usually sell the non-Basque one I poached earlier and buy/develop the Basque kid.

[enders357]

I finished my first season a couple of days ago. It went much better than expected!

League: 3rd place, well behind Barcelona and Real Madrid and ahead of Villareal only on goal difference. A good 10 point gap between us and the team in 5th though (Malaga, if my memory serves - not at home as I type this)

Copa Del Rey: Winners! Some extremely hairy moments, including being taken to a replay in one of the early rounds by a minnow and a QF penalty shoot out with Malaga but I managed to avoid either of the giants and hammered Betis 4-0 in the final.

Europa League: Some great performances (including a 5-1 home win against PSG in the first knockout round) and some shocking ones too (including a 4-1 away defeat to PSG in the first knockout round!) Reached the Second knockout round where Tottenham did for me with disappointing ease. We couldn't cope with Modric, who scored 2 in the first leg and made 2 in the second.

Signings:

I bought Azpilicueta in for £12.5m over 48 months at the start of the season as he's clearly got the RB position sewn up for the next ten years, once Iraola tails off. Other than that no big signings, just a couple of youngsters (Moises being the pick of them, though he isn't joining until 1.7.2012).

Tactics:

I wanted to imitate Bielsa so used this thread as inspiration - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/300872-Being-Bielsa-but-a-bit-less-loco-%28hopefully%29! - and created a couple of options. I played a 3-4-3 with wing-backs and a 4-2-3-1 depending on the way the opposition lined up (keeping a spare man at the back as Bielsa does). We were fluid, presed high and hard, and played fast attacking football. Possibly the most important changes were to make Iraizoz a sweeper keeper, to deal with our high defensive line, and to have Mikel San Jose playing as a BPD coming out to meet the strikers head on if they got past Javi Martinez.

Star performers:

My attacking midfield trio of Muniain, De Marcos and Susaetea were the heroes of the season all chipping in with around 10 league goals each and a similar number of assists. Herrera settled in to a central midfield well after struggling at the start and was solid. Llorente scored 17 league goals and got 6 assists, so I'll be looking for a little more from him in my second season. Mikel San Jose was not only a rock at the back but contributed 11 leage goals - a combination of penalties and headed goals from set pieces.

Young players:

I used Saborit and Ibai for around 12 league games each and Du Garraleta for 5 or 6 to try and aid their development. Saborit really impressed and improved and the others looks like they'll be useful squad members. Autenatxe also got a good number of games, rotating with Koikili (who I've now moved on) and I'm also re-training him to provide cover for Javi Martinez as a BWM in the centre, as he appears to have the required skills. It seems to be an area the squad is lacking without an obvious transfer target. I did think Orbaiz might do that job for me in the second season, but I don't think he could cope with the physcial demands of my pressing, controlling game.

Plans for next season:

I got a cash injection in February giving me a transfer budget of £12.5m so secured Natxo Monreal with £9m of that, and have also lined up Ruffier for £10.5m over 48 months. I don't see there's any other players to bring in to the squad - I like Griezemann and Inigo Martinez and will keep an eye on them but I don't think I'll be able to sign them directly from Sociedad. I used the remainder of my budget to sign 5 young newgens and will be looking to develop them at Bilbao Athletic or on loan with a view to getting them in to the first team squad in a couple of years.

I should also mention that I appointed Inaki Saez as my assistant immediately after taking over and he's been great - decent tactical suggestions, accurate assessments of players' current ability, and reliable in a press conference if I'm trying to speed through things a little. Not quite so good at recommending team talks though, so I largely ignore his advice there. A former Athletic manager, if I'm not mistaken?

The only downside of having such a good season is that the board's minimum expectation has jumped from a safe mid-table finish in season one to now wanting a champions league spot. I'm confident of being there or thereabouts but don't think a top 4 finish is by any means a guarantee, especially as other teams have a lot more options to improve via the transfer market. Still, I'm in it for the long haul so will see how it goes.

A thoroughly enjoyable first season and a save I'm really looking forward to continuing for a good number of seasons. I've found the transfer restrictions and the emphasis on developing young players to be really exciting and interesting, and have also spent a lot more time and effort on developing bespoke tactics and training than I usually do.

[drizzlynewt]

I like Griezemann and Inigo Martinez and will keep an eye on them but I don't think I'll be able to sign them directly from Sociedad.

This is something that's a lot easier to do if you make sure to concentrate on doing it. I managed to sign Griezmann in my first season because Sociedad went through a spell of not playing him and he became unhappy at a lack of playing time. I imagine that he'd have been back in the team eventually and would've become unwilling to discuss a contract at that point, but I made sure to put the bid in straight away and got it all wrapped up before that could happen. I also managed to sign Xabi Alonso, who I don't think would normally have been willing to negotiate from Real Madrid, by waiting until he had a brief spell of unhappiness.

So yeah, just check the transfer center and see if they've stopped being "unrealistic transfers" as often as you can and be sure to put in a bid for them the second they become available if they do.

[ArranoBeltza]

As far as not being able to sign Griezmann or Martinez directly from Real Sociedad: it should become easier in your second or third season, especially if you are more successful than Sociedad (not too hard).

But why would you even need Griezmann, especially if you play Muniain on the left wing?

As an aside, I want a community opinion: I'm in 2017-18 right now, but am thinking of restarting to utilize the updated database as Griezmann is not Basque on the previous versions and Ibai got attribute tweaks on the newest version (did De Marcos also?). Should I keep truckin' on my current save or start anew? Thoughts?

[drizzlynewt]

Griezmann is one of the best players with Basque nationality on the game. Why wouldn't you want to sign him with a team that can only sign players of Basque nationality?

[Dirty_ACE]

As far as not being able to sign Griezmann or Martinez directly from Real Sociedad: it should become easier in your second or third season, especially if you are more successful than Sociedad (not too hard).

But why would you even need Griezmann, especially if you play Muniain on the left wing?

As an aside, I want a community opinion: I'm in 2017-18 right now, but am thinking of restarting to utilize the updated database as Griezmann is not Basque on the previous versions and Ibai got attribute tweaks on the newest version (did De Marcos also?). Should I keep truckin' on my current save or start anew? Thoughts?

Personally I would probably restart just to have more updated PAs for Athletic's players. I have a good number of them that have high potential like Romalho, whom my coaches and assistant keep telling me that he'll become a leading center back in La Liga, so I'm very excited. Also I think it would be worth restarting in order to have Griezmann get his Basque nationality which will at least give you some chance to sign him as otherwise there's no chance at all.

On the negative side though, Alvaro Vadillo is much harder to get as he lost his Basque nationality. Betis refuse to sell him for anything less than his buyout clause. However, sometimes there's a chance to sign him on loan, but in my game I wasn't able to do that as Betis refused.

So I think all in all I would restart my game. Plus in your case you haven't really gone very far anyway.

Now I have a question regarding transfers. I'm approaching the first winter transfer window and thinking of acquiring Monreal, Azpilicueta, and Ruffier. I've placed bids for all three players. Malaga wants €12 million for Monreal, Marseille wants €36 million for Azpilicueta, and Saint Etienne wants €15 million for Ruffier. Are these prices reasonable? Is there any way to lower Azpilicueta's price?

[Searley60]

Now I have a question regarding transfers. I'm approaching the first winter transfer window and thinking of acquiring Monreal, Azpilicueta, and Ruffier. I've placed bids for all three players. Malaga wants €12 million for Monreal, Marseille wants €36 million for Azpilicueta, and Saint Etienne wants €15 million for Ruffier. Are these prices reasonable? Is there any way to lower Azpilicueta's price?

Be patient with these transfers. I got Monreal for 6m in the second season, Ruffier for 10m at the same time and then Azpilicueta in the winter transfer window of the second season for 15m.

[Falahk]

As an aside, I want a community opinion: I'm in 2017-18 right now, but am thinking of restarting to utilize the updated database as Griezmann is not Basque on the previous versions and Ibai got attribute tweaks on the newest version (did De Marcos also?). Should I keep truckin' on my current save or start anew? Thoughts?

I'm in 2018-19 atm on the old fm12.0 db(with stadium edited back on, like it had to be done at that point in time), and I'm enjoying this save way to much to restart it, considering how far you have got, you should probably just keep at it and wait for the next fm before starting a new save with athletic

[Namroc]

I've just taken over at Bilbao, but I'm unsure what to do with the current staff. Any recommendations on who to bring in?

[Dirty_ACE]

I've just taken over at Bilbao, but I'm unsure what to do with the current staff. Any recommendations on who to bring in?

There are a ton of great yet cheap coaches in Brazil.

EDIT- Has anyone noticed Ruffier being unhappy with his training due to not being trained enough in ball control?