FM14: Tottenham Hotspur - "“ Sold Elvis and bought The Beatles..."

[R1ku]

Great article on tactics that reminded me of the 4-2-3-1 I posted in the OPs of this thread...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1886113-roberto-martinezs-everton-have-eschewed-tactical-symmetry-and-boosted-variety

Nice article. I've always liked assymmetric formations. Here's one I've been using a few times this season with nice success, too, mostly when I've been behind or otherwise trying to get a goal.

R1ku - you won't regret that outlay for Pogba. I spent a similarly ridiculous sum of money for him and he's been incredible for me (after a bit of a slow start for the first half season or so).

I shifted to a 4-3-3 (no number 10) to accommodate his strengths better and have him playing in the left CM spot set as an AP A (with added instructions to shoot more often, making use of that 20 for long shots).

Pogba's started well. Three matches, three assists and 7.80 avg. I'm sure he'll be even better as time goes by.

[R1ku]

FM life is good at the moment! Everything just seems to be "flowing" at the moment at New White Hart Lane. Since Lamela left and Pogba and Stanciu came in the tactics seems to be clicking and I can almost sense the fantastic atmosphire around the locker room as results keep coming our way. Pogba (6 matches, 1 goal and 5 assists, 8.00 avg) and Stanciu (4(3) matches 2 goals and 3 assists, 7.50 avg) have settled in really nicely and Oxlade-Chamberlain has been absolutely fantastic! Ox has played 22(7) matches this season in all competitions and has scored 10 goals and assisted 10 as well, way better than Lamela ever was.

January 2017

[Georgik]

Gutted that i lost out on the transfer of Peruzzi, i wasnt trying very hard because i had Walker, but Walker has regressed somewhat, while Peruzzi is one of the best RB in the game, Man Utd refused 60 mil from me for him ... It would have been nice to have a chemistry of Peruzzi and Lamela on the right, while on the left i have Alex Sandro and Bernard

[Georgik]

So, finally after my team really gets going in the EPL, everything is fine, 8 wins in a row, i seem unstoppable, look what happens just before a title-deciding match :

While i'm missing almost all my best players, my entire defence line except Walker, also Balanta got injured on this international break, City is missing just Aguero who is important to them. But what i'm wondering is just how the most important match of the season gets scheduled after an international matchday, HOW ? I'm involved just in EL and FA Cup, was knocked out in Quarter Finals in League Cup, same for City, and this is just outrageous, and it's not a postponed game or something like that, the entire Matchday is played on tuesday and wendesday, this is just the icing on the cake, HOW could i possibly still enjoy the game when things like this happen ? Same old same, year after year. Really annoyed right now, saved before this game, and i dont know when i'll continue playing it.

[Georgik]

Drew 1-1 with City eventually Couldnt help myself to stop playing the game

[rune_star]

Took me a while to get what you meant in the first place

It's a bit strong to label that lineup of yours "weak", don't you think? I know many FM'ers would love to have those players, so even though I get your point about STUPID match planning from FM, it's still a more than decent lineup.

Congrats on the result by the way

[JBoyd33641]

Starting my Spurs save today. Thinking about selling Dembelle and trying to get Pogba. What do you guys think? Should I?

[enders357]

Starting my Spurs save today. Thinking about selling Dembelle and trying to get Pogba. What do you guys think? Should I?

You probably won't get Pogba in the first couple of windows, and if you do it'll cost a lot more than you can get for Dembele (cost me £43m + add-ons) - but he is amazing. Dembele's been really good for me, wouldn't recommend getting rid of him.

[Georgik]

Finally i have won the EPL, had a fantastic run in the end, but was stopped abruptly by a 3-0 loss to Man Utd, but in the end, after WBA won 2-1 at OT, a major upset given by the fact that Man Utd had rested some tired players because they were playing the FA Cup Final and Man City being inconsistent, have given me the chance of winning it, the highligt being a 3-2 win at stoke on 37 matchday, after being 2-0 down in the first 15 minutes.

As a summary, Eriksen proved to be my deciding factor with 18 assists and playing well almost all the time, also youngsters Gabriel Barbosa and Timo Werner, every time they came off the bench they did a terrific job even though they didnt improve their abillities like i expected, they were in fantastic form. Now some screens :

Final Table, Derby finishing with 12 points )

My tactic

How my players performed

Gabriel Barbosa

Timo Werner

Some great prospects that are waiting in line to be key players :

Fabio Concepcion

Juan Manuel Carrara

Maybe somebody can suggest a better tactic to use Lewandowski as he is not scoring as much as i hoped him to score ... Since i signed him he scored in EPL 19, 16, 19 goals ... Also Bernard seems a little bit dissapointing ...

[R1ku]

Just had my 'United vs Bayern' moment in the Champions League, only in the 1st Knockout Round, though, against Atletico. First leg was a dull 0-0 draw away at Atletico, with me having the better chances. Secong leg I attacked from the start, but just couldn't score and the game was 0-0 until in the 77th minute when Atletico had their first shot on goal, Salvio scoring a scorher from distance which meant that I have to scoe two to go through. I changed to Overload and went full attack all the way. My 17 year-old French wonderkid newgen Freddy Andre equalized on the 87th minute with a simple tap-in from a sub Rose's cross and then into the second minute of a three-minute stoppage-time Romero's shot from outside the box flies in and sends the fans (and me) into raptures. What an end to the match!

[Georgik]

After setting Lewa with a support duty on his Deep Lying Forward role he scores for fun now I have previously used this on him but now he seems unplayable for the opposition at times.

[fanesd]

Hi all,

Great thread and interesting read to see how people are deploying players with peronalised tatics. Just reading through wondering how people are signing Lewandowski on free and stuff?

Is he free season 2?

[R1ku]

Excited about this kid who just came from my youth intake in 2017. He's nothing that special when it comes to attributes, but he's only 15, and is 4 and-a-half star potential and the main reason about me being excited in that he's Finnish, just like me, and even has the same first name as me. Hopefully he'll star for the Finnish national team in a few years.

[enders357]

Out of interest, how many of you guys are Spurs fans? I am, and I'm hurting. Today was embarrassing. Why did AVB revert back to he high line he rightly abandoned after the City thrashing? ARRRRGH.

[rune_star]

First season over!

So finally came through my first full season in my first career save on FM14 with Spurs. Bit of a slow player, so haven't been able to rush through season after season

Won the championship with nine points over Chelsea! Bit of a crazy end to the season as by late January we had a massive 20 point lead, but things got a bit 'rubbery' and nerves started playing tricks on everybody, including me making some stupid decisions now and again. With 3 games to go, the lead was down to 5 point but as we had the early match of the day, we won a clean cut 6-2 victory at Craven Cottage giving us the championship. Chelsea then flunked the rest of their games ;-)

Got knocked out of Carling and FA rather early on, so could concentrate on the league and EL which we also won rather easy. Toughest game was in the Quarters against OM, then had Aab (from Denmark) in the semis and took out Saint-Etienne in the final.

Been tinkering around with tactics a lot so the huge squad at Spurs came in handy. Only made a few signings prior to the first season…

Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow, 1.8 mill euro)

Neil Taylor (Swansea, 6 mill)

Anthony Reveillere (Free)

Timo Werner (Stuttgart, 6 mill)

All did rather well in their designated roles. Especially Taylor's been really good… wanted at least one english player and with his 14-15 stat in all important FB areas as well as decisions and other key mental stats, his PPM's makes him a VERY tough fullback/wingback for opponents. You can almost hear his tackling through the screen and he singlehandedly managed to injure 4-5 opponents throughout the season without getting a single red card

Honda performed just like other people have described him. Slick, reliable MC who can control a game from midfield as well as 'clean up' the engine room.

Best performers:

Eriksen, Kaboul, Taylor and Hugo!

Had a really tough time making Eriksen shine in the first part of the season, but by December I finally devised a tactic that suited him perfectly! Got him playing as a Treq in the no. 10 spot, slightly to the side, and had arranged the rest of the team so as to give him the space he needs, as well as players in front of him giving him someone to feed. He soon started raking up the assists and PoM awards. If only FM had given him the slightly better finishing skills he deserves, he'd have gotten more goals as well. Ended the season with 22 assists and 6 goals :-)

Kaboul a powerhouse DC, never making mistakes and even bagging 7 goals from corners (no corner cheat applied!). Taylor tackling away, and if only I had a forward who could head the ball, he'd have a bunch of assists as well (had him in a test save with Arsenal where got 7 assists in half a season by crossing to Giroud). Hugo in goal… not much to say really. His poor distribution(!) is easily balanced by his lightning reflexes inside the area.

Fails:

Paulinho, Townsend, Defoe and Chadli.

Never has a player been so nerfed by FM researchers as Paulinho. IRL he's one of my favourites. A physically strong, super versatile technically founded energy pack of a Brazilian national player, and these are the stats that FM give him? He never really performed when called for, and I've given him LOTS of chances. Townsend a HUGE disappointment never showed his FM wise talent, but I'll hold on to him as I desperately want him to break through sometime, plus I need the english players.

Others:

Gylfi had the numberwise best season. 21 assists and 22 goals in all tournaments. Sadly only half of those in the PL, the rest in EL, but still. He's a bit inconsistent and has an annoying lack of certain key skills, dribbling the most apparent! Still bags some KILLER goals with that shot of his, and makes sublime assists here and there. Just don't let him run with ball at ANY time.

Lamela. If there was a prize for inconsistency Lamela would be king of it! By watching the first 10 mins of every game he plays you know whether he'll bag a hat trick or flunk completely. If his first touches are good, he'll have a superb game, and if not you might as well yank him out after 20 mins, as he'll give you NOTHING but headaches! Retrained him as a forward playing sometimes as a false nine and still managed 18 goals by doubling or tripling his tally in every game he scores.

Soldado never really shone either. But his 'simplicity' helps him out a lot… he's a blunt instrument who should really only just kick the ball whenever opportunity arises. Got 22 goals by hitting target here and there without ever really getting out of form, nor getting a single hat trick. Very consistent in that way, but his complete lack of on-the-ball skills, as well as low strength and poor heading makes it hard for him to deliver in congested battles. By February most teams decided to go "Mourinho-vs-Barca" against me so a LOT of players inside the area all the time. In these situations he is utter rubbish. Can't use that otherwise relentless aggression of his as he's always outnumbered and surrounded, and he's by far best against the big teams where we can sit a bit deeper and hit them on fast breaks with lots of running. Timo Werner started showing some of his 5 star talent in those congested battles, in which he bagged 11 goals in the last third of the campaign. Not bad for a 17 year old teenager and he did some really nice things with the ball in the aforementioned congested conditions inside the area

So far had an interesting start to season two including activities in the transfer market! New post required...

[rune_star]

Season Two

Already got the first titles in hand… Won the Community Shield 2-1 against Man City, and most surprisingly the European Super Cup against allmighty Barcelona! Won the match 2-1 by a late Soldado goal from a flat Gylfi cross in second half of overtime (118 min) after stamina-king Dani Alves seemed tired and tried some crazy maneuvers in the corner of the pitch, just outside their own area

Also three games into the league and so far beat Hull (0-2 away), Southampton (1-0 home) and Man United (2-0 home), so looking good so far. Next up is Chelsea away, and immidiately after that we've got Barca again in the first CL game. Was handed a group of Barca, Zenit and Besiktas…

I know we're going to take a hit sooner or later, so I'm already thinking about what to do when that happens.

Transfer activities

Going in:

Andre Ayew (OM, 20 mill)

Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Dortmund, 30 mill)

Aleksandar Mitrovic (Anderlecht, 12 mill)

Also got Gabriel 'Gabigol' Barbosa, but was already signed in the first season for 3.2 mill. Only just joined now after his 18th birthday...

Add to that a handful of regens, two of which are english 5 star potentials (a DMC and a DR). The DR's only got 4 in determination so might have a hard time ever breaking through. Tutoring, tutoring, tutoring…

Going out:

Paulinho (Schalke, 16 mill)

Defoe (Fulham, 1.8 mill)

Nacer Chadli (Stoke, 4.5 mill)

Lewis Holtby (Man City, 17 mill)

Moussa Dembele (Paris SG, 30 mill)

Plus the 'usual suspects'… Carrol, Iago, Livermore and the likes… Kept Adam Smith though and send Kyle Naughton on loan. Again VERY worried about the number of english players. Still holding on to Townsend, but Lennon wanted a transfer so trying to offload him. NOBODY seems to want him though

Anyway, selling Dembele is my biggest regret and wasn't intended! The oil scum in Paris are going berserk and have so far spend 100 mill euros on transfers this summer alone! They came in with 20 mill for Dembele, which I promptly refused and promised him a better contract soon which he then seemed to like. Two days later he then demanded a transfer! I should probably have given him a new contract right away, but he only just signed his existing contract 6 months earlier. Greedy, greedy, greedy…

Other than that, I'm really excited about Mkhitaryan. Started of really well, already bagging a goal and having 2 assists in spite of playing alongside Eriksen who also have 2 assists

Hoping that Mitrovic will evolve quickly (especially in the heading department), to make use of more wing play and wing backs in the dreaded second season. Anticipating a new tactical setup with a lot more deep laying tactics… we'll see how the second season syndrome hits us

Further updates to be expected down the line, but so far enjoying myself tremendously!

[CarltonBanks]

After doing the PL and EL double in season one, I got flustered in a flurry of transfer activity (pic coming soon). Had a strong preseason, but got embarassed by losing the Community Shield to Norwich on pens.

[R1ku]

Just had my 'United vs Bayern' moment in the Champions League, only in the 1st Knockout Round, though, against Atletico. First leg was a dull 0-0 draw away at Atletico, with me having the better chances. Secong leg I attacked from the start, but just couldn't score and the game was 0-0 until in the 77th minute when Atletico had their first shot on goal, Salvio scoring a scorher from distance which meant that I have to scoe two to go through. I changed to Overload and went full attack all the way. My 17 year-old French wonderkid newgen Freddy Andre equalized on the 87th minute with a simple tap-in from a sub Rose's cross and then into the second minute of a three-minute stoppage-time Romero's shot from outside the box flies in and sends the fans (and me) into raptures. What an end to the match!

The story continues.. This after a 0-0 draw at City of Manchester Stadium:

Had to fist-pump a couple of times after the Barkley goal and the fist-pumps turned into laughter after the Andre goal. PSG in the final, they beat Barcelona 3-1 on aggregate in the semis.

[rune_star]

How's Caulker doing for you R1ku? Paris SG are continuing their shopping spree and apparently they won't settle for Dembele. Now they're after Vertonghen, so on an early lookout for replacements, preferably english ;-)

[R1ku]

How's Caulker doing for you R1ku? Paris SG are continuing their shopping spree and apparently they won't settle for Dembele. Now they're after Vertonghen, so on an early lookout for replacements, preferably english ;-)

Caulker's been really reliable and consistent. Nothing fancy but that's not needed from him. Although he has scored a couple of important goals for me. Got him from Cardiff before this fourth season for £15M, which I thought was a fair price for him.

Just beat Stoke 0-2 away to secure my third straight Premiership title. Two league matches and then we're off to Camp Nou to meet PSG. Would love to lift that trophy after last years final devastation against Chelsea.

[enders357]

How's Caulker doing for you R1ku? Paris SG are continuing their shopping spree and apparently they won't settle for Dembele. Now they're after Vertonghen, so on an early lookout for replacements, preferably english ;-)

If you're looking for a young, English CB I bought Michael Keane from Man Utd for £2.3m in Jan 2016 and he's been really consistent as back up for me.

[R1ku]

Second time's the charm, the Champions League trophy is ours! I somehow get the feeling Agüero didn't want to lose the Champions League for a second time in a row. He assisted the Benzia goal, too.

Will post a season review later this week, when I have the time.

[waitsfornone]

Started a for-real Spurs save with the patch. Had actually just stepped away as the ME defensive issues were too frustrating to continue. But all of that aside.

Sales:

Dawson -- too old and slow to keep up with Vlad, Jan, and Kaboul

Defoe -- Ade and Soldado are better, and wanted to get money before it was too late

Simon Dawkins -- It was time.

Buys:

Alex Sandro -- Relatively cheap and has been very good so far

Anthony Brooks -- Young, towering defender at Hertha Berlin. Has been excellent as well.

Timo Werner -- Only 17, and has played in Cup matches. Excited for the next couple of years

Note: Daws and Defoe make the English requirements a bit hard to fill, unless replaced with HG talent. Looking to Carroll and Kane to add to my roster next season on this front.

Form:

I am only in late October, but I have lost only 3 competitive matches and Drawn 1.

Losses to Chelsea in Prem and Capitol One Cup

Loss to Nice on first leg of Europa playoff (didn't field a team of the caliber needed)

Draw against Hull on a late game equalizer.

Other than that I have been rolling and rotating. Lamela is not playing particularly well, but I have simply benched him until he plays better.

[enders357]

FINALLY! Season 1015/16 has one game to go, and my first trophy is confirmed...

Just look at those goals for and against. Very proud...

Now just the small matter of this to come in a couple of weeks...

[enders357]

YEAAAAHHHHHHH!!

[R1ku]

Congrats, enders! Feels good, doesn't it?

My main target for season four was the Champions League after last seasons final defeat, and being so close to being knocked out twice after the group stage, but survived with two last minute or stoppage-time winners, I've rarely had so much joy from FM than after Agüero finishing his hat-trick to make the final 4-2.

[enders357]

Congrats, enders! Feels good, doesn't it?

My main target for season four was the Champions League after last seasons final defeat, and being so close to being knocked out twice after the group stage, but survived with two last minute or stoppage-time winners, I've rarely had so much joy from FM than after Agüero finishing his hat-trick to make the final 4-2.

Feels amazing - I'd finished second in the league twice, lost the League Cup final and Europa League semi-final in season one and then was comprehensively beaten in the Europa League final in season two so a win felt overdue!

Can't believe I won the CL though. My knockout stage record was an away goals win (secured with a 94th minute goal in the second leg) against Juventus, another away goals win in the quarter final against Chelsea, and a close fought 2-1 against Monacao in the semi. Followed by a penalty shootout win (and one where the crossbar saved me from defeat at the end of the first 5 penalties), the whole run feels kind of flukey... but I'll take it!

[thebadger1976]

Really struggling to find a consistent goalscorer now that Soldado has left on a free (in fourth season). I have Benteke but he's been through two goal droughts and a couple of long injuries since I signed him so he's never really found form. Wanted Balotelli but didn't manage to get him in the end. Bought Domenico Beradi for £26m, and I also have Mauro Icardi (signed in season 3 on a free). Not really happy with my choices up front, as none of them are standing out as the sort of 20+ goal striker that I need. Spent ages in the close season trying to find a reliable goalscorer who would be willing to come to Spurs, but there really wasn't much available.

[rune_star]

Small update on the start of second season…

Things are going WAY beyond my wildest expectations. Just been through a hellish setup in the last four games with Man U, 2 x Barca, and Chelsea and won them all!

Mkhitaryan has been simply outstanding, providing 2 goals and 2 assists in those last four games! Eriksen chipped in with 1/1 as well while Gylfi did 3/1

Lamela is completely out of it however… No points at all and an abysmal average

But we're definately on to something great here!

[enders357]

Really struggling to find a consistent goalscorer now that Soldado has left on a free (in fourth season). I have Benteke but he's been through two goal droughts and a couple of long injuries since I signed him so he's never really found form. Wanted Balotelli but didn't manage to get him in the end. Bought Domenico Beradi for £26m, and I also have Mauro Icardi (signed in season 3 on a free). Not really happy with my choices up front, as none of them are standing out as the sort of 20+ goal striker that I need. Spent ages in the close season trying to find a reliable goalscorer who would be willing to come to Spurs, but there really wasn't much available.

A lack of quality strikers is the major issue on FM14, I've found. I got lucky with Cavani at the end of my second season after he fell out with PSG (though he still cost me a fortune), but I'd been really struggling up to then. I'm now hoping Cavani will carry us through a few seasons until a newgen can take over.

[enders357]

Small update on the start of second season…

Things are going WAY beyond my wildest expectations...

...But we're definately on to something great here!

Looking good! How much did you pay for Mkhitaryan?

[R1ku]

SEASON REVIEW 2016/17

The Champions League trophy is finally ours! Oh, and we took the Premier League trophy for the third time in a row, too.

Our mind was set for the Champions League right from the get-go, or actually right from the devastating loss to Chelsea in last seasons UCL final. If we had fixture congestion, the Champions League match was the match that was played with the best squad, rotation and youth players getting more starts in the Premier League. Our start to the PL was somewhat rough, with us being undefeated for the first two thirds of the season, but almost every second match was a draw, against weaker sides, too. After 12 matches we were only 3rd in the league, but then we got going and after the half-way mark no-one was able to drop us from the top spot and and beat seond place City by five points in the end.

Premier League table:

The Road to Camp Nou 2017:

The Players

Didn't have any outstanding player performances during the season, but some of it has to do with the strong rotating I do to keep my guys fresh. One young guns shone more than the rest, though. Freddy Andre, a 17 year-old French wonderkid scored 13 goals and assisted 8 in only 16 starts. Benzia was my top scorer with 21 goals in all competitions, followed by Agüero (17), Mitrovic (14), Andre (13) and Oxlade-Chamberlain (10). Top three in assists were O-C (14), Giovinco (11) and Agüero (10).

Complete stats:

Youth update to follow...

[R1ku]

The Future in 2017

The kids are growing up. Here's the one's that I'm most excited about for next season. I'll be offloading a few older guys to get some more first team football for these lads. I'm sure a few of them will make a big impact next season, and Andre already did last season.

[Georgik]

A season to remember, won the treble, EPL, League Cup and UCL, in FA Cup i was knocked out on penalties in semis by Chelsea sadly But all in all it was a great season, with the team playing some exciting football, here are some screens :

Bayern again on the losing side, even if they won the comp in the previous year, they lost 2 more finals, also 4 finals in a row for them.

And how my 2 gems are developing :

And finally some interesting stuff about the Golden Shoe :

El Arabi won it twice, he scores alot on my save Granada was in my group this season, and finished 2nd, and on other saves they seem to perform well.

I'm currently undefeated in the 2018/2019 season, won the Community Shield, European Super Cup and WCC, but went out on penalties in QF at the hands of Derby, also went through a takeover by a consortium led by a former director, the planned to install another manager but eventually kept me in. It would have been total madness to sack me after i won the UCL )

[rune_star]

Looking good! How much did you pay for Mkhitaryan?

32 mill euros… Quite reasonable I think.

At first glance they seems very much alike, Eriksen and him, but with some noteworthy differences. Most notably being that Henrikh can actually finish! He's got that 15 in finishing, so am currently retraining him to be able to play in the frontline thinking he'll be THE false nine alongside my AF. Eriksen is capable of playing there already and he's doing great except of course for the last strike. Henrikh has the "comes deep" PPM, which should even further make him ideal for the role.

Although they have many similar stats, there's a remarkable difference to watching them play in the ME. Eriksen's MUCH more mobile than Henrikh and is constantly running to find just the right position to receive, while Henrikh is a bit more static, and comes deep for the ball. He also has better defensive stats so they actually complement each other well. Eriksen as the more mobile all out offensive threat who also tends to play the killer balls much more (due to PPM), and Henrikh as the more 'labouring' of the two with a big plus to finishing things of

[R1ku]

We all go a little crazy sometimes.. Look who wanted to stop by.

Sold Eriksen to United for £42M as he wasn't performing like I had wished and then saw this guy wanting to join me. For a sh*t load of money, of course, but still.. NICE!

[enders357]

Haha, not sure I could stomach that I'd make the excpetion for Ozil though.

Congrats on some amazing seasons R1ku and Georgik.

Will try and post some screenshots of a few newgens I have coming through; there's a crop of 6 or 7 who look like world beaters (only one from my academy and 5 or 6 others nabbed from elsewhere while 15 or 16 years old). In most cases I'm going to put them out on loan next season and look to integrate them gradually over the couple of seasons past that.

[enders357]

32 mill euros… Quite reasonable I think.

At first glance they seems very much alike, Eriksen and him, but with some noteworthy differences. Most notably being that Henrikh can actually finish! He's got that 15 in finishing, so am currently retraining him to be able to play in the frontline thinking he'll be THE false nine alongside my AF. Eriksen is capable of playing there already and he's doing great except of course for the last strike. Henrikh has the "comes deep" PPM, which should even further make him ideal for the role.

Although they have many similar stats, there's a remarkable difference to watching them play in the ME. Eriksen's MUCH more mobile than Henrikh and is constantly running to find just the right position to receive, while Henrikh is a bit more static, and comes deep for the ball. He also has better defensive stats so they actually complement each other well. Eriksen as the more mobile all out offensive threat who also tends to play the killer balls much more (due to PPM), and Henrikh as the more 'labouring' of the two with a big plus to finishing things of

I think I've missed the Mkhitaryan boat on my save. It's got to 2016 and I don't play with a number 10. I play a 4-3-3 with Pogba breaking late in to that position from deeper, and have retrained Eriksen in to an astonishingly effective left winger. I have Memphis Depay as cover for him and Lamela, with Gabriel Iancu joining in summer 2016 too.

[DosSantosFC]

R1ku those youth players look insane! Well done,I have a few youth players looking good,dont normally get many coming through normally, keep us posted!!!

[R1ku]

Haha, not sure I could stomach that I'd make the excpetion for Ozil though.

Congrats on some amazing seasons R1ku and Georgik.

Will try and post some screenshots of a few newgens I have coming through; there's a crop of 6 or 7 who look like world beaters (only one from my academy and 5 or 6 others nabbed from elsewhere while 15 or 16 years old). In most cases I'm going to put them out on loan next season and look to integrate them gradually over the couple of seasons past that.

I have a sick mind, I know. ;D Looking forward to seeing your youth. I just had Liverpool come in for Giovinco a day after Bernard's agent offered him around for £17.75M, he's unhappy at Real. Hmm..

R1ku those youth players look insane! Well done,I have a few youth players looking good,dont normally get many coming through normally, keep us posted!!!

Thanks, mate! All of those youths have been at Spurs for three seasons now, but none of them are from my own youth intake, but class anyway.

[enders357]

Here they are, the next generation:

Lamela's future replacement, picked up from Watford before they offered him a contract.

[enders357]

Lloris's long term replacement, signed from Celtic for £1.2m.

[enders357]

£3.6m from Freiburg.

[enders357]

£3M, another from Freiburg.

[enders357]

From my own youth system and labelled the new Paul Gascoinge. Spent the second half of 2015/16 on loan at West Ham and got a 6.92 average rating in 12 PL starts.

[enders357]

Nicked from FC Midjtylland (sp?) for basically nothing. My great hope for a 20+ goal a season striker for years to come.

[Georgik]

I had some great youth prospects coming from my annual intake, with great potential, but so far none truly developed into a world-class player, anyway the average age of my team is 23, the youngest in the league, i'm very proud of them, and in the last 2 years i didnt make a single transfer, also Kaboul was the only one who left, i had an exodus in the first 2 seasons but now my squad is really settled.

[DosSantosFC]

I have been working hard on Coulibaly first season. Going to turn out to be a good squad player, stats are looking good for a good poacher, he is constantly being tutored by someone and playing every reserve game,will plan to loan him out when he turns 19/20. Finishing after season 1 is 14 with a lot of his stats going up. Looking to see big steps from him second season

[enders357]

I have been working hard on Coulibaly first season. Going to turn out to be a good squad player, stats are looking good for a good poacher, he is constantly being tutored by someone and playing every reserve game,will plan to loan him out when he turns 19/20. Finishing after season 1 is 14 with a lot of his stats going up. Looking to see big steps from him second season

Never worked out for me. I still have him going in to season 4 but his potential has dropped off substantially and he's never hit his stride. Scored 3 goals in 37 games for Ipswich on loan in the Championship in League One.

[enders357]

I had some great youth prospects coming from my annual intake, with great potential, but so far none truly developed into a world-class player, anyway the average age of my team is 23, the youngest in the league, i'm very proud of them, and in the last 2 years i didnt make a single transfer, also Kaboul was the only one who left, i had an exodus in the first 2 seasons but now my squad is really settled.

always kinda makes me sad for some reason when I've sold on most of the original squad. I've kept a fair few - going in to season 4 and I still have Lloris, Vertonghen, Sandro, Lamela and Eriksen and only just sold Dawson, Chiriches, and Carroll.