FM15: Southampton F.C. - #WeMarchOn

[RTHerringbone]

The transfer window has shut, with incomings and outgoings as below. Six "real" players out, six newgens in. This leaves us with the following "real" players in the squad:

Tin Jedvaj (DC)

Eder Balanta (DC)

Terence Kongolo (DC)

Luke Shaw (WBL)

Leon Goretzka (MC)

James Ward-Prowse (MC)

Mateo Kovacic (MC)

Gabriel Barbosa (ST)

So I reckon I'm on track to achieve the aim of a newgen-only side by the end of season nine (in fact, I'd expect to get there a season early).

A couple of as yet unmentioned names in that image, and they replace Varane and Bazoer.

Both have obvious quality, but they also need to improve some Mental and Physical attributes to meet the required standards.

As is often the case, this relative downgrade in short term quality is inevitably impacting results to a degree. We lost the Euro Super Cup and have scraped through the few competitive games played so far.

[slakey]

Half way through the season, here's what my side has done.

Results:

Table:

[RTHerringbone]

That's a very decent start slakey, only losing matches you'd expect to, plus a great win against Arsenal and good efforts in Manchester.

[slakey]

Transfers, so far done in Jan:

Rhodes was bought mainly because Pelle and Long were both out injured and Rodriguez wanted to leave. Played his debut against the Toon, and got a hat-trick so can't really complain

Murphy was bought in due to Mane being injured and will fight for LM/LW against Isgrove, both young and promising.

Tielemans was a no brainer and with Morgan wanting to leave thought I would get the early cover in and start playing him every so often.

Wanyama also wants to leave so I'm still looking into the DM role, but I have a little list of who I want in IF Wanyama does leave. *But he won't leave for atleast 25-30m*

Another transfer currently waiting on the work permit is Pione Sisto, another young winger, aged 19... but has some deadly stats, and for £2.5m can't really go wrong

[arsenal1975]

Finished second in my second season behind ManU - their 4312 seems to be unstoppable for everybody ATM.

But anyway, all good and preparing for debut in Champions League. Need bigger and better squad for that, ofc.

Thus asking for you suggestions:

- GK: Muslera, Reina or Ruffier? Perin (8-9M)? Should I keep Forster as back-up or sell? Also have Sam Johnstone.

- DR: settled with Clyne and Peruzzi.

- DL: need new one to compete with Bertrand.

- 2xDC: Balanta, Gardos and Munoz have been good, also have Coates, but that's not enough I guess.

- DMC: Wanyama, Cork and when needed Schneiderlin will do it.

- 2xMC: Ward-Prowse, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, but also Davis have been excellent customers. But need more quality and quantity, current roles roaming playmaker and central mid. Fernandinho, Milner f.e. available, both ca 6M; Sergi Roberto 3,6M, Banega 11M, McArthur 10M, Ramires 9M, Fellaini 7M, Nainggolan 9M.

- AMR (ins.fw): Long was league's best goalscorer playing here and as striker! Ramirez, Tadic and Davis as decent back-ups, but probably will sell at least Tadic. Mirallas 15M, dos Santos 10M, Cerci 9M?

- AML (winger): Mane and Sarabia doing well enough. Any recommendations?

- ST (complete fw): Fierro has adapted and started to score really quickly. As mentioned, Long also excellent. That's why Mayuka, Pelle and probably Gallagher are surplus to requirements. Still thinking about adding someone: Rodrigo, Mitrovic (pretty expensive already), Ferreyra, Zapata...?

[slakey]

Although they are young look at the two wingers I brought in.

Josh Murphy and Pione Sisto, may not be Champs League quality yet, but it's better to get them in early and mold them into those players?

[RTHerringbone]

Yep, game time is the best way for players to develop. Pick their games sensibly and you'll only benefit in the long run.

[slakey]

Rhodes has scored 7 goals in 2(1) games, so... not bad for £12mil huh? LOL!

[oj2006]

Just a quick question really, i've started a S'oton save and im really struggling to find consistancy within the team, I can't decide on a formation which I feel works with the players we have. What formations are you guys working with? Help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[slakey]

I'm using Mr Hough's and FuSS'.

FuSS' tactic against the harder teams where I need more control in the middle, and Mr Hough's for dominance.

Also ALWAYS do your team talks, assistants this year are really bad.

[oj2006]

Great, thanks for your help.

[RTHerringbone]

I've used my own 4-1-4-1 and 5-3-2, details of both are contained within the thread.

[slakey]

Fraser is an absolute beast, it's just a shame the defence is lacking a lil, may look to bring in one or two CB's next summer.

Need to scout some more, as it seems we'll be getting European football.

[arsenal1975]

Actually I was also starting to think: why to replace Forster at all (with Perin f.e)? What's your experience - will he get better down the years?

[arsenal1975]

And now ManU have bid 68,25M for JWP - 13,25M upfront, 23,5M over a year and 10,5M after 50 league app., 10 int. app. and 10 league goals. Plus 20% profit.

Please help me to decide, only take into consideration he is the captain and vital cog in my current set-up...

[slakey]

I haven't looked into another keeper, but I will most likely get someone young in and have Forster tutor him.

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EDIT

Looking at trying to bring in Scuffet in the summer as a tutor for Forster.

Also unfortunately Forster has conceded 37 goals which I'm not happy about and having properly assessed the backline, I'm in dire need of CB's.

The boys on the shortlist are as follows:

Youth Wanted List

- Joe Gomez | Charlton

- Emanuel Mammana | Twente

- Riechedly Bazoer | Ajax

First Team Wanted List

Balanta?

Anyone else to consider?

With all this being said, I'm gonna need a big budget, and will have to look to offload Morgan or Vincent probably...

[leschko]

I really dislike Forster! He was awful for me and I just can't sell him!

Replaced him with V. Valdes and he is doing great for me.

[slakey]

Martin Odegaard: £700K upfront + £1.2m over 12months - Joining 9/6/2015.

Emanuel Mammana: £1.5M upfront + £3.5M over 48 months - Pending work permit.

Eder Alvarez Balanta: £1.9M upfront + £5M over 48 months - Pending work permit.

If I get those two CB's for those prices, not a bad bit of business

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EDIT

Didn't have enough money for the CB's and the board is unwilling to give some funds, so just have to hope I can get them in the summer for the same or very close to what I offered them.

Also, why would Forster do this!?

[oj2006]

Im coming up to January, sitting in 8th at the minute, recently found consistancy thanks to following your suggestions of tactics Slakey, just a quick question, is Giovinco worth signing for a free? Hes wanting 70k per week which is the only problem?

[slakey]

Season has finished, kinda disappointed seeing as our consistency went off during the crucial time.

League Table

Second Half Results

Transfers

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I've been handed a £30M budget for my second season.

Signings coming in so far:

Joe Gomez for £2M upfront + £5.75M over 48 months.

Toby Alderweireld for £8.5M upfront

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Also I wouldn't go for Giovinco, not worth it in my book.

[RTHerringbone]

A few more snippets of progress now in season seven.

Form is good, and those clean sheets drive an impeccable defensive record, but we need to convert draws to wins ideally.

Two transfers are lined up and joining in January. The excellent Gilmar, who I've chased for 2/3 seasons. He's a massive upgrade from Carlos and / or Luzinho, so I'll be selling one of them.

Kovacic is being a bit of a ******, and he's attracting attention which has prompted a bid from P-SG which could equate to £60m+ if all clauses are met. His replacement is:

Scored a few beauties so far this season, with the highlight being this:

[slakey]

Can anyone recommend a Keeper as backup.

I've had a offer for Scuffet accepted but in his contract he will only join if he's in the first team :/

Should I cash in on Forster and have Scuffet as number 1 and get a 2nd keeper in or?

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EDIT

Summer transfers

The power of Juventus was too big and I got the most I could from them without upsetting Wanyama too much, then Man City offered the value of Tadic, which I denied so that upset him. Decided to put on the market for £35m, two clubs came in offering that.

Monaco are paying me £1.31m for the next 2 years.

[Tyler_bode]

hi guys,

1st congrats to matthew le god for the excelent opening thread.

Next: Playing fm15 for first time and begining with a diferent club from the great benfica, heart club.

Transfers: 6 young good prospects players and a loan from arsenal.

Team playing great. Starting december and i'm 1st in premier, only draw against chelsea and q.p.r (lost to norwich in capital one ). Asking if that normal? If the game too easy or i'm too good manager

sorry for the bad english.

Cheers

you are too good a manager. The master

[lacoste8030]

I have just started a southampton save. Just playing friendlies. Looking forward to season starting, 4 players in. Sergi roberto in on loan from barcelona, with balanta, peruzzi, muslera signing on a permanant basis. Playing a 4-2-3-1. Peruzzi was bought in as back-up. Muslera to be number 1 and balanta to partner alderweireld in central defence. Sergi roberto will be used to compete with davis in the amc role.

With fonte not going to be first choice i want to change captaincy and thinking maybe ward-prowse or schneiderlin. What you guys think?

Also have had a big bust up with clyne already because tottenham came in and i rejected, but luckily i got him to sign a new contract just before with schneiderlin. So clyne staying.

[oj2006]

Does anybody here use training schedules? A few of my players are declining pretty severely so just wondering?

[oj2006]

Just thought id update you on how my first season went. It was overall a very successful season, we finished 4th gaining a champions league spot, whilst also winning the capital one cup! After struggling to find form early on, we went on many strong runs throughout the season which enabled a great final positioning in the table. In attack we were pretty lethal with Depay scoring 17, Long contributing with 15 and Lima with 13 which was great to have goals from a variety of players.

I will update on summer transfers once im there.

[Chasjs]

I have just started a southampton save. Just playing friendlies. Looking forward to season starting, 4 players in. Sergi roberto in on loan from barcelona, with balanta, peruzzi, muslera signing on a permanant basis. Playing a 4-2-3-1. Peruzzi was bought in as back-up. Muslera to be number 1 and balanta to partner alderweireld in central defence. Sergi roberto will be used to compete with davis in the amc role.

With fonte not going to be first choice i want to change captaincy and thinking maybe ward-prowse or schneiderlin. What you guys think?

Also have had a big bust up with clyne already because tottenham came in and i rejected, but luckily i got him to sign a new contract just before with schneiderlin. So clyne staying.

I use Sergi Roberto as a Regista.

I signed him for a couple million in Jan window first season. I play a 4-3-3 1DM Wide. I decided I'd cash in on Wanyama at the end of the season and was offered Sergi for very little. I thought he'd be a decent replacement thanks to his high concentration and I wanted to play a ball player at DM as my tactic is very possession based. So I signed him, started playing him there and retrained him to DMC with medium intensity regista focus. He's done seriously well for me, has about about 88% pass completion every season and averaged 7.10, 7.25, 7.12 in the next 3 seasons. His value has dropped a little this season but it peaked at about £22m at the end of season 4 and alot of big teams have been sniffing around.

[slakey]

Something isn't working in the league, currently sitting 12th.

Not sure if it's the schedule, the fact I've got 2 new defensive players in... just confused me.

In the Europa League though, we can easily smash Schalke 5-1 at their ground, and we're top of the group and through with 2 games to play :S

[RTHerringbone]

Something isn't working in the league, currently sitting 12th.

It'll be a combination of a reputation increase following a good first season, and the tactics you use. It looks like you concede a fair few, so I assume your tactic(s) are probably quite attack orientated. The AI affords you more respect now and will be probably a Mentality below where they used to be; you probably need to balance things out a bit.

[slakey]

I'm not sure if I should try a new tactic. Instead of aggressively have team talks before the match, maybe I should be assertive instead.

I have no clue what tactic to try out, as I don't want the wingers I invested in to go to waste. I am currently at a complete loss, and some players are losing faith in my managerial skills and I'm not sure how long the board will last before they start calling me into the office :/

[slakey]

Quick update.

I found a new tactic and it is working good.

I'm not where I would like to be in the league but I think I may be too far gone to get in the top 4, but I've had some very promising results and Moussa Sow is currently 2nd top goalscorer with 21 league goals in his first season with 11 games remaining... the dude is insane. Well worth the £8.5m I spent on him.

In the Europa League, just played our 1st Round Knockout Leg 1 against Athletic Bilbao at their ground and won 3-1.

Into the 6th round of the FA Cup and we got Chelsea away, hoping the boys will come good against them as we owe them a beating!

[oj2006]

Just a quick update on my second season in charge, just as you did Slakey i went for Moussa Sow, i was hoping he would give me goals however he has been struggling from day one and im unsure what to do with him. I am also struggling to get the best out of Tadic which is very frustrating however the new signing Pereyra has been outstanding so far! I am moving steadily along in the league, as the players are still trying to come to terms with having Champions League football midweek which is proving to be difficult, however our showing so far against two top teams in Barcelona and Inter has been phenomenal. Will update again towards the end of the season.

[oj2006]

Just another quick update, the club has now been taken over by an American Businessman, not had this happen to me before, so hopefully it will only benefit me for the future. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Poddy]

Just another quick update, the club has now been taken over by an American Businessman, not had this happen to me before, so hopefully it will only benefit me for the future. Has anyone else experienced this?

You should upload your save in the tycoon thread I am sure lots of people would love to play it

[slakey]

I had a takeover as well.

[kerrdavidson95]

I have been really disappointed by Clyne, Tadic and Pelle so far in the first season. Tadic doesn't look like he wants to go past a player, Clyne drifts inside and leaves a lot of space on the wing and Pelle can't score.

[jwhite]

oj2006 - stick your save up in tycoon thread mate

[Poddy]

Not sure if whole video was posted before but amazing video

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/02/video-watch-the-southampton-way-documentary-in-full/?guid=nbc_bpl_pldownloadsouthamptonway_150101

[slakey]

A guy called Gareth Rogers took over Soton on my save.

Got an extension for the stadium being built atm.

[lewis999]

A guy called Gareth Rogers took over Soton on my save.

Got an extension for the stadium being built atm.

Must of been already at the club.

[slakey]

Ugh, lets just hope he pumps some money into this club.

Shortlist for next summer - 16/17 - 3rd Season:

Alexandre Lacazette

Gabriel Barbosa < He moved to Real Sociedad for £7.25m this season, played 22, scored 5 and assisted 4... Dunno if it's worth going for him :/

Domenico Berardi

Mattia Destro

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The game really doesn't like me...

http://gyazo.com/61f943efcdafd5aff234f07104314ae5

[tommonufc]

3-0 down to 7-3 up

[RTHerringbone]

Small update after knocking about on saves in Scandinavia instead.

Things are getting tougher. We're accustomed to being clear in the league by now, but we're losing against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea now, and face an ominous trip to Old Trafford in the penultimate game to try and nick the title. The downturn in fortunes is a self inflicted over-use of young players who probably aren't really ready for regular top flight football, but that is the wayI've decided to run this save

[lewis999]

Millwall only 7 points away from Champions League football. It's a strange old game.

[slakey]

I think each season I'm gonna have a different tactic, in hope that teams won't figure us out too much.

[RTHerringbone]

I think each season I'm gonna have a different tactic, in hope that teams won't figure us out too much.

You just need to make sure you make the right changes in matches.

You could switch tactics each year, but when you play each side for the second time each season, they are likely to adapt how they play based on the first meeting you had that season.

[RTHerringbone]

I moved a point or two ahead of United last night, albeit having played a game more (they drew 0-0 at Old Trafford against Fulham).

It really looks like we will have to win at their place to retain the title. Really tough going; it's great fun

In other news, the lure of Liverpool is back again. Early on in the save, they offered me the job when they finished in mid-table but I declined.

Their situation has been deteriorating year after year, and they are current 18th and 2 or 3 points from safety with just five games to go.

One of those games is against us, so I'm desperate to win to help them on their way to relegation. If that happens, I will try to get that job, as I think it would be an interesting challenge to clear their squad out, start anew and try to rebuild their fortunes.

I'd probably save as soon as they were relegated (and before resigning) just to keep this Saints save open to return to in future, but seven seasons is roughly my average in terms of tenure with one club in FM.

[slakey]

Second season over.

Finished 10th in the league, had been there all season. But I did win the Europa League.

Here's how the results went:

1st half

2nd half

So... in that lovely mixture are some very good wins, but also some very embarrassing loses, so the results were... OK overall but a lot of room for improvement.

Moussa's first season:

Completely tore the league apart, very happy with the return. He cost me £8.5m.

Pione Sisto:

Amazing season for him, only his second since joining us and he's developing really good. Won the PFA Young Player of the Year and was in the team of the Year. He was bought for £2.5m and is now valued at £17m not a bad turnaround eh.

So... after winning the Europa League, quite a few clubs came in for me offering me an interview.

Roma

Man City

Atheletic Club

Valencia

Benfica

And of course I was linked with Barcelona and Man Utd but... I decided to turn them all down and continue on at Southampton

You're probably thinking I must be crazy, but oh well I want to make Southampton a top 4 side consistently before I leave.

[RTHerringbone]

Nailed season seven last night, winning the league after United's capitulation and draw with us at Old Trafford ended their title challenge. By far the tightest title race of recent seasons, and it was very enjoyable.

We then faced them a couple of weeks later in the Champions League Final at the Millenium Stadium. It was a very tight game with neither side reaching double figures for shots in either the 90 minutes, or the half hour of extra time (and yet I keep reading in General Discussion that the game has far too many shots and far too many goals ). It was especially annoying to have to go to penalties, as United lost a man to injury after they'd made all their subs, and they played all of extra time with 10 men but we just couldn't break through.

We missed our second penalty, saved United's fifth and sixth, and won by slotting home our last penalty.

On the way to winning the title, we also consigned Liverpool to relegation as they battled to a 1-1 draw at St. Mary's when they needed to win and hope WBA lost. I've saved a separate version of the save now, just in case I choose to jump ship and rebuild the Scousers. I spent a lot of last night scouring the transfer market and am struggling to see any youngsters with the potential to step up to replace my remaining real players, with central defence especially barren in terms of newgen quality.

So, I'm in my usual end of season quandary:

Saints

Won everything on a regular basis.

St. Mary's at maximum capacity.

Board refusing to build new stadium, in spite of a huge amount of money in the bank and regular crowds over 51k (capacity is 52k).

Average squad age is around 23.

No clear signs of impending newgens to refresh the squad or help achieve the newgen-only squad plan.

Liverpool

In the Championsip.

58k capacity.

Challenge of rebuilding a pretty mediocre, ageing squad (assuming current manager Gareth Southgate gets the boot).

Long term potential for that save to gain promotion first of all and then settle in the PL, with a view to challenging for domestic and European honours in the longer term.

Somewhere else

I'm reading Kun Aguero's book at the moment, and the lure of a spell in Argentina is strong, but I'm put off by the weird format in Argentina this year.

EDIT - Have started a fresh save in Argentina with Boca.

[tommonufc]

2015/16 - Champions!