FM15: Grasshoppers - Always hungry!

[michalgottwald]

WELCOME TO THE GRASSHOPPER CLUB ZÜRICH THREAD

From Wikipedia: Grasshopper Club Zürich commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers is a Swiss multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known section of club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the records for winning the most national championship titles and for the most successes in the Swiss Cup tournament, 19 victories in the competition. The club is the oldest football team in Zürich and share a great city rivalry with FC Zürich.

The origin of Grasshopper's name is unknown, although the most common explanation refers to its early players' energetic post-goal celebrations and that their style of play was nimble and energetic.

Reasons to play Grasshoppers:

- The challenge. Having won their last league title in 2003, Grasshoppers have since then had to hand over the throne in Switzerland to Basel, who are not only the top team, but the top team by some distance. Although die Hoppers have finished second in the league on the last two occasions you'd do very well to mount any kind of title challenge. Yes, there are some good players in the team, but the squad is very thin, and there isn't much money for either wages or transfer fees. If you manage to qualify for continental football you'll have a real challenge fielding a strong team for all tournaments. Attendances are pretty low even for Switzerland, with the team ranking sixth a few games into my first season, behind Basel, Young Boys, St. Gallen, Luzern and Zürich.

- The history. Grasshoppers are, even with possibilities for continental qualification in the first season, something of a fallen giant. Restoring them to former glory will feel like making the world right again - and who doesn't enjoy that?

- The country. Switzerland is a fun one. You'll have fierce competition from Basel and very likely Young Boys for years to come - when money is hard to come by it's harder to get ahead. The top division is ranked thirteenth in Europe, and such has both a direct spot and a qualification spot for the Champions League. No work permits needed for young foreign talent. The league format with just ten teams playing each other four times ensures that you'll really get to know the league and the players there, it's always fun to become an expert. Very low tax rates helps attract players.

- Impressive training facilities and Superb youth facilities.

- The best name in international football. Ever.

The board is expecting EURO Cup qualification, which with the team at your disposal is the only really safe option to choose. Pushing for second and Champions Cup qual. is by no means unrealistic, but it's nowhere close to a certainty either. Not really that much to gain from picking a higher option, so I'd go with the current expectations.

Club:

Facilities:

Did ten seasons of this one in FM14, and it came close to being the most enjoyable save I've had on FM ever. Hoping some of you will be tempted to give it a shot, I very much doubt you'll regret it.

Squad analysis coming very soon.

[michalgottwald]

Goalkeepers:

Daniel Davari is a new signing from Eintracht Braunschweig, and a replacement for the excellent Roman Bürki. Good keeper, great reflexes, although his handling 11 stat means he WILL drop the ball a few times over the course of a season. Relative to the quality of the league he's on par, personally I'll keep him for a season and replace him when finances allow for it. Backup is Vaso Vasic, with his backuppety stats and attitude. Wouldn't necessarily be a disaster to play him in a game or two, much more than that and the disasterous potential gets unbearable.

Conclusion: Needs strengthening to be worthy of a top 3 swiss side, but good enough to manage through season 1. Davaris stats:

Central defence:

Stephane Grichting is a club legend, 35 years old and although slower than a lost grasshopper in a winter storm still a very good defender. His contract runs out in a year, and that's not a bad thing - he's on £5.25k/w, quite a bit more than any other defender. Keep him and have him tutor another player with his Resolute personality, or sell him to get rid of wages and add around £60-70k to your precious bank account - I chose the last one, but both options seem okay. Performed well for a season in last FM, and propably will again.

Michael Dingsdag is 31 years old, with lots of experience, and is possibly the best defender in your squad. Lacks a little pace, but pretty good at everything else, and you'd have to get VERY creative in the transfer window for him not to be a key player in your first season. Another contract that runs out in a year though, so it's up to you whether you want to start next year with a 32 year old Dingsdag in your defence or if you want to replace him. Extending for a year would be pretty cheap salary wise.

Sanel Jahic is 32, his contract runs out in a year too, and he's pretty similar to Dingsdag in terms of ability. There's a danger he'll get unsettled and want to return to France/Bosnia-Herzegovina(he can't seem to decide between the two), but if you manage to keep him happy he should be a pretty consistent performer.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is it. No more central defenders worth mentioning. Michael Lang can deputize here, but he's needed at right back so it won't do you much good. Three is obviously at least one too few, so - strengthen!

Right back:

Michael Lang has won seven caps for Switzerland, he's only 23, very solid and has the future ahead of him - but guess what, he's another one with an outgoing contract. Renewing is an option, but he's going to make you pay. Even with the short contract his value is the highest at the club from the start, and as you really need to strengthen a possible sale object? Tough choices will need to be made with this squad, and this is an option that will give you more options. On the other hand he's really worth keeping:

Moritz Bauer is 22 years old, has potential to develop into a star right back for the league according to the assistant, and doesn't need immediate contract renewal. Very good backup, and not the end of the world as a first choice either:

Left back:

You have ONE left back worth noting in the squad, Daniel Pavlovic. He's very good all round though, without any real weaknesses either defensively or going forward. Potential attacking outlet? On a long contract for once!

Midfield coming soon.

[michalgottwald]

Defensive midfield:

Veroljub Salatic, the clubs top earner with £9.5k/w and one of the best players at your disposal, is the perfect anchor man. Still only 28, on a three year contract, and perhaps the most suitable choice for captain. Real quality:

Nathan Sinkala is on loan from TP Mazimbe, and would have been a great defensive midfielder if not for his somewhat weak mental stats. Decent backup, but nothing more.

Central midfielders:

24 year old Amir Abrashi is another one of the teams biggest assets, and looks like an excellent ball winning midfielder or an advanced playmaker on support duty. Another one with only a year left on his contract, but this time I strongly recommend giving him a new one - he's an excellent player. If you can keep hold of him he should be a dominant force in this league for years to come. Also some potential for growth still:

Alexander Merkel is on a loan from Udinese which cannot be terminated, which is a shame considering someone who must've been drunk have agreed to paying him £7.25k/w wages for the duration of his stay in Switzerland. Good enough to be of use as a squad player, not good enough to be worth it:

Attacking midfielders:

Caio had a great season for Grasshoppers last year, which is reflected nicely in his stats. Flairy, technically great player who is a really good finisher and free kick taker. Should be an obvious choice for any starting eleven, and one of few that adds a little bit of that extra extra in your squad.

Kahraba is a twenty year old egyptian on a season long lone. Lacks quite a bit when it comes to mental attributes, but other than that a very similar player to Caio. Should be useful backup if you decide to go with a tactic that uses an AMC.

Wingers and strikers coming up.

[michalgottwald]

Well, I say wingers, but there's really just one: Yoric Ravet can play on both sides, which is fortunate seeing that he'll have to. Attribute wise he looks equally good as a winger on the left or as an inside forward on the right - which is his natural position.

Strikers:

Moanes Dabbur - Good striker! All around useful attributes, great finishing and good composure, ideal for a poacher role with his high off the ball rating. Can deputize on the wings, but isn't really suited for it.

Nassim Ben Khalifa is one of your most valuable assets. Only 22 years old, with potential to get even better and all round good stats. Starting striker whatever the formation.

Third striker in the squad is Anatole N'Gamukol, and he's another very decent option. Blistering pace, decent mental attributes and decent technical attributes. The striker position looks like the strongest position in the squad - at least as long as you opt for a one-striker formation.

And that's it. There are a few more worthless, transfer listed players in the first team squad, but they'll neither offer you anything on the pitch or bring in much money. This is what you have to work with - 17 first team players, 18 including the backup keeper, , of whom three are on loan and five are on a one year contract. Happy rebuilding!

[michalgottwald]

Ok, so what do you have? You will need to bring in at least one central defender and one left back to have adequate cover in the defence line. You have a very solid defensive midfielder, and adequate backup in the position. You have some good central players, but lack options out wide. You have three very decent strikers.

How about a narrow diamond? With the players that are already at the club you could line up with something like:

Which doesn't look too bad. Personally I've been experimenting quite a lot with player roles during the first half of the season, at the moment my setup looks like this:

Some possible transfer targets:

- Innocent Emeghara. Available on a free transfer, swiss nationality and a striker. Huge success for me in the poacher role.

- Simon Thern. His contract is running out and it shouldn't be too hard to get Malmø to sell. ~£100k transfer fee, very good central midfielder for this level.

- Thomas Drage. Attacking midfielder who can also play on both wings. Will cost you around £200k, and looks like he's very good value for that money.

- Robert Piris. You'll propably need South American players loaded for this one. Can be gotten for £60k from Rubio Nû, and is a very talented defensive midfielder.

[michalgottwald]

I'd forgotten how hard(and fun) this was!

Two thirds into the season, and the league table looks like this:

Very much as I would have predicted, with Basel looking too strong in my first year - it looks like I might be able to beat Young Boys and clinch the second Champions League spot though.

This(if I can hold on to second spot) will put me into the Best Placed qualifying phase next year. This season I opened against Besiktas, whom I managed to beat over two legs, but the Playoff phase against a seeded team is so hard with this level of team - Leverkusen beat me 9-3 on aggregate, which meant EURO Cup football. Was drawn into a group with Inter, Sparta Prague and Chornomorets, and really should have advanced - beat Chornomorets home and away, lost narrowly 3-2 and 4-3 to Inter, lost away to Sparta Prague and had my fate in my own hands before my last leg, at home to the czechs. REALLY should have won, took the lead twice and dominated the game, but had to settle for a 2-2 draw, and no more Europe for me. Which is a shame, because I really would have needed the money.

Transfer wise it's been a very interesting year:

As you can see, apart from the players mentioned earlier, a lot of free transfers the first window. Used most of the money from Michael Lang and Caio transfers out to add to the wage budget, which allowed me to bring in enough players to make up some resemblance of squad depth. Khizanishvili is in my first team, Innocent Emeghara is my top scorer with 24 goals in 25(4) games(!!), but other than that I didn't really hit with my free players. Mantovani was sold to Empoli in january after playing EXTREMELY poor when given the chance at left back, couldn't believe my eyes when I actually got money for him - de Bock and Zambrella were loaned out again at the first opportunity - can't believe I actually gave wages of ~£2.5k to players of their quality, just goes to show how desperate I was to get in enough people - feeling very lucky that I don't have to pay them anymore. Mustafi would be gone too if anyone would have had him.

Other than the excellent Emeghara, Thomas Drage has been the highlight of the season. 5 goals and 14 assists in 25(2) games, and really enjoying himself as my enganche and only playmaker. Average rating of 7.51, and there's such a difference when he plays and not. Of course I'll never know how Caio would have done in this role, seeing that he got upset over squad depth and left early, but I couldn't have been happier with the replacement.

Financially I'll keep my head above water through the season - just. Then I'll need to sell one or two top players again, if I don't manage to qualify for the Champions League group stage. Have added to my total squad value through the transfer market these past two windows, and will have to keep doing so in order to survive.

Lastly, a word on my january additions. Taulant Xhaka had an outgoing contract, and Basel were happy to release him to me immediately for a small compensation. Luzern wanted him at end of contract, but he chose me. Very Amir Abrashi ball winning midfielder type of player, young and swiss, have high hopes for him, should be a great bargain at that price. Dingsdag and Jahic will be gone in the summer, which meant I needed new defenders - Jeremy Taravel for £28.5k looks like the type of transfer that I need to make. Still only 27, so a bit of resale value if he does well, overall good to decent attributes, although another slow one. Defence has generally felt like the biggest challenge to get right this far, hopefully some strenthening will make it a less frustrating area. Erick is a young brazilian and comes in on a free transfer to cover the left back, a really necessary transfer seeing that Pavlovic was my ONLY left back after Mantovanis departure.

Alexandr Geynrih was intended as the Dabbour replacement, and the current international with 88 caps for Uzbhekistan looks pretty neat:

A couple of great goals this far, but hasn't really played enough to judge him yet.

[Jogo Bonito]

Nice to see a thread made on a different and less glamorous club, good work!

I'm delighted to see that you took Emeghara home to the club that he pretty much launched his senior career at. He's been one of my favourite real players for quite a few years now, and in my opinion is one of the best transfer options in the game for any team in a European league. His return of goals for you in the Swiss league doesn't surprise me at all, as he was a good player for me at St Etienne in FM14. It's lucky the data lock was before he signed for his actual club, Qarabag, because I'll look to sign him at every club I can until the data edit takes place in the game.

Can I ask what wages you had to offer? I tried to get him at Reading, but there were so many clubs in for him. Sadly, he signed for a team in Cyprus on £5.5k p/w - less money than we offered.

I saw that you decided to cash in on quite a few of the better players. I guess it was necessary, but I would have tried to keep Caio, Dabbur, Lang and N'Gamukol and try to survive with free agents/loans for the first year, and hope to add some prize money to help me out in squad building from season two. I totally agree with getting rid of the old guard, that's usually my first priority at any club.

If it wasn't for the fact that most of your defenders are old and slow, I might consider joining you at Grasshoppers. I'd previously managed Basel in FM13 and it was a good league because of the foreign player rules being fairly soft - although the small number of teams and frequency of encounters was a bit dull. Obviously the Basel squad at that time was very good in every department, and you have taken on a far bigger challenge yourself.

Good luck with the rest of the season anyway.

[michalgottwald]

Emeghara is on £5.5k/w. There was one other club in with a contract offer, can't remember who but I think it was a relatively insignificant team. Also guessing that being able to offer Champions Cup, plus the advantageous swiss tax rules helped my case. He's been absolutely brilliant, and in essence the reason why keeping Dabbur was a luxury I couldn't afford. The Ben Khalifa and Emeghara partnership was working so well, and he was a very expensive option to keep as a backup, plus not being first choice made him one of very few viable sale options.

I would very much liked to have kept both Lang and Caio, but needed money from somewhere, Lang was on an outgoing contract and both him, Caio and Salatic were unhappy with squad depth after I sold N'Gamukol(who was definitly not going to break into the first team with Ben Khalifa, Emeghara and Dabbur ahead of him). There wasn't little money for contract renewals at this point, there was NO money, so someone had to be sold. Cashing in on Lang made me able to bring in a couple of players(was only able to retain 40% of any transfer for future wages/transfers), and then I found Thomas Drage, who looked like an ideal replacement for Caio and who I had previous experience with in FM14.

You're right, defence is and has been the big issue all season. The defenders I have doesn't really allow me to play a high pressing game, which I read is necessary to cope with the flank/crossing early problems in the match engine, so I've been leaking goals from crosses since day one. It's the main priority in the summer - because my attacking and midfield options with Abrashi, Xhaka, Thern, Drage, Ben Khalifa, Emeghara and Geynrih are actually very decent.

Thanks!

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks for the info on Emeghara. I can see why you took those decisions on transfers, and it's worked well for you. Good luck with the rest of the season and for improving the defence in the summer.

[michalgottwald]

So, this is how the first season ended:

Nothing to do about Basel, they were solid. In the end noone could compete with us for the second spot, our performances really improved over the course of the second half of the season and Young Boys were left trailing. Of course, if we had lost the two close games we won against them after christmas it would have been really close. Was pretty frustrated with tactics before christmas, drawing as many as I won, made some minor changes and is now very happy with the flow of play.

Managed to win the swiss cup after this run:

Apart from Young Boys in the semi final I was real lucky with the draw, but still, it was absolutely brilliant to beat arch rivals Zürich on penalties in the final game of the season!

Money is pretty non-existant in swiss football, I was left with a profit of like £400k after paying out the squad bonus for the second place in the league - so as predicted I had to use the transfer market well again to put me in a stronger position. And I did, I really really did. So happy with this, and so stoked for next season:

Major improvements. De Ceglie is an excellent left back and a huge upgrade from Pavlovic. Didn't think I would be able to secure Patric on a permanent basis as I used him quite sparsely last season to aid Moritz Bauers' development, but I guess he panicked with his contract running out. He cut his wage demands in half, and I managed to secure him on less than £1k/w more than what I was already paying him on loan. Cedric Mongongou and Cesar Ortiz adds a bit of pace to my slow backline, and especially Mongongou should be a great signing at this level. Never had any experience with these two so excited to see how they pan out.

Found Fernando Pacheco on an outgoing contract and decided to check the temperature in the market regarding Daniel Davari - surprised that I could get that much for him, but obviously very happy with the swap. Both him and Alexandr Geynrih went to Lens for a combined £4mill, which inspired me to go on the hunt for South American talent.

Alan Ruiz was well known to me and should be a fantastic signing. At the moment he looks like this, but from experience he'll get quite a bit better:

Was unhappy at San Lorenzo and will be my new engance, rotating with:

A new face for me, but he looks like he's going to be great. Thomas Drage generated some interest after his fantastic season, and £4M cash straight up was too good to turn down.

Last but not least you propably all know Sergio Araujo - his contract was now up after three seasons on loan in Europe, and I'm sure he'll provide excellent competition for Emeghara and Ben Khalifa.

This all means that I will be able to line up like this:

OR like this:

I have lown up the wage budget to like £135k/w though, so if I don't manage to qualify for the group stages of the Champions Cup this year I'll have to sell important players again. In either way it's great to have a squad this exciting, it should be good enough to both challenge Basel and have a good go at said qualification.

[aulit]

Hi, how do you cope with finances? I tried to reflect the real life as well as possible. In real life GC needs to sell players to balance the books. From your writing it seems this is reflected.

[Jean0987654321]

Should be able to bring in a parent club. Already got Atleti as my parent club and they gave me a backup striker, Hector Hernandez and a decent backup winger. Now, I have a slight injury bug at the start of the season. Oh boy, this will be fun

[michalgottwald]

Hi, how do you cope with finances? I tried to reflect the real life as well as possible. In real life GC needs to sell players to balance the books. From your writing it seems this is reflected.

Yeah, that part seems very well reflected. As I said in the opening post I did ten years of Grasshoppers in FM14, so this is something I've expected and planned for from the start. Unless you qualify for the Champions Cup group stage you'll lose money every month even with the starting wage budget, and playing the transfer market becomes necessary for running the club, at least for the first seasons until you can take advantage of the pretty great return of youth players.

Have a couple of questions, though. The first one is about attendances. One would think that with its relatively well known name also outside of Switzerland, located in a big city like Zürich, there would be quite some room for growth here. However even after 5-6 seasons in last years game, having qualified for the semi final of the Champions Cup twice, I still struggled to get my numbers above teams like Luzern and St. Gallen, and don't think I ever reached an average higher than around 16k. Is this really realistic for arguably the biggest club in the country historically?

The other question is about player values. Not that I'm complaining in any way, but after you qualify for Europe these seem really high compared to some other leagues you would think were comparable. Is £2-4M transfers away from swiss clubs an everyday thing?

[michalgottwald]

Should be able to bring in a parent club. Already got Atleti as my parent club and they gave me a backup striker, Hector Hernandez and a decent backup winger. Now, I have a slight injury bug at the start of the season. Oh boy, this will be fun

That's a very good idea. For some reason I'd forgotten, but last year I had Bayern Munich as my parent club - should be very useful in the first one or two seasons.

[aulit]

Yeah, that part seems very well reflected. As I said in the opening post I did ten years of Grasshoppers in FM14, so this is something I've expected and planned for from the start. Unless you qualify for the Champions Cup group stage you'll lose money every month even with the starting wage budget, and playing the transfer market becomes necessary for running the club, at least for the first seasons until you can take advantage of the pretty great return of youth players.

Have a couple of questions, though. The first one is about attendances. One would think that with its relatively well known name also outside of Switzerland, located in a big city like Zürich, there would be quite some room for growth here. However even after 5-6 seasons in last years game, having qualified for the semi final of the Champions Cup twice, I still struggled to get my numbers above teams like Luzern and St. Gallen, and don't think I ever reached an average higher than around 16k. Is this really realistic for arguably the biggest club in the country historically?

The other question is about player values. Not that I'm complaining in any way, but after you qualify for Europe these seem really high compared to some other leagues you would think were comparable. Is £2-4M transfers away from swiss clubs an everyday thing?

First of, I'm glad it works out like in reality where GC needs to generate about £3M with player sales to even the books.

The general answer for your question about attendance growth is, yes this is realistic. I will go a little deeper though. Until 2007 GC played in Hardturm Stadium and moved to Letzigrund Stadium afterwards. Hardturm was a stadium built only for football while Letzigrund is used as track and field and concert venue. It isn't built just for football therefore it's unattractive. And, from a GC point of view, it is the stadium of the local rival FCZ. A new stadium solely for football purposes was planned way back in 2003 but never realised. So GC has to play in the stadium of the enemy which is not mainly a football stadium.

Then there's Zurich itself. It isn't really a football city. It's not "cool" to go to football in Zurich. At least for the most part. And there is competition from Ice Hockey where the local Hockey club has an attendance average similar to FC Zurich but far better than GC. Then there's the problem of GC not being a Zurich club for the most part. GC is located in Niederhasli, 15 miles outside of Zurich. The general opinion in Zurich is, FC Zurich is the Zurich-City club and is also seen as the working class club while GC isn't really Zurich and is the club for the rich. You can see season ticket holders on this graph here: http://blog.tagesanzeiger.ch/datenblog/index.php/4463/die-fan-hochburgen-der-zuercher-clubs

There you can see that Zurich City is FCZ country, while in the suburbs it's more GC, especially at the so-called "gold coast" along the eastern shore of Lake Zurich and near Niederhasli, north of Zurich.

A lot of fans actually make fun of GC for having such low attendance figures. If you have figures above 10k consider yourself lucky. In fact here's a chart of the attendance figures of the last 40 years: http://www.gc-zone.ch/statistik_zuschauer.pdf (page 2). You see they managed to get above a 10k average only once in 40 years.

To your second question, for some clubs selling players worth of £3-4M per year is not uncommon. Basel sold players for £11M this summer plus Mo Salah to Chelsea for about £14M last winter. But that's Basel. They made a turnover of over £60M last year. A big part of that was player sales.

Young Boys are privately owned by the Rhis brothers, founders of Phonak (hearing aids, former cycling team). You probably haven't heard of them. So there is no need to sell big but they actually managed to sell players worth in between £3 to £8M in the last 5 seasons. (see here: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/bsc-young-boys/alletransfers/verein/452)

FCZ has a chairman who brings funds to the club. This is not reflected in the DB because FCZ generates enough money in FM15 to be realistic. I'm still thinking about adding their president as underwriter sugar daddy. But they sold players for a lot of money. Not every season but still: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-zurich/alletransfers/verein/260

And as I said, GC needs money to balance the books. They have men who provide funds but not much. Look at the sales of the previous seasons: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/grasshopper-club-zurich/alletransfers/verein/504

GC sold players for at least £2.5M almost every year. Even going as high as £8M.

Other clubs usually don't have sales in that reagion although on occasion there is one player who is sold for millions, like Oscar Scarione from St. Gallen to Kasimpasa for about £3M in 2013. To conclude, yes those values are realistic. Please keep in mind it's very hard and frustrating to get accurate financial data in Switzerland. Most clubs keep it secret. Only Aarau, Basel and Thun make their annual business reports public. The figures from other clubs are taken from newspaper articles or are guessed. In the case of GC there were multiple articles on their financials because it's a theme every year.

I'm asking out of interest, which leagues do you compare and on what level? Because the level on the pitch and the financial level in Switzerland are two different topics.

Thanks btw for playing in the Swiss league and making a thread about it on here. If you have any feedback or find mistakes, don't hesitate to contact me.

[michalgottwald]

Thank you! This is great - answers my questions in v. satisfactory detail and enhances my knowledge beyond that. I'll be sure to repay you with a detailed analysis of the playing experience. I'd say that quality wise, bar Basel perhaps, Switzerland should be comparable to the scandinavian countries, Austria, Poland perhaps? Have done long saves in Sweden and Norway in the last years, and it's near impossible to make money from sales in the way you can when based in the swiss league. I've seen the same tendencies described for top clubs in Poland.

I realize that swiss football is on kind of a high with Basel performing as they do and the national team getting a lot of attention though - and from your numbers it seems that the FM climate mirrors real life pretty accurately.

[michalgottwald]

Ok then! Finally managed to finish my second season, which has been pretty much a fiasco, but ended on a high note.

Basel look untouchable, but they really shouldn't have been. Manged to improve on my previous season by five points, but it didn't do me any good, and it wasn't as pleasing as it sounds. The whole season has been a tactical struggle to aquire some consistency, which I comletely failed to do before the final 10-12 games of the season, before which I sat down in frustration and read everything that is to be read on narrow diamonds and changed up the whole thing. After that it didn't just work out, it REALLY worked out, and I won the rest of my games, except my two games against Basel which I lost after playing very well. If I can adapt my new players into the tactic fast enough I finally feel pretty confident that I will have too much for them in the league next season.

Won the cup again, almost without breaking a sweat this time. The only real challenges, against Aarau and Luzern in the final, came after my tactical change, and we were never in danger of losing either game.

Europe.. Europe was a disaster. Was totally overrun by Chelsea in the CL qualification, before finishing last in a EURO Cup group with Napoli, Anderlecht and BATE. In the league I often managed to win games even if it was obvious that something wasn't working properly - in Europe I was consistently exposed.

Olympiakos activated Emegharas release clause right at the end of the first transfer window, without me having time to bring in a replacement. In january I brought in Andrei Kramaric as a replacement, and he was an instant hit - scoring 13 goals in twelve league games. Also sold Salatic(to Basel! : ( ) for £2.8mill to get rid of his wages, open up a first team spot for Robert Piris and bring in some much needed cash. Without money from a CL group stage or a run in the Euro Cup finances were again challenging, losing around 500k a month after christmas. Player sales and a good transfer window needed in the summer.

[michalgottwald]

First, a word on player performances in the previous season. Carlos Strandberg and Sergio Araujos individual performances kind of carried me through the first half of the season, where tactics weren't working and the squad still hadn't gelled properly. The defence was the definition of instability, with Veroljub Salatic being the only player to bring me a feeling of safety. I couldn't find a proper role for Abrashi, Thern was average, Mauri never wanted to pass the ball and Alan Ruiz got injured for two months after being one of few bright spots in the team.

The huge positive surprise was Jack Collison, who I picked up on a free transfer at the end of season 1 and desperately tried to sell in the following summer as I regretted his wage. As there were no takers I was eventually forced to give him a chance after the Thern/Abrashi partnership had been unsuccessful for some time, and man did he convince. He finished the season with an average rating of 7.30 in 25 league games, but was closer to 7.50 for the first half of the season when everyone else(except Strandberg and Araujo) were horrible. Just great all round player, dominating the league. Also a great tutor for younger players with his resolute personality, really happy that noone wanted him a year ago.

The next piece of the puzzle to come around was Patric. He'd already been at the club for a year, so I have no idea what suddenly made him decide he was going to start playing football(this was before the final tactics change). Started the season with losing his starting place to Moritz Bauer pretty quickly, but came back as a new person and finished the season strongest of everyone, with a final average league rating of 7.45. He's also developed into the best right back in the country by some distance, a screenshot is warranted:

Then Robert Piris decided to come around, forcing his way ahead of Salatic in the starting lineup. Provided wonderful stability as a half back in the final third of the season, and will be a starter going into the next. Unbelievable that I picked this guy up for £60k.

In january Andrej Kramaric came in, and without needing an acclimating period at all decided that Sergio Araujos starting spot should really be his. I've already mentioned his 13 goals in twelve league games. Average rating of 7.65 in the poacher role.

After the tactics changes a lot of more things clicked. De Ceglie started to play to his ability, Mongongou and Taravel formed a stable partnership in defence and, of all people, free transfer backup Mignjen Basha took a first XI place at the cost of Amir Abrashi. And last, but not least, Mauri used Alan Ruiz' injury to show me that he should never be out of the starting lineup, leaving me with a tough decision regarding Ruiz in the transfer window.

[michalgottwald]

Managing Grasshoppers means cashing in one or two key players every transfer window to maintain financial stability, or more if you want to strengthen and make changes in your squad. This summer was no different, and brought the following transfers out:

Strengthening Basel is a bitch, but there's just no way to say no to £7m(although most of it over 24 months) for a player that has been made backup by Kramarics performances. Also on way too high wages to be backup, his yearly wage rise bringing him to £10k.

Pacheco to Everton same situation, a lot of it over 24 months, but no way I can say no with a new keeper coming in too.

Thern just had a too unspectacular season to not sell with high wages and him being among the most sellable assets at the club. £3.8m is a great return.

Ruiz was a bit like Sergio Araujo, after a bright start he lost out in the battle with Mauri, and he was too expensive to keep as a backup. Pretty hard to sell though, and in the end had to settle for half his value and selling with a £400k loss overall.

João Schmidt replacing Simon Thern, fighting with Abrashi, Basha and Collison for a first team spot. Looks a true bargain on a free with fantastic technical attributes, he's the free kick taker we've been lacking and amazingly enough with his ability, only on £3k wages.

Sachkepidis, Røjkjær, Renberg and Kontsevoy are young players that will be eased into the first team and have potential to become star players. Renberg perhaps the most promising of them, but they're all fantastic development prospects. Kontsevoy is a regen right back, and already a regular in the belarusian national team at 19. Renberg will deputize in the half back position, Røjkjær will be backup poacher and Sachkepidis will be an understudy to Mauri and replaces Alan Ruiz in the squad.

Central defence was the position that needed strengthening the most, but in hindsight I went horribly overboard and is left with five potential first teamers competing for two starting spots. Sané was an intended starter and is a great DC, Nadeau is a talented frenchman and was intended as solid backup behind Sané and Mongongou, but then I unfortunately got the chance to buy Nehuen Paz, which I wasn't able to resist. No idea how I'm eventually going to solve this, but a central defender will definitly have to go in january.

New keeper Ariel Harush doesn't show up on the list as he joined on a free at the end of may, but he's similar to Pacheco ability wise and on around a third of his wages, which is the reason I decided to sell the spaniard if I got a good offer.

Again a lot of new, so fear that the first half of the season will again be about salvaging enough results to be in shooting distance when the team starts to gel. On the other hand I've kept my important core players, and will field a very cohesive team for the CL qualification, which has the highest priority this time around. A third season without a CL group stage will be a bitter disappointment.

[aanderson]

Great in detail post. Going to start a long term save with grasshoppers after reading this.

[michalgottwald]

That's great, was starting to feel lonely in here. Plus, this really is an enjoyable environment to build a team, so good for you! Will post my current tactical setup in case you want to draw some ideas from it:

Mentality Standard, Team Shape Fluid,

The most important realizations I've made during the tactical journey that has been this save:

- Standard mentality is the easiest starting point to create something new and get the team to play how you want

- A structured narrow diamond was a mistake from the start, even though it can be forced to kinda kinda work. Movement and creativity much better for this formation.

[aanderson]

Thanks for that michalgottwald will be a great starting point for my save. I will do well to have the success you have had in the transfer market. You have done some great business with amazing fees brought in. I look forward to recreating this in my save, looks like a challenge but will be worth it when you eventually overthrow Basel from top spot. European success could be a bit harder However. How is season three progressing for you?

[michalgottwald]

Looking decent so far, drew Dnipro in my first CL qualification tie and annihilated them 4-0 away fielding my last season 11 with the new goalkeeper, + Sané replacing Taravel and João Schmidt replacing the departed Thern. Just the right amount of strengthened and adequately familiar it seems. Gave me the chance to play a more experimental XI at home, where I drew 0-0. Next round will be the playoff round, where I drew Valencia. Could have been worse(Manchester City), could have been much easier.

The league has been great! Three comfortable wins fielding the strongest squad, two scrappy wins and a draw after coming from 2 behind with the more new player heavy lineup. The big, big players so far have been Kramaric, Mauri and the so far absolutely fantastic João Schmidt. 5 games, two free kick goals and two assists for him, with a 7.90(!!) average rating, he's looking just spectacular. And even better, Basel have drawn three and lost one in their first six(without having met us yet!). It looks like it could finally happen this season, which as you say makes all the maticulous scouting and frustrating tactical work worth it in the end. Of course, a loss over two legs against Valencia will evaporize much of the positive atmosphere - but taking everything into account the progress will still have been amazing.

And good luck to you in the transfer market! Possibly the most satisfying part of the game for me, finding and developing the right players for the right roles and making money along the way.

[Jogo Bonito]

Very enjoyable updates Michal. I'm drawn back to this, especially seeing that you had Kramaric (a very promising player that I tried to sign at Reading) to replace my favourite (Emeghara). Nice to see you sign Harush too, he was a very decent keeper when I was managing Beitar in FM14.

I'm currently managing Bristol City, and surprisingly managed to sign your previous 'keeper on a free at the end of season 1. I wasn't aware at that time you had him, but it seems we follow similar paths in the transfer market. I had also looked at Patric, but didn't complete that one.

Will keep checking your progress here, and may yet take on the challenge!

[bestbrother]

Might dip back into Switzerland, I did play as Young Boys in FM12 iirc and had alot of fun, as you say it was a case of balancing everything and taking on a new challenge every season.

Will load up the league and have a look at Grasshoppers

[FM_Grasshopper]

Thanks michalgottwald, great thread on a team I have never even considered. I've decided to go for Grasshoppers on this edition with an aim to emphasis on developing youth and using the superb facilities the club has. I'll be on FMC with France and England loaded.

Will keep you posted on my developments...

[michalgottwald]

Great to see more people getting involved in this-

Kramaric has been spectacular Jogo Bonito - both in his first 1/2 season and in the first half of this one. 16 goals in 15(4) with the mid season break coming up, and an average rating of 7.64. Only player to have performed better is Mauri, who is consistently great and has an average rating of 7.74 this season, scoring eight and assisting five in 16(3). Of the newcomers Nehuen Paz and João Schmidt have impressed, with 7.37 and 7.32 respectively. Performances have been pretty good overall though, with Robert Piris being the only regular to score below 7.

First, the good news:

Finally! This is a huge step for the club in many ways - the players get to take on a bigger stage and their development will hopefully benefit from this. The financial benefits bring some stability to the project, player sales will not be NEEDED in january. And last but not least we have the competition itself - the long term goal - and the chance to get some experience here.

Then the bad news:

Even though I didn't expect to go through the results were disappointing. One measly win, at home against Zenit, and as a result no Europe after christmas. Was hoping to get the third spot and some Euro Cup football, but Zenit managed a point at home against Bayern and a fortunate win at home to us, which was enough to see them through. Results aren't completely reflective of the quality we've shown this season though, we really should have won away to Zenit, and gave good performances both at home to Bayern and away to Liverpool. Also it was a tough group, so no reason not to set a goal of taking a stab on qualification next season.

Because the great news: There will be a next season in the Champions Cup. Or at least it's almost certain:

Basel had dabbled as much as me in the transfer market this summer, and as a result are really struggling so far. Add to that our amazing points return and the league is as good as ours already! With this lead we have all the time in the world to try new things, break in new players et cetera, to get ready for the struggle next season. Because even though they are struggling now, Basels additions to the squad look really scary long term and I'm by no means certain it will be as easy to defend the title we will most likely win. Therefore I will do something I seldom do, and try to work the january transfer window actively to strengthen and give the newcomers half a season to settle before things get really serious. Also, I haven't mentioned much about them yet, but I do have a couple of good youth prospects I want to break in. This is definitly the time.

No celebrations yet! But it looks like we can't drop this.

[FM_Grasshopper]

Between my 12 week old baby and my wife, I managed to get a couple of hours for transfers. Really happy with what I have done so far. Innocent and Reto back at their old club and already have approx. £1m to re-invest. Landu-Landu is a complete wild card. He can play DM, CB and RB so is good cover but whether he can develop into a 1st teamer is another question.

Transfers in:

Date Person From Fee

21/6/2014 Innocent Emeghara Free Transfer Free

28/6/2014 Reto Ziegler Free Transfer Free

29/6/2014 Christian Landu-Landu Viking £54K

Transfers out:

Date Person To Fee

22/6/2014 Anatole N'Gamukol EA Guingamp £450K

22/6/2014 Michael Lang AS Saint-Etienne £2M

Selling Lang was regrettable but sadly a necessity. Hope he makes it in ASSE.

Will keep you updated...

[michalgottwald]

Ziegler is on a free from the start?? Wish I'd noticed..

Am sure Landu-Landu will be a useful purchase, he's been a small favourite for norwegians managing in Norway for a couple of versions now due to his potential relative to price, he can turn out quite good if he gets the necessary playing time.

I'm starting my fourth season now, will do a thorough update on transfers etc later. This was the final table though:

One point behind Basels points record from last year, but champions, finally! 6 draws and 1 loss in the final 18 games, not as dominating as in the first half, but solid nonetheless. Not as solid as Basel though, who gained three points on me and are looking scary for next season again. Happy now, but lots of work ahead.

The swiss cup has to be one of the softest competitions ever? Third win in a row. In a cup competition!

[Jogo Bonito]

It's great to see this thread so active, and good updates have convinced me to 'hop' on board this one too! The first transfer window will have to be seriously busy though...

[michalgottwald]

Very interested to see how you fare transfer wise

Just finished my seventh window since taking over the club, and it's been another busy affair:

As you can see, having money makes me seriously unstable. Initially intended to keep most of my core and not make many changes, but then found some very good opportunities for improvements, decided to get rid of everyone I wasn't completely satisfied with, and then afforded myself the luxury to make some long term investments on top of that. More about the particulars in the squad review coming up.

Strenthening Basel with Ben Khalifa, filling up their swiss player quota in the process might seem like a moronic thing to do(seeing how Sergio Araujo performs these days is painful, possibly the best player in the league), but to be fair that's a very nice sum for a player that's good at everything but isn't really spectacular at anything. Was getting kinda tired of his constant just good enoughness and decided to replace him with a very different, but arguably better swiss player. Harush had to go when I spotted the keeper of mye dreams for just the right price, and Collison was a similar case. Yeah, they're both admirable players, performing as or better than you would expect of them, but they lack that greatness. When it showed up elsewhere I felt like I had to pounce.

Short squad review going into the fourth season:

Hopefully finally got my #1 for years to come. Current ability on par with Harush, just 21 years old, infinite potential and a good personality for tutoring - I'm extremely happy with this swap. Also getting £4.2m for Harush is maximizing value if I ever saw it.

Right back:

Only position where I made no changes. Patric has been thoroughly covered earlier in this thread, but I don't think I've said much about his backup:

Came from BATE for £450k before last season and is developing into a solid player. Not yet close to Patrics level, but has a few years left to improve and looks like he might well be top class some day. Two gold stars of unused potential left.

Left back:

My one january transfer last season was pretty expensive, but with his ability definitly worth it. Started a bit slowly last year, but has assisted four in the first five games of the current season. New £750k signing Abdou Diallo from Monaco is backup. Really a central defender, but his stats and generally well rounded stats made me think he could become a great left back. Resolute personality, only 21 years old and happy to be backup on just £2.5k a week.

Central defence:

There are a few players that could have been the main focus here, but chose to single out Matthey on account of being a Grasshoppers youth prospect. 4 gold one black star potential, currently fourth in the picking order at the club but given as much game time as I think I can possible afford. Hopefully a future superstar, although I'm not loving his untrainable 8 bravery attribute.

Mongongou has been at the club the longest, is the oldest and possibly the best defender at the club, but is given healthy competition from both Nehuen Paz and Milan Emic. Paz came out on top of last seasons six central defenders situation and has cemented a first XI place with consistently good performances(7.31 av.rating last year, best of my DC's), while Emic is this years Paz, a high potential youngster who was just too good to pass on, and who eventually forced Vieux Sané out of the club for a place in the main rotation. I always feel kinda bad making ~£4-5m transfers, but in this case I feel certain that Emic will both be worth it performance wise and command a bigger transfer fee the day he's eventually sold.

Defensive midfield:

Renberg never got a proper introduction when he joined last season, so I guess it's time. The 18 year old Model Professional is making a race of it with Robert Piris for a starting spot, and arguably the most talented player at the club. Again, his bravery is a bit troubling, but I play a kinda passive defensive strategy that I guess suits him, as there is nothing wrong with his performances or rating.

Midfield:

Have been waiting for the right moment to sign Lundemo, and this was it. Intended to replace Collison in the squad, which is a major improvement. Exhumes solidity and safety in the middle of the pitch. João Schmidt, Sachkepidis and either Ivic or Kucalovic(both very talented youngsters from the Balkan countries) are the other players in my current rotation for two spots.

Attacking midfielders:

Røykjær and Mauri will continue being first choices here, but in addition I have this young dane. Will have trouble getting a lot of first team football this season unless there is an injury crisis, but looks like he might be top class with a bit of work on his passing attribute.

Strikers:

The reason Ben Khalifa had to go. Bought for just half of the fee Khalifa commanded, and, one might argue, a better player. Amazing physicals that can make him seem almost untouchable at times. Horrible to play against when he was at Young Boys. Have high hopes for this one. In addition I still have Kramaric, perhaps my best player, new signing Rafhael Lucas and young Georg Cacchioli, another 4(5) star potential academy product.

So confident in this squad as soon as they've played together for a bit. Breezed the Champions Cup Champions qualification against Dinamo Tblisi and RB Salzburg, winning the league makes qualifying so much easier as you get a whole other type of opponent(league winners in smaller countries) more similar to yourself.

On to another good year. : )

[FM_Grasshopper]

Great posts guys, so much Grasshopper love in here!

I will post a transfer update tomorrow night, when I plan to get a couple of hours of FM in. Before the big unveil though, I need some help finding a centreback + perhaps a right back to replace Lang. I have about £150-200k to spend. Any ideas?

[Jogo Bonito]

Superb update michalgottwald! Big movement in and out, the authorities might question you for money laundering

Loup - not a player I have signed myself, but Hosain Kaebi is a very experienced Iranian international RB/RWB (only 28 but with 89 caps). His contract with Esteghlal expires 31/12/2014 so can be 'approached' on a free transfer at the start, or maybe a small fee if you think he suits your needs. Sean Franklin (DC United) has an expiring contract, and Matthias Zimmerman (BMG) is available on loan as another option. For CB, there is Christopher Mfuyi (Servette) very cheap. Michal has suggested lots of other good players in here too, and I think most are reliable options. Good luck!

[michalgottwald]

For DC: He didn't really do it for me this time around(only got him in the third season so didn't get to really develop him, and as a result he got pushed out of the first XI by the excellent Paz), but in other saves Vieux Sané has been my sun and my stars:

Should be possible to get for £70-80k in the first transfer window, wages are low and he can be developed even a little bit more than he is in the picture. For that kind of money, on this level, I don't think they come much better. Would have been a first window purchase for sure had I been properly aware of him at the time.

[michalgottwald]

Jogo Bonito: Haha, yeah, that's ~£21m in and ~£26m out. Usually changes of this magnitude will have me lacking any kind of consistency before christmas, but it's been working pretty well for the previous season and this. I guess I'm finally on the level where the shere quality of my players will trump familiarity. I try to go with maximum 3-4 new players in the strongest XI, and then blood in new players/youngsters/backups in early cup games/already won ties in Europe/easier league games. In that aspect this league is great as there are some weaker opponents in the division, so you could say that it's ideal for developing players and generally doing business in the market - it's the swiss way, I guess! Pretty happy with a lot of my squad though, so I think my next priority will be to really scour U21/U19 national teams and field a strong U21/development side for next season.

One of the things I'm most happy with is control of wages - as soon as a player doesn't agree to below £10k a week he's sold - still only on around £145k a week at this point, which isn't much more than I started season 2 with. Once the development side is properly up and running this whole process will be so dynamic and beautiful. : )

[FM_Grasshopper]

Superb update michalgottwald! Big movement in and out, the authorities might question you for money laundering

Loup - not a player I have signed myself, but Hosain Kaebi is a very experienced Iranian international RB/RWB (only 28 but with 89 caps). His contract with Esteghlal expires 31/12/2014 so can be 'approached' on a free transfer at the start, or maybe a small fee if you think he suits your needs. Sean Franklin (DC United) has an expiring contract, and Matthias Zimmerman (BMG) is available on loan as another option. For CB, there is Christopher Mfuyi (Servette) very cheap. Michal has suggested lots of other good players in here too, and I think most are reliable options. Good luck!

Thank you. Will check on these players tomorrow. I've seen Kaebi before, he looks decent.

michalgottwald - sadly this player is not on my FMC save. Will double check tho, he looks outstanding! Also well done on your transfers, I certainly don't want to have as many in my saves as I would like to bring through youth. But your approach has seen Grasshoppers become a CL regular. Great work

Thanks for your help guys

[FM_Grasshopper]

Ok, so transfers in and out so far...

http://imageshack.com/a/img674/199/1fs6jW.jpg

Very happy with Annan who is a bargain at 25k. Also delighted with Shala. He has real potential and at 23 can be a long term option.

Annan: http://imageshack.com/a/img674/9197/w1A8Oe.jpg

Shala: http://imageshack.com/a/img538/5113/97N5zR.jpg

I think this brings my recruitment to a close. Now on to formations/tactics, any ideas? I am thinking of a 4-4-2 Diamond Narrow with Caio as an Trequartista and Annan holding deep as an anchor man.

Thanks for your help (michal and jogo) for making this pre-season player recruitment successful.

[Jogo Bonito]

Good stuff Loup. I had experience of Shala in FM14, and he's a decent player. Hopefully Kaebi will not let you down, I'm always happy to see Emeghara signed by anybody, but jealous about Ziegler!

Right, I've finally got this set up and I'm ready to test myself. Here is how I have approached it...

PHASE 1 – STAFF

Johann Vogel and Boris Smiljanic were the only staff kept on when I took charge of the club – with the latter being promoted to the role of U21 manager. The other four members of ex-manager Michael Skibbe’s backroom team were released. Meanwhile, 18 new recruits joined as I invested heavily in our future. Plenty come with international playing experience, but a lot of them need to grow in to their jobs. Hopefully their reputations will help to inspire my squad in the meantime.

PHASE 2 – FIRST TEAM SQUAD

The first priority here was to improve the first team squad. The defence (and to a lesser degree central midfield) was not looking great, and there was no way that £100k was going to take this club where I wanted them to be. The first two arrivals, Emeghara (free) and Mammana (loan) are going to be key players, and their low-cost deals were tremendous business. Emeghara is a long-term favourite and will be loved back at his old club, whilst the young Argentine (18) is ready to be my starting centre-back. I offset this by forcing the £1.9m sale of Lang on the same day, and then sanctioned the sale of N’Gamukol for £450k, Dingsdag (£175k) and Hossmann (£12k), which would give even greater room to work the market.

I was then in the market for starting full-backs on both sides - and more strength, pace and cover in central defence. First in was my new left-back (Polyovyi) from Dnipro, with me very willing to pay a small monthly fee for a player who had made over 200 appearances in the Ukrainian top flight. In hindsight, I would have taken ex-player Reto Ziegler if I had been aware of his free agent status at the time (he was snapped up by Zurich and valued at £2.5m by the time I woke up to that) - but I’m happy with my own find.

Next, I re-visited South America for a couple of strikers (Duque and Simeone) that would provide low-cost cover for the season, and snapped up versatile central midfielder/defender Ballon from Peru. I had experience of him a few years back with LA Galaxy, and knew he was outstanding value at just £23k. His arrival, and discovery of the high wages paid to Salatic gave me the biggest dilemma so far – but with £1.5m plus extras on offer from Basel, my captain (28) was allowed to join the Swiss masters. With £4m made in sales to this point, and only one small loan fee handed out, the board volunteered to increase my transfer retention to 70%.

This enticed me to bring in another central defender (N’Diaye) on loan, whilst I continued to search for my first choice right-back. That search eventually ended with £1m being spent on Larsson, widely regarded as too good for the Swedish league. At the end of July, local youngster Gulen was allowed to leave for £20k – and that was my serious business completed until the next window. I have £1m spare transfer funds, and noting that Sinkala’s loan deal ends in January, I might be looking for another grafting midfielder at that stage – if I don’t spend it on better quality defenders.

On that point, I have been unable to shift Grichting (and his high wages). He is now featuring for my U21's only, but if he hasn’t gone before the end of the season, I would happily add him to my staff. On a more positive front, I was approached by Merkel, who asked to terminate his loan as he was unhappy at not getting any action. As we had no option to terminate it ourselves, I was delighted he took that action – and so his £7.25k p/w salary was promptly removed from the books.

PHASE 3 – YOUTH RECRUITMENT

Entering in to August, and unable to bring any good quality Swiss players in from our Super League rivals (who demanded astronomical fees and refused all loan enquiries), I moved on to the next phase of my ‘masterplan’. It was time to bring in some available and promising youngsters that would hopefully boost the club and attain HG status (at the club) in the future. If one or two do make it through the system, the investment would be worthwhile in my opinion. So, August saw six youngsters arrive – two were free agents, and four were taken on loan. The idea with those four loans is that I could have a look at them before deciding whether to offer a permanent deal (as they approach the end of their current contracts).

Here is the summary of all transfers made so far, showing my trading profit of £3m (not bad, alongside a reduced wage bill). All six of the August incomings were sent immediately in to my U21 squad, where they will be monitored...

I also have another three teenagers joining on free transfers during the course of the next year, plus the free agent signing of an American international goalkeeper (Johnson) in January. Almeida was once on the books of Man City but opted to return to Brazil despite they (and Man Utd) wishing to keep him in England. George is a graduate of the ASPIRE Academy, something I have taken a close interest in over the last couple of years, and Kamara was once well thought of in Australia, and at the very least should be able to serve tea to his colleagues if he doesn’t make the grade. Johnson is the only one of the quartet who is 'expected' to command a regular spot, and as long as he settles, it could allow me to take cash from the sale of Davari.

In this section, I confess my second regret (after Ziegler) in that if I had waited until his 17th birthday, I could have signed Romanian 'wonderkid' Cristian Manea as my right-back. His fee would have slightly exceeded what I paid for Larsson, but he would have acquired that cherished HG at club status if I had been more patient. Hopefully going forward I can become ‘more Swiss’ and pick up good players from our rivals – perhaps in part exchange for some of our better non-Swiss players that won’t have any HG status.

TACTICS & FORMATION

I’m playing a 4-3-1-2-Narrow formation with a structured/counter-attacking approach. The idea is to be solid in defence, workmanlike in midfield, and try to get the ball forward early to my attacking trio. I ask the team to follow six instructions, with four of them aimed at our attacking play - more direct passing, pass into space, low crosses, run at defence. The remaining two demands are in defence/transitional play – close down more, stay on feet.

SEASON SO FAR

I’m happy with how we have started my new project. The highlight was a superb home win over Basel, with a staggering hat-trick from Dabbur putting us 3-0 up before the interval. They came back strong in the second half, but we held on – it’s the only points they have dropped so far (after eight games). I can already see that they are far superior to the rest of us, and nobody will stop them scoring a hatful of goals too, but our prize will be achieved if we are able to finish second.

We did well to overcome Standard Liege in our first European Champions League encounter, but found FC Porto too strong and we dropped down in to the Europa League. We will now face Mainz, Dnipro and Villarreal in the group stages of that competition.

[michalgottwald]

Loup:

Good work on the transfers in, Annan is just about maximum value for those £25k, I expect Ziegler and Emeghara will be great for you, and Kaebi looks bvery interesting, although I don't have any experience with him. Curious to see what you can get out of Shala, played him as a winger at Brann in Norway in another save and he was good, but very inconsistent. Will be interesting to see how he does in the centre of the field, no experience with him there. Albanian too, fits the swiss aestethics wonderfully.

What you said about transfers/bringing through youth made me think about where I would have been if I had been a bit more disciplined in that aspect. Have a few youngsters who could have been/will be useful if given proper guidance, but I'm a little bit too bad on self control to opt out on the talented foreigners to ever get max out of this part of the game. Will do a small analysis of what I have later.

Tactically it depends on how you want to be playing of course, but my first thoughts are lack of target man, lack of capable wide players and two(after getting Annan) top class defensive midfielders(+ Abrashi and Sinkala who can play there). The diamond mostly fits your squad material, but I'd be at least tempted to try to work out something with two DM's.

[FM_Grasshopper]

Firstly, congrats on shifting Merkel! That 7k a week will help. Secondly, well done on beaten Standard in the CL opener. It's very unlikely that any manager would get Grasshoppers into the groups in 14/15 but getting through to the final play off at least means Europa League Group stages (also my aim):

I am approaching the tactics side very similar to you:

I enjoy the detail you have gone to in backroom staff. Something I don't quite have in FMC but I need the quicker gameplay due to game time restrictions. Good luck for 2nd, still hoping you can somehow catch Basel though!

[FM_Grasshopper]

Loup:

Good work on the transfers in, Annan is just about maximum value for those £25k, I expect Ziegler and Emeghara will be great for you, and Kaebi looks bvery interesting, although I don't have any experience with him. Curious to see what you can get out of Shala, played him as a winger at Brann in Norway in another save and he was good, but very inconsistent. Will be interesting to see how he does in the centre of the field, no experience with him there. Albanian too, fits the swiss aestethics wonderfully.

What you said about transfers/bringing through youth made me think about where I would have been if I had been a bit more disciplined in that aspect. Have a few youngsters who could have been/will be useful if given proper guidance, but I'm a little bit too bad on self control to opt out on the talented foreigners to ever get max out of this part of the game. Will do a small analysis of what I have later.

Tactically it depends on how you want to be playing of course, but my first thoughts are lack of target man, lack of capable wide players and two(after getting Annan) top class defensive midfielders(+ Abrashi and Sinkala who can play there). The diamond mostly fits your squad material, but I'd be at least tempted to try to work out something with two DM's.

Thanks Michal. I am going for the 4-3-1-2 Narrow. It's been good in the first 3 games. Shala has played very well as a back up Enganche to Caio. I really hope he can become Caio's long term successor.

I don't want to exceed 8 incoming players a year. I need stability to bring in youth and will probably try to keep the likes of Dingsdag, Caio and Salatic for as long as possible. Sadly, Abrashi wants to leave and won't commit to a contract...apparently he feels there is no competition for places. He's been dropped already haha.

How is the Malele getting on for you? I really like the look of him.

[Jogo Bonito]

Good stuff Loup, nice to see your approach. I really like how we have all done slight variations on a similar theme, it keeps it intriguing! You're right, I was well pleased to get rid of Merkel's wages (and just offloaded Grichting on a free now). Also happy to get through against Standard Liege - you have started better than me though!

Michal, I'm amazed at the figures the Swiss clubs demand for their players - what you paid for Malele was a bargain in comparison to what I am being quoted for players only half as good as him.

[michalgottwald]

Jogo Bonito: I must say, that was inspiring. Some very solid work here, and loving how you take the time to expose your thought process properly. What constructive sharing is all about.

You got Volodomyr! Takes me all the way back to Chornomorets and FM10 it must've been, where I think he was playing lower league football and could be gotten for like £10k. Have tried to get him every year since when playing in Ukraine, haven't tried him in this version but he's always been very reliable.

Other than him and Emeghara(and Mammana and Simeone which I know of but haven't tried) a lot of the players you got are new to me, so hard to judge whether your transfer window was excellent or just very good. You certainly make it all sound conscious and controlled though, so assuming you know what you're doing.

Well done on beating Basel, and good luck in the Euro cup! Brave selling Salatic, but your tactical setups looks to allow for it and looks balanced and pretty fresh. How is it playing out?

[michalgottwald]

I really hope Malele is still blending in, as the return has been a little bit disappointing this far compared to the rest of my strike force. 8 goals and a 7.10 rating in 14(4) games, I would really like more from him.

In reference to player values, yeah, swiss clubs really aren't easy to deal with. Luckily it's also reflected in the transfer fees you can expect to get in, but building a swiss core of adequate players is a challenge for sure. Malele had a release clause, only reason I was able to get him for so little. His value was around what I paid at the time.

I've noted 4-5 other young swiss players I would have gone for if I could do it all again, but with time passing by and the quality of my squad exceeding the swiss league level it's probably all too late.

Your results so far look very strong Loup. Small sample size of course, but it at least looks like you're doing something right.

Very curious as to how your(both of you) direct approach with no target man looks on the pitch. I'm a bit tactically settled in this save now, but will have to try this out in another game. In theory it sounds very interesting, but don't you lose possession from long clearances an awful lot?

[Jogo Bonito]

Jogo Bonito: I must say, that was inspiring. Some very solid work here, and loving how you take the time to expose your thought process properly. What constructive sharing is all about.

You got Volodomyr! Takes me all the way back to Chornomorets and FM10 it must've been, where I think he was playing lower league football and could be gotten for like £10k. Have tried to get him every year since when playing in Ukraine, haven't tried him in this version but he's always been very reliable.

Other than him and Emeghara(and Mammana and Simeone which I know of but haven't tried) a lot of the players you got are new to me, so hard to judge whether your transfer window was excellent or just very good. You certainly make it all sound conscious and controlled though, so assuming you know what you're doing.

Well done on beating Basel, and good luck in the Euro cup! Brave selling Salatic, but your tactical setups looks to allow for it and looks balanced and pretty fresh. How is it playing out?

Thanks Michal, I'm glad you like the detail - but apologies it was a long post though! I've never signed 'Volo' before (or managed in Ukraine), but he was experienced and also had the set-piece quality that only Caio was offering. I try to make sure I have at least a couple of good options for corners and free-kicks, and Caio seems to get tired very easily, so is usually a bench warmer for me. At that price it was a no-brainer on Volo - his wages are only £1700 p/w so the small monthly fee was reasonable.

As for the others, time will tell. But yeah, I know about the players, although it's only Emeghara I have signed before (many times). I try to sign people I know something about in reality, rather than obscures who might 'over achieve' in FM. I'm still disappointed not to have Manea and Ziegler as my full-backs, but not because I'm unhappy with either of the two recruited. The two Argentines are very well regarded (and it's kind of cool to have the son of Diego at the club).

Selling Sabatic hadn't crossed my mind until I saw his wages, and age - I don't like to keep players beyond 30. It's probably more stupidity than a gamble, but it really helped my project along so I took the risk. Grichting has just been offloaded on a free now, so finances are under reasonable control. I'm not very entertaining, but we are grinding out a few results.

Edit: That return from Malele doesn't sound too bad to me, but you're much more developed than me of course. Regarding the tactical approach, my main idea is to get Emeghara racing in on goal, with my DLF and SS kind of swapping spaces. I'm a cautious manager though, so the other 7 outfield players are well very disciplined.

[michalgottwald]

It's not bad, I just had high expectations after seeing him fight for top scorer in the league every year while at Young Boys, and not being able to handle him properly when playing against them. Really hope he can reach that level for me in time, as there are way too few swiss quality players in my squad. Malele, Xhaka, three very talented youngsters and a few squad player at best prospects is all I have at the moment - and as you've noticed other clubs don't want to let their talent go.

[michalgottwald]

Going into 2018 it's time for a new mid season evaluation:

Same number of points as this time last year - hopefully we can finish stronger this time around and beat Basels record of 87. Also, whereas last year I was very confident of being champions going into the new year, nothing is decided this time around. A gap of seven points is nice, but can also be gone in an instant. What speaks in my favour though is the confident manner in which we've been playing. Not as much grinding needed as last year, the football we play is pretty convincing even when fielding a second string. The standout performance has been Dmitry Kontsevoy, who with the insane average rating of 7.73 is pushing Patric hard for his spot. Had it not been for his experience at the club and value as a tutor I would propably let him go, although it would be with a VERY heavy heart.

Young Georg Cacchioli is my top scorer in the league, and causing me all kinds of selection problems with his performances. Can't not play him. Can't not play Malele. Definitly can't not play Kramaric, and don't want to not play Rafhael Lucas. I can fit four players into my rotation without upsetting any of them, but then we have young Erik Larsson. 17 when he joined the club, so will be home grown, and put on hold for that time due to having to be re-trained to a striker. Now he's re-trained, he's developing like there's no tomorrow and he's too good to be ignored. He also happen to be a Model Professional with a determination stat of 17. I really don't know what to do here. Cacchioli the home-grown, Larsson the super-super talent, Malele the important swiss addition, Rafhael Lucas whose current ability is vital to european performances and Kramaric, who needs no further explanation. There are worse problems to have of course, but this is still causing me quite some headache.

Ambivalent doesn't even cover it. Performances were so encouraging, never looked out of our depth like last season and was close to getting a win away to Manchester City. But then, of course, we had to go and mess it up by not winning our home game against Zenit, the one game we really SHOULD win in this group. Dominated, but came 2-0 down early on and really had to fight to even get a draw. Home game against City was an even affair, can't really complain that it tipped in their favour, but it could just as easily have been three points the other way. This all meant we ended on 8 points, behind Juventus and City, but in front of Zenit and on to our first whiff of European football after christmas. Have been drawn against Galatasaray in the final 32 of the Euro Cup.

Lost Lucas Olaza to his minimum release clause(he wouldn't sign for us without one), which was a blow to our first XI strength and called for a replacement. The other two money transfers out were matters of prioritizing. Røykjær have had a great first half of the season for us, he's actually been our second best player rating wise playing against the weaker teams. But then there's that youngster Mehmet Baran, who has been playing regular Swiss Super League football on loan at St. Gallen for the last 6 months and can't really be ignored anymore. When I gave him game time last season he showed that he wasn't ready, but he's improved quite a bit and I think it's time to stand by him as second choice AMC. Bigger potential than Røykjær according to my assistant. Also, £4.9m is a very good return on my investment with the young dane, got to be happy with that even though it always hurts to ship off performers.

Filip Sachkepidis was rated as the most talented central midfielder in my squad, but over a season and a half he failed to show it through development and even regressed a bit at the end. I have Ivic and Kucalovic(and poor home-grown Joel Zwimpfer who I wish I could give a spot ) coming through, and again this is a very decent piece of business although I still feel he could have been a great midfielder for me in an alternate reality.

Loris Benito is possibly a small, small step down from Olaza, but he's swiss, which kinda makes up for the potential loss in quality. Still looks like a pretty good player, and excited to see what he can do. Will take the starting spot ahead of Diallo, but it's close now, Diallo having developed very well since joining.

Albertson is another one of these problematic young talented swedes - in another position I'd try to play him every week, but in competition with Patric And Kontsevoy? Damn. :/ Still, couldn't pass up. Blistering pace and generally great physicals, still a bit rough but sure to be a great player. Only problem is how to give him game time.

Ptacek was pre-arranged. Sixteen year old czech striker with a great future ahead of him.

Adding a screenshot of Benito as his swiss nationality means he might be of use to others later on. Really looking forward to see how he fares.

[christy06]

Started a Grasshopper game last night thanks to this guide, was looking a team that relies on promoting youth and selling to keep afloat, Ajax is my personal fav for this type of game, but i wanted something different. Will post up my transfers later or 2moro, pretty happy so far. Haven't played a game apart from friendlies, i am struggling to get scouts though which is frustrating. What i did do was get an affiliate with a senior club, i got barcelona so i have 2 brilliant youngsters on their way soon

[michalgottwald]

Nice! It is indeed a good starting point for an Ajax type of game. Currently in the process of upgrading both the "Great training facilities" and "Superb youth facilities". Costing me a fortune, but I finally have a solid financial footing and hey, it's an investment anyway.

Getting a parent affiliate early on sounds like a great investment, annoyed that I missed out on that option. Some goodrun getting Barcelona though.

[christy06]

Had the choice of Porto, Athletico Madrid or Barcelona - Seemed like a no brainer.