FM17: Athletic Club Bilbao - Basque in the glory

[Jean0987654321]

3 hours ago, bowieinspace said:

 

It's always just a matter of time with Javi Martinez 

Surprise, surprise. Same thing happened to me when trying to sign him. He got hurt and the transfer was off

[Ö-zil to the Arsenal!]

17 hours ago, bowieinspace said:

Correct yeah top 4, with 4th going into the qualifying round and top 3 straight to groups.

January in Spain is absolutely savage, 2 games a week every week due to the two legged cup fixtures. Once you up the club performance over a few seasons the board stop viewing the copa del rey as particularly important so you can heavily rotate and use youngsters/b team players as needed

You're not wrong!

Squad is absolutely creaking at the seams. Cavalry has arrived with Merino joining on loan.

2 points ahead of Barcelona, 6 ahead of Real Madrid but they have 2-games in hand. Atletico helped us out again beating Real 3-0 from 8th place in the league!

[Ö-zil to the Arsenal!]

Performance of the season, so far:

Quite the debut for Merino.

Used a back 3 with wingbacks to create a 5v3 on Messi, Neymar and Suarez. Took advantage of Barcelona bypassing their midfield, conceding a 3v2 advantage at MC to create the overload at the back.

[bowieinspace]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjeW-lbjc88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nB0GYF77qU

Two examples of our counter attacking. Both are short clips but both moves started with a simple outlet pass from the defence. In one it links the winger with the CF (A), and in the other the CF(A) turns creator for the onrushing CM (A)

[bowieinspace]

2019/20 Season Update:

La Liga - Another fantastic season winning the title for the 2nd year. We finished on 89 points which is an excellent haul, but Real and Barca (the latter to a lesser degree) underperformed and allowed us to take the league with some comfort towards the end of the season. Villareal emerged as a real contender this season finishing in 3rd, they gave us a number of tough games throughout the season in league and cup! Real Madrid probably were the shock of the season, finishing 5th.

In the Champions League we lost in the semi final to Bayern. We gave them a very tough game and I would consider us unlucky to have gone out, we were the better side in both games, perhaps marginally so at their place, but we didn't convert our chances and their quality going forwards told. We drew 1-1 at our place after conceding an early set piece goal, and then at their place we took the lead early on and took a 1-0 lead into half time. Sadly goals from Muller and Lewandowski in the second half saw us lose 2-1. We had some late chances to win it on away goals but sadly it got away from us.

In the Copa Del Rey, our young guns performed admirably, losing in the semi finals to Barca.

Here's a look at some of our up and coming youngsters. We have a few too many around the 3 star region to post them all, so here's the top prospects at this stage:

Ibai Garcia - He's now our 3rd choice CB and plays a lot of games for the first team. Looks like he's going to be a stalwart in our squad for many years with plenty of room to develop further.

 

Erik Salgado - Yet to make his first team debut, but he should be our left back for years to come and our long term replacement for Azpilicueta, looks like an absolute gem.

 

Benat Ugarte - On the other flank we have this youngster coming through. Again yet to make his first team debut but it won't be too long. I have another excellent RB who you will see in a moment, so they will very much compete for that spot, but if they both develop as expected I imagine I will retrain one of them, but that's a decision I'll took at later.

 

Ander Bilbao - When I think of some of the best newgens I've had come through on FM in my many years of Athletic Club saves, I think this guy will be up there in the top tier. He's only 18 but is already our starting right back, taking the place of De Marcos/Lekue this year. Currently 3* at 18, with massive potential, if he stays injury free I fancy he is going to be the best full back in the game.

 

Ibon Alvarez - Great striker prospect with a superb attribute spread. His composure needs some work but that will come with time. In a few years he should be well placed to challenge Villalibre for the striker spot.

 

Xabier Intxausti - New through our youth intake this year, complete with the 'best of his generation' tag which always warms the heart. Looks like he could be a monster and is already developing well.

 

There's unlikely to be any interesting developments in the summer window. The only player I'd like to sign is Mikel Oyarzabel but he doesn't want to leave Sociedad (or join us), and as a Socieded fan, I don't think we have much chance here. The only other potential option I could look at is Griezmann, but I'd need to pay an insane amount of money for him and he's nearing thirty, plus Man City have no interest in selling. So the 20/21 season will be all about bringing our youngsters through!

[bowieinspace]

Unbelievable, took me 3 years of making him my top target, declaring interest, scouting his games, I even recently started watching his games myself. Finally I get him on deadline day. 

Also this is a new one...

[bowieinspace]

And then on his debut 

[Ö-zil to the Arsenal!]

@bowieinspace congratulations. Great signing. Lovely player.

As my season goes on I am feeling the effects of not having a left footed wide-attacker. I am either using Munian wrong-footed, Sabin or Villalibre.

Sabin has actually done alright. He's not the same quality of the rest of the team but I always have a certain affinity with a player with 20 determination (he's tutored Villalibre too).

It's a useful way to get Villalibre game-time as he's yet to find his feet as a consistent goalscorer.

Oh, yes and..

Man Utd are linked with bonkers money move for Verrati so I may benefit joining in the transfer merry-go-round.

[Jean0987654321]

Thank god I got Ander on the cheap. He's a bit past it but he's a great tutor...

[Jean0987654321]

Almost forgot to show off my own team

 

Season 1

Doing some business as they were a few U-16 youth prospects at the start of the game. Eboko became a big star for me later on...

Decent first season from us as we got 6th. Just what the board wanted but I wanted that CL money to get some more players.

Season 2

Regen invasion began this season. A ton of prospects + Monreal and Merino came in

Another 6th place finish...

Season 3

Laporte wanted to go to Spurs and with the release clause in place, I couldn't stop him...

6th AGAIN

Season 4

Much of the old guard left this summer. At least we got Ander back.

Champions League at last!!

Season 5

Xesc Sanchez and Adrian Pozo were the two that got away. Just couldn't keep their heads down and play well. No...

CL again

Season 6

Eboko got sold due to his release clause. I had too many strikers in the ranks anyways...

So far, so good

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jean0987654321]

Showing off my regens

Barbaro and Mateo came from the academy.

 

Hopefully, this guy can succeed Merino and can become the basque

Matic. Got him for $450K from Cadiz

 

Prolly Barbaro's replacement if he goes. Also from the academy.

 

Got Cruzado for $4M

This guy was expensive. $6.5M from Celta. Unforutnately for him,

Lopez is in form.
 

Lopez had some great loan stints so I promted him to replace Eboko,

my former top scorer. Lopez is now my top scorer. Got him form my

academy too.

My version of Kante. Hopefully, he can make that BBM role his own.

Got him from Las Palmas for $2.6M

See Alberto. Got him for $1.8M from Sevilla

Another expensive guy. $4.3M from Osasuna. At least he is somewhat

versatile.

I got this guy on the cheap from Tudelano (!!!) for $70K

 

Trying to improve his passing a bit. I want him to be a BPD. Got him

for $875K

Oriol Roger has really no spot but hes a good backup for now. Got

him from Girona for $220K

[nextqprmanager]

Jean, gee you do some transfer business !

[bowieinspace]

Holy mother of god that's a lot of transfers :O

[Jean0987654321]

Yeah, I know. A lot of loans were made to save some money and get a few quid in. I bought a ton of U-16 Spanish players in order to strengthen the talent pool of players to choose from. Just recently I have been integrating them into the main squad...

[bowieinspace]

3 hours ago, Jean0987654321 said:

Yeah, I know. A lot of loans were made to save some money and get a few quid in. I bought a ton of U-16 Spanish players in order to strengthen the talent pool of players to choose from. Just recently I have been integrating them into the main squad...

Yeah fair enough, it's a smart way to increase the talent pool!

I won't show my transfers but I make on average 5-6 incoming transfers each season total. The only reason being that I don't sign under 16 spaniards unless they have Basque nationality already, so I can only pick from Real Sociedad, Osasuna, Alaves etc academy products plus the odd randoms who pop up at other clubs. Instead I focus on bringing through my own academy players and seeing how far I can push them, and I supplement them with the best players I can get hold of from the other Basque academies as and when they're willing to sell/willing to join, which can be tricky (especially with Real)

[bowieinspace]

2020/21 Season Update:

A great season in La Liga, smashing the 100 point mark for the first time. I'm surprised we've won the league 3 years running now with the squad we have, but the tactics are just working and Real/Barca are underperforming. In other La Liga news, Villarreal after a superb 2019/20 had a shocker in 20/21 just avoiding relegation. Atletico are looking very strong these days and made the incredible free signing of James Rodriguez at the start of the season. Combined with their new stadium I can see them pushing hard in coming seasons. 

We had a slightly dissapointing Champions League campaign after getting through a tough group in 1st place. It left us with a first knockout round game against Juventus (including Dybala). We were the better team in both legs but didn't take our chances and lost 3-2 on aggregate. We lost the first leg 2-1 in Turin, and then were leading 1-0 at San Mames before a 70th minute goal made it 1-1 and gave them the crucial away goal. We hit the post twice in the closing stages but couldn't take it to extra time...very disappointing! 

This season saw a departure from our slightly cautious 4-1-2-3 wide (e.g. 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it), to a more attacking, 4-4-1-1. Some elements remained the same in terms of our philosophy, for example we are still a high pressing team, but with a slightly more attacking structure we do this with a full team press, higher up the pitch. I've always been a fan of a full team press 4-4-2 type system, but I tend to only go to it once I have the quality and personal to make it work. We're an extremely hard working team, so the purchase of Mikel Oyarzabal and his ability to play the attacking midfielder role so well, I felt this was the opportunity to make the change...it worked well! We also kept the 4-1-2-3 set up to use when we need someone playing in the DM position, and we also have a high press 3-1-4-1-1 formation which we use occasionally against dangerous 2 striker formations:

 

Transfers/Youngsters:

This season saw the acquisition of Mikel Oyarazabal who I'd been pursuing for a number of years. He has years ahead of him and offers some real quality in the AMC role, while he can also play wide or in central midfield as needed. This season also saw the departure of a number of older faces, with Benat and Ander Iturraspe leaving before the season started...both were still doing ok but with some good young lads coming through I wanted to give them the match time. At the end of the season we also sold on Oscar De Marcos (I never like to sell him!) and Javi Martinez. Oscar was getting on and we have good depth so I couldn't warrant keeping his wages on the books. Javi Martinez had a strong season but at 33 with injury problems and a high wage he was a candidate to shift out, as he wasn't offering much beyond squad depth, and with the tactical change he wasn't quite as useful (not quick enough to play our high line defence in the CB role, and not mobile enough to play as a central midfielder in our 4-4-1-1. I offered him out to clubs in April right after we won the league, and he signed a deal with Liverpool. Two weeks late he tears his cruciate ligament again  Have fun with those wages Liverpool!!

A number of our youngsters continued to impress this season, with a few out on loan making good progress, some at the B team in the Segunda and a few making plenty of first team appearances. I won't post screenshots of too many, just a few special ones so you can see their development from previous pictures:

Xabier Intxausti broke into our first team squad at barely 16. This screenshot is Dec of the next season and he's featuring regularly now, could be world class!

Did somebody say world class?? Well Ander Bilbao is well on his way to achieving that at 20 years old.

[Jean0987654321]

2 hours ago, bowieinspace said:

2020/21 Season Update:

A great season in La Liga, smashing the 100 point mark for the first time. I'm surprised we've won the league 3 years running now with the squad we have, but the tactics are just working and Real/Barca are underperforming. In other La Liga news, Villarreal after a superb 2019/20 had a shocker in 20/21 just avoiding relegation. Atletico are looking very strong these days and made the incredible free signing of James Rodriguez at the start of the season. Combined with their new stadium I can see them pushing hard in coming seasons. 

We had a slightly dissapointing Champions League campaign after getting through a tough group in 1st place. It left us with a first knockout round game against Juventus (including Dybala). We were the better team in both legs but didn't take our chances and lost 3-2 on aggregate. We lost the first leg 2-1 in Turin, and then were leading 1-0 at San Mames before a 70th minute goal made it 1-1 and gave them the crucial away goal. We hit the post twice in the closing stages but couldn't take it to extra time...very disappointing! 

This season saw a departure from our slightly cautious 4-1-2-3 wide (e.g. 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it), to a more attacking, 4-4-1-1. Some elements remained the same in terms of our philosophy, for example we are still a high pressing team, but with a slightly more attacking structure we do this with a full team press, higher up the pitch. I've always been a fan of a full team press 4-4-2 type system, but I tend to only go to it once I have the quality and personal to make it work. We're an extremely hard working team, so the purchase of Mikel Oyarzabal and his ability to play the attacking midfielder role so well, I felt this was the opportunity to make the change...it worked well! We also kept the 4-1-2-3 set up to use when we need someone playing in the DM position, and we also have a high press 3-1-4-1-1 formation which we use occasionally against dangerous 2 striker formations:

 

Transfers/Youngsters:

This season saw the acquisition of Mikel Oyarazabal who I'd been pursuing for a number of years. He has years ahead of him and offers some real quality in the AMC role, while he can also play wide or in central midfield as needed. This season also saw the departure of a number of older faces, with Benat and Ander Iturraspe leaving before the season started...both were still doing ok but with some good young lads coming through I wanted to give them the match time. At the end of the season we also sold on Oscar De Marcos (I never like to sell him!) and Javi Martinez. Oscar was getting on and we have good depth so I couldn't warrant keeping his wages on the books. Javi Martinez had a strong season but at 33 with injury problems and a high wage he was a candidate to shift out, as he wasn't offering much beyond squad depth, and with the tactical change he wasn't quite as useful (not quick enough to play our high line defence in the CB role, and not mobile enough to play as a central midfielder in our 4-4-1-1. I offered him out to clubs in April right after we won the league, and he signed a deal with Liverpool. Two weeks late he tears his cruciate ligament again  Have fun with those wages Liverpool!!

A number of our youngsters continued to impress this season, with a few out on loan making good progress, some at the B team in the Segunda and a few making plenty of first team appearances. I won't post screenshots of too many, just a few special ones so you can see their development from previous pictures:

Xabier Intxausti broke into our first team squad at barely 16. This screenshot is Dec of the next season and he's featuring regularly now, could be world class!

Did somebody say world class?? Well Ander Bilbao is well on his way to achieving that at 20 years old.

That Ander Bilbao guy is looking good. You had a lot of luck getting in a good FB. I had to retrain players in order to get some...

[BoxToBox]

3 hours ago, bowieinspace said:

 

This guy looks absolutely special!

[bowieinspace]

2 hours ago, Jean0987654321 said:

That Ander Bilbao guy is looking good. You had a lot of luck getting in a good FB. I had to retrain players in order to get some...

Yeah I've been very fortunate to get strong fullback newgens on each side! 

2 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

This guy looks absolutely special!

He does indeed! Still room to grow as well, so he's going to be our best player for many years I would imagine. 

[bowieinspace]

I made a topic in the feature requests forum in regards to release clauses, huge money transfers in FM18 and player loyalty as I feel this could be a huge problem for an Athletic save. Feel free to check it out and share your opinion on the thread if you feel you should:

Real life reflection here:

Yeray was doing some running on the pitch at San Mames with Javier Clemente after the game against Getafe. He's still going through chemotherapy following his 2nd bout of struggle with testicular cancer, but seems to be doing well and is set to return to full training mid September hopefully. Get well soon Yeray 

[Bilbaoboy]

has anyone found any good youth players at the start of the game, Have scouted everyone and the pool is very weak at first glance, Otegui, Berrenguer and the AP for RS who's name i cant say but never wants to even speak to us, but apart from that empty

Same goes to every Sociodad player even the average 3 star ones, Our youth teams look very poor star wise so i was wondering if any of the are decieving rating wise (like tarsi who has a few decent stats) and can actually improve into decent players with care and experience or am i wasting my time

I mean players who are good enough to possibly win the league with

[Jean0987654321]

3 hours ago, Bilbaoboy said:

has anyone found any good youth players at the start of the game, Have scouted everyone and the pool is very weak at first glance, Otegui, Berrenguer and the AP for RS who's name i cant say but never wants to even speak to us, but apart from that empty

Same goes to every Sociodad player even the average 3 star ones, Our youth teams look very poor star wise so i was wondering if any of the are decieving rating wise (like tarsi who has a few decent stats) and can actually improve into decent players with care and experience or am i wasting my time

I mean players who are good enough to possibly win the league with

Eboko....

 

unless you you want to keep your save as purely Basque instead of also signing U16 Spanish players

[bowieinspace]

Generally there are players there who will provide solid squad depth but not much in the way of title winning quality. VIllalibre can be very good, along with Kepa. Outside of that you're looking at players like Oscar Gil who are solid players but not really classy.

It can be near impossible to get players from Sociedad, it takes a lot of time but it does get a touch easier as club reputation gap increases

[bowieinspace]

REGEN UPDATE

A few new ones, and a few updates below...some real crackers coming through, but getting congested at centre back and goalkeeper in particular.

Cesar Pena - Has now replaced Kepa as my number 1 (for some reason I have 4 goalkeepers who could all be world class, my academy has lost it)

Mario Aranbarri - Challenging Villalibre for the starting striker spot, and will likely eventually take over it, possibily this season

Rafael Perez - New centre back I have coming through, an area I have plenty of depth in already so may look at retraining someone as a ball winning midfielder. None the less, this guy is the pick of the crop but does need to improve his jumping/marking

Xabier Intxausti - Fulfilling his potential superbly, now in my first XI and he still has room to improve

 

In other news, I'm flying through seasons right now after finally getting back on the game after a few months off. I had to save up for a new laptop, so I waited until I could buy a very good one, so now I am getting through seasons so much faster than I ever have before. I want to avoid turning this into a thread all about my save, so for quick reference I'm now in Sep 2023...since my last update I've continued to dominate La LIga, but Atletico are now a real threat and have bought really well this summer. I made the Champions League final last year but went down 1-0 to Man Utd in the final...it was a close game but we missed our chances. C'est la vie.

[Jean0987654321]

FOUR WC GKs?? I know what I would do. Sell 2 of them for a high price with a 50% sell on clause. Money for days

[bowieinspace]

41 minutes ago, Jean0987654321 said:

FOUR WC GKs?? I know what I would do. Sell 2 of them for a high price with a 50% sell on clause. Money for days

Yeah I've got one in the B team (currently 1.5 stars so has a way to go development wise) and 2 loaned out playing in La Liga who are 2.5 stars with 3 or 3.5 star potential. The one in the B team is the best prospect aside from Cesar Pena, so will replace Kepa as back up next season I think. I'll sell the two on loan and Kepa in the summer (the 2 younger ones with buy back clauses). I doubt I'll get amazing money for them but we'll have to wait and see.

Also Sociedad have a 3.5 star potential keeper from their academy, so currently the Basque region is producing a silly number of goalkeepers.

[bowieinspace]

[Chappy2509]

Reading this thread makes me want to attempt the challenge however how anyone is it loosing al your players on release clauses and not being able to replace them 

[bowieinspace]

1 hour ago, Chappy2509 said:

Reading this thread makes me want to attempt the challenge however how anyone is it loosing al your players on release clauses and not being able to replace them 

You just need to lock them down with new contracts. It'll mean you need to pay higher wages to raise/lock their release clauses in negotiations but that's what you'll need to do

[Jean0987654321]

15 hours ago, Chappy2509 said:

Reading this thread makes me want to attempt the challenge however how anyone is it loosing al your players on release clauses and not being able to replace them 

Don't be discouraged by that fact. Just remember to up the release clauses in the contracts when you start your save. The only talent I lost was Laporte and Eboko because of  the low release clause

[Chappy2509]

Does any body use the c team in the game or do you just send the players straight to b  team as that is a playable league 

[bowieinspace]

1 hour ago, Chappy2509 said:

Does any body use the c team in the game or do you just send the players straight to b  team as that is a playable league 

The C team honestly isn't much use to be honest. I tend to put players there who might provide depth for Bilbao Athletic at some stage, let them develop slowly and then move them up to Bilbao Athletic to provide cover when needed. I normally just leave them on youth contracts and don't renew them in that situation, so they can leave on a free once they're over 17 if they want, but they usually just hang out on minimum wage

I also put players there who have no chance of ever making either the first team or B team. I have a staff member specifically assigned to handle player sales/loans from anyone I place in the C team so I don't have to worry about them. You'll find quite quickly the amount of loan offers gets ridiculous from the affiliate clubs and I don't like dealing with 10 loan offers per day in August for players who aren't going to have any impact on the team.

[Jean0987654321]

5 hours ago, Chappy2509 said:

Does any body use the c team in the game or do you just send the players straight to b  team as that is a playable league 

I tend to loan out all of the c squad. It is absolutely useless to me unless the B team promotes to La Liga2.

[Chappy2509]

Thanks for all,the advice 

[Chappy2509]

21 Game into the season currently 7 th really struggling for consistency but a let the challenge begin

[bowieinspace]

2 hours ago, Chappy2509 said:

21 Game into the season currently 7 th really struggling for consistency but a let the challenge begin

That's ok first season, there's some good teams in La Liga! Sometimes it can just depend on one or two teams underperforming...for example I finished 4th in my first season but only because quite a few teams underperformed and I got on a bit of a run. To be honest that's pretty much summed up my entire save so far, I've been cruising the league as Real and Barca have been massively underperforming. I have a bit more of a challenge in the league now though as Atletico have become very good and bought really well again in the summer window, and Barca have started off winning 5 from 5, including smashing us 3-1 at Camp Nou.  

[Jean0987654321]

Season 6 update

I sold Joseba Barbaro to RM. I didn't want to do it but he didn't want me to sign a new deal and his relatively low release clause of 65M was aactivated. The first thing I did was go for a regen in La Real that plays his same position but to no avail as his agent acted like an idiot. BUT, I did bring back Xavi Segura who left us to Dortmund in the summer due to a low release clause of 14M. Fortunately for me, he was available for twice that amount. This transfer was good because God help us if Alvarez got hurt. I had almost no one good at going forward in that RWB spot until I made that deal.

 

And then at the end of the season

 

Not bad, I guess as we also won the Copa del Rey

 

Thats our first trophy with me at the helm so I hope for more on the way. We got knocked out of the CL group stage and also got knocked out in the round of 16 in the EL. We need to kick on now and with the return of some of the loanees and the transfer of a CB regen from La Real (cheap and good as well), we can do that

[bowieinspace]

Congratulations on the trophy @Jean0987654321 

Random one but how is the Spanish league doing in regards to coefficient compared to the other European leagues? WIth Barca/Real not doing that well and my Athletic side being horrific chokers, in my save we're at risk of losing a Champions League place  

[Chappy2509]

This is the first time I've ever not played in the premier league and makes you realise how much money their is in it transfer budget of 10'million for 2 season and less than 30'million in the bank and very few signing s

[Chappy2509]

FIrst season complete and I managed to get into Europe by the skin of my teeth with a poor 7 th place finish .

on the bright side though my b team had a amazing season and will play in the second division next season .

[Jean0987654321]

10 minutes ago, Chappy2509 said:

This is the first time I've ever not played in the premier league and makes you realise how much money their is in it transfer budget of 10'million for 2 season and less than 30'million in the bank and very few signing s

Yeah, but you should be fine if you get to the CL and develop some regens...

[bowieinspace]

Yeah generally once you get Athletic into the Champions League, especially if it's happening consistently, money is never really an issue

[Jean0987654321]

On 8/30/2017 at 22:54, bowieinspace said:

Congratulations on the trophy @Jean0987654321 

Random one but how is the Spanish league doing in regards to coefficient compared to the other European leagues? WIth Barca/Real not doing that well and my Athletic side being horrific chokers, in my save we're at risk of losing a Champions League place  

Here you go!!

[Malicious Penguin]

I'm just over halfway in my first season with Athletic, and I must say, it's like nothing I've ever done before!

I signed two youngsters from Sociedad, sold a few players for around £4m, and throughout the transfer window fended off multiple offers for Williams, Benat, Muniain, Lekue and more! Thankfully I upped the release clauses in pre-season! 

Started off being hammered by Real and Barca, which wasn't nice, but have eventually climbed to a safe 4th, only 3 points behind Atletico and 4 behind Barca - after I beat them 5-1 at San Mames!! 

My goal is to wait for all the regens to come through, and then see who I can sell - Aduriz keeps rejecting Bosman offers (literally, 8 from good teams) and I've no intention of keeping him on. 

It's a fun game, the lack of transfers makes it more enjoyable. 

[Jean0987654321]

1 minute ago, Malicious Penguin said:

I'm just over halfway in my first season with Athletic, and I must say, it's like nothing I've ever done before!

I signed two youngsters from Sociedad, sold a few players for around £4m, and throughout the transfer window fended off multiple offers for Williams, Benat, Muniain, Lekue and more! Thankfully I upped the release clauses in pre-season! 

Started off being hammered by Real and Barca, which wasn't nice, but have eventually climbed to a safe 4th, only 3 points behind Atletico and 4 behind Barca - after I beat them 5-1 at San Mames!! 

My goal is to wait for all the regens to come through, and then see who I can sell - Aduriz keeps rejecting Bosman offers (literally, 8 from good teams) and I've no intention of keeping him on. 

It's a fun game, the lack of transfers makes it more enjoyable. 

Just remember, you're here forever...

 

...or at least until FM18 Beta is out.

[bowieinspace]

Update:

My run of La Liga's came to an end this year as Barcelona finally sorted themselves out, winning the league with 99 points. Sadly the last two seasons have been disappointing in Europe having gone out in the first KO round (to PSG) this year, and a devastating loss to Napoli in the quarters last year after being 3-0 up from the first leg.

Regens:

Xabier Intxausti - Midfield maestro!

Mario Aranbarri - Amazing striker, has certainly taken over from Villalibre now who is a superb 2nd choice

Ander Bilbao - Small improvement since the last update but he's just a beast of a full back

Cesar Pena - The best of the bunch in regards to my world class keepers. Will be my number one for the rest of his career.

And finally..

First day of the new season and I'm at home to newly promoted Almeria:

[bowieinspace]

1 hour ago, Malicious Penguin said:

I'm just over halfway in my first season with Athletic, and I must say, it's like nothing I've ever done before!

I signed two youngsters from Sociedad, sold a few players for around £4m, and throughout the transfer window fended off multiple offers for Williams, Benat, Muniain, Lekue and more! Thankfully I upped the release clauses in pre-season! 

Started off being hammered by Real and Barca, which wasn't nice, but have eventually climbed to a safe 4th, only 3 points behind Atletico and 4 behind Barca - after I beat them 5-1 at San Mames!! 

My goal is to wait for all the regens to come through, and then see who I can sell - Aduriz keeps rejecting Bosman offers (literally, 8 from good teams) and I've no intention of keeping him on. 

It's a fun game, the lack of transfers makes it more enjoyable. 

Welcome buddy!

[Chappy2509]

Regens looking good , having problems with the release clauses keep trying to renew the contracts but the agents keep setting them at a really low amount any ideas, had first youth intake hope I can keep hold of him looks like he could become a beast .

[Malicious Penguin]

23 minutes ago, Chappy2509 said:

Regens looking good , having problems with the release clauses keep trying to renew the contracts but the agents keep setting them at a really low amount any ideas, had first youth intake hope I can keep hold of him looks like he could become a beast .

What I typically do for the kids is set it at £30m and to semi-negotiable. Usually they'll counter with a slight increase in salary/signing fee, but it's worth it.

[bowieinspace]

Yeah I just lock the release clause to a high amount, they'll want higher wages etc as a result but that's ok if they're worth it.