FM 17 - Valencia CF

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(All Images are enlargeable if you click on them)

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Hello and welcome to this years Valencia Club guide, in this thread, i hope to guide you through the first couple of seasons managing this volatile, yet storied Club back to challenging for Titles and Trophies, in the post above, you can find several images, detailing the History and current information about the Clubs Facilities and First Team Squad which should be useful in this thread.

Initial Budgets/Expectations:

Your first job after meeting with your Chairman and Assistant Manager will be to set your initial budgets, as you can see from the image in the post above, with the default expectations set, you can expect a transfer budget of just under 13 million and a wage budget of just over 1.3 million per week, this isnt a lot of money with which to fix a lot of holes in your squad, especially when you consider that your current wage expenditure is not far off 1.3 million already!, however if you edit your expectations to Champions League Qualification (which is an achievable goal), you can increase your Transfer budget to nearly 17 million and increase your Wage budget to over 1.5 million per week, which is a lot better! I dont suggest selecting League Winner as your expectations, the financial gain is minimal and the goal is next to impossible in Season 1. Right, now that you have some money, lets take a look at your Squad

Goalkeepers:

Diego Alves is your best Keeper, possible Captain and is on a reasonable wage with 3 years left on his contract

Jaume Domenech and Matthew Ryan are both fine backup keepers, with Ryan being the better of the 2, decide which one to keep and then sell the other for some extra transfer funds, Ryan does get called up a lot to play for the Australian national team (he has English nationality, so dont worry about him taking up one of your Foreign player slots)

Full Backs:

Jose Gaya, D/WB (L), academy product and one of the best young Left Backs in the game, he should be one of the players you build your team and your future around

Joao Cancelo, D (RL), WB/M (R), see Gaya, except hes not from the academy and hes a Right Back (who is comfortable on the left too), if you keep hold of these 2 guys, your Full Back slots are sorted for the next 10 years or so

Martin Montoya, D/WB/M (R), a very good Right Back in his own right, can be sold, but you want a healthy rotation and cover for injuries/suspensions and you wont find much better than Montoya in season 1

Guilherme Siqueira, D/WB (L), decent enough backup for Gaya (though when Gaya is out, i prefer to move Cancelo to the left and play Montoya at RB), is on loan for the year

Centre Backs:

Ezequiel Garay, D (C), Quality Defender who is decent, if not great on the ball, no major flaws, should be your starter at 1 CB spot

Eliaquim Mangala, D (C), as a Limited Defender, he should be in his element alongside Garay, only on a 1 year loan with no option to buy, so make the most of him and plan ahead to replace him

Aymen Abdennour, D (C), has great attributes in game (which is a surprise, because hes a liability irl!), I chose to sell him to bring in some extra transfer funds and hes on a lot of money to ride the bench, but you can certainly keep him for Season 2 if you prefer

Aderlan Santos, D (C), the clear #4 DC, if you have to rely on him for any length of time, you are probably in trouble, but he is on absolute peanuts (7k pw!) which is nice

Central Midfielders:

Dani Parejo, DM, M/AM (C), this guy, right here is your playmaker, hes not a runner, just let him pass the ball, thats what he does, he should also be on every Set Piece available

Enzo Perez, DM, M (C), a great box to box midfielder, he has one flaw, the PPM, "Shoots from Distance", coupled with a mediocre Long Shots attribute, so many attacks will end in him blazing one miles over the bar, try and train this off him ASAP!

Mario Suarez, DM, M (C), This is where your CM depth gets a little dicey (which isnt great, only 3 players in!), Suarez is pretty average, and, for a DM, not very good at defending, another loanee, he should really only be cover and be happy to send him back at the end of the season.

Alvaro Medran, M/AM (C), decent cover for Parejo, but thats about it

Wingers:

Nani, M/AM (RL), ST (C),  a great winger and decent emergency striker, but that wage (which i think is a data error, but still) is a killer, a candidate for selling if you can find anyone to take his wage

Fede Cartabia, M (RL), AM (RLC), one of several decent wingers you possess

Rodrigo, AM (RL), ST (C), can play on either wing or up front naturally, his attributes say hes a winger though and another decent one

Zakaria Bakkali, M (L), AM (RL), the young Belgian has a bright future ahead of him, keep hold of him!

Strikers:

Santi Mina, AM (RL), ST (C), neither of these 2 players are what you would call out and out strikers, but this is all you have for Valencia, Santi Mina is the better of the two (and, more importantly, already at the club on a permanent basis!), hes only 20 and got bags of potential, far from the finished article, but giving him the start will really help his development

Munir, AM (RL), ST (C), on loan from Barcelona, one of the bigger calls you will have to make in your first season is whether or not to activate his Future Fee Clause of just over 10 million, he is willing to talk at the start of the game if you wish to do so, however, this would be a large chunk of your initial budget (that you cant pay in instalments) so choosing to buy him would seriously limit your ability to improve elsewhere, I chose not to.

Top Youth Prospects:

Salva Ruiz, D/WB (L), another academy left back, take advantage of Siqueiras loan to send Ruiz out somewhere to get a season of First team action to kick start his development

Carlos Soler, DM, M (C), is a bit raw for First team action, but if you cant find anyone else, will be able to play for you at the DM spot

Fran Vilalba, AM (C), develop him right and this is your Parejo replacement, I would start training him at the MC position ASAP, as he is only comfortable playing at the AMC position at the start of the game

Toni Lato, D/WB (L), yes, another Left Back, Valencias academy has a great recent history of producing Left Backs (Jordi Alba, Juan Bernat for example), might be worth seeing if you can train him up at RB

Antonio Sivera, GK, very raw, but young for a GK, get one of the senior GKs to tutor him and help his development

Rafa Mir, AM (RL), ST (C),  a great attacking prospect for you to nurture

Carlos Badal, D (C), your top DC prospect, is only 17 and has a lot of developing to do, needs a lot of work on his Jumping reach

Sito, M/AM (L), Decent little Winger to develop

Ferran Torres, M (R), AM (RC), see Sito, but for the other side and younger

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Transfers, Season 1:

Having examined the squad, its clear that there is a massive dearth of talent in Centre Midfield after the top 2 players, this is a problem, especially if you want to play with 3 central midfielders in the classical 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-3, so you will need to go out shopping for some new ones, a good start is FM favourite Thiago Maia, he can be had for under 15 million from Santos at the start of the game and they will accept most of that in instalments, an alternative is Ignacio Camacho, who can had for the same amount of money, but that will involve a release clause and, therefore, no instalments allowed, Marco van Ginkel is also available on loan from Chelsea and im sure there are several other players out there who fit the bill, bringing in 2 of these 3 players (or other players you have found), combined with promoting Carlos Soler to the first team should be sufficient

You also need some backup at ST, I brought in Diafra Sakho from West Ham for under 10 million, he wasnt a great fit, but i didnt have a lot of choice due to spending most of my budget at the MC position. If you choose to sell Aymen Abdennour, a ready replacement can be found in Aritz Elustondo from Real Sociedad, 7.5 million and well under half the wages of Abdennour.

If you decide to find targets for yourself, bear in mind that La Liga has a 3 Non EU player limit in place and Valencia currently have 2 on the books (Aderlan Santos and Enzo Perez) so you can only sign one more player that doesnt have an EU nationality

Transfers, Season 2:

In Season 2, your first task will be to sort out the returning loanees, imo, you will want to offload Negredo and his massive wage ASAP,  Vinicius Araujo isnt good enough and should be sold for 1-2 million, Vezo can take Aderlan Santos' place if you prefer him, but sell one of them, if you get an offer for one of your existing wingers that you like, Piatti can replace them easily (Espanyol will offer his agreed fee, but never seem able to agree terms) and Yoel can be sold. After that, your main job will be to replace Mangala and Munir (if you decided not to buy him), this should be a lot easier if you qualified for the Champions League (sadly, i missed out on the CL by 1 point in season 1 and really struggled to find a quality DC to replace Mangala)

Coaches:

The coaching staff at Valencia is disappointingly bad, bar the superb Jose Manuel Otxotorena and the fitness Coach, you should probably replace every coach including the Assistant Manager, Im pretty sure i basically gutted the entire Backroom staff, aside from the 2 coaches, the DoF (and even he isnt that good) and maybe 1 or 2 scouts and physios, everyone else can go

Tactical Approach:

Im not going to give you a tactic to download or say "You must Play this way", but its fairly clear that the strength of the squad you start off with is out wide, Gaya and Cancelo are great Attacking Full Backs and finding a way to get them linking up well with your wingers (of which you have several decent ones) is crucial to your success, Bakkali doesnt look the most impressive, but i have had a lot of success with him playing on the left, he has 19 goals and 18 assists for me so far and hes missed half of one season, Santi Mina excelled as a Poacher in season 1, bagging 30 goals, Enzo Perez is probably best played at DM, as his annoying PPM has a habit of breaking up a lot of promising attacks and pushing him further back should help reduce that until you can train it off

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A note on Munir, playing through my current Valencia save, where i didnt buy him at the end of his loan and i notice he moved to Galatasaray in the summer immediately after he left me for a grand total of 1.3 million (rising to 1.8 with add ons), so it might be worth your while letting his loan expire and try and pick him up on the cheap

[the--dud]

I just started a save as "Los Murciélagos" yesterday, thanks for the useful guide! Very well written and informative.

 

I actually finished 90% of pre-season before I read your guide but I came to more of less the same conclusions myself.

• The backroom staff is so horrible it's more suitable for a level 4 division Spanish side!
• Valencia has a great team but lacking depth in MC/AMC as well as an outright striker.

I did however "only" get £17.5m transfer budget (promised CL qualification) when I took charge, how much did you get? I figured it might be getting a lot more now that Valencia has those wealthy owners... Maybe for season two I will get more?

 

So far I've signed the Brazilian striker "Luan" for £10m (Klopp has been making moves for him at Liverpool recently), and two young decent midfielders for about £2m each.

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i addressed the Transfer budget in the paragraph just above where i talked about the squad, i'll make it a bit clearer though, 17 million is about right for CL qualification

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had an interesting Transfer window in my 3rd summer at Valencia, Dani Parejo had been attracting interest from Monaco for some time and after several rejected bids, they finally met his release clause of 43 million, so had to wave goodbye to him, was a bit sad to lose one of my best players, but as he was 29, i did have plans to replace him sooner rather than later and to get that much cash, all up front, would be a major impact on my business in the summer, at that point, i had already snapped up Oliver Burke from RB leipzig and after Parejo left, i decided to bring in 2 cornerstones of my Valencia project, i signed 2 young future stars, both from Real Madrid, Marco Asensio to replace Parejo and Jesus Vallejo to be a long term anchor in defence, I was a little surprised they were both happy to join, especially as Asensio had actually started featuring sporadically for Madrids first team, but to snatch those 2 away from the evil empire was great, the future is bright!

[the--dud]

Maybe it was my own fault but at the end of season 1 Valencia went into administration. They had a £150m loan and another for £60m. Every month the club lost about £4-7m.

My wage budget got slashed from £1,5m to £150,000 and 0 transfer budget. I resigned even though I had finished 2nd in La Liga   It was all very sad!

Anyone else experienced major financial rues as Valencia?

 

 

[blue heron]

Valencia seem like a very interesting club to play as. Some very good players, some technically gifted players with rather bad mental attributes, the backroom staff is cr*p and the financial situation is interesting to say the least. And you kind of are expected to qualify for the Champions League. Do they move into a new stadium in the second or third season in FM17 or have they already moved? 

Is there a difference between playing FM Touch and FM regular in these regards? Valencia was a favourite of mine in the times that Pablo Aimar, Vicente and Ayala were playing but haven't managed them in the last couple of version of FM. Might be tempted again to try and restore them to glory.

[Luna3]

  Mestalla holds prestigious Christmas business dinner

[lukekarts]

Ahhh Valencia. My longest ever save game was with Valencia, in CM01/02. I got to around 2033 I think.

And... what a horribly managed club these past few seasons. Really, really, really bad transfers. £20m on Garay? £19m on Abdennour?! £24m on Negredo after he flopped? £25m on Rodrigo? £21m on Enzo Perez? The same club that sold Mata for £22m, Aduriz for £2m (!), Alba for £12m, Bernat for £8m over the same time period. Something... just doesn't add up.

Maybe they're happy treading water or getting worse, but to me, this sounds like the right opportunity for me to work my magic in an FM save...

[MaestroIsco]

Finished third, no UCL because of FFP :/

[the--dud]

7 hours ago, MaestroIsco said:

Finished third, no UCL because of FFP :/

I feel your pain! I won La Liga in my first season but not only did I fail FFP but the club went into administration!  I rage-quit haha

Hopefully I'll get the urge to give Valencia another shot soon enough... They're a fun club to manage I just wish they had better finances!

18 hours ago, lukekarts said:

Ahhh Valencia. My longest ever save game was with Valencia, in CM01/02. I got to around 2033 I think.

And... what a horribly managed club these past few seasons. Really, really, really bad transfers. £20m on Garay? £19m on Abdennour?! £24m on Negredo after he flopped? £25m on Rodrigo? £21m on Enzo Perez? The same club that sold Mata for £22m, Aduriz for £2m (!), Alba for £12m, Bernat for £8m over the same time period. Something... just doesn't add up.

Maybe they're happy treading water or getting worse, but to me, this sounds like the right opportunity for me to work my magic in an FM save...

In FM at least, Perez and Garay are totally amazing. Adbennour is quite good too. They overpaid though I'll admit!

But yes, if there's ever a club that is begging for some "FM magic" it has to be poor old Valencia. Check out their backroom staff once you take over, it's the funniest thing you'll see It's probably the worst staff I've ever seen! Honestly there are clubs in the Vanarama national league with better staff than Valencia CF!

 

23 hours ago, blue heron said:

Valencia seem like a very interesting club to play as. Some very good players, some technically gifted players with rather bad mental attributes, the backroom staff is cr*p and the financial situation is interesting to say the least. And you kind of are expected to qualify for the Champions League. Do they move into a new stadium in the second or third season in FM17 or have they already moved? 

Is there a difference between playing FM Touch and FM regular in these regards? Valencia was a favourite of mine in the times that Pablo Aimar, Vicente and Ayala were playing but haven't managed them in the last couple of version of FM. Might be tempted again to try and restore them to glory.

In FM17 Valencia has a very solid core which goes wonderfully in La Liga (Perez, Parejo, Diego Alves, Mangala on loan, Nani etc etc) and some amazing youngsters (Gaya, Cancelo, Bakkali, Santi Mina, etc etc). It's a great club to play as. The only problem is their dire financial situation! You don't have to promise Champions League, you can promise Europa League instead if you want.

Maybe it's a blessing but Nou Mestalla isn't included in the game. The old Mestalla is big enough in my opinion and a new stadium brings massive debt.

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4 hours ago, the--dud said:

Maybe it's a blessing but Nou Mestalla isn't included in the game. The old Mestalla is big enough in my opinion and a new stadium brings massive debt.

it is (and should already be paid for i think), you are scheduled to move into it in 2019 (though in reality its been pushed back another year to 2020), go to the Club > Facilities screen and it should say under "Planned Move"

[the--dud]

10 minutes ago, cms186 said:

it is (and should already be paid for i think), you are scheduled to move into it in 2019 (though in reality its been pushed back another year to 2020), go to the Club > Facilities screen and it should say under "Planned Move"

I see, that's my mistake then sorry. When I played Valencia I didn't see anything about a new stadium under "Board" but I didn't think to look at Facilities.

Can I also ask - in your save how much debt does the club have? In my game they ended up with two loans: £160 and £70m, at the end of season 1... At the end of the season they were placed into administration! Maybe I'm partly to blame as I was very aggressive with signing players and staff..?

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i had no problems, i did sell off a few players for cash up front and my signings involved a lot in instalments though

[blue heron]

Okay, I've started a new game with Valencia this evening. Been mostly replacing and rebuilding the backroom staff. Pre season matches are going all right (nothing too spectacular though).

 

Liverpool came in with a bid for Cancelo at around 19-23 M euros which I accepted. Also, PSG is sniffing around Fede, who only has a year left on his contract and doesn't want to renew. So far, I havent been able to find a good attacking right back and I'm not really looking forward to starting the season with only Montoya in that position. My primary target was Hugo Mallo, but ManUtd were also bidding for him, so there was only one possible outcome there. Can anybody give me a tip for this position?

 

[the--dud]

26 minutes ago, blue heron said:

Okay, I've started a new game with Valencia this evening. Been mostly replacing and rebuilding the backroom staff. Pre season matches are going all right (nothing too spectacular though).

 

Liverpool came in with a bid for Cancelo at around 19-23 M euros which I accepted. Also, PSG is sniffing around Fede, who only has a year left on his contract and doesn't want to renew. So far, I havent been able to find a good attacking right back and I'm not really looking forward to starting the season with only Montoya in that position. My primary target was Hugo Mallo, but ManUtd were also bidding for him, so there was only one possible outcome there. Can anybody give me a tip for this position?

 

I think Gaya is a bigger talent than Cancelo anyway... Gaya is a star performer for my Man City team! Try to keep him at all cost. 

Fede for me never impressed. His distribution of stats are less than ideal maybe. He doesn't stand out with brilliant crossing, pace or anything. He's very even I think. Also FM17 seems to be packed with talented brilliant wingers and inside forwards... 

 

For an attacking right back check out Jonas Svensson at Rosenborg Cheap and effective with bags of experience and potential! 

[MaestroIsco]

Okay so I missed CL because of FFP but I'm continuing. Sold Fred to Bayern for 50 mil ( bought for 12 + Rodrigo ) and also sold my top scorer Belotti to Atletico for 40 mil. Economy is good now. Ben Yedder has been incredible since Belotti left and Soler has stepped up better than Fred!

Will sum up my second season once it's done, with screenshots

[cms186]

1 hour ago, MaestroIsco said:

Okay so I missed CL because of FFP but I'm continuing. Sold Fred to Bayern for 50 mil ( bought for 12 + Rodrigo ) and also sold my top scorer Belotti to Atletico for 40 mil. Economy is good now. Ben Yedder has been incredible since Belotti left and Soler has stepped up better than Fred!

Will sum up my second season once it's done, with screenshots

Soler has the potential to be a real star for Valencia

4 hours ago, blue heron said:

Okay, I've started a new game with Valencia this evening. Been mostly replacing and rebuilding the backroom staff. Pre season matches are going all right (nothing too spectacular though).

 

Liverpool came in with a bid for Cancelo at around 19-23 M euros which I accepted. Also, PSG is sniffing around Fede, who only has a year left on his contract and doesn't want to renew. So far, I havent been able to find a good attacking right back and I'm not really looking forward to starting the season with only Montoya in that position. My primary target was Hugo Mallo, but ManUtd were also bidding for him, so there was only one possible outcome there. Can anybody give me a tip for this position?

 

i mean, if you want an attacking RB, Cancelo is perfect for that role and 23 million euros is pretty low for him too

[blue heron]

 

On 01/12/2016 at 14:08, Luna3 said:

 

Had a look at my save and he was sold for 27 (rising to 30) M euros, so it's a bit better. It was a bid around his min fee release clause, and I know Valencia needs the money given the stories in this thread. Probably won't be able to keep all my stars in the first few years, and I'd rather keep some other prospects like Gaya.

[blue heron]

Well, got around to playing some bit and so far so good. Financial situation is still precarious, but I'm hoping this will improve when the first loan has  been repaid in December. And otherwise I'll need to sell one or two players.

 

My transfers

 

La Liga table after 11 matches

[the--dud]

2 hours ago, blue heron said:

Well, got around to playing some bit and so far so good. Financial situation is still precarious, but I'm hoping this will improve when the first loan has  been repaid in December. And otherwise I'll need to sell one or two players.

 

My transfers

 

La Liga table after 11 matches

Nicely done leading the league!  I was never able to surpass Barcelona in my first season so I finished 2nd.

How is Svensson working out for you? He was brilliant for me when I played as Rosenborg and he went on to have a great career at Inter after I sold him!

[MaestroIsco]

Wow 18 mil for Cartabia!? I could barely sell him at all!

[blue heron]

7 hours ago, the--dud said:

Nicely done leading the league!  I was never able to surpass Barcelona in my first season so I finished 2nd.

How is Svensson working out for you? He was brilliant for me when I played as Rosenborg and he went on to have a great career at Inter after I sold him!

Svensson is playing about as well as Montoya. Currently 6.89 after 5(3) matches. Montoya is on 6.84 after 6(1) matches. He seems to play a bit more aggressively: Montoya is losing the ball more when trying to take an opponent on or by just standing about with the ball at his feet. Svensson is closing down opponents more and seems more willing to stick the boot in. But he's already had a direct red card.

It's about this moment in the season that my tactic familiarity is reaching accomplished, so I'm hoping the results will get better: we're conceding far too much for my liking: I've had 3-4, 3-2 and 6-3 thrillers already. This is what I'm playing mostly:

[the--dud]

6 hours ago, blue heron said:

 

It's about this moment in the season that my tactic familiarity is reaching accomplished, so I'm hoping the results will get better: we're conceding far too much for my liking: I've had 3-4, 3-2 and 6-3 thrillers already. This is what I'm playing mostly:

I can't recall, is it Parejo or Perez that's more defensive? Anyway I've found that if helps massively to have a Ball Winning Midfielder in my tactics. He closes down and regains the ball so often. Maybe try it? 

[blue heron]

1 hour ago, the--dud said:

I can't recall, is it Parejo or Perez that's more defensive? Anyway I've found that if helps massively to have a Ball Winning Midfielder in my tactics. He closes down and regains the ball so often. Maybe try it? 

Parejo is playing deeper - I like to have a deep playmaker in front of the defence. I'm thinking about pulling the AMC back into the MC strata when facing hard opponents. An aggresive ballwinner type might be a very good idea. 

 

First match after my last post I fase 15th placed Las Palmas at home and we lose 0-3: that'll learn me to brag about my progress here 

[MaestroIsco]

Second season. Ben Yedder is a god. Still, a bit gutted at not being able to give Real a proper challenge. Ah well, there's always next season!

Spoiler

 

[the--dud]

1 minute ago, MaestroIsco said:

Second season. Ben Yedder is a god. Still, a bit gutted at not being able to give Real a proper challenge. Ah well, there's always next season!

  Hide contents

 

Can I see Ben Yedder's stats? I keep hearing he's good but I've never signed him myself... What club does he play at the start?

You should download a logo pack (google "football manager 2017 logo pack"), it's so much more enjoyable playing with real logos trust me. It's quite easy to install as well  Once you've got that you might want to get a "real names" mod, as well as maybe even a "player portraits"!

18 hours ago, blue heron said:

Parejo is playing deeper - I like to have a deep playmaker in front of the defence. I'm thinking about pulling the AMC back into the MC strata when facing hard opponents. An aggresive ballwinner type might be a very good idea. 

 

First match after my last post I fase 15th placed Las Palmas at home and we lose 0-3: that'll learn me to brag about my progress here 

Don't tear yourself up about Las Palmas, they're actually a very decent team. I think they have rich owners as well now actually!

[MaestroIsco]

31 minutes ago, the--dud said:

Can I see Ben Yedder's stats? I keep hearing he's good but I've never signed him myself... What club does he play at the start?

You should download a logo pack (google "football manager 2017 logo pack"), it's so much more enjoyable playing with real logos trust me. It's quite easy to install as well  Once you've got that you might want to get a "real names" mod, as well as maybe even a "player portraits"!

Haha, I know how to get graphics mate, just too lazy  

Anyway, here's Ben Y:
 

Spoiler

 

[blue heron]

How reliable is the game at calculating the projected loss regarding Financial Fair Play? I've arrived in januari 2017 and the projected loss is around 54M euros, whilst 5M is allowed. Should I be very worried, or won't this be a problem?

[the--dud]

18 minutes ago, blue heron said:

How reliable is the game at calculating the projected loss regarding Financial Fair Play? I've arrived in januari 2017 and the projected loss is around 54M euros, whilst 5M is allowed. Should I be very worried, or won't this be a problem?

It's quite reliable but you do get a big end of season payout depending on league position. You can see how much under league rules. 

In my attempt at Valencia I managed to fail FFP but also the club went into administration at the end of season 1! Valencia has a fragile economy so you absolutely should pay attention... Go on finances and check how many loans they have

[blue heron]

2 hours ago, the--dud said:

It's quite reliable but you do get a big end of season payout depending on league position. You can see how much under league rules. 

In my attempt at Valencia I managed to fail FFP but also the club went into administration at the end of season 1! Valencia has a fragile economy so you absolutely should pay attention... Go on finances and check how many loans they have

Right, finishing in the top 4 in Spain nets about 4M euros. I knew there was far less money than in the English Premier League, but this means I'll probably need to sell 50M worth of players (and wages if someone is sold in January). I do want to play in the UCL (given I qualify) given the amount of money we'll make from it.

 

[blue heron]

Had the opportunity to play some FM again today. Had a slump in form after the new year. Have been tinkering with my formation and it's very close now going into the last 4 games of the season. Just had a very convincing 2-0 win against Real Madrid, but still have to play Barcelona and Sevilla.

 

As for the Copa del Rey: I lost in the semis against Sevilla. Projected FFP: 61.83M euros loss 

[the--dud]

13 hours ago, blue heron said:

Projected FFP: 61.83M euros loss 

I worry you'll suffer the same fate as myself, hate to say it  At the end of season 1 the club went into administration for me... Maybe try to sell some players?

How much debt do you have currently and how much in loans?

[blue heron]

I only have the default debts/loans with which Valencia start. One you pay back until December 2016. The others amount to 241M euros with 1.48M payable per month until 2029. There's nothing you can do about that. So I'll need to sell some of the higher earners (Nani, Perez) especially those who don't really perform. And there'll be some loanees coming back in July: some more assets to sell. I hope one of the very rich clubs come in for Gaya and are willing to activate his release clause. That'll probably save me. First we'll need to escape financial doom, only then can we look on how to approach the second season. It'll involve bleeding a lot of youngsters.

 

We did finish the first season last night. It was very very intense until the last whistle. Had a good run of form as I posted before, but lost 3-4 at Camp Nou (we definitely deserved a point). After that we also drew at Real Sociedad: too many defensive errors!

The last two matches were at home against Sevilla (3-2) en Granada (1-0) which (coupled with Madrid dropping points on the last day of the season) resulted in this final table: three teams level on points, but we had the best head-to-head record!

[blue heron]

Just hit 11th of June, end of FFP period. A 41M 1-year sponsorship deal and the board injecting 25M into the club to comply with financial regulations means we pass the FFP!

Still, the transfer budget is set at 0 euros, so there won't be any player buys before I can sell.

[blue heron]

So, having already sold Santos for 7-8M euros to Swansea I had Liverpool and PSG coming in for Gaya. Needing the money for rebuilding the squad, we settled for a 40.5 (rising to 45.5) M euros deal. Also, Nani was sold for 7.5M to PSG to get his incredible high wages of the bill. Given their wages I also sold Perez and Negredo.

At the end of the first season we already agreed to sign Gaston Gil Romero and Saido Berahino on free transfers. Having lost Gaya and Cancelo compared to the start, I decided from a back three to a back four system. Given the abundance of quick, dribbling forwards a 4-3-3 seems most fitting. As an extra wide player we settled for a scout favourite: Pavon, coming in for 8.5M from Boca. Also, Radu came in as new leftback for 2M from Lazio. He's not as mobile as Gaya, so he'll play more of a defensive role, making the most of his excellent mental stats.

 

[Cunego]

second season

 

[blue heron]

Another update from Valencia, halfway through the second season. First of all, I tried getting the 4-3-3 to work, but it didn't really click. This was also not helped by Berahino getting injured for a couple of months after two matches. So after about 10 matches, I switched back to a three man defence with wingbacks. This meant relying on youth product Toni Lato, and he hasn't let me down since. A great prospect who has cemented his place in my side. Another youngster knocking on the door is Soler. But he has to compete with Parejo, Ndiaye and Gil Romero for two CM places, so it's a bit tougher for him.

I solved my striker problem by sticking Klaassen on top as DF/S whilst Beharino was out. And he has been a revelation! With two quicker players around him (a.g. Pavon and Santi Mina) he's tying the whole team together. So, right now after 19 matches, we're third in the league, 2 point off Real Madrid. Overtaking either them or Barcelona will probably be too much for this season, but if we're able to finish in the UCL places and develop the youngsters a bit further, things are looking good for the third season.

 

League Table

 

 

In the Champions League we got a very hard draw, getting a group with Arsenal, Shaktar and Monaco. We tried our best, but the quality of these teams and some trouble at the start of the season with trying to get a 4-3-3 to work made for a very bitter campaign. Only thing we can do is get up, dust ourselves off and try again next year. 

UCL group stage table

 

As for transfers in the January window: David Silva was listed and within budget (about 10M euros left). However, his wage demands were unrealistically high. So we won't be bringing one of our lost sons home. We probably should look for a better left wing back, but this will stump the development of Lato. So that's another hard choice to make.

 

[blue heron]

Finally had time to finish my second season with Valencia. Results were quite good overall. Had some great results, but also some very bad ones. A streak of nice wins was interrupted with a devestating 5-1 loss at home to Malaga for example. It was due to poor form from Barcelona I managed to finish second in La Liga. Great position and something to build on next year. The final table is displayed below. Also take a look at Atletico's position!

 

La Liga Table

 

Berahino was not a prolific as I'd hoped after his return from injury. So I kept rotating between him, Klaassen and Santi. Goals were shared all over the team and I loved how Parejo and Garay chipped in with some direct free kicks! For next season I really need to score more goals, so I'd probably switch to a two-striker system (3-5-2 based instead of 3-4-3) or I'll look at a 4-2-3-1 variant, ditching one centre back for an attacking midfielder.

 

Player statistics for La Liga

[blue heron]

A great article from The Guardian about the situation at Valencia and an incentive on why to play as them!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jan/18/chaos-at-the-mestalla-valencias-journey-from-champions-league-to-utter-disarray 

[Haiku]

I started a save with Valencia and I'm trying really hard to recover my financial losses, but it's seem impossible. The club is running a projected 350M loss over the 18/19 season. I'm asking those of you who have reached further into their saves with Los Ches, does this situation improves?

[blue heron]

The situation dows improve. You do however, need to keep your transfer dealings in check and move out players on high wages who aren't performing. In my saves, this is the reason I've sold Nani, Peres et al. In my first season I made a 25M euro profit on transfers and in season 2 I made a 53M euro profit. In my third season, I had 30-40M to spend, which I did. I did need a cash injection at the end of the first season however, which my board did (you can read about it somewhere in this thread). Current wages are 1.76M euro per week, which is up from the 1.5M per week you start at (I believe).

[Haiku]

Oh I see. Thankfully I managed to sell Diego Alves for 30M Euro to Liverpool and couple of others so I made a profit of around 50M. Will give Matthew Ryan and some of the youth a chance in the FT. Hope this will solve my financial troubles temporally. 

[nfac38]

Thought I'd give this a go for my first "big" euro save. The challenge of bringing Valencia back to the top is pretty appealing.

 

Trying to get some good CM's on the cheap. Preferably Box-to-box midfielders. Any recommendations?

[blue heron]

5 hours ago, nfac38 said:

Thought I'd give this a go for my first "big" euro save. The challenge of bringing Valencia back to the top is pretty appealing.

 

Trying to get some good CM's on the cheap. Preferably Box-to-box midfielders. Any recommendations?

Papa Alioune Ndiaye has been rather good for me. Cost me 6.5M in first season, so I don't know whether this is cheap enough for you.

[nfac38]

55 minutes ago, blue heron said:

Papa Alioune Ndiaye has been rather good for me. Cost me 6.5M in first season, so I don't know whether this is cheap enough for you.

I cant find him on my save. Ended up going for Tissone (free) and Borja Sanchez (for 275k)

[blue heron]

Coming towards the end of my third season in charge. Us and Atletico were leading the pack for most of the season, but Barcelona has been in extremely good form lately. We had a comfortable position, but we just lost to Atletico and Barcelona successively, seeing us dropped to third, two points from top position. We were able to pick up Zouma and Vietto in the winter window, since they were unhappy at their clubs. This has been a major strengthening, so if we don't make it this year, I'm sure we can challenge again next year. And some youngsters are starting to get quite good also.

 

As for the cup competitions, we defeated Spurs in the knockout round, setting up an UCL quarter final with Lyon and in the Copa del Rey, wel'll play Malaga in the final. 

[Haiku]

On 1/22/2017 at 17:04, blue heron said:

Coming towards the end of my third season in charge. Us and Atletico were leading the pack for most of the season, but Barcelona has been in extremely good form lately. We had a comfortable position, but we just lost to Atletico and Barcelona successively, seeing us dropped to third, two points from top position. We were able to pick up Zouma and Vietto in the winter window, since they were unhappy at their clubs. This has been a major strengthening, so if we don't make it this year, I'm sure we can challenge again next year. And some youngsters are starting to get quite good also.

 

As for the cup competitions, we defeated Spurs in the knockout round, setting up an UCL quarter final with Lyon and in the Copa del Rey, wel'll play Malaga in the final. 

How are your finances atm?