FM17 - French Football Thread

[steakfaced]

How did you do first season? I'm struggling mightily, beat Sparta Prague and squeaked past Shakhtar on away goals to make the group.

Preseason they asked for me to reach first KO phase, and I think my group is Dortmund, Madrid, and someone else of that variety. I'm screwed and I'm really struggling. I can't get anyone playing well, and I surely can't find goals anywhere. It's taken forever and they still don't know the formation, I might just start over. This game is hard haha.

[ssrider]

6 hours ago, steakfaced said:

How did you do first season? I'm struggling mightily, beat Sparta Prague and squeaked past Shakhtar on away goals to make the group.

Preseason they asked for me to reach first KO phase, and I think my group is Dortmund, Madrid, and someone else of that variety. I'm screwed and I'm really struggling. I can't get anyone playing well, and I surely can't find goals anywhere. It's taken forever and they still don't know the formation, I might just start over. This game is hard haha.

I holidayed the first season then started wirh a new manager fir season 2.  It took my team about 6 months to get used to scoring in my tactic.  We had heavy tactical training in my first preseason and pkayed about 11 games so they coyld get knowledge of the tactic.  

[steakfaced]

12 hours ago, ssrider said:

I holidayed the first season then started wirh a new manager fir season 2.  It took my team about 6 months to get used to scoring in my tactic.  We had heavy tactical training in my first preseason and pkayed about 11 games so they coyld get knowledge of the tactic.  

I told myself to be patient and I did! We played awful against PSG and scored two CB to CB corner goals, with the CBs laying assists on from corners hehe.

 

First CL game Spurs had a player sent off and I think we scored from a penalty, and then against our rival Nice it started to click, we dominated proceedings, and went down 3-1. Mbappe came on for a late assist and it was 3-2, everyone was upset but I was so happy. Their goals came from long range efforts, and we had 3-4 clear cut and 3-4 half chances, so we're getting there.

 

Against Dortmund we are leading till a late 30 yard effort from Sven Bender (I immediately checked and his long range attribute is below ten..) gave us a point. We surprised Madrid! A penalty, and that was it in a nothing match and we're top of the group currently and third in the league after a draw with Toulouse.

 

This is getting fun, Silva has gone from awful to having some matches where he's on fire. Thomas Lemar has slotted in well, but Gil Diaz had two assists on his debut. I play a weird inverted tactic, but it should get the most of everyone soon enough. The only thing is I play two in the CM strata and I think about moving one up to the AM strata.

 

All in all, this is so much fun! I signed a few too many players, especially CBs as I didn't rate mine but I should've. We play 3 at the back so we need them. 

[steakfaced]

Woooooooow

After winning the Coupe de Ligue, and a huge unbeaten run we made it past Leverkusen in the QFs and drew Bayern. A close 1-0 away loss, which they were given two penalties and a 34th minute red card...we managed to win the return 3-0, thanks to my halftime team talk.

On the other end PSG got annihilated 6-0 in their semifinal first leg, and I ended up beating Arsenal in the final 2-1 thanks to a late own goal in a game we dominated. We wrapped up Ligue 1 as well to win an unprecedented treble, and now I find myself...a little lost tbh.

 

My goal was to get to that level and now I'm there, I will focus more on a fully home grown team now I guess. I've been buying young players for my U-19 mostly, and some free transfers for reserves, and U-19 as well hoping to make a profit one day. I have a small transfer kitty, and I'm moving Moutinho and Falcao on.

[ssrider]

11 hours ago, steakfaced said:

Woooooooow

After winning the Coupe de Ligue, and a huge unbeaten run we made it past Leverkusen in the QFs and drew Bayern. A close 1-0 away loss, which they were given two penalties and a 34th minute red card...we managed to win the return 3-0, thanks to my halftime team talk.

On the other end PSG got annihilated 6-0 in their semifinal first leg, and I ended up beating Arsenal in the final 2-1 thanks to a late own goal in a game we dominated. We wrapped up Ligue 1 as well to win an unprecedented treble, and now I find myself...a little lost tbh.

 

My goal was to get to that level and now I'm there, I will focus more on a fully home grown team now I guess. I've been buying young players for my U-19 mostly, and some free transfers for reserves, and U-19 as well hoping to make a profit one day. I have a small transfer kitty, and I'm moving Moutinho and Falcao on.

Great season you had there.  At first when I started reading your write-ups I thought you were going to quit.  Not only did you not quit, you went on to win Ligue1 and also the CL.  Congrats.  Who have been your stars and underachievers?  Did you have any transfers in?  I sold Falcao in season 2 to Tottenham for $19.5M and Moutinho in season 3 for $11M.  How did you fare against PSG?

I was going into my save like you were.  Wanting to try and dethrone PSG...I didn't think it would be that easy, especially as the rest of the league is not to competitive.  

[ssrider]

Monaco 2019-2020

I have just completed my 3rd season with Monaco although its the 4th season in game.  We finished the season as back-to-back-to-back Ligue1 Champions.  We finished with a 32-3-3 record with us scoring 96 goals while only giving up 19 goals.  We ended up winning the league with 6-7 games to spare as it wasn't really a contest at all.  We also finally beat PSG for the first time ever in about 12 matches, albeit it was the 2nd to last game of the season.  God they spend ridiculous amounts of money every year and have nothing to show for except winning the French Cup most every year.  In the other competitions we lost in the QF of the French Cup to Caen as almost my entire first team and U19 team were on international duty.  We lost in the QF to FC Metz on penalties with a team comprised of U19 players.  Keeping up with the trend, we lost in the QF of the CL to Barcelona 1-1(away goals) to stop our run of 3 CL Finals in a row.  As we are still trying to keep up with the current trends still...Thomas Lemar suffered an injury in the 1st leg vs. Barcelona and was ruled out for 2 months, just like last season.

We moved into our new Dellio Onnis Stadium and filled it up 81% of the time.  Next season the board are adding more seats and hopefully we get more money from sponsors and season tickets.  As something I'm always trying to improve, we improved on our merchandise by $4M from the previous year that brought us in $21M.  In my first season I took over, the team made something awful like $2M in merchandise.  I'm not sure if it had anything to do with us doing a USA and Japan preseason tour and then an Aussie Tour during the winter break. 

 

Early 2020 season news and notes to follow ASAP

 

[ssrider]

Monaco 2020-2021 early season news and notes

Going into this season I knew I had to start moving some good players in order to start facilitating my good deserving cheap youth players.  With a couple key players constantly complaining about wanting to leave, I started offering them out to the highest bidder, no matter which league and/or team it was.  

OUTS- Juanpi(Real Madrid $58M, he lasted 1 season and wasn't bad, but not great...he was really only brought in to replace Lemar who was put for over 9 months.) Djibril Sidibie($42M to PSG), Jorrit Hendrix($39M to PSG), Benjamin Mendy($37.5 to Liverpool), Domenico Berardi ($33.5M to Roma.) We had a couple smaller transfers out and we made a killing. 

Besides the usual prospects being brought in, we bought Adrien Rabiot for $14.5M because I didn't realize I didn't have a DLP replacement for Nzonzi.  I like to have 2 players per position in my first team with a few great U19 waiting for their cup matches.  I loaned out our former stud GK Subasic because he only has 1 year left and I have 2 other goalies in front of him. My first choice is an 19 yo Spanish wonderkid regen who has been with me since I signed him from my first intake.  He has played for Udinese and Valencia as first choice GK, I think he is ready and will be a star.  I was thinking about letting him go on loan for a few more years and flourish, mainly because I had agreed to terms with Donarumma, but I canceled the transfer as I didn't want to spend the $65M when I had a great GK waiting.

We moved into a separate stadium(Alianz Riviera 37,168) while construction is going on at our new stadium that will hold almost 41,000.  Our Bank balance is showing a nice $280M with $266M available for transfers(never gonna happen).  We have a wage budget of $4.42M p/w  with us only spending $2.39M p/w.  Through the first 2 months we have made almost $6M in merchandise, which is crazy to think how much we will make at the end of the year. We did get 2 big 1 year sponsors with 1 being worth $19M and the other about $21M. 

As for the matches themselves, we did another preseason tour of USA and Japan and won the Trophee des Champions against rivals Nice 3-0.  We are tied for first in Ligue1 with Montpellier at 12 points each through our first 4 games.  We have been drawn into our CL group with Man Utd, Olympiakos, and FCSB of Romania.

 

As always I have to post about sorry PSG and their money.  The day after they signed Sidibe from me they signed Dutch RB Giovanni Troupee for $80M.  Besides Troupee and my 2 players, they also bought Umtiti and O.Dembele.  So far since I have started this save, PSG have spent $980M(almost a billion dollars and have won nothing but a few French Cups) and have brought in $366M in player sales.  I did reject a bid of $100M for Mbappe from them this season because I know I can get a lot more later on.

[Jellico73]

For those interested I just finished my 19th season as the head coach of USL Dunkerque.

From the depths of the CFN, to the top of Ligue 1, back to back Champions League winners, it's been a fun time.  

You can check the story out so far here:

 

[steakfaced]

9 hours ago, ssrider said:

Great season you had there.  At first when I started reading your write-ups I thought you were going to quit.  Not only did you not quit, you went on to win Ligue1 and also the CL.  Congrats.  Who have been your stars and underachievers?  Did you have any transfers in?  I sold Falcao in season 2 to Tottenham for $19.5M and Moutinho in season 3 for $11M.  How did you fare against PSG?

I was going into my save like you were.  Wanting to try and dethrone PSG...I didn't think it would be that easy, especially as the rest of the league is not to competitive.  

Hehe, was close to starting over but not quitting. Falcao went out for around 11m with add ons that won't be reached, and Moutinho was unhappy with me...he was out 3 months during the season, and never got back into great form and was upset I kept not playing him in the XI.

 

At first I couldn't get Silva to tick, but I changed formations. 100 times better at AMC than at MC. Lemar was a star, and Dias was recalled and had the most assists in the season. My forwards let me down, and Falcao is out and MBappe had a great loan to Betis and will play there this season, I might bring in balotelli as well.

 

I'm too into micromanaging and the last two days have been spent trying to get good fees or high % wage loans. Then I realized you can only loan so many players to French teams so I had to cancel some. Our reserves team is in the lower leagues so players I can't move on will be parked there. 

 

Mendy did well after a formation change, and Jorge did well on loan after complaining about playing time. I brought in two young LBs for cheap fees, and one 24 year old with driven personality. I see Vinagre as a potential LB if I'm forced to sell Mendy, also brought a German lad on a free, and a very versatile player from Ajax who's going out on loan. He was perfect as LWB IWB, but I've since changed the formation.

 

I'm trying to French-ify the squad too, and do the HG thing so players aren't loaned out till they gain home grown status. We'll see, the next 3-4 years will be fun, I want to have the most players from my academy playing in top leagues, love that that's a statistic in the game. I asked for another feeder club and was denied!! A new stadium is coming as well.

 

Edit: As for against PSG, we beat them the first league match when we looked awful, and I think the second result was a draw. We dominated them in the French Cup...and lost. I knew it was coming, we had given up 3 goals in 14 and were I think around 18 unbeaten too.

 

Uploading the result right after the PSG game as well, the old me would've saved and reloaded but I'm trying to be better about things

[steakfaced]

Well its been fun, Bernardo, but I can't say no to this bid. Bongiovanni has been excellent for U-19 and seems ready to make the step up, with Shinji coming for free in the summer just in case (plus to boost that Japanese profile!) I had been touring there last two years as well.

 

Besides the fact that my 2-3 AMC formation means I sit one of Dias (European Golden Boy, Ligue 1 Foreign player of the year), and Lemar.... (award in screenshot) I will gladly take that money and any further money. Cesc had been tapping him up as well.

The second season has gone excellent, we just won the CWC as well, they love me here. I'm mostly buying youth players and slowly putting in place my conveyor belt system. I love Mendy, but Jorge always complains for playing time and when I give it to him...he excels!!

I bought De Ligt and loaned him straight away to las palmas, they pay all his wages and pay me 1m per year; he's averaging over 7 per match! United want Klik and I'm hesitant because he is an excellent tutor. I've been expecting a huge Fabinho bid as City have been tapping him up for two years but they've never sent one. I have a replacement in this Turkish btb mid, I forgot his name..Ozan something? And Diousse as well, who has been disappointing but his driven personality wants me to keep him. 

 

No one is after Bakayoko and I have Jeandro Fuchs ready to step in if a surprise bid comes. Sidibe has been flattered by Barca interest and I agreed to let him go if the bid comes, and have benched him for Toure and signed a few young RB prospects to see who can show up there.

 

It's also January, so the big Silva bid is weird at this point but we won our group easily in the CL and have Spurs (who were in our group last season) in the next round. Mbappe hasn't been amazing, but my formation calls for DLF ST and he does decent at times, implementing him slowly. I'm trying to sign mostly French players, and youth players, and my reserves and u-19 teams have a combined two losses. Can the reserves team get promoted?

[steakfaced]

Wow this thread is dead haha!

 

Short recap; I stormed to the CL second season even without Bernardo Silva, but was forced to sell Fabinho to United, after they've already bought Glik from me who's transfer reached 51m thanks to them reaching all the add ons which brings me to third season;

We finally won the French Cup for the first season! Took all that time, and I believe we swept all before us before a rematch in the CL semis with United (we won 2-1, 4-0 last season). They were too much, and we were very unlucky and their united side with former Monaco players Glik, Fabinho, Martial all in their starting XI won the CL. That netted me a cool 7 million for Martial (good timing, they sold him to Real Madrid just after for almost 100m) and a few more mil from Glik.

 

The following season Mendy wanted out (after Sidibe left as well for Bayern....and then the next season to United), he went to City. I lined up Digne as his backup...and he went to City too. I'm trying to go French because after a dismal showing, I took over for the next Euro campaign. I've also bought Lenglet, Kimbempe, et al. I'm trying to go on memory here but I've had far too much coffee currently hahaha.

Martial is becoming a stud but Lemar looks like the best player in the world. He's got about 11 and 11 in 18 games or so. He leads me in nearly every statistic, and after an amazing loan to Villarreal, Bongiovanni is nearing his potential as well. We play a fun 3 at the back and this year I've made a conscious effort to just stick with the same 11 as much as possible. Some players are unhappy, and I find it very difficult to unload some of the lesser players, even with interest. I've added a few more leagues and have my eyes set on moving to England in a few years as I think the system is nicer for youth teams. In France you can only loan 6-7 players to fellow French clubs, and I like to have a huge team and try to get my feeder teams well off as well.

 

Our regular XI looks like this

Lafont

Jedvaj Jemerson Bimpempe

Traore Gil Dias/Lenglet

Bakayoko Fuchs

Lemar Ceballos

Mbappe

 

I managed to bring in some Driven tutors and I usually give them low wages and huge appearance fees and just stick them in the reserves.

[Jellico73]

I'll be wrapping up my USL Dunkerque career shortly.  Couple of more games left, then end of season writeup.  I do plan on simming the next twenty or so years just to see if the computer can keep the team at the rarefied heights I've been able to take them.

Jellico73

 

[steakfaced]

Won everything again, Lemar wants to leave as does mbappe, besides them only Bakoyoko and Traore remain from the original team, oh and Germain as backup. Its too easy in France, I went all season with 1 loss (PSG...) and won every cup and beat Madrid again in the CL. We've won the CL 3 of my 4 seasons and I've resigned, and will probably resign from France after the euros. The insecure jobs currently include Tottenham, Juve, Milan, Manchester United and Arsenal so lets see what opens up next..

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Any good African players that would be good to sign for Lyon with latest player database update, I have all African players loaded.