FM 2018 - Spanish La Liga

[zlatanera]

So we got our first trophy since 1987 in the most Atletico way possible! I would say this match is the first time I've really appreciated the Defensive Forward role - Diego Costa was harassing my centre backs all game long to hamper our attempts to play out from the back, and they got my highest ratings as they both just about managed to cope with him, taking it in turns to mop up each other's messes. That shot count is slightly misleading - Atletico had a lot of long range pot-shots, they only got 6 of those 27 on target. Us, meanwhile? 1 out of 2. Pretty much the only time the final ball didn't kill a counter (Januzaj, in particular, has been awful since he got unsettled in January, even if he says he's fine now. HIs value declined £5m in 3 months due to poor form), we won a free kick wide on the right, in the 121st minute. Canales played the free kick towards the penalty spot, Inigo Martinez drew Vitolo into messing up his interception and Juami placed a half-volley in at the near post. 

A positive end to a pretty terrible run:

The Real Madrid result, and the 1-1 with Leipzig, were both weakened teams, resting for the final and accepting we were unlikely to overcome a 3-0 deficit with a big game coming up, respectively, but it was still not looking good and we've gone from challenging Atletico for the title to being below Real Madrid on head-to-head and thus looking towards Europa football yet again next season. 

Atletico had their revenge on us pre-emptively in the 36th minute - Willian Jose, of 16 goals and 9 assists, will not play again this season.

[FMbeginner]

Started a new career mode with Malaga and just finished the summer transfer window. As a club who have only every won La Liga 123 twice as well as two lower division cups, they are great club to build up a legacy with and become the first manager to win some major silverware. They have no outstanding loans to pay off, and a decent squad to work with, as well as some decent youngsters including Kuki, Ontiveros and Robles.

There is a big first team squad, with a lot of loaned players. I've terminated a few loan contracts and loaned a few fringe players to bring the squad down to a more manageable size. Transfer budgets were disabled, but i have loaned in Patrick Cutrone and got Zeca in on a free. I'm going to use 4-3-3 DM as my standard formation, with the ever reliable 4-4-2 as my back up.

I've won my first two games against Leganes and Deportivo... next up are Barcelona!

[zlatanera]

So I've won the league on head-to-head! We beat Real 3-0 at home and lost 1-0 away, whilst also beating Barcelona home (3-0) and away (3-1). We were extremely unfortunate to lose to Real in the Copa as well, 1-2 on aggregate. After my 8th place last season (which was worse than it sounds, an awful 2nd half of the season) I decided to double down on my possession football style, and made some smart investments to take advantage of the lack of European commitments. Our top scorer was Willian Jose with 12 goals, this was truly a team effort. 

This is probably the first time I've seen two Basque clubs make top four in a save, and at Christmas it was actually a Sociedad-Athletic one-two, before we beat them which allowed Real to overtake them. 

This being in spite of the lowest net spend in the league (£28.63m profit), 8th largest salary (£39.04m, compared to the likes of Madrid on £249m), and with Asier Illaramendi remaining our top transfer of all time - after Jesus Vallejo for £11.5m in four installments, my next biggest transfer is Gabriel Rojas for £5.25m. 15 of my squad were there at the start of the save as well.

Going forward, we missed out on Arthur (Manchester United offered £180k/week) but I have Wendel coming in from Fluminense to strengthen the midfield as I'm definitely parting with David Zurutuza (who only got a league winners' medal because I kept subbing him on until he got 10 apps) and Imanol Agirretxe - he performs well and really fits our style with his 16 passing, but he's got the red arrows going down vertically on many attributes so he's clearly over the hill.

One regret of the save so far is that Xabi Prieto wouldn't join the coaching staff - can't get him or Claudio Bravo as we can only offer u19s coaches £1.1k per week. I was close to quitting in the 2nd season (as I often do) but I think I'm in this one for the long haul - going to make them into the Barcelona of the Basques to contrast with the giants in Bilbao (who actually had the 2nd most possession this season as Paco Jemez is managing them, but have generally managed to beat me through aerial dominance). I have to hope the board pull their finger out with sponsorship though, we're projected to lose £25m a season the next three years, despite our top earner being the incoming Wendel on £70k/week. 

[craiigman]

Are there any major differences in La Liga compared to The Prem that I should be aware of before starting a save? Want to go with Espanyol. I guess less money in the league in general, anything else?

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, craiigman said:

Are there any major differences in La Liga compared to The Prem that I should be aware of before starting a save? Want to go with Espanyol. I guess less money in the league in general, anything else?

The league sorts by head-to-head first, rather than goal difference - hence my winning the league with worse goal difference than Real Madrid. Also, be prepared for a terrible January schedule - the Copa Del Rey is two legged all the way, so if you progress you can play 2 games a week for the entirety of January and the first two weeks of February. You do get a winter break though.

Final thing - release clauses are legally required in Spain, so watch out for them. I've taken to trusting my DoF to do contracts as players' demands could become unreasonable if I tried to put them too high.

[zlatanera]

2020/21 season completed!

I tired of Willian Jose getting unsettled every time anyone bid for him and decided to go strikerless after offloading him to West Ham for £15m. Zurutuza and Agirretxe left, whilst I brought in Carles Alena as a depth option, Wendel's pre-arranged transfer came through and I decided to break our transfer record and splurge £19m on Mikel Merino after he'd excelled the past 18 months - one of the poorest sales Newcastle will ever make. My first choice lineup was like this:

We kicked things off with the Supercopa de Espana against Barcelona! Whilst on our day we're perfectly capable of beating them (and had done the double over them in the league last season) I was not confident over the space of two games in a week, particularly once Wendel and Oyarzabal started out injured. Unbeknownst to me, Carles Alena had a point to prove:

Things just got better from there, and by the winter break we had topped our CL group 5 points ahead of Spurs, and were top of the table having only lost three times in the league! 

January, as usual in Spain, was crazy as we got over back-to-back losses to Madrid and Barcelona by winning cup ties against Gijon (4-1), Betis (3-2) and Barcelona (5-1 again, this time beating them 5-0 at home and losing 1-0 away). I went into my CL tie with Dortmund in good spirits and felt confident we could get through after a 3-2 away loss until disaster struck - we lost our 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice left backs (the latter being 2nd choice right back) for a month covering the 2nd leg. A 1-0 home loss put us out of Europe despite dominating both legs - playing a high line against Aubameyang truly is suicide, but I felt I had to stick to my guns given how I've trained my players' PPMs specifically for our playing style.

In the league we handed Luis Enrique the title on a platter in his first season back at the helm of Barcelona, the numbers do not make for good reading:

1st half of the stage P19 W14 D2 L3 F51 A18 Pts 44

2nd half of the stage P19 W9 D3 L7 F25 A20 Pts 30

7 points away from home in 2021 is truly dreadful, reminiscent of Arsene Wenger before he announced his retirement. Other than getting better attackers to finish our many chances created (missing out on Rodrygo to Dortmund in January hurt more than I knew at the time), I'm not sure what could be done - injuries happen, after all.

One bright spot though - we won the Copa del Rey again! 

At lot more even than our effort in 2017/18 (shots Atletico 27 Real Sociedad 1, score 0-1 to Real Sociedad) but I have now won half of all the Copa in Sociedad history, and 2/3 won since the First World War. To be perfectly honest I feel hard done by being listed only as "favoured personnel" given the sparsity of the team's trophy cabinet (I've won 1/3 La Liga, 2/4 Copa Del Rey, 1/2 Supercopa de Espana and no Segunda because we haven't been relegated). 

Mikel Oyarzabal excelled in the "Messi role" in the formation (SS) with 22 goals, playing himself into the Spain squad, Juanmi scored 19 and assisted 20, Odriozola and Lo Celso both made their international debuts and I've begun blooding my first newgen Eneko Llorente (2 goals and 1 assist from 6 appearances, after recovering from a 3 month injury where the medical department informed me he may never reach his potential) so the future is bright in San Sebastian!

[PJ Bluenose 4 Ever]

I’m interested in starting a Real Betis game but concerned about the lack of money available? 

Is this the case? Do you receive low transfer budgets even if you have successful season? 

[s0ni42]

Is there a good guide out there for managing your reserve squads out there?

[laporte4]

Funny seeing all of the betis shouts because that was what actually brought me here, there kit and badge always catch the eye when scrolling through the teams a bit like palermo, and the fan support thing is spot on one first things I always look for is season ticket holders and in that regard betis are a Newcastle, plus there is something slightly tragic about them, always in sevilla shadow and they will always be the that team who spent millions on biggest flop of all time denilson.    BIlboa are great fun and it's the most rewarding and it's like Pokemon but there are only a few you can get but not impossible and if you do you can win champ league, I have never had a buzz like it when javi martinez finally allowed negotiations and after a bit of fiddling with bonuses and extras etc finally signed on dotted line, same with llorente and herrera and your squad just immediately feels 10 times stronger, also little tidbit griezman qualifies to play because of real socio dad 

[laporte4]

Another quick thing for player who like challenge, there are a couple of teams in the 3rd division with huge number of supporters and expectation mini fallen giants, racing santander and Mallorca, I remember when etoo played for them and could be fun to manage an island team, 15,000 season ticket holders in div 3 is mad though thats like Portsmouth 

[zlatanera]

Unity!

[john1]

1 hour ago, zlatanera said:

Unity!

Fantastic  

[zlatanera]

2 hours ago, john1 said:

Fantastic  

Its gets better...

£69m of players on a free! 2 of them over 190cm as well, should help me improve my record against those giants in Bilbao (W2 D1 L5, mostly headers conceded)

[Rémy Leroux]

It was fruitful season. Won all competitions. 3 loses, 3 draws. Cristiano scored 82 in all official competitions. We broke a lot of records (points, goals). What will happen when he retire...

 

[Ninza]

10 hours ago, Rémy Leroux said:

It was fruitful season. Won all competitions. 3 loses, 3 draws. Cristiano scored 82 in all official competitions. We broke a lot of records (points, goals). What will happen when he retire...

 

tactic?

[Rémy Leroux]

I am using 3 tarcics of Knap. WOF, PILGRIMAGE And ARGUS, dependent on circumstances and games. It is  523 with fullbacks. BWM and BBM or BBM and Mezalla in midfield. I sold now Kroos, Modric, Kovacic, Ceballos so will play in midfield with Casemiro, Milinkovic-Savic, Renato Sanches, Arthur and Llorente. Also sold Benzema And considering selling Bale. He was genuis but All the time injured. Vazquez is my record - he was backup for Carvajal so I am happy to ship him out and Achraf will get his chance and if he will do fine I hope someone will buy him at the end of next season for similar price  I have also high hopes to play with Martin Ødegaard and if he will play good and will increase his value - he will seek oportunities outside the Real Madrid structures

 

Also I shipped Keylor to Man Utd and we have new keeper:

[Rémy Leroux]

This is illegal.

[steakfaced]

9 hours ago, Rémy Leroux said:

This is illegal.

tbh just the result of the match engine exposing tactic.

[zlatanera]

Well, that's my Europa League campaign ruined! 14 points off Barcelona so I was trying to retain the Copa and win Real Sociedad's first non-domestic trophy (and my FM15 save ended after winning the CL in the 119th minute, so I thought it'd be nice to sign off this one with a Europa win given Europa now seems about as hard as CL on FM15). I couldn't get them to pay it in instalments either, so massive tax bill will be heading our way at the end of the season. 

As you can see, he's amazing, so I think he'll get games and not be rocking back up in a couple of years like Illarra did when going to Madrid. To make matters worse, I sold 2nd choice RB Hugo Mallo in summer as I figured David Carmona would be ok for a rarely-used backup (that high natural fitness and stamina meaning Odriozola doesn't need rotated much), my academy hasn't really produced any defenders with good potential, and the No. 1 choice of players I can actually get, Pol Lirola, will be cup-tied if he comes. I can either have a £112m transfer budget or offer £170k wages to someone, yet I'm reluctant to overpay for an ageing player or a release clause so my options are basically Lirola, bringing back Joseba Zaldua (who's currently at Athletic so even if he's our academy product it'll probably **** off the fans) or recalling the vastly inferior to him Alex Ujia.

[zlatanera]

I've slowly started to realise how ridiculous that Odriozola sale was...as well as wondering if I had taken control of contracts away from my DoF if I would have been able to retain him by offering him the earth. But still, it was the record sale ever by a Spanish club in-game (beating out Isco going for £96m to Manchester United), as well as obviously my record sale. My replacement, Pol Lirola, at a fee rising to £26m (negotiated by DoF Loren) is my club record transfer (only him and Mikel Merino have cost more than the real life transfer of Asier Illarramendi back from Real Madrid). 

Odriozola's fee would go in at No. 3 on this list of the most expensive transfers of all time (note that if that's correct FM overvalues Mbappe's fee by £40m, perhaps an error with the different currencies as its €160m not £160m). In-game, only Mauro Icard (£113m from Inter to Real Madrid), and Kylian Mbappe (£163m from PSG to Man City, amazingly they actually made a profit!) exceed the fee, and they're both attackers - Odriozola is a full back with 3 Flair - and there have only been five transfers for a value of £100m+ in the entire save, currently on 6th February 2022. One of those, Harry Kane to Bayern, is still at £68m after 18 months so he may end up moved before Manchester United see it rise to £100m. 

Also, on a more bizarre note...

Yunus Malli of all people went to China for near enough Ronaldo money. I really don't understand.

[steakfaced]

I hope pol Lirola does a job for you, had him play well for me at RWB in a Barca 17 save. Good luck!

[zlatanera]

2021/22 Season

A weird one emotionally, this one. We finished trophyless, arguably regressing in Europe (finished 3rd in our CL group behind Bayern and a poor OL team who nevertheless beat me at home, then were profligate against Milan to exit Europa at the 2nd knockout stage) whilst being unlucky in the cups - losing on away goals in the Supercopa to Barcelona, then drawing them in the Copa semi-finals and being profligate again, before they then lost the final to Espanyol of all people. 

In the league, this was the first time in my save three teams had hit 80 points and Real Madrid's best finish since I beat them on head-to-head two seasons earlier. I expected Barcelona to win it as they led from match four, especially when I put 4 past Madrid with only four games remaining, yet they snuck in in the last week to win it. Although we had the best defensive record and goal difference, as well as our 2nd best points total (behind my sole title-winning season so far) we ended up third and in truth never looked like having a shot at the title. Weirdly we actually had a better 2nd half of the season than the 1st half.

One positive is that whilst I haven't managed to set up a period of dominance, we've had four different winners in four seasons - very closely mimicking the 97-02 period (Barcelona, Barcelona, Deportivo, Real Madrid, Valencia). 

If I were trying to set up the club for a period of dominance, I'd probably start to phase out my ageing stars Illarramendi (32), Inigo Martinez (30) and Geronimo Rulli (30) over the next couple of seasons. But instead I'm going to go in a different direction and try to have an all-Spanish squad (Despite my Odriozola-boosted transfer budget, I'll not be able to compete with Athletic for Basques, although I'll try to snap up any they don't). I'm going to switch to a 442 as well, as this possession-based tactic (below) seems to tend towards profligacy (we hit the post over 50 times last season) whereas I think two strikers will be even more effective at getting chances close in. Also, I've had quite a few out-and-out wingers come through the youth ranks whom I'd like to take advantage of - although the Best Eleven message declared a "Golden Generation" with Elustondo, Odriozola, Oyarzabal and Bautista, the fact is I gave none of them their debuts. 

A couple more things...

I finally got the option to plan a pre-season training camp! First time in four versions of FM!

Only the 3rd time I've ever had a new stadium in the planning stages. Previously at Tromsø the council vetoed it just before ground was broken, and I just didn't get far enough into my River Plate save for them to replace the crumbling Estadio Monumental. However, I'm not really sure this one is worth it as we only sell out the derby, the occasional big game against Barca or Real, and bigger European games. Although we do seem to be better at adding sponsors (still only a couple over £1m per season) so perhaps I'll be ok. 

[john1]

 

1 hour ago, zlatanera said:

2021/22 Season

A weird one emotionally, this one. We finished trophyless, arguably regressing in Europe (finished 3rd in our CL group behind Bayern and a poor OL team who nevertheless beat me at home, then were profligate against Milan to exit Europa at the 2nd knockout stage) whilst being unlucky in the cups - losing on away goals in the Supercopa to Barcelona, then drawing them in the Copa semi-finals and being profligate again, before they then lost the final to Espanyol of all people. 

In the league, this was the first time in my save three teams had hit 80 points and Real Madrid's best finish since I beat them on head-to-head two seasons earlier. I expected Barcelona to win it as they led from match four, especially when I put 4 past Madrid with only four games remaining, yet they snuck in in the last week to win it. Although we had the best defensive record and goal difference, as well as our 2nd best points total (behind my sole title-winning season so far) we ended up third and in truth never looked like having a shot at the title. Weirdly we actually had a better 2nd half of the season than the 1st half.

One positive is that whilst I haven't managed to set up a period of dominance, we've had four different winners in four seasons - very closely mimicking the 97-02 period (Barcelona, Barcelona, Deportivo, Real Madrid, Valencia). 

If I were trying to set up the club for a period of dominance, I'd probably start to phase out my ageing stars Illarramendi (32), Inigo Martinez (30) and Geronimo Rulli (30) over the next couple of seasons. But instead I'm going to go in a different direction and try to have an all-Spanish squad (Despite my Odriozola-boosted transfer budget, I'll not be able to compete with Athletic for Basques, although I'll try to snap up any they don't). I'm going to switch to a 442 as well, as this possession-based tactic (below) seems to tend towards profligacy (we hit the post over 50 times last season) whereas I think two strikers will be even more effective at getting chances close in. Also, I've had quite a few out-and-out wingers come through the youth ranks whom I'd like to take advantage of - although the Best Eleven message declared a "Golden Generation" with Elustondo, Odriozola, Oyarzabal and Bautista, the fact is I gave none of them their debuts. 

A couple more things...

I finally got the option to plan a pre-season training camp! First time in four versions of FM!

Only the 3rd time I've ever had a new stadium in the planning stages. Previously at Tromsø the council vetoed it just before ground was broken, and I just didn't get far enough into my River Plate save for them to replace the crumbling Estadio Monumental. However, I'm not really sure this one is worth it as we only sell out the derby, the occasional big game against Barca or Real, and bigger European games. Although we do seem to be better at adding sponsors (still only a couple over £1m per season) so perhaps I'll be ok. 

So unlucky  And how the hell did Espanyol win in the final   I am sure you will do better next season  What is the club finances like?

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, john1 said:

So unlucky  And how the hell did Espanyol win in the final   I am sure you will do better next season  What is the club finances like?

Yeah the weird thing is I kept conceding late goals (particularly early on in the season, when 3 or 4 were penalties as well, Bayern were ridiculously lucky to beat me 1-0 with a penalty) despite the fact that my defenders (Odriozola, Vallejo, Inigo Martinez, Gabriel Rojas, Elustondo, Cucurella) and the main culprit (Illarramendi) all had good concentration stats, and my team always had much better fitness than the opposition due to AI's terrible rotation policies. In the league I'm not sure I can do any better realistically, this isn't France where you can build up dominance over everyone bar PSG then get lucky against them, there's a lot of good sides out there. In Europe I think morale played a part, I was playing more in-form teams even if their players aren't any better than similar Spanish teams.

Where I last saved, my DoF is in negotiations with Arsenal for Kepa and whenever I continue it he always offers too low wages and he doesn't sign, which kinda screwed up the all-Spanish plan. As did the fact that I couldn't even get people to activate the £35.5m release clause for Wendel who is a Brazilian international, in form, and valued at £28m - the sort of deal I as a manager would snap their hands off for. We have a £140m balance, projected to fall to £82m by the end of 2023/24 season but I'd be removing some high earners (Wendel on £91,000 yet due to injury and a change of tactic only made 12 starts, for example) and we'll get more sponsorship so that would be expected to fall less drastically, although the stadium would probably load us with some debt.

As to Espanyol's final win? I'm not really sure. Part of it would be the scorer was this guy:

Who as the name might suggest, is Basque and would therefore be a target should I follow through on removing the foreigners (Barcelona clubs seem to produce a few Basques, Athletic's best player is a striker snapped up from Barca for £12m). Its really shocking they made it that far though, Mauricio Pochettino came back in early 2018 but was sacked in Jan this season as they were on to be relegated. I looked at the stats and it looked a pretty even, not especially great game. It is a derby I suppose. Not like my smash-and-grab at the top of page 3 of this thread anyway! 

[john1]

@zlatanera Crazy  How much are you spending on wages?

I tend to notice that DOF, tends to offer low wages but higher bonuses but yet player reject due to personal terms, then ends up signing for other club!   

[zlatanera]

@john1 I don't have the game open right now but I believe it was towards the high end of £1.4m, possibly just straying over £1.5m when all my loanees return and I have to start paying them again.

Mine loves to put in a 5% wage rise, but also tends to generally get high enough release clauses - when they're low its because I increased the player's value greatly. For example:

Giovani Lo Celse - £3m signing, £14.75m release clause, £32m value after 3 seasons with me.

Borja Mayoral - free transfer, £25m release clause, £10m value after 1 season (spent 18 months on loan before signing)

Wendel - £5m transfer, £35.5m release clause, £28m value after 2 seasons (hasn't dropped despite a reduction in squad status, a large injury and generally not quite as great form, although he was great when starting I think its mainly stayed high as he's averaging at least 1 app every international break). 

Whereas Odriozola had £112m because he was one of our best players when it was renewed. Got lucky with him compared to you, he was still on that clause Madrid paid IRL when we won the league in the 3rd season.

Luckily with Kepa there are no other competitors, but his agent isn't a fan and there are no other good Spanish goalkeepers out there bar De Gea and a Barca regen with a £50mil release. Shows how much I've boosted Sociedad though that Kepa has been Arsenal's first choice for two seasons yet is still interested. 

[john1]

17 hours ago, zlatanera said:

@john1 I don't have the game open right now but I believe it was towards the high end of £1.4m, possibly just straying over £1.5m when all my loanees return and I have to start paying them again.

Mine loves to put in a 5% wage rise, but also tends to generally get high enough release clauses - when they're low its because I increased the player's value greatly. For example:

Giovani Lo Celse - £3m signing, £14.75m release clause, £32m value after 3 seasons with me.

Borja Mayoral - free transfer, £25m release clause, £10m value after 1 season (spent 18 months on loan before signing)

Wendel - £5m transfer, £35.5m release clause, £28m value after 2 seasons (hasn't dropped despite a reduction in squad status, a large injury and generally not quite as great form, although he was great when starting I think its mainly stayed high as he's averaging at least 1 app every international break). 

Whereas Odriozola had £112m because he was one of our best players when it was renewed. Got lucky with him compared to you, he was still on that clause Madrid paid IRL when we won the league in the 3rd season.

Luckily with Kepa there are no other competitors, but his agent isn't a fan and there are no other good Spanish goalkeepers out there bar De Gea and a Barca regen with a £50mil release. Shows how much I've boosted Sociedad though that Kepa has been Arsenal's first choice for two seasons yet is still interested. 

I always remove % on wages rise as I think it would ruin the wages budget every year 

Some good rise on your players values   On my Lyon save, Aouar, went from 3m to 35M in 2 seasons. Cornet from 8M to 38M

[zlatanera]

17 minutes ago, john1 said:

I always remove % on wages rise as I think it would ruin the wages budget every year 

Some good rise on your players values   On my Lyon save, Aouar, went from 3m to 35M in 2 seasons. Cornet from 8M to 38M

Yeah I decided pretty early on to let my DoF do all contracts - he decides when to do players, and negotiates all new signings, and I tell him to do staff ones (he sorts the B team, and the C team is empty). It was because when Carlos Vela's £4.9m transfer went through in January I didn't get any money so had to beg the board to activate Joaquin Torres' £4.4m release clause, I liked the deal he got on the contract and figured it would be a way of speeding up the save. It was! 

Aouar is brilliant, not got Cornet firing since FM16 though - I guess because the tactics I've used never really gave him an option as more than 6th choice striker. 

Thinking I'm going to move onto a Serie A save - either Roma with Monchi having full control over everything, or Inter with a deliberate non-domestic bias (only getting the minimum 4 club HG 4 nation HG) as I generally micromanage the hell out of teams and go very domestically biased.

 

[john1]

5 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Yeah I decided pretty early on to let my DoF do all contracts - he decides when to do players, and negotiates all new signings, and I tell him to do staff ones (he sorts the B team, and the C team is empty). It was because when Carlos Vela's £4.9m transfer went through in January I didn't get any money so had to beg the board to activate Joaquin Torres' £4.4m release clause, I liked the deal he got on the contract and figured it would be a way of speeding up the save. It was! 

Aouar is brilliant, not got Cornet firing since FM16 though - I guess because the tactics I've used never really gave him an option as more than 6th choice striker. 

Thinking I'm going to move onto a Serie A save - either Roma with Monchi having full control over everything, or Inter with a deliberate non-domestic bias (only getting the minimum 4 club HG 4 nation HG) as I generally micromanage the hell out of teams and go very domestically biased.

 

I don't normally leave transfers to DOF, but I let HOYD, do signings on young players, basing on their JPA and JPP rating.

Would be interesting to see which club you pick

[RandomGuy.]

Been keeping an eye on them in the multiple saves I've failed to get into, and they've never won the league any time. They generally end up outside the top two.

Don't usually enjoy managing "super clubs", but I've started a save with Barca. Intentions are to revitalise La Masia and move away from big money signings. I'll try and implement a high tempo pressing game with full backs being key. Hopefully be enough of a challenge, and Real/Atletico generally become monsters after a few years too.

[Rémy Leroux]

Let me know financials of Barca after 2-3 seasons. In all my saves looks they struggles a lot with cash.

[Bunkerossian]

Struggling to decide on what formation to play with Valencia. Is 4-2-3-1 viable, considering there's not much people able to rotate with the attacking players, if fatigue sets in?

[zlatanera]

@Bunkerossian I don't know much about the squad but you don't have European commitments, it'll only be a problem January / February if you make a cup run.