FM19: Ajax Amsterdam - Time to reap what has been sown

[KlaaZ]

Oh, and pick up Ludovit Reis from Groningen if you can. He had a 9M release clause in my game, worth every penny.

[Chef Raekwon]

So I just finished my first season. Won the league with 2 defeats, Feyenoord runners up, Heerenveen third and PSV, even though they mirrored PSV's current unbeatable early season run, finished fourth. Went out in the second round of the CL against eventual cup winners Liverpool, although it was pretty close and both games were fantastic spectacles with many goals. Won the cup as well.

 

Big teams are sniffing around many players, but as I have de Jong, Dolberg and de Ligt on long term contracts (5+3), they aren't leaving. Somewhat surprisingly, many teams are offering for Wöber, Kristensen and Mazraoui as well, with fees around 10M. So far have opted to move Labyad (6M), van Leer (2M), Cassiera (4,6M) and de Jong (4M). This means Gravenberch will become Ziyech's standin next season and I maintain the rest of my first team. 

Did manage to find some absolutely cracking regens. The best one is, by far, Josef Javorek. Found him early in the game, but could unfortunately only buy him after the first transfer window, which means he joined in january. At 16 years old, he's already good enough to start, though I'm currently starting him in Jong Ajax while giving him some first team playing time here and there. I've included a screenshot with his current attributes. He has already played a whopping 48 competitive games for Ajax, Jong Ajax and his former club Jablonec, scoring a total of 25 goals. Insane! Have included his history as well.

Other interesting regens I bought are included as well, as well as some screenshots of De Jong, Marin and Gravenberch.

Had a decent youth intake, with Dave Karelse being the best of the bunch. Already pretty well developed, but I'm keeping him in the U19's for the time. 

[Boss]

On 26/11/2018 at 07:16, Chef Raekwon said:

So I just finished my first season. Won the league with 2 defeats, Feyenoord runners up, Heerenveen third and PSV, even though they mirrored PSV's current unbeatable early season run, finished fourth. Went out in the second round of the CL against eventual cup winners Liverpool, although it was pretty close and both games were fantastic spectacles with many goals. Won the cup as well.

 

Big teams are sniffing around many players, but as I have de Jong, Dolberg and de Ligt on long term contracts (5+3), they aren't leaving. Somewhat surprisingly, many teams are offering for Wöber, Kristensen and Mazraoui as well, with fees around 10M. So far have opted to move Labyad (6M), van Leer (2M), Cassiera (4,6M) and de Jong (4M). This means Gravenberch will become Ziyech's standin next season and I maintain the rest of my first team. 

Did manage to find some absolutely cracking regens. The best one is, by far, Josef Javorek. Found him early in the game, but could unfortunately only buy him after the first transfer window, which means he joined in january. At 16 years old, he's already good enough to start, though I'm currently starting him in Jong Ajax while giving him some first team playing time here and there. I've included a screenshot with his current attributes. He has already played a whopping 48 competitive games for Ajax, Jong Ajax and his former club Jablonec, scoring a total of 25 goals. Insane! Have included his history as well.

Other interesting regens I bought are included as well, as well as some screenshots of De Jong, Marin and Gravenberch.

Had a decent youth intake, with Dave Karelse being the best of the bunch. Already pretty well developed, but I'm keeping him in the U19's for the time. 

Looks good Chef . How are you finding the difficulty level in the Eredivisie? I've actually been quite impressed with the performances of some of the smaller clubs this year. I've just had 2 difficult wins against Fortuna Sittard and Willem II, both of whom played good football and caused me some issues on the break. I always remember in years gone by that these sort of teams would regularly get rolled over 4/5-0, but seems a little more tricky this time around (ofcourse this may be down to the ME issue with lack of movement for attacking players causing us to create less opportunities than normal)

[KlaaZ]

Can only speak for myself but you can domestically set yourself up as unbeatable in a few years time. I went undefeated in my third season, making the 100 point mark. Also won the CL that year actually, thanks to some lucky draws in the knockout stages (OL, Monaco) and a superb home win in the semis against City (4-2). 

[Chef Raekwon]

16 hours ago, Boss said:

Looks good Chef . How are you finding the difficulty level in the Eredivisie? I've actually been quite impressed with the performances of some of the smaller clubs this year. I've just had 2 difficult wins against Fortuna Sittard and Willem II, both of whom played good football and caused me some issues on the break. I always remember in years gone by that these sort of teams would regularly get rolled over 4/5-0, but seems a little more tricky this time around (ofcourse this may be down to the ME issue with lack of movement for attacking players causing us to create less opportunities than normal)

Lower table clubs rarely, if ever, give me trouble. I almost always win comfortably with a 2-5 goal margin, often being able to play without conceding. This will only get easier the more seasons have passed. The challenge is progressing in Europe and lifting up the Dutch league, which I view as a more long term goal, but it's fun to work on.

I do have to admit that Feyenoord especially overperforms and is able to keep up with me. I don't think I've won a game against them out of 3 played 

[steakfaced]

On 16/11/2018 at 03:17, Chef Raekwon said:

Agreed. Forgot Ylatupa is Finnish as well, last one before him was Toivomaki if I'm not mistaken, and he didn't turn out to be a success. So scouting youngsters (up to age 18-19) from Finland is realistic as well!

Is that the kid who could play like every single position across the pitch? I loved him haha

[CapaJr]

I am almost sure this will be a relatively quick and a dull save (because of how easy it probably is going to be) but i want to try it regardless. 

what motivate me most is that when we play lets say in EPL we cant really risk fielding 2-3 young wonderkids at the age of 16-17 because competition there is so damn competitive..

however, because of how relatively easy this competition will be, i would hopefully be able to frequently play those really young players not just in the cup but also in the league. 

as for our Ajax project, we have one goal: buy all the u19 wonderkids you can + ship off at least half of them to the B team + make sure our B team and youth team also dominates their own league! 

Edited December 1, 2018 by CapaJr

[Gungner]

Just bought FM19 a few days ago, and have been busy downloading kits, faces and logos since. I'm making Ajax my first save in FM19, since I need a somewhat "easy" start back into FM. (Haven't played any FM since January this year). This should be fun. 

[Chef Raekwon]

1 hour ago, Gungner said:

Just bought FM19 a few days ago, and have been busy downloading kits, faces and logos since. I'm making Ajax my first save in FM19, since I need a somewhat "easy" start back into FM. (Haven't played any FM since January this year). This should be fun. 

Have fun!

[Gungner]

Thanks!

Just started my Ajax save. Two friendlies played against teams from lower leagues, with a 2-0 win and a 0-0 draw. Guess I can call that approved, do to the many injuries and folks on vacation from the start. 

Made three signings so far: Andreas Samaris from Benfica for £1,5 mil, Ruben Botta from San Lorenzo for £1,7 mil and Antonio Marin for £4,5 mil from Dinamo. Haven't sold anyone yet, but interest is strong. No offers has been made yet, so lets see how long I can keep them.

[Chef Raekwon]

So I just finished the winter transfer window of 2020. Leading the league and winning almost everything domestically (2 draws), but sadly did not manage to make it out of my CL group (Real Madrid, PSG and Slavia Prague). Finished with 10 points (won against Madrid and drew PSG, both at home) but was still relegated to the Europa League, where I've drawn Besiktas. There's always next year, I suppose! I am happy that Heerenveen, PSV and Feyenoord managed to make it out of their Europa League groups and I hope at least one manages to qualify for the quarter finals.

My current talent development is a mixed bag. Remember that Czech striker newgen I posted earlier? He almost stopped developing completely, and his PA (according to my assistants) has decreased considerably. Even though he has a very good personality, gets plenty of game time (at both the Jong Ajax and Ajax 1 levels), puts in amazing training performances and is almost always perfectly motivated. I'm starting to suspect he's an early bloomer and I'm not expecting much further development. On the other hand, another young striker (a newgen) is developing spectacularly in my U19, so I promoted him to the first team and is starting in the absence of Dolberg, who's injured. He scored 2 and asissted once in 2 games, so I'm thinking he's on the right track. I guess you win some, you lose some! 

I do have a few wonderkids under my wings. De Ligt has developed amazingly, but somewhat surprisingly, so did Schuurs. I opted to develop Pieri as a DL and is almost as good as Tagliafico, and I've already received a 37,5M bid from Barcelona for him. Which I promptly rejected, of course! Mazraoui is also developing a lot, probably because of the great amount of game time he's getting. Eiting is doing well and is contending van de Beek for a spot in my starting 11. Also found a good DL newgen from Mexico, rated as a wonderkid as well. 

I'm happy with how my save game is progressing, hopefully I'll do better in the CL next season though. Need those points for the Eredivisie!

[KlaaZ]

Eiting looks surprisingly good in your save, he never made it in mine. I like that striker by the way, could be your new Dolberg!

[Chef Raekwon]

12 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

Eiting looks surprisingly good in your save, he never made it in mine. I like that striker by the way, could be your new Dolberg!

RE: The striker, that's my hope as well.

Eiting is my favourite stand-in and as such gets like 30 games a season. His personality helped him out a lot as well, I believe he's 'Professional' in my save game.

 

How are you getting on?

[Boss]

19 minutes ago, Chef Raekwon said:

RE: The striker, that's my hope as well.

Eiting is my favourite stand-in and as such gets like 30 games a season. His personality helped him out a lot as well, I believe he's 'Professional' in my save game.

 

How are you getting on?

Completely agree re Eiting. He's actually started more games for me so far in my first season than de Jong (mainly as de Jong has had a few injuries and has been rotated for Eiting for some of the games vs smaller Eredivisie teams)

I've seen IRL he has been helping out coaching the U9's side too, so potentially a future youth coach in-game 

[Chef Raekwon]

So I finished my second season (had some time on my hands). Predictably won the Eredivisie (only 1 loss and 2 draws) and the cup (final against Feyenoord). Managed to make it to the Europa League final, which we lost 1-3 against Bayern Munich after a stupid red card from Wöber after 30 minutes with 0-0 on the score board. Quite disappointing and Wöber saw a hefty fine after the match as his reward. The most impressive thing was Feyenoord qualifying for the quarter finals of the Europa League before eventually falling against Bayern Munich as well.

The above means I came a bit closer to the end goal of this save, which is to lift the Eredivisie up as a whole. Holland rose 3 spots in the nation coefficient rankings (8th spot now, just behind Russia), Ajax is now the 16th club in Europe, right behind Chelsea and Shaktar, but edging out Borussia Dortmund, Napoli and Benfica. The Eredivisie is now a 3,5 star league instead of a 3 star league, so there's some signs of improvement there as well. Fairly happy with how my save is progressing.

I'm planning on overhauling part of my squad for next season. I'm selling Lamprou (doesn't get any play time and Onana has a good personality in my save, so no need to keep him on), Stengs (didn't improve at all this season and I can no longer justify to play him), Javorek (my Czech striker has stopped his progression and I now have better options for him) and possibly David Neres (he doesn't develop as much as I had hoped and his performances are consistantly worse compared to Cerny, who I'd like to keep as a backup to Tadic) and Viktor Fischer (already got a 30M bid for him in the winter transfer window, but his 'Perfectionist' personality makes me want to keep him on, although Marin is currently good enough to start as a inside foward on the left wing. I'm conflicted!). I'll also be looking to get rid of a lot of younger players who are good but won't cut it long term, either on a loan or permanently. I'll be looking to sell them domestically for a relatively low price, as they are good enough Eredivisie players and as such might help other teams improve the Eredivisie at a whole. Players I'm currently looking at are Lang, Sierhuis, Bandé (hasn't developed at all after his injury and his loan away to Portugal), Kotarski, De Wit, Ekkelenkamp, Bakker, Jensen, Nunnely (very sad to see he didn't develop as I had hoped), Johnsen and Kühn (could actually stay if I didn't have an ace striker waiting in the wings).

I do want to buy a new second or third backup goalkeeper to replace Lamprou. He has to be at least 25+ years old and have a good personality for mentoring incoming young goalies. 

[Chef Raekwon]

4 hours ago, Boss said:

Completely agree re Eiting. He's actually started more games for me so far in my first season than de Jong (mainly as de Jong has had a few injuries and has been rotated for Eiting for some of the games vs smaller Eredivisie teams)

I've seen IRL he has been helping out coaching the U9's side too, so potentially a future youth coach in-game 

Sucks about De Jong. Did he improve at all as a player in your save game? Interested to see the results!

[HinchaBoy]

Hey guys, some updates from season 2.

Half season have already gone and we are doing great. Sadly I lost Club World Championship for Santos, 2-1 for them. Only have 3 defeats by now, 3-0 against City in UEFA Supercup, the one for Santos and 1-0 for FC Porto in CL group stage. Before losing to Porto we have a crazy 6-4 winning against them. Basel and Celtic was ours others opponents. 

Last season I played with 4-4-1-1, for now I decided to change for a 4-3-3. I thing we can play a more direct style using players in AM slots.

The transfer windows was really good for us. Have only lost Onana from my starting XI. Don´t know why others teams didn´t came for the others, I think only receivid offers for Neres and Van de Beek but they offering real low. Despite having great results I am not using the Ajax philoshophy, haven´t promoted lot youngester, so I use a different aproach now. Not losing any player helped me to not use the youngester.

 

Cheers all!

[HinchaBoy]

16 horas atrás, Chef Raekwon disse:

RE: The striker, that's my hope as well.

Eiting is my favourite stand-in and as such gets like 30 games a season. His personality helped him out a lot as well, I believe he's 'Professional' in my save game.

 

How are you getting on?

Nice to see Eiting is devoloping well for you, I really like the guy IRL.

He is not that good in my save and has a different personality.

[Chef Raekwon]

10 hours ago, HinchaBoy said:

Nice to see Eiting is devoloping well for you, I really like the guy IRL.

He is not that good in my save and has a different personality.

Shame! Nice capture of Cillessen by the way, attempted to get him in my save as well but he's asking for 110k/week wages which I can't (and won't!) afford right now.

[KlaaZ]

On 04/12/2018 at 11:04, Chef Raekwon said:

RE: The striker, that's my hope as well.

Eiting is my favourite stand-in and as such gets like 30 games a season. His personality helped him out a lot as well, I believe he's 'Professional' in my save game.

 

How are you getting on?

No complaints here, won the CL in my third season after a rather 'easy' knockout draw with Monaco and OL until the semis, then managed to contain City (with Simeone as a coach) thanks to an emphatic 4-2 home win and just about edged Liverpool in the final. 

 

Squadwise, I managed to hang onto Veltman, Schuurs (who developed really well), Tagliafico, Blind, Neres, Dolberg and Gravenberch (for now). Main additions apart from regens now are Ludovit Reis (very comparable to Donny in stat distribution), Kik Pierie, Xadas (very cheap and very solid development), Nikola Moro, Robert Gumny and Thiago Almada (ridiculous Argentinian, see screenshot). I'm hoping to challenge for the CL again but had (once again) a very tough group draw even with being seeded first: Milan, Stuttgart and Liverpool... Drew first place with Liverpool but they had the better goal difference so I got Juve in the first knockout round, sucks to be me. 

 

Financially I'm very solid with 270M in the bank. My reputation also skyrocketed.

On 04/12/2018 at 15:33, Chef Raekwon said:

I do want to buy a new second or third backup goalkeeper to replace Lamprou. He has to be at least 25+ years old and have a good personality for mentoring incoming young goalies. 

Don't know if you can pick him up but I picked up Josip Posavec in my third season for 5.5M and he's been very consistent. Nice attribute spread and a spirited personality.

[KlaaZ]

Oh, also did some great outgoing transfers over the past seasons. Picked up Svetozar Markovic from Partizan for 1.6M and sold him for 43.5M to PSG 1,5 season later. Also sold Wöber to City for a deal totalling 65M, de Jong to Schalke for 33.5M (underpriced but he was very unhappy and disrupting the squad), van de Beek to PSG for 45M and de Ligt to Chelsea for 72M. Gave me a huge war chest.

[Chef Raekwon]

19 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

Oh, also did some great outgoing transfers over the past seasons. Picked up Svetozar Markovic from Partizan for 1.6M and sold him for 43.5M to PSG 1,5 season later. Also sold Wöber to City for a deal totalling 65M, de Jong to Schalke for 33.5M (underpriced but he was very unhappy and disrupting the squad), van de Beek to PSG for 45M and de Ligt to Chelsea for 72M. Gave me a huge war chest.

Damn! Buying up all the newgens then?

Also, congrats on winning the CL, very well done! Looks like you'll have to work hard to consolidate your title, so good luck there!

[3rik]

@Chef Raekwon How does your tactic look like?

[KlaaZ]

2 hours ago, Chef Raekwon said:

Damn! Buying up all the newgens then?

Also, congrats on winning the CL, very well done! Looks like you'll have to work hard to consolidate your title, so good luck there!

Trying to, it's one of the reasons I love this game. Average squad age is 22 so plenty of nice prospects. 

 

https://imgur.com/a/ac2wegw

 

Bakker is probably my best regen so far, first team regular as well. Ugrina, Perlaza and Beissel are also part of my first team setup most of the time. Sanchez is thé talent to watch. 

[KlaaZ]

Well, this went surprisingly well. 

[Gungner]

What do you guys think of this fellow as back-up for Nicolás Tagliafico? At least for the first couple of seasons... He's listed by Nantes at the start of the save for £3,2 million and is on 6k a week wages. 

[zlatanera]

@Gungner completely different types of player - Tagliafico pretty much being a CB transplanted to LB, this guy such a Wing Back he can't even tackle that well. But in terms of the overall quality he doesn't look too shabby for the level. 

[KlaaZ]

On 08/12/2018 at 00:04, KlaaZ said:

Well, this went surprisingly well. 

And it just gets better. Second consecutive CL final. That 86 minute winner from Dolberg actually had me jumping around the living room for a minute. 

[KlaaZ]

So close, but we weren't good enough to be fair. 

[Chef Raekwon]

Damn, amazing results! Second CL final is really special, extremely well done!

[KlaaZ]

Cheers man!

I've got a bit of a dilemma now. I managed to get a bid accepted for a 18-year old French wonderkid striker. He would be by far my most expensive signing to date (totalling roughly 40M, 29,5 up front) but he looks amazing. The thing is, I still have Dolberg (who is fairly injury prone so playing about half of the games to keep him fit) and two regens (see below). Gonzalez has barely made any progress since I signed him from Barcelona (only his jumping increased pretty much by a few points). Olsina looks better on paper but had a terrible first season as a standin for Dolberg, only scoring once in 15 games. 

Do I sign him?

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by KlaaZ

[HinchaBoy]

Just finished the 2nd season.

As expected in the Eredivisie we dominate. Not a chance for the others, lost 4 games but 2 of then we were already champions. Unfortunately we lost the Dutch Cup final for Vitese for 2-0, they have only shot 4 times in the entire match against 22 for us, scoring both goals from set pieces.

After a quite easy Group Stage at CL, we faced Borussia Dortmund in the First Knockout Round. The first game in Germany was really poor for both sides and ended 0-0. The second leg we won in the extra-time. Next we play United, the first game in Amsterdam we won 1-0, the game in Old Trafford they open the score at 8 minutes from a set piece, so it was quite hard for us. At 79 they score another one from a set piece.

Well, at least the U19s won the Youth League and the Dutch Cup, and the Jong Ajax won their league for the second time in a row. With that results I am looking forward to use some youngest. Kenneth Taylor, Brian Bobbey and Jurrien Timber are the main ones I am observing.

[HinchaBoy]

33 minutos atrás, KlaaZ disse:

Cheers man!

I've got a bit of a dilemma now. I managed to get a bid accepted for a 18-year old French wonderkid striker. He would be by far my most expensive signing to date (totalling roughly 40M, 29,5 up front) but he looks amazing. The thing is, I still have Dolberg (who is fairly injury prone so playing about half of the games to keep him fit) and two regens (see below). Gonzalez has barely made any progress since I signed him from Barcelona (only his jumping increased pretty much by a few points). Olsina looks better on paper but had a terrible first season as a standin for Dolberg, only scoring once in 15 games. 

Do I sign him?

 

Wow, 3 greats talents. All 3 look really, really great, but this french one looks like a giant Lionel Messi. I think I would sign him

[steakfaced]

7 hours ago, HinchaBoy said:

Just finished the 2nd season.

As expected in the Eredivisie we dominate. Not a chance for the others, lost 4 games but 2 of then we were already champions. Unfortunately we lost the Dutch Cup final for Vitese for 2-0, they have only shot 4 times in the entire match against 22 for us, scoring both goals from set pieces.

After a quite easy Group Stage at CL, we faced Borussia Dortmund in the First Knockout Round. The first game in Germany was really poor for both sides and ended 0-0. The second leg we won in the extra-time. Next we play United, the first game in Amsterdam we won 1-0, the game in Old Trafford they open the score at 8 minutes from a set piece, so it was quite hard for us. At 79 they score another one from a set piece.

Well, at least the U19s won the Youth League and the Dutch Cup, and the Jong Ajax won their league for the second time in a row. With that results I am looking forward to use some youngest. Kenneth Taylor, Brian Bobbey and Jurrien Timber are the main ones I am observing.

United with 4 goals in all KO rounds and a runner up performance? Yikes haha

[Chef Raekwon]

11 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

Cheers man!

I've got a bit of a dilemma now. I managed to get a bid accepted for a 18-year old French wonderkid striker. He would be by far my most expensive signing to date (totalling roughly 40M, 29,5 up front) but he looks amazing. The thing is, I still have Dolberg (who is fairly injury prone so playing about half of the games to keep him fit) and two regens (see below). Gonzalez has barely made any progress since I signed him from Barcelona (only his jumping increased pretty much by a few points). Olsina looks better on paper but had a terrible first season as a standin for Dolberg, only scoring once in 15 games. 

Do I sign him?

 

Yeah, no question there. Sign the French regen, ship off Gonzalez and make sure you find suitable tutors so he gets a professional / resolute / model citizen personality quickly. I suspect that might be one of the reasons why Gonzalez hasn't developed the way he should've.

[Chef Raekwon]

Have been offered the Holland job at the start of season 3, so now I'm managing both Ajax and the Dutch national team :-D. 

Transfer period has been fairly tranquil. Many players out on loan, got rid of Bande, Stengs, Lamprou and Javorek (the czech striker) for a total of ~30M, which is not bad. Only bought a newgen goalkeeper from Sparta that looks promising, and attracted Vincent Janssen and Marco van Ginkel on free transfers. With a Resolute and Perfectionist personality they are good replacements for Huntelaar and Siem de Jong / Zakaria Labyad, which, to be fair, left last season.  

There's has been a flurry of activity surrounding my players. De Jong, De Ligt, van de Beek, Schuurs, Mazraoui, Kristensen, Onana, Dolberg, Pierie and a wonderkid left back I got for 7M out of Mexico have been attracting serious attention from basically all European top clubs. So far managed to hang onto all of them, although it's going to be very hard keeping Onana. His contract expires at the end of the season and I forgot to renew, now he doesn't want to sign a new one! Here's hoping I can convince him to stay after the transfer period and negotiate a new-and-improved 5-year contract!

Edited December 14, 2018 by Chef Raekwon

[Chef Raekwon]

Small update: just received a 75M + 20% profit of sale offer for Mazraoui. It's becoming harder and harder to turn down these offers!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

You should sell them and promote from the youth team, that's the Ajax way.

[KlaaZ]

Has Mazroui done that well in your save? I've bagged him off to Köln in my first season for 3.7M and he never really got it going there. Currently he's at Middlesbrough in the Championship.

[Chef Raekwon]

1 hour ago, KlaaZ said:

Has Mazroui done that well in your save? I've bagged him off to Köln in my first season for 3.7M and he never really got it going there. Currently he's at Middlesbrough in the Championship.

Yeah, he's doing very well. I play him as a DR, Wing Back on attack duty to be exact. He plays all my important games, and gets consistent 7.5+ ratings. He has developed very well and I suspect he's close to, if not on, his peak ability. 

That said, in my opinion he isn't worth 75M (not even close!) but I value him as a player who came up through the ranks and I want to keep him. Kristensen is a good back-up, and I don't have any quality youngsters who could fill in his spot at the moment. Attracted a decent looking newgen, but he's some way off the first team.

[Chef Raekwon]

So I felt I couldn't refuse the offer. 90M for Mazraoui, +20% of future profit. Crazy and insane. I'm promoting Kristensen to start in the first team. Veltman is also still at the club, as are a few youngsters. We'll manage!

[KlaaZ]

He does look better than in my game, but still not worth even half of that amount. Well done!

I've got Gravenberch throwing a tantrum because he wants to join Liverpool despite us getting to two CL finals in a row, even throwing in transfer requests (that I obviously denied). This sucks. Luckily he's still 3 years under contract.

Edited December 16, 2018 by KlaaZ

[Chef Raekwon]

3 minutes ago, KlaaZ said:

He does look better than in my game, but still not worth even half of that amount. Well done!

I've got Gravenberch throwing a tantrum because he wants to join Liverpool despite us getting to two CL finals in a row, even throwing in transfer requests (that I obviously denied). This sucks. Luckily he's still 3 years under contract.

5 + 3's are your friend!

[Gungner]

Just starting as Ajax again, after a break from them since the first save got "broken". Thinking I'm gonna go for the same players this time around, will definately go for Lincoln from Flamengo, as I do in all my saves. 

[Chef Raekwon]

9 hours ago, Gungner said:

Just starting as Ajax again, after a break from them since the first save got "broken". Thinking I'm gonna go for the same players this time around, will definately go for Lincoln from Flamengo, as I do in all my saves. 

He seems amazing, my scouts recommended him at age 20 as well and seems to be around as good, or better than Dolberg. Don't think he's too expensive either, so seems like a perfect fit!

[Chef Raekwon]

What a time to be alive!

 

Rejected the offer, of course, but I'm probably accepting in 1-2 years when I have a suitable replacement lined up!

 

EDIT: Just lost the first game of the first knockout round of the CL 4-0 away against Atletico Madrid. Gutted. We're progressing as a team, but don't seem to be able to break into the final rounds of the tournament. 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Chef Raekwon

[Okocha04]

2 hours ago, Chef Raekwon said:

What a time to be alive!

 

Rejected the offer, of course, but I'm probably accepting in 1-2 years when I have a suitable replacement lined up!

 

EDIT: Just lost the first game of the first knockout round of the CL 4-0 away against Atletico Madrid. Gutted. We're progressing as a team, but don't seem to be able to break into the final rounds of the tournament. 

I sold him for a similar figure  (84 mil + 27 in clauses/installments to PSG) after the third season and after winning the CL (1-1p against Juve). Been sensational with 38, 40 and 43 goals in those 3 seasons but it was time to renew the squad. Sierhuis scored 5 in his first 2 matches as a starter and Brobbey is knocking on the door as well.

[Gungner]

13 hours ago, Chef Raekwon said:

He seems amazing, my scouts recommended him at age 20 as well and seems to be around as good, or better than Dolberg. Don't think he's too expensive either, so seems like a perfect fit!

Not expensive at all... This time I got him for £2 million + 40% of next sale. I've gotten him cheaper though. 

Season has started alright. Pre-season was all wins, bar one draw. The Champions League path has been a test. We went through the second qual round by beating Sturm Graz 3-0 on agg (1-0 away and 2-0 home), and then Spartak Moscow in the third qual round with 3-2 on agg (2-1 home and 1-1 away). Now Benfica awaits for a ticket to the promised land. I'm really nervous about that one and think this might be it for us... In the league, we've played one match, a 5-1 hammering of Heracles, with David Neres getting a hattrick.

Transfers in:

Predrag Rajkovic, £3,5 million. I might aswell get in a second choice keeper now, since Lamprou isn't renewing.

Antonio Marin, £1,5 million. This young star was bought for the future, but has already made his first-team debut.

Ryad Boudebouz, Year-long loan with £4,3 million option to buy. Just jumped at the chance really. Good back-up.

Andreas Samaris, £1,5 million. Back-up to the defensive midfield position. 

Lincoln, £2 million. Striker for the future! Joins on January 1st 2019.

No out-going transfers. 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Gungner

[KlaaZ]

Samaris is a really great addition to the squad, good choice. I picked him up for free as a backup player but he never disappointed in the games he did play. 

Currently in September 2022, think this is the first time I spent more on transfers than I made. Brought in Monnier (see above) and Kuprin for a wadload of money. Also picked up a Spanish central defender from Atlético to replace Pierie who wanted to leave (and wasn't fulfilling his potential). Oh, and a Brazilian goalie for 200k who may go a long, long way.

[ChrisBones1990]

Any advice with mentoring? Do you guys let your assistant do it or set your own up? I'm a few months incand de ligt and de Jong personality types have gotten worse. In a group with blind de light de Jong and a balanced young defender.