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How Do I Turn Southampton Into The English Version Of Ajax


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23 minutes ago, killy832003 said:

Is it all easily applicable/relevant to FM2019, as I know the tutoring aspect has been replaced

Probably "all" is not applicable, but I'd expect the broad thrust hasn't changed much. The details of tutoring, training, and any discussion of tactical settings have probably changed in four years, but the advice on setting up the club, facilities, youth system and coaching are almost certainly still relevant.

We might be able to get @Cleon to offer his opinion.

6 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

doing this maybe with a different team like Brighton, Bournemouth etc.

My guess is that you can do it with any club at all, but the timescales probably get longer. If you have a club with a decent youth system and good training facilities you might get a head start, and a club like Brentford where they've pretty much scrapped their youth setup will almost certainly take a few years longer. I've just started a save with Barnsley in English L1 and have been very impressed by the quality of players throughout the u18 and u23 squads; I'm sure there are other 'hidden gems' throughout the nation databases.

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11 hours ago, warlock said:

Probably "all" is not applicable, but I'd expect the broad thrust hasn't changed much. The details of tutoring, training, and any discussion of tactical settings have probably changed in four years, but the advice on setting up the club, facilities, youth system and coaching are almost certainly still relevant.

We might be able to get @Cleon to offer his opinion.

My guess is that you can do it with any club at all, but the timescales probably get longer. If you have a club with a decent youth system and good training facilities you might get a head start, and a club like Brentford where they've pretty much scrapped their youth setup will almost certainly take a few years longer. I've just started a save with Barnsley in English L1 and have been very impressed by the quality of players throughout the u18 and u23 squads; I'm sure there are other 'hidden gems' throughout the nation databases.

What I outlined in the thread is probably much easier to do now on FM19 than previous versions actually. The whole training module is set up for this kind of stuff on FM18, where as before we had to improvise a little.

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1 hour ago, killy832003 said:

Is there any chance you could give a brief overview on how it would work in FM18 @Cleon?

I would love to give it a go

In FM18 the exact same as in the 14 thread. If you meant FM19, then have a look at the vital attributes and the principles of the Ajax way, then set up the sessions that focus on these. The rest like individual focuses/development/signing players etc is still the same as in the FM14 thread. 

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I'm not saying it's not doable, I'm sure people have done it, but there's one significant aspect you need to keep in mind.

Teams such as Ajax or Benfica have the luxury of playing in leagues markedly below their level, so with the exception of two rivals each and a handful of teams on temporary peaks in form, they can get away with  giving ample playing time to their youth players.

A more realistic goal for the Prem would be a SAF era Man U - or to a smaller extent present day Spurs if I'm allowed to be biased :), where every year there are a couple of prospects in the orbit of the first team, but the club also makes the occasional dip in the transfer market to stay competitive at the top.

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First Season Update

Just finished my first season with Southampton, did basically a total squad overhaul. 

I spent 160m on players coming in offsetting it with players sales totalling up to 115m. 

My main transfers in were Dominic Iorfa for 30m who wasn't worth the 30m I spent and barely played, Fiete Arp I signed for 20m and was a lot better signing then Iorfa, 4 goals in 10 games, he was my 2nd choice striker as I had Ings as first choice, Arp got 4 goals in 10 games, 2 assists and an average rating of 6.72.

I tried to sign British players and I signed Kelvin Philips, Bradley Dack, Chris Mepham, Jack O'Connell, Ryan Nyambe, Ben Pearson, Matt Clarke, Ashley Fletcher and Herbie Kane. none of them made much of an impression other then O'Connell but they are mostly to build my future with.

Nathan Redmond, Pierre Hojbjerg and Danny Ings were my best players, I have Ings already agreed to join for 18m, so between him Arp I am covered for strikers.

Other notable signings are Mbabu and Lotomba from Young Boys, Mbabu was a stand out performer and attracts interest from Bayern Munich in the summer.

Transfers out were Charlie Austin to Spurs for 20m, Oriol Romeu to Watford for 20m, Mario Lemina to West Ham for 20m, Cedric to Shandong for 12.5m, Manolo Gabbidini to Newcastle for 12m, Shane Long to Newcastle for 7.5m, Fraser Foster to Lyon for 6m, Yoshida to Wolves for 4m and Steven Davis to Everton for 3m

Tactics wise I am using a 4-5-1 tactic concentrating on possession, could do with tweaking it as I aint scoring as many goals as I would liked.

 I managed to finish 8th in the league which was the aim at the start of the season, next season aim is to get Europa League footy. 

I am also limiting my spending as it has affected finances.

 

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I will be honest and say most decent ones went out on loan, I didn't really concentrate on the academy players in the first season but now I am in the 2nd season I am going to bring through players like Targett, McQueen, Obafemi,  Valery,  Jankewitz and some of my youth intake more first team game time as my aim is get as many young players in the first team as possible.

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1 hour ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I will be honest and say most decent ones went out on loan, I didn't really concentrate on the academy players in the first season but now I am in the 2nd season I am going to bring through players like Targett, McQueen, Obafemi,  Valery,  Jankewitz and some of my youth intake more first team game time as my aim is get as many young players in the first team as possible.

Watch out for Valery and Obafemi, they look potentially amazing.

Re-reading @Cleon Ajax thread, what a five-star reading. I think I will try following it with Genk.

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Southampton is my favourite team to manage in FM. It's the first team I've tried out in every FM I've bought up to now. I've just finished my first season in this year's edition.

Usually I finish between 6th and 9th, but I was expecting to do worse after what happened last year. I wanted to overhaul the entire team, but decided to keep most of it until January, to see who I wanted to try them and then see who I wanted to keep. I did get rid of Charlie Austin (23.5m) and Fraser Forster (6m), and both Yoshida and Bednarek went out on loan with a monthly fee. I also sent the older academy players (except Targett, who is one of my favourite players in FM) out on loan. In came Javi Ontiveros, Antonio Marin, Dennis Man, Chris Mepham, Max Wober, Josha Vagnoman and a bunch of young players who would either play a few games with the first team or I sent out on loan. In January, I racked up over a 100m in player sales, with Bertrand (33.5m), Lemina (19.5m), Armstrong (19.25m), Gabbiadini (18.75m), Stephens (15m), Long (13m) and Davies (2m), while both McCarthy and Redmond were sent out on loans with monthly fees. I brought in Arp (15.75m),Barrios (14.5m),Majer (7.75m) and Trincao (750k).

We started off pretty well, winning our first few games, and then getting hammered by City followed by a draw against United and a win against Chelsea. After those games we went on a nice run of form where we went unbeaten in 10 games, although we drew four of those. Then, in December we lost to Arsenal in the league, followed by another loss to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup. We started losing a few points, with a draw at home to a struggling Fulham, and we lost to Liverpool and a shock defeat at Cardiff, who ended up bottom of the league. Then we beat City followed by yet another defeat to Arsenal, this time in the FA Cup, and after that we went on a tremendous run where we didn't lose a single game between late January and early May.

We somehow managed to finish 4th, which was mostly down to both United and Spurs struggling and Arsenal being very inconsistent, and we were simply the best of the rest.

Standout players were James Ward-Prowse who ended up with the joint-highest assists in the league with 14 and 7 goals, Antonio Marin who scored 14 in the league and had the second highest minutes per goal ratio (119), Hojbjerg, Hoedt and Majer. Dennis Man also somehow won the Golden Boy, despite being a backup to Elyounoussi.

As for academy players, after Bertrand left, Targett was my only left-back and did very well, Jake Vokins did very well at Colchester and Norwich, and he's going to be my backup to Targett next season. I'm also looking to keep Reed around for next season, aswell as Gallagher, Sims and Slattery if I can make room for them.

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