[FM12] One more time - moonwalking my way through 'mo clubs

[b101]

It may all be a bit silly but it's just to add a bit more challenge. To be honest it's not working, he's only the 3rd player in a whole 8-year career to go under the rule. And as much as I liked him we probably need the money more than the player anyway, I've already signed what looks like his twin brother for 1.2M (next Summer transfer), plus a left-back for 900K and improved the youth facilities for 3.7M. All added I've got a similar player yet gained a left-back better facilities and 3M in the bank.

It's an interesting rule, and great to see you've put the money to good use. It is more realistic as well as the method you've outlined is probably exactly what the club would do in real life. With any luck you can keep pushing the facilities and bring through a few more like him

[Nobby_McDonald]

I think you're doing well. The Argentine system confuses me.

[noikeee]

It's an interesting rule, and great to see you've put the money to good use. It is more realistic as well as the method you've outlined is probably exactly what the club would do in real life. With any luck you can keep pushing the facilities and bring through a few more like him

Thank you, and yeah the rule is a bit about realism as well.

Not sure about having any more Insaurraldes from the youth intakes, Argentina is packed with talent so we always get someone useful, but a player good enough to be the superstar of the team at the age of 17 was pretty unique.

I think you're doing well. The Argentine system confuses me.

It's not that difficult - basically there's a championship title every half-season. First half is "Apertura", second is "Clausura". Relegation is decided on an average points rule, the 4 teams with the least points per game over the past 3 seasons are in risk of going down.

What I haven't figured out yet is continental competition qualification. There's a whole 11 teams qualified: 5 for the Libertadores, 6 for the Sudamericana, but it depends on several winners of several competitions - the Apertura Clausura champions, aggregate champions, cup champions all go to the Libertadores. The rest go in the order of the aggregate points over the season (Apertura points + Clausura points), what I don't know yet is if it's the points over the season (2019/2020) or the calendar year (2020).

[noikeee]

December 2019-February 2020

Transfers

I picked two young players on freebies:

Nicolás Nieto (DM) - This 21 year old Mexican can only play DM which is a position I don't use but I am retraining him to MC and he's competent at the moment. Once he's accomplished there I think he has a first team spot.

Emiliano Esposito (DC / SW) - Hugely promising 18 year old centre-back who has gigantic potential, but still has to learn quite a lot to become a regular option - contrasts with Marcelo Contreras who is the same age and is a starter every match now.

This Winter was all about the exits though. Beyond the headline news of Lautaro Insaurralde moving to Real Madrid for 8.75M€, left-back Gonzalo Irastorza went for 100K€ despite not having made a single appearance for the club, veteran midfielder Damián Musto left on a free, and centre-back Rodrigo Ayala - who was a key player when I arrived 2 years ago - went on a paid loan (40K).

I also loaned out 4 youngsters to get first team experience for the remainder of the season: strikers José María Cejas and Gastón Sánchez, attacking midfielder Cristian Malvestiti and defensive midfielder Federico Schwenzel.

Fixtures

There were 3 remaining Apertura matches in December and we did fairly well there. We went a goal down to Racing Club but turned it around to win 2-1; beat Tigre 4-0 away with an extraordinary performance - Insaurralde and Palacios both had a superb day, involved in 3 goals each; but then finished losing at home to Boca 3-2 in the final day thriller which cost us 4th place and also saw our rivals Godoy Cruz crowned champions.

In-between we started our participation in the cup against the team that got promoted together with us last year (Instituto), and it was another sweaty difficult game that had to be turned from 0-1 to 2-1, this time with 2 goals by Insaurralde.

The mid-season friendlies went easily with 4 wins albeit all lower league (yes that includes River). Just like last year we beat a foreign minnow side heavily this time that was Uruguay's Villa Española. And we finished off beating River away easily 2-0 with 2 goals by veterans Luna and Albín, a sign of how things have changed in Argentina we are a bigger club than River now and are even starting to steal their players!

It was all going great but then Clausura started, and badly. We conceded twice in the final 5 minutes to turn a win over Belgrano into a defeat and also lost Diego Silvero (1 week) and Jorge Correa (3 weeks) to injuries. At Argentinos it was another bad day, we were outplayed and this time it was Milton Zárate who got injured (2 months). Then the derby vs Godoy Cruz popped up and we were a joke, beaten at home with 3 aerial goals and Sergio Palacios lost his cool and saw a red card. And February ends with 4 defeats out of 4 as we also lost at All Boys albeit this time had luck slightly against us - and also Emanuel Mas against us, our left-back had the most atrocious performance I've seen from a player in a long time with a 3.4 rating, I took him off before half-time.

Player on focus

Lautaro Insaurralde (ST) - Scored 5 goals in his final 3 official matches for Independiente Rivadavia before sailing off to Spain. Will be missed badly - it's probably no coincidence our form has dipped so sharply since he has gone.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Apertura:

Primera División - Torneo Clausura:

Copa Argentina: we will now play Tigre at home in the 6th round.

Summary

We finished Apertura quite well, it was annoying to lose 4th in the final match, but 5th place is a great result we certainly didn't expect to finish that high on our return to the top level.

However everything's been disastrous since Insaurralde's exit and the start of Clausura. His absence has not helped, Correa who is his direct replacement was out injured as well together with a few other players which also made things worse. But it's no excuse we can't open the 2nd half of the season with 4 defeats in a row. We need to improve a hell of a lot. We're still fairly comfortable on average points so relegation isn't an immediate concern, but I'd like to qualify for the continental competitions and on this form, no way.

[berty1978]

Really interesting reading about your managing in Argentina. Excellent Apertura, and shame about the start in the Clausura but I'm sure you'll improve, at least I don't think you have to worry about relegation and continental football is still a possibility.

[B.W.G]

Excellent performance in the Torneo Apertura,shame about the start in the Clausura,hopefully you can turn the bad start around.

[deltablue]

Really need to pick it up with the 'average points´thing.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Would that get you relegated?

[noikeee]

Really interesting reading about your managing in Argentina. Excellent Apertura, and shame about the start in the Clausura but I'm sure you'll improve, at least I don't think you have to worry about relegation and continental football is still a possibility.

I'm quite enjoying Argentina. I think we're still on course to make it to the Sudamericana but it's very tight around those 7th-11th places on the joint league table (Apertura + Clausura) and it depends on exactly how many teams from the league qualify, I'm not entirely sure about that as it depends on other competitions, etc.

Excellent performance in the Torneo Apertura,shame about the start in the Clausura,hopefully you can turn the bad start around.

I have started to turn it around albeit quite slowly, more info soon.

Really need to pick it up with the 'average points´thing.

If we were to continue that run of defeats for much longer we would get in trouble! Thankfully I think we're clear now. The Apertura really helped too, we got a very big safety net from that. I'll post a screenie next time of the average points league, it's not as tight as maybe you would think, we're way clear of the danger zone.

Would that get you relegated?

Not really no, see the answer to Deltablue.

[noikeee]

Independiente Rivadavia - Youth intake 2020

Best player

Carlos González (AMR)

I suppose after 2 good intakes the past 2 years, we were due a sh*t one. This generation doesn't seem set for a great future.

[noikeee]

March-April 2020

Fixtures

I'm slightly changing my write-up method for fixtures, as I've been taking short notes match-by-match lately, and the notes are readable anyway so no point wasting time turning them into lengthy heavy paragraphs.

Vélez H 1-2: disheartening defeat as we badly lacked confidence, despite that managed to equalize yet conceded again in the 83rd minute

Unión A 1-1: we actually scored first but Rafael Alberti saw a red card and we lost the lead from the resulting free-kick, still nice to end the run of 5 straight defeats.

Lanús H 1-1: so nearly our first win against unlikely opposition, mega-rich Lanús. We held on for long to 1-0 but crumbled in the end to concede a 86th minute equalizer.

(cup) Tigre H 1-3: we were knocked out of the cup in disappointing fashion at home in a tight game where their aim was better than ours. Youth product Marcelo Maidana made his club debut at the age of 17, Bulgarian midfielder Kolyo Todorov scored his first Ind. Rivadavia goal ever.

Huracán H 2-1: at last a win! Palacios scored a great one from outside the area, and Contreras got his 1st ever for the club.

Independiente A 2-1: great win, Netto finally stopped his long goal drought with a brace turning the game around in our favour.

Newell's A 2-3: slightly unlucky defeat at the joint-leaders' home, Netto did his best with another 2 goals.

Instituto A 0-1: very disappointing, we couldn't get back into the game after Instituto had a man sent off.

Gimnasia LP H 4-0: huge win, we really needed this as it takes us a few places up the table. The result is a bit flattering to us though. Correa too ends a goal drought.

Player on focus

Sergio Palacios (AMC, ST) - The Colombian (now awaiting paperwork to become an Argentinian too) has never been the most consistent player ever, but he's getting better at that and his highs are getting higher. Had 2 sensational matches in April vs Gimnasia LP (2 goals + 1 assist, 9.2 rat) and Newell's (1 assist, just a generally awesome performance with 8.9 rat) plus another 2 goals in March.

The other player to shine the most recently has been centre-back Marcelo Contreras, who is finally vindicating my decision to bench Jonathan Maidana and field him almost every match. Great performances lately and his improvements in skills throughout the season have been spectacular - at the age of 18 he will only get a lot better still.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Clausura:

Average points table

Joint league season (Apertura + Clausura) table

Copa Argentina: beaten in the 6th round by Tigre 1-3 at home.

Summary

It really took a while for us to get going but we're sort of back to normal now. Seems strange that I'd be sounding happy with 15th on the table, but after that dreadful start and given we lost our best player with his direct replacement only arriving next year, it's okay.

I think we're 100% fully safe from relegation now, as you will clearly see from the average points table, we would need to have a catastrophic run to the end to drop 11 places. It's done there.

My goal is qualifying for the Copa Sudamericana though. I'm assuming up to 9th or 10th on that joint season table should do it, if we can hang on to our recent form we will be there in the qualifying round.

[noikeee]

Nice little meaningless milestone, I hadn't realised I'd done this many matches for Independiente Rivadavia already, I've been here for only 2 seasons and a couple of months. In Sweden for Torns IF, I had managed them in 177 matches over 6 full seasons.

[deltablue]

Looking a lot better than I expected with average points. Then again if you do have a good season it´s not the problem I thought it would be for promoted sides so I was worrying a bit much. Was going to avoid Argentina/Mexico in my career for that reason (or at least, have them as very low priority) but if it´s not so bad I might consider them more.

[noikeee]

Looking a lot better than I expected with average points. Then again if you do have a good season it´s not the problem I thought it would be for promoted sides so I was worrying a bit much. Was going to avoid Argentina/Mexico in my career for that reason (or at least, have them as very low priority) but if it´s not so bad I might consider them more.

Well, I don't know if you can take us as an example, don't forget we were really good in Apertura, it doesn't matter the rules, whatever league or nation, if you're 5th out of 20 teams by midseason you're always going to be unlikely to go down.

You should probably be looking at Instituto (the other team that went up with us) instead. They came 12th in the Apertura, are 11th in the Clausura, yet are still within major danger of ending up in a relegation playout, just 0.02 points/match above it. Had they just 1 less point they'd be set for the playout.

My conclusion is if you have a truly solid season you will be clear of relegation, but the bar is set a little higher than in other leagues.

[noikeee]

This is a deal I've never mentioned, since prior to my arrival at the club we have always been the feeder club of French team Nancy. Now out of the blue there comes an announcement we've swapped Nancy for Marseille, would be great if we could get players on loan from Marseille but I don't think it's that kind of deal - seems to be just a first option to buy players.

[noikeee]

May-June 2020

Fixtures

Quilmes A 2-2: one goal each way in minutes 88 and 90 made for quite a thriller at the end, we had a bit of misfortune earlier to hit the woodwork 3 times.

San Lorenzo H 5-1: a suspension to Jorge Correa meant I gave a very rare start to veteran Juan Albín upfront. He scored twice (so did Sergio Palacios) and we won very comfortably.

Colón A 0-0: a rare 0-0, there should've been goals as both sides had plenty of chances.

Banfield H 1-1: pretty poor home draw vs the 20th in the table.

Tigre H 4-1: this time our forwards took all of our chances with incredible efficiency, particularly Jorge Correa with an hat-trick. Great win.

Racing Club A 2-2: we were set for an important win that would swap us a place in the table (14th to 13th) with our opposition on the day, but we conceded a 95th minute equalizer in a corner - yes I am bitter...

Boca A 1-3: we finished the season with an impossibly difficult fixture at the home of Boca who had just won the Clausura title, then lost the Libertadores final. They must have still been distraught from the Libertadores defeat, because this was a very tight game and we looked like the most likely to score at 1-1, but 2 Víctor Benvenuto (their Messi-like striker) goals in the final 10 minutes gave them the win.

Player on focus

Sergio Palacios (AMC) - Our playmaking star continued his strong end of the season with another 3 goals and 2 assists in the final 2 months of the season, including extraordinary performances in the big wins over San Lorenzo and Tigre.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Clausura:

Average points table

Joint league season (Apertura + Clausura) table

Copa Argentina: beaten in the 6th round by Tigre 1-3 at home.

Summary

This was a pretty good end of the season, we only won 2 games but only lost 1 too and in the toughest league fixture of all. It's however disappointing that our good finish didn't reflect in a climb over the league table and we finish the Clausura in a lowly 14th - that awful start with 5 consecutive defeats ultimately really cost us.

I am however quite happy that I believe we still did enough to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana. I haven't got any news item confirming it, but I believe finishing 8th in the joint league table is enough for that. I am really quite pumped up for this competition, it may be a bit of a mickey mouse trophy as the South American equivalent of the Europa League, but I've never managed in any continental competitions outside of Europe so it's a source of excitement for me. It runs as a pure knockout (no group stages) and we shall be facing another Argentinian side in a qualifying round as our starting point.

[AcidBurn]

I always enjoyed playing in the Copa Sudamericana with Chapecoense. 8th in the joint table is a good finish those first few losses were awful so to turn morale around and get some wins after that is a decent achievement. I look forward to seeing how you get on in the Sudamericana, good luck!

[noikeee]

I always enjoyed playing in the Copa Sudamericana with Chapecoense. 8th in the joint table is a good finish those first few losses were awful so to turn morale around and get some wins after that is a decent achievement. I look forward to seeing how you get on in the Sudamericana, good luck!

Tks. My goal is to have a proper run in the competition, but it will be difficult enough already to make it out of the qualifying round as all Argentinian sides face each other so our opposition will be very strong.

[B.W.G]

That was a very good season overall,hopefully with the right signings you can improve your team and move on up the table.

[noikeee]

That was a very good season overall,hopefully with the right signings you can improve your team and move on up the table.

Thank you, I have a few exciting young players arriving this Summer so we should be stronger, I am aiming at a top 10 in both championships.

[noikeee]

Season review 2019/2020

Tactics and usual starting eleven

I continued to play in the rather old-fashioned way of sticking to the same tactics all the time every single game, which is what you see on the screenshot plus the usual shouts of "Retain Possession", "Work Ball Into Box" and "Drop Deeper". There wasn't a great evolution this year, but we did try to change some settings to accommodate new signing, striker Nicolás Netto, a powerful but not-very-mobile target man. I sort of threw this awkward tall figure in the middle of our tiki-taka setup by using him on target man/support role, setting him as the team's target man with supply to head, and telling him to attack the far post in corners. It sort of worked as he scored 20 goals, but I also felt my squad wasn't as fluid in the final third, sometimes missing the more creative deep-lying forward that used to play there.

Later on in the year I noticed we were having a lot of trouble facing 4-4-2s as the opposition's fullbacks were left completely free, this is an inherent problem of our formation but I've worked around it telling both my strikers to man mark the fullbacks tightly.

Squad

Please notice how young this lot is, I am quite proud of that, you could see us lining up in a normal day, full-strenght lineup with GK Hugo Fernández (22), DC Marcelo Contreras (18), MCs Kolyo Todorov (21), Diego Silvero (19) and Nicolás Nieto (21), AMC Sergio Palacios (21) and ST Nicolás Netto (23). More promising players are arriving soon.

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Jorge Correa (ST) - He was the undisputed leader of our attack throughout our promotion season last year, however he has faded a little this season and briefly lost his place in the squad altogether to Insaurralde. With the kid gone to Madrid, he regained his starting duties and still scored a decent share of 12 goals, but he clearly isn't as efficient in this league as in the division below.

4. David Abraham (DC) - The veteran centre-back had a spectacular start to the season, as at a point I distinctly remember he had an average rating way beyond anyone else in the squad, but as the year went on he started making more and more mistakes and ends on a perfectly normal 7.03 av. rat. I won't forget his contributions but I fear age is starting to make him a liability.

3. Lautaro Insaurralde (ST) - Actually started the season on pretty poor form, but by the time Real Madrid splashed 8.75M€ on him he was on the form of his life, with match-winning performance after match-winning performance, and the team clearly suffered from his absence. A club legend-in-the-making that left before he actually became a legend. 7 goals, 6 assists and 4 MOM awards in half-a-season.

2. Nicolás Netto (ST) - Our "big man with good feet" turned out to be a great signing as he topped our scoring boards with 20 goals. That being said, his contribution bar the goals often seemed non-existent and I sometimes felt his presence was to the detriment of the team's tactics. An interesting side-note about him is our new Mexican DM hired mid-season has almost the exact same name - Nicolás Nieto.

1. Sergio Palacios (AMC, ST) - If in the previous seasons he was merely our most talented guy in theory, this year he actually put 100% of his talent on the pitch and was clearly our better player. Did have two fairly poor patches of form, first at the start of the season then at the start of Clausura when he had to be moved to a striker position due to Insaurralde's exit and an injury to Correa, but other than that, he was immense. Even scored quite a few goals from outside the area which doesn't quite add up to his attributes, PPMs, and my tactical instructions. 13 goals and 10 assists.

Career overview

[b]Season   League                      Cups                       International         Notes[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torns IF (Sweden)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012     Div.2 Södra Götaland - 1st  n/a                        n/a                   Champions, promoted
2013     Div.1 Södra - 11th          Svenska Cupen 2nd rnd      n/a                   Avoided relegation
2014     Div.1 Södra - 1st           Svenska Cupen 1st rnd      n/a                   Champions, promoted
2015     Superettan - 3rd            Svenska Cupen 1st rnd      n/a                   Lost in promotion playoff
2016     Superettan - 1st            Svenska Cupen 3rd rnd      n/a                   Champions, promoted
2017     Allsvenskan - 13th          Svenska Cupen 1/4 final    n/a                   Avoided relegation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independiente Rivadavia (Argentina)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18  Nacional B - 11th           Copa Argentina 6th rnd     n/a                   Joined in November
2018/19  Nacional B - 1st            Copa Argentina 5th rnd     n/a                   Champions, promoted
2019/20  Primera - 5th Ap./ 14th Cl. Copa Argentina 6th rnd     n/a                   Just missed out on continental football

[noikeee]

Jonathan Maidana retires

I am quite sorry to see Jonathan go, and pursue a coaching career, as he was an absolutely vital player for us last year, but age had caught up with him throughout this year, well age and the arrival of the hugely promising 18 year-old Marcelo Contreras too. Contreras stole his place midway through the season and I haven't looked back. It's nevertheless worth making this short little tribute to him as we'd never have gotten promoted without his awesome performances last year. Great career he had too, playing for the 2 giant clubs from Buenos Aires, having a few seasons in Europe with a few good clubs as well, and attaining 2 caps for Argentina. The Maidana surname lives on, as our youth product Marcelo Maidana (unrelated) is starting to make the first team.

The other 2 of our players to retire at the end of the season were forwards Juan Albín and Jorge Luna, both capable of playing in the AMC and ST positions, and both squad backups that were sadly past it as well.

[noikeee]

The vultures are starting to circle around Contreras

A collective breath was held by all the Independiente Rivadavia fans, when the news arrived that a 4.2M€ bid from Vélez Sarsfield for Marcelo Contreras had been accepted. That was the maximum value I could ask for him under my rule, as frustratingly he was only valued at 1.6M and my highest valued player in the squad was Nicolás Netto at precisely 4.2M€. Contreras is a kid on an obvious path to international stardom, as by mid-season he stole the aforementioned Jonathan Maidana's place in the centre of defence, and by the end of the year he was clearly my best defender at the age of 18.

What happened is that I accepted the Vélez offer under my rule, but I sort of half-cheated by offering him a very lucrative contract as well. I think this is just about within the boundaries of acceptable and realistic - he gets the chance to move if he wants to, and if we really want to keep hold of him we are forced to pay. He accepted and the fans sighed of relief but the danger of a transfer still remains, as the likes of Napoli, Rayo Vallecano, Palmeiras and now Boca Juniors have been interested.

[noikeee]

So, I clicked continue just one more time before going to bed and a season review news item popped up, with the clubs that made it to the continental cups:

What kind of bulls*t is this? The clubs that go to the Libertadores do the Sudamericana too? Wtf?

Thanks to this stupid rule we just miss out on continental football this season. Cheers.

[cerud]

Ouch, that's a kick in the teeth...

[AK22]

Yeah, they qualify for both competitions. Shame you missed out, though; it's a bit greedy in my opinion

Looks like you struggled to match the highs of the Apertura in the Clausera. That's the thing with Argentina, with the season split in two, it's quite feasible that you will have a shocker every now and again. Still, over 38 games, it was still a good performance nonetheless

[Nobby_McDonald]

Just when I thought the Argentine system couldn't get any stranger/more complicated.

[noikeee]

Ouch, that's a kick in the teeth...

Very much so, my goal ever since I started to plan to move to South America has always been to ultimately play in the continental competitions...

I thought of quitting in a fit of rage but then figured out that would be a childish reaction. I'll probably stick around here for some 2 or 3 more years, we are building a young exciting squad and I certainly haven't extracted everything out of it. Plus I'm really quite enjoying Argentina.

Yeah, they qualify for both competitions. Shame you missed out, though; it's a bit greedy in my opinion

Looks like you struggled to match the highs of the Apertura in the Clausera. That's the thing with Argentina, with the season split in two, it's quite feasible that you will have a shocker every now and again. Still, over 38 games, it was still a good performance nonetheless

Yes it punishes bad form severely just as much as it rewards good form greatly. It's lots of fun, I quite like to have 2 championships per season.

Just when I thought the Argentine system couldn't get any stranger/more complicated.

Most of the stuff isn't - I see the logic behind the Apertura/Clausura style-league (twice the leagues = twice the fun), and the average points system (a safety net for established clubs not to go down after just 1 poor season). This one I just can't figure out at all what's the point though!

As if to further emphasize how ridiculous it is, Boca grabbed both competitions. Thankfully for them the cups don't run at the same time (Sudamericana plays from October to December; Libertadores from February to June) otherwise they'd have had ridiculous fixture congestion, they still played quite a lot of games though! I've previously incorrectly said Boca lost in the Libertadores final, they had lost the first leg before playing us in the final league match, apparently that gave them enough morale to overcome the 1st leg defeat and grab the Libertadores at home...

To top it off, now Boca are the holders of both Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, there's a UEFA Supercup-style cup (the Recopa Sudamericana) that faces the winners of either competition. They can't play themselves so they'll face Fluminense... who won the Libertadores the previous year. It's all completely bonkers.

[Animosama]

How are your finances and facilities ?

[deltablue]

Greedy Argies!

[noikeee]

How are your finances and facilities ?

Facilities are the same as last time I posted a screenie. Finances are great, 5.4M in the bank and this after the most expensive Summer transfers arrived.

Greedy Argies!

Very much so yes!

[Nobby_McDonald]

I'll stick to England. I understand our set up.

[noikeee]

I'll stick to England. I understand our set up.

If you were Argentinian you'd understand their setup better.

[noikeee]

Independiente Rivadavia manager set for Ukraine?

Near the end of August I got this offer, which is particularly tempting. First, I've always wanted to go back to Eastern Europe (it's been a long time in FM) and build a world-conquering side composed exclusively of Eastern European players - it's a particular challenge I want to get done one day. Second, I quite like Dynamo Kiev. Third, whilst they are a big fish in a small pond and that's an annoying scenario that can get boring, they are on a bad point of their history with 2 consecutive 4th places in the Ukranian league and a decade without a title - they need sorting out.

However this really isn't the time to leave Argentina, as my next post detailing pre-season will certainly explain. I rejected the offer.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2020

Transfers

I could finally spend the Insaurralde money (when he left I had used up my 2 non-free transfer slots for the midseason transfer window), and used it to buy a large number of new players, most of them young and highly promising!

Norberto Morales (ST) - The long-awaited replacement for Insaurralde: just as young, as quick, as promising. It's a sign of the times and the wildly differing fortunes of both clubs I could poach one of River's best players for 2M€, and he was more than happy to sign for us. Who weren't happy with the transfer were the River fans, and they probably are even more concerned that the club failed to get promoted back to the Primera División.

Nicolas Benítez (D/WBL) - Quite possibly my best signing of all, and I've done a lot of good deals this pre-season. Benítez is a freakishly great attacking wing-back, and just 20 years old. Rated by the assman as the best player in the team now.

Richard Alcaraz (DC) - This 24yo old-fashioned Paraguayan centre-back has amazing jumping, which in theory should make for a nice pairing next to the more modern, quicker, lightweight Marcelo Contreras. Also allows me to bench David Abraham who is starting to get too old for this.

Paul Ramos (D/WBR) - I spent most of the pre-season desperately searching for a new right-back as that was our weak spot, I finally got one in the highly experienced Paul Ramos. I was forced to pay him big wages but it's for the best as he's a substantial improvement in quality for the position.

Santiago Brunt Lewis (MC / DM) - Late in the pre-season I received an extra income from Franco Ancona's sale, so I went back to the transfer market, and spent a bit more cash on players more for the future than the present (check out the screenies for 2M€ Paulo Fernández and 1.5M€ Iván Diaz too). 18 year old Santiago was meant to be one of them but has already been on spectacular form as our starting box-to-box midfielder, with a superb performance vs Instituto.

Andrés Nápoles (DL)

Gustavo Bordacahar (DM / MLC)

Alberto Zárate (ST / AML)

Mauricio Rodríguez (DC)

Fabián Pasini (AMC / MC, ST)

Gerardo Bastianini (GK)

Paulo Fernández (AMC, MC / AMR)

Iván Ruiz (DR)

In terms of sales, the big deal as mentioned above was striker Franco Ancona, who had been on loan to a Bolivian side, this time he left permanently to the Spanish top tier to play for Granada for 2.5M€. Other high-profile experienced 1st team players to leave were left-backs Lucas Lucero and Emanuel Mas, right-back Lucas Fernández, centre-back Rodrigo Ayala, and midfielders Alejandro Camargo and Milton Zárate. We also made a tiny bit of money on rarely used backups and/or underwhelming youngsters like Federico Sarobe, Daniel Ale, Agustín Luzi and Mauricio Pent. Veterans Jorge Luna, Juan Albín and Jonathan Maidana retired; keeper Nereo Champagne, also a veteran, left on a free.

Finances

With all the spent money our bank account is back to a more normal standing of 3.5M, which is still quite a lot for a club that used to be in trouble. I am slightly more concerned about wages which have skyrocketed to 241K€/month, but are still relatively contained within the 288K€/month budget albeit I think that's a fairly optimistic budget to start with.

Another figure skyrocketing is our club value, we are now the 6th highest valued club in Argentina at 22M€, just behind our Apertura-title-winning rivals Godoy Cruz who are estimated at 23M€.

The full squad for the 2020-2021 season

This is a giant quantum leap over last season's squad in terms of quality, age and potential. The arrivals of Benítez and Ramos for the wing-back positions are the most dramatic improvements, otherwise the large number of stars for potential everywhere catch the eye.

With Jonathan Maidana's retirement, player of the year Sergio Palacios becomes our new captain at the age of 21 - he wasn't too happy about it at first, "feeling the pressure of the captaincy at his young age", but now seems to have gotten over it.

Fixtures

Pre-season was short with just 4 friendlies but that was enough, as usual we breezed past a few weaker sides scoring loads of goals and conceding very few.

Come the actual official matches:

Quilmes A 2-1: Solid away win to start the league, midfielders Nicolás Nieto and Diego Silvero scored both their first goals for the club despite having been regular starters since last season.

Instituto H 3-1: Great dominant win. Another midfielder shone, this time it was new signing Santiago Brunt Lewis, with 2 assists and also his first goal for the club.

Belgrano A 3-0: fairly balanced game with a slight edge to ourselves, turned into a large edge thanks to an inspired Nicolás Netto (the target man ST, not the DM) who scored an hat-trick.

Racing Club H 2-2: Eventful match with 1 penalty each way (JJ Cristaldo saved theirs!), and a red card for Racing, I am a little disappointed, we should've won vs 10 men at home. Also lost Palacios to injury in the sending off incident.

Player on focus

Nicolás Netto (ST) - Our target man has started the season with great accuracy, scoring 5 goals in the league in the first 4 matches. Clearly the star so far.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Apertura:

Copa Argentina: nothing scheduled yet.

Summary

I am truly excited, I genuinely feel this may have been my best transfer window in FM ever, with all the great new young players. It almost forces me to stay at the club for longer than I would've initially expected, I now want to stay a few more seasons and watch this generation of players grow together.

Whilst this is now a long-term project, my goals for this one season are to make it to the continental cups this time, and finish in the top 10 in both leagues at least - or maybe even both top 8. The strong start to the league leads me to think this is possible. I would also like to have a good performance in the Copa Argentina, after 8.5 years of managerial career I'm yet to have any cup run at all which is bothering me.

[Animosama]

I would love to see you also produce some world class youngsters and create a dominating era in argentine football.And also dominate the south american continental championships.

[cerud]

Great opening to the season!

[noikeee]

I would love to see you also produce some world class youngsters and create a dominating era in argentine football.And also dominate the south american continental championships.

Ha, that would be nice, but a bit far away. My goal is just to watch over as this crop of kids grows together, and hopefully they get to achieve something in South America or Argentina, it doesn't have to be domination or even a trophy, just a good run in a cup with a few epic clashes or a title challenge as an outsider sometime down the line would be fitting enough. But at this stage I think I'll stay for some 3 years at least regardless of what happens, I've never really done this before, sticking for a long time to see a generation grow.

Great opening to the season!

Thanks.

[deltablue]

Looks like being a good year.

[B.W.G]

Brilliant start to the season.

[noikeee]

Brilliant start to the season.

Looks like being a good year.

Thank you, and I will have more wins to talk about later. /brag

[AcidBurn]

Very nice start to the season, Netto is a brilliant player exactly what I look for in one of my strikers when I play a 4-4-2, you might have mentioned it but I've not noticed what formation are you playing?

Benitez looks great but needs a bit of work on off the ball or positioning. It looks like you've got quite a few very talented 18-21 year olds in the squad which can only be a good thing.

[noikeee]

Very nice start to the season, Netto is a brilliant player exactly what I look for in one of my strikers when I play a 4-4-2, you might have mentioned it but I've not noticed what formation are you playing?

Benitez looks great but needs a bit of work on off the ball or positioning. It looks like you've got quite a few very talented 18-21 year olds in the squad which can only be a good thing.

I always post a formation screenie at the end of every season and a summary of how my teams are evolving tactics-wise. We play a narrow 4-3-1-2 without wingers, tiki-takaesque possession football, but with the extra of the big man Netto as a target man:

( + retain possession, work ball into box, drop deeper shouts, and the 2 STs marking the opposition fullbacks).

Benitez has already been on positioning training since I signed him, he's already slightly improved that from 9 to 10.

[noikeee]

September-October 2020

Fixtures

Newell's A 3-0: another brilliant away win. Brunt Lewis scored the pick of the goals, an insane long range missile.

Unión H 2-1: Unión scored in the 1st minute but we turned it still in the 1st half. Netto scored in his 5th consecutive match.

Vélez H 3-2: again we conceded early (9th minute) and again we turned it. First club goals for right-back Paul Ramos, and forward Norberto Morales, who I was getting worried about after 6 goalless full matches.

Estudiantes LP A 1-1: I thought we had this when Morales finally scored in the 77th but a 10-men Estudiantes still equalized. Netto ended his long scoring run as I subbed him for a knock.

Arsenal de Sarandí H 4-1: very dominant win. 18yo Chilean midfielder Paulo Fernández had a great day as he scored his first goal for the club, then the second, then the third! Norberto Morales picked up an injury taking him out of the big Boca match.

Boca A 0-2: this was a huge match as we arrived here still in 1st and still undefeated, Boca the closest challengers just 1 point behind. This version of Boca is such an epic side that I wasn't surprised at all to see us badly outplayed (they should've won by more than 2), defeated for the first time in the season, and dethroned at the top of the table.

Tigre H 1-1: difficult match where it seemed like a Morales diving header at the start of the 2nd half would've sealed it, but we then conceded a 90th minute equalizer.

Godoy Cruz A 2-5: I really thought we'd have the upper hand this time as we're having a much better season than them, but our awful record vs our rivals continues as we succumbed to a festival of horrendous defensive mistakes, and some great finishing on their part. Very very bad day.

Independiente H 2-4: I thought we were on course for a stress-free easy win when we scored with our first 2 shots, but we let our opposition score a whole 4 after that, I am hugely disappointed.

Player on focus

Norberto Morales (ST) - This part of the season has been all about our duo of forwards, it's hard to separate them as they've both been scoring regularly, Morales did so with 5 goals and 3 assists these two months, whereas Nicolás Netto got another 6 goals and 1 assist.

Competitions

Primera División - Torneo Apertura:

Copa Argentina: we will face San Martín (T), a fellow top tier side, away from home in the 5th round.

Summary

I was going to post only at the end of November, but I figured an update midway through Apertura would be more interesting. It was all going like a dream as we held on to 1st place for quite a long time, but we knew the fixture list was flattering us and crashed out badly when finally had to face a couple of good sides. We shouldn't really be in contention for the title anymore.

We're still on course for a very very good finish though, but we need to watch out to not fall apart on morale after these last 2 heavy defeats, I would really like to hold on to 3rd place which would be our all-time best (last year's 5th already was...).

[cerud]

Great showing in the league so far! A top 3 finish would be a fine postion.

[AcidBurn]

I always post a formation screenie at the end of every season and a summary of how my teams are evolving tactics-wise. We play a narrow 4-3-1-2 without wingers, tiki-takaesque possession football, but with the extra of the big man Netto as a target man:

( + retain possession, work ball into box, drop deeper shouts, and the 2 STs marking the opposition fullbacks).

Benitez has already been on positioning training since I signed him, he's already slightly improved that from 9 to 10.

I liked that formation on FM12 but not tried it on FM13 yet. I usually browse on my phone on here so miss a few screenshots and stuff. Things are going very well in the league, this thread makes me want to head over to Argentina next on my save.

[Nobby_McDonald]

If you were Argentinian you'd understand their setup better.

But I'm not.

[noikeee]

Great showing in the league so far! A top 3 finish would be a fine postion.

Thanks, yeah that is my aim.

I liked that formation on FM12 but not tried it on FM13 yet. I usually browse on my phone on here so miss a few screenshots and stuff. Things are going very well in the league, this thread makes me want to head over to Argentina next on my save.

I'm on FM12 so... it does work fairly well for me. Glad that this is sparking your interest, I highly recommend Argentina it's great fun.

But I'm not.

Fair enough!

[AcidBurn]

I'm on FM12 so... it does work fairly well for me. Glad that this is sparking your interest, I highly recommend Argentina it's great fun.

I found the AMC scored a tonne of goals using it on FM12. I've always liked managing in Argentina on previous FM's, I'd have gone there if the Crewe job hadn't of come up. This thread will be one of the main reasons I'll venture out there, it's good to see you didn't just pick River or Boca and went for a smaller side.

[noikeee]

I found the AMC scored a tonne of goals using it on FM12. I've always liked managing in Argentina on previous FM's, I'd have gone there if the Crewe job hadn't of come up. This thread will be one of the main reasons I'll venture out there, it's good to see you didn't just pick River or Boca and went for a smaller side.

I am making a point of only making baby steps career-wise when switching clubs, but the likes of River and Boca weren't interested yet, I had not achieved enough for that. Although I probably would be in the running for River now, given they're struggling, just midtable in the 2nd tier this season again! (and I'd be a little tempted...)