FM19 - Derby County: how are you doing?

[Irobinson69]

Amazing season @JaytheGreat, Champs League semis too. Good luck for the run in.

[JaytheGreat]

Well this update comes with good and bad news. The good is,

DERBY ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE!!! And on a slightly smaller note we also won the Community Shield. Along the way we broke Derby's club record for most points (90) in a season, lowest amount of losses (4), and Fabio Silva won the Premier League Golden Boot, along with top Champions League Forward. Other signings played as well as I expected, Ajer was solid every where he played, Vinicius Jr despite being hurt he still had 10 goals and 11 assists. The midfield played like their normal top tier self even though only one is really world class. The defense is solid and I made a risky transfer at the deadline to bring in probably the top LB in the game for 71 mil. But all the spending is coming at a cost back up striker Casper Bengtssen leaves for Liverpool and PSG hit the 150 mil release clause for my best player and Derby home grown talent AMR Zoran Vulosevic who is probably a top 10 player in the game. 

But we are back with superb fiances, 150 mil to spend, and one last mountain to climb. I definitely need a new starting AMR, and I would also like to upgrade the RB, and CB, positions. 

Edited June 9, 2019 by JaytheGreat

[Irobinson69]

14 hours ago, JaytheGreat said:

Well this update comes with good and bad news. The good is,

DERBY ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE!!! And on a slightly smaller note we also won the Community Shield. Along the way we broke Derby's club record for most points (90) in a season, lowest amount of losses (4), and Fabio Silva won the Premier League Golden Boot, along with top Champions League Forward. Other signings played as well as I expected, Ajer was solid every where he played, Vinicius Jr despite being hurt he still had 10 goals and 11 assists. The midfield played like their normal top tier self even though only one is really world class. The defense is solid and I made a risky transfer at the deadline to bring in probably the top LB in the game for 71 mil. But all the spending is coming at a cost back up striker Casper Bengtssen leaves for Liverpool and PSG hit the 150 mil release clause for my best player and Derby home grown talent AMR Zoran Vulosevic who is probably a top 10 player in the game. 

But we are back with superb fiances, 150 mil to spend, and one last mountain to climb. I definitely need a new starting AMR, and I would also like to upgrade the RB, and CB, positions. 

Congratulations @JaytheGreat, fantastic achievement! I take it Liverpool got the better of you in the Champions League?

So where are you planning to spend all those dollars? Must have a Man City style budget after all your success and selling 2 big players.

[JaytheGreat]

6 minutes ago, Irobinson69 said:

Congratulations @JaytheGreat, fantastic achievement! I take it Liverpool got the better of you in the Champions League?

So where are you planning to spend all those dollars? Must have a Man City style budget after all your success and selling 2 big players.

Thank you! Yeah we beat Liverpool in the 1st leg at home 4-3 but lost at Anfield 2-0.

Because I took a gamble in the winter window I only have 150 mil to play with in my transfer budget, but I do have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to wages. I'm also looking to sell Poulsen and Maffeo this summer. I honestly only NEED a AMR, but I want to upgrade RB and CB. There's a chance I could sign Eder Militao from Man Utd for under 70 mil and that would solve the RB and CB upgrades but it's going to put the hurt on my wages, so whatever I do I need to get my AMR position settled first before I move on to something else. 

[Irobinson69]

Who was the superstar left back you bought in January?

[Irobinson69]

Well lads, that was an eventful 21/22 season!

[Irobinson69]

So the 2021/22 target was to secure Champions League football at the newly expanded 50,000 seater Pride Park, after two 6th place finishes in previous seasons. This was even more important as many of my new signings were asking for promises of CL qualification when negotiating contracts, and the likes of Andreas Pereira, Munir and Callum Chambers we’re becoming unsettled as I rejected bids from big clubs.

Had a terrible start to the season, losing 2 of first 3 games. While it was Man Utd and Chelsea, the worry was that they completely smashed us. We were in 15th. Form improved but still a couple of dodgy results, but we got to Christmas just inside the top 6.

Man City wanted Munir in January. 53m for a player I got for free was too good to refuse, especially as the ground expansion hadn’t put our finances in a good place. Plus Anthony Martial had established himself as first choice striker after a dodgy start, and our homegrown wonderkid Andrew Parkinson had 4 months of PL football under his belt at West Ham.

Once January came there was no stopping us. Going forward we were on fire, scoring 3+ in nearly every game.

Lomg story short, WE WON THE PREMIER LEAGUE! By 9 points from Chelsea. We scored 105 goals.

Europe League was easy in the group stages, and gave plenty of fringe players a chance, as well as an opportunity for Martial to find his shooting boots. However we’d done the same last season before Udinese easily dumped us out in 1st KO round. However we gained revenge over them this time in the QFs, before comfortably beating our bogey team Chelsea in both legs in the semis. Monaco in the final was looking a tough one, with our former superstar loanee Pietro Pellegri now probably rivalling Mbappe as the world’s best striker. WE WON 5-1!

Lost out in semis of both domestic cups, so something else to aim for next year.

Harry Wilson was insane, averaging 7.65 (beating Kevin de Bruyne’s PL record), and winning both Player of the Year awards after scoring 23 goals and 16 assists. Other key players were:

Antonio Marin: 38(8), 18 goals, 16 assists, 7.48

Anthony Martial 35(17), 39 goals, 7 assists, 7.36

Andreas Pereira 36(13), 16 goals, 16 assists, 7.37

Honourable mentions to some of our home grown lads too (though stats somewhat inflated by playing the easier games, especially in Europa League).

Andrew Parkinson 13(6), 15 goals, 2 assists, 7.59

Jayden Bogle 25(3), 4 assists, 7.47

Mason Bennett 19(11), 15 goals, 9 assists, 7.53

In fact, my worst player was Loftus-Cheek who still averaged 6.99 despite being injured for 3 months and coming off the bench a lot to replace the tiring Pereira who consistently is in the top 3 players for distance covered per game.

I’m glad I snubbed Man Utd now and took the 4yr contract on offer from Mel who now has 99% confidence in me. Would probably be 100% if he didn’t bizarrely think I didn’t sign enough young players for first team, despite having the youngest team in the division!

Actually made a profit in the transfer market with the big sales of John Souttar and Munir. Don’t need radical changes this year, and have a 70m budget. Will need to either retain Renato Sanches who I had on loan or find a top class BBM to replace him. A wonderkid CB to have as backup to Uduokhai / Zouma / Chambers, and a wonderkid keeper to replace the retiring Scott Carson as backup to the superb Angus Gunn.

Next up is 2022 World Cup with England in Australia....

 

[Stuniverse]

Brilliant, @Irobinson69. What an amazing season!

[JaytheGreat]

@Irobinson69 

This is the LB I brought in during the winter.

 

Also Congrats on the Premier League!!! I think it's safe to say you have the better Derby team.

[Irobinson69]

20 minutes ago, JaytheGreat said:

@Irobinson69 

This is the LB I brought in during the winter.

 

Also Congrats on the Premier League!!! I think it's safe to say you have the better Derby team.

He looks a beast with those physical stats. Pace and acceleration of Usain Bolt!

Looking forward to seeing how I go defending the title and how we perform in Champions League. 

It’s usually after 3-4 seasons I start getting bored, so hopefully this save keeps my interest to keep going as long as you.

[Irobinson69]

Err, I won the bloody World Cup!

Form was a bit dicey losing to Venezuela and USA in the run up. Did as expected in the groups, comfortably beating Iran & Ghana, though threw away a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 with Portugal. Kinda did me a favour and put me in the easier half of the draw.

Edged past Senegal 3-2 in 2nd round, Uruguay 2-1 in QF, and 2-1 over Croatia in SF.

Was praying for Japan to beat France in semis, though saying that Japan knocked out Brazil.

3-0 win over France in the final courtesy of a rare Luke Shaw goal, and 2 from Harry Kane.

Now where’s my knighthood.....

”It’s coming home”

[Stuniverse]

It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming... football’s coming home!

Congratulations, @Irobinson69!

Any Rams players in your England World Cup winning team?

[Irobinson69]

Angus Gunn was my keeper, Harry Winks was in the squad and played a couple of games. Andrew Parkinson (regen) was backup to Kane and scored his first international goal against Iran.

I dropped Callum Chambers from the squad, as didn’t think 4x CBs were needed. He wasn’t happy but is Ok with Derby.

Antonio Marin was Player of the World Cup and Young Player of the World Cup, so now I’ve had to give him a 150k a week contract at Pride Park to ward off the suitors.

[Irobinson69]

And I’m still not in the top 10 English managers of all time. Won more trophies for England than all the other managers put together after my Nations League triumph. Now for the Euros to complete the set.

[JaytheGreat]

So after going back and forth I decided on signing 19 year old Dave Oliver for 93 mil from Everton to replace Zoran Vulosevic on the right wing.

 

It basically came down to him and a Brazilian winger from FCP. The FCP winger has a lot cheaper but he also didn't like big matches so I went with Oliver.  As you can tell he's got speed to burn plus the ability to beat his man. While he's off to a slow start I'm not worried, he had no preseason with the team and he doesn't need to score. Most of my scoring this year is from Fabio Silva, Vinicius Junior, Renato Sanches, and Kiren Wiring ( a striker my DoF bought a few years back as a prospect). He's only 19 so he's going to develop into a British monster. Because of his price tag he was the only deal he made this summer, but I think I'll have some players leaving in the winter so I'll probably make more deals then. 

[JaytheGreat]

So a small winter window update, I lost Xadas to Man City for 66 mil, and add ones that could bring the deal up to 99 mil. Xadas was having his best season at Derby having 8 goals and 8 assists in 2 games, but he's 28 and I'm not going to get a better deal for him, plus it's his last big deal. I also sold Ajer to AC Milan for 33 mil. Selling those 2 plus the money I had left over this summer allowed me to buy this 20 year old wonder kid from Bayer Leverkusan for 117 mil.

Safe to say he's going to be a Derby legend by the time he leaves Pride Park. 

[Stuniverse]

47 minutes ago, JaytheGreat said:

So a small winter window update, I lost Xadas to Man City for 66 mil, and add ones that could bring the deal up to 99 mil. Xadas was having his best season at Derby having 8 goals and 8 assists in 2 games, but he's 28 and I'm not going to get a better deal for him, plus it's his last big deal. I also sold Ajer to AC Milan for 33 mil. Selling those 2 plus the money I had left over this summer allowed me to buy this 20 year old wonder kid from Bayer Leverkusan for 117 mil.

Safe to say he's going to be a Derby legend by the time he leaves Pride Park. 

Nicely done, @JaytheGreat. Keep us posted on Sven Caspari's development.

[JaytheGreat]

Well this season is in the books and although we didn't retain the Premier League title or get over the last mountain top that is the Champions League, we did still pick up a trophy. We beat Man City in FA Cup Final 4-3, although they had the last laugh finishing 12 points above us to win the Premier League. In the Champions League we got knocked out by PSG in the Quarter Finals losing 5-3 over aggregate, I can't be upset as the boys gave it everything they had. Fun fact PSG is so loaded they used the player they bought off me in the summer at RB (must be nice). He had 5 players scoring over 10 goals; back up striker Kieran Waring (12), Renato Sanches (13), Vinicius Junior (14), Dave Oliver (15), and Derby goal scoring record breaker Fabio Silva (43). SIlva lead both the Premier League (29) and Champions League (9) in goals. Mount, Silva, Oliver, and Junior all had 10 or more assists. Junior tied the Derby assist record. The team all played well, with not to many standouts outside of the attackers and Sanches.   

Two years of decent youth intakes have given me a handful of prospects to get excited about, although they are still very raw and will take atleast another 2 seasons to make it to the main Derby team. I don't know where the Argentinian CB came from but I'm glad him and his parents found his way to Derbyshire for the youth intake. My prospects are attacker heavy but I'm excited to watch these kids develop anyway. 

I already have plans to buy a RB and a young CM this summer, not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of the money I have. 

[Stuniverse]

Still a great season, @JaytheGreat.

Nice situation to be in having more money to spend than you know what to spend it on. So what will you spend it on or will you bank it?

How is Sven Caspari coming along?

[Stuniverse]

I’m about to start my fourth season (2021/22) in my Derby County - Director of Football Challenge with Igor Stimac as DoF.

If you’re interested, you can check it out here:

 

[JaytheGreat]

8 hours ago, Stuniverse said:

Still a great season, @JaytheGreat.

Nice situation to be in having more money to spend than you know what to spend it on. So what will you spend it on or will you bank it?

How is Sven Caspari coming along?

Just a follow up PSG went on to smash Liverpool 5-1 in the Champions League Final, it's their 3rd Final's victory in the save.

Money is already spent, I brought in a CB and RB, I have some players leaving so I have about 60 mil in transfer budget and 11 mil wages to save for an emergency in the winter. I already plan on spending 160 mil next summer on the GK for Bayern and he will most likely be my only transfer next season.

Sven played well since joining, got bit by the injury bug a few times, but he played 11 games with 3 goals and 2 assists. I've mainly been playing him as a Shadow Striker, but I may experiment and throw him into attacking midfielder role like Xadas played. 

[Irobinson69]

Great work @JaytheGreat. You’re picking up some amazing regents. Caspari looks to have world class stats already. Better than Andreas Pereira in my game already and only 20. I play him as AM(A) in similar formation to you, so I reckon Caspari could be the new Maradona in that role for you.

[Irobinson69]

He’s definitely short enough. Hope his injury absences aren’t for same reasons as Diego’s though 😂 

[JaytheGreat]

Summer Signings 2025/2026

1. Luiz Felipe 23 Brazilian RB Leverkusan - $72 mil  11.44/year

What can I say I love Bayer 04's players and they love to accept my money. Felipe has a unique blend of very high offensive and defensive attributes, 13 crossing, 12 dribbling along with 15 marking and 17 marking. The 23 year old Brazilian has monster physicals to go with great mentals. He'll take over the starting spot and hopefully run with it. 

 

 

2. Francesco Battaglia 23 Italian CB Atlanta - $66mil  6.5/year

I straight up robbed Atlanta, this kid is a stud CB. All physicals are 15 or above while Marking, Tackling and Positioning are 16s. I'm not sure how any team is going to score on him, but I'm going to watch in amusement watching them try. He's also a beast when it comes to set pieces.

 

3. Junior Firpo 29 Spanish LB from Barcelona - $15.75 mil  4.83/year

I hate signing older players but Firpo is too good to pass up. Really good stats physical, and 14 crossing. He'll be a very good back up at LB.

 

4. Jaap ten Heuvel 18 Dutch CM from Feyenood - $11.5 mil  $255k/year

A young prospect for later, and he's still a year or two away from making the first team. Heuvel is currently on loan at Fiorentina,

 

Outs:

Xavier Schlager $51 mil to some Chinese team

Chris Mepham $42.5 mil (47) to Chelsea

Sergio Casaprima $8.25 mil to Boca 

Max Lowe $7.75 mil to Middlesbrough 

[Stuniverse]

Looking good, @JaytheGreat. Good luck 🍀

[JaytheGreat]

So here it is the last mountain to climb. Our match up is Barcelona and I've decided to take the game to them, and I line up like this.

[Stuniverse]

33 minutes ago, JaytheGreat said:

So here it is the last mountain to climb. Our match up is Barcelona and I've decided to take the game to them, and I line up like this.

A very attacking lineup, @JaytheGreat. Good 🍀 luck !

[JaytheGreat]

 

WE DID IT!!!! CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS!!!

We beat Barcelona 3-1 with a brace from Fabio Silva and a 90 minute goal from Sven Caspari. It was our trip to the Champions League, we have made it to the Semi Finals before but never farther then that. We beat Real Madrid 6-3 at Pride Park and lost 2-1 in Madrid, the game at home really shocked me I honestly never expected to put up 6 in one game. Next up was Atletico Madrid who we breezed by, after that was old nemesis Pep Guardiola and Chelsea. We lost at Stamford Bridge 1-0 but came back and blew them out at Derby. 

As for the rest of the season we finished 3 points behind now back to back league winners Man City. It was during the season I noticed the more defensive I played the worse my games were. So I went very attacking and we started blowing out teams like Real Madrid, Liverpool and Man Utd. Fabio Silva once again lead the Premier League in goals with 26, he also broke the Derby record of most Man of the Matches with 11, and made the champions League and Premier League team of the year. AMR David Oliver took home the Premier League Youth Player of the Year, English Player Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the Year, and was on both the Champions League and Premier League team of the Year. Oliver also smashed the Derby single season assist record by having 21 assists (the previous record was 16). Vinicius Junior won the Champions League Golden Boot with 9 and was voted as the tournaments best midfielder. We has a team set the Champions League goal record with 40 goals in the completion. I gotta say the young attack on this team is incredible; Silva finished with 41 goals, Vinicius Junior had 28, Kieran Waring had 18, Dave Oliver with 13, Sven Caspari with 13, Zakaria Bakkali had 11, and Mason Mount finished with 10. Players with over 10 assists included; Oliver with 21, Caspari with 20, Junior with 18, RB Sergio Perez Franco with 12, Silva with 11, and Mount with 10. New signing Francesco Battaglia was our linchpin in defense he had the highest non attacker rating and also proved to be deadly on set pieces scoring 3 goals. The midfield had the same faces doing the same things the are known for doing Sanches playing box to box, Zakaria winning the ball and Mount providing most of the playmaking. The defense was solid all year long, and special shoot out to 18 year old Declan Rice who took over for an injured Predrag Rajikoivc in the last 2 months of the year. Rice was in net for the last Quarter Final leg against Atletico, and both legs against Chelsea, he also was the starter for all the Premier League games over that time as well. 

I already spent my entire Summer budget on a French 22 year old GK from Bayern who is without a doubt the number 1 GK in the world. A small thing that frustrates me is that there are no decent Box to Box or Ball Winning Midfielders out there and with both Renato Sanchez and Dennis Zakaria entering their 30s I need to start looking for replacements soon. It just seems like the game isn't creating any more. 

With all of that aside, I have mentioned the Champions League was the last mountain to climb and after winning it I've decided to retire the save and move on to a different team. I'm not retiring this team forever and might still have another season or 2 left in me by the time FM 20 comes out. But for now it's the end of the JaytheGreat era in Derby, and I hope I earned the Great at the end of my username with this Derby career. 

[Stuniverse]

10 hours ago, JaytheGreat said:

 

WE DID IT!!!! CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS!!!

We beat Barcelona 3-1 with a brace from Fabio Silva and a 90 minute goal from Sven Caspari. It was our trip to the Champions League, we have made it to the Semi Finals before but never farther then that. We beat Real Madrid 6-3 at Pride Park and lost 2-1 in Madrid, the game at home really shocked me I honestly never expected to put up 6 in one game. Next up was Atletico Madrid who we breezed by, after that was old nemesis Pep Guardiola and Chelsea. We lost at Stamford Bridge 1-0 but came back and blew them out at Derby. 

As for the rest of the season we finished 3 points behind now back to back league winners Man City. It was during the season I noticed the more defensive I played the worse my games were. So I went very attacking and we started blowing out teams like Real Madrid, Liverpool and Man Utd. Fabio Silva once again lead the Premier League in goals with 26, he also broke the Derby record of most Man of the Matches with 11, and made the champions League and Premier League team of the year. AMR David Oliver took home the Premier League Youth Player of the Year, English Player Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the Year, and was on both the Champions League and Premier League team of the Year. Oliver also smashed the Derby single season assist record by having 21 assists (the previous record was 16). Vinicius Junior won the Champions League Golden Boot with 9 and was voted as the tournaments best midfielder. We has a team set the Champions League goal record with 40 goals in the completion. I gotta say the young attack on this team is incredible; Silva finished with 41 goals, Vinicius Junior had 28, Kieran Waring had 18, Dave Oliver with 13, Sven Caspari with 13, Zakaria Bakkali had 11, and Mason Mount finished with 10. Players with over 10 assists included; Oliver with 21, Caspari with 20, Junior with 18, RB Sergio Perez Franco with 12, Silva with 11, and Mount with 10. New signing Francesco Battaglia was our linchpin in defense he had the highest non attacker rating and also proved to be deadly on set pieces scoring 3 goals. The midfield had the same faces doing the same things the are known for doing Sanches playing box to box, Zakaria winning the ball and Mount providing most of the playmaking. The defense was solid all year long, and special shoot out to 18 year old Declan Rice who took over for an injured Predrag Rajikoivc in the last 2 months of the year. Rice was in net for the last Quarter Final leg against Atletico, and both legs against Chelsea, he also was the starter for all the Premier League games over that time as well. 

I already spent my entire Summer budget on a French 22 year old GK from Bayern who is without a doubt the number 1 GK in the world. A small thing that frustrates me is that there are no decent Box to Box or Ball Winning Midfielders out there and with both Renato Sanchez and Dennis Zakaria entering their 30s I need to start looking for replacements soon. It just seems like the game isn't creating any more. 

With all of that aside, I have mentioned the Champions League was the last mountain to climb and after winning it I've decided to retire the save and move on to a different team. I'm not retiring this team forever and might still have another season or 2 left in me by the time FM 20 comes out. But for now it's the end of the JaytheGreat era in Derby, and I hope I earned the Great at the end of my username with this Derby career. 

Congratulations on winning the European Champions League, @JaytheGreat. Fortune favours the brave, huh?

Thanks for updating us on your Derby County save.

Any idea what your next save will be?

Good 🍀 luck!

 

[JaytheGreat]

9 hours ago, Stuniverse said:

Congratulations on winning the European Champions League, @JaytheGreat. Fortune favours the brave, huh?

Thanks for updating us on your Derby County save.

Any idea what your next save will be?

Good 🍀 luck!

 

It really does or atleast when you put almost 450 mil into your attack.

Thank you for all the replies during my run.

I think my next save is going to be trying to de-throne PSG with Olympique Lyon. 

But I will definitely be keeping up with your DoF story.  

[MrZollo]

Could someone post a few screenshots of how young talents like Luke Thomas, Max Bird, Jayden Bogle, Kyle McAllister, Louie Sibley, Max Lowe and Duane Holmes look beyond 2023/4?

[Stuniverse]

4 minutes ago, MrZollo said:

Could someone post a few screenshots of how young talents like Luke Thomas, Max Bird, Jayden Bogle, Kyle McAllister, Louie Sibley, Max Lowe and Duane Holmes look beyond 2023/4?

In my save I’m not there yet - Game Date: 4 January 2022.

Of the players you mention, only Bird, Bogle, Lowe and Sibley are still at Derby under mine, and DOF Igor Stimac’s stewardship.

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Stuniverse

[GreenBull]

Hey,can anybody tell which players to sell in the first season.we are approaching winter and we are sittng first.waghorn is tearing it up in the league with 9 in 11.thanks

[Diplomatt83]

EDIT - sorry I'm new and no idea why this has a white background !

 

I realise I’m a bit late to this but I decided to finally get back into Football Manager after 4 years. Until 2015, I’d played every single game in the series dating back to Championship Manager 2 in the early 90s, so it’s safe to say I’m a HUGE fan of this game.

I also realise FM20 is out now, but last month I had an incredible urge to play again and despite the risks it posed to my new marriage, I purchased FM19 and began as Derby (the team I support).

I always disable transfers in the first window in order to increase the realism, so I had a budget of £0 at the start which was a little frustrating. I also try to avoid any discussions about wonderkids or good players. I’m a bit OCD with this game and it took me 20 hours to press continue for the first time (I try to sort out and analyse absolutely everything within my control).

I completely gutted the backroom staff for my first team, U23s and U18s and brought in over 20 new staff members on a free. I also delegate nothing and prefer to manage everything myself (though I do let my U23 and U18 managers manage their games and sort their training).

In terms of the team, I played 4231 Wide, Bogle was instantly my first choice at right back and has been fantastic, Tomori and Keogh were also excellent all season, as were Mount, Wilson and Lawrence. I loaned in Alexander Sorloth from Palace to play up front and then signed Vincent Janssen from Spurs in January – he was okay. To be honest, the CF position was my weakest area and all my goals came from the 3 attacking players behind the main striker. I didn’t really play Marriott as I wanted to have a strong centre-forward who can head and hold the ball up, so it’s interesting he seems to have been playing great for most others in this thread.

In January, I picked up a few experienced players in Robert Huth and Patrice Evra – they were good but weren’t my star players.

In my first season I managed to win the league with Stoke coming 2^nd.

 

At the start of my 2^nd season in the Premier League, I again gutted the entire backroom staff and now my Team Report states we have one of the best coaching and scouting teams in the league. I also planned on making major sweeping changes and brought in the following players:

 

David Raya – GK (about £10m)

Christian Fuchs – DL (free)

Ivan Marcano – DC (about £7m)

John Souttar – DC (about £3.4m)

Aissa Mandi – DR (about £2m)

Scott McTominay – CM (loan)

Grzegorz Krychowiak – DCM (loan)

Harry Wilson – RW (loan)

Andreas Pereira – AMC (free)

Jese – LW (free)

Arda Turan – AMC (free)

Aleksandr Mitrovic – FW (about £20m)

 

Obviously I felt the team that got me promoted wouldn’t cut it in the Premier League and so made massive changes, I utilized installments in a way to be able to afford them but not crippling my future budgets.

After 15 games I was sitting pretty in 3^rd place, a pretty unbelievable start but I knew it wouldn’t last. We started to hit a rocky patch in December and in January I made the most of my measly £7m budget to bring in a few promising Portuguese youngsters. I’m now at the end of January and sat in 6^th place, I expect the ‘big 6’ to take the top 6 places as they’re spending insane amounts, I’m hopeful of holding on and getting 7^th place ahead of Brighton, but we'll see.

We dominate possession in most games and sit 2^nd in the possession table. Mitrovic is a beast up front and McTominay is absolutely bossing the middle of the park (I particularly wanted at least one tall player in CM and at 6’4, he’s very good at winning balls in the air).

In my first season, I picked up a 17 year old Spanish kid called Pelayo Morilla, due to injuries he ended up playing a bit in the Premier League and ended up getting young player of the month for October. I’ve not played him much since though because my attacking line is way too good to bench.

John Souttar has been a bit of a revelation at the back and was an absolute bargain at around £3.4m (minimum fee release clause).

All in all, I’m pretty delighted at how this has gone so far, I just hope next season the board give me a nice fat transfer budget to try and compete with the big boys.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Diplomatt83