[FM20] European Adventure

[ajt]

1860 Munich

There are many interesting clubs in 3. Liga, Kaiserslautern is one I am sure many will be choosing this year. However I thought it would be a good challenge to see if I could topple the mighty Bayern, so who better to choose than their neighbours 1860!

In real life they don't seem to be doing that great (currently sitting in 15th position as of this post) but in the 1965 season they managed to win the Bundesliga, so why not again 

I am interested in the new youth development features, and like the majority of German clubs they have very good facilities so it seems like a good team to start the year with. Hopefully the save doesn't get killed by bugs!

In terms of leagues I have the top divisions in Italy, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and the Premier League & Championship loaded with a small database. Not sure my old i5-2500k can handle much more for a long-term save.

 

My second club (so far ) of the save who have just been relegated to the Championship. Here's to a brighter future!

 

 

Hopefully I will be at Feyenoord for many more years than I was at Southampton 

 

 

My first "big club" and first time back in the Bundesliga since my journey with 1860 Munich.

 

Job History

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Introduction screens

 

Opening Squad

We have a fairly decent squad, however we have 4 injuries of 3 months or more, and I will therefore have to use the loan system to get some cover in for key positions. I have also managed to get Hoffenheim as a parent club.

I plan to roll with a 4-1-4-1 formation as I am so used to using it from previous FMs. If things go well I'd also like to try out a 4-4-2 formation.

 

Key Players 19/20

Osei Owusu is someone I know well from FM19 adventures and is a pretty good player. He's only here for the season but hopefully he bangs in the goals for us!

 

Dennis Erdmann seems like an absolute gem of a defender for this level and even Bundesliga 2. His physical attributes aren't the greatest but he has excellent mentals.

 

Efkan Bekiroglu seems great for his age and I have already decided to sign him to a new longer contract as I can imagine he will be in demand in the future.

 

Dennis Dressel is the best of my players aged 20 or younger and I plan to give him plenty of playing time this season to see how much he can progress. It's a shame he is such a slow player as he would be a perfect B2B midfielder.

Edited October 31, 2019 by ajt

[withnail316]

Nice to see another 1860 save. Best of luck. 

[ajt]

Cheers! seems like a good team to manage given the youth recruitment & facilities. Hopefully I can poach some of the youngsters that Bayern don't want 

I'm currently halfway through the first season and things are currently going pretty well. Should at least match the boards request of finishing in the top half. In the end I only brought in one loan player as I don't have the budget for it right now (most clubs seem to want wages covered).

 

Had a bad result vs Bayern II in which they brought on Fiete Arp at half time 

First youth intake with the development centre, lets hope they continue to be like this in the future.

Edited November 1, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Season 2019/2020

Competitions  _  Transfers  _  Finances  _  Club Vision

First Team  _  Youth Team  _  Development Centre

 

A great way to start this years FM saga. I am particularly pleased with the way the team adapted to my tactical change mid-season. Even though we were winning the majority of games I was thoroughly bored of the way my 4-1-4-1 was working out in the match engine and decided to switch to a 4-4-2 a la Sean Dyche's Burnley. It's not a total copy as we don't defend quite as low but we basically cross the ball and head it a bit. That being said there have also been a number of goals from outside the area which is nice.

Our best result of the season was without a doubt our resounding 5-1 demolition of Eintracht Braunschweig. We were both sitting on 71 points at the top of the table and it more or less cemented our promotion (we would face relegated clubs in the final 3 matches of the season). Braunschweig also got promoted, which is only right as they were destroying teams until the last few games.

I have managed to switch the senior affiliate from Hoffenheim to the fabulous Dortmund (100k affiliate fee too). It will be interesting to see how many youngsters I can get from them next season. I was also able to increase the youth recruitment from excellent to extensive and get a boost to the junior coaching (the club vision asks me to develop players).

The new youth development centre is interesting and as previously posted I have had a great first youth intake. A couple of those players should be good enough for Bundesliga 2 football in the future as long as they progress (and I don't get the sack).

 

Best players

Fabian Greilinger

My genius decision to play Fabian (the only other left winger was injured) paid off in a big way. His attributes aren't exactly great but there's just something about the lad. Not sure how much he can improve in the future but I'll continue to start him.

 

Efkan Bekiroglu

A fine midfielder who is definitely far too good for the third tier. If anyone needs a midfielder for a Bundesliga 2 team then I would recommend him without a doubt.

 

Stefan Lex

Another player without good finishing/crossing attributes who did remarkably well this season.

 

Phillipp Steinhart

Played great at left back and had the highest average rating in the division (7.46).

 

Daniel Frahn

Although he didn't score loads of goals, he got markedly better once I changed to the 4-4-2 and was also a free transfer at the start of the season. If anyone playing a lower level team needs a striker then he's a decent option.

 

Youth

Niklas Lang

I only had 3 players in my youth team at the beginning of the save and he is by far the best. Will be interesting to see just how much he can develop in the future.

 

Looking forward

I had several unhappy players in the squad as I couldn't afford to give them the increased contracts that their play rightly warranted. Luckily their performances didn't seem to suffer. I can't remember what the TV/competition money is like in Bundesliga 2 but hopefully we'll survive financially. I've just had the budgets set and we will have a headroom of £1.5 million per annum and a transfer budget of £550k. That should be enough to buy a couple of the better players from my current division and get a few free transfers in.

The squad is alright in terms of defence & midfield, but I will require a few of strikers for sure. Owusu did a good job for us but I think we'll need someone of better quality as we take the next step. Unbelievably I've just had 2 of my players tell me they need to play for a “bigger club”. Not only is it ridiculous since we've just been promoted, but we're also the second biggest club in Munich! I'm not selling them so hopefully they settle down next season or else they'll be leaving on free transfers in 2021.

I'll be happy just to avoid relegation next season so anything more is a bonus.

[ajt]

Season 2020/2021

Competitions   _   Transfers   _   Finances   _   Club Vision

First Team   _   Youth Team   _   Development Centre

 

Our results for the majority of the season were excellent and in February we were sat at the top of the table. Things went terribly wrong from there and we went 8 games without a win. Despite that a slight modification to my tactic picked us up a bit and we managed to finish in third position, securing a playoff spot. There was then a real kick in the teeth as our first choice keeper (who had done a marvellous job all season) got injured leading to us having to play with our much poorer backup.

 

In the promotion playoff we would face Werder Bremen, who have some great players like Davy Klassen & my FM19 favourite Johannes Eggestein.

 

The first leg was going well at half time with us drawing 1-1. Early in the second half my left back Lenz got sent off. A penalty was awarded to us in the 79^th minute which although missed by my central defender (15 penalty attribute) was driven in by him after the rebound. My young left winger Fabian Greilinger then scored after a wonderful dribble down the wing. Werder Bremen got their second goal in the 94^th minute which they probably deserved as they did outplay us. I shouldn't have worried about my backup goalkeeper as he finished the match with an 8.4 rating.

A sense of doom came as three of my first team players would be suspended for the second leg.

The game itself had little of interest until the 41^st minute when we were awarded yet another penalty. Weber once again stepped up and this time made no mistake, leaving us 4-2 up. In the end we would run out comfortable winners, leading the game in shots and possession, which is funny as I really struggled with possession in Bundesliga 2.

 

As well as winning promotion, we also received £14 million in prize money for our league spot. The board have decided to give me a wage budget of £8 million per annum and a transfer budget of £3.7 million, which is in my opinion pathetic. I didn't expect much else though as they don't seem to be the most speculative of owners.

 

In the DFB Pokal cup we reached the quarter final and got knocked out by none other than Bayern. That said it was only a 2-1 defeat and they played many of their good players including Coutinho and Lewandoski so I'm not too unhappy.

 

Transfers were limited but I was able to get Taiwo Awoniyi on loan from Liverpool and wow what a player. He scored 26 goals in 33 appearances with a 7.53 rating. His work permit has expired for Liverpool and I have already negotiated a loan extension for the upcoming Bundesliga campaign. I highly recommend him to anyone in Bundesliga 2 that's for sure, his wages are only £416k per annum too. I also got a player by the name of Joshua Zirkee from Bayern who is another good young striker. I have also got him on a loan extension for next season so it will be interesting to see how those two do as a tandem in the big league.

Sadly Stefan Lex has decided to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season. No idea why he made that decision as I'm not sure he'll be a regular for another Bundesliga 2 team. It's a real shame as he'd become a bit of a favourite of mine. I think I accidentally promised to sell him last transfer window so in the end it's my own fault

 

In terms of youth development my u19s have won their division and will now compete with Bayern Munich, Stuttgart & Frankfurt. Not sure how much of a difference it makes but it's always nice to see them doing well. I was also able to raise the academy training level to exceptional. My intake this year was good and my young players from last year have been progressing pretty well. My training schedules seem to be producing decent results, as I was a bit concerned that they may overwork the youngsters.

 

Best players

Taiwo Awoniyi

Can't believe Liverpool allowed him to come to us but I'm extremely glad they did

 

Joshua Zirkee

9 goals in 30 games as DLF (support), linked up well with Taiwo

 

Fabian Greilinger

Another solid season from the young man. I have a new left winger coming in on a free transfer so I expect I will rotate them next season.
 

Efkan Bekiroglu

Glad we got promoted as several clubs were ready to trigger his release clause (higher division clubs)
 

Simon Power

Took a punt on this guy from Norwich and he turned up trumps. Will be joining permanently on a free in July.

 

Youth

Niklas Lang

Played the majority of matches with a solid rating. Didn't really improve much with his attributes too much but I'm happy with his progress overall in the team.

 

Nicolas Schlosser

Striker that has fairly good attributes already. Unfortunately he is "fairly susceptible to injuries"

 

Boris Altmeyer

A right winger who's apparently operating at a Bundesliga 2 level

 

Marian Novikov

The best of my players from this years youth intake. His low determination is a worry but I hope he can still grow into a solid backup player at the very least

 

Karl-Heinz Dombrowka

Another player from this year, hoping he can become a decent deep lying playmaker
 

Looking forward

I'm not sure that getting back to back promotions is really going to be good for my managerial reign, since I haven't had any time to stabalise the finances and get it reinvested into the squad properly. However I'm sure if I do get the sack at the end of next season that another Bundesliga 2 club will pick me up, as HSV already offered me the job this season. I will once again be relying on loan signings to see me through, hopefully I can get a couple of quality young players into the team and maybe the odd free transfer. Relegation survival is once again the name of the game. May the hilarity commence.

[ajt]

Key transfers in
Warner Hahn

I really needed a new goalkeeper and Hahn seemed like the one to plump for. I'm really glad that I put my trust in Hahn to step up (rated as a leading Bundesliga 2 goalkeeper) as he's put in some great shot stopping performances so far. His price tag of £2.8 million (£5.75 million with clauses) was part of the reason I had to sell some of my promising youngsters but I don't regret it. He only knows basic german so far so his communication should improve over time.

 

Salcedo

I was able to poach Salcedo from Inter for £1 million which is great value for money. He should have a bit of room to grow too so who knows how he'll turn out, should be a long term player for the club.

 

Lukas Mai

I imagine a lot of people will be signing this guy once his contract with Bayern runs out. Currently playing him in the first team and he's been pretty good. He ended with a 9.0 rating in my game against Stuttgart (no goals scored).

 

Key transfers Out

Karl-Heinz Dombrowka

I was sad to have to sell Dombrowka as I think he will turn into a good player. Dortmund were willing to pay £5 million for him though and I needed to bring Hahn in.

 

Helmut Flammersberger

Leipzig were willing to pay £3.7 million for him and given the state of my finances I simply couldn't refuse. His transfer helped fund a number of loan signings for my first team.

 

Results so far

The Hannover match was tough to watch as we really dominated the game. I think it's going to be a bit up and down until my team get used to playing with each other. I plan on sticking to a similar first team as I don't have a lot of depth, hopefully it doesn't take them too long to get on the same page.
The Wolfsburg game featured an awful collapse, we went from 4-1 up in the 61st minute to drawing 4-4. I did try some tactic modifcations to try to close the game out, maybe I should have just left it and hoped for the best.

Against Schalke we had a big problem as Hahn suffered a concussion which would keep him out for 4 matches. Johannes Brinkies stepped into the fray and played pretty poorly. He did impress against Hertha and Frankfurt though. Still I definitely need Hahn to stay injury free for the rest of the season. It's a real shame that it happened as I think we wouldn't have lost a couple of those games with him available.
Simon Power also picked up a 3 week injury so I've been playing my young right winger Boris Altmeyer, who has understandably been a bit rubbish. That said I guess it's good that he's getting first team experience in the Bundesliga.

The match against Stuttgart was one of the most important of the season as they sat at the foot of the table. Unfortunately I would be without my loan signing from Chelsea Conor Gallagher as he got sent off vs Koln. I did everything I could beforehand to boost the morale of the players and went into the match hopeful of a result.
We got off to a great start with my young star left winger Fabian Greilinger scoring after another one of his driving runs in the 6th minute, and Power got a second in the 29th.  Hahn made an incredible save just after half time and followed this up with many more during the rest of the match, which would end 3-0 after my young defender Niklas Lang scored at a corner. Stuttgart were truly woeful against us and I cannot fathom how they will stay up this season. The players morale spiked after the match to at least excellent which is promising for the next few games.

My 4-4-2 still seems to be holding up so I'm going to stick with it and see what happens. I did change the passing from more direct to normal and switched a few of the midfield player roles. I've also tinkered with the defensive shape a bit.
I've been bringing my young striker Schlosser on as a sub and he got his first ever goal in the game against Schalke which was nice to see. I also rejected a £4.5 million bid for him from Hertha just before the window shut, so he must have something about him.

We've scored considerably more goals against Mainz, Augsburg, Hannover & Stuttgart so if we can tighten up at the back and pick up less suspensions then I reckon we can beat the drop.

Our best shout is probably by claiming 16th position and taking our chances in the playoff.

Can't wait for a better skin to be available for my screenshots 

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by ajt

[withnail316]

You're making excellent progress, man. Not surprised by the lack of funds in the top flight initially, though I suspect if you stay up this year they'll be a bit more generous next season. Lots of cash available in the Bundesliga. 

[ajt]

3 hours ago, withnail316 said:

You're making excellent progress, man. Not surprised by the lack of funds in the top flight initially, though I suspect if you stay up this year they'll be a bit more generous next season. Lots of cash available in the Bundesliga. 

Cheers! Yeah I guess I can understand it too, currently in december and we've got £14 million in the bank. Losing quite a lot each month though as we have by far the smallest stadium in the league & lack sponsorship deals.

Surprised we aren't using Bayern Munich's stadium tbh, I thought there would have been a lower limit on the stadium capacity but guess not. It actually really sucks because almost every ticket is a season ticket. My highest gate receipts this season is £21.9k vs Hannover.. 

Finishing 16th would give us £30 million in prize money though so maybe the board would expand the stadium after that. My current wage bill is £10 million p/a and we've been able to compete with that so I don't need that much more.

 

January break

Well I've made it to the January holiday and things couldn't have gone much better!

In the cup vs Hertha I decided to rest the majority of my first team as I can't really afford to play the extra games anyway. Turned out to be a good decision as we absolutely thrashed Leipzig. Not sure what happened there but I'll take it.

The mainz match was over within the first 20 minutes as we conceded twice from pinged balls over the top, I've now dropped my defensive line from high to standard as a result.

Leverkusen was a pretty mad game with Greilinger once again scoring the winner in the 87th minute. Zirkzee got both goals in the Augsburg game (I haven't even been playing Taiwo yet this season).

We were 1-1 in the Bayern fixture up until the 69th minute when Thomas Muller's movement caught my defence out. Shame really as we didn't play that badly overall.

 

Dortmund was something else. Hahn once again carried us to victory with some fine saves. Zirkzee scored once more and has been playing very well so far.

Their manager got sacked immediately after the game which is an added bonus 

 

As far as my tactic goes I decided to drop my 4-4-2 and am now using a 4-1-4-1 instead. Seems to add a bit more defensive stability while we attempt to score on the break.

In other news my under 19s manager has now joined Sunderland as manager, no idea how they decided upon that but he's doing a sterling job as they've won their last 4 games! 

Edited November 3, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

7 games to go and we currently sit in the Europa League 2 spot.

Stuttgart asked me to join as manager but I turned them down and I'm glad I did as they are toothless.

Not sure how high I can finish as I still have to face Leipzig, Leverkusen, Bayern & Dortmund. 11th position would get me £44 million much needed prize money.

I've also got some pretty good free transfers already confirmed for next season including a new starting DL & DC.

Zirkzee has been playing out of his mind (solo pressing forward) and has got his much deserved first call up to the Dutch national team 

[withnail316]

I'm managing the same club on 19. There won't be a move back to Bayern, who booted 1860 out a few years back. The Allianz was originally half owned by both clubs, but 1860 sold their share because of huge debts, and then struggled to pay rent to stay IIRC. 

The lower limit is 15,000, so you just hit that.  Hard work though.

[ajt]

Yeah man I've been reading your thread!  Oh damn that's awful. I knew they had some troubles financially as I read that they got relegated out of the league because their owner didn't want to pay for their league licence but didn't realise they had a share in the Allianz originally. Hopefully this stadium can be expanded in the future, otherwise I guess I need to build up some serious bank reserves for a new one.

 

In the hunt

I was going to try and write a bit of a story but here are some screenshots instead 

As you can see I struggled against the smaller teams but had great results against the big dogs.

 

The first truly magnificent result thus far. Simon Power popped up at the death as per usual and sealed the deal. Zirkzee scoring against his parent club in the derby was particularly satisfying 

 

Another great game to watch which we dominated.

 

Season 2021/22

We finish in 7th place which means qualification for the fabled Europa League. Will be interesting to see what the setup is like.

 

I had to make a screenshot of this as I've never seen anything quite like it (other than from top players like Ronaldo etc). Simon Power (free transfer from Norwich) finishes with an average rating of 7.81

Zirkzee also finishes as the top scorer in the division. Next season will be extremely tough without him! Bayern weren't willing to let him go to a "rival club".

 

I also won German Manager of the Year (I would have been gutted if I didn't). Hopefully that helps when the board sack me next season because..

 

They now expect me to "continue qualifying for the Euro Cup 2" for the next 4 seasons 

 

Finances are suddenly looking a lot more healthy 

 

Transfers for this season, sadly plenty of loans once again. Hopefully the board give me some proper money to spend now so I can build my own settled squad.

 

Players of the season

Joshua Zirkzee

 

Simon Power

 

Eddie Salcedo

 

Lukas Mai

 

Warner Hahn

 

Youth Talent

Nicolas Schlosser

 

Marian Novikov

 

 

Boris Altmeyer

 

Next season aims

As previously mentioned I'd like to finally be able to sign a squad of my own and not have to rely on so many loan signings. I've got a few first team players coming in on free transfers and have been scouting far and wide for in a new defensive midfielder in particular. I think I've found a rather decent Italian bloke so I'll probably bring him in. I'm only searching for players who earn less than £1 million per annum as I'd like to keep the finances sustainable. Nothing worse than bankrupting yourself due to silly transfer decisions.

I have no idea how I'm going to achieve the boards aim for next season without Zirkzee. Luckily I still have Taiwo on loan from last season and have just extended it for next season too so I may well roll with him up front. He did brilliantly in Bundesliga 2 so it might be alright.

I'd also like to start looking at getting some more players in for my youth team if I have enough cash.

edit; just got my new budget through, kaching!

Edited November 4, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Got some more time to play 

 

Key Transfers

Marcel Sobottka came from Dusseldorf just before the window shut. I desperately needed a starting DMC since my loanee Herbie Kane left and he was the best I could find for a fair price

 

Managed to get Dusan from Fiorentina for 1.2 million. He hasn't scored yet but I have hope!

 

Samuele was a favourite of mine from last years FM so I was very pleased when I saw his contract was expiring.

 

Another free transfer, this time from Millwall. Has great jumping/heading and not bad mentals.

 

And so the regen hunting has begun. This guy looks pretty damn good, hopefully I can rotate him and Boris Altmeyer in the future.

 

Picked up this guy from Nimes. Needs to work on his finishing but is fairly well rounded already.

 

The Europa League draw was kind to us. Will be very annoyed If we can't progress out of this group. One of the other groups features Lazio, Dynamo Kyiv & Galatasaray!

[ajt]

Well things have not quite been going according to plan 

Our match against Leipzig was pretty brutal to watch so I have been making more changes to my tactics for the second half of the season. Hopefully we stop leaking so many goals.

I also forgot that 2022 has the Qatar world cup, the second half of the season has so many fixtures!

There is a pretty big gap from the top half to the bottom half of the league.

The one highlight so far has been our performance in the Europa League group stage. We didn't do very well against Braga however.

We've been drawn against another Portuguese team in Sporting. They will be a big step up from any of the teams in our group so I'm not expecting us to progress much further.

Nicolas has been progressing pretty well. I think I've given up on the two strikers I signed in the summer so I will give him a starting spot from now on and see what happens.

[El Pibe]

Nice to see a 1860 save for FM20, it's my beta save also! 
4141 also, and sticking with it!
Keep up the amazing job, looking forward to see a new king in Munich!

[ajt]

cheers! I have to say though I've switched from a 4-1-4-1 back to a 4-4-2, I wasn't scoring enough chances with my 4-1-4-1 now that Zirkzee returned to Bayern. I think the 4-1-4-1 works well if you have a great solo striker but sadly I currently don't 

things have picked up since I switched to the 4-4-2:

 

I've also spent all of the remaining transfer budget on two new regen midfielders

Maxime in particular looks like he should be a great player in the future

Edited November 7, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Changing the formation has shored up the defence & Vlahovic has finally started scoring goals!  He now has 10 goals in 19 starts.

 

38 points means we should be safe for another season. Top 10 finish would get us a good amount of dosh.

 

We gave it a good go vs Sporting CP but a first half straight red really dented our chances and we couldn't hang on in the end.

 

Just had my youth intake (which wasn't that good overall) but there's yet another promising winger 

[ajt]

The run in was great and we finished in the same 7th position as last season

Finances are once again looking good

Youth prospects are looking positive for the future

Squad screen for the season

 

Players of the season

Mattia played very well and also won the German Footballer of the Year award

 

 

 

 

Mike Belford was a loan keeper from Man Utd and has incredible attributes for his age, definitely a future England goalie!

 

Youth Talent

 

 

Next Season Aims

I've had a lot of fun at 1860 Munich & they're a great team to start with. However I'm afraid to say that I shall be their manager no longer as an offer came in that was simply too good to turn down.

My beloved Saints have been relegated to the Championship and it seems only fitting to try to get them beyond the heights that Ronald Koeman reached.

The squad is in fairly decent shape, and we already have the brilliant Francisco Trincao!

The upcoming transfer window should be pretty frantic as I try to offload the deadwood.

[withnail316]

A job well done at 1860. Best of luck with the Saints. 

[ajt]

I see you also moved on in your save 

Thanks for the luck I may well need it, have sold a lot of players but totally forgot about the brexit rule. No idea who I'm going to replace them with! 

[ajt]

The off season featured a lot of transfers as I looked to trim down squad. The transfer fee for Djenepo was pretty insane and he hasn't been performing well for Derby so far.

James Duff is a regen striker who came into the game when I loaded the Scottish Premiership and will hopefully be an important player for us.

We've been playing pretty well so far. The only concerning game was vs Watford.

Sadly Trincao picked up a groin injury, up until then he'd been the best player in the team. Hopefully we can get by without him for the next couple of months.

[ajt]

Things went a bit pear shaped when Trincao got injured but quickly picked up upon his return. We've got Plymouth or Cardiff in the 5th round of the FA cup.

 

We're in a good position with 16 games left to go. Playoff football should be more or less guaranteed by this stage.

 

I decided to spend quite a lot during the January transfer window to get the squad ready for Premier League football. I figure it's better to get the players in now so they can settle.

 

A young striker who was on loan from Inter. Plays as my DLF (S).

 

Yet another older regen who popped up when I added in other leagues.

 

My new keeper who is rated as "good for Premier League". Doing well so far.

 

I wasn't sure if I should sign this guy due to his age but I needed an extra midfielder to rotate.

 

The first time I've seen a Chinese club outspend everyone else.

 

Unfortunately 1860 aren't doing so well, but that was expected since their manager sold Salcedo to Hoffenheim & Zaccagni to Juventus 

[ajt]

An excellent second half of the campaign saw us run away winners. I feel like the rest of the league (other than Brentford) were pretty poor overall.

Unfortunately we somehow managed to lose to Cardiff on penalties in the FA cup. We then beat them convincingly a few weeks later in the league so who knows 

 

Finances are in a healthy state and I should be able to get a couple of players in with my new transfer budget (might switch a bit of my wage budget over too).

 

A new central defender & striker could be a good idea to bolster the squad.

 

A new owner took over the club towards the end of the season and they are expecting us to qualify for the Europa League... 

 

Players of the Season

Michael Obafemi

Has been in great form all year, his physicals (other than his jumping reach) are really quite something.

 

Andreas Pereira

Rejected multiple bids of £40 million last summer and I'm really glad I held on to him.

 

Francisco Trincao

Other than his injuries (which do seem to happen fairly often - I now rotate him a fair amount) he has had an excellent season. Seems all of the big clubs are interested in him now.

 

Sergio Ferreyra

I wasn't expecting a great deal when I took him on a seasons loan from Inter but he impressed me so much that I decided to buy him outright. He fits my DLF position perfectly with his great passing ability. Also has had some good dribbles through opposition defences.

 

Callum Chapman

The only real stand out youth talent at the club currently but he isn't too shabby at all. Could turn into a really good DLP in the future.

 

Next Season Aims

Europa League qualification is obviously the goal for next season.

I'll be interested to see what happens if (when ) that target isn't met as I haven't failed the club vision test yet.

Luckily I have loaded extra leagues so if I do get the sack I should have plenty of interesting jobs to choose from 

[ajt]

Transfers

I found yet more older regens from the leagues I loaded previously (Austria, Switzerland, Scotland, Czech Republic) 

I've now started scouting 16 & 17 year old regens to build up the youth ranks in the next window.

 

Lukas Kraut

£18.5 million from Banik Ostrava. Decided to sell my old goalkeeper Althauser (to PSG) as this guy looked pretty special. Still only knows basic English.

 

Martin Ditmar

Another old regen this time from Viktoria Plzen. He didn't have good average ratings and cost me £10.75 million but has been performing well so far.

 

Patrick Schmidt

Pretty great attributes for a left back. £11.25 million from SV Mattersburg. Should be a mainstay in the team for years to come.

 

Peter Petrie

I decided to sell Andreas Pereira (28 years old) to Liverpool for £58 million so I needed a new CM to replace him. Peter cost me £8 million from Dundee Utd and has already been playing well, racking up 5 assists so far.

 

Early season results

The season started off well enough but results have dried up recently. I have just used the team meeting to boost the players confidence so hopefully we can pick up some more wins soon.

 

We have a good goal difference & points tally already, so I don't think we will face relegation this season 

[ajt]

Season 2024/25

We had some decent results including a 4-3 win against Tottenham but unfortunately we weren't able to finish in the Europa League spots

 

Squad screen

 

The club finances are in a healthy state and the club should be in a good position for the future

 

Players of the Season

Francisco Trincao

 

Peter Petrie

 

Callum Chapman

 

Lukas Kraut

 

Martin Ditmar

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Unfortunately my dream of taking Southampton up the league is over as the board decided I didn't do a good enough job. I had a feeling things would go badly since they were demanding a Europa League finish and thus my time has come to an end.

Not sure who to apply to takeover next so might sim the game for a bit and see if any interesting job offers come up 

[ajt]

Took me a year to find a fun club to join but I think Feyenoord should be pretty good, especially with their youth recruitment 

 

The squad is in pretty decent shape and I've been given a transfer budget of £23 million.

I already have some good youngsters in the first team too:

 

 

 

 

 

My main focus is to work out a 4-2-3-1 system & bring in a new goalkeeper asap.

[ajt]

Here are also a few of the top transfers from around the globe in 2026

 

Rodrygo - £150 million from Real Madrid to Man City

 

The rest are regens

£146 million from Man City to Barcelona

 

£94 million from RB Leipzig to Liverpool

 

£80 million from FC Porto to Liverpool

 

£70 million from Lazio to FC Barcelona

 

I have no idea what they were thinking of but Everton decided to buy this guy for £68 million from Wolves despite him not even averaging above a 7.0 rating 

 

There have also been a few ridiculous £60 million transfers by the big Chinese clubs (Beijing & Guangzhou) 

£62 million...

[ajt]

Season 2026/2027

My new 4-2-3-1 tactic started off very well and we were flying at the January break, being only 3 points behind Ajax

Unfortunately the seemingly inevitable dip in form came after January and we had a horrendous second half of the season leaving us outside the automatic qualification places. I guess the opponents just learnt how to play against us.

We beat FC Utretch (just) over two legs and then lost pretty comprehensively against PSV in the playoff final. I was pretty worried that the club were going to sack me straight after the game but luckily they haven't. My job security went from insecure to stable straight after the PSV result.

 

Ajax walked the league as expected, Heerenveen have a great young regen striker who has been carrying them somewhat so hopefully a big club comes in and buys him 

 

In terms of transfers I bought 2 central midfielders, a goalkeeper & right back for the first team and a young 18 year old belgian full back who should develop well and be a regular first team player next season.

I sold quite a few unnecessary players. The only player I was sad to sell was my left back Mitchel Bakker but the £15 million fee was too good to turn down.

 

The Finances are in pretty good shape right now although I imagine the transfer budget for next season will be lower than the current £50 million.

 

Important players

Dave had a decent campaign playing as my lone striker. Not sure I will use a 4-2-3-1 again as I didn't score many goals overall so he will probably have a strike partner for next season in my good old 4-4-2.

 

Plenty of assists but not many goals. Jari needs to improve his crossing ability and I will continue to play him in the first team.

 

I rotated Bobby on the left with Arjan van der Heide and he did okay. He is now 28 so it might be time for me to try to sell him on and bring in a younger operator.

 

Luuk became one of my main central defenders and has good key attributes for the position.

 

Youth

I played Wessel extensively throughout the year and he did okay but as I probably won't be using an AMC next season he will need to adapt to playing as a CM.

 

The young right back that I bought in January. Will definitely give him more playing time next season.

 

A youth player that I am thinking of re-training as an ML to replace my older player Bobby.

 

Promising young defender who I will probably loan out for next season. Needs to improve his tackling.

 

Yet another AMC (we seem to get loads of them!) who will be te-trained as an MC.

 

Another AMC, however I am trying to re-train him as a striker (DLF) instead.

 

And another one. I wish I could trade one of them for a decent young dutch left back 

 

Looking forward

I only just managed to keep my job so I will definitely be using all of the money available to me during the next window. The club vision wants me to qualify for the Europa League (again) so it seems there is little point in trying to build the club up for the future. May as well sink it into financial peril to try and unseat Ajax right now 

My main objective in the market is to bring in a left back. I already have a new dutch striker arriving on a free from Inter Milan so should be pretty sound in that area. I'm also trying to keep my signings from Holland or Belgium to give the team a bit of a lowlands flavour.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

With one game to go we were guaranteed a Europa League spot and finally in contention for the title.

Unfortunately both PSV & Ajax won their final match so we ended the season in third spot.

 

I'm really happy with the season overall and the team finally seem to be coming together as a unit (whilst I still develop my young starlets).

 

Our form suffered after the winter break but we did great in March/April winning nine games in a row 

 

Unfortunately a number of key players got lengthy injuries of 3+ months (poor Jari Danning even broke his leg )

 

I didn't spend as much money as I could have (other than a big transfer fee for my new regen left back) and managed to sell off many of the peripheral players for decent fees.

 

The finances have taken a big dip and it's likely that the club will soon be in trouble, despite being under the wage budget by £15 million per annum.

 

I got a given a 2 year contract extension with the same aim of qualifying for the Europa League.

PSV had a great campaign in the Europa League reaching the semi finals before they were knocked out by Borrusia Monchengladbach.

 

In terms of my old clubs 1860 Munich are still doing great, finishing around the Europa League spots each year (they now have the old German u19 manager in charge) whilst Southampton haven't been doing so well and finished 11th after sacking their manager mid-season. It's such a shame that I got sacked by Saints because this is how one of the young players I helped develop has turned out:

33 England caps at age 22!

 

I checked a few a few of the big transfers that have happened around the globe and this one rather took me by surprise:

Barcelona signed him from Hertha Berlin for £84 million.. 

Although he does have a great goalscoring record for the German national team so I guess he has something about him.

 

Important Players

Dave had another good season and now has over 50 league goals for the club. I need to try to find a way to get him to score more though if we are to win the league.

 

Wessel had another solid season and I reckon he could be a future mainstay in the Dutch national side.

 

The left back I brought in this season. He isn't good at tackling but starts in the Belgian national team (will be playing at Euro 2028).

 

I got Brian on a free from Inter and have been playing him as my AML inside forward. He didn't play so many matches as I only changed my tactic after the loss to Dordrecht. He's rated 2 stars in the position but seems to play well enough.

 

Youth

I've been having a lot of fun developing my youth intake & have supplemented them with some young prospects from other countries too.

Rather than just letting them sit in the u19s I've also been loaning them out to see how they develop without my great coaching staff.

 

Peter came in from Mainz on the cheap but boy what great attributes so far. I've been giving him some games as my AMR inside forward.

 

Young Belgian keeper I signed that should have plenty of room to grow. Has good handling & reflexes already and an eccentricity of 1.

 

Marcel was loaned out to NAC and had a pretty good season. I think I'll loan him out again next season as I already have two AMC's to rotate in the first team.

 

Jurgen played in the Eredivisie this season and didn't do too badly with a poorly performing side. Not sure what to do with him next season, probably another loan spell. He has incredible speed.

 

Rijad still hasn't improved his tackling which is concerning. I think he might have hit his limit. I did however get a rather bizarre bid from Chelsea which I turned down.

 

Tomas is yet another Belgian that I have collected. He might be good enough to rotate in my team next season. If not then I expect he'll be due a loan spell too.

 

Owen is the best player of this years youth intake. With his determination of 20 (!) I can see him going far.

 

Looking Forward

I still have a big transfer & wage budget available to me. I'm unsure of whether I should strengthen the squad and really let the finances tank or just stick with what I have. In terms of the squad the only position I really need to strengthen is central midfield.

Next season will see my first return to the Europa League since the 1860 days which I'm looking forward to. Here's hoping we can have another good season or my head will be on the chopping block 

I really hope that doesn't happen because I'm having a lot of fun in Holland with my regens!

[ajt]

I managed to qualify for the Europa League via the playoff by beating Brann 10-1 on aggregate.

Our group will be fun as Genk have a pretty good squad (and obviously Wolfsburg are a strong team) but the board just expect us to "be competitive" so I guess as long as we get a few wins it will be okay.

 

It certainly could have been a lot worse though looking at some of the other groups!

 

Sadly my young AMR Jari Danning decided to join Valencia for £26.5 million after numerous clubs (including Bayern & Barcelona) activated his release clause.

I still think it's a decent fee for him though and it has boosted our finances up to a healthy £63 million. I hope he does well for them and doesn't just become some underused young talent as seems to happen all too often.

I've decided not to buy a new AMR to replace Jari and will endeavour to develop Peter Aden instead.

Luckily my other young talents like Wessel Van Dijk & Dave Kok are on long contracts without release clauses so there won't be any issues there.

 

I moved straight away to strengthen the midfield, and also brought in a new goalkeeper after selling my Swiss international Heiri Jeanneret to PSG for £9 million, giving a £5 million profit.

 

Pepe is a pretty good keeper for this level and already has 3 clean sheets this season

 

I decided to sell my old BWM Knoester because he wanted to leave (not getting enough game time) and picked up this lad from Atletico Madrid for £9 million in his place

 

Real Madrid decided to let this guy go for £1.6 million for some inexplicable reason

 

Parahat had been languishing in the PSG reserves for a while (although he did funnily enough spend a season on loan at 1860 Munich ) so I picked him up on the cheap.

Edited November 24, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Unfortunately we weren't good enough to progress out of our Europa League group. I was surprised with how well Celta Vigo did though, we only managed to beat the very poor Genk (who are supposed to be one of the best teams in Belgium).

 

We were then put into the Euro Cup II against Milan of all teams but managed to win 4-2 on aggregate.

 

Our next opponents will be Nice. This should be a winnable tie as they are currently 11th in Ligue 1.

 

The league has been going great and the board now expect me to qualify for the Champions League. We've already played both Ajax & PSV so our last 8 games are quite reasonable.

 

Due to the board expecting me to qualify for the CL I decided to strengthen the team even further in January.

 

A good young defender that I signed from Napoli. Has gone straight into the first team.

 

A new young striker who I've been bringing off the bench. Mainly brought him in because I think Dave Kok might want to leave the club in the not so distant future.

 

I haven't used him in the first team yet but I figured I may as well buy another right back to cover for my regular starter Matos.

 

Scott's contract was due to expire in the summer so I decided to bring him in from Tottenham for £5.5 million before loads of other clubs tried to sign him.

[ajt]

Season 2028/29

 

Unfortunately we got knocked out of the Europa Cup II by Club Brugge, which was even more frustrating as the semi-final would have been against Wolfsberger AC of Austria.

 

Much better news in the Eredivisie though as the players romped home in first place with the second highest goal difference by a team since this save began 

 

Squad screen for the season

 

I also finally won the "Dutch Manager's Manager of the Year" award over my rival Vincenzo Montella.

 

Important Players

Jaroslav banged the goals in from the left wing this season and has gained wonderkid status.

 

Nestor is definitely my best signing so far in FM20. Should go for megabucks when he leaves the club for his next challenge.

 

Wessel improved this season picking up an excellent 15 assists and winning the award for Young Dutch Player of the Year.

 

Robin played in place of the departing Jari Danning and did really well. Another player that is now a wonderkid.

 

Big Dave has continued his decent scoring form this season.

 

Youth

Marcel is the best of the young AMC's at the squad and should have a very bright future.

My youth intake was very poor this season so I don't really have any other young players to show 

 

Looking Forward

I was planning to write that my aim for next season would be to win the league again & try to compete in the Champions League.

However in the off-season I got a very interesting job offer (my world reputation spiked following the league title) and I've deemed it far too good to turn down.

I'll miss the Eeridivisie and Feyenoord as it's a great league/club for developing young players, but alas..

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by ajt

[SRL88]

Nice season man 

[Jorge666]

Bit late to the party but I started one with these going very well, found 41212 diamond narrow to be a good formation they lacked good wingers, managed a coup in persuading the board to sign erkan eyibil for 2.5m and just in my 3rd season close to the top of bundesliga and have had to sell the little ***** as he would resign a contract so had to let him go to Leverkusen for 2.6 but found some great newgen talent to replace him and pinched matias arezo for 1m compensation who's scored 11 in 13 in the league, all in all thoroughly enjoying the game, I asked the board to build a new stadium and they agreed but it will only be 22k capacity, I wonder if I had waited a few years till the bundesliga I'd have gotten a bigger one built? I'll struggle to compete financially (I know I'm being a bit optimistic) but it'll be hard to keep finances positive with any real players with such a small stadium, I could hardly see it being expanded to 50,000 capacity and I doubt they'll build another new one after building this so soon....