Moneyballing My Way To A Champions League Title in Every European Nation Part X: The FM23 Experiment

[EndoSym]

Congratulations on a great thread! I had a great time binge reading it yesterday. I'm really struggling with using your formula, though. I am terrible at math and can't figure out how to work out the parenthesis. And when I try to use the formula on Excel, it leads to an error and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Sorry if this is a bothersome and thank you for a great read!

 

[Punch]

18 minutes ago, EndoSym said:

Congratulations on a great thread! I had a great time binge reading it yesterday. I'm really struggling with using your formula, though. I am terrible at math and can't figure out how to work out the parenthesis. And when I try to use the formula on Excel, it leads to an error and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Sorry if this is a bothersome and thank you for a great read!

 

I think the final formula is missing some closed brackets at the end.

[shaunvamos]

January 2030

 

 

 

 

 

Besides the heavy loss to Monaco, we had a great start to 2030. Despite the loss to Monaco we're in 3rd with a larger gap than before, but we need to keep this up.

 

 

 

Transfers (Out)

 

 

 

Four players leave, and all of them generated a profit for us. With the many additions made to the squad some players are bound to miss out, and these guys happened to be the unlucky ones. 

[shaunvamos]

43 minutes ago, Punch said:

As someone who tracks attributes, I can tell you this formula is excellent for tracking growth and change, as well as comparing players who can play multiple positions, and also against each other.

Thanks for your kind words Punch! Tracking growth and change is immensely important for a youth only challenge like yours, and something I'm not particularly focused on at the moment besides tracking the improvement of the first XI over the years. But it's so good for figuring our who can/should play where.

 

 

 

36 minutes ago, EndoSym said:

Congratulations on a great thread! I had a great time binge reading it yesterday. I'm really struggling with using your formula, though. I am terrible at math and can't figure out how to work out the parenthesis. And when I try to use the formula on Excel, it leads to an error and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Sorry if this is a bothersome and thank you for a great read!

 

 

17 minutes ago, Punch said:

I think the final formula is missing some closed brackets at the end.

 

I'm not sure if you mean my final formula, I've just checked it against what I've got in the spreadsheet and the amount of parentheses are the same. Here is an example for the Advanced Forward metric:

 

=((I2+J2+K2+T2+X2+AD2+AI2 + (0.66*(Q2+V2+Z2+AH2+AJ2+AK2+AN2+AO2)))/15*5)/69.59*100.

 

You can see four opening and closing parentheses, identical to the format shown in the other post at the end. That excel formula is probably a more visual example to see what's going on there.

[shaunvamos]

February 2030

 

 

 

 

 

Dumped unceremoniously out of the cup in what was an extreme case of being unable to finish chances, but we have a chance to extend our gap to 4th in the league. We also needed extra time to progress against Benfica in which we were down 4-2 on aggregate with only a half to go. It took an 89th minute goal from Siaka Traore to take it to extra time, before Beraud continued his extraordinary form in front of goal to send us through.

 

 

 

 

 

We draw another beatable side in Sporting Lisbon, who we beat 8-3 on aggregate in the 2027 Europa League group stages. I'm quietly confident. The teams present here don't seem to be as stacked as last season, but the Milans are always dangerous.

[shaunvamos]

2030 Youth Intake

 

 

 

Ervin Diakondwa 9A  -  Cristian Tamas 9B*  -  Leo Rodríguez 9C

 

 

 

A much better intake than anticipated, especially liking the look of the Romanian Tamas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

March 2030

 

 

 

 

 

Even with all these new additions to the squad we're still having serious depth issues. It cost us a spot in the Europa League quarter finals, where we blew what should have been a comfortable 2-0 lead, and it cost us a result in Paris. Despite that we're still somehow in third with a gap.

[Punch]

5 minutes ago, shaunvamos said:

where we blew what should have been a comfortable 2-0 lead

Ouch! That's a tough beat.

[shaunvamos]

14 minutes ago, Punch said:

Ouch! That's a tough beat.

I meant we blew the 2-0 lead heading into the second leg, they were already 4-1 up at half time in Lisbon 

[shaunvamos]

April 2030

 

 

 

 

 

With a game in hand, 3rd place could be sealed in our very next game against Lorient at home. Do we dare to dream?

[Punch]

Yeah 2-0 up to go down 4-5. As I said, Ouch! 

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally.

 

After three consecutive 4th place finishes, some of them agonisingly close, we've finally cracked the top 3 and Champions League football for next season! We'll enter in the 3rd qualifying round, but I have faith we'll get a ticket to the big dance.

 

 

 

Best XI

 

 

 

Gaetano Oristanio  -  Siaka Traoré  -  Cedric Beraud

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Record Breakers

 

 

 

 

 

Award Winners

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

 

[shaunvamos]

2030 Preseason

 

 

 

Another busy transfer period, as we recruit heavily for backups. Only one of the guys brought in is a starter, and that's only because we sold Hassan Effiong to Villarreal. We only bought him a season ago, but he tore his Achilles and was on the sidelines for most of the season, so I capitalised when clubs became interested. We make 10m profit on him, and I wish him the best in Spain. All the guys we brought in were quite cheap too, so here's hoping we can profit on them at some point while they all fight for depth spots.

 

 

 

Central Defender

 

 

 

Benoit returns to France for a season as Effiong's replacement, He's actually better on paper than Effiong as well, so we've upgraded in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

A very, very busy friendly series. Don't be fooled by the floggings, they were teams in unplayable leagues. But the goals are a huge boost.

 

 

 

 

 

Predicted 7th! But let's see if we can finish top 3 again. Our first competitive game is a quest for revenge against Sporting Lisbon.

[shaunvamos]

August 2030

 

 

 

 

 

One of each result to start the league, but the big thing is that we're in the Champions League groups for the first time!

 

 

 

 

 

It's a pretty brutal group, but when you're a team like ours in a competition like this, there are no easy groups. I want 3rd though.

[shaunvamos]

September 2030

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very comfortable month as we play all 3 newly promoted teams, and we sit 3rd. PSG have decided that the league title is theirs already. We also don't disgrace ourselves at the Bernabeu either.

[shaunvamos]

October 2030

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great month, slightly overshadowed by the loss to Lens, but we have two strong wins in the Champions League and sit 2nd at the halfway point.

[shaunvamos]

November 2030

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We draw against some difficult teams, but we're still in touch with 2nd. A place in the knockout stages of the Champions League is dependent on us getting a result against Madrid. If we don't we still have the Europa knockouts to look forward to.

[shaunvamos]

December 2030

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A terrible month, as we fall out of the top 6 in the league and are knocked out of the Champions League groups. We still put in a phenomenal effort though, and have the Europa League to look forward to.

 

 

 

 

 

We play Rangers, who we lost to in a friendly in the preseason last season.

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad.

[shaunvamos]

January 2031

 

 

 

 

 

Just terrible  We're 3rd on the expected table according to the analysts, but we just can't finish. I can't lose faith though.

 

 

 

Transfers (Out)

 

 

 

A lot of players left this January, all for decent money, and none bigger than Wisdom Amey's 41.5m pound move to Dortmund. I think they've been robbed, because he wasn't in the first team for us. But I definitely won't complain. We sell him for 6 times what we bought him for. Other key players we lose include starting CB Alexandre Ramos to Sevilla for 8.75m and 3 times what we bought him for; starting CM Oliveira who chose to go to Gent for nearly 30 times what we paid; and starting DM Majoros who went for 4 times what we paid. They're all big losses, but the huge fees associated with them gave us a shot at replacing them in this window. Even if we didn't, we have a tonne to spend next season, and thanks to the depth recruitment strategy the replacements within the team are not too far off the quality we lose.

 

 

 

Transfers (In)

 

 

 

 

 

We sign Swiss Bosnian Ilic for 9m and a player who will never play for us. I think it's a bargain, and he's better than Oliveira at Mezzala which is where he'll be playing. 

[shaunvamos]

February 2031

 

 

 

 

 

Well, we're out of all cup competitions after we lose on penalties to PSG and a very disappointing performance over 2 legs against Rangers in the Europa League. They're deceptively strong. At least we won all our games in the league, something we'll need to keep up so we can get 3rd. Theoretically we should be second, we've been so wasteful.

[shaunvamos]

2031 Youth Intake

 

 

 

Christian Makiadi 10A  -  Elias Lutumba-Pitah 10B*  -  Baptiste Bernard 10C

 

 

 

What an incredible intake, finally our investment in facilities is starting to pay off. 5 guys with 4.5 PA as a European Ligue A club? Crazy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

March 2031

 

 

 

 

 

With our schedule freed up, we've taken full advantage, shooting up the table with a real chance of getting a Champions League place again.

[shaunvamos]

April 2031

 

 

 

 

 

All we've done since being knocked out of everything is win. We secure our first ever win against Lyon, and it was in Lyon, as well as a 3-0 thrashing up the coast over closest rivals Nice. I'm really shocked to see a team like Marseille threatened by relegation, but we recovered from that shock and beat them too. A Champions League spot beckons as we head into the final 3 games.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Automatic group stage spot  Something I thought was not on the cards three or four months ago. But as I said, a free schedule meant we pretty much played a full strength side for every game after that, and it made a huge difference. Now we have a huge amount of money to spend, so expect big things in the next preseason. We're going to push for the title, or at least look to make PSG uncomfortable.

 

 

 

Best XI

 

 

 

Benjamin Blum  -  Siaka Traoré  -  Steve Toso

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Record Breakers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Award Winners

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

 

[shaunvamos]

2031 Preseason

 

Transfers (Out)

 

 

 

Nothing to write home about here so far, but there are some big money moves on the horizon. 4 youth academy products leave, which means we made profit regardless. We unfortunately lost money on Makaya, but profited enough from Traore to have a net profit overall.

 

 

 

Transfers (In)

 

 

 

Everyone here is a depth option once more except for Agyiri-Gyan, who replaces the departing loanee Sergent.

 

 

 

Centre Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's very encouraging that we were able to beat Atletico so convincingly, even though it was only a friendly.

 

 

 

 

 

Predicted top 5, but the shock is that Nice are expected to challenge. Why? Chinese tycoon takeover in 2027. Things just got interesting.

[shaunvamos]

August 2031

 

Transfers (Out)

 

 

 

One huge sale, with Cedric Beraud departing for the riches of the English Premier League for 30m profit. Sad to see him go, he was a solid contributor, but it's hard to turn down a fee like that, especially when he was interested in talking to Everton. That just meant we could find a replacement for him with all those funds.

 

 

 

Transfers (In)

 

 

 

 

 

Despite being bought as Beraud's replacement, the Italian wonderkid will slot into the central midfielder position. At 19.5m he looks to be a steal, and he's got plenty of room for growth to get even better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results to PSG and Lille aside, it's been a strong start in the league. 

 

 

 

 

 

Another tough group, with Haaland led Bayern favourites to stomp everyone in the group. Lyon get a tough one, but PSG should progress comfortably.

[shaunvamos]

September 2031

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bit of a mixed month, but the Champions League group is wild! Milan beat Bayern, and then Ajax beat Milan. 4th place may be a possibility for us.

[shaunvamos]

October 2031

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apart from the strange loss to Montpellier it was a good month, and 3rd seems to be the aim for the Champions League groups.

[shaunvamos]

November 2031

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's tight at the top in the league unless you're PSG, and it comes down to our last CL group game in Amsterdam as we fight for a Europa League place.

[shaunvamos]

December 2031

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're out of the cup, but that doesn't matter, it just frees up the legs as we head into the business end of the league and the the Europa League. That's right, we beat Ajax in Amsterdam in a winner tales all match for a spot in the Europa knockouts!

 

 

 

 

We face Sporting Lisbon again, a team we've come up against often in European football. They've knocked us out of the Europa League 2 seasons ago, and then we knocked them out in Champions League qualifying last season. Can we improve our disappointing continental form?

 

 

 

 

 

Another good preview, but it's almost expected now.

[shaunvamos]

January 2032

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect start to 2032, and PSG are just teasing us by being that close.

 

 

 

Transfers (Out)

 

 

 

Our backup RWB leaves, as we collect 1.5m in profit from it.

[shaunvamos]

February 2032

 

 

 

 

 

Still unbeaten to start 2032, and we made the win over Sporting harder than it should have been. We out xG'd them in the first leg 3-0, but someone forgot to tell Sporting. Oh well, we're still through.

 

 

 

 

 

And this is where it will end. At least Lyon, Monaco and Nice are all here. At least one of them will be in the quarter finals. We just won't be joining them.

[shaunvamos]

2032 Youth Intake

 

 

 

René Andre 11A  -  Brahim Clavel 11B  -  Kévin Touré 11C*

 

A pretty deep intake once more, with 10 players due to be signed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

March 2032

 

 

 

 

 

Predictably out of the Europa League, but we still maintain the 5 point gap to PSG. There's still a chance.

[shaunvamos]

April 2032

 

 

 

 

 

Drew against the three big rivals, and 2nd should be ours if we win our next game against Reims.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A solid finish to the season, we were the clear second best team in the country all season, and it's time to translate that into Europe or at least threaten PSG late into the season.

 

 

 

Best XI

 

 

 

Opoku Agyiri-Gyan  -  Blas Gil  -  Benjamin Blum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Record Breakers

 

 

 

 

 

Award Winners

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

 

[shaunvamos]

Preseason 2032

 

 

 

A relatively quiet preseason so far by our standards, but it wasn't meant. I think we had 10 or 11 players lined up to be bought with contracts offered, but some chose to go elsewhere and so we only signed 5. I won't rule out pulling our remaining money for one (or two) big signings on deadline day. In terms of who we lose, only one first teamer in Leonel Onana departs for 8m profit. Most of the others went for profit, including Devineau (300k), Cenci (1.1m) and Skyum (400k). However, we made losses on Huck (-1.325m) and Magola (-525k). Still, some pretty good pieces of business there.

 

 

Centre Back

 

 

 

Axel is a gem hidden in Uruguay until now, and he wasn't our first choice to replace Onana. However, once our first choice chose Everton, I was determined to bring him in no matter what it took. It only took his release clause and a slight inflation of his wage contract from what we first offered, and he was ours. He looks ready to have a breakout season in his first European venture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something that should also be mentioned is that I'm now the new French NT manager. Current manager Zinedine Zidane resigned to take up the Inter job, so I leapt at the chance. The board required some convincing in relation to managing both at the same time, but they relented and here we are. There is honour to restore, as they lost in the 3rd round of the 2030 World Cup after winning three in a row, and have made 3 of the last 4 EURO finals, losing all of them, most recently the 2032 edition to England on penalties. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A strong preseason, and still predicted 5th. But I'm aiming to give PSG a scare before ultimately settling for 2nd again. Also try and get into the Champions League knockouts for the first time.

[shaunvamos]

August 2032

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from the loss to PSG in the Super Cup, we could not have asked for a better start. Siaka Traore has gotten off to a hot start, and the 5-0 win over Monaco is particularly satisfying.

 

 

 

Transfers (Out)

 

 

 

A few more depth options leave us, but it may give the youngsters a chance for some rare first team minutes. Bergmann only made 8 league appearances for us but we sold him for 600k profit, we lost money (200k) on Gorski after only making 1 appearance, and Lecomte was unlikely to make an impact here so Antwerp are more than welcome to have him.

 

 

 

 

It's a group I think we can come 2nd in if we play our cards right against Benfica. PSG should get through their group, as should Lyon who have in my opinion the easiest group in the competition.

[shaunvamos]

September 2032

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our unbeaten start in the competitive games that matter continues, even though we dropped points against Montpellier. We are somehow topping the Champions League group too, as Wolfsberger actually beat Real Madrid in Austria. This group may turn out to be a little more difficult than first thought.

 

 

 

National Team

 

 

 

 

 

Solid start to the Nations League, especially the thumping win over Portugal.

[corinthiano]

Things are really starting to come together, can see you wrapping up France within the next couple of seasons.

[shaunvamos]

October 2032

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got a bit too ahead of myself and forgot what date it was, so the first game from November is included too. Back to back drubbings of Wolfsberger sees us through to the Champions League knockouts with 2 games to go, and our imperious form continues in the league, opening up a 3 point gap to PSG.

 

 

 

National Team

 

 

 

 

 

A successful bit of travelling, and we're well on track to win the group.

[shaunvamos]

6 hours ago, corinthiano said:

Things are really starting to come together, can see you wrapping up France within the next couple of seasons.

Thanks, we're really coming along quite quickly

[shaunvamos]

November 2032

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my God. This is going to be the season PSG gets deposed isn't it  Now that I've said that I've probably jinxed it.

 

 

 

National Team

 

 

 

 

 

Comfortably through the the Nations League semi finals. We play Italy, and England play the Netherlands.

[ManUtd1]

Anything to see PS-****ing-G go down!

[shaunvamos]

December 2032

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, definitely spoke too soon there as Marseill snap our unbeaten streak in an emphatic way. I won't talk up our chances this early again.

 

 

 

 

 

RB Leipzig have finished in the top 3 the last 4 seasons, so even though we were the top seed this is going to be a tough ask.

 

 

 

 

 

Who knows what this intake will offer, mixed feelings as always.

Edited March 31, 2022 by shaunvamos

[shaunvamos]

38 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

Anything to see PS-****ing-G go down!

I definitely jinxed it 

[3maldini3]

On 10/12/2021 at 10:29, shaunvamos said:

Yeah, the overalls are based on a formula I created which takes into account the key attributes for the role they're playing, as well as the attributes considered "preferable" but they are assigned a smaller weighting. So the key attributes are worth 100% of their initial value and the preferable attributes are worth about two-thirds of their original value.

I am up to the fifth page and I really enjoy reading and find it inspiring.

Could you share that? I was wondering what are these ratings and then someone else asked about it.

Also I noticed there are barely any 3D generated faces, did you not sign any newgens? what am I missing here?

 

[shaunvamos]

5 minutes ago, turgi said:

I am up to the fifth page and I really enjoy reading and find it inspiring.

Could you share that? I was wondering what are these ratings and then someone else asked about it.

Also I noticed there are barely any 3D generated faces, did you not sign any newgens? what am I missing here?

 

Thanks for your kind words

I have shared it throughout this thread, but for convenience I'll add the most recently saved one here.

The generated faces have been replaced using a program called NewGAN. It's a massive database full of fake faces that you can use to replace newgen faces. For me the SI faces become a bit homogenous after a while, and this just adds to realism I think. Here's the link for it: https://fm-base.co.uk/resources/newgan-facepack.1266/

FMCU.xlsx

[ManUtd1]

2 hours ago, shaunvamos said:

I definitely jinxed it 

I didn't help...

[3maldini3]

3 hours ago, shaunvamos said:

Thanks for your kind words

I have shared it throughout this thread, but for convenience I'll add the most recently saved one here.

The generated faces have been replaced using a program called NewGAN. It's a massive database full of fake faces that you can use to replace newgen faces. For me the SI faces become a bit homogenous after a while, and this just adds to realism I think. Here's the link for it: https://fm-base.co.uk/resources/newgan-facepack.1266/

FMCU.xlsx 174.07 kB · 0 downloads

Same here.

Once there's too many pf them, I lose interest so I cant really play long saves.