Alternate Universe Career

[st.cronin]

Recently started a save playing as Newport County, using the following mods I made myself:

 

All nations youth rating set to 100. I've done this for several versions, and it doesn't change as much as you would think. You still get a ton of good prospects in the usual countries/academies, but it does make it more likely that you'll get a superstar from, say, Estonia or Indonesia or someplace. I think it's actually more realistic.

 

Superleague teams all given continental bans. So, for example, in England, Wolves, Brighton and Leicester are in the Champions League, and Brentford is in the Conference League.

 

PSG, Man City, and Chelsea have had their sugar daddies taken away, and their finances ruined. Neymar has been exiled to a random Qatari team.

 

Juventus has been relegated to serie B.

 

The Red Bull teams have all gone bankrupt, and have been removed from the game.

 

Swansea, Cardiff, Wrexham and Newport County have left the English system and are now part of a 16 team Welsh premier league.

 

Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland are all in the EU.

 

All of this is meant to simulate the world (UEFA) striking back at the superleague teams, as well as catering to my own personal bias against English football.

First season in the books:

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by st.cronin

[st.cronin]

Tactics inspired by an article from viewfromthetouchline.com - I made a few tweaks, and have found this to be a very effective and flexible setup. Works with cautious and positive mentalities, although I generally stick with balanced.

[st.cronin]

At the beginning of the year I freed up some money by selling our top two goalkeepers. (I had two of identical quality, put them on both on the transfer market thinking I'd maybe get interest in one of them, but, weirdly, Grimsby Town bought both for more than I expected.)

Really only made two important signings, at gk and dc.

Edited August 8, 2023 by st.cronin

[st.cronin]

City and Chelsea had successful seasons despite the financial turmoil (no idea why Southampton qualified for Conference League - possibly a side effect of something I did with the editor?):

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by st.cronin

[st.cronin]

[st.cronin]

Champions League was an all-German affair:

 

[st.cronin]

Likely starting 11 for the 23-24 season:

GK - Rome, 21 - Spanish, returning starter.

DR - Cameron Norman, 27 - another returning starter

DC - Nikola Marjonivic, 22 - Serbian, signed last year on a free and emerged as a starter

DC - Marqes Muir, 20 - let go by Tottenham, signed by us for free. Seems to be the best of several youngsters.

DL - Mohammed Gadafi, 22 - signed last year mostly for his name, didn't play a lot, but attrition has him looking like the best option here.

MC - Harry Charsley, 26 - returning starter

MC - Aaron Lewis, 25 - converted wingback; set piece specialist; one of our most important players, and a real star last year.

AMR - Tyreke Johnson, 24 - started for Woking the last two seasons, signed on a free.

AMC - Aaron Wildig, 31 - returning starter; 8 goals, 8 assists a year ago

AML - Danny Grant, 24 - started for Harrogate Town in L2 last year, signed on a free.

FC - Will Evans, 26 - returning starter; 19 goals, 6 pom last year

[st.cronin]

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by st.cronin

[st.cronin]

Our most creative attacker from last year, McNeil, was on loan from Man U, and they wouldn't extend. We also lost two important veteran central defenders, two of our top 3. 

Danny Grant may fill one of those gaps but we're definitely at least a little bit worse than we were.

Additionally, Welsh league now only gets 3 spots in Europe. I expect Wrexham to be very ambitious, meaning a top 3 spot will be tough to achieve.