[FM24] Les Rouges et Noirs, adventure in Britanny

[KlaaZ]

We survived a very busy March, and got our second youth intake. 

First of all, the good. We survived the round of sixteen against Salzburg and are on to the quarter finals, where we meet Newcastle. We already beat the Magpies once in head to head in the Europa League last year, hopefully we can do it again. The game in Austria was surprisingly hard, but we managed to overcome going 2-0 down to rescue a draw. We went behind twice at home, despite playing them off the park, and it was Kalimuendo who came off the bench to take us into extra time where we made the difference with three more goals. 

Three shots on target against, three goals conceded. It would be the story of the weeks to come. We lost two points in Lens despite being the better team the entire game and being 2-0 up (xG against 0.69), and conceded another 3 at home against Toulouse in a 5-3 victory (0.82 xG against). We then won in Strasbourg, but again conceded a goal (0.80 xG against). We have an xG against of 20.60 in the league, but conceded 25 so far, which is, quite honestly, problematic and a sign of a lack of quality somewhere. Top priority next season will be an improvement in goal. The good news is that we have the best xG for in the Ligue 1, five more than PSG, who are outperforming their xG by 12 goals though.

The youth intake looks promising, with eight first team potentials. I'm very excited about Fabrizio, who will be trained as a left winger as he is right footed. 

[KlaaZ]

I've ragequit a game, not even an important one, and now I feel bad.  Another four goals conceded from 1.3 xG away at Nice did the job. Will see if I can simulate another defeat but honest to god, I don't get why this keeps happening. Would have put me at 29 goals conceded for 21 xG against, that's almost 50% more than expected. Surely that's impossible? Even the worst teams in the league, Paris FC and Brest, have only conceded seven goals more than what you would expect, and relatively speaking they're only 15% worse than their xG against.

[KlaaZ]

A very long month of April with eight games and, inevitable with the amount of goals we ship, some disappointments. Starting off with the good, we made our way past Newcastle and already faced Real Madrid in the semis first leg. Unfortunately, the Galacticos are just on another level and soundly beat us in our own grounds. In the Ligue, we should have secured second place already after beating our only contestant, Lille. But despite the fact that we're defending quite well, we keep shipping goals like there's no tomorrow: Three against Nice from 1.08 xG, one against Lorient from 0.47 xG. 

Finally, we're also out of the cup after a trashing by PSG, which makes it six losses and a draw in our last seven head to heads. Downright painful.

We need seven more points to do better than last season and have Marseille (H), Nantes (A) and Monaco (H) left to go. It will be close, and not improving despite having a more mature squad would be a huge disappointment.

 

[warlock]

15 hours ago, KlaaZ said:

I've ragequit a game, not even an important one, and now I feel bad.

I feel your pain! I haven't succumbed to the rage this year but have in the past. How many times did you have to replay the Nice game to secure the loss? 

It sounds like someone in your defence - GK or CB usually - is switching off, or there's something in your tactical setup that's leaving the opposition with easy goals. The fix is often simple; figuring out the problem can be the tricky part.

With Champions League football secured, it's still a fine season, but it would be good not to slip behind Lille.

Good luck 

[KlaaZ]

4 hours ago, warlock said:

I feel your pain! I haven't succumbed to the rage this year but have in the past. How many times did you have to replay the Nice game to secure the loss? 

It sounds like someone in your defence - GK or CB usually - is switching off, or there's something in your tactical setup that's leaving the opposition with easy goals. The fix is often simple; figuring out the problem can be the tricky part.

With Champions League football secured, it's still a fine season, but it would be good not to slip behind Lille.

Good luck 

Cheers, took me five tries to simulate something similar.  One goal less conceded but still 3 for an xG of 1. I don't think it's a tactical issue as we're not really giving away much, the only exception being the PSG games. We have the second lowest xG against (22.68, and the lowest shots against (162, six less than PSG). An average of 0.14 xG per shot is not ideal, but it's also far from terrible. If you make the comparison with Lille for example, they're on an xG against of 31.62 but have only conceded 22, for an xG/shot of 0.12. I really think a lot comes down to the quality of my starting GK, and maybe a lack in depth of the right central defender position. I might fix that by pulling back Magassa to that position and bringing in another DM, not sure yet. 

[KlaaZ]

The season's over, and we did the job. Three solid wins in the Ligue 1 (the one against Monaco ending and scoring the winner with ten men after Gouiri got sent off in the 73rd with a second yellow), 79 points, best ever result so far. Still twelve points off PSG who once again did the double. Lille completely fell apart in the end, losing against Metz and Clermont and drawing against already relegated Brest. We lost in Madrid with a B squad but actually kept equal footing throughout the game. 

The good: Two more goals scored and three less conceded than last year, three more points too. Did better against PSG although the results didn't follow. Highest xG for (77.14), also without penalties. Most shots and shots on target. Most high intensity sprints. 

The average: Too many fouls, although that's a part of the way we play. High amount of yellow cards as a result. Only 48% headers won. Possession stats could be better too, although 51% is ok.

The bad: Goals conceded vs xG against, hands down. Finished on 31 conceded from 24.41 xG against. Prime target to improve, probably by improving quality between the stakes.In the CL it was slightly better with 28 goals conceded for 26.84 xG against, but that's still an average of two goals per game there.. Fun fact,we failed to keep a clean sheet in a single of our fourteen European games this season. Heck, we shipped six of them against Ferencvaros and Young Boys.

Kalimuendo finally started rolling this season, scoring seventeen in the league and eleven in Europe, barely missing out on the Golden Boot against Haaland. There was some interest from Liverpool but that died down for now, although AC Milan are still sniffing around. Either way, if he leaves it will be a record transfer.

In midfield, Désiré Doué played a lot more than last year and seems ready to fulfill a bigger role in the upcoming campaign. At only 19, the sky's the limit for him.

[KlaaZ]

On 06/07/2024 at 21:58, KlaaZ said:

The transfer window is shut, and we've made one addition to the squad. I felt we were lacking a bit of defensive depth in midfield and when my scouts recommended 19-year old Soungountou Magassa from Monaco, we didn't hesitate. He still has some work ahead of him, but for 5M + 2M in installments, I think this is a deal that will pay itself back in the future. 

On the pitch, everything is going well. We had a relatively easy start with two teams that were promoted last year, but it's easy to stumble out of the starting blocks. No such thing though, four games unbeaten and only losing points in Lens. We actually started well in that game and went ahead, but then started getting carved up too easily and in the end we were lucky to grab a point. Apart from that, three clean sheets are a key highlight. 

These results put us in second place. Not behind PSG but instead a faultless Monaco. PSG lost their last game in Lyon.

 

Also, a very honourable mention for Soungountou Magassa, who did excellent this year both in DM and in central defense. Great progress from my first signing for Rennes.

[KlaaZ]

Going into the summer, our finances are looking amazing and the board has rewarded us with a 52M transfer package. So we'll go looking for a good goalkeeper, and then depending on any leavers replace players accordingly.

[KlaaZ]

Bits and pieces of transfer news. First off, we found a new goalkeeper in Italy, former Italy U21 goalkeeper Elia Caprile was available at a knock down price of 9.5M. He'll be first choice for now. We also have our eyes set on a 16-year our Swiss lad from Grasshoppers but he doesn't want to join (yet). Hopefully, this will change within the next year or something, so we can start to groom him as soon as possible.

We were also in talks with midfield prodigy William Clem from Kobenhavn but in the end, he chose Newcastle over us. And finally, we signed a very young lad from Sochaux, who looks like he could be an excellent piece of business.

On the outgoing side, Fulham came in with a bid for Terrier, who has a contract until the summer of next year and doesn't want to sign an extension because he's annoyed with his playing time. We managed to negotiate a package of up to 57M, now it's up to him whether or not he'll accept that deal. Either way, we're already working on a young replacement and are in talks with Junior Kroupi after Lorient accepted a 8.75M bid. With Terrier on his way out, it'll be even more important to try and hang on to Kalimuendo, who is again being watched by Liverpool, AC Milan and Atlético.

[KlaaZ]

Two seasons in, let's have a quick look through the youth academy. At first glance, there's an abundance of talent present, especially up front with two potential leading strikers, 

Constantin De Waele and Denis Dembélé were both succcesfully loaned out to the National last season, the former to Sochaux and the latter to Niort. I'm usually not a fan of loaning players out this young, but it really kickstarted their development which made it a solid experiment for the future. This season, we'll do the same with a lot of these young lads. De Waele already scored ten goals last year, while Dembélé started 25 games at professional level. I'm actually hoping that another loan session might be enough to start including them in the first team the year after as bench fillers with the occasional sub appearance.

 

 

[KlaaZ]

Oof, not sure what to do with this.

[KlaaZ]

Well, the Terrier to Fulham deal is off as he rejected their contract proposal. We do free up some space by shipping off Wooh to Lorient for 3.5M. 

On the incoming side, three confirmed deals:

• Junior Kroupi, Lorient: 8.5M
• Madi Monamay, Leverkusen: 4M
• Killian Sardella, Anderlecht: 28.5M

Really splashed the cash on the latter, beating the likes of Dortmund, Leipzig and Milan for him. This also means Seidu can leave when a decent offer comes in.

 

[KlaaZ]

Finally.

[KlaaZ]

Didn't have a lot of time to write yesterday, so here's what happened in August and September. 

First up, the final month of the transfer window. We found a solution for Gauthier Gallon, our previous backup goalkeeper. He moves to Lyon for 1.2M. Kari moves on loan again to get some more experience, this time to Belgian top club Club Brugge. We also loan out the majority of our academy talent to various clubs in the National and the Ligue 2. 

The good news is that apart from that, we don't lose anyone. We rejected the offer from Atlético for Kalimuendo and nobody else came in so he's going to lead the line for at least another four months. The same goes for Terrier, who I promised more game time and will hopefully be happy enough to sign a new deal afterwards. I'm just hoping that I won't lose him on a free at the end of the season. The only other player with one year of contract left is Bourigeaud. I may give him an additional year if he agrees to e drop in playing time and a lower wage.

The draw for the league phase of the Champions League has not been.. kind to us. Not a single small club on the list. Utrecht and Genk might be the easiest ones, but still.

More good news, we finally beat PSG for the first time, winning the French Super Cup 2-1, in quite literally forever, as we lost six and drew one in our previous seven encounters. We were deservedly ahead at the break and had a bit of luck in the second half with a chalked off goal from Simons, but I'm still happy to break that negative streak.

Fun fact, we also opened the league against them in our own ground five days later. We kept them to a draw this time, fighting back after going behind relatively early with Kalimuendo scoring the equalizer. We then went on an excellent streak in the league, beating everyone until we couldn't find a way past Lens at the end of September. We had some tactical adaptations in preseason and that together with the new goalie seems to have made us a lot more stable, with four clean sheets in eight games.

In the Champions League, we deservedly beat Atalanta through a great goal by Rieder in the 79th minute. 

Interesting fact, despite drawing in Lens we actually lead the league now because PSG lost in Marseille at the same time.

[john1]

What an epic last season!   Did you reject Kalimuendo bid?

[KlaaZ]

17 minutes ago, john1 said:

What an epic last season!   Did you reject Kalimuendo bid?

We did, Atlético wasn't very high on his 'want to go to clubs' list so I could without him throwing a fuss.

[KlaaZ]

October flew by despite six games on the agenda. Four clean sheets, too. The draw in Liverpool was kind to us as they had plenty of chances to win it. On the other hand, Alisson had to pull off some excellent saves right before stopping time or we'd actually have completed the hold up. But it always balances out, as we absolutely deserved to get something in Barcelona but didn't. Same story in the Ligue 1 where we edged past Nice but when we completely outplayed Monaco, we couldn't get further than a 2-2 draw, with Kroupi being the hero when he scored the 94th minute buzzer equalizer.

We're still two points clear somehow, and we face PSG away at the end of December. If we can get something there, we can maybe start to dream but I'm not counting on it.

[danyates8]

Nice signing in Ayman Kari, he was a lynchpin of my Peterborough midfield, bossing the Premier League im sure he will become very good for you!

[KlaaZ]

3 minutes ago, danyates8 said:

Nice signing in Ayman Kari, he was a lynchpin of my Peterborough midfield, bossing the Premier League im sure he will become very good for you!

Cheers! I still have no idea why they let him walk. Same goes for Magassa really, turned out very, very well.

[john1]

Decent month

[john1]

On 13/07/2024 at 09:51, KlaaZ said:

So it's January 1st, and we have a lot to talk about.

After a very frustrating opening at home against Lorient (1-1, see one of the above posts), we picked up with four wins out of the four remaining games, including one in Europe away at Anderlecht. Whilst this is obviously pleasing, we haven't been able to keep a clean sheet in seven games. Then again, if you average about three scored goals a game, one can wonder if that's really a problem. I'm most happy with the 2-4 away win at Marseille.

This puts us in joint second place with Lille at the winter break, and just outside of a direct qualification spot for the round of sixteen in the Champions League.

 

The annual youth intake looks promising again, although we could really have done with a goalkeeper. 

We also brought in a new head of youth development, someone I've used in other saves as well and who did very well there. Model citizen, and a preference for 4231 and 433 DM, the latter being the one we use ourselves now.

For the January window, we expect some outgoing movement and we will check for any opportunities. Baptiste Santamaria is unhappy with his playing time and we accepted an offer from West Ham. Matusiwa is already out to Almeria in a deal running up to 6M + 20% on next sale. He was a big signing from previous management for 18M, but never really impressed.There's a few loan moves for younger players on the table as well. And there's the usual interest in quite a few of my players:

• Assignon: Saudi Arabian and Qatar clubs
• Magassa: Atletico Madrid
• Belocian: Udinese
• Theate: Bournemouth, Fulham, Liverpool, Juventus, Wolves, Al-Ahli
• Seidu: Udinese
• Kalimuendo: AC Milan

I'm not looking to let any of these leave as they're an important part of my first team, but when money talks, you never know what will happen.

Is it the same HOYD on your other save? Is it Vivas?

[KlaaZ]

7 minutes ago, john1 said:

Is it the same HOYD on your other save? Is it Vivas?

Hahaha yeah, never change a winning team.

 

[john1]

9 minutes ago, KlaaZ said:

Hahaha yeah, never change a winning team.

 

Only fairly professional personality on mine   Looks decent tho!

[KlaaZ]

15 minutes ago, john1 said:

Only fairly professional personality on mine   Looks decent tho!

Just had a quick look at the personalities and I'm almost 100% sure it's because he has two less determination in your game. Model citizen needs at least 14. The requirement of professionalism is the same for both fairly professional and model citizen.  So I'd say he still has the most important attributes.

[KlaaZ]

A good month of November with only one slip up, at home against Inter in the Champions League. A game riddled with defensive errors unfortunately, as the performance of the B team in itself was good enough to at least warrant a draw. But the last two goals of the Italians were really just gifts from us, with Assignon and Caprile blundering. 

That said, we can be very happy with our performances in the league, where we still haven't lost! Fidalgo ran into an injury which will keep him sidelined until January, so we promoted a youngster to the first team to fill in the vacancy. I really like his profile, good dribbler with a great shot from distance and quite pacey already. Perfectionist too.

Anyway, this means that we are four (!) points ahead of PSG for now. Long may it last. In the CL, we're in 20th place right now but that was to be expected with the calendar being what it is. Still, only three points off qualifying for the round of sixteen again, so it's not over yet.

[KlaaZ]

Four games in the first half of December. Two clean wins against Toulouse and our rivals from Nantes, an unnecessary drop of two points against Leipzig who scored twice from 2 shots and 0.28 xG. And then a very logical defeat in Paris, which tightens the gap we have against PSG to one point. I'm hoping it's just a small blip, but my strikers haven't scored any goals this month..

The youth intake assessment looks very promising again with some welcome potential at the back and in DM, hopefully.

With the transfer window opening now, there's a lot of interest for our players although I intend to do the utmost to keep the group together. Omari, Terrier, Blas and Truffert all drew the attention from Saudi clubs, Kalimuendo is wanted by Juve, Assignon could maybe go to Nottingham Forest (or Marseille, but I won't sell to league competitors), and Magassa is on the radar of Aston Villa.

[KlaaZ]

That's the second time in three years of us getting PSG in the tenth round of the cup.. Why?

[john1]

Definitely fixed Hopefully you can knock them out!

[KlaaZ]

Well, a very mixed month of January with some good and some bad. We beat Briochin in the cup, and then eliminated the mighty PSG on penalties after a close game. Beating Fenerbahce gave us an outside shot at direct qualification for the round of sixteen but we completely botched it in Utrecht because of some horrendous finishing. To make matters worse, we also lost our midweek game in Reims which means PSG overtook us again. 

After the two losses, I tried tweaking the setup a bit again, leading to a 4-0 walkover of fifth placed Lyon, to end the month at least on a good note.

It's clear from the table that we're defensively sound this year, but offensively lacking. PSG has already racked up 20 xG more than us.. 

On the transfer market, one big leaver. Seidu, who had become redundant after we signed Sardella, moves to Nottingham Forest for 23.5M. On the incoming side, we arranged two deals for the summer with end of contract players. Noël Atom, a 21-year old left footed German defender, will join us from Brighton and we will replace Bourigeaud, who's contract runs out, with 26-year old Italian Andrea Colpani from Brianza, the latter looking like an amazing deal.

[KlaaZ]

What a rollercoaster month. We started off by clearly beating Monaco in the French Cup, which will pit us against Toulouse in March. With the other quarter finals already played and only Lens, Nice and Lorient remaining, we have an excellent chance at silverware.

We then went away to last placed Auxerre and somehow went 2-0 down before turning it around completely. A 6-0 destruction of 17th Montpellier was followed by a clean 3-1 win over Atalanta, putting us with one leg in the round of sixteen. When PSG lost in Monaco, we had an excellent chance to overtake them if we beat Metz. It looked like the nerves got the better of us though, as we were 2-0 down again after about an hour of play. Terrier and Doué leveled the score but when we saw two good opportunties saved in added time, I figured we'd miss our shot to sneak past PSG. Until Doué set up Lambourde on the right in the 95th minute. He played a low diagonal to Terrier in the box, who took a first time shot into the top corner to grab us the win and send us up top!

Still riding on that high, we completely outplayed Atalanta in Bergamo, although we had to wait until the final ten minutes when Terrier once again popped up to score the only goal of the game. And he did it again on the last day of February, scoring a brace in our 2-1 victory over Lens.

[KlaaZ]

Well, we're out of the Champions League. We were by far the better team in the home game against Milan but just couldn't find a way past Maignan, and in the return we were utterly outclassed. Caprile saved a penalty and when Lambourde scored with our first and only shot of the game in the 81st minute, I thought we could take it into extra time and maybe squeeze out penalties, but alas. 

We did well in the league, not dropping any points. It would be nice to not go behind so much though, as we did against Havre and Nice. But as long as we can turn it around, I'm not complaining, as we're still top of the league. In the cup, we eliminated Toulouse with a narrow 1-0 win, next up is Lens in a few days in the semi.

The youth intake also arrived. We were promised a great defender but he's not there. Instead we get another striker who already looks amazing both technically and mentally, but needs to spend more time in the gym. 

We do have three players in the NxGen list: Kroupi, Dembélé (who ended up fifth!) and Ngomba. And, we have our first French internationals, with Kalimuendo and Lambourde making their debuts.

[KlaaZ]

Five games to go, it's going to be close! We're both out of the CL so no fixture congestion to tire them out. Win everything, and we're champions.

 

[KlaaZ]

So close. We both coasted past Lille and Lens respectively, but then we only found the winner against Lorient in the 78th minute and PSG did even better, finding a way past Havre AC in the final minutes of added time.

[KlaaZ]

Two games left, faultless.

[KlaaZ]

Here we go, victory or death!

[KlaaZ]

Lineup! No surprises, everyone is fit with the exception of Belocian.

[KlaaZ]

Nine minutes in, and PSG are already ahead through Simons, making them virtual champions.

[KlaaZ]

Oof, halfway through the first half and we've been the better team but no goal yet. In Clermont, the home team turned it around completely!

[KlaaZ]

At half time, it's 0-0 in our game, and PSG have gone ahead again, leading 2-3 at the break. We haven't conceded a single shot but we're struggling to break them down so far. We'll see in the first fifteen minutes if we do better, otherwise Blas might come on for Rieder for some more creativity. 

[KlaaZ]

Botched it.. I don't think we'll come this close again in the next few years as we massively overperformed compared to our xG. Disappointing really.

[KlaaZ]

[KlaaZ]

Well, at least we got the consolation prize in a one sided affair over Lorient. I gave Kroupi and Lambourde a starting place because they've improved very well this season and they didn't disappoint. Kroupi scored a brace and Lambourde provided no less than three assists, earning him the man of the match award.

[warlock]

29 minutes ago, KlaaZ said:

Botched it

That's a shame - looked great for so long, and it's always worse when you come so close.

32 minutes ago, KlaaZ said:

I don't think we'll come this close again in the next few years

Sure you will. Squad's a year more experienced, and you'll have the chance to plug some gaps and add a bit of polish.

On y va!

[KlaaZ]

Season recap!

After high flying for most of the season, we tripped on the final day, drawing against Marseille while PSG beat Clermont in a 3-5 goal bonanza, jumping over us right before the finish line. Nontheless, we had a record breaking season for les Rouges et Noirs with 88 points and the best defensive record in the league, conceding only twenty goals. 

Technically, we did win a double as we won the super cup and beat Lorient in the French cup final. We also gave a good account of ourselves in the Champions League despite our horrid draw, managing to sneak into the round of sixteen and then barely going out to AC Milan. 

Maybe just as important, our youth team won the UEFA youth league and the French U19 league, beating AC Milan on penalties in the final of the former and PSG in the final of the latter. Even more impressive as most of our young talent is out on loan. The future is bright!

In terms of potential, Désiré Doué absolutely broke through this season, contributing 12 goals and 10 assists from midfield in all competitions. He's still not peaked, so the sky is the limit for this young lad. Elia Caprile has also done really well in his debut season, keeping a clean sheet in half of his games. And finally, a very honourable mention to our new signing Madi Monamay, who is very much looking like he's going to establish himself as a starter next year after some excellent performances AND great progress ability wise. 

Regarding next season, we'll almost certainly lose Keitel as he wants more playing time which is blocked by Magassa. As Kari looks ready for a first team spot after an excellent loan spell at Club Brugge, we won't need to look externally for a replacement. However, I have someone on my shortlist that I may try to bring in and if that succeeds, he'll just go out on loan again.

[KlaaZ]

Big news off the pitch as well! This would be a great potential source of extra income as there are currently more than 33k people on the waiting list for season tickets. We could also improve in sponsorship as we only rake in 14M every year which is not even a third of the amount of teams like Marseille and Lyon. The good news is that we still have a lot of control over the wage bill, being 8th in the league in that regard. But it's almost doubled since I took charge of Rennes, so while we are still very much profitable for now, we need to make sure that we find extra sources of revenue to prepare for the future.

[KlaaZ]

26 minutes ago, warlock said:

That's a shame - looked great for so long, and it's always worse when you come so close.

Sure you will. Squad's a year more experienced, and you'll have the chance to plug some gaps and add a bit of polish.

On y va!

Haha yeah, I meant more in the sense that it's unlikely for us to overperform this much again. We scored 88 goals from an xG of 63, that feels like something unlikely to repeat itself.

[KlaaZ]

Identifying weaknesses: The squad planner

Going into the next season, let's have a look at the squad and if we can identify any weaknesses that we may need to plug, or where we don't have a potential replacement in the pipeline.

Goalkeeper

Probably the biggest area of concern in the long run. We made a great improvement last year by bringing Caprile to Rennes for 10M but his performances will inevitably draw interest from bigger clubs (the Saudis are already sniffing). Behind him, Alemdar has already gotten his chance. He's good enough to be a backup goalie but that's it really. In the youth squad, Vasilj is probably the biggest prospect but I have no high expectations of him. In that regard, we are monitoring a great Swiss prospect from Grasshoppers, who might already move to Rennes soon.

Central defender, left

With Arthur Theate, we have an excellent starter here. If he leaves, we will need a left footed replacement though. Belocian is a great prospect to back him up and has played a lot over the past three years but I'm not entirely convinced by his progress and he's also not the tallest. Atom will join us from Brighton on a free in the summer and will probably be loaned out first. He looks potentially very good though.

Central defender, right

Omari is our starting man. Strong, tall and very good on the ball, there's a lot to like about him. Monamay did very well in his first year at Rennes and looks like his natural successor as he's got a similar profile. Third in line is academy player Jacquet, who improved quite well on loan at Antwerp last year. He'll probably get another year of first team football elsewhere first though. In a pinch,I can always play Magassa here as well.

Right back

Not a position to worry about for now, especially if I can hang on to both Sardella and Assignon for now. With Franck Ngomba, we have a potentially very good right back in the youth ranks, although he still needs work and it'll be a year or two before I break him into the first team. 

Left back

Contrary to the other side, this is a position that we can improve on. Truffert is a very good starting fit but last year, we had to play either Belocian or Theate as his backup, which was not ideal. There's also nothing really in the academy for this position so it's a potential weak spot to spend on.

Defensive midfield

Magassa is our man here for now, and has done amazingly well over the past three seasons, really upping his game. It's also the reason why Keitel will leave, as he just couldn't play him out of the team. Our main option right now is to promote Kari to the first team instead of loaning him out again. We were also looking at Marc Bernal, the Barcelona prodigy, but he only wants to join on loan and I'm not willing to do that if there's no chance of him joining permanently. And there's also a 17-year old in the academy who did very well at Grenoble last year. The only worry I have about him is his temper, as he got sent off three times this season..

Midfield, left

Three very strong choices here, an abundance of quality really. Rieder is our top pick, with Blas coming close behind. The latter has done really well when our Swiss playmaker was injured so even if Fabien were to leave, I'm not too worried. With Andrea Colpani, a very capable alternative is joining us during the summer on a free as well. Nothing exceptional in the youth ranks here.

Midfield, right

With Désiré Doué, the brightest star of the club is playing here. Le Fée is a very reliable backup, and in a pinch we can play a host of other players here as well. Just as on the left, no real prospects here yet.

Attacking midfield, left

Two very good starters here, with Gouiri and Fidalgo. Behind them, the future is bright as we just signed an interesting young prospect from Sundowns and also had Benvenuti make his debut this season when Fidalgo got injured. The last two will probably go out on loan.

Attacking midfield, right

Terrier had an excellent season here, as he lost his spot up front to Kalimuendo. I may start giving the advantage to Lambourde though, if he stays because he's already drawing the attention of several big clubs. Guèye is the biggest prospect of the youth team here but doesn't really fit the profile.

Striker

Probably the position where we have the most talent lined up. Kalimuendo is our indisputable starter, and I really like Junior Kroupi as his backup. In the academy, we have three amazing prospects. De Waele was the leading striker at Saint-Etienne last season in the Ligue 2, helping them gain promotion. And both Akognon and Agbemavor are something else, too.

[KlaaZ]

Forgot to add someone to the planner  Husson has been making amazing progress at Nancy. We picked him up from Sochaux for 1.6M and he looks like he could be the real deal.

[KlaaZ]

So it begins!

[KlaaZ]

I'm facing a bit of a dilemma. Kalimuendo has a contract left until the summer of 2028. He wants a new deal, but is asking for star player status, roughly 110k per week with an upgrade to 155k once he hits a certain amount of caps. I have no intention of giving him that kind of deal, but considering the length of his contract I probably need to sell him now if I want to make the most out of him financially. Decisions, decisions.