TheLutterworthFox Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 (edited) Well the last save did not go as I hoped, after a little break I'm back and this save will be updated on here and on the my blog. So here we are, a new FM series, I have really struggled this year for a big, long, enjoyable save but after a month or so off and lots of soul-searching I think it's time to rekindle my FM love for playing and writing and that starts today with "The Nearly Men". Some may remember me doing something similar for FM21, in that version I did "The Ultimate Nearly Men", an expanded version of a challenge I found on the SI Forums from the talented writer that is @ManUtd1(on SI) or FMCheapSeats as you may know him on Twitter/Blogs. Unfortunately Ian has left the FM scene and I miss him dearly but this challenge still resonates with me and now it's time to take on the proper version of "The Nearly Men". The challenge itself is pretty self-explanatory, win the UEFA Champions League with teams that have never won it but lost in the final, hence the "Nearly Men" title, they came so close but ultimately failed to claim the title. These are the 19 teams that have come so close to lifting Europe's ultimate crown but failed at the last hurdle, some big names there but also some lesser known teams. A big challenge ahead but you know I love a challenge! Another thing to note is the above list is ever-changing, if one of those clubs wins the Champions League in the save (with or without me in charge) they will be taken off the list and if another club gets to their first final and loses they will be added to the list. In Ian's attempt at this challenge he has always simmed a few seasons ahead to see if the football landscape changes in any way and for my save I have done the same. I have simmed 3 seasons into the future to see if anything has changed, unfortunately not much has! Champions League 23/24 Season It was again so close for one of the nearly men as Arsenal lost a tight final against Real Madrid. 24/25 Season Another season where one of those teams on the list lost, PSG throwing away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 against oil-rich Manchester City 25/26 Season Poor old PSG!!! A second straight season where they lost from being ahead, this time against Real Madrid. So 3 seasons and no changes to the list! In other news there have been some huge transfer dealing over those 3 seasons. Saudi teams once again doing some of the biggest deals! Looking over the European leagues nothing of any interest has happened, Man City have won every Premier League, Bayern every Bundesliga, PSG every Ligue 1 title and in Spain it's been Real Madrid and Barcelona claiming the La Liga crowns. I also always love looking over managerial changes and there have been some big moves in the Premier League. Mike Arteta was sacked by Arsenal mid-way through last season, replaced by Sérgio Conceição who had moved from Porto to spend 18 months at Newcastle before the move to the Emirates. Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs have also changed managers but the Manchester duo both still have Pep and Ten Hag in charge. It's also fun to see Mowbray at Forest, Russell Martin is at Spurs and Poch is at Burnley!!! Now it's time to find a new club, I have started unemployed so am now awaiting a job opening, it's currently the 1st July 2026, hopefully a job will come up before the season starts. Thanks for reading. Edited August 27 by TheLutterworthFox 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coxie84 Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 Glad to see your back...a true FM gentleman. Also, I was only looking at some of this on your page the other day Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted July 25 Author Share Posted July 25 Part 1 - Finding The Right Club So my plan of finding a club before the new season started did not go to plan, with my manager starting with a Continental A licence and National reputation I expected a raft of offers, well that just did not happen. It actually took until December for an offer to come in, a perfect fit for a new manager, I'm off to Italy! And my first club will be Samdoria! An interesting choice for a first club for one big reason, they are one of the only clubs on the list not in the top tier. Sampdoria have languished in Serie B since the start of the save and have rarely got close to promotion back to Serie A. Their best finish was 5th where they lost in the playoffs. This season they are doing awfully, we're nearly half-way through the season and they are down in 12th place, luckily the league is incredibly tight with us only 4 points off the playoff spots, for context the top 2 go up automatically with clubs between 3rd and 8th going into the playoffs. So this isn't going to be a short-term stint, I won't be winning the Champions League within a couple of seasons! The first aim is to get promoted and I do feel we can do that this season. From there we need to stabilise the club in Serie A and then, hopefully within 5 seasons be pushing for those Champions League spots. The club does need some improvements, firstly we need to make sure we own our ground, we are currently renting it for £300k per year! The facilities also need improving, I expected a club the size of Sampdoria to have a better setup than this. Poor training facilities is terrible so once we are promoted that needs major improvements, as does the youth recruitment and junior coaching, I really do love bringing through my own youngsters. Now to the playing squad and overall it doesn't look too bad, we just have too many players! Good depth in all areas, here are who I think will be my key men. Javairo Dilrosun - Winger The highest rated player in the squad, signed from Feyenoord in the Summer of 2026 on a free transfer, an absolute steal and someone who can really make the different on the pitch. Yan Eteki - Midfielder Another Summer signing, Eteki came in from Hellas Verona for £775k, a top quality midfielder. Giacomo Moscardini - Winger This lad came through the youth intake in 2024 and is our highest rated youngster, he has pace to burn and looks a really exciting prospect. A lad I want to give more game-time to for the rest of this season. I will talk about more of the players at the end of the current season. Now for the tactic, I won't lie I'm not great at creating tactics but I plan to try my hardest to create my own one throughout this save. With some of our best players being wide men it pays to have a tactic where we make the most of this, we also have a squad high on work rate and teamwork so I plan to play high-intensity football, especially in a league where I feel we are better than most. High-intensity to me say I should be basing on gegenpress so that's the style I want to try out and with decent wide men and solid midfielders it seems the right plan to play 41221. I've taken the base gegenpress and altered some of the roles so suit my players but also use the roles that I think fit best. I always like to balance the roles between support and attack, hence why on the right we have a WB (s) and a IF (a) and on the left we have a WB (a) and an IW (s). In midfield I love the Mezzala role and always feel it fits well alongside a CM on attack. I'm sure this will change as the season goes along but for now this is what I plan to deploy. Finally the expectations, I do feel like the boars have gone easy on me this season and just expect a mid-table finish, I hope we will end much higher than that! The 5-year plan expects us to gain promotion to Serie A next season and then to remain there. The next post will come at the end of the season where I will look through the results, the finances and how the players and tactic have faired. Thanks for reading. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahaj Oberoi Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 Interesting concept. Will be following. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Don Carlo Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 Pochetino to Burnley! haha, some crazy FM stuff there 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 The Nearly Men #2 - Settling in at my first club When I joined Sampdoria mid-way through December, with the club languishing in mid-table I didn't have much expectation, yes I thought we could possibly push for the playoffs but I never expected the players to take to me as quickly as they have! This post may be a little shorter than normal, there were no transfers, the youth intake was woeful, so it's all about results! It actually didn't start that well, we opened with a 0-0 draw and it was a really poor performance, the 41221 I had plumbed in just wasn't affecting in the top half of the pitch but it needed another go. In the second game it started even worse, we found 2-0 down to Pisa within 10 minutes, I gave it until half-time and then did what most people would do, completely change the tactic. I switched to a 4231, getting another player into the final third was imperative and my word did it work! Once again it was a gegenpress style but that extra man up front was key, whether it was Krisztofer Horvath or Valerio Verre, both of them were incredible in that Shadow Striker role! That Pisa game ended 3-2 to us, a huge result and the turnaround for what was to come. Win, after win followed. 9 in a row including the Pisa win, we were scoring for fun and very rarely troubled at the back, we actually had a run of 12 wins and 1 draw in 13 games, I cannot believe how quickly the lads took to the tactic but then, just as we went top of the table we started to wobble, the nerves clearly got the better of the players and we slipped up, just when we couldn't afford to. 3 games, 1 point, our title challenge took a dent, the players just needed an arm around the shoulder, to tell them we are doing amazingly to even be in this situation seeing as where we were when I joined. We had 4 games left, the team chat had to work and it did! Matchday 34 and we claimed a massive 4-0 win over Cittadella, now with 3 games left we sat 2nd level on points with Parma at the top and 3 clear of Frosinone in 2nd, the top 2 go up, we now have 3 huge games! Well it started terrible with a 2-0 away defeat to Brescia but with Frosinone drawing we knew, with us playing Frosinone in the next match, a win over them would claim us promotion back to Serie A. The game was utterly bonkers, we went behind early but levelled mid-way through for the first 45. Then in a crazy 7 minutes we scored 3 times, Frosinone once to make the score 4-2 at half-time. All we had to do now was hang on, we did that until 11 minutes to go when Frosinone made it 4-3, even so we had the lead and we held firm in the final minutes to claim a huge 4-3 win and with that promotion back to the top tier of Italy!!!! What a turnaround from where we were when I joined! We ended with a stunning 5-1 away win over Bari but it wasn't enough to depose Parma at the top, we had to settle for 2nd but that is more than enough for me! Incredible! Lets now discuss player peformances. Firstly is the clubs top scorer for the season and a key man whilst I've been here. Flavio Junior Bianchi was amazing playing as the Pressing Forward. He scored 16 goals in the games I was in charge and 23 over the season in total. Will he be good enough for Serie A? I'm not 100% sure but he'll get his chance. I spoke about Giacomo Moscardini in the last post, he got his chance as promised and didn't let me down. 8 goals and 7 assists from the right wing and that was just in games I was in charge of. This lad is going to be incredible, can he take Serie A by storm? I mentioned earlier that the switch to 4231 changed the results and it was solely down to deploying an AM, Krisztofer Horváth was the man to really come to the fore with this change and was a massive player. He scored 11 goals from that AM position. A huge player and one who will be key next season. Here is the whole squad, we are stacked with players but are they going to be good enough for Serie A survival? And here's the seasons Best XI. Now what we need is the board to back me with some good budgets, unfortunately that did not happen! I don't blame them, the finances are in a dire situation, we've lost nearly £10m this season, mainly due to player wages and the lack of gate receipts, we end the season £2m in the red, we need some investment and that can really only be by player sales. Now I need to assess the squad and see who I can let go to make some money to give us the funds to bring in 5 or 6 new players who can make us good enough to survive in Serie A. It's going to be a tough ask, Serie A is stacked with quality clubs and currently we are not one of them, survival is key, maybe we can push a bit further than that if we can bring the right players in, only time will tell! Finally, a quick word on the Champions League final and we still have no new team on the Nearly Men list. Napoli did get to the semi final but fell to Real Madrid. The final was between two previous winners, Real and Manchester City. An amazing final 20 minutes secured a 3-1 win for City, helped by a red card for Real's Valverde, Grealish scored two!! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinitelyTaylor Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Shall be following this one mate. An excellent turnaround all things considered and a tough season in Serie A awaits next campaign. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 2 Author Share Posted August 2 The Nearly Men #3 - The first full season at Sampdoria Sampdoria are back in Serie A for the first time in 4 seasons and now the hard work begins, we are forecasted to end in the relegation zone and with very little money at my disposal I'm going to have to be thrifty with my signings, frees and loans are the aim unless we can make some big money sales. The squad needs a big improvement in most areas but mainly in defence. Transfers Out I said in the previous post I really needed to sell some players for decent money, this would then mean I could bring in better players, unfortunately the Summer didn't go to plan. I only managed around £2m of sales, it just wasn't enough, hence why you'll see I brought on loans and frees in. In the Winter things changed and a couple of players did leave for big fees. Goalkeeper Audero left to join Napoli for £10.75m, a player who was out on loan last season, he was good but for a 30-year old that fee was too good. I also sold one my key men last season, attacking midfielder Hovarth so fell out of favour, left to join Cagliari for £3.8m. Overall £18.5m of sales, a massive boost to the bank balance. Transfers In Now to the in's, quite a few so bear with me! Ben Nelson - Central Defender - Season loan from Juventus Nelson joined Juve from Leicester in the Summer and they decided to loan him out, a quality ball-playing defender who is a massive improvement on what we had last season. Nicolo Contiliano - Central Midfield - Season loan from Sassuolo A nice addition to the squad for a cheap loan, he will provide good back-up. Costantino Favasuli - Left Back/Left Midfield - Free from Fiorentina Defensive addition were very much the order of the day, Favusali was be my back-up left back after letting Ali Abdi leave in the Summer. Ramon - Left Back - Season loan from Rennes Now for my first choice at left back, top quality for the level we're currently at. Travis Akomeah - Central Defender - Season loan from Roma Another loan and a late addition in the window, just adds some extra depth as we were quite short in central defence. Callum O'Hare - Attacking Midfield - Free from Coventry This lad is the reason I let Horvath go, an incredible player for no money and a already one of our best players. Lorenzo Lucchesi - Central Defender - Free from Fiorentina My main signing in central defence, Serie A experience is the main thing here, a big improvement in what we had last season and should provide a good partner to Ben Nelson. Andreas Bruus - Right Back - Free from Brescia We were really short of quality options at right back so Bruus comes in to be my first choice, he can play also play a right wing, a decent looking, attacking full back. Mattia Mannini - Central Midfield - Season loan from Roma Probably the best signing of the Summer, only on loan but he will be a huge player moving forward, fingers crossed if he performs how I hope I can sign him on a proper deal next season! So a lot of signings, mainly in defence but for me this really improves the side and gives us a fighting chance of survival! Coppa Italia Now we come to the cup competition and we did pretty well overall. Wins over Hellas Verona and Catanzaro was really good, we eventually fell to Inter Milan, a team much, much better than us but we did put up a decent fight over the 90 minutes. Serie A So could we actually survive? Well I won't lie, overall it went very VERY well! We started incredible, 3 straight wins over teams that were probably mid-table at best. It looked great but then the wheels fell off, over the next 4 months we were leaking goals, we did win a few and in some of those games we were amazing but we were conceding way too many. As we entered the new year we sat safely in mid-table but needed to do something to plug the defence! I had actually started the season with the 41221 formation, you'd think it was decent defensively but for some reason it just wasn't. After some pretty dodgy performances over January where I couldn't improve the side with transfers I decided to go back to the 4231 and, even though it didn't work immediately it did the trick. February was awful but we ended with a stunning 5-1 win over Catanzaro, that seemed to be the turning point, we lost the next two games to Lazio and AC Milan but played really well, after that we kicked on, in the final seven games we won five, only losing to Inter Milan, that included amazing wins away wins over Roma and Juventus. The tide well and truly turned at the end of the season and that gives me huge hope for the next campaign. We end in 10th place, really really good for a team forecasted to end 19th, the big downfall was the defence, 65 goals conceded, the fifth worst in the league, attacking-wise we were stunning, 69 goals scored, the third best in the league! Key Men Yeah we won't talk about the defence!! It really was the season where our wide-men killed it, both of them were utterly incredible. On the left side is Javairo Dilrosun, one of our best players last season and he kicked on massively this year, 11 goals and 15 assists in 37 starts, what a player! And then we come to right winger and Sampdoria graduate Giacomo Moscardini, what a player this lad is, he ended the season with 10 assists and 8 goals, his numbers don't look amazing but he was a constant threat, he won the young player of the month three times and also won one of Europe's top awards. European Golden Boy!!! Now the big news, he signed a new deal but his release clause is way too low, £5m, if he goes for that I'll be gutted so talks about a new deal will start before he gets his head turned. Here is the season's best XI And here is the whole squad. Finances Financially we have definitely turned the corner as well. Player sales have helped but it's also been boosted by our return to Serie A. Green in all areas, broadcast revenues are the big one but we have also doubled our corporate hospitality revenue and prize money. With the player sales as well we end the season with a bank balance of £16.35m, a £21m profit on last season. Next Season With the finances sorted we can now start spending some money to try and push us into those European spots, the board clearly agree as we have a lot to spend this Summer! A £100k per well increase in the wage budget and just over £9m to spend. Just like last Summer though the main area to improve is in defence, Nelson will go (unless I try and sign him) and he will be a big loss. We also need to look at better full back and a new defensive midfielder as we will lose Mannini who's loan is also up. Going forward we have decent options but if a quality player comes then, as long as it is an improvement, changes could be made! It's going to be an interesting Summer, I can foresee bids coming in for my key men, I can also see my bigger players asking for bumper contracts, something I can't really do too much of! Here's hoping I can improve the side enough to try and push us into contention for a European spot next season. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 6 Author Share Posted August 6 (edited) The Nearly Men #4 - 28/29 Season - Foundation Building Last season was a solid year for our first one back in Serie A, mid-table was good for a team forecasted to end in the relegation places. This challenge is about winning the Champions League and as you'd expect we are nowhere near that. We now need to get this club up to standard, build a foundation both on and off the pitch to help get us into those European spots, this is the first step to bigger things. Transfers Out Player sales are key at the moment, with us making financial losses each month due to higher wages and low gate receipts we need to bring money in from this source to help bring better players in and help build the base of the club off the pitch. We did sell a few players but only two for decent fees. Central Defender Lorenzo Lucchesi, signed last Summer on a free was sold to Parma for a fee rising to £5.5m, we also sold serial complainer Eliot Matazo, the defensive midfielder left in January to joins Sporting Gijon for £6.25m. Transfers In To improve our position in the league we need to improve our squad, last season, even with numerous defensive signings, we still conceded way too many goals, defensive recruits were needed and I started my Summer spending keeping two players who were here on-loan last season. Ben Nelson (CB - £2.3m from Juventus) and Ramon (LB - £425k from Rennes) were both amazing for me last year and were immediately signed once the previous season ended. From there we went on a rather mad Summer signing spree, more defensive players came in, Killian Sardella joined from Leeds United for £1.3m, a player who can play anywhere along the back-line, Central Defender Sava Cestic came in on a free transfer and a new goalkeeper joined, Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko on a free from Arsenal. With the defence and goalkeeper sorted it was now time to improve the forward options but with little money left I brought in a couple of loans. Isak Alemayehu Mulugeta (AM from Cagliari) and Mathis Lambourde (RW from Marseille), two really good options. The final Summer signing was a defensive midfielder, Jordan James joined on a free transfer from Brighton. Then in the Winter, after the Matozo sale I had more money to spend and decided to splash the cash on two new players. A new Striker joined, Nik Jonas Hyballa from Hansa Rostock for £2.1m and midfielder Joaquín Márquez from Newell's Old Boys for £3.3m. This signing was a big mistake as I hadn't realised we were only allowed three Non-EU players, which I already have so he cannot currently be registered! Some really good signings and I really felt the squad was much better and ready for a push at those European spots. Building The Club With money coming in from player sales I decided to get the foundations of the club moving forwards, the board were sceptical at first, the season started with numerous rejections but eventually, in December the board agreed to a few upgrades. As you can see the youth facility requested got declined but I managed to get the training facilities upgrades alongside the youth recruitment and junior coaching. This now takes the latter two both to "good", the training facilities are currently poor, not sure what it'll be once completed. Coppa Italia Another season, another poor run in the cup. I really hoped we could get to the latter stages but after am extra-time win over Palermo in the first round we got drawn away to Roma in the next stage and fell to a 3-1 defeat. Serie A The campaign started well, we actually went the opening seven games unbeaten but then the inconsistencies started, a defeat, a win, rinse and repeat. That went on through October and November but then, with injuries mounting the wheels came off. December ended with only a single points in four games. August to December Results We went into the New Year low on confidence and results continued to be really poor. January came and went with only one win and four points from five games. A team meeting was had, alongside a change in some of the roles in the 4231 tactic. It was just to freshen things up and make the roles suit the players a bit more. It worked a treat!!! In February and March we only lost once and suddenly we were well in the running for a European spot, it was tight thought with everyone from 6th to 12th in with a shot. The final seven games also went well, we did lose a couple, poor defeats at home to Fiorentina and away to Torino. We won four games including an absolutely incredible 3-0 win over AC Milan. In the final match we had to win to claim 7th spot and we did just that, smashing Udinese 4-0! An amazing end. January to May Results And that was enough to claim the final European spot, we go into the Conference League! Now for a little look at some of the key team stats from the season and where we ranked for each. Goals Conceded - 39 - 5th (26 less than last season) Goals Scored - 61 - 6th (8 less than last season) xG(xG Performance) - 65.2 (-4.25) - 17th Pass Completion - 88% - 12th Chances Created - 143 - 5th High Intensity Sprints - 5400 - 1st The big one there is the high intensity sprints, we had nearly 500 more than any other team, is this a good thing? I'm not sure, if we run too hard we will get tired, maybe this is something I need to tone down? The rest are pretty decent bar the xG performance where we massively under-performed. What it does show is we have shored up the defence, a near-40% reduction in goals conceded, yes it's impacted our goals scored but only slightly. I honestly feel that defensive performance is what got us the European spot. Key Men It was the season where the defensive players came to the fore and that was shown in the end of season Serie A awards. Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year went to Summer signing Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko, a stunning first season from the lad, not bad for a free! He did have a lot of injuries throughout the season which makes his award even better. 24 appearances, 26 conceded, 11 clean sheets! Defender of the Year went to Andreas Bruus, this one is slightly odd, he didn't start many games but when injuries hit he came in and was really good. Defender of the year? Yeah not sure about that but he was a solid player. 14 starts, 12 sub appearances, 8 assists and 3 goals, not bad! Finally is Jordan James, no Serie A award for him but he was the clubs young player and signing of the season. Another quality player for no money. 37 games and an average rating of 7.12. Here is the clubs Best XI. As you can see no sign of defender of the year Bruus! And here is the whole squad. Finances It's been a really good season financially, here are the key numbers... Bank Balance - £18.7m (£2.1m profit season on season) Green all the way! INCOMINGS Gate Receipts - £6.05m (£90k increase) Season Tickets - £6.52m (£500k decrease) TV Revenue - £31.1m (£4.5m increase) Prize Money - £5.8m (£1.6m increase) OUTGOINGS Player Wages- £27.28m (£7m increase) Staff Wages - £5.65m (£20k increase) Tax - £9.9m (£5.4m increase) Some nice increases where it matters, there are two concerns there, firstly is the lower season ticket sales than the season before, a 1,500 drop in sales meaning £500k less coming in. Secondly, is the massive increase in outgoings, between player wages and tax it adds up to £16m in extra expenditure. Can that change? Well I can't do anything about tax, as for wages, we need to spend more to bring better players in, what we need is to increase incomings, whether that's by player sales or extra money from matchdays and season tickets. Tactics I mentioned before I had tweaked the tactic and here is what I am currently rocking. The big role changes were in midfield, the DLP (DM position) has gone, I just felt that role was taking too many risks on the ball and on numerous occasions we would lose it, leading to some goals and lots of chances given away. The DLP was changed to a DM but to keep a playmaker in the side I changed the attacking midfield role to an AP on support. This is the best role for Callum O'Hare or Sampdoria graduate Rocco Galliani, who had a solid first season in the first-team squad. I also added a couple of instructions, play for set pieces and we seemed to do well with corners and free-kicks and also work the ball into box, this just stopped us shotting from all over the place, that was one reason I felt we under-performed on our xG. Next Season Now we look forward to next season, firstly the board have given me really good budgets. A £200k increase in the wage budget and just over £11m in the transfer kitty. This gives us more than enough to bring in players to improve the side, especially as were also in Europe next season. The big thing for me to work out is what I do with my Non-EU players. I'm allowed three, I have four and all of them are massive players, GK Rojas, CB Nelson, and DMs James and Marquez. One of them has to go, which one? I have no idea!!! So where do I need to improve? Well here is how my squad is shaping up as we head into the Summer. We have good depth in most areas, the big gaps are another CB and on either Wing, we do have some decent youngsters coming through but they aren't ready yet. So they are my three positions to bring in over the Summer. The main aim next season is to improve on our 7th placed position, can we sneak into the top four and grab a Champions League spot? I really do feel we have a chance, we just need get more consistent. As for Europe, I have a feeling we can go deep into the Conference League, can we win it? That will be tough Edited August 6 by TheLutterworthFox 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leobiazzi Posted August 6 Share Posted August 6 Incredible idea for a save, indeed! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 The Nearly Men #5 - 2029/30 Season - Improving the side position by position Last season was really good, 7th place in Serie A means qualification for the Europa Conference League. This save however is all about winning the Champions League, the sooner we get into that competition the better! After last season I took a step back, I have been so used to playing my saves in a certain way that I need to go back to basics and understand what I actually needed to do to build a side capable of firstly qualifying for the Champions and secondly continuing that progression to eventually win the damn thing! A Transfer Rethink Most of my saves are built around bringing youngsters through for little money, then selling them on for big fees. Alongside this I love bringing in academy players and giving them game-time. For this save that seems silly, I don't have time on my hands, winning needs to happen soon to keep the save progressing in the right way. So after some deep thought I decided, each season to look at 3 or 4 positions to improve, each Summer the squad will be assessed to decide which position to look at but it does depends on who leaves. That was even more prevalent this Summer when I lost 2 of my key players from last season. The Summer saw both Rojas (GK) and James (DM) both leave after only a season at the club. Rojas went to PSG for £6.75m (his release clause) and James went to Leicester for £10m, not bad for 2 free transfers! We did lose a few other players but no one key to the squad. I did a lot of scouting to make sure I brought in the best players possible in both of those positions, that was done through scouting recommendations, recruitment focuses and lots of use of the player search. I eventually brought in these players to replace Rojas and James. The new goalkeeper to join is Solomon Yusuf, signed from Werder Bremen for £1.9m, to see if he is a major improvement on Rojas lets do an attribute comparison. For a player who has cost less than a third of Rojas was sold for this is a good deal. His handling is much better, as is his first touch which is something we needed after numerous goalkeeping cock-ups last season playing out from the back. In defensive midfield we decided on Giovanni Fabbian, signed for £5.75m from Bologna, a big deal but still £4.25m less than we sold Jordan James for, as you can see this is a major upgrade. He is much better all over, especially in his physicals and his technical attributes. This is an absolutely brilliant deal for the club and someone who could help take us to the next level. The other position I wanted to upgrade was in attacking midfield. Callum O'Hare fell out of favour last season and was replaced with academy graduate Rocco Galliani but I felt I could do with someone better. In comes Jamal Gonzaga, signed from PSV for £2.6m and as you can see a decent player to come into the first XI. He seems to have a much better balance of attributes for an attacking midfield and also a left wing if needed. His crossing, dribbling, finishing, first touch and passing is much better than nearly anyone in the squad. During the Winter I decided to also improve my striking options. Bianchi hadn't done great and was declining quickly and signing from last season Hyballa kept getting injured, I really needed someone to come in and I decided on David Strelec, costing £3.5m from Marseilles. A big outlay for a 28-year old but so much better than Hyballa. I really like this lad, his technical's are decent but it's his mental attributes which are really good. There were a few other signings that came in, during the Summer I brought in a new left winger, Mario Ceh joined from Celje for £1.3m, a highly rated 20-year old Slovenian international. I also bolstered the defence with Adrian Leist who cost me £2m from Karlsruhe, another young lad who offers much needed depth to our central defence. The during the Winter I brought in two new midfielders. Firstly was Pablo Murillo who joined on a loan for rest of the season from Athletic Bilbao. The other signing was Stefano Cossa who joined from Roma for £1.2m, he is only 20 and adds depth in both central midfield and attacking midfield. A big season in transfers but we actually only spent around £2m more than we recouped, pretty good and I do feel the squad is much much better. Europa Conference We entered the competition in the final qualifying round and eased past Rapid Wien in two high-scoring clashes to qualify for the League Phase, where we did pretty well, we did lose twice, to Sevilla and Twente but did enough to qualify in the playoff spots. From there we went on a good run, APOEL were dispatched in the playoff round, we then scraped past Nice in the last 16. We then came up against Liverpool and it was a step too far, we didn't do too bad, we lost the home leg 2-1 before a 1-0 defeat at Anfield. Overall though a good run, we were just unlucky who we were drawn against as every other team in the quarter finals I felt we could've beat. Coppa Italia It was our best run in the competition so far and I had high hopes we may actually win the whole thing! After wins over Salernitana and Lazio we found ourselves in the semi's against Napoli, the tie was over two legs and after a first-leg loss 2-0 away we had an uphill battle. In the home leg we played amazingly and two second half goals secured a 2-0 win, this meant the game went to penalties and unfortunately we missed 3 of our 6 spot-kicks to lost the shoot-out 4-3. Gutting! Serie A Now we come to the league, with the new signings in I had high hopes we could seriously push the top 4 and get that Champions League spot. Well it did not start well, we were shipping goals and struggling all over the park. We did win a couple but after 3 straight defeat in late-September, early-October we sat in 14th place. A team meeting was had and I did some tweaking to the 4231 tactic, just to make it a bit more solid and it worked a treat. October, November and December went by and we didn't lose another game, suddenly we were well in the Champions League hunt. Results - August to December We went into the New Year and the good form continued throughout January with 3 more wins but then the wheels fell off. Injuries didn't help but we just seemed to fall apart. We did manage a couple of wins but the performances weren't great. February, March and April went by, we did manage to good wins at the end of April but by then our top-4 hopes had gone and were now hanging on to 7th place. Luckily, as we entered May we gained 7 points from the next 3 matches, securing 7th spot and another season in the Europa Conference. Results - January to May Overall I end disappointed, with how well we did between November and January I really felt we had a chance of top 4 but our inconsistent form scuppered that and we had to settle for 7th. We also end 1 point behind our total from last season. Now a quick look at some of the key stats, both good and bad, through our Serie A season. Yellow Card - 83 (the worst in the league by 14!) Expected xG overperformance - 5.88 (6th best), xG 66, goals scored 72 Goals from corners - 15 (the best in the league!) Chances created - 158 (4th best) High intensity sprints - 4948 (2nd best) Well we managed to lower out high intensity sprints which meant we didn't tire too quickly in the matches! That yellow card tally though is worrying, weirdly enough though we only ended with 3 red cards! Key Men The clubs player of the season goes to winger and academy star Giacomo Moscardini, he had a really good season with 9 goals and 13 assists in 48 starts. Top scorer went to midfielder and Summer signing Giovanni Fabbian, I said he was a big upgrade on Jordan James and my word did he show it. His numbers are absolutely insane from defensive midfield!!! 17 goals and 4 assists from 31 starts, the most exciting part of this was his xG was 7.68! He overperformed by over 9 goals! The most assists went to another Summer signing, attacking midfielder Jamal Gonzaga, another player who massively improved our attacking numbers. 36 starts, 19 assists and 9 goals, his xA was 12.41, a massive overperformance. Here is the seasons best XI And here is the whole squad. Next Season Now I look forward to next season and this is a big Summer ahead, we have to end in the top 4 and qualify for the Champions League, next year will be my 5th season and progression is needed, otherwise this part of the save will last years!!! The good thing is the finances are in a really good state. We end the season with £18.6m in the bank, pretty much break-even from last season. The budgets are also really good with just over £17m to spend on transfers and around £100k per week in spare wages. Now I need to assess what positions to improve. A bit like last Summer it will depend on who I think will leave, that needs some looking at. The two positions I want to look at seriously improving at at Left Back, where Ramon, who's done a decent job, is declining quickly and at Left Wing, Ceh did a solid job from the bench but Dilrosun, who has done such an amazing job over the past few seasons, is now not up to the standard I want for a team pushing for Champions League. Here's hoping I can bring in some top quality players to replace those two and also I don't lost any of my key players!! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leobiazzi Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Shame you couldn't do better in the league, but at least you had some solid results in the cups! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Callum Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Really like your approach to squad building. Hopefully you reap the rewards soon! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 19 Author Share Posted August 19 The Nearly Men #6 - 2030/31 Season Going for European Glory & Champions League Qualification I had really high hopes for this season, another shot at the Europa Conference League was one of the biggest goals this time around, especially after a quarter final defeat to Liverpool last year, the main aim though is to get that Champions League spot, this save is all about getting those who failed at the final hurdle in Europe's premier competition to go that one step further and now, in our fourth season, I have full faith we can end in those top four positions and claim at spot at the Champions League table for next season. The main plan over the Summer was to once again improve the squad in a few positions that In felt we were weak in. Those positions were left back and left wing, any other signings would depend on who left over the Summer and the season, and here are those out's Not too many out's if I'm honest, the one big sale was defensive midfielder Joaquin Marquez, signed a season ago, he wanted a stupidly high wage in a new contract which I couldn't afford, so to stop him causing a rift I decided to let him go, a near £2m profit. Lembikisa (full back) was also sold, I player that doesn't need talking about, I signed him on a free, he was non-EU, I couldn't register him so had to get rid, a good profit though! The other first-teamers to go were GK's Ghidotti and Saio, the rest were back-ups and kids. Now to the in's and as you'd expect there were a few more than just the LB and LW! Firstly was a new central defender, in comes Luka Vuskovic from Tottenham on a free transfer. The reason for this signing was there were rumours Ben Nelson and Sasa Cestic wanted to move to a bigger club, so I signed him as a plan just in case. Luckily neither left so Vuskovic adds depth to our central defence and also defensive midfield. As you can see Vuskovic is a big upgrade on Cestic, both mentally and technically. The second signing was another free transfer and the reason I was happy to let Marquez leave, in comes Nicolas Dominguez, on a free transfer from Norwich, a huge upgrade on Marquez, his mental attributes are so good and he will be a massive player this season. Now to a new left back, I spent a lot of time scouting to find a player better than Ramon but eventually fell short, players were either too expensive or not interested. So I decided to go with youth and someone I felt, in time, could be better than Ramon. That player is Aldin Karic, signed from Molde for £2.8m. As you can see he is behind in some of his technical and mental attributes but physically he is much better. Now to two new attacking players, firstly is Claudio Echeverri, my new player to play left wing. he joins from Manchester City on a free and as you can see he is much better than our first-choice LW Dilrosun. I then decided to improve my options at right wing, we only really had Moscardini to play there and whilst he is good I felt I could get better and I did just that. Viktor Dukanovic joins from Salernitana for £7.5m, a big outlay but a top quality player and as you can see with his comparison to Moscardini he is much, much better! Finally is a Winter window signing. I spent the first half of the season running with two strikers, Strelec was doing OK but Hyballa wasn't scoring enough. I decided to spend the rest of my transfer budget on a new Striker and after lots of scouting I brought in Jovan Milosevic for £4.2m from Hammarby. He had a really good scoring record there and even scored 7 times in 33 starts for Aston Villa in the Premier League. I really felt he would be a quality signing, we will see later! As you can see compared to Strelec he is slightly better but also 5 years younger with more time to grow. Some good signings but a lot of money spent, £14.5m overall, around £7m more than we recouped. Champions League football is very much needed to bring the finances back up. Before I go into the results, something I missed from last season, we have a chance in the Nearly Men list, PSG eventually won the Champions League and are now no longer one of the Nearly Men. Coppa Italia It was another really good run in the Italian Cup but once again we fell short. I really wanted to win it this season but once again it was Napoli who stole that from us, a 6-5 aggregate defeat in the Semi's Europa Conference Now to Europe, a competition I really wanted to win and my word did we do well. It didn't start great though as we scraped through the final qualifying round against Gladbach 3-2 on aggregate courtesy of two late goals in the second leg. But then came the League Phase and we stormed it, 6 games, 5 wins and a draw, we ended 2nd in the table and eased into the Last 16. Into the Last 16 where we faced IF Brommapojkarna (say that when you're drunk!), we lost the first leg stupidly but came back in the second leg at home to smash them 7-1! In the Quarters we played Red Star Belgrade and eased through, helped with a 6-2 win in the first leg. Then in the semis we faced Everton, a team we scraped a draw against in the League Phase but my word did we do better than that!! We went to the Bramley-Moore Dock and hammered them 3-0!!! An amazing result and that was backed up with a 4-3 win in the home leg. We're into the final!!! One game away from our first European trophy win since the Cup Winners Cup in 1990 and the team in our way was French side Rennes. It was a game I expected to win and we started incredibly, Echeverri scoring with a 20-yard screamer after 8 minutes put us 1-0 up and mid-way through the second half Vuskovic nodded in from a corner to double our lead. After that Rennes came at us but we soaked up their pressure and when they did break through Yusuf in goal was more than a match. The game then petered out as we sat back, the whistle blew and we had done it! EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE WINNERS! Serie A Now we come to the big one, a top-4 place is much needed this season. Well it didn't start great, we opened up with a defeat and only won once in our first 4. I had been playing around with the tactics which clearly wasn't working so switched back to the 4231 and it worked a treat. We won our next 5 before a defeat and by the end of the year we only lost once more. A great start and we were well in the Champions League race. Results - August to December Into the new year and we started terribly with back-to-back defeat to Inter and Roma, we were struggling at the time with injuries and as those players came back we kicked on, we did lose the odd game but over February and March we gained 16 points from 8 games putting us right back in the hunt for a top 4 spot. Then, just as the pressure mounted we kicked on massively, In April we won 4 out of 4 and in May we won 3 out of 4, a fantastic end, massively helped by the Jovan Milosevic signing up front who scored 11 goals in 9 starts. Results - January to May As that amazing run made sure we ended in the 3rd place, miles behind Inter Milan at the top though! A brilliant season, A European trophy, our best points tally in the league by far and Champions League qualification, if we can turn some of those 9 defeats into victories then we have a serious shot at challenging Inter for the title next season! Key Men A quick overview of the best players this season, click the players name to see their profile. Club Player of the Season - Killian Sardella (RB) Club Young Player of the Season - Giacomo Moscardini (RW) Top Scorer - Jamal Gonzaga (AM) Most Assists - Nicolas Dominguez (DM) Here is the Best XI And here is the whole squad. Next Season Now we look forward to next year and we're back in the Champions League. All that money I spent on transfers and wages this season hasn't gone un-noticed though and the board have given me really poor budgets. A measly £8.64m to spend on transfers and a £100k per week rise in the wage budget, that is nowhere near enough to improve this squad. We will now need to look at either free transfers or selling players to bring more money in. As you can see the finances have taken a major hit this season. We end the season with just short of £3m in the bank, a near-£15m loss over the year. The main contributor to that was player wages which has risen by over £11m this season. This has been due to signings but also due to my key players wanting really high contracts, I had to agree as I didn't need a mid-season revolt. So this Summer we will need to be more savvy with who we bring in. I won't be looking at particular positions unless players leave. I do feel the squad is decent for the level, could I make it better? Yes, but that is going to cost and that kind of cost I cannot afford. Maybe the next season we need to consolidate, make money from the Champions League with a view to pushing the boat out the season after. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Callum Posted August 21 Share Posted August 21 Well done on the conference league win and qualifying for champions league 💪 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 21 Author Share Posted August 21 8 hours ago, Coach Callum said: Well done on the conference league win and qualifying for champions league 💪 Thanks Callum! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 23 Author Share Posted August 23 (edited) The Nearly Men #7 - 2031/32 Season - Pushing for the title What a season we had last time out, we claimed our first European trophy since 1990 with our Europa Conference League win, the big news though was qualification for the Champions League as we ended the Serie A season in 3rd place. Now the push is on, we need to start competing in the Champions League, that is the aim of this challenge after all! I'd also love to be challenging for the league title but to do that we need, not only better player but money to do that! Something we currently don't have much of. The big pre-season news financially was the massive bump up in season ticket sales. A 7,500+ jump in sales giving us nearly £3m extra in season ticket sales, not a bad start but more money was needed to help us improve the quality of the first-team squad. Transfers Out It was a really busy season, in both the Summer and Winter window as you can see below.. £57m of sales, some key players leaving as well including Summer sales Giovanni Fabbian (DM), Viktor Dukanovic (LW), Adrian Leist (CB), Andreas Bruus (RB) and Javairo Dilrosun (RW). Then in the Winter even more players left, these were mainly sold as they refused a new deal and would leave at the end of the season. David Strelec (ST), Nicolas Dominguez (DM) and Ramon (LB) were the 3 first-team players to go/ So some massive holes to fill, both my starting DMs left over the season, plus 3 of my reserve back 4 and my 2nd choice Striker. Transfers In And here are the new boys.... Giuseppe Ferotti - Defensive Midfield - £4.5m from Torino I won't lie I found it hard to find players who were anywhere near as good as the lads leaving for relatively low fees, especially in the Summer where we only had around £18m to spend in transfers. So in comes a player for the future and to add depth to the central midfield. He needs work but overall he looks a decent talent. Miguel Cardoso - Right Back - £5.5m from Braga My replacement for Bruus, also signed as it looked for a time that my first-choice RB Sardella may leave but he didn't. Another young player who has some really good mentals, good stamina as well, perfect for a full-back. Nasreddina Larabi - Defensive Midfield - Season loan from Nice Brought in on a loan as I struggled to find anyone for a low enough fee to replace Fabbian. A solid player though. Nathan Zeze - Central Defender - £5m from Parma A player I tried to sign last season but I got priced out, he joins this Summer for half the fee I bid last year! A top quality CB. Now to the Winter window signing and with a nice bump up in the transfer kitty by the board and player sales I may have gone a bit mad! Giacomo Faticanti - Defensive Midfield - £18m from Udinese A big fee but wow what a player, a natural replacement for Dominguez and 6 years younger. I have high hopes this lad can become a huge player. Adam Karabec - Attacking Midfield - £70k from Sparta Prague I had no need to sign a new AM but when I saw this lad available on a "approach to sign" deal with a £70k compensation deal I just had to bring him in. Just look at his value now!! A top top quality player who elevates our attacking midfield. Miran Kovacevic - Left Back - £3.9m from Lille My replacement for the outgoing Ramon, he isn't rated massively high, something I usually look for but his attributes tell me he looks a lot better than 2*. His mentals are amazing. Igor Seman - Right Back/Defensive Midfield - £1.5m from Slovan Bratislava Again over the Winter it looked like Sardella would go but once again nothing materialised. This lad looks really good for 18, a player for the future but also a cracking player to have in the squad as he can play RB, CB, DM and CM with ease. So a busy season transfer wise, just over £40m spent on players in but we did make a net profit of around £17m overall. Is the squad better than last season? I'd say yes, is the first XI better? Probably not but I have high hopes we can challenge at the top of the table. Champions League But firstly the Champions League. I have to say, our fixtures in the league phase looked pretty daunting, we faced Liverpool, Real Madrid, Benfica, Ajax, Valencia to name a few but somehow we did well enough to qualify in the playoff spots. We even nearly got into that top 8 but fell agonisingly short. Into the playoff round and we were handed one of the hardest draws..Liverpool! A team we drew in the league phase but this time we fell short. A 1-0 defeat at Anfield was followed by a 2-0 defeat at home. A crap way to go out but overall I have to be happy in our first Champions League campaign of the save. Coppa Italia I really wanted to win the Coppa Italia this season and after wins over Empoli and Roma we once again found ourselves in the semi's but, for the 3rd season in a row and fell at the last-4 hurdle and were dumped out by Atalanta Really disappointing. Serie A Now to the league and I really felt we had a chance of challenging for the title this season. Well it started brilliant with 3 straight wins to open the campaign before a mini-blip. Goals were flying in though, 5-2 over Cremonese, 7-1 over Lecce but then came one of the best wins in the save so far, a 5-2 battering of Juventus, that was followed by a defeat to AC Milan but we were still well in the hunt at the top. November and December were both fantastic, the odd draw but more than wins and lots of goals, we did end the year with a defeat but as we went into 2032 we had a huge chance of winning the league. Into the new year and things started well, January we ended with a 100% record from 3 games but it was inconsistencies that would scupper our title challenge. February started with 2 points from games before 3 really good wins, March we got 6 points out of 9 and in April 2 draws in games we should've won, alongside Napoli amazing form meant we went into the final month too far behind them to challenge for the title. Into May, we needed to end with 4 wins from 4, we managed 3 from 4, the defeat once again the one that would stop us ending 2nd. Another 3rd placed finish, but look how close it was. Us, Atalanta and AC Milan all end on 80 points, the funny thing was, is the position is decided by results against the other teams, well we beat Atalanta twice but lost to AC Milan twice, the reason we ended below Atalanta and above AC Milan was Atalanta won both their games against AC by more goals, so in a mini-table of 3, Atalanta ended with the best goal difference!! Anyway, a great season, we challenged right until the final month, we ended with a point more than last season, next season it will happen......I hope! Key Men Club Player of the Year - Jamal Gonzaga This lad gets better and better, he's spent more time playing out on the left of a 41221 but is just as effective. 40 starts, 18 goals and 9 assists. Will he be here next season? Well the Saudi clubs are circling which is a concern! Club Young Player of the Year - Giacomo Moscardini A great season for the academy graduate. Last season he didn't feature much but with the departure of Duskovic he got more game time and did really well. 33 starts, 11 sub appearances, 12 assists and 9 goals. Solid. Club Top Scorer - Jovan Milosevic With Strelec leaving it was left to Milosevic to lead the line, luckily he stayed fit and was sensational in front of goal. 37 starts, 7 sub appearance, 25 goals including 20 in 29 in the league. Here is the clubs best XI. I mentioned before I switched to a 41221 during the season but kept mixing it about, the 4231 is still most effective but felt during some games I needed to remove the AM and solidify the central midfield. And here is the whole squad. Finances A quick word on the finances and it's been a season of profit! As you can we ended with a £14.6m profit over the season pushing the bank balance up to £30m. Most of the profit came from our Champions League run, the prize money jumped by over £20m from the previous season. We were also helped with the jump in season ticket sales and players leaving. Next Season Now we look forward to the next campaign and this is the one, we've continued to improve year and on year but this is the season we need to properly challenge and hopefully win the League. I really like the squad I've built, we have good depth but we do need to let some players leave. We do have a large squad, a lot of players not getting the game-time they deserve so there will be some movement over the Summer. With the bank balance looking really healthy we do have a decent transfer budget to utilise next season. The wage budget hasn't really increased but that is nice amount of money to spend on players. Signing wise I want to look at two positions over the Summer. The first is in goal. Yusuf has been brilliant for us but this season he has been injured more often than not, he started with a 3-month lay-off, he came back for one game and got another injury meaning 3 more months on the sidelines. So that is my main goal to bring in a new GK. The second position is a Striker, Milosevic has been great but Strelec left in the Winter and I didn't have the money to replace him, this meant we only had Milosevic and Hyballa as front-line strikers with Hyballa really not impressing this season. So a striker, to challenge Milosevic is another main target. Other than that signings will depend on who leaves. The squad is good, it's settled but we can't stand still. Edited August 23 by TheLutterworthFox Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leobiazzi Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 That's a lot of money to spend! You're coming close to win Serie A, good job 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 (edited) The Nearly Men #8 - 2032/33 Season - Serie A Title Challenge? Welcome back. After a second successive third place finish last season we are well truly in the hunt for a shot at the Serie A title. The squad is settled and I am really confident this is the year we can do it. Let's take a look and see what happened! Transfers Out It was actually a really quiet season with regard to losing players, I expected a raft of bids for my key men but they never materialised. Over the Summer we lost no first-team players. That did change in the Winter window where three players left. Striker Hyballa, who had fallen down the pecking order left, as did goalkeeper Yusuf, first-choice last season, we fell out after a new GK came in and he cause a huge rift, he had to go! The final sale was Winger Echeverri, signed on a free two seasons ago, he leaves for £30m, a huge deal and one I couldn't turn down. Transfers In Now to the incoming signings, I really didn't want to bring too many in and I did stick to that in the main. Dusan Radivojevic - Central Defender - £7m from Panathinaikos With so many rumours swirling about the likes of Sardella, Nelson and Zeze being taken from me I decided to bring an extra defender in just in case we lost one of them. We were slightly short in central defence anyway so he is a good addition. Robert Puigoriol - Winger/Striker - £9m from Barcelona With me only having Hyballa and Milosevic as front-line Strikers I had to bring someone else in, when I saw this lad I had to snap him up. Only 21 and top quality, he can also play out wide on the right and in midfield. He was the reason Hyballa left! Ondrej Raska - Goalkeeper - £6m from Slavia Prague I really wanted to bring a new keeper in over the Summer, Yusuf has been great but as I eluded to in the last post he was injured for nearly 6 months of last season. I had to replace him and Raska was the man to come in. Only 20 but already a Czech international and a stunning looking keeper. The in the Winter I signed three more players. Enric Colell - Striker - Season loan from Barcelona As mentioned before we were short on Striker, Hyballa left meaning we had Puigoriol and Milosevic, I needed a third option just in case of injuries and suspension. Henry Amass - Left Back - £8.75m from Frosinone A left back wasn't really on my radar but when I saw that Frosinone had been put into administration I had a look over their squad and really liked the look of this lad. He will vie with Karic for that starting LB spot. Ohian Sancet - Central Midfield - Season loan from Man City Again I had no need for a midfielder but with the sheer number of games we were facing I felt it prudent to bolster the ranks, this lad looks incredible and at 33 will offer much needed experience. Some great transfers and now we were set for a shot at glory! Champions League Firstly Europe and we had an amazing run in the Champions League. We went straight into the League Phase and started like a train, 6 straight wins including an amazing 3-0 win at home to Spurs meaning we had qualified for the playoff spots with 2 games to spare. Unfortunately our two toughest games came last, we lost to both Dortmund and Arsenal slipping us agonisingly into 9th place, missing out on the top 8 qualifiers on goal difference. So close! But every cloud has a silver lining and playing in the knockout round hopefully meant extra prize money. We faced Lyon and after winning the away tie 2-1 we scraped a 0-0 at home to go through. The extra prize money was just over £8m Into the last 16 and we faced another French side, Lens. A team we battered 4-0 in the Champions League last season and we eased through 5-2 on aggregate. We're into the Quarters and we were handed a tie I thought we had a chance at, until I looked more closely. We faced Brighton, a team that ended 2nd in the Premier League last season and won the Europa League, not as easy as I hoped and that's how it proved to be. Away leg first, we had to stay in the game but two first-half goals was not a great start, then a red card to Sardella just after half time put pay to any chance we had, Brighton scored 3 times after the red card and although we scored late on we lost the game 5-2. We had to go for in the home leg and go for it we did. We scored 2 early goals to pull ourselves right back into the tie, then just before half time we had a chance to level on aggregate but Milosevic missed his penalty. But then with 13 minutes left loanee Colell scored to put us 3-0 up on the night and make it 5-5 on aggregate, we still had to go for it, I didn't want extra-time and unfortunately we got caught out in the final minutes of the game, Brighton scored and dumped us out. Absolutely gutting! But what a run it was! Coppa Italia Now to domestic action and in the cup we breezed through the opening rounds against Cremonese and Napoli before overcoming the hurdle we'd fallen at the last three season, we beat Atalanta over 2-legs in the semi final to claim a spot in the final. Where we faced AC Milan, with games mounting and serious injury issues we didn't have a full team out and that was exacerbated by an early injury to star man Karabec. We really didn't play and just after half-time AC took the lead. The game itself wasn't great, neither side created many chance but the goal just deflated us, we couldn't come back and we lost! Serie A Now to the big one, I had real hope we could challenge this year and we started incredible, over the opening months we won and won, we drew a couple but we were amazing, the performances were top drawer, the morale was high and we ended the year we sat top of the league and unbeanten! Results - August to December Into the New Year and we eventually lost in the game we really couldn't afford to, Inter, our nearest challengers beat us closing the gap at the top. We did then go on a really good run over February and March but the chasing pack continued to win and we entered April it way a 4-way battle at the top with ourserlves, Inter, Juventus and Napoli. We had the advantage though, we were 4 clear with 9 to play, with the games piling up we did start to slip, games we should've won, we drew but we still weren't losing but then, with 4 games to go the wheels started to come off. A home defeat to Lazio as followed by a draw to AC Milan. We had 2 games to go, we just needed 4 points to claim the title and in the penulatimate game we smashed Empoli 5-0! Results - January to May Into the final match, we sat 3 clear of Inter Milan but they had the advantage is we were level on points as they had the better head-to-head. We faced Juventus away , Inter were away to arch-rivals AC Milan! We just needed a point, we went down early but luckily for us Inter were also losing, then, just after half-time we had the break we were looking for, a corner came in, it hit a Juve defenders and ended up in his own net! 1-1!! Now just hang on! AND HANG ON WE DID!!!! SERIE A CHAMPIONS!!!! What a season! Too many draws but who cares we've done it!!! Now to win the Champions League! Key Men This is the first time we've done this, we dominathe Serie A end of season awards! Serie A Best Defender went to Left Back Aldin Karic, a quality season for this lad who is now the clubs vice-captain. He isn't rated very highly but his performances have always been top quality. Serie A Best Midfielder went to Luka Vuskovic, he played at the base of a midifeld three over the season and was fantastic at providing protection to the back-3. Serie A Best Forward/Best Player went to Jovan Milosevic, this lad is just incredible, another one who deserves to rated so much higher than he is. He had another amazing season in front of goal with 35 goals in 44 start, 27 goals in the league ending 2nd in the charts to Dusan Vlahovic. Club Player of the Season goes to Adam Karabec, I still can't beleive this lad cost me £70k!! He is an assist-machine and has played amazingly as the Mezzala. 25 assists and 10 goals over the season, what a player! Here is the clubs Best XI And here is the whole first-team squad. Breaking News Now for some huge news, both for good reasons and bad! We will be getting a new ground! A 46k capacity stadium but it is going to take four years to build, will I still be here by then? Who knows! The bad news is how much it's going to cost, £184m with £167m of that being a loan!! This puts our debts up massively. We are now repaying £1.5m per month off our debts, this is going to put a huge dent into our finances over the coming season, especially as we still have the smaller ground, not enough gate receipts to cover that kind of loss per month. Next Season With that news I need to be really careful what I spend over the Summer, we have some great budgets if I want to use it but those debt repayments means trying to balance the books is imperative as I don't want to over-spend causing us to lose too much money. £46m is great but with only £40m in the bank and it expected to drop by around £3m a month next season I really can't spend it. Player sales are needed if I am to improve the squad but the big question is, how much do I need to improve? The squad is really settled now, we have no one upset and angry, we have great morale, why should I change anything? So this Summer should be quiet unless players leave. I don't really even have a particular area I want to upgrade, the players who would improve a position are going to cost way too much and I am really invested in the players we have! He'res hoping with another Summer of team bonding we can really start pushing further in the Champions League! And here is a summary of the save so far...what a seven seasons it's been! Thanks for reading. Edited August 29 by TheLutterworthFox Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 A quick note on what is happening next. I have decided to shorten down the updates and make them a bit more regular than what I've been doing. I realise the posts on here are quite long and hard to take in all in one go so from here on in the updates on here will be shorter, possibly monthly or bi-monthly as long as there is enough to say. Hope everyone understands and is on board 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 (edited) Part #9 - 2033/34 Pre Season & Opening Games A new season begins and this time we have a target on our backs, Serie A champs, can we regain it? That is going to be very tough. There are up's and down's with over exceeding, firstly players now want stupid wages. I had a plan to not pay a player more than £100k per week, well that has now gone completely out the window with numerous players coming to me wanting new deals, I negotiated but the wages exceeded my limit. Secondly, trying to strengthen has proved really tough, we don't have loads to spend and players who will improve our squad cost too much, I have made a few signings though but I've had to be thrifty! But before the signings some news from over the Summer. We have a new main kit sponsorship deal, over 4 years giving us an extra £15.25m per season, that doubles are sponsorship money from last season. The other news is we have made a huge rise up the UEFA European rankings, we are now up to 20th. Now to the Summer transfer dealings, it was going so well, we hardly had an offer for any of our key men and although I could've done with some money coming in I'd much rather have kept my squad together than lose any of my main hitters. That was until deadline day when Real Madrid came in for Serie A defender of the year for last season Luka Vuskovic, £37.5m up front with £11m of addons, he wanted the move and I wanted to cash! Other than that our outgoings have been backups players, the other big deal was 3rd choice Left Back Kovacevic who left for £12.5m to Freiburg. Now to the incomings and although I didn't want to do too much business I, as ever, got excited and brought a few players in, all for a reason though! The first player to talk about is defensive midfielder Clayton, I player I actually signed last Winter but I cocked up and couldn't register him due to the non-EU rules, I sent him to Spurs for the second half of the season and he did well, he's now back and can be registered. A top quality player who cost me £12.5m from Botafogo. With money tight over the Summer and player fees way too much I had to spend a lot of time scouting around for the right player for the right amount of money. My first Summer signing was midfielder Oscar Hojlund who joins from LA Galaxy for £6.75m. A top quality player who will walk into my midfield. I needed a new CM after the loan of Sancet expired. Now for some experience, with another loanee Colell going back to his parent club I needed an extra Striker to challenge Milosevic for that lone striker role. In comes Randal Kolo Muani on a free transfer from PSG. A brilliant signing, experienced and still really good for 34. Next is Left Winger Haydn Durow, the English left winger joins on a free transfer. He was signed due to a 3-month layoff for out first choice LW Gonzaga. He looks really good though and just look at his value, not bad for a freebie! With me really wanting to improve my options I decided that my right back area was quite weak. Sardella has been great but at 31 he is already declining, we also have Cardoso but he was trying to push through a move. So just to be on the safe side I brought in Hugo Haasnoot on a season-long loan from Manchester City. The final signing came on deadline day and was my rather rushed through replacement for Vuskovic. In comes David Affengruber from PSG for £10m. A big fee for a 32-year old but he offers experience and also a big boost to shirt sales! Some great signings and a transfer profit overall of just over £30m! Not bad! Now to the results and it has started really well! 4 games in and we haven't conceded a goal, we did start with scrappy 0-0 draw at home to Napoli but since then we've been devastating, 15 goals over the next 3 games. Let's hope we can keep this up! Finally is our Champions League fixtures. As always we have some games we should win but also some really tough ties, including Man City, AC Milan (I swear teams from the same nation aren't allowed to draw each other in the League Phase), Spurs and Atletico Madrid, Still we should have enough in us to grab a playoff spot at worst. Edited August 29 by TheLutterworthFox Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 30 Author Share Posted August 30 Part #10 - September 2033 After a brilliant August we continued on into September and absolutely smashed it! Some incredible wins there in the league, 7 games in and we still haven't conceded a goal domestically and we top of the league on goal difference to Napoli. In the Champions League we started with a really good win over AEK Athens, a game we should've won but it was a lot tougher than I expected and it took me bringing Milosevic on as a sub who grabbed 2 goals within 9 minutes of coming in. This lad is a superstar! We did get a hammering by Man City but for a good hour of that game we were well in it but they showed their class as we tired to run out 3-0 winners It's also nice to see one of our players recognised for his good form and it's one of my Summer signings! Oscar Hojlund so far has been absolutely incredible! Overall he has 4 goals and 5 assists from 9 games, all from playing as the CM(s) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 30 Author Share Posted August 30 Part #11 - October 2033 Another brilliant month! The games have become a lot tighter than the continuous thrashings in August and we've started conceding but still, we're winning and that's all that matter! That AC Milan game was an epic, we deserved something out of the game but left it late to seal a 2-1 win. We did end the month with a 0-0 draw but it was a game we dominated but their keeper was POTM, we ended with a xG of 3.03 but drew 0-0! We're still sitting pretty at the top of the table on GD to Napoli but we have a game in-hand. In the Champions League we've played one game and it was fantastic 3-1 win over AC Milan. A great month overall! It's also a second consecutive month where one of our players is Serie A player of the month, this time is Adam Karabec, he's been playing on the right wing and has been really really good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted August 30 Author Share Posted August 30 Part #12 - November 2033 The amazing form continues! Out unbeaten start to the season carries on with some fantastic wins in Serie A We now have a really nice cushion to 2nd place, let's hope we can continue our amazing form. We've also had two really good games in the Champions League, firstly a 7-0 battering of Hammarby, it was by far our easiest game and the result shows just how easy it was! The second match was a really good draw away to Atletico Madrid, a game where we were 2-0 down early and playing poorly, the lads got their act together, clawing back 2 goals to seal a massive point. This means, with 3 games left, we are in the top 8 qualifiers. Just Spurs (H), Socieded (A) and Frankfurt (A) to go! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 Part #12 - December 2033 This Sampdoria team really is something else, we can't stop winning! Another sensational month Some brilliant wins especially as we had some really tough games. The 4-1 win over Inter Milan was one of our best performances of the season so far We are now half way through the season and we sit seven points clear at the top of the league and we're still unbeaten! We also won in the Champions League, a really tough test against Spurs but a Kolo Muani brace sealed s 2-1 win This season really can't be going much better than it has, I really hope we can keep this going! We've also had the youth intake preview, it's the first time in the save it's not been an apparent golden generation but it still looks like we could have a couple of stars...we shall see though! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 Part #13 - January 2034 Well our unbeaten league season eventually ended, an away defeat to Napoli, our closest challengers, it hasn't affected us too much though, that was our only non-win of the month. And even with that loss to Napoli we still have a 6 point lead at the top of the table. The League Phase of the Champions League is also over and we have done amazingly, two more fantastic wins, firstly a 3-2 away win over Real Sociedad. And then we played really well away to Frankfurt, we defended for our lives and grabbed the only goal mid-way through the second half. And those two wins mean we qualify for the Last 16 in 2nd place. There's also been a bit of transfer business. I decided to bring a new Striker in, Milosevic had a 4-week injury and although Kolo Muani did well, he has decided to retire at the end of the season, a new 2nd choice Striker was very much needed and when I saw Ludovico Accardi I had to snap him up, he joins for £10m with another £13m of addons from Roma. What a superstar! We also say goodbye to two players who have played a big part in our success but have fallen out of favour. Firstly is RB Sardella, a player who joined in 2028 from Leeds and has been amazing for us, this season he has fallen out of favour and wanted to leave, he moves to Saudi Arabia for £11.25m, not bad for a player out of contract at the end of the season. Secondly is Adam Karabec, with the arrival of Hojlund he hasn't had much game time and asked to leave. He's goes to Brighton on loan for the rest of the season. They are paying 100% of his wages and 400k per month fee. He will join them at the end of the season for £26.5m Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted Monday at 19:19 Author Share Posted Monday at 19:19 Part #14 - February 2034 Another fantastic month bar one result! That cup game was bloody awful, yes I did rest some key men for the league match but the team I put out was good enough, we just didn't show up. The league is still going great guns, 4 games, 10 points and with Napoli dropping points the gap at the top is now 9! We've also just had the Champions League last 16 draw and we have Manchester United. A really tough tie but to be honest you'd expect every game to be hard now. They are better than us but I don't think the gulf is massive. They ended last seasons Premier League in 4th and have only won one FA Cup (2031) in this save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted Tuesday at 13:49 Author Share Posted Tuesday at 13:49 Part #15 - Match 2034 What an amazing month! Yes that's right we beat Man United in the Champions League but the way we did was absolutely incredible! In the first leg we didn't play too bad but they showed their class to take a 2-0 lead, we did claw a goal back and that was to be pivotal. Because in the second leg we produced one of the greatest comebacks I've witnessed on FM! As you can see we found ourselves 2-0 down at half-time and 4-1 on aggregate, I gave them a rocket at the break and my word did it work!!! We scored 3 times to level the tie and then in 90th minute Winter signing Accardi popped up with what was to be the winning goal! STUNNING! And in the Quarters we face another English side, this time Spurs, a team we beat in the League Phase in both of the last two seasons. The league is still going strong, we did drop points against Sassuolo but only because I rested players as it was in-between the two Man United games. Another 7 points from the 3 games in March consolidates our lead at the top of the table. It has dropped to 7 points but that's more than enough of gap for me, we only have 8 games left. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted Tuesday at 19:35 Author Share Posted Tuesday at 19:35 Part #16 - April 2034 Lets firstly discuss the Champions League because, well that is the main aim of this save! We faced Spurs in the Quarters, I knew we had a chance but for 89 minutes of the first leg we were awful, 1-0 down, playing terribly, then in typical Spurs fashion they imploded! Two goals, right at the death, including a 94th minute own goal gave us a 2-1 victory, now all we had to do was see the home leg out! Where we went behind in the first half but a brilliant second half saw us score twice in the opening 20 minutes to put us 4-2 up on aggregate, then, in injury time we scored another goal to seal the victory, Spurs did grab a late goal but we were through, 5-3 on aggregate...STUNNING! Into the Semi final and we faced Barcelona, only the first leg was played in April, where the tie was at Nou Camp. Well we got completely outplayed, We may have had more possession but we did nothing with it, Barca had so so many chances, our keeper was our best player, keeping them out for most of the game, Barca did score mid-way through the second half but one was all they scored. A 1-0 defeat, we have the ability to turn it around in the second leg but we need to play a lot better The second leg will be play in the opening few days of May, I will report back as soon as it's played. Now to domestic action and overall it's been decent, we got smashed again the Coppa Italia but I have bigger fish to fry than that! That loss though in the league meant the gap to Napoli was down to 4 points, that was until the final game of the month, where they drew 0-0 at home to Lecce, combined with our crazy win over Lazio, means we now have a 6 point gaps at the top with 3 games to go! One win should do it and we have Inter (H), Juventus (A) and Bologna (H) to play. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted Tuesday at 19:46 Author Share Posted Tuesday at 19:46 Part #17 - Champions League Semi Final Second Leg We tried, we really went for, we dominated the chances, had an xG more than treble of Barca but we did not defend well, the only goal didn't help but overall I was happy with the performance. A 3-2 defeat, 4-2 on aggregate, so near, yet so far. It's been an incredible run though, a round better than last year, I couldn't ask for much more. Next year we're getting to the final!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted Tuesday at 20:22 Author Share Posted Tuesday at 20:22 Part #18 - 2033/34 End of Season Review With us out of the Champions League it was all down to the league and we did amazingly to claw ourselves back after that Barcelona loss to win our final three games and claim back-to-back Serie A titles! A brilliant ending to the season. The best season by MILES. 117 goals scored, 28 conceded and 98 points, we were amazing! Now we have to look forward to next season and try and improve the squad enough to win the Champions League. The squad has done amazing this season but for me we are nowhere near up to standard, we have good first XI but the squad, when the going got tough, wasn't strong enough. Now to the player awards and we dominated the Serie A players of the year. An award winner in every area! Jovan Milosevic was by far our best player again, he wins the clubs player of the year alongside the Serie A best striker. 35 goals in 34 starts is another great return, this season though he has had two injuries which has put him out for over a month both times. Oscar Hojlund was also incredible this season, an amazing Summer signing, he has massively improved our midfield. He ends with 15 goals and 14 assists from his 49 starts. But now the planning starts for next season. I really want to get this squad up to a standard to win the Champions League. This means making some hard choices and get rid of some of the players who probably aren't good enough moving forward. It's going to be a tough Summer! The good news is the board have given me £56m to spend on transfers and over £2.6m per week on wages, a £600k per week rise from last season. This, alongside player sales, should give us a lot to spend on 3, 4 or 5 top quality players to try and take this side to the next level. Financially it's been a good season too, a £25m profit over the year, this has been helped by a £15m rise in sponsorship and £15m more than last season on player sales. Wish me luck for the Summer, I think I may need it! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted Wednesday at 18:19 Author Share Posted Wednesday at 18:19 Part #19 - 2034/35 Summer Transfers It's that time, it's transfer time. I won't lie, I've gone a bit mad. I decided to blow all the budget to try and get this team to a new level. Did I manage it? I'm not sure but what I have done it add experience and upgraded in a couple of areas. Firstly time for some experience. A new GK joins and that man is Ella Caprille, a player I wanted last year but he cost too much, this year he comes in on a free. Some more experience as attacking midfielder Malik Tillman comes in from Man City, also on a free Now for a new right winger, this lad was in the NxGN top 50, I think he was in the top 10. A good player to challenge Moscardini. He joins from Malmo for £2.1m Now for the big one, I needed a new CM and when I saw Moretto I had to bring him in, unfortunately he cost way too much so I had to beg the board to sign him for me. He joins for a whopping £50m on a crazy wage but I really do think this guy could be the difference Now for a new RB, I did want to bring Hasnoot back in but Man City wanted £36m for him. I had to settle for Aleksander Sandnes, he joins from Salernitana for £17.5m. A big fee but a player I really like the look of Finally, In comes another keeper, with my first choice (before Caprile) wanting to leave and me letting backup keeper Garrido leave for £16.75m (signed last year for £2.3m). Another player who was on the NxGN list, Firmino joins for £5m from Botafago That's it so far, there is still a month of the window left, I would love a new CB but the Moretto deal blew every penny we had and also put us £200k per week over our wage budget. I now need to sell a couple of players but so far no bids have come in 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted 15 hours ago Author Share Posted 15 hours ago Part #20 - August/September 2034 What a stunning start! A 100% start in the league, two results stand out, the 5-0 battering of Atalanta and the final game of September where we easily beat Juventus 2-0. A really pleasing start. But it's the Champions League that's most important in this save and so far we've started well. First up was AEK Athens at home, probably our easiest game of the League Phase, we made hard work of it but ended up 4-2 winners. And secondly was a trip to The Emirates to face Arsenal, I went with our more defensive 523 formation and it worked well, we did concede early but we more than held our own and claimed a solid 1-1 draw. We do have some tricky fixtures to come but I feel we will have more than enough for at least a playoff spot, hopefully top 8! Our best player so far has been the £50m man, Moretto, he is living up to his price tag so far with 4 goals and 3 assists in 6 starts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted 11 hours ago Author Share Posted 11 hours ago Part #21 - October 2034 Another stunning month! All wins, some stunning performances and a brilliant win the Champions League with a backs-to-the-wall victory! We went down to 10 men early but somehow grabbed a goal and defended amazingly. The League is a breeze so far with a 100% record after 10 games. In other news, one of our players has won the FIFA Men's Best U21 player. Igor Seman, who was signed 3 seasons ago for £1.6m. What a signing and what a player! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted 6 hours ago Author Share Posted 6 hours ago Part #22 - November 2034 Another 100% month! Some big games this month, Napoli are our nearest challengers in the League so to beat them away was massive. Again though it was the Champions League where we really excelled. Firstly was a routine home win over Basel. And then an absolutely brilliant win over Chelsea at home, we were helped by an early red card but more than deserved the win. We have PSG at home next, then 2 away ties. A serious chance of qualifying in the top 8 for a second successive season. In the League we continue our 100% start, it's now 13 out of 13 and we already have a 10 point gap on Napoli. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLutterworthFox Posted 4 hours ago Author Share Posted 4 hours ago Part #23 - December 2034 Well the month didn't start well with our first league defeat of the season but after that we were brilliant once again. Some really good wins at the end of the month, which keeps our lead in tact at the top of Serie A In the Champions League we played one game which was against one of Europe's elite, PSG and we performed admirably to claim a solid 1-1 draw. Really good and that means, with two games to go, we have guaranteed a playoff spot, we are looking for top 8 though! Now we moved into the New Year and it's time for a clearout of some of the backup players. We have an issue with the Champions League squad, we don't have enough HG players and have too many non-HG players who can't be registered, we need to let a few players leave with a view to bringing in some HG players to make sure we maximise the squad moving into the knockouts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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