Jtomsett11

Fantastic work on the treble! Like @Sonic Youth I thought you'd run out of steam in April (but the rotation made sense) and was very pleasantly surprised to see you pull back Real Madrid and seal the championship. Is it possible to see who your top scorers etc were for the season as you mention the two new strikers making a huge difference this season? Who else made the difference? Regarding rotation, I am trying to stick to rotated teams in my Deportivo save at the moment and have just finished 8th with it, it definitely makes a difference but its hard to stick to your guns sometimes I find. Do you use the saved selections I was wondering as I sometimes lose track of who is my first choice, especially after injuries?

Well done on the Supercopa. Starting to look like a really interesting run in and whether you can keep Madrid and Sevilla at bay! I've lost track a little over time, you haven't won the league yet have you?

In the database both Jersey and Guernsey are considered to be in England and in the South East I think if I recall correctly. I may be wrong but it often means you don't travel for as long as you should - in reality you'd be traveling for a day or two for most trips wouldn't you and therefore have little to no training.

Contracts March 2027 Garner was attracting a lot of attention and his minimum fee release clause was just £7 million or so, so a new contract more than doubles that. The interest is still there from Real Sociedad, but we'll at least get decent money for him if he goes. Elsewhere, I have some decisions to make as we start to consider next season. Quite a few players have performed admirably this season, but probably aren't of the standard to push us on. However, they also have very low release fee clauses which makes not offering them contracts a risky decision. Take Rubio, he now has 7 assists and 1 goal, but is he good enough to be our second AML behind Capone or should we look to strengthen here? However, at £4.2 million I'm sure he should get a new contract as he's got to be worth more than this with some potential and great performances, but then we're stuck with him. Capone is probably worth more than his £7.25 million release clause while we're thinking about AMLs. The most difficult case for me at the moment is Williams who has interest from Bordeaux and Sociedad. He's got clear ability and if anything I'd like to make sure the LB we get in the summer (we will replace Varela who has fallen off a cliff) improves upon him rather than just replaces Varela. However, he's English so takes up one of 3 non-EU spots, so we can't really have him as a backup. So do I leave his contract where it is and accept he goes for very little, or give him a new one to increase the release fee, knowing we might get someone better in (but also we might not!). Difficult decisions!

March 2027 A month of complete contrasts as we lose two games by 3 goals but also beat third place Atletico at their gaffe. Deportivo 0-3 Villarreal This was a pretty even, if uneventful first half, but ultimately we failed to turn up while Villarreal built on their first goal and caught us out with very good finishes and quality wing play. We were toothless really, but we've won so many at home that I can't get too upset that we've lost. This is annoying, but we do have Cirjan back from injury and fully fit now, plus January signing Arsenijevic. Deportivo 4-0 Real Valladolid This game changed dramatically on the red card. Up until then, we'd plugged away trying to open them up to no avail. In the 73rd minute there was a particularly dodgy play which involved two massive chances, both missed, for each side. However, 3 minutes late Ludewig went on a brilliant run, cut into the box and chipped it over the diving keeper. From then on, we destroyed them as we stretched the game. Mara is now up to 13 league goals this season, the first a superb ball over the top by Val which he only didn't get the assist for due to it being Mara's second attempt on target that got the goal. In the end, we were convincing, but I'm not sure we'd have won if Crivelli hadn't picked up two yellows in the same minute! Mallorca 4-1 Deportivo Oh wow, this wasn't great! We were torn apart with balls over the top, through past the central defenders, both of whom made errors for goals. We did create quite a few chances and could have gone ahead before their first goal, but Mara passed it to the keeper when through on goal. We did strike back late on with Cheddira picking up his 8th league goal of the season, not bad for a backup! However, we finished with 10 men, with both Mara and Narro having to go off late on with injuries. We're going to be stretched against Atletico Madrid, especially as Villares is also banned for the game after picking up too many yellows! Atletico Madrid 1-3 Deportivo We went much more defensive and boy did it pay off! Three really good, well worked moves that must have involved a good 15-20 passes from back to front. We really kept Atletico at bay too, which is no mean feat. What an odd month! Huge defeats and then a surprise victory at the end. It's our first away win for a while so that's good as well as it restores my faith in our away tactics. Costa made his debut due to our slight injury crisis and played reasonably. He's probably ready for a few games before the end of the season, although I wish he had 5 star potential. He has 26 goals and 22 assists for the U19s this year... With that result, it's confirmed we can no longer be relegated! I think staying up is worth the £600k in bonuses paid out to be honest! I didn't realise we were so close to 4th, although Sociedad have two games in hand. We are in a reasonable position to fight for European football, but look at our fixture list. There's one easy game in there really, Cadiz. Otherwise, we either play very good sides, or play teams who have beaten us, sometimes handsomely. We did just beat Atletico though, so who knows!

February 2027 9 points at home and 0 away, but the two away games were really tough. I'm a very happy manager! Deportivo 4-0 Osasuna I've bemoaned my lack of depth beyond the starting eleven, and then Cheddira gets a hat-trick, assisted by Rubio for two goals and Narro also scores! A phenomenal performance this was from Cheddira as he scored 3 from 0.96xG and he even missed his easiest chance! He scored one from such a ridiculous angle that I thought it had gone into the side netting at first. Deportivo 2-1 Rayo Vallecano Rayo won the league when we were promoted last year, so I knew this would be a tough game. Arsenijevic scored his first goal from yet another Rubio assist, but we were pegged back immediately and to be honest a draw would have probably been fair. However, Saenz scored from a corner to seal the 3 points. It was pretty tense late on as Gonzalez went off injured after we'd used all 5 subs. A really tight game so it's always nice to win those! The only downside is a fractured arm so Gonzalez, but this is why I kept 5 midfielders in the squad as Villares can come in again to partner Padilla in our second string midfield. Real Sociedad 4-2 Deportivo Honestly, 4-2 is not really fair, and 6-2 would be more accurate despite the low xG for Sociedad. They showed us why they're in the top 4 with a performance that made me sub 3 of our back 4 very early on! Another Yusuf goal from another Rubio assist and a carbon copy of Saenz's goal in the last game made this less of a one-sided game than it was. To be fair, I did play the reserves knowing we'd lose! Sevilla 2-0 Deportivo Ah, we were so close here! The 2-0 in this case feels very unfair. We were matching Sevilla, who sat just below us before this game, for most of the first half before Saenz gave away a penalty. We pushed in the second half but couldn't score and they got another on the counter and that was that! Deportivo 2-0 Espanyol This was an interesting game, as we dominated but also were the benefactors of two horrible deflections, the first a Mara shot that ricocheted off their defender and left Yusuf with an open goal, and the second with the ball looping up off a defender from a Mara shot to beat the keeper. Still, we played well defensively, with Basso particularly impressing in the air and on the ball. He's slowly winning his way into the side after a dodgy start. This leaves us 5th which is incredible for this point in the season. I include this view because Tenerife were smashed for 10 in the last game! March 2027 4 games coming up, with two winnable home ties and possibly an away winnable tie before Atletico Madrid which will probably be a painful high-scoring away defeat! The finances are looking 'secure' which is a fair summary as we're losing money monthly but are pretty much guaranteed the La Liga TV money now as we're on 44 points and won't be relegated. Training facilities are now 'excellent'. Every little helps!

Youth intake preview I realised I missed this and had to go to the development centre to find it. Defensive midfielders and full backs would be pretty good to be honest, but we'll wait and see! Last year's intake are looking very good so anything close to that would be good. The top 6 here by potential are from the 2026 intake, with the next 3 all recent purchases. Colley and Cano make it 8 players with 4.5 star potential or higher from that intake. Very good! The only other intake with two players in this group in the 2023 intake, but we also have 3 players in the first team squad from that intake. Real potential for quite a clutch of homegrown talent to emerge and play in La Liga, but of course it's all about their development from this point and fitting them all in to the first team squad won't be easy.

Wow, what an ending to the season, I was catching up and didn't think you could overturn Dover and Dagenham to be honest with their form but you really did do a Man City with your end of season form being just superb! One step closer to the football league!

Thank you, I appreciate it! It's been a real journey so far, I thought it would be much more straight forward getting promoted to La Liga so the fact that took 4 seasons, two tactical crisis and some soul searching has actually made it a much more enjoyable and rewarding save. La Liga seems the easiest part so far to be honest but the real challenge will be to keep up the good form and build on this over the years to challenge at the top!

January 2027 This was a really tough month, with our only home tie being against Valencia and then 4 away games in a row, including to Celta Vigo and Elche who are right up there with us in the league. Overall, therefore, this has to be seen as a great month. Deportivo 1-2 Valencia We played a friendly cup over 26th and 27th December (what a mean manager!) and picked up some injuries which really didn't help us, including to Garner and Padilla leaving us with just two midfielders, while Panzo went off for the month to represent Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations. We still should have won this game, but an unfit Garner had to be subbed for an unfit Villares. Williams got his second assist of the season, but then Valencia came back into the game and Suarez made a poor error at the front post for their winner. 2.6xG from 13 shots shows we're creating quality chances, but didn't finish them here. Granada 2-1 Deportivo Cheddira missed 1.3xG on his own in this game. What this game has shown me again is that our backup ST, AML and AMR aren't really good enough, and possibly time is catching up to Varela, who scord 6.9 for his rating but looked poor in-game. Still, when you look at the xG you see we should have won and performances are what I tend to look for when assessing if things are going wrong because of personnel not quite being good enough or the tactics not quite being good enough. We're still performing. Arsenijevic made his debut here, smashed the bar twice in the opening 5 minutes then drifted out of the game. Celta Vigo 1-2 Deportivo Victorious in the derby! Mara celebrated signing a deal with us by scoring his 9th goal of the season and the winner to earn us all 3 points. If you consider that they scored from a penalty, then this was richly deserved and our first points of 2027. Having criticised Rubio in the last game for not being good enough, he played a superb assist for Mara here and I felt bad about fining him for his poor performance (although perhaps that's why he played so well when brought on?) Elche 5-2 Deportivo I played Basso and Lapena at the back, the former having his debut, and it would be fair to say it didn't work. Saenz came on after 33 minutes, and that didn't really help either as he gave away the penalty. I switched things up a bit at 3-0 down, going more defensive, and Mara and Garner brought us to within a goal, but our hope was quickly extinguished. Probably our worst performance since we lost 5-3 to Athletic. Tenerife 0-1 Deportivo Considering it was our third away league game in a row, and that we shipped 5 goals in the previous game, I was delighted by winning 1-0 here. Garner is on a hot-streak and arrived late in the box for his 4th of the season, while Varela (who I picked accidentally as Williams starts in the games we want to win as he's in a strongest XI) missed a penalty which could have made this a lot more comfortable. There's been an interesting shift in goal, as Suarez has made poor mistakes and conceded 5 in one game this month, while Yaakobishvili played in both wins this month. The only downside from this game was Yusuf and Cirjan both going off from AMC with injuries. Cirjan is out for 4 weeks, which may allow new signing Arsenijevic to get some more game time in February. I also hope Mara is back for our next game. The win over Tenerife sees us lie in 7th on 35 points from 21 games, a whopping 20 points above the relegation zone. I'm delighted that we've continued to increase our points tally in 2027 and in 7th we stand a chance of entering the Europa Conference League dependent on the cup winners. Early days obviously, and we could easily drop back down the league into mid-table with some poor results, just as we could end up fighting for 5th or 6th with some good ones. February sees us play 3rd and 8th away, 17th, 19th and 10th at home. I think we should be picking up a minimum of 6 points here, but 7-9 points would probably be my ambition based on the teams we play.

Transfers January 2027 It's been quite a while since I've been really active in a January window, but I've been much better this season at going through my scout assignments and reports and therefore having targets for January. One thing I am aware of is that I initially set out an aim to bring in some South Americans to give a nod towards the Deportivo legends heralding from the continent, but due to my English nationality I've currently filled my non-EU players with three English players (all of whom are playing well this season) which has restricted me in this department. Therefore, I will be setting up a scouting assignment looking for South Americans with dual nationality to see if we can start getting some of that flair into the squad. We bring in 5 players, with essentially four of those being young players scouted/ recommended by my scouts and one first team player, Basso. Basso was out on contract in the summer, so we snapped him up for £90k and he comes in essentially as an early replacement for our weakest CB, Lapena who has started to allow some significant errors into his game during January. Basso scores 75.91 on the attribute tracker for ball playing CB and so becomes our best CB technically. He's very unfit, however, so will need to be eased in to games. Arsenijevic is a £45k buy from lower league football in Spain and as such may be one of those rare high potential, lower league finds that pop up now and again. I had no qualms about buying him based on his excellent attributes as a 17 year old, although he wanted 'squad player' and realistically we'll just give him the odd game to bed him in. For a 17 year old he has very few 'cons' as you can see below. As you can see above, he becomes our second most valuable player immediately so this signing could potentially earn us a pay-day in the future, or perhaps he can help elevate us to that next level. He'll play as an AMC and his attributes mean he's technically our second best; if we can improve his physical a bit he'll be superb. Next up is Tortosa, who cost £110k. He's nowhere near Arsenijevic, but he's got good potential and at such a low cost, I was happy to buy him. 68 for his attributes isn't bad at 17. Ahlmann is a free transfer signing who we agreed to sign when I thought we'd be in La Liga 2 for a few more years. I'll probably keep him this year and see how he develops before sending him out on loan. He's more inside forward than pressing forward, but has work to do to get into the first team. Salas is the most expensive signing at £130k, but his attributes look pretty reasonable for 17 years of age and we don't have much potential in our youth team at RB. The transfer window didn't see any major outgoings, Narro turned down a £2 million move to Almeria in La Liga 2 and Kevin has agreed to join Parma at the end of his contract. A shame we didn't get any money for him, but good that he's going to continue his professional career. One minor outgoing was sanctioning the return of Zalazar to Uruguay to the place of his birth. He was a serious player in our title winning season 2023/24 and has contributed to our promotion into La Liga, but now just isn't at the level required and didn't get a chance this season. One final, and very important bit of transfer news is the permanent signing of striker Mara. This is a massive deal as he turned down Udinese to join us. He's got 8 goals so far and has led the line really well. We may be able to improve on him in the future, but for now this is great signing I feel, especially on a free transfer.

Mid-season 2026-27 player analysis Goalkeepers They've split the minutes this season, but it's definitely been a tale of two halves (of the first half) as Yaakobishvili looked better earlier on in the year and Suarez has made up for a poor start with some much better recent performances, noted by his much better pts/gm. Both appear to be conceding more than they should, but Suarez is overall performing better in all metrics. We have some top-notch talent coming through in terms of keepers, so this is an interesting battle for the number 1 spot. Centre backs When I compare them to each other, it's hard to really draw conclusions as while Lapena might be the best at tackling, he intercepts the least, blocks the most and clears the most but then has the lowest average rating by quite a margin. In terms of league averages... Overall, I'm pretty happy with the 4 of them, although there's very limited room for growth here. Full/ wing backs 5 assists and 3 goals from full backs is good going in our first season in the top flight. Ludewig has the most minutes as Hoever spent time out injured, but it's the latter who has impressed the most according to average rating. While Varela appears to be created the most, if you look at his open play key passes, it's clear his contributions mainly come from set plays. Interestingly, Hoever has contributed 2 assists despite making the second-fewest open play key passes and the least progressive passes, so perhaps the others are just unlucky that the chances they create aren't being finished. Defensively, Hoever's height helps him significantly and probably boosts his average rating (that and he's mainly appeared in victories), but he also is consistent across the other measures. I'm again pretty happy, although against better opposition it is noticeable that Varela struggles. LB is an area we're looking to develop ahead of next year, but again we do have youth prospects who may be able to make the step up. DM's Probably the area that I've been most impressed by as I've never had much success with midfield contributions, yet here we have 7 assists and 6 goals from this department. Villares was dropped because he looked dodgy coming on as a sub and often lost the ball, and when you look at him he's the second worst for pressing, worst for tackling success, interceptions and only moderate for clearances and blocks. He has created two assists, but expected assists are higher from all others players. Val has had a brilliant season so far, with 1 brilliant goal and 3 beautiful lofted-through ball assists to his name from just under 700 minutes of football. However, it's youth player Padilla I'm most pleased about. Yes, he's contributed two goals to win us a game, but it's his underlying stats that please me the most. 3rd best presser, 3rd best tackler, best interceptor, best clearer and the best with progressive passes. He's not in the team on potential alone anymore and his holding his own. Garner has made the step-up well and after an initial shaky start, Gonzalez is looking solid. Attacking mid and wingers McAtee is probably the star of the show, with 10 goal contributions so far, but solid contributions can also be found from Cirjan and Capone. Yusuf is the only other player with 5 or more contributions, with 4 goals and assists in his breakthrough season. His defensive contributions leave a little to be desired (presses are very low) but he's contributing progressive passes and is getting in to the right place at the right time to finish chances. He's actually top for minutes which shows he has my trust despite Cirjan's very positive average rating and return. Realistically, I'm not sure Rubio is going to make it although perhaps I don't give him enough credit with the highest chances created per game and the only player above 2 assists bar McAtee. Narro is definitely short of the quality required so far and Zalazar will leave whenever someone comes in for him. Strikers Cheddira has slightly underperformed his xG but has improved recently, while Mara is dead-on his xG. Both summer signings have done well. Mara is on a contract with Southampton until 2027 so there's an opportunity here if we deem him good enough for the next stage of our development and if he wants to join us. No assists from either player yet. Pre-transfer window developments In light of recent performances, I've taken steps to nail down a few players. Yusuf has Wolves interested as well as Monaco, so I took steps to up his release clause. I am very impressed that his personality isn't holding him back so far, but if we did get a big bid I'd have to consider it for someone who may not be able to develop to his full potential. McAtee is our player of the season so far, so it made sense to increase his release clause as well despite a lack of interest. I've also offered Padilla a new contract as some teams in the La Liga 2 are interested; his release clause will still be just £2.5 million after being limited by his agent, but hopefully that'll dissuade clubs from making bids.

December 2026 A superb December all round. Barcelona 1-0 Deportivo Bearing in mind I played almost an entire second-string, including Villares who was unfit, I was really pleased as we more than held our own against Barcelona. In fact, if it wasn't for Yaakobishvili's second error-leading-to-a-goal, we'd have possibly held them to a draw. As it was he was caught in no-man's land from a free-kick giving Kounde the easiest header over him. It's been an interesting season for my keepers; both have had moments where I've been really unhappy the other isn't playing, but Yaakobishvili hasn't recovered from his injury it would seem and is in poor form now. Cadiz 0-1 Deportivo A super satisfying victory in which we kept Cadiz largely at bay and scored a lovely goal, with Williams picking up just a second assist of his time here with a brilliant driving run and cross for Cheddira. It's the sort of play I signed the athletic full-back/ winger for but we just haven't seen enough of that sort of thing. Sadly Cheddira got himself ruled out for the rest of the year at the end of the game. I feel he's just started to turn his form around and has 3 goals in his last 5 appearances now. Deportivo 3-0 Real Betis Betis started the day one place behind us in the table, so this was a real statement. Mara scored from a great through ball from the increasingly-impressive Yusuf and then we scored two excellent long range strikes, the first from a free-kick as Varela scored from 25 yards and then, more impressively, Val curled in a beauty with his right foot after impressive work from Garner. Gonzalez and Padilla started the game in the midfield and also impressed, so I feel our 4 plus Villares as backup is working well. Yet again, Suarez was positive in goal, keeping the goals out. Terrassa 0-2 Deportivo Progress in the cup is assured. Zalazar started his first game of the season up front as Cheddira was injured and he's the reason this only finished 0-2 as he missed quite a few chances. Excellent performances again from the youth academy players and a first goal for Gonzalez. His joy was short lived though. At least his injury is over the winter break! We're in a scarcely believable 5th place at the end of the first part of the season. The aim now is just to finish as high as possible as surely we'll collect the 11 points we will need to usually guarantee survival.

November 2026 We're having to play friendlies during the international periods as only 4 or 5 of our players actually play for their national sides! Well it was a tough month, but we got 3 points from 3 games so that's decent enough. Real Madrid 4-1 Deportivo Honestly, the gulf in class was apparent very, very quickly. Garner smashed in a 25 yarder to get us excited, and the Madrid showed us what real football is. They were just delightful to watch. If I hadn't gone quite defensive after 30 minutes I think it would have been a lot more. Still, we're nowhere, nowhere near their level so we just move on! Deportivo 2-0 Getafe Did I say I love a youth team player?! Padilla came on after 65 minutes and then popped up with two goals to seal the victory. McAtee, our other sub, is in line for a new contract as he's worth more than his minimum fee release clause of £5 million and showed that again with two lovely passes across a packed box to find the late-arriver Padilla. Even better than the win... beating a former player. Deportivo 2-4 Athletic Club A very odd game, as anyone called Williams found a way to score against us, while we contrived to miss a number of really good chances. It's hard to see due to the colours, but essentially the 4-1 scorelines at halftime was not a fair reflection on the number of really good chances we'd had. We then went on to have a good second half where we dominated, so although we've lost 4-2 I'm not too upset. Mara hasn't been as consistent recently so it's good to get him scoring again. We're still 6th at the moment. More importantly we're 11 points clear of the relegation zone. I'm not looking forward to Barcelona away if I'm honest. Another 3 points would be good, 4 or higher and I'll be delighted.

October 2026 We started the month with a couple of annoying injuries, first to keeper Yaakobishvili which was disappointing as he'd been key in our last two victories, plus LB Varela, who, against all assessment of his ability, has shown he is competent at this level in the twilight of his career. With Williams, our other LB, coming back from injury, this puts a strain on our squad. Panzo can move across in the short-term, one of a number of players who can cover multiple positions for this eventuality. If the end to last month was good, then this month was an absolute triumph. 5 wins from 6 league games for a promoted side is phenomenal, and we add another scalp to our name by beating Atletico Madrid. Villareal 1-4 Deportivo We may have gone 1-0 down here, but we came storming back and thoroughly deserved our victory. I was particularly pleased with two youth products, Yusuf, who continues to show he can do it despite his horrible personality, and Hector Rubio who has been playing at LW as backup to Capone to accommodate Yusuf and hasn't had a great time so far. Here, he came on and provided two lovely assists, the first a great through ball and the second a wonderful cross for Cheddira. That was Cheddira's first goal for a very long time (only a short number of those games were for me). After this game, I took a look at our coffers and thought we could afford a couple of investments. One in me and one in the training facilities. Deportivo 0-2 Mallorca Our most disappointing game of the month and perhaps the one I'd been banking on winning! Neither side produced too many shots on target, but the difference was we missed out chances and gave away a penalty and they scored theirs! One issue here is that I played some of our backup team, Narro, Rubio, Cheddira and unlike against Villarreal they proved not quite up to the task. After the game I was offered a new deal and accepted! Real Valladolid 1-2 Deportivo Yusuf! The young man strikes again, with two really well taken goals to see us come from behind again to win. I really enjoy it when a youth player is given the time to play and rewards you, and Yusuf is doing exactly that right now. If we can see some personality development from him perhaps he'll develop towards his 5* potential. Deportivo 4-1 Atletico Madrid A simply sublime performance. For about 20 minutes I thought we were cooked to be honest, as they dominated possession and went 1-0 up. However, once Cheddira scored we started to play and Val played a superb ball over the top for Cirjan to finish to help us into the lead. Then, similar to the Sevilla game, it was a case of hitting them on the counter attack late on. I have to say, Suarez has played superbly since Yaakobishvili got injured, keeping our goals against much lower than our xGa. There's now way we finish in the European positions, but after 11 games 20 points sees us halfway to a total that should keep us up. This is a reminder that La Liga is not the Premier League, where you absolutely rake it in. Without the investment in the facilities we're still losing £500k per month, and okay as long as we stay in the division we'll get another £20 million up front for TV rights next year, but we are still going to have to manage finances carefully. November It's a really tough month ahead. We'll probably be trounced by Madrid so we just want to bounce back and keep increasing our points tally. 3 or 4 points here would be excellent I feel.

We're now above this following September!

September 2026 I'm really happy with this month. Things took a little while to click but we finished off with our best result yet in the league. Deportivo 2-3 Real Sociedad This was a really good and really even game for the most part, but after going ahead we let them back in with two good goals and then despite Mara's second and looking good at the start of the second half, we allowed Real Sociedad to score a direct free kick to take the lead again. Mara was fouled in the last minute, but then smashed his penalty wide of the post to throw away a chance at a hat-trick and a point. Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Deportivo Capone scored from a superb through ball from Val and we then missed two huge chances with Mara missing an open goal and a decent one on one chance. The red card for Saenz then came back to bite as we conceded from a free kick to a header from the player he would have been marking. Undeserved equaliser for Rayo Vallecano, and we take just the 1 point from the first two games of the month. Espanyol 1-2 Deportivo Well, if we deserved the last game, we didn't this one! Mara scored a wonderful chip and then Hoever drilled in from 20 yards, both goals coming from 0.15xG in total! We defended really well though and I was relieved when the final whistle blew as we kept up the point tally momentum. Deportivo 3-1 Sevilla A scalp! This was an excellent performance; we looked shell-shocked in the opening 25 minutes and I thought Sevilla would run away with it, but the team talk worked at half time and we came out a different side. Mara equalised and then we caught them cold on the counter twice in stoppage time, with McAtee getting his first goals for the club. Early days, but we're picking up points at an excellent rate and look like we can score a lot of goals as teams play a high line against us. Our success on the counter is highlighted by the data analysis. We don't play many crosses, but they tend to be when we counter quickly and our inside forwards get in great positions to cross for each other to score. October October brings some winnable games and a mouth-watering fixture against Atletico!

August 2026 Probably a good enough start to give us hope that we'll have a good chance of surviving the top flight. Deportivo 4-3 Elche Wow, what a start! You can see from the xG story that we had a good chance before the penalty that sent us into the lead, and we were playing really good football. However, we were then sucker-punched three times in quick succession. Everything Elche did for 10 minutes lead to a goal. I had faith and didn't need to change much and we got a goal back through Capone slotting in at the back post just after half time. Our full backs then did brilliantly to create two more chances in slick moves that saw us take the lead. We then managed to hold off a late rally from Elche to claim the three points. Osasuna 0-0 Deportivo There wasn't much in this game to be honest, although Mara had one really good chance late on. A point on the road is good though! The real bonus was Yusuf who played really well, with 4 key passes including the through ball for Mara which he should have buried. He's the low determination, unambitious attacking midfielder who is rated really highly so it's good to see a strong performance on his La Liga debut. Yakoobishvili also did really well on his debut in goal. Deportivo 1-2 Tenerife Our first really disappointing game. We conceded early from a poor Suarez parry which Gonzalez knocked in from essentially an open goal; (how long he remains number one is to be seen) and never really recovered. Another set piece goal meant we were always struggling despite Panzo getting one back late on. Still, not a bad start, especially when you consider our wages. We're way down on even the teams with reasonable budgets in the league. Early days obviously, but 4 points from 3 games keeps us above the required ratio for survival.

Woops cut them off the top 🤣

Pre-season July and August 2026 I've edited my pre-season training, but kept the pattern from last season of the cups. I've played some decent teams and beaten them, so let's see how this goes in the league. Club developments Some other developments after my persuasive arguments! The money we've brought into the club through TV revenue has meant we've been able to do this and strengthen the squad nicely, although to be fair we've spent less money than we received! At the start of August, finances looked like this: One massive plus for us is our match day revenue. I'm amazed that as a promoted club, our revenue was so much higher than other sides in La Liga. Our excellent fanbase gives us a good chance of survival. The media are slightly less favourable about our chances this season. The fans are optimistic though! We have three fixtures in August which are pretty favourable. This will be a good insight into our chances of survival. If we get 4+ points, excellent. Less than 3 and we're probably not looking great.

Transfers ahead of 2026/27 season Obviously some of the incomings and outgoings are from last season (it really annoys me that the season cut-off is when it is!) We've bought in McAtee, Yaakobishvili, Nicolaisen, Cheddira, Capone, Mara, Ludewig and Gonzalez and we have said permanent goodbyes to Trilli, Camilo, Quiles, Klaesson and we also released Olabe. Wow, that's quite a lot isn't it! This gives you an idea of where those players fit in. GK Yaakobishvili comes in on a free from Barcelona as I wanted someone who could potentially replace Suarez sooner rather than later as he's probably only La Liga 2 standard. He played really well for Barcelona's second team last season so is an exciting signing. Klaesson leaves as we don't need three keepers when we have young ones in the wings. Defenders Trilli decided he wanted out when a bid came in from Sevilla, and I decided I didn't want an unhappy player around. Ludewig comes in to replace him and was the main target due to his price. He's not played loads and loads of football (42 games in 6 years at Red Bull), so it's risk, but for the price he looks good. Nicolaisen is a definite upgrade on Barcia who left in January. I'd potentially like another CB but I don't want to risk completely ruining tactical familiarity and team cohesion. Midfield Late on in the window I realised that we were very vulnerable to injury and wanted to bring in someone else to reinforce the midfield. Gonzalez is actually our most expensive signing but I think he'll offer good stability in the middle; he's strong and an all-rounder and I think that's what we need more of. Attacking midfield McAtee is an exciting free transfer, I'm hoping he has a similar impact to Garner. He'll be our first choice AMR. Capone is one I signed based off excellent stats at Brescia last year, 7 goals and 7 assists and excellent key passes and dribble stats mean I'm confident he'll make an impact at AML, a position we were left with nobody in! Strikers Two new strikers as we ditch Quiles who wasn't suited to the role of pressing forward. Not a popular move at all with players or fans, but he's 31 and you've got to make tough decisions as a manager! We bring in two players to replace him, Cheddira who was crap at Levante last year, but he suits the role perfectly, and Mara who comes in on loan as a high potential young player. The new signings are all improvements on people they replaced attribute wise.

Ahhh, you see once I've got the bug for a club I rarely leave and sometimes last 2 versions of FM on the same club. I've managed one decent journeyman save, but am usually a 1 save per FM person. I can see this Deportivo save lasting a while now! The hunting has been difficult, but I think I'm happy now!

Attribute growth and squad plans GKs Suarez has probably hit his peak, so it's now a game of when, not if, I risk Vallejo or another young keeper in some first team action to speed up growth. I may look to loan Vallejo and Angueira once more to allow them to develop a little bit further before featuring in La Liga. I may look to bring in a better young player to play back up if I do that so I can get rid of Klaesson, who hasn't done anything wrong but we've been promoted now and he was only back up at La Liga 2 level. CBs Saenz, Panzo and Lapena I'm happy with. If we picked up another RB we could easily move Trilli or Hoever over to CB, although they only have 13 for jumping. My main concern here is the lack of depth in the youth academy. Cousillas (below) isn't really up the standard in my opinion. We perhaps need to stock this area via the transfer market as we seem to be constantly trying to buy CBs. WBs Varela remains the best wing back despite a slight decline this season. Funny that Trilli does really well despite being average attribute wise. Huarte has quite a lot of potential, but it's Colley I like the look of as a young prospect. So what's the plan with this area of the squad? I'm going to explore bringing in a LB as I'm not sure if Varela will cope with La Liga and I'll keep a close eye on the younger players for loans/ development in the U19s. Seg V My plan here is to keep the top 3 and promote Padilla for next season. Is this a risk? Absolutely, but it's also the best way to develop players. Jimenez has been negatively affected by my move from a RPM to Seg V and so I have a new plan for him. Inside forwards Bravo and Mella are leaving, as are Ares and Delgado so this area will thin out slightly. Lots of prospects here, but it's whether I can fit another into the first team squad. I definitely need another AML with a right foot as we currently have 0 (maybe Rubio if we shift him from AMC). Attacking mid Yusuf has improved while on loan, but the question is, can he keep improving with his personality? He's got great mentals other than determination and work rate. Very frustrating as you can see from his value that he must have decent potential! We have a number of options here, but I may look to bring in a better player as it's a key position and I'm not sure my youth were ready for La Liga 2, let alone La Liga. Jimenez will be retrained in this position I think as it may suit him better than being retrained as a DM. Pressing forward Our most concerning area to be honest. Quiles may be sold if I can get some money for him as his mentals do not suit a pressing forward role at La Liga level and he's 31 now. That would leave us with 0 strikers though! Players to be promoted to first team squad DM Padilla GK Vallejo (potentially) Transfer plans GK young backup (potentially) LB CB AML inside forward x1 or x2 AMC (if good target available) ST (potentially 2 if Quiles sold)

End of season summary Well, in an unexpected turn of events, we've been promoted back to La Liga in our fourth season. Now the real challenge starts: maintaining our La Liga status and working our way back towards winning the title. The board want us to attempt to avoid relegation and then establish ourselves over the next 5 years as a La Liga side. Player performance Goalkeepers Suarez has done generally well this season as our defense stepped up from last season, conceding far fewer goals. His save % were much better this season as well. Klaesson has done well as a backup, but really that's all he is. We were slightly starved of penalties this year, but Suarez finished 80% of them. Defenders I always find it fascinating how vastly different defenders can perform with just a slight variance in average ratings. Panzo as a CB has won possession 24 times per 90 on average, compared to just 19 and 21 for Lapena and Saenz, so he clearly reads the game very well (high interceptions as well) but then Lapena has had much more success in the tackle and makes more clearances. Is then, the difference in average rating just down to Saenz getting 6 goals and Panzo 4? 6 mistakes for goals between them is also a slight worry, but understandable when we play out from the back. With just 3 CBs in the senior squad, this is definitely an area we need to reinforce with at least one player, and preferably one with some height. Our wing backs have all has pretty good seasons, although Williams underwhelms in terms of attacking output and this is probably why his average rating is much lower than the others. Trilli and Varela have produced 16 assists between them which is just superb. I do wonder if the step up to La Liga will be too much for Varela or whether I should offer him a new contract. I worry that defensively he isn't good enough. Midfield Ignore Williams in this list. If you ignore Olabe's 7 assists, a lot of which are from corners, then Villares and Garner stand out as the most creative, playing the most progressive passes and fulfilling the segundo volante role very well. Val has also been one of my favourite players this season, he wins his tackles and does an all-round decent job. Olabe doesn't want to renew his contract and Camilo has been a bit-part player for the last two seasons so again we're one short at DMC. Attacking mid Narro and Mella have been superb at AML and AMR. Narro has 20 goal contributions from 39 appearances, of which only 29 were starts: phenomenal! Behind them Zalazar and Gomez have posted good returns, 10 and 12 contributions respectively. However, behind is statistics Gomez failed to impress once I was using my own tactics and I feel the step up would just be too much next year. Zalazar's future largely depends on who we can attract. He's a useful option to have though. Mella won't be coming back on loan, leaving us probably two AMLs and possibly an AMR down! At AMC, Cirjan should arguably have contributed more goals and assists, but 12 contributions for his debut season is pretty good. Rubio created 0.44 chances per 90 but got no assists, suggesting he's been a little unlucky we weren't more clinical than we were. He hasn't done as well as Cirjan, but for his first season for us I think he's done well. The beauty of Rubio is he's right footed and we currently have no right footed AML I trust for next season, so there's a chance he could play understudy there if we can't find 2 AMLs. Forwards I don't think Quiles or Bravo covered themselves in glory this year. 26 goals between them is fine, but neither set the world on fire and I'm not sure either is suited to a pressing forward role. Santamaria is on his way out if anyone will pay his wages! We could be strikerless going into the transfer market!

Can't quite believe we've ended up in 2nd place to be honest!