MattyC78

I hope you are recovering well. A very pleasant way to pass the time until you are recovered though. Congratulations on your continued success. I enjoyed seeing the legends.

I have now completed the 2029-30 season and what a season it was. We have been second before but this year we were in our first title race. We won both cups and progressed to the Champions League final so it has to be described as a success. The league was decided on the final day of the season and we beat Alaves to maintain our unbeaten season in the league. We needed that to hold Real at bay as we both got over 100 points. What a battle to secure our first league title. The B team also had a good season finish fourth but most importantly the younger players got some good experience and reasonable average ratings to maximise their development. We lost to PSG in the Champions League final without really getting into the game but we were never expecting to win that trophy and getting to the final was an achievement enough. This is our team of the year. Interestingly no place for Nico Williams. He got in a bit of a huff regarding a move (or lack of) and was moved out to left-wing for most of the season where he was largely a disappointment. Other than that there was a little variation but these were largely my preferred 11. Now the planning to retain the tile. Having made my first purchases I am going to look to see if there are any additional options t bolster the squad. At the very end when the games were coming thick and fast we were struggling with squad depth. We have a transfer budget of £412 million though we may need to move some across to wage budget if we are going to make any signings. It may be time to loosen the purse strings.

In the summer ahead of the 2029-30 season, we sold Julen Agrirrezabala for £8.5 million as he wanted to leave and was only our back-up keeper, Alex Berenguer for £750,000 after last season out on loan and youngster Benat Garcia for £2.6 million as he was never going to make the first team. In order to properly compete with Barcelona and Real I decided to buy some Basque players. So the first signings of the save are Andres Dominguez and Urtzi Albistegi. Dominguez is a promising 20 year old left-back that came in at the same level of Imanol but with significant potential. We paid £8.75 million to meet his release clause and sign him from Osasuna. Albistegi is a young forward signed from Antiguoko for £66,000. The other major change is that I took charge of the B team to manage the playing time and positions of my youngsters with a view of aiding their development. I have quite enjoyed this although I have only been playing games on instant result (there are limits to my control freakishness).

Looks like a week well spent to me. Congratulations. That's the thing about Athletic, there is always a challenge.

I have completed my first season back at Athletic. After five years of coming second, a moderate performance in the Champions League and with a couple of Spanish cups and three Spanish Super Cups, I wanted to push on for some sustained success. I came in and reviewed the whole structure as if I was a new manager. I overhauled the staffing structure, initially focussing on coaches and scouts, changed the training schedules and tweaked the tactical style based on the strengths of the first eleven. No stone was left unturned I hope the hard work delivers some longer term success but this season we finished third and failed to win any trophies! The season was not a complete write-off though with a couple of our youngsters making significant development progress. Arkaitz Aranburu had a big season as he broke into the first team and will be first choice alongside Dani Vivian next year. Gonzalo Astrain has been retrained to be a left back and is ready to take over from Imanol Mikel Eguaras is our one striling hope and has taken the lead role from Inaki Williams. Inaki Pascual already plays a crucial role in our centre midfield alongside Oihan Sancet. Santiago Kortina is a very able back-up to Nico Williams who gets more than enough games to allow his development. At the moment we have two options on the right but we are considerably weaker on the left with Jon Morcillio, Peio Hestamendia or an out of position Nico Williams. Asier Alonso is older than Inaki Pascual. He does not have the same level of quality but he has still developed into an able deputy. We shall dust ourselves down and go again. This summer we need to decide what to do with Inaki Williams and Julen Agirrezabala as they want to leave for new challenges and neither are first team players. I am also going to have to try to fight off Newcastle who have set their eyes on Unai Simon. The one thing that has happened this summer that I have never noticed before is that I have had youth players poached. Is this something that other people have experienced? I have lost three players in the early part of the summer to Lugo, Alaves and Huesca. I was not expecting this. I thought it was more likely that we would be doing the poaching. I have made a list of the names to track their progress when they enter the game. Hopefully we have not lost our best players. So far I have not bought anyone. I missed out on Aymeric Laporte as he left the game before I could persuade him back to Athletic. I am wavering and considering buying some Basque youngsters to bolster the ranks.

It has been a couple of months since I have posted. I have been off playing other saves but I have enjoyed catching up with your Athletic updates. Thank you in particular to @bowieinspace, @dothestrand and @Darius1998. I always enjoy a save where you can sign wonderkids but I have now got bored of the constant churn and yearn for the Athletic world where you develop stronger ties with your players because there is only them and your developments and achievements mean more. So I am back to managing Athletic and rather than starting again I have picked up my save from earlier. So I am in 2028 and after five years of coming second, a moderate performance in the Champions League and with a couple of Spanish cups and three Spanish Super Cups, I want to push on for some sustained success. Whilst I can remember most of my players (even better than the players in my last save - the beauty of Athletic) I cannot remember the situations in relation to staffing, tactics, contracts, dynamics, training etc so I am treating this as I would if I was taking on a new job. The first thing to decide is to determine whether I continue the Lezama only perspective or allow myself to purchase the odd player to bolster the ranks.

Third season complete. We were top going into the New Year but fell away. We drew a couple of games and lost away to Villarreal but we were not that bad. Barcelona went on an incredible run of form and completed the season unbeaten. I'm not sure we could have done any more and yet still we fell just short. Considering we are not buying players who have not been through our academy we are doing okay and having to be flexible with our approach. The squad were unhappy with the lack of depth at the start of the season. I can't say I was overly chuffed either but complaining is hardly going to help. The loss of the older fullbacks left us exposed on the flanks so I decided to go with a 3-4-3 formation which I can't say I loved. We did look exposed on the flanks at times. Our wingers are not the best defensively but when it clicked it did click. Here are pretty much our first eleven when all were fit. In a repeat of last year we bumped out of the Champions League in the first knock-out round by RB Leipzig but we fared better in the domestic cups. We reached the final of the Spanish Super Cup versus Barcelona. I tired to relieve pressure in the lead up to the game. There was an early disallowed goal from Barca and we rode our luck a bit but went in at half time one up through a Unai Vencedor. Oihan Sancet then doubled our lead before they pulled one back. Frenkie De Jong then equalised in the final minute. At this stage they had dominated the game but we could count ourselves a little unlucky not to hold on. In extra time we continued to be positive but we were taken apart on the break to lose 4-2. In January again we looked at Aymeric Laporte but he is still unaffordable. There is nobody else that improves the first team but we do agree to sign Jesus Areso on a free in case we go back to full backs for next year. After the transfer window Nico Williams withdrew his transfer request so I went straight in to offer him a new contract to tie him down for a further two years and also increasing his minimum release clause. In the Spanish Cup we met Barcelona in the final again in a repeat of the Spanish Super Cup. Barcelona came out of the blocks scoring inside 3 minutes and soon doubled their lead. They completely dominated the first half and could have scored a couple more as they hit the post and Unai Simon saved from point blank range. We came back at them in the second half. In the 68th minute we brought off Iker Muniain and threw on Jon Morcillo. He was in the right place at the right time as the ball broke to him in the box to pull one goal back. Then three minutes later Nico Williams laid it across the box for Inaki WIlliams to tap in and we had a second final tied at 2-2 with Barcelona. This time we held on in extra time and Simon was the hero saving penalties from Kessie and even catching a penalty from Ansu Fati. A second trophy of the save and the first time we had beaten a big side in an important match. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Have things changed in the Champions League? I didn't think you could play other teams from the same nation in the league stage. I have faced Real the last two seasons.

We have just completed our second season. We were not able to bring anyone back to the club. Realistically the main target is Aymeric Laporte as the only player that will significantly strengthen the first team. Sadly he followed the Saudi money, transferring for £55 million and he is on a weekly wage roughly equal to my wage budget so I do not see him coming back in the near future. Therefore there were no transfers in and we let a couple of bit part players go for small sums (Juan Artola for £675,000 and Benat Prados for £800,000) meaning the squad was largely unchanged. We struggled at the start of the season. Mikel Vesga was unhappy that I was unprepared to double his wages at the age of 31 when he had two years left on his contract. Many of the squad agreed with him including Iker Munian, my captain. I'm not sure how much of our sluggish start was down to this but it certainly did not help. In the end, we recorded a second place finish in the league. It looks a lot tighter than it was as Real and Barca fell away in the final weeks and we went past Barca on the final day of the season as they drew with Real. Real also knocked us out of both domestic cup competitions (Semis of the Spanish Cup and Final of the Super Cup). In the Champions League we were unlucky to be knocked out by RB Leipzig in the first knockout round after the group stage. In summary it was a reasonable season where we met our targets comfortably but were unable to properly compete with the bigger teams. We competed hard but there were some games where we were completely outclassed. There were no real surprises in our team of the year. It may look different next year as age is catching up with some of the team/squad so I need to make some changes and may need to make a change to the system over the summer.

We've just completed our first full season and surprising ourselves by being sandwiched between Barca and Real in the top three. There were no transfers in, largely as I'm only going to buy back former youth players and youngsters from our affiliates (if anyone). I did clear out a few players in January that hadn't had much gametime. Asier Villalibre wanted to leave so he went for £2m. Inigo Ruiz De Galarreta (£4.4m), Peru Nolaskoain (£230,000) Gorka Guruzeta (£850,000) and Mikel Balenziaga (£0) also left without any real loss of options. Aitor Paredes left on loan which was eventually accepted by Iker Muniain. I promoted Imanol, Urko Izeta, Aingeru Olabarrieta and Benat Prados to plug a few gaps in the squad. This is our best 11 and largely reflects how we lined up except we played a gegenpress (not wing play) as our default tweaking styles as required in games. Inaki was also our main striker but he disappointed at times. In the Spanish Cup it opened up for us as we were joined in the semi-finals by Levante, Elche and Girona. This was a fine chance to get our first trophy which nearly went begging as we struggled past Levante in the semi-final. After drawing 2 all at theirs we then were leading 1-0 in the home leg before they scored with their only shot in the 95th minute. We got the winner in extra time . Girona proved easier in the final as Dani Vivian and Inaki Williams got the goals to give the two nil victory and our first trophy. Next season will probably be more of a challenge as we try to cope with European football. I am looking to see if we can bring back Aymeric Laporte and maybe a goal keeper for depth to deal with injuries. Other than that we may look to give certain players new contracts to protect our assets.

@bowieinspace Thanks for the update. it is always interesting to see various Athletic newgens and track their development. We have just made it through to March and things are ticking over okay with the exception of our captain, Muniain, getting in a huff because of the shortage of centre backs as I loaned out Aitor Paredes. We always have too many players to keep happy until we have European football to worry about so I cleared some of the squad to make it more manageable. The biggest threat to the season is the influence of the Incredible Sulk rather than the squad depth. I'll report back later as to how things turn out. I came in to show you our first youth intake. Not a golden generation but I promising crop all the same. Let the development begin. Sadly the Alonso's are not twins/brothers.

After blasting through until January as a trial on the Beta, I have started my full save and I am keen to get going. I am intending to focus on Athletic homegrown players so limited or no transfers in. This means keeping hold of my key players is number one priority. I made it through the first transfer window unscathed and secured many on new contracts taking me well over budget but I was able to negotiate down all the high earners except Inaki Williams to get back under budget. If Barca can do it, I don't see why we can't. I am starting with a basic 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress and see where that takes us.

Hi all. Thanks to @bowieinspace for setting up the thread and thanks all for the interesting contributions so far and I look forward to seeing everybody's Athletic worlds unfold. I have been monitoring whilst I got transfers out of my system in an Everton rebuild. I am excited to be starting my main Athletic save on Monday once the full game is released. Until then I have started a mini game to test out a few things in advance. Firstly, I seem to be settling on a 4-2-3-1 but I am struggling to utilise direct passing to satisfy expectations. I am also struggling to find a good role for Muniain. The best so far seems to be winger on attack. He is occasionally exceptional and often poor. As captain I would like to get consistently good performances from him. I am intending to focus on Athletic homegrown players. I will allow the purchase of former youth players such as Laporte if possible and possibly young Basque players from our affiliate clubs. Otherwise I will not be making any other transfers. I will be therefore starting on a "Your World" setting as I do not want any players coming in and I'd like to keep Vencedor and Morcillo. As usual new contracts getting rid of minimum low minimum fee release clauses seems key and I shall be using transfer funds for this. I had to give new contracts to Sancet, Nico Williams and Vivian and thankfully Raul Garcia accepted a lower wage to offset the increased wages for these three.

With the imminent arrival of FM24, I may have just finished my last season in FM23. We have just finished the 2040-41 season with a clean sweep of trophies taking our total to 16 league titles, 10 Spanish Cups, 10 Spanish Super Cups, 6 Champion Leagues and 1 Club World Championship. I am excited about the new game so I may get just one more tilt at the Club World Championship. As always, I have thoroughly loved managing Athletic. I may try a few other saves but I always keep coming back to this save. Not being able to just sign the best means that the emotional ties with the players are immense and I have grown tactically trying to be more flexible to bring the best out of my stars. As a wrap up, I thought I'd have a look at the important players in this journey. The following is my all-time best eleven: It is a mixture of real players and my newgens. My favourite player has been Asier Blanco. He has been a sensational winger who has won games on his own and has dictated our team shape for over a decade. He is our best player but at 33 is on the decline. An special mention goes to Alvaro Pascual who has been played all over the place and has been brilliant wherever he has played. Also 33 now he remains a key squad player and no one has played more games. I am surprised by the omission of Unai Vencedor who was a very important player and David Telletxea was a very important provider of goals between Jon Karrikarburu years and the current superstar striker Ignacio Cordoba. Borja Undabarrena is the only player who has been purchased in this group having been signed for £24 million from Osasuna. I am torn for FM24 between continuing this story to see the new crop of youngsters growing or starting a new save where it will be the Athletic youth academy only. We'll have to see but either way I can't wait.

Very excited about starting the new game. I obviously hope there are some great youngsters in the youth set-up as I am tempted to do a youth only save. The volume of older players could make it harder than previous years. I also like the idea of improved squad building which should mean that Real and Barca continue to be competitive. I hope interaction with the players has been improved, particularly around outgoing transfers/contracts. The most annoying part of FM23, was players deciding to consider their options but not being to have any further conversations with them and them not considering any offers from us. The only options was to cash-in and try to buy them back in the future. It happened so frequently and there was no appreciation of the loyalty that Athletic inspires. I love the unique world that is created by newgens as much if not more than the world of real players. One thing that is intriguing is being able to continue my FM23 save over in FM24. The idea of keeping the story of my newgen Athletic players going in the new game holds some appeal and is something I am considering.