MattyC78

After a couple of years of making limited transfers, for 2024/25 we had a bit of a mini squad rebuild. We had some transfer budget and we have borrowed some from future budgets. It was initiated by three players being on the transfer list but we ended up having to pay a little more due to our rivalry with Real Madrid and Real Sociedad. I would never put up with that nonsense normally but with Athletic it ultimately comes down to do you want the player and can you afford them. Ander Herrera returned on a free to replace the retiring Raul Garcia. Aihen Munoz was next in, resulting in Yuri being moved on. Asier Villalibre wanted out for first team football which I could not provide so when I got a fair offer from Levante we decided to let him go. Unai Nunez would not sign a new contract and he seems to be not as good as previous years so as he was planning to leave on a free we decided to cash in (also Levante) and he was replaced as our fourth choice centre back by the returning Unai Bilbao. At this stage I thought I was done. Then Jon Karrikaburu and Alvaro Odriozola were transfer listed and we couldn’t resist the opportunities. An unhappy Imanol was sold in January to help balance the books a little. In January we tumbled out of the super cup to a flying Barcelona in the semi-final. At this stage they were leading the league and beating everyone. I think they got distracted by their progress towards the Champions League final whereas we were comprehensively beaten by Napoli (Parthenope) in the quarter finals. We got our revenge on Barcelona by beating them in Copa Del Rey final to seal our first trophy in our three seasons. We went on to just about pip Barcelona to the title as they appeared to struggle with their fixture pile up. The arrival of Jon Karrikaburu was very timely as Mr Reliable (Inaki Williams) after years of not missing a game was out for chunks of the season with various injuries and the African Cup of Nations. Karrikaburu was much better than I hoped with 27 goals in 19 league starts. It makes me think should I have taken the big money for Inaki last year. Barring injures we have had a fairly stable team. I still struggle to get the best from Inigo Martinez (We have not got on in previous versions of FM) but there are no real options to replace him. He has stayed because we have repeatedly been able to bring his wages down to a reasonable level but I am just waiting for a decent youth player to oust him.

I don't have so many leagues added due to my tired laptop but I have never found anyone outside of Spain and the odd player from France.

We have just finished our second season and we managed to overcome Real finishing ten points clear of them. Unfortunately Barcelona had a monster season and pipped us to the title. It went to the last day of the season where we beat Real 3-0 but Barcelona put seven past Cadiz to finish first. Inaki Williams continued to be a key player for us with a 7.57 average in the league with 30 goals but unfortunately he was eclipsed by Robert Lewandowski managing a hefty 48 goals in the league. We lost to Real in the super cup semi-final and then tumbled out to Tenerife on penalties in the fourth round of the Cupa Del Rey. We had a great run in the Champions League albeit with a kind draw pitting us against Inter, Tottenham and Athletico before we got beaten by Barcelona at Wembley. Lewandowski scored his 67th goal of the season for them to win 3-2 - utterly filthy. Our wait for our first trophy goes on. Our transfers last season were light. Mikel Rico came in to mentor the B team (although that's not quite what I told him). Alvaro Fernandez joined as a back-up goalkeeper and we signed a young Basque midfilelder (Aitor Arteaga) from Eibar which I hope you will see again in the future. The squad needs a little refresh. We go into the transfer window with £19 million but the options are limited. We have got to the point where we need to bring through a few youngsters for regular games. Raul Garcia is retiring and Asier Villalibre wants to leave due to a lack of games so we need to trawl our B and youth teams for an able back-up.

Wow! I'm a little jealous. I'd love an intake like that. I only seem to get a winger or two a year with no obvious technical abilities.

Give it a go. It's a fun save with challenges you don't get elsewhere.

Interesting signing. I have never been able to get him in any save. He has never been available for less than £72million this year.

It is odd how values change between saves but also fluctuate wildly within a couple of months. I suppose ultimately it comes down to how much both clubs value a player. On that note, I have against my better judgement turned down the offer for Inaki. I also turned down £8.5 million for Lekue earlier in the summer. In any other world I would have sold both like a shot but I decided that they were both irreplaceable. I rely very much on his pace. Karrikaburu looks like a considerable downgrade currently and I feared we would be a worse team for about three years if we sold him. Whilst money is tight there is not much available to spend it on and if we qualify for the Champions League for a couple of years then money will not be an issue. I will probably regret it in a few months but Inaki remains an Athletic star.

Congratulations. It is always good to see Athletic win trophies. It seems harder this year but it will make it more rewarding when it happens.

Crikey. I am now in a similar position. Summer 2023 and various teams are after Inaki. No proper offers until the day after the Spanish transfer window closes and Man City have tabled a £79 million offer. It seems like an amazing price for a 29 year old who is currently earning considerably more than twice as much as any other player. The problem is he scored 25 goals last season and has scored 3 in 2 games so far this season. I do not have Karrikaburu and I'm not sure I can rely on a 37 year old Garcia or Villalibre.

I'm struggling to compete with Real as well. They were far too good in my first season winning with 97 points. We managed to hold off Barcelona to take second place so overall no complaints. We did well in the cup until we met Real in the semi-final where our run came to a rather abrupt end. I expect next season to be harder when we have Europe to compete in as well. I would love to strengthen the squad but I have struggled to find and secure targets in the market. In terms of transfers, Jon Julen Guerrero was the only purchase and we moved on a few of the back-up players. The most noticeable being Dani Garcia who we sold in January after he agreed to join Ajax in the summer. We also terminated the loan of Herrera purely because of the wage costs. I hope to bring him back again in future but on better terms. Rather than transfers we secured the key players on new contracts with longer terms and higher release clauses. There were a couple of promising youngsters in our intake so we may have to wait for these players to develop before we make any significant improvements. We moved through a few formations depending on availability of players but we generally favoured a 4-3-3 The Williams brothers contributed 44 goals between them. Berenguer was moved to left back when we sold Balenziaga and was a good offensive outlet on this flank. Jon Morcillo has performed much better than his rating and never lets me down. Iker Munian is his usual challenge floating between amazing and ineffectual with not much in between. I got improved performances when I moved him into the centre of the pitch.

That seems very cheap. Very early days but he has been exceptional upfront. His wages are an issue which I haven't worked out what to do with yet. He is valued at £56 million and I have PSG, Liverpool and Man City circling. I would be very tempted at that price if they bid. I guess I would then have to go all-in on Karrikaburu.

I found a couple of players from this club a few years ago. I'll keep an eye on them for further gems. Atletico Pamplona are Osasuna under another name and also often a good source of players.

I'm really enjoying hearing how other people's saves are going. I am just starting my save and I have been trying to increase the reality levels this year. I have been trying to ignore other people's purchases and only exploring those that appear as recommendations through my staff. I'm also not using the player search function. So during the first transfer window, I have only made one purchase, Julen Jon Guerrero for the fairly hefty price price of £12 million. I tried to buy Jon Karrikaburu but whilst in negotiations with the agent his price leapt from £11 million to £23 million so he was unaffordable. I have got rid of a few back-up players and most noticeably I cancelled the Herrera loan due to his wages. Like many others, we have been going with a 4-3-3 After six games, we are unbeaten with the highlight being a 4-1 victory away at the Camp Nou. We'll see how the rest of the season goes.

Thank you again as always for the into. This is a great place for those that love Athletic in Football Manager. I've been off on other saves but I'm back in Athletic mode finishing off a last couple of seasons before the new games comes. I usually wait for Christmas but I don't think that is going to happen this year as I'm itching to get going but I'll wait for the full game to launch. It's been interesting viewing other people starting saves and I'm looking forward to starting next week and I'll be back to provide a few updates shortly.

Maybe not as insane and not every year but I have had a steady flow of good players which I have managed to top up with the odd Basque purchase. I am in 2030 and some of them are making their way through into the team and the original group of players are moving towards the end of their careers, As is often the case, it comes down to balance. I have loads of high potential strikers but I am very short of defenders. I am having to rely on a creaking defence currently and I'm not sure what is going to happen when they retire in the imminent future.

Having returned to the game after a break, I had to remind myself where the team was. It was November 2028 and we appeared to be in a battle with Barcelona to retain our title. In the summer the only signing in was Kepa Arrizabalaga who was brought back to Athletic from the Premiership for £8 million. This allowed me to sell my back-up keeper Ivan Galan for £7.5 million to Wolfsburg. For some reason that I cannot remember now, Iker Muniain was allowed to leave the club for £750,000. He was 36 years old but I wish he was still around the team. Back-up players, Iniago Uriarte (£6.25 million), Inigo Romero (£11 million), Lucas Sangalli (£6 million) and Pablo Lasa (£12.75 million) also departed in the summer I had already arranged for Jon Morcillo to rejoin the club for £8.5 million in January. With a strong group of young strikers, a shortage of midfielders Nico Serrano and Nico Williams, we made a few small tweaks to the 4-4-2/4-2-4 formation and set off back to the fun of an Athletic save. The tactics were designed to be a fun attacking system that made the best of the players that we have available. In November we were failing to meet the objective of making the most of set pieces so on my return we made a few tweaks to the corner and free-kick routines to try to boost our performance in this area. We completed the season with a success in the league, the Spanish Super Cup and the Champions Cup. WE missed out on a clean sweep falling to Barca in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey. We managed to pull comfortably clear of Barcelona by the end of the season ands in Aritz San Martin and Gaizka Perez we had the two top goal scorers in the league. The best eleven shows that with the exception of the young strikers how much we rely on real players eight seasons in. There are some youngsters in the squad that get reasonable game time but at some point they are going to have to break into the core team. The only other main news is that are after a couple of failed attempts to purchase St Mames we are now looking to build our own stadium.

After a break managing other teams I am returning for a final push with my Athletic team. I've just been back over the messages as I always enjoy reading about what other people do with their saves. I'm particularly impressed with the longevity of Ernemann and their save. I'm in the winter break in 2028-29 in a battle with Barcelona for the title. I'll hopefully report back on progress soon.