Werrett
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Posts posted by Werrett
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2021/22 End of Season Update
I may have been playing a bit too much FM over the past few days...
Competitions Overview
- La Liga: 4th placed finish (table)
- Copa del Rey: Knocked out in the 3rd round again, but this time by Betis.
- Europa League: Knocked out in the 2nd knockout round by Gladbach (3-3 with away goals benefiting them)
Honestly I'm super happy with this. By Christmas we'd lost 6 league games and were really getting lucky with teams around us dropping points as well. A 2nd half of the season saw us go 17 games on the run without a defeat (finishing the season with a draw) and this meant we strengthened our hold on a UCL spot; narrowly avoiding a 2nd placed finish in the end. We finished the season with three points less than last season, but less defeats and a higher table position. Lovely!
As for the cup game, I did not learn from last season...
Europa League; we drew 2-2 at home despite dominating...Sloppy.
Squad/Tactics
I've been sticking with the 4231 that I used last season, with a couple of instructional tweaks. Inaki Williams was fantastic and managed 27 league goals from mostly the right-wing, although he headed our scoring charts by some way! Garcia was poor, keeping him for the extra year was effectively a waste of money, Villalibre was also poor with only 11 goals in all competitions. Next season Inaki will start as our ST, as we are really short on other options.
In regards to set-pieces, putting all 11 into the box to defend corners was the only way I stopped us conceding from so many...It's ridiculous, but it's a fix for now. We conceded far too many goals from individual lapses in concentration, but that's not anything I can change through tactics. Maybe a switch to a 433 will come next season, but I'm not sure just yet.
Transfer wise, we only made two signings throughout the season. Aimar Oroz joined for £1.5m but was restricted to the B-side, while a youngster named Ruben from Logrones B joined for £300k. Signing more newgens will be something I look at soon, as our intake this season was really poor, honestly. Here's how the U19 squad looks currently, plus any players hidden as they are out on loan.
Kenan Kodro left for £1.5m, Dani Garcia moved in January for £4m and Alex Berenguer is joining Lyon in the Summer for around £13.5m. Not too fussed about these sales, as none of them were getting any game time.
The B-side finished 3rd, narrowly missing out on promotion to the second tier and my U19s won their league again. I'll really be hoping my B-team can go up next year as it'll be crucial for saving on loaning players out.
Next season will see a few positional switches, maybe a bit more game time for Imanol (got 12 assists this season!
), Serrano, Oroz etc. Maybe a system switch as well, but we'll see how the Summer goes! Hoping to get Herrera or to upgrade our RB, but a £30m budget probably won't stretch far enough for both.
...Expect to hear back in a few days!
Vamos Athletic!
P.S. Thank you to all who respond to any questions, your insight is super appreciated!
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2020/21 End of Season Update
Got stuck straight into my save on Friday evening and can confirm that I have just finished my first season with Athletic Bilbao (my coworker is on leave for the week!
).
Competitions Overview
- La Liga: 5th placed finish (table)
- Copa del Rey: Knocked out in the 3rd round by Mirandés 3-1 (Oops...)
- Supercopa: Winners, beating Barcelona 4-1!
Disappointed to finish the season in 5th having missed out to Valencia and Atléti on the final day of the season. An inferior head-to-head record against Atléti also means we missed out to them as well, which is devastating when we consider that we lost 2-1 to them at home in the final minutes of the game. All in all we W23, D8 and L7...Far too many narrow losses against teams around us ended up costing us, but we've secured European Football next season so we're delighted about that!
As for the cup game, I simply chose to rotate too many players and this ended up costing us. Foolish on my end, but we'll take that on the chin and learn from it for next season.
Delighted to get my first bit of silverware, albeit the Supercopa. An early Pedri goal gave Barcelona the lead within the first minute, but goals from Berenguer, Garcia and Yeray saw us run out 4-1 winners on the day. Woohoo!
Squad/Tactics
In regards to system, we opted for a standard 4231 which moved between a Balanced and Positive mentality throughout the year. I was really happy with the attacking football we produced as we ended up being the 2nd top scorers in the division behind league winners Madrid, although our shaky 5th rated defence may have cost us too many points; but that's the risk and reward to attacking football. I was aware coming into this that our defenders had poor heading, but my word we conceded so many goals to headers!
I tried playing about with set-pieces, individual instructions etc but I'm yet to get anything crazy out of the side doing that; we've mostly been okay on default role instructions. As for the conceding of headers, I think I'll just have to chalk this up to the players I have at my disposal, as I don't think I can fix this tactically asides from the high line that reduces some crosses and deep balls to the CB's.
I won't go too in-depth with the squad, as everyone in this thread already knows the general outlook of the team and the positions they play. The incoming transfers were Robert Navarro (£5.25m release clause) and a youngster from Osasuna who I poached for £225k just after their youth intake; but he's nothing to write home about just yet.
Oscar De Marcos (£2.5m) and Mikel Balenziaga (£750k) left the club, and over the coming Summer I'll look to potentially offload Ibai Gomez, Mikel Vesga (keeps moaning..) and Iago Herrerin (desire to leave). Asides from that I'm not too sure, I disabled transfers in the first Summer so this is my first taste of a full Summer with the Bilbao restrictions!
Our youth intake was good, but nothing exceptional. There's a few attacking players in there, so I'll be trying my best to develop those going forwards. My B-side got promoted and our U19s had a great season; so it's definitely going to be a good time to sit and analyse those players and see if any deserve a bump up to the first-team!
...I think I'll wrap this up here, and I'll likely report back upon the completion of my second season, unless anything extraordinary happens in the meantime!
Vamos Athletic!
P.S. How do you guys approach loaning your younger players out? Do you delegate this? Do you loan them out without any wages/fees? Do you offer a certain amount? Answers on a postcard! Really struggled to loan players out this season.
P.P.S Gonna throw this image in as I thought it summed things up for us; we were pretty unlucky.
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Quick question: Do you guys take responsibility for renewing youngsters with expiring contracts that have above average potential, or do you leave it to your DoF? I'm only asking this as I'm worried leaving it to my DoF will result in low minimum fee release clauses being added into their new deals.
As of right now I've taken this on myself to make sure I get good clauses in, with my DoF handling anyone who I think looks average at best; as a 3-5m release clause seems reasonable for those players.
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Long-time lurker on these annual Bilbao threads and I think it's time I give this a shot myself.
Been looking for a fun save to get stuck into since the end of the football season and I think this could be the one for me! I've always struggled with Spain on Football Manager and I can think of no better club to try and create some success with!
Back in the days of La Liga being on Sky Sports I used to always try and watch Bilbao as much as possible, I particularly loved their side that battled to the Europa Final with that beautiful green kit. Still amazes me that Muniain is only 27/28...
I'm not 100% sure if I'll post much, but I may try and do an update at the end of each season (if I get that far), but I've loved reading everyone's updates so far!
...Vamos Athletic!
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I see a lot of people posting on here, but I'm yet to see anyone managing Real Betis. Anyone else given them a go? Now coming to the end of my first season with them and I'm having a blast!
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On 23/11/2020 at 00:21, RageMaster said:
What role do you play Kane out of interest? Ndombele was good for me (albeit a test save that didn't make it past October) as an advanced playmaker support from MCL position.
I utilised Kane as an Advanced Forward (Attack) for the majority of the 2019/20 season, however second season I have noticed him become a bit more isolated so I'm not sure if he had a one-off super season or my team's inconsistency is leading to less than desirable attacking play. On paper he's perfect as a DLF due to his hold-up play, vision and passing but I felt this leads to us sitting too deep...Might be something to address long-term, but I'm not sure how currently! Alli and Lo Celso are either fantastic and carve out opportunities for him, or they do absolutely nothing.
I put the curse on Sissoko by praising him, second season he has been awful and Ndombele is now back in the squad.
Note: Thank you to @RageMaster and @Jogo Bonito for the kind words.
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Always a fan of reading through threads like this but rarely contribute myself. However, having started a beta save with Spurs on FM21, I'd love to write a bit about where I'm at currently.
As of the time of writing this, I'm just under halfway through my 2nd season. The first season we won the league title...I know, this shocked me too. Usually I do pretty poorly at FM games, especially with Spurs but utilising a simple 4-2-3-1 system (tweaked from match to match based on who we play/who is playing) and 34 league goals from Harry Kane were enough to get our hands on the trophy. Elsewhere, we lost in the second qualifying stage in the Europa League (To Tel-Aviv...No, not the good one), reached the semi-final of the Carabao cup where we lost to Arsenal and suffered a shock loss to Derby in the FA Cup 4th round. With that being said, a full focus on the league is likely a contributing factor to the title success, as our players were much fitter.
Transfer wise, not much happened really. As this post lays out in the introduction, the base squad is plenty good enough for a top four finish with only a few minor worries. Danny Rose went on loan to WBA all season before moving on as a free agent, Ben Davies went to London rivals WHU for £20 million and a few lower level youngsters made minor moves. Gabriel Menino was brought in for £13.5m to be a back-up RB/Midfield option while Rogerio signed from Sassuolo for £5m to operate as a back-up LB behind Reguillon. Andrea Papetti and Nicolo Rovella were signed as youngsters.
The logic behind the tactical set-up was to keep things simple. We do well on the ball, but we I wouldn't rank us in the top teams for pressing and winning the ball back, so my idea for now was to just set-up offensively and try to counter once we'd regained the ball. Players like Son, Moura, Kane and Alli are incredibly good when attacking with pace. Setting up set-piece routines was also crucial for us as a lot of our goals came from corners and deep free-kicks with Alderweireld alone managing to find the next 6 times last season.
Sissoko had a great season as a BBM, edging out Ndombele while Winks played the majority of my season due to me not realising Hojbjerg is a pretty solid DLP (oops...). Players who disappointed me included Bale, Bergwijn, Vinicius, Lamela and Ndombele. Neither Bale or Vinicius were kept on once their loans ended and sadly Lamela is next to impossible to get rid off, so he'll likely leave on a free transfer after the second season.
The second season has been one in which I'd say we've performed more along the line of the expectations. Currently 3rd after 11 games with Liverpool/United running away at the top and Kane has gone back to being an inconsistent forward. Son has become a bit hot and cold while Bergwijn continues to disappoint whenever he steps in. I've promoted Skipp, Parrott and Tanganga to be more of a part of the first-team squad while still struggling to find a good use for Sessegnon, who was also near-impossible to secure a loan away.
Transfer wise I invested a bit more here; Hart (£2.5m), Foyth (£6.5m) and Gazzaniga (£5m) all made way while John Stones (£13.25m), Memphis Depay (£0), Arkadiusz Milik (£0) and Andre Onana (£38.5m) arrived to bolster the squad. I like Lloris, but he's on £100k a week and isn't getting any younger these days. Donnarumma was an obvious option on a free, but this seemed too predictable for me and Onana offers a much better option for playing out from the back. Originally I dreamed of bringing Max Aarons in, but the £50-60m price tag is far too unreasonable and as such I've re-signed Serge Aurier to a new deal on lower wages (for now). Sanchez also signed a new deal, but Lamela won't be...Dear Lord, I just want him gone.
Still keeping an eye on Scarlett, Cirkin (who fell out with me) and a few others regarding development. Kane is proving to be a great tutor at the moment and is doing wonders with Ryan Martin, the best of the bunch from our intake last season.
Long-term I'll be monitoring Aarons in the eventuality that Aurier or the injury-ridden Doherty move on, as well as keeping my eyes peeled for a stronger central midfielder.
I'll be regularly checking this thread to see how everyone is getting on and am more than happy to offer my input on discussions.
P.S. Don't forget to mention that the backroom needs a huge overhaul; the staffing at Tottenham at the beginning of the game is abysmal!
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Like a few others on this Bundesliga thread, I've started a save with newly promoted 1. FC Köln. The default squad itself is easily good enough to maintain top-flight status as I believe there are far weaker sides in Fortuna Düsseldorf, Union Berlin and SC Paderborn. However, with that being said I have made a few changes in order to get a bit more from the team. Just finished pre-season, so this is where I'm sitting currently.
Out:
- (CM) Marco Hoeger (£4m to Al-Ittihad), ageing player with decent value.
- (ST) Jhon Córdoba (£5m to Palmeiras), very good pressing forward, but not so good for our systems.
= £9 million
In:
- (GK) Yvon Mvogo (£100k per month loan deal with a £5m optional fee), suitable back-up to Timo Horn.
- (LB) Birger Meling (£1m from Rosenborg), a capable left-back. My long-term goal is to move Jonas Hector to CM.
- (CB) Alexander Milosevic (Free), good back-up option in case we're hit by injuries.
- (ST) Musa Barrow (33k per month loan deal from Atalanta)
= £1 million + £133k per month.
I've still got Schmitz (RB) up for sale due to him being our 3rd best option but currently there is no real interest. I debated buying a new striker and possibly a right-winger (due to injuries) but Schaub can play there when needed. As for the striker, I couldn't find any top options for a £3-4m fee and as such I've opted for a loan in an attempt to hold off until we have more funds to bring in a higher caliber forward. If I opt to play Schaub out wide, I may move for someone like Xadas to play the #10 role, but nothing is set in stone just yet. Tried to loan Fiete Arp, but Bayern were having none of it.
Tactically we're looking at a fluid, counter-attacking 4411 for the bigger ties, and a gegenpressing based 4231 for games where I believe us to be the better team. I've changed a couple of roles and tweaked a few instructions but they're still pretty close to the default tactical styles.
Outside of that I've overhauled the backroom staff as best I can, replacing both the DOF and the HOYD. The media has us finishing 14th, but I think we're going to be hoping to push the top 10, maybe even bag a top half finish if we're lucky. My one worry is mainly goalscoring, strikers have proven to be quite useless for me this year on FM and with no real out and out #9, I do worry how we'll get on.
But anyway, I'll try and stay active on the thread and will check in if any other transfers are made, or possibly just at random points throughout the season!
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7 hours ago, Sisamom said:
I started my first season with Tottenham and after 13 games in the league we are 2nd, 3 Points behind Manchester City. In the Carabao Cup we are in the 3rd round.
In CL we are on top of our group with 10 points after 5 games. Barcelona is runner up also with 10 points (but we've beaten them in our direct confrontation) and Inter Milano is 3rd with 8 points. In the last game we play versus Inter at home and Barca faces Lille - so everything can happen in the last game.
This is my squad after many transfers in the first window:
Gk: Lloris, Gazzaniga, Vorm
DC: Dier, Ruben Dias, Davinson Sanchez
LB: Rose, Sessegnon
RB: Aurier, Max Aarons
MC: Pogba, Milinkovic-Savic, Ndombele, Bruno Fernandes, lo Celso, Winks, Skipp
AMR: Federico Chiesa, Son
AML: Jadon Sancho, Dele Alli
ST: Kane, Erling Haaland, Parrot
Although the start was very promising i'm worrying about my offensive wingers because they are not productive at all. Chiesa for example scored 2 times and had 1 assist in 13 games and Sancho is even worse with only 1 ridicolous assist in 13 games and an average of 6.5 points per game.
Only three central defenders, one of whom is primarily a DM? Awfully risky!
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Risks have been taken. The board set us 30m to spend but following a couple of sales and a couple of installment signings we've splashed almost 45m on new players. We can't afford to go back to being a top-half team and need to cement our position as a top 6 team. Will the gamble pay off? Only time will tell!
Pinamonti was secured on another season long loan, this time with an optional 10m future fee.
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Frosinone Calcio
Been a hot minute since my last post updating you on the first half of the 2019/20 season where we left you amidst a battle for the top 6. Fast forward to today and I'm delighted to be able to let you all know that we clinched a top 4 finish on the final day of the season, the same game-week where we missed out on top 4 last season. Nothing but relief! Frosinone Calcio have qualified for the UEFA Champions League 2020/21! The second half of the season was amazing.
For those of you who don't want to read into much detail but want the screenshots, here's an overview of the competitions for the 2019/20 season.
Serie A: A very impressive campaign which followed directly on from the foundations we put in place last season. Ironically, despite a switch to a slightly more offensive 442 system we scored less goals (45) than last season (46) but conceded only 24 in comparison to the 30 goals we shipped last year. The defensive core of this team is outstanding and is something I look to keep in place next year, familiarity is certainly key in this regard. Looking on the other end of the spectrum, going forwards I'd like us to be finding the net more often. We were very reliant this year on Pinamonti and Fernandez who scored 14 and 7 league goals respectively with few goals coming from the wings; as such this is certainly an area I would like to improve on. This is the second consecutive season where one player has carried us with goal-scoring ability, a successful habit, but a dangerous one. However, 19 wins, 13 draws and 6 defeats is an incredible season! Inter Milan retained their status as Champions.
Europa League: A strong 4-0 away win at Shakhtar Donetsk saw us overcome the 2-2 draw at home, which at the time was an extremely disappointing result. Following this draw we comfortably moved past Anderlecht before falling victim to familiar opposition in AC Milan, Divock Origi proving to be a right pain in our backside. Overall, I'm very happy with this level of progression, it was our first taste of European Football and I'm sure we did Frosinone fans everywhere very proud! Barcelona lifted the trophy, beating Manchester United 3-1 in the final.
TIM Cup: A 1st round knockout last year was outdone as we managed to battle our way right through to the semi-finals where we were hammered away at the Olimpico by AS Roma. This was the second competition we exited in the same week which was tough to take, but we kept our league form going and as such I can have no complaints here. Fingers crossed we reach a final next year! Inter eventually ran out cup and league double winners after beating Roma 1-0 in extra-time.
In terms of the playing squad, here is an overview of the players listed via position. Pinamonti was instrumental to our success having bagged 24 goals in all competitions while Fernandez topped the assist charts with 9. CCaptain Capuano maintained a 7.29 average rating across 34 appearances to cement himself as an absolute legend in my eyes; I love a solid central defender!
Looking forwards...
The board have set us an initial budget of £29.88m to invest in the squad, hardly a surprise when our finances look so healthy. We know that facility upgrades are coming but will look to improve in other areas; particularly staff as many of these contracts expire come the end of June. Last season we had a lot of loan signings (albeit fewer than the year before) and hopefully we can secure some of these players on long-term deals. Elsewhere we will simply be scouting far and wide to find the best and cheapest talent possible as we look forward to our first taste of the UEFA Champions League.
Tactical tweaks, signings and more to come in the next update. Forza Frosinone!
P.S. Here's a look at the goal that saw us past SPAL 2-1 on the Final day of the season. The Champions League goal!
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Been managing in Italy on Football Manager for a short amount of time and while meaning to post in this forum, I've been enjoying the save far too much to stop and type things up.
So let's recap the save so far...
Frosinone Calcio
Been managing Frosinone for just over a season and a half now (Jan 2020). First season we played a Burnley-esque 442 system and managed to secure a 5th placed finish, missing out on CL football through a winner takes all defeat to Fiorentina on the final day of the season. Not many transfers were made in S1 as we had a lot of players on loan and minimal finances to sanction any major spending. The January window in S1 saw us sell Raffaele Maiello for £4m to WBA, a sale that allowed us to bring in Alexis Cuello as a long-term prospect. Camillo Ciano was turned into a makeshift striker and managed to carry us through the season with 15 league goals in 33 games, but has since been dropped to the bench following a frustrating second season for him.
Currently just progressed into February 2020 and here's a look at the transfers we've made so far along with the squad as a whole. I won't sit and go through every player on here but am happy to post any screenshots or thoughts relating to any specific transfers. Generally we secured second term loans for players who spent the year here last season, but this time we've looked to insert optional future fees, should any of the players become invaluable to us. The focus is also to stay as Italian as possible, with the odd foreign talent coming in to upgrade the squad (not a homegrown challenge or anything, just preference). Our net spend was fairly high, so we need to do well quickly in order to pay this money back. The 442 system has been tweaked a little to get the most out of the players we have now, particularly the more offensive minded full-backs. Pinamonti had his loan renewed despite a lacklustre 2 goal season last term, but has found his feet this year scoring 13 goals in all competitions; hopefully a permanent transfer could be on the horizon for him. With Europa league qualification secured last term we needed to not only improve the quality of the squad, but expand on the size as well. There are still a few iffy areas, particularly in the wings that I'll be looking to address come the end of the second season.
The first half of the season itself was fairly solid, with maybe a few too many draws for my liking. However, this leaves us sitting in the top 6 which is ultimately the end goal for this season. In the Europa league and domestic cup we've been performing above expectations and as of this post we remain a part of both competitions. Here's how things look so far.
The board have agreed to upgrade both the youth and training facilities (which were abysmal), in what is hopefully the start of a true transformation here with Frosinone.
My main question to those of you managing in Italy with a below average club is: What is your main focus? As in, do you look to upgrade your coaching set-up first, or do you look towards infrastructure? Do you focus on youth solely, or do you upgrade your first-team playing squad first? I'm keen to have a successful time here but would like to do things at the right pace so as to not make too many changes too quickly as this could damage the club financially.
Looking ahead to the second half of the season...
The aim for the second half of the season has to be maintaining our stance on a top 6 finish. Re-securing European football will be vital to the finances of the club, but we know this will be a difficult task with many games still to play. In terms of the Europa league I'd love us to go as far as possible, but Shakhtar are a top side and playing away in Ukraine will be a different experience for us. We dream of a TIM Cup Final, but Roma won't make that easy either.
Elsewhere I'll be doing my usual, scouting far and wide to look for talent to sign next season. The expected transfer budget is set at around £20 million, more than enough to bolster our squad for the third season.
Forza Frosinone!
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), Serrano, Oroz etc. Maybe a system switch as well, but we'll see how the Summer goes! Hoping to get Herrera or to upgrade our RB, but a £30m budget probably won't stretch far enough for both.
FM21 - Athletic Club: Los Leones Roaring Back
in Good Player & Team Guide
Posted · Edited by Werrett
2021/22 End of Season Update
Competitions Overview
- La Liga: 2nd placed finish - 82 points (+8) (table)
- Copa del Rey: Runners-Up, 1-0 defeat to Barcelona.
- Champions League: Round of 16 (4-4a defeat to Ajax)
Really good season, surpassed all expectations in all competitions. Plenty to build on for next season. Up until GW22 we were undefeated, but ultimately we went through a bit of a rough patch and dropped far too many points from winning positions. 13 draws compared to Real Madrid's 4 says it all.
Squad/Tactics/Transfers
Switched it up this season and switched to a 433 to try and provide more defensive cover to allow the full-backs to get further forward. I won't post it just yet as I'm still tweaking it constantly. The prior 4231 was used from time to time as well.
Transfer wise, we only made the one signing during the season with Ander Herrera joining from PSG for £17.5m; maybe a fee that was a tad too high, but he adds a wealth of experience to the squad.
Oier Zarraga move to Malaga for £1.5m but that was all in terms of transfers away, aside from a couple of loans here and there.
The B-side won the 3rd tier which means they'll be in the 2nd division next year; delighted about this as it means my younger players can play regular football at a good level.
The focus on youth continues for next season. Inaki Williams had a far less prolific season but Asier Villalibre took home the golden boot for La Liga with 21 goals, really impressive from a man I consider to be my back-up! Got a young striker who I hope to play more this season. He has a few attributes that fall short, but he had a really good loan away at Malaga and I'm hoping he can go on to have a good season with us this season.
Still really enjoying this save, and I'm really excited to see how my young players get on; the youth intakes have been great, but I may look to poach Spanish talent from elsewhere to really bolster our potential.
Squad depth for 2023/24 prior to transfers:
- GK (SK): Simon, Ezkieta, Padilla
- CB (CD): Martinez, Yeray, Nunez, Paredes
- LB (WB):Yuri, Imanol
- RB (WB): Capa, Aguirregabiria
- DM (DLP): Vencedor, Nolaskoain, Prados
- CM (BBM): Sanchet, Herrera
- CM (MEZ): Muniain, Oroz
- LW (IF): Morcillo, Serrano
- RW (W): Williams, Navarro, Williams
- ST (AF): Villalibre, Garrido
I'd like to look into getting a new RB, maybe Gorosabel if possible as Odriozola will cost us far too much. If a La Liga side wants to loan Prados, Paredes or Williams I'd strongly consider it, but other than that I'm really happy with out depth in each position going into the new season. At this point it's now moving to the future and trying to develop our talent as best we can.
Vamos Athletic!