Alejandro_FM

Great start to season 4. Brilliant display against Real. Who's managing them at the moment? I can't recall if you've mentioned in an earlier post.

Thank you! And yes - I did use the tactic from the last update - the 4-3-3 with the AP(S) on the left. I do make the occasional in-match adjustment, like dropping the "work ball into box" if we're too passive, or mentality to "balanced" (if I'd like to spend more time in build-up to draw the opposition out) or "attacking" (if we're behind late in the match and we need to take more risks). There are some PIs: The Winger on the right is told to "cut inside with the ball". It helps that Roony B is left footed. Everyone from the CM strata and up is told to "mark tighter" and "press more". BBM is told to "take more risks" and "dribble more" when it's a player I'd like to empower, like Samardzic or Guerra.

Nice challenge to keep them up this season and a good long term aspiration as well. Good luck!

Thank you! A satisfying season for sure. Thank you! .. Haha -- it's actually Klopp managing Real here too. I agree, it's a bit of an AI cheat code. They've been absolutely running over teams, won everything including the UCL in season 5. This season they lost to Barca on the UCL QF. Last two league seasons they had 98 and 97 points respectively.

Season 6 - Final Stretch (May 2029) The final stretch of the season was intense, nervy at times, but we’ve performed as well as I could’ve hoped. Dropped points on only two occasions in the league. Real Madrid gave us a proper run though. We had to be so perfect, in fact, that we ended up breaking La Liga’s point record (was 100 over 38 matches) en route to Valencia's first La Liga title since 2004 (and first of this save). It’s refreshing to me that we had to be this good and get these many points for our first league win, and that it took 6 seasons of progress, all in the top flight. Typically in my saves, I’ve been winning initially despite some struggles because the “AI teams” tended to flop, but not this time. Real were close to perfect themselves. They scored a whopping 127 goals this season. It’s mental. So many 4-0 and 5-0 results in their campaign. Eventually, we did prevail... Separately, we won the Copa Del Rey for the 2nd time in a row, which made this season even more of a success. I do wish we did better in Europe to boost our reputation a little. Below are a few more screenshots and highlights from the campaign: Team performance: 100 goals scored (2nd best to Real's 127 goals, as mentioned above) scored and 25 conceded (best). Exactly the same as last year. Overall underlying numbers suggest that our adjustments did yield those coveted marginal gains. We won the title fair and square. Player performance: Mamadou Dosso didn’t repeat his incredible goalscoring performance from last season. His NPxG/90 (0.55 compared to 0.71 last season) and xG underperformance of -0.78 were both disappointing. Overall he contributed 17 goals in all comp (only 12 in the league). Not the kind of numbers you’d expect from someone demanding a super star contract. Player of the season (primarily true in the first half) was Roony Bardghji with 14 goals and 8 assists in just 34 apps (due to injuries). I was also very happy with Lazar Samardzic - he had 8 goals and 13 assists, highest on the team in xA/90 (0.42), 2nd highest Op-KP/90 (2.09). Neither of the two made the league’s team of the season, given the performances of Lamine Yamal (15 goals, 13 assists in the league), Vinicius Junior (18 goals and 9 assists), Fede Valverde (19 goals, 14 assists) and Jude Bellingham (23 goals, 13 assists). Dosso, as well as Carnessecchi, Valentin Barco and Paulo Berra represented Valencia in La Liga’s top 11. The versatility of our attacking display did manifest in 7 players (4 starters, 3 2nd choices) achieving double figures in goals scored, and 3 players achieving double digits in assists - Barco from the full back position, Samardzic, and our most prominent academy grad to date, Salvador Rostoll (Prestianni's backup at AML). I was also particularly impressed with Oger Meendering, Dosso’s backup at striker, who scored 14 goals in 27 appearances, but only 14 starts. His NPxG/90 was 0.74, higher than Dosso’s number last year. He seems to get into chances even when he plays limited minutes. It will be interesting to see if he can sustain these high numbers if he were a starter more frequently. OVERALL – We’re in a very good spot in terms of competing in La Liga for years to come, and I am delighted to have gotten to this point with only realistic, frugal transfers, and a young squad, on a wage budget that’s about ¼ of those of Real’s and Barca’s. Going forward - I am asking myself where I’d like to take this journey, with 3 possible options on the table: 1. Achievement focus - we’ll turn our attention to Europe. We’ll continue to gradually raise our wage bill, enhance our squad depth in a few key spots, and try to take the club to the next level. We still want to challenge for the league every year, but the clear goal would be to win the UCL in the next 3-4 seasons. To be clear, In this scenario, I will still maintain transfer market sensibility. Not looking to “break the bank”. So far, our highest transfer fee was ~€18m, and I would intend to remain in that ballpark (maybe up to €30-35m), and have the wage budget peak at about ~€120m/year (about £2m/week). How fast can we become the best team in Europe? 2. Academy focus - we’ll pivot harder to focus on youth development, and make the Valencia first team an academy-first squad. We’ll aim to field as many of our academy players as we can - at least 50% of our La Liga (and UCL) registered squad of 25. So far, I've considered players who arrived at the club at 16-17 years-old as academy players. If I pursue this option, I could further refine the definition and say only our own intake players are academy players. We shall see. How long will it take us to get there? We’ll still want to win as much as possible along the way, but we’ll slow (or halt) transfers to ensure that our academy players have a priority each summer when the first team squad is decided. 3. Tactical innovation focus - we'll pivot away from my mainstream 4-3-3, possession system, and try something I've not done in years (I've been playing 4-3-3 fairly religiously since FM17 at least). Maybe a 3 at the back? Or maybe a 4-4-2. The key would be to introduce new tactical principles, and be more rigid about them. We'll still try to win, develop players and so on, but mastering the new shape will be my focus. These options are not mutually exclusive, and we’re not going to set hard and fast rules. It’s more about the theme of the save going forward. Trying to decide what will be more interesting and enjoyable for me. I’ll figure this out after a little bit of a breather… as I tend to do … I realize that this is completely subjective, but I am curious to hear what others might have done if you were in this stage of the save ... Any thoughts or ideas from any of you reading this are most welcome. Cheers and vamos los ches!

Thank you. Much Appreciated. Yes their finances are nuts, revenues too.

January 2029 3 additional months into the season, cross the half way points. How are we getting on with those marginal gains? The rest of 2028 went smoothly in the league, coupled with one more European victory against Bayer Leverkusen (not coached by Xabi Alonso at the moment). The league form pleased me in particular - 6 matches, 6 wins, 15 goals for, 3 goals against. Then in January - We saw off Bilbao away thanks to a brace from our Dutch striker Meendering. but then, we had a defining slate of fixtures ahead of us: It's all nice and well to beat the "other teams" in La Liga in successive fashion. However, as we've seen, Real Madrid do not blink. Coming into our match against them, we were tied on 53 points a piece in 20 matches. It didn't help that this match of the season got scheduled right between two do or die UCL fixtures, both away from home. To add to the challenge - our two best players - Roony Bardghji and Gianluca Prestianni, were going to miss that entire stretch. So, I decided to "give up" on Europe, and fielded our backups against Nice to keep our team fresh for Real. That didn't go well... We got thoroughly outplayed by the 7th place team in Ligue 1. The Valencia loanee Benito (class of 24') even came on for a cameo with 3 minute to go... Never mind that... we gave Real THE BUSINESS: And with 10 men for about 40 minutes, after Javi Guerra, our vice-captain, and scorer of the early goal, decided to lunge into a 2-footed tackle in the 54th minute. Our low possession stat is misleading, and is mostly driven by us being pinned back in the second half when we were a man down. In the first half, we had our way with Real in their half, and even when we lost the ball, we were in excellent pressing situations, which led to our 2 first half goals, both from final third interceptions. Here's the possession that led to our opening goal - We're building play from the back in a left-skewing 3-2. Navajas, the ball playing defender and at the top of the back 3, passes to ball to Kalu, our defensive midfielder, who then passes a nice line-breaker to Oger Meendering at the center of the front 5 (the right winger is out of the at the bottom of the screen). Our left side overload with Barco (top of the light blue line), the Rostoll, (The AP, in for the injured Prestianni), and Samardzic the BBM, is clear to see in the image. Kalu chose to pass into the middle in this case, however, I often excellent interplay in the left wing, which leads to someone freeing up with a through ball. Meendering can't hold on to the ball, but we have 4 players (including him) near by to immediately pursue the ball and counter press. The resulting blunder ended up with Javi Guerra and Meendering both heading towards goal with the ball at their (Guerra's) feet, with only the keeper left to beat. 1-0 Valencia! A minute later - we had another clear-cut-chance resulting from an interception in the final third, only this time Meendering's shot hit the post. Speaking of Meendering. No, he did not become our starter at striker. He started for Dosso because the latter was throwing a fit wanting a new contract. He's on ~€1.7m/year with 3 years left on his deal and is asking for 6 times that (€10-11m). He's incredible, and we can afford it if we keep our winning ways, but I am reluctant to break our squad wage structure for the guy given the depth we have behind him. We'll revisit come the end of the season. So - I was extremely pleased about beating Real. We proceeded to handily beat Shakhtar away and Barca at home as well. What a wild ride. With Barca - the match was a bit tighter, and they certainly had their chances, but I was confident in our strategy. They played their usual narrow 4-2-2-2 under Xavi, and we exploited the flanks by turning our IFB on the right into a WB(S), while providing extra cover in the middle with Kalu as a HB instead of a DM(S). In the UCL - unfortunately, as I suspected despite winning more in the second half of the league phase, it was "too little too late" and we had to bow out with a disappointing 9 points in 8 matches. We really have to figure out how to step up our European game. Since winning the Europa League in 2026, we've only been back to a round of 16 once. In the league, after 22 matches, we have the edge at the top of the table. Our head to head matchup (i.e. matches between us) is tied, so we'll need to beat them with more points. It may take 95+ points to win La Liga this season. Can we keep up this insane pace in the coming months?

Terrific season. Your team performance stats really support the results. No real weaknesses and great defensive and possession numbers (relative to the league from what I can tell). I think the 4-2-4 is really brave with the attacking mentality and the top heavy formation. Should be better in pressing intensity and make you even more attack minded. I'd be curious to see how it performs, for sure, similar to warlock above. And I'd also second the praise to Carnesecchi. He's been my GK as well. Rock solid.

This is a comprehensive dismantling. Mostly down to them having 10-men? Or some tactical magic? Prestianni developed really nicely for me. He's the complete wide player. Great purchase!

Thanks! ... yeah to be fair, that's the way it is in football sometimes. The best predictor of on-pitch success is the wage bill

Great start. Depo have not made it back to the top flight in my 6 seasons here so far, but would have been nice to have that "derby" on a regular basis.

Nice progress so far! Bartesaghi looks immense. What a talent.

Early Season 6 (November 2028) We kicked off season 6 hoping to mount another title challenge, and to improve our performance in the UCL. Unfortunately, our early season slate was brutal and really tested our resolve. 2 of the first 3 league matches were against Real and Barcelona, both away. The opening 2 matches of the UCL were both away at Braga and Barcelona (for the second time in 3 weeks), followed by home matches against Liverpool and Spurs. So, the schedule was not in our corner, but as they say “To be the best you have to beat the best”. How did we fare over the first 3 months? The answer depends on the competition. In the league, our form has been very good, continuing on from last year. After 13 matches, we’re 2nd behind Real, only 2 points separating us, having lost only once (to Real, on match day 1), and having beaten Barca away at Camp Nou. Real is just on a different planet at the moment. They boast a 47 to 9 goal difference after 13 matches. Just running over teams. In Europe, we lost all 4 of our opening matches, despite controlling 3 of them and having good chances to win each match. We finally won on November 1st, at home to FC Koln, but it might be too little too late, as far as our European campaign is concerned, with matches at Leverkusen, Nice, and Shakhtar, all away, still to come in the league phase. We’ve been competitive, and clearly whatever it is that we need to do to win the biggest competitions is about finding marginal gains. A tactical evolution? Better in-match adjustments? Squad reinforcements? Better rotation? I don’t know. I am hoping to find the formula in the coming months. Real Madrid pose an almost impossible challenge in the league, but can we find a way to stay close to perfect and keep up with them? A tactical sidebar: Coming into the season, the plan was to do “more of the same”. I’ve rigidly stuck to this 4-3-3 shape with the right side providing cover in the back, allowing Barco on the left to go forward and contribute in attack. Our central midfielders ALL like to get forward and in the box (If I decided to overhaul the position, this might be something I would look to balance). Therefore, the attacking plan is to involve the flanks (mostly left) in the buildup and allow the midfielders time and space to make the forward runs. Dosso is a goalscorer and backline stretcher. Roony is an all-around threat from the right, whereas Prestianni on the left is expected to create, either for himself or to provide the killer pass, to one of his forward line partners or to one of the midfielders on a forward run. Overall, the plan has worked well so far. Hard to argue with 3 consecutive top 4 finishes in La Liga, 2 of which were accompanied by over 90 points. Additionally, this setup did seem to produce solid performances from our best players: Dosso had an excellent season 5 as covered previously. The underlying numbers suggested that he was well served with goalscoring opportunities (recall, he had the highest NPxG/90 in Europe’s top 5 leagues). Barco - is at the high percentiles for progressive passes, xA, xG and shots for a full-back. 8 assists in the league and consistently one of the highest avg ratings on the team. Bardghji - 8 goals and 12 assists are perhaps not the output I’d expect to see from our 2nd option attacker (behind Dosso), but then again, his xG (~10) suggests he should have been in double digits for scoring, and his underlying numbers suggests he’s at high percentiles for shots, OP-KP, xA an xG for his position group. Prestianni’s output last season was very good, 14 goals and 11 assists in 29 starts. Barco's stats (season 5) Bardghji's stats (season 5) Last year, I felt that our attack was on par with the best, but our defense was a notch below those of Barcelona and Real. This trend continued into this season. If the reasons behind this trend are tactical (they may not be, but humor me here), then what is it about our tactics? I went on a mini data mission to figure out where our underlying numbers differed from those of the La Liga royalty. I looked at the defensive line, pressing intensity, pitch tilt and more. We were impressively keeping up with Real and Barca. Here’s for example the pitch tilt chart: Ultimately, the meaningful differences I found: We are more loose in possession. Our pressing intensity is lower. Improving on #1 felt like something I ought to try. If we gave opponents fewer opportunities to possess the ball, we would be less vulnerable to counter attacks. I am not quite sure about #2. I don’t want my players running around pressing like headless chickens, so “much more often” intensity is out of the question. Should we be more aggressive, though? Perhaps with a pressing role like a BWM, or with a TI of “Get Stuck In”? maybe. For now, I ended up creating this alternative tactic. The “jury is still out” on this one. What I am trying to do with the changes here: Playing out of defense - more safe possession. Removed “Pass into Space” - more safe possession. Removed “Counter” - more safe possession. New roles with more fluidity and support: Barco is now a WB(S). Wanted fewer attack duties and the other 3 seemed more important Changed the IW on the left to an AP, CM(s) to BBM. Let’s see if any noticeable improvements are apparent as the season continues …

Preseason/Summer 2028 - Squad for Season 6 Heading into the summer my focus was optimizing the development paths of our brightest prospects. I prepared for a transfer window with minimal changes to the squad, and almost no spending. Summer comings and goings: First, We cashed in on a few players: Marcel Ruiz, a bonafide starter and high performer in seasons 2 and 3, fell off the rotation, and given his limited runway for growth, and relatively high wages, €35m was too good to turn down. He’s off to Nantes, which is a popular team among our players (many state that it’s their favorite destination for loans and such), having been recently purchased by a tycoon. Nantes is also managed by a Spaniard who plays a 4-3-3, interestingly. Alejanro Frances, our starting right back (IFB), is off to Spurs for €42m (matched his release clause). A good player but one I didn’t mind letting go, which may have been a mistake given how opposing left forwards abused us in matches this season so far. Tobias Gulliksen, our 3rd choice left forward is on a season loan at West Ham with an option to buy at $45m. I think they’ll go for it given his market value of €70m+. Some of our best prospects went on loans with the hope they’ll make a leap this season: Salvador Zagala to Crystal Palace in the Prem, Benito (to Nice), Juan Hernandez (to Lens), and Salvatore Marchi (to Bordeaux) in Ligue 1. Marchi, by the way, is an excellent wingback prospect whom I may not have mentioned before. Was acquired in the summer of 2027 into the academy, and had a very strong preseason which prompted me to believe he was ready for a top flight loan. Enclosing his profile below... We made just two incoming moves and only €9m spent upfront: Stefan Bajcetic, a bit of a leap of faith that he can get back on a development path. Our scouts and fans were not supportive given his age, but I figured it was worth the risk. He has been okay overall since coming in and has certainly developed, but he has also made a couple of mistakes which led to goals from the opposing left wing and eventual losses (early in the season - update will follow). Sabit Sarigul, a Turkish center back, and already very impressive at age 20. Fit straight into the rotation behind Paulo Berra. Overall, the transfer strategy here was simple. Let's not bring in players who will prevent our existing young talent from playing big minutes. Squad depth ahead of season 6: (Trying to not spam with too many profile screenshots, so I am limiting myself to our top 4 players, enclosed at the bottom) Goalkeepers: Both are good quality La Liga players. Carnesecchi is a better shot stopper and Restes can do more with his feet. I don’t think in FM having a world-class GK is a must for winning titles, so to me, we’re sufficiently stocked in the position. Position grade: B+ Center-backs: Navajas and Valentini share BPD duties in the left center back position. The former is close to world class. Berra and Sarigul are more limited, but very solid and still emerging. Overall, we’re not lacking quality or depth here, just some experience. Position grade: B+ Full-backs: On the left, Barco is a star and high performer. Signed an extension this summer, making him the second highest paid player in the squad. We now consistently set up in shapes and game models that allow him to move forward and contribute in attack. Sanchez is his backup, a player “at his prime” but far below Barco in quality. Clearly an area to improve in the future, given that none of the prospects below the first team seem to have the potential to reach Barco’s quality. On the right, we have homegrown Mosquera, my “pet rescue project” Bajcetic, and two prospects outside of the first team in Marchi (mentioned above, on loan) and Jimenez (in the B-Team). In the first team, this is without a doubt our weakest position, so I really hope that Marchi and Jimenez can progress quickly in their development and command their place in the team, otherwise, I’ll have to make a move in the transfer market. Position grade: B- Central midfield: At the DM strata, Rocco Ascone is a second year starter. Solid option, but limited growth potential. Behind him, Kalu is newly promoted from the B-Team, an excellent all around deep option hailing from Nigeria. I am super high on him. At the CM strata, our best player at the moment is Lazar Samardzic, the Serbian attacking orchestrator, with a mean left foot. We do rotate heavily with 5 interchangeable options because the aforementioned Samardzic is often called to back up Roony Bardghji at left winger, given the lack of a natural backup in that position. I am very high on Camara, whom I’ve mentioned a handful of times before, a player who’s been at the club since age 16 and returns to the first team this season after a loan in the Bundesliga. Benito, arguably our best CM prospect, is out on loan as I mentioned above. Position grade: B+ Wide-forwards: On the left, Prestianni and Rostoll are terrific 1st and 2nd choice options. Both are immense playmakers, and I am aiming to bring them more into matches by adjusting the tactics slightly for the season to come. On the right, we have Roony, who started season 6 on a goalscoring spree, but no natural back-up. The would-be-backup, Juan Hernandez, who is not ready, is out on loan as mentioned above. Hugo Duro and Lazar Samardzic help out by rotating into this position when needed. Position grade: A Center-forwards: In my previous post, I already covered our new star striker, Dosso. Behind him we have Hugo Duro, and Oger Meendering in the first team, and our academy star Zagala out on loan at Crystal Palace. No plans to acquire any more strikers in the near future. Position grade: A Top 4 players: Overall: The squad is 2-deep at each position and is set up well to compete. We have a weakness in right back, and some inexperience in the center of defense. Let’s hope those don’t come to cost us this season, with expectations being as high as they’ve been. As has been the case in the past 3 seasons, the media has us pegged to finish 3rd. With renewals and such - wages have now gone up to ~79m per year and we're up to 6th highest in La Liga.

Season 5 (2027/2028) Another season is in the books. Still going with the save, albeit at a slow pace with life commitments “getting in the way”. Here are 6 storylines from from season 5 at Valencia: 1. We’ve yet to win the league, despite putting together our best season to date Another good showing from our young squad. We are not dominating, and I think I like it this way. The challenge is keeping my engagement with the save high. In La Liga, solid performances throughout the season, including some quality results against the league’s top teams, saw us break the club record point total with 92 points. But, Real has just been too good. They’ve now won back to back titles, and this year they did it emphatically with 98 points. Real is so bloody good, they won the Champions League this year as well, beating Man City, the EPL champions, in the final. We did manage to beat them 4-0 on match day 30, though. After a trophyless 26/27, we added a 2nd trophy to our cabinet in 27/28, the Copa Del Rey (Recall, we won the Europa League in season 3 - 25/26), beating Real Madrid in the QF and Atleti in the Final. Atleti, by the way, really fell off and finished the league in 10th, outside of the “European Places”. 2. Valencia in 2028 is a rich and prosperous club Looking back - our net transfer profit since 2023 comes close to ~€400m. It’s absolutely wild. Admittedly, it has been a bit too easy to offload players to Saudi and other destinations for hefty fees. What further helped generate a positive profit has been my emphasis on (what I'd consider) realistic transfers for all incoming deals - highest fee paid was €19m for Roony Bardghji in 2024. This season, we sold Valentin Gomez - a ball-playing defender, Luka Romero (who's Bardghji’s backup at AMR), Sebastian Bosseli - a right sided center back, and Andre Almeida - a playmaker - for a total of €130m. None of the 4 players were starters at their positions. On the flip side, we brought in 7 players for just ~€30m. Of the 7, just three came into our first team rotation: Rocco Ascone - a French defensive midfielder, good on the ball and can play center-back as well. He ended up spending quite a bit of time in defense in the second half of the season given the sale of Valentin Gomez. Bought for just €6m. Paulo Berra - continuing the tradition of young Argentinians in the squad. Another left footed center back. Came in as Bosseli wanted out and I knew I could shift homegrown Cristian Mosquera to right sided IFB in the rotation. Played backup most of the season but saw plenty of game time and showed solid growth. Bought for €11m. Oger Meendering - a Dutch striker prospect. An opportunistic buy of a forward player who brings excellent physical tools and aggression, and less finesse. The scouts thought he had excellent growth potential and I liked that he came cheap (just €7m). Oger came in mid-season and played backup to the brilliant Mamadou Dosso (more on him below). The 4 other acquisitions were 17 year-olds from Romania, Kosovo, Italy and The Czech Republic. They were all placed in the U19s. All 4 are high potential players but somewhat far from first team ready. I don’t make these kinds of acquisitions every year, but I found that it sometimes helps to bring players at the academy level to ensure future role and play style suitability of academy graduates. I am really keen on giving our own youth intake players ample development focus and a path to the first team, but I have found that what I am getting in terms of role suitability, style of play, is a bit of a crapshoot (similar to a discussion I saw in Shrewnaldo’s Sporting Gijon thread; my experience has been the same). The other aspects of good financial management are all in check as well. We’re achieving in the league while keeping the wage spend well below the other title contenders, at €70m/year (7th highest in La Liga). Our commercial income has also grown significantly and we’re now 4th in La Liga with €27m/year (still just 1/10th of Barca and Real’s comparative numbers). Wages to turnover is just 20%, by far the lowest in La Liga. 3. We have the best attacking force in Spain, but can't quite match the defensive dominance of Real and Barca 100 goals scored? Not too shabby. We continued to be an assertive attacking team, taking the 2nd most shots (behind Real), but still maintaining the highest quality of shot in the league (close to 0.16 xG per shot). The defense was markedly better than last season, but still somewhat worse than the big 2’s defenses. We conceded only 25 goals, with the 3rd lowest xGA (~31 goals). I may have to add defensive solidity to push us to the next level. It’s all about marginal gains at this point, when we’re so close to the top. 4. We still don’t have the quality depth to compete in earnest on both fronts Injuries and fixture congestion led to a lot of rotation in the first team. The constant rotation resulted in some inconsistent form at times, mainly in the Champions League. We had an unremarkable league phase which resulted in another playoff round appearance, same as last year. We were drawn against Liverpool for that playoff round and bowed out after losing 3-0 on the road, and barely scraping a 2-1 win in the return fixture. Disappointed that we weren’t able to beat our Round of 16 accomplishment from last season. The thing about our squad depth… I am not unhappy with our 2nd choice players. They’re good overall. It’s just that the way we’ve operated, our backups are a mix of high potential 19-20 year-olds, such as Paulo Berra, Salvador Rostoll, and Benito, with clear areas for improvements, and solid, but unremarkable, La Liga players like Manu Sanchez and Christian Mosquera. Side note: Hugo Duro (club captain) played a lot of AMR this season with that 2nd choice team, and did a good job, scoring 16 in all competitions. The overview of the squad (below) with the high level stats for apps, goals, assists and avg ratings shows just how much we had to rotate. Pablo Barrios - the man I’d like to start in defensive midfield, manage to clock just 18 starts all season. Gianluca Prestianni, arguably our best player, started just 29 matches (returning a healthy 14 goals and 11 assists in all comps). Our backup GK Restes started 24 matches. Every single 2nd choice player (with the exception of Oger Meendering who joined in January) started 17 or more matches. It’s fantastic for squad morale and development, but definitely impacted results. 5. We have a new superstar upfront Mamadou Dosso - our (almost) 20 years-old Ivorian striker, an acquisition from the summer of 2026 for just €2.6m, became our undisputed starter upfront, and he didn’t disappoint with 25 league goals in 28 starts, and 31 goals in total. That’s a fantastic return. He’s also the best on the team at getting at the end of chances, with 0.71 NP-xG / 90. Dosso’s performance has been so good, he fares well even when compared to the best strikers in Europe. When looking at the top 11 scorers across Europe’s top 5 leagues, Dosso has the highest NP-xG/90, the highest goals/90 (by a mile!), and the highest conversion rate. He’s already up there with the likes of Haaland, Vitor Roque, Gonzalo Ramos, and he’s at least 3 years younger than anyone else on that list. Mind blowing. I give him a ton of credit for his movement (anticipation 18, OTB 16). And then, we have to give the rest of our team credit for setting him up with an array of tap-ins and simple 1:1 chances. Dosso has gotten plenty of recognition, winning both the “Golden Boy” and “NXGN” awards this year. There’ll be interest in him, naturally. Fortunately, he’s under contract till 2032 with a nice release clause of €120m, which is starting to feel a little low given how good he actually is. 6. Our homegrown youngsters continued to progress; seems that loans and starter minutes make a big difference (as opposed to coming on as a sub) The top 4 prospects from our academy, per the list we created in the summer of 2027 - Rostoll, Benito, Camara and Zagala - started the season in our first team squad of 26 players. With Rostoll as a legitimate 2nd choice at left forward behind star man Gianluca Prestianni, and the others being 3rd choice in key positions. Rostoll and Benito stayed with the first team the entire season. Neither has grown as much as I had hoped. Rostoll is clearly already elite with the ball, making great decisions. He managed 9 goals and 4 assists in all comps, Close to 0.5 goals/90 and 0.3 xA/90 put him well within the top 10% of attacking midfielders in Europe. He was 4th on the team in open play key passes (2.06/90), the best among the forward line players. Prestianni, the aforementioned starter ahead of Rostoll, was only 10th on the team with 1.6 KP/90. But Prestianni is much better at creating and finishing chances, likely because of his elite speed and agility, coupled with terrific dribbling, movement and intelligence. Physically is where Rostoll has to grow and improve if he is to compete for a starting position as a wide forward. That is, unless I end up finding a better spot for him on the team (his skillset is really more that of a playmaker than a wide forward). Benito only got 13 starts (+19 sub appearances), but he showed flashes of excellence with 7 goals and 2 assists, mostly as a CM(A). His most notable stats to me are 0.28 xG/90 (highest of any CM on the team), and 2.02/90 open play key passes, which is 5th on the team, right behind Rostoll. Given how good he was as a 16 year-old, I thought he’d be further ahead by now. That being said, the ceiling is still very high with, according to our staff. Probably needs to improve decisions, and the physical side, to truly take over in center midfield. Does he need to play week-in and week-out to make the leap? Maybe a loan next season? That's certainly where my mind is at. Zagala and Camara weren’t getting enough playing time, so in January I sent them out on loan. Zagala went to Rayo Vallecano and actually played very well, scoring 8 goals in 17 league appearances in the second half of the season. He will need another loan simply because he’s a 3rd choice striker at the moment (behind Dosso and Meendering). Camara went to Stuttgart which this season were a mid-table side in the Bundesliga. He also got plenty of starts, didn’t perform as well, but still showed some solid growth. He has some similarities to Benito, and also lacks physically. I am debating whether to give him more playing time with the first team next season, given his elite decision making, or whether to send him out on loan again. The standout prospects out of players who didn’t make the first team was Juan Hernandez who recorded 17 goals and 6 assists for the B-Team, Mestalla, in La Liga 2. His performances made waves and some big teams (e.g., Spurs, does that count?!) started inquiring about him. So, I went ahead and renewed his contract with a higher release clause and pushed away the suitors. He’s now a La Liga caliber player, but not quite good enough in terms of movement, anticipation and decisions to be in our rotation, so we’ll aim to send him on a top flight loan for next season. Another member of the stocked 24’ class (alongside Rostoll, Benito, David, and Borja – the latter two are good prospects who are starters for the B-Team at the moment). The state of the academy overall is very good. There’s a lot of talent there. The U19 won a third consecutive Spanish youth title and is filled with excellent prospects from the classes of 26’ and 27’ (the 28’ intake, the most recent one, was a dud). The B-Team, Valencia Mestalla performed very well in La Liga 2, finishing 4th (they were not eligible for the playoff, obviously). So, we have the best youth team and the best B-Team in all of Spain. Going forward, I'd like to see more academy grads earning places in the first team. There no rush, though. We’re only 5 seasons in. The guys from our very first intake (class of 24’) are just turning 20 this year. Additionally, I'd like to keep winning. Our instant rise in La Liga and also competing in Europe every season means a high bar for the first team rotation. We'll just have the find the right balance in every match between fielding the best player who is fit and the high potential player who is desperate for playing time. In conclusion - Another good season from our young Valencia squad. We won another trophy, but we still have way to go. We are swimming in cash, but we won't be spending it, opting instead to maintain some realism and to try to build the club gradually towards becoming part of the European Elite. For season 6, the board set the transfer budget at €140m and the wage budget at €172m/year. We won’t be spending anywhere near that, but let’s see if we can make further progress in the UCL, maybe challenge for the title again and hope for a slip up from Real Madrid, which is currently Europe’s best team. The board wants to win the title by 2033. I hope we’ll do it sooner than that...