TheLutterworthFox

Part 1 - Finding The Right Club So my plan of finding a club before the new season started did not go to plan, with my manager starting with a Continental A licence and National reputation I expected a raft of offers, well that just did not happen. It actually took until December for an offer to come in, a perfect fit for a new manager, I'm off to Italy! And my first club will be Samdoria! An interesting choice for a first club for one big reason, they are one of the only clubs on the list not in the top tier. Sampdoria have languished in Serie B since the start of the save and have rarely got close to promotion back to Serie A. Their best finish was 5th where they lost in the playoffs. This season they are doing awfully, we're nearly half-way through the season and they are down in 12th place, luckily the league is incredibly tight with us only 4 points off the playoff spots, for context the top 2 go up automatically with clubs between 3rd and 8th going into the playoffs. So this isn't going to be a short-term stint, I won't be winning the Champions League within a couple of seasons! The first aim is to get promoted and I do feel we can do that this season. From there we need to stabilise the club in Serie A and then, hopefully within 5 seasons be pushing for those Champions League spots. The club does need some improvements, firstly we need to make sure we own our ground, we are currently renting it for £300k per year! The facilities also need improving, I expected a club the size of Sampdoria to have a better setup than this. Poor training facilities is terrible so once we are promoted that needs major improvements, as does the youth recruitment and junior coaching, I really do love bringing through my own youngsters. Now to the playing squad and overall it doesn't look too bad, we just have too many players! Good depth in all areas, here are who I think will be my key men. Javairo Dilrosun - Winger The highest rated player in the squad, signed from Feyenoord in the Summer of 2026 on a free transfer, an absolute steal and someone who can really make the different on the pitch. Yan Eteki - Midfielder Another Summer signing, Eteki came in from Hellas Verona for £775k, a top quality midfielder. Giacomo Moscardini - Winger This lad came through the youth intake in 2024 and is our highest rated youngster, he has pace to burn and looks a really exciting prospect. A lad I want to give more game-time to for the rest of this season. I will talk about more of the players at the end of the current season. Now for the tactic, I won't lie I'm not great at creating tactics but I plan to try my hardest to create my own one throughout this save. With some of our best players being wide men it pays to have a tactic where we make the most of this, we also have a squad high on work rate and teamwork so I plan to play high-intensity football, especially in a league where I feel we are better than most. High-intensity to me say I should be basing on gegenpress so that's the style I want to try out and with decent wide men and solid midfielders it seems the right plan to play 41221. I've taken the base gegenpress and altered some of the roles so suit my players but also use the roles that I think fit best. I always like to balance the roles between support and attack, hence why on the right we have a WB (s) and a IF (a) and on the left we have a WB (a) and an IW (s). In midfield I love the Mezzala role and always feel it fits well alongside a CM on attack. I'm sure this will change as the season goes along but for now this is what I plan to deploy. Finally the expectations, I do feel like the boars have gone easy on me this season and just expect a mid-table finish, I hope we will end much higher than that! The 5-year plan expects us to gain promotion to Serie A next season and then to remain there. The next post will come at the end of the season where I will look through the results, the finances and how the players and tactic have faired. Thanks for reading.

Well the last save did not go as I hoped, after a little break I'm back and this save will be updated on here and on the my blog. So here we are, a new FM series, I have really struggled this year for a big, long, enjoyable save but after a month or so off and lots of soul-searching I think it's time to rekindle my FM love for playing and writing and that starts today with "The Nearly Men". Some may remember me doing something similar for FM21, in that version I did "The Ultimate Nearly Men", an expanded version of a challenge I found on the SI Forums from the talented writer that is @ManUtd1(on SI) or FMCheapSeats as you may know him on Twitter/Blogs. Unfortunately Ian has left the FM scene and I miss him dearly but this challenge still resonates with me and now it's time to take on the proper version of "The Nearly Men". The challenge itself is pretty self-explanatory, win the UEFA Champions League with teams that have never won it but lost in the final, hence the "Nearly Men" title, they came so close but ultimately failed to claim the title. These are the 19 teams that have come so close to lifting Europe's ultimate crown but failed at the last hurdle, some big names there but also some lesser known teams. A big challenge ahead but you know I love a challenge! Another thing to note is the above list is ever-changing, if one of those clubs wins the Champions League in the save (with or without me in charge) they will be taken off the list and if another club gets to their first final and loses they will be added to the list. In Ian's attempt at this challenge he has always simmed a few seasons ahead to see if the football landscape changes in any way and for my save I have done the same. I have simmed 3 seasons into the future to see if anything has changed, unfortunately not much has! Champions League 23/24 Season It was again so close for one of the nearly men as Arsenal lost a tight final against Real Madrid. 24/25 Season Another season where one of those teams on the list lost, PSG throwing away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 against oil-rich Manchester City 25/26 Season Poor old PSG!!! A second straight season where they lost from being ahead, this time against Real Madrid. So 3 seasons and no changes to the list! In other news there have been some huge transfer dealing over those 3 seasons. Saudi teams once again doing some of the biggest deals! Looking over the European leagues nothing of any interest has happened, Man City have won every Premier League, Bayern every Bundesliga, PSG every Ligue 1 title and in Spain it's been Real Madrid and Barcelona claiming the La Liga crowns. I also always love looking over managerial changes and there have been some big moves in the Premier League. Mike Arteta was sacked by Arsenal mid-way through last season, replaced by Sérgio Conceição who had moved from Porto to spend 18 months at Newcastle before the move to the Emirates. Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs have also changed managers but the Manchester duo both still have Pep and Ten Hag in charge. It's also fun to see Mowbray at Forest, Russell Martin is at Spurs and Poch is at Burnley!!! Now it's time to find a new club, I have started unemployed so am now awaiting a job opening, it's currently the 1st July 2026, hopefully a job will come up before the season starts. Thanks for reading.

Its called SAS

May 2024 + EOS Review Well we didn't lose but we really needed to win another match. Dortmund won their final three games meaning they overtook us into 4th, dropping us into the Europa League spots. Still a good season overall, we over exceeded expectations, in the end we just didn't have the squad to challenge the big boys above us. As you can see only two players averaged over 7 for the season and one of those was my backup keeper who played 7 times. We really need to a) shrink the squad down and b) bring in better quality in all areas. Juranovic, the only outfield player who averaged over 7 ends as the clubs player of the year. Striker Vertessen ends as the clubs young player of the season. Kevin Volland ends as the clubs top scorer Financially we end the season with £20m in the bank, a profit season on season of £62m, helped massively by the £58m prize money for our Bundesliga finish. And because of where our finances are the board have given me OK budgets, a £50k per week rise in the wage budget and just over £20m in the transfer kitty. A good first season, now the hard work begins, I'd love to win the Europa League next season, attempt to win the German Cup and hopefully finish in the top 4 in the league.

April 2024 What an odd month Two really good wins and two terrible defeats. That Bayern win though will live long in the memory. Three games left, still in pole position and we have winnable games left

2024 Youth Intake We were predicted a decent intake and we have been handed three top quality kids who all look like they could be stars. Joseph Mboyo is the elite talent of the bunch and my word he looks amazing. For a Striker he has it all, good finishing, dribbling and first touch and much more. Kenan Emini also looks really good, a tall left-winger, he does need some work on his physicals though. Timo Bremser is the third player, he can play on the right-wing or as an attacking midfielder. He has good pace and acceleration alongside some really good techncials for a 16-year old. # The future is bright!

March 2024 Bar one game it's been a very boring month. Those two 0-0s have really set us back. It's now very tight in the race for top 4, 7 games to go and it's a 4-horse race.

February 2024 Overall a decent month, unfortunately though we lost in the Europa League, disappointing as I expected us to go far. It's now all down to the league, still on for a top 4 spot! 2 clear of Dortmund, 11 games to play, it's going to be an interesting final few months.

January 2024 Firstly a transfer, we were really short of wide-men so I spent my whole budget on one player. Alvaro Fidalgo joins from Club America for £6.5m, he can also play in central midfielder and versatility is key at the moment And results have also started picking up, we end the month with one of our best performances of the season so far That 7 points means we cement our place in the top 4, a nice little gap to 5th as well

December 2023 A solid month, we seem to be slowly beginning to play better Into the top 4 as well! In the Champions League we ended 3rd in our group meaning a spot in the Europa League knockouts Where we will face Sporting Lisbon Finally, we have the intake preview and it's looking good for attacking midfielders!

November 2023 A month that started and ended poorly but overall things are improving. We're over a third of the way through the season and we still sit in 5th place, not bad seeing as we really haven't played that well The bad news is our Champions League campaign is over already, a game to go, I think we have third sewn up as our we have gained 4 points from Zagreb and therefore have the better head-to-head. That mean we'll drop to the Europa League.

October 2023 A tough month but ended with a good win, especially as we had ten men for most of the second half We were beating Dortmund but collapsed, the two draws as well weren't great but at least we've stopped shipping tonnes of goals. Somehow we're still 5th! Can't grumble with that.

September 2023 Not a great month, too many goals shipped and the games we should be winning we are cocking up! A nice win to end the month though, stopping the rot and gaining a clean sheet! 5th is still go though

2023/24 Champions League Draw Well it could've been worse! Man City will be tough, Porto is a game we may have a chance in and Zagreb we should win. I'd be really annoyed if we didn't get 3rd, 2nd may be a serious possibility!

August 2023 The opening month is down, only three games but so far so good. Both league games though were not great defensively, behind in both matches, we somehow clawed ourselves back to claim 3-2 wins! Big injury news is that Gosens in our for 3-4 months, really frustrating as he's started well. As expected there were no signings, no sales as well. Now we await the Champions League draw.

Reserved for history

I've been trying really hard to work out a new save after the demise of the Build a Nation save and eventually I've decided on what that will be. Everyone knows the Glory Hunter save after it was created by Dr Brenjy, well I want to take that challenge and made it even longer! So instead of there being five nations to win the League and Cup, I'm doubling that to ten! The 10 nations will be: England Scotland Spain Italy France Germany Netherlands Portugal Belgium Türkiye Basically the top 10 nations in the co-efficient ranking as per the UEFA website (Scotland and Czechia are level on points so I went with Scotland!) The aim is to win the League and Cup in all 10 nations alongside the 3 UEFA Continental Competitions (Champions League, Europa League and Europe Conference League). There is also an international element to the Glory Hunter save, I need to win the World Cup and European Championships Now the time limit for the original Glory Hunter is 20 seasons, as there are double the amount of nations I will double the amount of time so I have 40 seasons to win it all! I am really excited to get this going and have spent a good while working out what team to start with. I didn't want to start low down the leagues and I wanted to make sure I started with a team in a European competition, on the flip side I didn't want to start with a team expected to win everything, i.e Man City/PSG, etc. So after some deliberation I have decided to start in Germany with...... Union Berlin!! The reasons? Well they ticked all the boxes, after an amazing season in 22/23 they qualified for the 23/24 Champions League, massively overachieving. They are predicted this season to end 6th so lots of hard work ahead to push the big boys of Germany. We also have a very small transfer budget to try and improve the squad ready for the Champions League! Facility wise it's also pretty poor for a team expected to end high up the Bundesliga table, we need to get the facilities improved and quick but to do that we need to bring in money whilst trying to create a better squad, tough work in the short-term! It's nice to see the board planning on expanding the stadium at some point. The expectations are also pretty low which is good for me! The supporters also expect a top-half finish in the league, I also need to make sure I beat Hertha Berlin! Squad-wise we have a decent team by the looks of the Best XI. We have a healthy amount of players in the first-team, a few players out on loan but no-one that's going to be a game-changer this season. Below are who I think are our three best players. Firstly is full-back Josip Juranovic, a Croatian international, naturally a right-back but can play easily on the left if needed. I like the fact he has really corner and free-kick taking. Another top quality full-back here, Robin Gosens who plays for Belgium looks top quality at left-back, he can also play further forward if needed. Finally is central defender Danilho Doekhi, tall, strong, good in the air, everything you want in a centre back. We also have a raft of decent players in the youth team. I seem to be picking all defenders here! One of the players I like the look of the most if CB Oluwasuen Ogbemudia, only 16 but already 6'3"!!!! He is going to be incredible! The highest rated prospect is midfielder Aljoscha Kelein, for this season he is out on loan at St Pauli but next season he will be straight into the first-team. A really exciting squad, which is helpful as we have very little to spend! We seem to have sufficient depth in all areas so I won't be actively looking to sign anyone before the season starts, if someone leaves that may change but let's hope we can keep hold of our key men. Aims for this season are to try and qualify for Europe again, that means a top 7 finish. It would be nice to get out of the Group Stage of the Champions League, even if that's in third which, for this season at least, drops us into the Europa League.

Just want to apologise for lack of updates with this save. Unfortunately my laptop threw a wobbly and I have to perform a system restore, I usually upload my saves to the cloud but didn't get the chance as I couldn't log in to sort it out. Massive apologies as I know a few people were enjoying the save. Lesson learnt and I shall be keeping my saves on dropbox from now, it's something I've always done but maybe I was a little too complacent. I may start a new save at some point an d write updates on the forum, if people are interested of course.

Decided, for one final FM24 fling, to give this a go. Wish me luck!

Life After Hibs! I've been trying to work out how to write this next update up and eventually think I've worked it out, it'll be very short! I left Hibs at the end of the 2048 season, no jobs came up for a while but eventually on Christmas Day the offer came that I wanted and that was with Rangers. The club were struggling in 7th place in the league, we had very little money but a decent squad. After a good end to the season we managed to end 3rd, qualifying for the Champions League We didn't win a trophy but did get to the semis of the Europa League. The big news you can see above is we got 5 teams in the Champions League for the 49/50 season as Scotland ended 2nd in co-efficient rankings for this season, 8 teams in Europe as a whole. So the Summer came and went, I sold, I brought and overall I was happy with the squad. I then made a monumental error!!!!! This is something I did at Hibs and Barry a few times, make a board request, they say no, I leak to the press and say how angry I am, the board them caves in and I get what I want.........not this time though! I asked for new youth facilities and when I replied to the press question I was sacked! So a short time at Rangers, less than 12 months!!!! Scotland now sit 2nd in the rankings though, way behind England however. I am unsure where to go next, my initial though is maybe return to Wales with someone else to see if I can get them back up the co-efficient rankings, they are currently down to 11th and at the moment will drop below Ireland next season!

2047/48 Season My fourth season at tycoon-owned Hibernian and another incredible season! Total domination in the league, less points than the season before but towards the end I played the kids and we lost a few times. We also lifted the Scottish Cup, beating Celtic on penalties. But this period at Hibernian will only be successful if we do one thing and that's win the Champions League, runners-up in 2046, Quarters last season, could we actually lift the trophy? For me this season was the one, I had built a ridiculously good squad, a squad fit to challenge Europe's elite, I had sold a few players during the Summer but the players I brought in had definitely improved the side. An insane profit!!!! So could we do it? Well it was one hell of a run as we got all the way to final once again. Wins over Juve, Real Madrid, and Roma in the League Phase and we ended in the top 8. We then got PSG in the Last 16, a tough tie and after losing the first leg we had an uphill task in the home leg but turned it around in style to go through 4-3 on aggregate. Dortmund were then dispatched in the Quarters before we scraped past Inter Milan in the Semis on penalties. So a second final in 3 years and this time we faced Liverpool. A tough ask but I had confidence we could win. The game was tight and tense but we had the better of the chances, half time and it was 0-0, could anyone find the breakthrough, yes they could, mid-way through the second half we broke, Davies found Csuzz who drove into the box and slammed it past the Liverpool keeper, now could we hang on? Liverpool didn't make many chances and we defended really well, the whistle blew and we had done it!!!!! CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! An absolutely incredible season! And that Champions League win alongside decent runs by the other Scottish teams in the other European competitions means we will go up to 4th next season, this means 4 spots in the League Phase of the Champions League next season, and looking at it we may eve rise to 2nd the season after! Also because we ended 2nd in the season co-efficient ranking we get a 3rd team in the League Phase of the Champions League next season. Absolutely no idea though how we're going to catch England! Now the players, firstly here is the whole Champions League winning squad. And here is the seasons best XI The first player I want to speak about is an academy player who has got some game time this season. Striker Dalziel has been brilliant when he's played, mainly in the domestic competitions, he ended with 14 goals in 20 starts, not bad for 17-year old! He also ended first in the NxGN awards, just look how many players we had in the top 50! 3 in the top 6! The best player this season by miles was Striker Osvaldo Franco, he ends as the Premiership and club player of the season and top scorer in the League with 24 goals in 18 starts The other player who came to the fore this season was Right Back Frank van Breukelen, would you believe I signed him for nothing in the Summer of 2047!!! This lad joined on a pre-contract and has been stunning! A great season, I could talk about so many players but I'd be here forever if I did! Now I have to work out what I do from here! Do I stay and try and retain the Champions League? Do I move to another Scottish team and try and progress them in Europe? Or do I move to Ireland or Northern Ireland? I won't lie I have no idea which way to go. I'd love to take Scotland to above England in the rankings but I know how hard that is, I tried in a previous save and never got close and as you'll see from the co-efficient screenshot previously we ended nearly 4 points behind England and that's with us winning the Champions League. I think, for now, I'll stay at Hibs and see what happens, winning the Champions League again would be amazing but if a job pops up that takes my eye I'll probably resign and go for it. Hibs are well set to continue to do well in Europe with or without me in charge but the likes of Aberdeen, Celtic, Rangers, Dundee United, Hearts and Ross County have all had decent runs in Europe over the past few seasons but fell short, usually in the Quarters or Semis, if one of those jobs came up I think I'd jump at the chance!

Thanks for commenting, the blog has been dead for over a year now. I've played numerous saves on FM24. just not on the blog, this save is the first one I've properly enjoyed. Hands are a lot better thanks, writing on here, in short bursts is really helping

2046/47 Season I actually had this season and the previous one completed over a week ago but due to lack of interest I didn't feel like writing them up, since getting a really nice comment and some new followers it's given me new incentive to post them, hence why there's 2 seasons on here within 24 hours of each other! It was another really good season domestically as we absolutely dominated the Premiership We equalled the record for most points in a season and ended with a goal difference of over 100!!! Absolutely insane! We also lifted the Scottish Cup beating Celtic 1-0. After last seasons heroics in the Champions League where we got to the final before losing to AC Milan I expected more of the same, unfortunately it wasn't to be as good as that but we still did really well. Some great wins in the League Phase, we ended in the top 8 meaning we went straight into the Last 16 where we faced Celtic, we drew the first leg but smashed them in the home tie. We then faced Bayern in the Quarters and just didn't show up, we lost the away leg before a poor 1-1 draw in the home game, an early exit but I do feel we're heading in the right direction. Transfer wise it was another busy season, not as busy but still lots in and lots out! A huge profit as well! I actually made a couple of stunning free transfer signings, both Ahonen (CM) and van Breukelen (RB) were signed on big wages but massive players for another European push. I also went back to Barry and stole one of their best prospects, Sean Davies joined for £15.75m, the improvement in him since I left has been brilliant. Here is the Best Xi for the season Left Back Luiz Eduardo was one of best performers this season, signed in the previous Summer he has been sensational down the left in a narrow diamond with 15 assists in 38 starts. Mads Andreasen was brought in after Marincic decided to move on, he ends as the clubs top scorer with 26 goals in 32 starts. Another great season and now I'm caught up, the next season is going to be huge, with a big push in Europe we could move into the top 4 in the co-efficient rankings meaning 4 Champions League proper spots! That would be massive! We have lots of spend but as ever our squad is max-ed out with players so I'll need to sell before I can buy.

2045/46 Season It's been another busy busy season with lots of players in and out. The best player in from that list has to be Goalkeeper Jadon Silva, a really cheap fee for a cracking keeper. In the league we eased to a second straight title. Celtic actually kept up with us most of the way but they never caught us up. We also won both the domestic cup competitions. In the League Cup we took time to get going but 3 second half goals sealed a 3-0 win over Aberdeen. And in the Scottish Cup final it was second half goals again which sealed a 3-1 win over Motherwell. But it was the Champions League where things went absolutely mental, I knew we had a good team but a team good enough to win it? I'm not sure! What happened next though will live long in the memory. Just look at that run and some of the teams we beat. Dortmund 3-1, PSG 2-0, Chelsea 3-1, Man City FIVE NIL!!!!!! In the knockouts we got past Benfica before an incredible turnaround against Chelsea in the Quarters where we lost the first leg 3-1 but absolutely demolishing them 5-0 in the second leg. Then came Man United in the Semis, a 3-2 win at Old Trafford before a 3-1 win and we were into the final!!!! Where we faced Milan, surely we couldn't win the Champions League in only my second season in charge?! Well no we didn't! It was a terrible game with very few chances, AC grabbed 2 goals before half time and our race was run, we did score in injury time but we lost 2-1! Not a bad run though! An amazing journey and it's not finished yet! In ground news we have agreed an expansion with the chairman, an increase of around 6k seats. Budget-wise the tycoon owner continues to pump the money in, will I spend it? Who knows but with the squad max-ed out we need to sell before we can buy. Now to the youth intake and it was another belter with 2 quality players coming in. Defensive Midfield Connor Mitchell looks really good, he needs some work on his physicals but those mentals are top notch, he'll go out on loan next season to get some game-time. Striker Finlay Dalziel is the best of the bunch, I won't lie I am very VERY excited for this lad! Again his physicals need work but he has good finishing and his mentals are really good. Finally a look over our key men this season, firstly here is our best XI. Academy star Scott Adams ends as the club and Premiership young player of the season., 15 goals and 20 assists over the season and he also received his first Scotland cap. Player of the season went to last seasons signing David Marincic, a wanted man and he may end up leaving if the price is right. Still an amazing season for the lad with 37 goal contributions in 44 starts. Finally, the top scorer was Osvaldo Franco, my word this lad is incredible!!! 41 start, 30 goals and 17 assists, not bad for £10.75m!!! Overall a great season, to get to the Champions League final was insane but it was gutting to fall just short, it's given me hope though, with a few more top quality signing I really do feel we can lift Europe,s major trophy sooner rather than later

Thanks so much for your comment. I did sign one player from Barry but he wasn't great. There aren't really anyone decent enough to come in, at the moment, a couple of the kids are decent but currently they won't speak to me!