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I just wanted to make one last post before moving definitively to the Schalke story Name Position Apps Goals Seasons Club Bruno Luís GK 82 0 29-30/31-33 Marseille Tomás Jofré RB 125 1 29-30/31-33 Marseille Andrei Nagy CB 223 10 26-30/31-33 Marseille Luís Ferreira CB 121 11 22-26 Sertanense Giuseppe Pezzella LB 153 1 26-30 Marseille Lovro Zvonarek CM 168 14 28-30/31-33 Marseille Kanya Fujimoto CM 135 21 26-30 Marseille Ludovit Reis DM 133 7 26-30 Marseille Mettin Vormer RW 166 25 27-30/31-33 Marseille Karim Daoud LW 203 74 27-30/31-33 Marseille Maximilian Beier ST/LW 270 193 26-30/31-33 Marseille My most used 11 throughout the save. Notable mention to Max Beier. Brilliant either on the wing or upfront. Almost 300 games played with me and almost 200 goals. Also a shout to Luís Ferreira, still from the Sertanense days, the only one left. And the full list of centurions: Name Position Apps Goals Seasons Club Maximilian Beier ST/LW 270 193 26-30/31-33 Marseille Andrei Nagy CB 223 10 26-30/31-33 Marseille Karim Daoud LW 203 74 27-30/31-33 Marseille Lovro Zvonarek CM 168 14 28-30/31-33 Marseille Mettin Vormer RW 166 25 27-30/31-33 Marseille Giuseppe Pezzella LB 153 1 26-30 Marseille Kanya Fujimoto CM 135 21 26-30 Marseille Ludovit Reis DM 133 7 26-30 Marseille Mohamed Karamoko ST 129 97 22-26 Sertanense Lazar Samardzic CM/RW 129 26 29-30/31-33 Marseille Tomás Jofré RB 125 1 29-30/31-33 Marseille Luís Ferreira CB 121 11 22-26 Sertanense Cesare Casadei DM/CM 121 26 29-30/31-33 Marseille Allan Saint-Maximin RW 119 12 26-30 Marseille Benoit Badiashile CB 119 19 27-31 Marseille/Liverpool Denilson LW 117 21 22-26 Sertanense About Sertanense: They just ended another season in the 1st tier of Portuguese football. The transition was steep, but I'm certain I've built a platform for a new future. And what about Liverpool, you ask: 12th... I was sacked after finishing 6th on 66 points, then they got 6th on 59 points and now only 48 points. They have a young core, and I'm pretty sure they would eventually turn it around. The summary for the whole career: Season Year Club League Position Cup Stage CC Stage League PPG League Win % League GF League GA 01 2022/2023 Sertanense PT4 1st TdP First Round DNP - 2,27 69% 70 32 02 2023/2024 Sertanense PT3 3rd TdP Sixth Round DNP - 1,56 44% 33 26 03 2024/2025 Sertanense PT2 3rd TdP Third Round DNP - 1,76 50% 59 36 04 2025/2026 Sertanense PT1 9th TdP Third Round DNP - 1,29 35% 46 50 05 2026/2027 Marseille FR1 3rd CdF Third Round UEL SF 1,79 50% 70 37 06 2027/2028 Marseille FR1 3rd CdF Finalist UCL QF 2,06 62% 82 30 07 2028/2029 Marseille FR1 1st CdF 11th Round UCL R16 2,38 76% 84 19 08 2029/2030 Marseille FR1 1st CdF Winner UCL QF 2,41 74% 86 26 09 2030/2031 Liverpool EN1 6th FA Finalist UCL QF 1,74 50% 62 36 10 2031/2032 Marseille FR1 1st CdF Winner UCL Winner 2,44 79% 104 32 11 2032/2033 Marseille FR1 1st CdF Winner UCL QF 2,71 85% 104 20 Season Year Club Most Goals Most Assists Most POM Highest AvR 01 2022/2023 Sertanense Karamoko – 31 Quaresma – 9 Karamoko – 8 Kisley – 7,42 02 2023/2024 Sertanense Karamoko – 23 P Mendes – 10 Karamoko – 5 L Madeira – 7,26 03 2024/2025 Sertanense Karamoko – 21 Miccoli – 8 Karamoko – 7 Karamoko – 7,10 04 2025/2026 Sertanense Karamoko – 22 Costinha – 9 Costinha – 4 Karamoko – 7,02 05 2026/2027 Marseille Beier – 30 A Harit – 12 Beier – 10 Beier – 7,34 06 2027/2028 Marseille Beier – 41 A Güler – 17 Beier – 9 Beier – 7,38 07 2028/2029 Marseille Beier – 39 M Vormer – 18 Beier – 11 Beier – 7,53 08 2029/2030 Marseille Beier – 45 L Samardzic – 15 Beier – 14 Beier – 7,55 09 2030/2031 Liverpool Darwin – 19 Harvey Elliot – 9 Harvey Elliot – 4 Darwin – 7,19 10 2031/2032 Marseille Rahbek – 48 L Zvonarek – 21 Rahbek – 14 Rahbek – 7,66 11 2032/2033 Marseille Podstawski – 35 L Samardzic – 21 Podstawski – 12 Podstawski – 7,69 Season Year Club Income Expenditure Profit Avg Attendance 01 2022/2023 Sertanense 1 353 447 € 1 411 118 € -57 671 € 662 02 2023/2024 Sertanense 1 485 040 € 1 942 059 € -457 019 € 1266 03 2024/2025 Sertanense 9 730 336 € 11 047 343 € -1 317 007 € 1876 04 2025/2026 Sertanense 6 747 649 € 7 290 128 € -542 479 € 5296 05 2026/2027 Marseille 269 469 620 € 252 138 019 € 17 331 601 € 56937 06 2027/2028 Marseille 424 402 996 € 360 698 906 € 63 704 090 € 62557 07 2028/2029 Marseille 442 381 644 € 431 762 494 € 10 619 150 € 61342 08 2029/2030 Marseille 461 276 053 € 434 403 627 € 26 872 426 € 63857 09 2030/2031 Liverpool 628 881 818 € 862 201 336 € -233 319 518 € 59498 10 2031/2032 Marseille 625 930 864 € 569 231 477 € 56 699 387 € 64334 11 2032/2033 Marseille 686 549 110 € 510 786 739 € 175 762 371 € 65692 10% increase in income in the last 2 seasons, 10% drop in expenditure, a ratio of 0.10 for profit to expenditure in the 31/32 and 0.34 for the last season. Thanks for following! See you all in Gelsenkirchen!

Thanks! Surely will. Don't know where he will play as he's an option for many positions, but he'll get some playing time and develop. Our financial situation makes him an easy target, and I'm afraid I won't be able to keep him too long, but we'll see. Thanks! Hope I don't do that. But, it didn't start very well. JULY MATCHES Out of the Cup... First disappointment. Although we played quite well and deserved another result what matters is the final score and we let 2 in against a 2nd tier side, so we need to do better. SQUAD Earlier, when I discussed my squad value, it all amounted to 149M, now the values have been updated (I believe thanks to the better bank balance) and all players now add up to 232M although a big part of it is from loanees (around 100M...) I'm also trying to solve the quantity/quality problem. He's already set to leave on a free, 30 and he's not a starter either at CB or LB. We get rid of his wage, so one less problem. He has potential, so I let him play more regularly than here. We keep 2 players who can play RB in our ranks. Then it's Latza: He isn't great, 32, was mad about not being captain (balanced personality and 12 determination is not captain material to me), and with a ridiculous wage for our situation. He's listed and we are waiting offers on him. Coming in, we have a beast of a player: Mousa Dembélé. Still has balance and strength, decent mental and pretty good technical attributes. For 30k/month there isn't much to lose and he's a very valuable choice in our midfield. STAFF We added Joris Mathijsen as DoF as we didn't have anyone in that role. Knows the league/country, he is known in the business and has a resolute personality. He was at Willem II as a Technical Director. Not necessarily someone who I think of for the long term, but someone who can help know.

SQUAD Once again, unless we can offload some players we won't be getting anyone right now. These are only the 22 first options. We have some more players in the squad. Noticed I didn't insert the substitute GK. It's Michael Langer, an experienced player. And we are already producing some magic Beautiful intricate play against Twente. Polter dropping to link, all 3 midfielders connecting and Zalazar and Polter attacking the space. Love it! STAFF I managed to sign the same 3 guys I had signed before, and now I've added a fitness coach and a sports scientist. The fitness coach is Paco de Miguel. He's been at Valencia, Liverpool, Inter, Chelsea, Napoli, Real Madrid, Newcastle and Everton. You probably have guessed it, he is part of Rafa Benitez's team. I'm happy to have such an experienced coach on board. The sports scientist I'm not that happy about, but there weren't any better options available at this time [that we know of], so we'll keep the place open until some more options appear. We can still sign 1 more for that role, so later I'll give this another go.

I always keep 4-5 youngsters around. In this case, I don't think I'll need it as the loans and people I can't offload are just too many so the squad is naturally big (at least bigger than what I like). Still, Ouédraogo (CM), Keke Topp (ST), Hadzha (DM/CB) and Podlech (GK) will be in the first team with availability to play in the U19 / II Team. Working on staff as we speak.

Famous last words :P Thanks! In my case, I'm already on the first tier, I just want to to be there still next season. In the meantime, I noticed I had those files that prevented the German national team from having real players, so I restarted the save. Luckily I was only a month into the save and I could almost redo everything. But I'll post the update tomorrow.

He was comfortable on the ball but it was an exception when he ventured forward. The most difficult to replicate in FM are both DM/CM and both CAM/Wingers. The dynamic is a mix of many roles with specific movements. I would say, you have the roles right with DLP/VOL, but you need a very physical player in both roles. In a way transform the roles with the players, if it makes sense. About the wrong-footed winger, I tried it with Lazar Samardzic as a RW and I loved the result. He would go 1-1 from wide positions, but then come inside and play that cross/through ball. I have never tried with the WBs so don't know if it works the same way.

Brilliant! Burnley's form in the last games was terrible. There's a real chance!

FIRST STEPS STAFF We put out some adverts and got quite a few responses. Sand was a former Schalke player and an Icon, so it made sense to bring him in. Tiago (former At. Madrid player) will also help us with the technical training. Looks better now, but I'm still looking for one more general coach and a fitness coach. There's also a new physio, but we still don't have a sports scientist. TRANSFERS Other clubs know our situation so they low-ball our players. In spite of that, we are loaning out some youngsters to lose the cost of some wages and Fährmann was the first from our A-Squad to go. 34, worse than the other GK, we still have a decent backup and 2 high-potential prospects. Our wages are now below 3M/month. [correction to the previous post: our wage budget was 3,5M, but we were spending 3,2M). That's around 2,5M below for the whole year. It's a start. No transfers in before we let more people go. TACTICS Play through the flanks and cross to the target man. Tackle hard and press high. Simple. No need to rush as we don't have much pace in the team. I'm not happy with the squad, but that's what we have right now. I will try to sign someone on loan, although we already have too many loanees, but it's the only way to improve the squad right now. Also, I can't terminate loans at this point. FINANCES We had a balance of negative 117M and a loan of 184M already in place. Now we have another loan of 98M. Together, we are paying the banks 1M/month. At least the balance now is only 19M in the red so it looks better at first sight.

I can talk about Amorim, as I like watching Sporting play (not a fan of the team, though). He does play a 5-2-3 / 3-4-3 / 3-2-5. Coates didn't venture forward much. Only in goal kicks, would he sometimes make a diamond with the other 2 CBs and the GK. Amorim changes it depending on how the opposition presses. Sometimes it's Morita/Hjulmand in that role or even both when they start with 1+2+2. Against Porto in the Supercup it looked more like a 4-4-2, though. With Eduardo Quaresma as the FB and Quenda as the RM (watch him, he's great), it might just have been another adaptation to fit the opposition. In the last game against Rio Ave, the positional map shows the 3-4-3: The guys that play behind the striker are difficult to adapt to FM. They are almost Trequartistas in the sense that they have the freedom to roam, sometimes shadow strikers (last year with Paulinho, this year with Rodrigo Ribeiro, especially), he has also used Mateus Fernandes who is usually sort of DLP. They defend on the wing mostly. Sometimes one on the wing and the other stays upfront. In the middle, it's usually a defensive-minded BWM-like (Palhinha/Hjulmand) and an engine/progressor (Matheus Nunes - through dribble; Morita - through pass) - probably a B2B/RPM/SV (it's difficult to pinpoint one exact role). The WBs are wingers. 1v1 / offensive players (Catamo, Nuno Santos, Quenda, Porro, Nuno Mendes). This season and the last he used a left-footed player on the right. I think it's not a very planned decision, but an answer based on the squad he has available.

The February struggle is real. The other teams see you as a threat now. 4 points from third is still pretty good. Good luck for the next matches!

After my last journey saw me facing a PSG dominance, I faced questions about my new adventure. These were my doubts: Legend among men, @warlock, planted the seed of starting a new save in a financially troubled team. I could add numbers 1 and 2 to the list, so I decided to search Germany for potential teams to manage. There were 3 candidates: 1. Munich 1860. They start in 3. Liga, are in a bit of financial trouble, but they are quite a good team for the league, so moving up seems not that hard at first sight. I would need to get promoted twice to get to the Bundesliga which would make the make longer than I wish. 2. Beginning with the last reason for not picking Munich 1860 was the exact same as why I didn't pick one of the newly promoted teams to the 3. Liga. It could have been a good idea for a long save, but not what I'm looking for right now. Oldenburg and Bayreuth were my favourite options. 3. Schalke 04. Over 100M in the red, quite a bad team when compared to the league standard, great youth facilities and already great prospects. Schalke it is. FINANCES 117M in the red, 3.5M in wages per month (more than 42M per year when we account for prizes and bonuses), 1M in transfer budget, 450k in scouting budget. My first thought here is I need to trim the squad as much as I can. I don't have data to know how much I need to drop the wage expenditure, but I'll go for "as much as I can without dropping the squad level". SQUAD 95 players under contract between 3 squads and loans. Breaking it down: 10 players out on loan; 12 players as regular starters or superior; 22 squad players or below; 51 prospects/youngsters. Out of those I have 9 loans in. By age: 43 U19; 12 Over 30; 40 between 20 and 29. The whole squad is valued at 149M if we could get the upper limit transfer value for each player. However, top 5 players are players loaned in, so not really our value (they amount to 55M). So squad value is in fact below 95M. About quality... No speed. No decision or anticipation and barely any teamwork. Below average in almost every technical attribute. On the upside, jumping, heading, strength, bravery, aggression. This will define our starting tactic. STAFF We will take time to develop this part. Which reminds me, I forgot to introduce my new persona: Jens Mustermann He might be familiar to some of you

I like that idea. I might as well do it in Germany and try to go for number 2 and as well try to focus on youth recruitment. There's the other Munich (1860), they are in debt but they are a big club so might be easy to overcome that; and obviously there's Schalke. High wages, enormous debt, great youth facilities, but a terrible team at the start. Or one of those promoted teams at the 3.Liga who almost has no balance to start with. I'll think about it.

I'm pretty happy with my accomplishments on this save: Promotion from Portuguese Tier 4 to Tier 1 with Sertanense Keeping Sertanense in the 1st tier after the 3 straight promotions In 3 seasons got my first League with Marseille, overcoming PSG Winning both League and Cup the season after Winning CL, League and Cup after coming back from a bad experience at Liverpool Over 13M€ in personal earnings Number one manager in France Overall 63% win percentage Selling 1 player over 100M Having multiple players valued over 100M Now, the question is: what is the next step? In my mind, there are 4 answers: 1. Stay here and try to win the league with academy-grown players 2. Move to Germany and try to break Bayern's domination [they are on 20 in a row] 3. Pick a financially insecure/in-debt team and try to turn it around and win a league [don't know if the game accepts this as they might not have the money to offer me a wage in line with my reputation] 4. Call it a day here and start a new save 5... Create a save point here and try 1 - 2 (maybe 3) seasons in all three options. If anyone wants to share his opinion on what I should do, go ahead.

So, the season has finally ended: We made it! The last game against Monaco was stressful. We didn't play to our best, they scored first then it was difficult to get back in the game, but we managed to still get a draw from it with a goal from the club legend Max Beier. [Meanwhile, I'm still in the favoured personnel... Yeah, thanks!] So that's how the league ended: Individually, Pods was brilliant. He has 22 goals and 9 POM out of 19 starts and 2 sub appearances. He's just 19 so I was rotating him with Miath who still ended as 3rd in goals with 17 out of 12 starting and 12 sub appearances. Offensively we dominated the charts. Note to Vini topping the team goals while being a sub. I'll put a big question mark about this one. But 1,34 /90 by Pods and 1,14 by Miath is mesmerizing. Note to Dani as well on the dribbles as he is a loanee. Also, a big compliment to Tejeda. Despite not having the quality to be more than a sub, he fits the position and always adds value. And once again, Beier. After being a top goalscorer in this league, now he also topped the charts on chances created and open-play key passes. Massive player! Both our GKs had many clean sheets. Bijol is a great defender. I'm sure Lukichev will be there when he plays CB for a full season. Jofré is great on the interceptions. The defensive phase is not really where we expect to have high numbers as a dominant team, but it's always nice to see some players near the top of the charts. Overall, a great season: Now the overall player stats: We have 4 players with 10g+10a: Krüger, Beier, Lazar, Daoud. Daoud made with less than 2000 minutes played (under 22 90s). Vormer needed 1 more goal, Pods needed 2 more assists to be part of this achievement. And a quick graph to show where players where over the average in my team: Vini is in the midfielders row for layout reasons, but he played more minutes as LB than as LW or CM. And just the starting 11 (based on most minutes):

Even if you don't get the promotion, the increase in reputation may give you a financial boost in sponsors and match tickets for the next season. You'll probably have to redo a big part of the squad because the reputation update might come after the budgets are set, but be optimistic. Either way, you'll get through it. Now, good luck with the last matches!

Quick update on the competitions: We were knocked out by Arsenal in the QF of the UCL. They have beaten us 4-1 at the Emirates and despite a big defensive performance (they had no shots on target and 0.08 xG), we only scored 2 at home... We won the league comfortably (we still have 2 games to play, but we have a 17-point margin). PSG were second; Rennes and Lorient will take 3rd and 4th. I will post pictures when all is finished. In the cup we had a tough game in the final against Lorient, letting them get an advantage at half-time with 2-1. In the second half, we showed our true colours and scored 2 more goals to win 3-2. After this win, I got the news that I'm now on the top of the Hall of Fame of Managers in France. Marseille has won the Cup 13 times, the record is 18 by PSG, so it's still a long way to go. In the league, Marseille has 13 titles to PSG's 16, so that one is closer.

Going back a few posts where I tried to build the squad with the solver in LibreOffice Calc, I've since worked on it and made it simpler. Now, instead of the complex algorithm, it's just a transport problem. It starts the same way, but now I want the sum of the count for each position to be 2 (4 for CBs); I've added a column for Homegrown (HG) status (+1 for nation; +2 for club); and the sum of positions each player can play in is between 0 and 1, naturally. Just showing the first few lines: ABILITY SK IWB CB WB DM CM MEZ W IF AF HG Mettin Vormer 30 71 63 69 73 74 76 78 77 77 0 Rainer Krüger 26 69 63 73 73 75 75 78 77 75 1 Ivan Podstawski 25 64 58 68 64 67 71 72 74 76 0 Vini 27 69 63 72 73 74 73 75 74 72 0 Ratings for every position ABILITY SK IWB CB WB DM CM MEZ W IF AF 22 Mettin Vormer 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 <= 1 Rainer Krüger 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 <= 1 Ivan Podstawski 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 <= 1 Vini 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 <= 1 The check for positions under or equal to 1 and the last column also serves for HG count. 1 580 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 16 = = = = = = = = = = >= 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 16 The first column is the sum-product of positions and the respective rating. Then I solved it for 3 conditions: HG >= 0; HG >= 12 (around 4 club; 4 nation); HG >= 16 (around 6 club; 4 nation) No HG restriction 1 591 HG>=12 1 588 -0,2% HG>=16 1 580 -0,7% The drop isn't that significant. I will try it next season, probably with even more than 16 due to some planned sales. This is the solver answer for HG = 16 SK IWB CB WB DM CM MEZ W IF AF Bruno Luís Tomás Jofré Alexandr Lukichev Fernando Vidal Nathaniel Opoku Vini Mettin Vormer Rainer Krüger Gérald Miath Ivan Podstawski Killian Beaurain Andrei Nagy Peter Sebek Lazar Samardžić Lovro Zvonarek Ourdy Kitoko Cesare Casadei Guilhem Thomas Kyllian Terrien Karim Daoud Jaka Bijol Jacobo Rivas The first change is Jaka who ends is contract this season; then Lazar might leave, if he doesn't he won't play as WB; Vidal also won't play as WB, most likely as IWB with Nagy moving to Jaka's vacant spot in the center. In the midfield, Zvonarek plays as CM and Vini will fill the LB spot from either Vidal or Lazar. Casadei has declared he wants out by the end of next season so I'll try and sell him right away. Krüger and Vormer switch; so do Miath and Daoud. Lazar will play MEZ if he stays. So with all these changes, it turns into this: SK IWB CB WB DM CM MEZ W IF AF Bruno Luís Tomás Jofré Alexandr Lukichev Vini Nathaniel Opoku Lovro Zvonarek Rainer Krüger Mettin Vormer Karim Daoud Ivan Podstawski Killian Beaurain Fernando Vidal Peter Sebek Ourdy Kitoko Lazar Samardžić Guilhem Thomas Kyllian Terrien Gérald Miath Andrei Nagy Jacobo Rivas WB and DM are vacant. Possibly Terrien will play as WB and Sueur gets the IF spot. That means 1 more club-HG player. As DM probably Jokic will keep his place. Iván or Igor Bruno are in contention. Neither of them adds points to HG. Decisions are to be made in the next season.

I checked some statistics, mainly where we were gaining and losing possession. Then I decided to dive a little into this. I chose 3 games against each of 442, 4231, 433 and 5212, the formations I face the most, then averaged it on gained possession per opposition touch on the right, middle and left; and also for lost possession for each touch in the three sides. First things, first: statistically, 3 games in a season isn't much, so unless it's a big difference, I'll just accept it's probably usual deviation for small numbers. Possession Gained per Opposition Touch vs 442 vs 4231 vs 433 vs 5212 Average GP R 0,18 0,13 0,14 0,22 0,17 GP M 0,22 0,18 0,16 0,21 0,19 GP L 0,18 0,12 0,14 0,12 0,14 It caught my eye that against 5212 we always gain more possession on the right than on the left which doesn't happen against other formations. I can't tell why that happens... The rest only gives me information that we are gaining more possession in the middle against all tactics. We should probably force it even more against 4231 since the difference between the middle and the sides is bigger there. Possession Lost per Touch vs 442 vs 4231 vs 433 vs 5212 Average LP R 0,18 0,15 0,17 0,16 0,17 LP M 0,12 0,12 0,11 0,13 0,12 LP L 0,16 0,17 0,17 0,17 0,17 The opposite happens when we look at possession loss. We are very secure in the middle which makes sense since our creative players/roles are wide. Name Playing Position Drb+OPKP Mettin Vormer RW 6,56 Lazar Samardžić RW 6,07 Maximilian Beier LW 5,65 Vini LB 5,55 Karim Daoud LW 5,54 Fernando Vidal RB 4,46 Rainer Krüger CM 4,36 Francisco Tejeda LB 3,25 Lovro Zvonarek CM 3,24 Tomás Jofré RB 3,12 Ivan Podstawski ST 3,07 Gérald Miath ST 2,93 Ourdy Kitoko CM 2,87 Cesare Casadei CM 2,69 El Kerim Jokić DM 2,34 Nathaniel Opoku DM 1,87 Alexandr Lukichev LB 1,54 Peter Sebek CB 0,83 Andrei Nagy CB 0,66 Jaka Bijol CB 0,26 Jacobo Rivas CB 0,18 Bruno Luís GK 0,07 Killian Beaurain GK 0,00

Congrats on the double! It's a big step now. Best of luck!

NXGN 2033 Great news for us! 9 players in the top 50 prospects. Pods, Kitoko and Rivas are part of the first team already. Pods - already my star striker, but can still develop a bit. If he gets better on his heading, first touch and long shots, he'll be world class. Kitoko - his dribbling hinders him in attack, and I'm thinking about letting him go on loan one season. If his pace and dribbling don't develop, I'll retrain him as DM. Rivas [needs a face, not in a mean way] - isn't being played many minutes and I prefer someone who can make a difference in aerial duels (he has top heading, but low jumping), will be thinking about let him go on loan next season. Terrien and Sueur are home-grown (as Kitoko) Terrien - I will retrain him as LB. Although his low tackling might be a problem, he's good on attack. He will also have to work on his personality. Sueur - will most likely be part of the squad next year, although his level is still a bit far from the desired Mateo, Luiz Henrique, Huberty and Dionisi will maybe find a place in the squad in 2/3 years. Mateo - still has a long way to go, but he fits the tactic way more than Miath. Luiz Henrique - has great physicals, but needs to get better on the technical and mental side of the game. Bijol will leave the team so there might be a place for him, although I'm thinking of Vini and Terrien as LB and moving Lukichev to CB. We'll see. Huberty - we got him very cheap (below 20k), hope he keeps developing. His versatility is great and he'll probably be Daoud's long-term replacement as LW/ST. Dionisi - we got him mostly as a cheap English player (he was in Colombia). He's the most distant from the squad, if we get a big offer from a Premier League club, we'll sell him.

Speaking of evolution and youth: we just had 8 players named in the U21 France team with 2 former players also called up [Dujardin and Bessala). Only 3 in the U19 seems a bit low, but 4 of the 8 called to the U21 could be playing in the U19 [Kitoko (CM, 17), Sueur (RW, 18), Charron (GK, 17) and Faye (GK, 16)]. We also got 3 players in the first team [Opoku, Daoud, Krüger]. When I started the job at Marseille only Guendouzi was considered at times. Opoku Daoud Krüger

A note on my improvement: The screenshot of my attributes from when I got my Continental Pro Licence badge [Season 27/28]: And this is now [Season 32/33] Improved Tactical Coaching and Mental; Determination and Youngster Knowledge. Greatly improved Player Knowledge. Topped Discipline, People Management and Motivating.

New Intake My HoYD report: And my spreadsheet: Name Best Pos Personality Age Best Position Positions BPR TR Pot BPR Pot TR Pers Yassine Nédélec AM (RL), ST (RL) Driven 15 DM DM 58 49 72 63 0 Colas Leonard D (C) Professional 15 FB FB CB 53 50 67 63 0 Francisco Pinheiro AM (RL), ST (RL) Fairly Professional 16 WF DM WF 54 47 67 59 0 Sylvain Karamoko ST (C) Fairly Determined 15 CM CM WF 49 45 64 59 0 Anas Saeed DM, M (C) Fairly Determined 15 DM DM 49 47 63 60 0 Jérémy Phaëton DM Fickle 15 DM DM 48 41 63 55 1 Anis Ngbokaye DM Fairly Determined 15 DM FB DM 48 45 62 59 0 Eduardo Agostinho DM, M (C) Balanced 16 DM DM 49 45 62 57 0 Jérémy Varane M/AM (RL), ST (RL) Unambitious 15 DM DM WF 47 40 62 54 1 Brian Tchoyi M/AM (RL), ST (RL) Fairly Ambitious 16 DM DM CM WF 49 45 61 57 0 Guillaume Labadie GK Light-Hearted 15 GK GK 47 27 61 41 0 Michel Diallo D (RL) Fairly Professional 15 CB CB 47 44 61 58 0 Emile Diallo M/AM (RL), ST (RL) Unambitious 15 WF WF ST 45 41 59 54 1 Sérgio Silva M/AM (RL), ST (RL) Fairly Loyal 15 DM DM WF 45 39 59 53 0 Sekou Darrieumerlou D (RL) Realist 16 DM FB CB DM 44 41 57 53 0 Alexis Ducos D (RL) Balanced 15 DM DM 42 38 56 52 0 Liam Hamilton M/AM (RL), ST (RL) Temperamental 15 WF WF 41 35 55 48 1 Nédélec and Colas are both top prospects for my staff and in my data so that must mean something. Also nice to see so many nationalities. Nédélec is higher rated as DM right now, but it's too early to say how he will develop. It should be noted, that there are too many players whose highest rated position is DM which will probably change as physical attributes develop in the next 3 years. Personalities are quite good. From the top 5 of my spreadsheet, all of them are positive. Comparing with the players I already have: Among the U17: Nédélec is already 11th best on BPR and 9th best on Potential BPR. Colas is 21st in BPR and 15th in Potential BPR. Francisco Pinheiro is 17th in BPR and also 17th in Potential BPR. Only counting the U16: Nédélec is 2nd best in both ratings Francisco and Colas are 6th and 7th in BPR; 5th and 7th in Potential BPR. I usually sign most of the players and check their development until they are 17, but Liam Hamilton and Emile Diallo probably won't sign. They are badly rated by both my staff and my data and they both have bad personalities. On the other side, Michel Diallo might be a good surprise. I like his stats: 12 crossing, 10 first touch, 14 technique. Might be the attacking wing-back I have been looking for for ages. Screenshots of the best: Nédélec Colas Francisco Michel Diallo

I haven't been much around, but it's always nice to see you have a new story to tell us. Good luck in Italy!

Thanks! Although, with the lack of quality in AI's squad building, the game gets easier as time passes. I keep playing this save only because I want to try some things and set some personal challenges (like using more youth products and domestic players). I've been in and out. I can't find the time to play and post regularly. I'll probably play a bit this afternoon but a post might come only next week or so.