kopsy101

Quick update, as i'm fuming right now. Won the league on 96 points, resting players after we'd won meant we dropped points after that. Won the FA cup final vs Spurs easily which meant getting my best players rested for the 2nd half so they're fresh for the CL final vs Real Madrid. Notification in my inbox. Endrick has broken his ribs in training and Nunez has an ankle injury. Both out for 4/5 weeks FML

Thanks pal, i'm glad you enjoy them as I enjoy writing them. Season 7 Update : Hitting the business end of the season and all is going rather smoothly, apart from being chucked out the League cup semi's by United. Darwin is on 45 goals in March, Endrick is on 30 odd and Musiala, Kvara, Elliot have really good numbers too so my big boys are flying. we're also on course to hit 101 points this season with 6 games to go, assuming we win them all. We're about 12 points ahead of our closest competitors, so the league is pretty much in the bag. I'm into the CL semi's with PSG in my way this year. They've obviously still got Mbappe, who else can afford his wages? But it looks like they've also recruited sensibly as they've got a brilliant team so this is a big one. After that, it's Real or City in the final, if I can overcome PSG. I've recalled 2 CM's for squad depth, both of which i'll post below when i'm on my laptop. This may be an area where i've gone wrong in the past as I like a relatively small squad where everybody plays. Naturally though, injuries play a part and that has made it difficult in the past seasons. Ironically, this year I've got no injuries at this point - Probably to do with the fact I'm able to rotate more?

Season 6 Yeah, another season, another CL failure. 2nd in the league to Arsenal due to an awful patch, and won both domestic trophies. Darwin was bloody excellent, but he kept getting niggles meaning he would miss big games and I think that contributed to the league failure. He still ended up with 24 league goals though. On the new season and transfer wise - Nothing much to report other than Diaby left for an £41Mil, which was a good return on a free transfer. Celleher left on a free after a number of years good service as our number 2. On the other hand, I've promoted couple of regens. Martins at LB and Rousselle (who was signed for £55mil a couple of seasons back) into the first team fold, to phase out some of the older players. Alexandre is going to replace Gomez, who leaves on a free, as backup CB. Beyond that, Rice and Bajcetic are CB cover. I've also got a backup keeper with 5* potential so he'll play the easy CL games and all cup games. Onto Season 7 I'm in Jan right now and I'm well clear in the lead. This season has been a dawdle so far, but I'm nowhere near the business end so irrelevant so far. Below is my current squad. Very sad that Darwin is now 29, but he's a club legend now. Endrick is well primed to eventually take over, particularly as he's now one of my few 5* players. Rousselle went from backup this season to cemented started. He's absolutely brilliant and will definitely only get better, according to my coach reports. another one who's on the verge of first choice is my CB Alexandre who's come on leaps and bounds this year. Konate is leaving on a free end of season anyway, as he wanted 400k a week. No thanks pal, you're 30 in 4 months. Anyway, a few ball skills to work on and plenty of development room to do so.

Well I was going a period where Tsimikas had gone for good money and my regen backup wasn't good enough yet so he covered all 4 of the defender positions. However, now my fullback options are all better than him so he's leaving at the end of season 6 on a free. I'll post my regens coming through once season 6 is over, unfortunately they have similar surnames (Martins/Martin) which is an annoyance. Funnily, having got rid of Diaz for £50m and Bellingham for £200m and only signed 3 regens for £18m combined, all of which have been papped out on loan, i'm having a decent season - Probably better than the last! 1st in the league, League cup winners, FA cup semi and CL quarters so far. I'm looking for a modest quadruple this year.

Didn't win, goodbye expensive laptop. Beaten 8-7 on aggregate by City (belter of a tie), some of the goals I conceded were so weird. Ended up coming 2nd in league, won the domestic cups and PSG won CL. Onto the next season, big changes coming. Early outgoing is Jude Bellingham for an initial £155m, rising to £200m. Something like £80m upfront, £75m over 2 years then £25m if he plays 10 games, 9m if he wins german cup, £6m if he wins CL and something else. He gets 10% of the fee though as per his contract, so maximum of £180m to me. I think he's brilliant, but his numbers weren't fantastic.

Oh and the regens on loan look decent, here's a summary of them :

Season 4 Just to finish off what I started, season 4 was frustrating. Won the league, papped out the cups early, but took Bayern to ET in the CL final only to be beaten again. Bayern in the CL final. Again. They have a banging team, with Leao, Fati, Saka, Camavinga etc. New signings did well, Diary exceeded expectations I think. Really hope the likes of Doak, Endrick and some of the regens can kick on next season. Season 5 Did a lot of scouting this season and have purchased heavily on really good young players. Rice was a total last minute buy, but the extra depth and quality has been much appreciated and needed. I'm almost at the end of the season and I've won the Carabao. I'm probably not gonna win the league as City are 7 points ahead with 7 games to go. I'm in the CL semi's against City and I'm in the FA cup final against United. Squad currently looks like this. If I can get past City, it's PSG or Wolfsburg in the final. I'll chuck my laptop out the window if I don't win it this season. Oh and Virgil is leaving at the end of the season. In good time too, he has really declined. I've got some decent CB regens but nothing beyond 3* apart from Konate, Gomez, Scalvini and Rice. I'm actually thinking about getting rid of a good 5/6 numbers this summer and really using my youngsters next season. That means the likes of Nunez, VVD, Robbo, Fabian, Diary, Allison, Diaz all getting punted gracefully for good money. Not sure yet, nervous to do it.

Glad it wasn't just me!

Cheers mate! Further season 4 update : Really busy January window. Wasn't really planning too much, but I got some more reasonable offers for players so who am I to do nothing about it? Firstly, an offer came in for just over £60m for Jota from Atletico, so I quickly secured a £125m deal for Endrick at Real Madrid. Jota is 29 so he's at that age where he can be sold for decent money and Endricks still a pup, so this one will work out in the end. Secondly, I noticed that Kvaratkhelia no longer was listed as "Not for sale" on deadline day and Bayern and City were sniffing about. Apparently he was gonna be available for just under £100m. I quickly started trying to punt Diaz, who's 29 and valued at £89m for £75m but couldn't get a big in. Anyway, I opened bidding with Kvaratkhelia for £75m which was accepted. I signed him on £275k pw and then Napoli immedately tried to loan Carvalho with a mandatory buy of £55m. Negotiated to £60m, perfect! Also signed a fantastic spanish regen from Bilbao for his release clause of £20m who was then immediately loaned back - Happy with that, they have state of the art training facilities and he actually starts for them. It means that this season, my outgoings are £220m and incomings (incuding Carvalho) will be £210m. However, where our new signings are earning about £700k pw between them, my outgoings were earning about £1.3m pw, so it's worked out nicely in that sense. Silly goals conceded have stopped and we're flying again. Darwin just got player of the month for Jan having scored 10 in 4, he started 3 and was subbed off in the others Also, I have been absolutely stumped by not being able to use all 5 subs in some games - I didn't realise they had to be spread across 3 stoppages. I thought there was a bug, but I learned something new. Took me 4 seasons to notice the /3 stoppages & /5 substitutions used during a game.

Season 4 update : Salah left Went to Barca for free on 350k pw, so that's a huge hole to fill. Attempted to get Saka, Fati and Kvaratkhelia, but Barca and Napoli wouldn't sell and Bayern beat me to Saka. In the end, I took Moussa Diaby on a free from Leverkusen, who's rated 4* and plays on the right - Him and Doak are sharing the responsibility there. Also Signed a RB regen for £15m from Milan, so that's my RB covered for the next while, assuming he gets better. Sold Tsimikas for £52m and Keita for £45 (as part of loan to buy from prev season) and a couple of other little sales so my finances are sitting quite nicely as it stands. I am in the market for a top class attacker though, I feel we're missing something. Rejected £130m offer from Madrid from Nunez and £55m for Gomez also. Season has started very weirdly. Seem to be conceding the most stupid goals, where ricochets just land at opposition feet to score. I'm winning games on xG but winning few. That being said, i'm 5/5 wins in CL and joint top in the league, but I was 6th for a while! Nunez and Musiala getting injured frequently hasn't helped though. They're both absolute monsters, but seem to regularly get little injuries.

Scalvini and Bellingham fees were taken from season 3. I asked my DOF to sign them around April season 2 and they agreed, on the basis that anything beyond my already large budget was taken from the season after. My budget was like £150m anyway, if I remember correctly.

Love reading other about other peoples saves so thought I'd summarise 2.5 seasons just now Season 1 Won the league, as you can see above. A lot of the good football didn't really kick in till later on in the season, particularly from some individuals. Nunez was my top league scorer with 19 league goals, Salah hit 40 g/a in all comps and Trent ended the season with 12 assists. No signings made, felt my squad was actually pretty strong! Got to the CL final and lost to Bayern, who I had beaten in the groups! Bit gutted but one better next season? Season 2 Started off the season by seeing an unhappy Musiala at Bayern so asked my DOF to sign him. £89M for one of, if not, the top talent in football? Yep. In my head, I'm thinking that he can rotate with Diaz (LW) and Elliot (MC Mez) so that adds good depth and allows me to get rid of some one (Ended up being Bobby). Bardghi also seemed a no brainer, not costly but had bags of potential. Anyway, wanted my young guns to play and not sit on the sidelines, so you'll see that I sent most of them out. Domestically, I was running the show. Only got to the quarters of the CL this time, Bayern again put me out after we won the first leg 2-0, we got overturned 3-0 in the return leg despite having 2xg! Arsenal ended up winning this year, what a disaster! Similar to real life, I organised my transfers early. Bellingham and Scalvini were signed in April to arrive in the summer which would massively upgrade my first team. Bellingham 4.5 starts, Scalvini 4 with potential for 5. I trusted my scouts knew what they were doing! Season 3 Think I left my squad a bit light for the sake of arranging Naby's next move and Bajcetic' development. Naby moved on loan with a mandatory £45M fee, Bajcetic went on loan to Dortmund with the promise of being first team - Jackpot! Jones also went on loan as he needs to play. Gakpo went for a really cool £57M deal and my only signing was transfer listed Fabian, who was happy to be a squad player on 100k. Perfect. Turns out my squad is light and he's playing all the time! Anyway, in December and we're joint top, still in CL and domestic cups. In the Jan window, I'll most likely recall Jones or Bajcetic to add a bit of weight to my squad. Squad stats I'm rotating between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 right now, don't really do much else unless forced to with sending offs. Also, here's another summary of the squad Salah is just class and has won World player of the year. Him and VVD are keen on exploring options at the end of the season. Considering his form, I've offered Salah 400k on a 2 year deal - fingers crossed he stays or i'll need to find a replacement which will be expensive!

Come Jan and I've just been given £65 million to spend Looking at Fresneda for full back and Kalakoh or Gnonto as backup attacker to probably replace Jota. Anyway, just reached Jan and us, City and Arsenal are all on same points roughly, all on target to hit just over 90 points. Gonna be close. Also qualified for Champions league knockouts top of a brutal group. Really enjoying it! Only issue is, we seem to start off well but then absolutely implode after scoring some goals at the start of the game. Anybody change tactics in games to stop this (apart from the obvious of changing mentality!)

Realised that FM23 is on Apple Arcade so I've managed to start a save, which I'm buzzing about Keeping the team as it is, woeful transfer budget and I don't have many players (who aren't injured) which I can wheel and deal with. Anyway, top with 5 games played. Really enjoying a lot of this game.

They can't stop him walking, that would be obstruction Teams made sure he was always marked, he doesn't need space to work. Ake and De Jong were on him vs Holland and he just beat them to set up Molinas goal. He's barely ever free, his touch and turns are so precise and sharp that he it creates this illusion of space. You give any other player the space he gets and they're tackled. In regards to Mbappe, i'd be marking him from half a mile away with his speed

I assume thats about Mbappe and Messi. They were always marked, mostly double marked. They're just that good.

Tell you one thing, I bet they absolutely adore him

Ronaldo? Or does his penalty give him a bye here? I'm also surprised KdB and B Silva didn't absolutely tear up trees, I expected big things. Not that they were bad, Silva in particular is good even when it's not happening for him.

Pretty much spot on. Plays his own hybrid game, you could have him in ST, RW or CAM and it's roughly accurate.

In fairness though, I think by any standard that's really disrespectful about Mbappe - Which is weird because I'm sure I saw them having a chat after the game? Did I imagine that? Btw, he looks steaming at this point Judgement oot the window

No totally, it's a valid question. And I will welcome any others if you want to test what I'm fine with Yes, I take issue with doping. I think that crosses a line when you give your body a physical advantage, especially the fact the drug will likely be illegal. In the past, I didn't think fair play, but whether you like it or not, it's part of the game. Not being funny but people don't cheat in football because they're bad people, most of them are better people than I am certainly so I'm not gonna judge a bunch of people who play at the most unimaginable level who've also grown up on the other side of the world...I play football, I also play squash and people do try manipulate the rules to their advantage. The fact people do it shows that it's only human to do so though. The better player I come up against, the more competitive they tend to be and the longer the lengths they'll go to win. Don't get me wrong, I used to compete nationally and was competing to get into the Scotland Squash team so I'm super competitive. When lads used to bump into me, claim foul play against me because they weren't reaching a shot, I've smashed rackets over that kinda stuff. I've definitely calmed down over that stuff lately for reasons which I'm sure will just be boring af Ideally no, but I don't hold anything against it really. If my team does it and we win, then fine. If somebody does it against us, I honestly just think why are you even leaving your leg out for that/why are you giving him the option? And then you call the diver a name because that's what you do but then what? It's football, I dislike players for some stuff but not that. Hopefully that all makes sense, i've just typed it between dinner and popping my lad off to bed I get that it's not the norm to say, but it is what it is.

That's the point, it's sport. It's not that deep.

Whatever, i'm done here

2 blocks in the final really done him a favour