MarcxD

January - March Quite a good player One loss to.... Bayern. Ajax was a pretty tough challenge for us, but we did manage to survive. Taking it one match at a time... as long as we don't need to face Bayern! We are drawing a bit too much to keep up with Bayern in race for the title, if that was a race at all with us also losing to them every chance we get.

Transfers & Intake Only a few more cheap talents coming in, as we are doing pretty great (and there were no obvious deals) I kept the first team the way it is. I did however sell two defenders - Pavard who at 34 had half a year of contract remaining and Carroll who did not play much and now was willing to leave. He was signed for 31M so that was a bit of a misbuy. I might have preferred him to not stay in the Bundesliga and strengthen a rival team, but I really wanted to offload him. With the increased level of players at the club, it will be a rare occurrence of us getting 5* PA talents through, but this is still not great.

Netherlands NT 2030 Sure it's only Nations League, but in a group with both neighboring countries in Belgium and Germany is an insane group! We dominated, although most of the games were pretty tight tbh.

August - December 2030 We had a pretty good start, only losing twice. Both games were against Bayern, to no surprise.... And we got even better in the last two months of the calendar year, including a fantastic December where we didn't concede any goals in the league! It didn't turn out to be Atlético to progress with us but VVV! Nice. Are we actually going to compete for the title?? It is interesting to see that now that we seem to have almost caught up to Bayern that Dortmund and Leipzig are having such bad seasons...

Summer 2030 It turned out to be quite a busy summer afterall. The overload of young players at the club was getting a bit much, so I got rid of a large number of them. The only players of these who were around the first team were Salinas, an AMR who I think I got a good deal for; and Cerri and Pelistri who had played in the first team at some point previously but weren't up to the level (anymore). All the others were talents who I didn't see it making it here. Incoming there were the usual new talents but also some first team players. Jousse is a new rotational option for central defense and RB; Gür a back-up midfielder, Brandt a highly talented central defender and Rodrygo was signed as a replacement for Salinas - while he is quite a few years older than him, he is also better. Probably won't be selling him on with profit, however, since he is already in his late twenties. Oh, I also managed to buy Doyle back from Bayern. They paid us 55M at the time, and he is more or less the best defender at the club again - so very happy with that deal. I do have a bit too much players for the central defense position now, though. I had tried to sell Matt Carroll for around 20M but he rejected the contracts the bidding clubs offered him. Perhaps in January, as I don't foresee him playing much. All in all pretty much a balanced summer - around 100M coming in and going out in transfer sums. I think we are definitely stronger than last year, and with multiple key players progressing further I hope to get closer to Bayern this season. Not much to say about a short but decent pre-season.. We're facing VVV! They've remained as one of the top sides of the Eredivisie after I left, but haven't managed to win a title. Still, it should clearly be us and Atlético who should progress from the group.

A new job? I hadn't even really considered national management for this save, but I decided to take the job. The Dutch have just won the 2030 World Cup, so I'll try to do a repeat in four years time. After that I plan to resign. It's obviously not anything to do with transfers or making money, so I won't put too much effort into it or go deeply into the national management side of things here.

April - May 2030 Wow, we did it in Europe again! Two years after winning the Conference League, now we won the EL. CL next?! We couldn't do a repeat cup win, as beating Bayern remains a mammoth task! I wanted to make the step to being 'best of the rest' in the league; we aren't quite there however with only one point more we would've been on the shared most points behind Bayern so it's not really a bad season in the league either. We have doubly qualified for the CL next season (as we've also won the Europa League), so all in all I have to be satisfied with how we've done. That 20 points gap to Bayern, however? Oof. After the January transfers I only had a small squad remaining, but I quite like it like that, with all players actually getting some good game time. It is of course risky for injuries, but I can always recall one of the many players away on loan. Most of the squad I can keep here for quite a few years I think, there won't be too much business in the summer if I can help it. (if a club and pays the limited fees... well that changes things) With some movements and the players progressing further, I hope to challenge for the league title within a few seasons and if we can be close to Bayern we might also have a shot at the Champions League...

January - March 2030 It's getting kind of funny how often I have faced PSV (and beat them) now also that I left the Eredivisie. Otherwise, mostly a good three months outside of the Frankfurt away loss. Intake Meh. Nxgn The stockpiling of talent, lol. Also now I think it's three years in a row that my former youth prospect Nino Warmelink has been named here among the top talents - he is worth around 100M now.

January 2030 If you thought I would not be busy after the summer you thought wrong. New signings: Thilo Kehrer is a German and experienced central defender who will be of use for 1,5 season probably. Gil is a rotational option for the wings, Pojuzina a very talented 18yo central defender from Serbia going straight into first team rotation, and Murray a rotational option for the midfield. Two slightly big transfers. Edílson was a very talented Brazilian striker who never really played in the first team here, but he is deemed to be quite inconsistent by scouts/trainers so 40M for him seems like a great sale. Pathway to the first team wasn't really there for him anyway with another young Brazilian striker Thiago hogging the minutes there. I also sold Neubauer; I didn't necessarily want to as I alluded to before I really like him being Liechtensteiner, but it is getting tougher to give him minutes, so selling him for about double what I paid for him is pretty good overall. A couple of the bench players were also sold for almost another 15M in total.

August - December 2029 A shame but no surprise to lose in the German Supercup. Not totally unexpected either: we had a bit of a mediocre start. I am expecting us get better and consistent throughout the season with hopefully a positive atmosphere/dynamics and aptitude with the tactic. The last two months did go already much better, as we confidently did what we had to do in Europe as well. Not quite top 4 yet, but we are definitely in the running. Behind Bayern who are untouchable, the 5 clubs between Hertha and Leipzig should compete throughout the season for those European spots.

Haha yeah I shocked myself. Thanks mate!

Summer 2029 They want me to spend 92.5M! Don't think I've seen that before, and at first I was a bit wary as obviously I try to make money in this save. I did decide however to take advantage of the money and try to do business that can be lucrative in the long run AND try to make a step forward - moving from the 4-7th best team in the league to competing with Dortmund to become the 'best of the rest' after Bayern. First, let look at the sales... Not only did I have 92M to spend, I sold for another 129M. Not entirely willingly, because Bayern once again paid limited fees for two of my best players. These were two players I signed myself and agents forced the fees on me, sadly. The life of a Bundesliga manager, losing your best players to Bayern... Oliver Skipp was a player I did want to sell, as he was on 6M+ per year but was no longer a first team player. And some extra sales from the B team for another nice couple of million. I went a bit further than the 92M... Some of the big signings - Musah a new player for central midfield; Antiste the rare player going the other way from Bayern, a new winger; Matt Carroll a new English central defender; Thiago a Brazilian striker, Rekik another central defender (more rotational); and Guerrero another midfielder (or AMR). Of course there is also the experienced Pavard who could do well for us for one season at least. The others don't necessarily go straight in the first team, depending. Perhaps it will take a some time to gel with how much new players in the first team, but I do at the very least hope we can get top 4 in this season. That should be compulsory really. Bayern just spent 120M more... Decent pre-season against so-so opposition. EL Group draw seems pretty kind to us, should not be a problem to progress.

January - May 2029 While our league run hasn't been terrific, we did do very good in the CL and won my first trophy at Köln in the Cup! Quite some way behind the top 4, so it's going to be Europa League next season. That's a shame as we did so well in the CL and made a lot of money doing so. I am going to be given a large transfer budget next season so I am definitely thinking of retooling the squad quite a bit. 32-year old striker Wissa will be leaving, and some of the bench and rotation players probably will too. I am still looking for that real bright player(s) to play on the wings. Otherwise I could also definitely need more in defense and midfield, so it might be an interesting summer.

Transfers & Intake 2029 I did once again sign quite a few players, but no huge fees. A bit of a mix between rotational options (like Lois Openda, Cuc & Lainez) and talents for the future. Efe was a player at VVV who had kind of a breakthrough season for me in my last season there, but sadly the AI has not given him much time. Maybe I can still salvage him somewhat. Outgoing, however, there was a bit more going on. I referenced overpaying for Jacquot earlier, for whom I paid 18M. While he has developed, he performed quite poor on average, so I took the chance to sell him for a slight profit. I also sold another first team player in João Mário, who performed really poorly for me this season (like averaging under 6.5). Tzolis I did not necessarily want to get rid off, but the fee was good. That transfer explains why I signed Lainez on loan for the second half of the season, since I did need another option for the wing right now. Intake If we're looking at the breadth of this intake it is excellent, however there does not appear to be any superstar potential here. Three of my players away on loan are among the top 50 wonderkids this year. Let's see if any of them can make the next step within one or two seasons

Thanks!

A Mercantile Approach Welcome to my first FM22 thread, quite belatedly. It looked like FM22 would be the first fm since I started playing with FM 2009 that I would skip, for a variety of reasons, but in the end I just couldn't away for ever. I have had a variety of careers over the years on these forums, mostly long-term one club saves in smaller countries like Andorra, Kosovo, Estonia and Malta. This time, however, I am planning something different: a multi-club, multi-country save. First, some context. In my professional work as a researcher and my academic background in history, for the last month or so I have been researching the history of Dutch wine merchants in the 17th and 18th century for a client. Not particularly relevant here, but it has inspired me to start a FM save with a mercantile approach. I went for a different historic mercantile inspiration: the Hanseatic League. This was a network of cities and city-states that built a mercantile empire from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period in Europe, especially in northern Germany, the eastern Netherlands, northern Poland, southern Scandinavia and the Baltics. (image source: wikipedia) I plan for this to be a multi-club save, managing in these various countries of the Hanseatic League and only in clubs located in the cities above. The approach everywhere will be a mercantile one: I want to make the clubs I manage rich. Therefore I will try to buy cheap players with potential and sell them on for profit. Winning some prize money will also be helpful I clicked the "pick a team for me" until a team came up in one of the cities on the map above, and it turned out to be a good starting position. VVV Venlo plays in the Dutch second tier, the Keuken Kampioen Divisie. During the first season, I'll first try to acclimatise to the club and to this new version of the game, and of course there isn't much money to be spent yet. We are predicted to finish in 6th position; which would be a play-off spot. The top 2 get promoted automatically. I would very much like to get promoted, if only for the better money in the Eredivisie. Let's get into it