Shrewnaldo

Going to second this. Fabbian was brilliant for my Hellas Verona side - I think he scored nearly 20 in Serie A and scored 2 in the Coppa Italia final. Should be brilliant in 2.Bundesliga

A sneak peak rather encapsulates the transfer policies... Mexicans in: Non-Spaniards / Mexicans out: Could probably have got more for the sales but we have £166m in the bank and a £116m transfer budget so, you know, YOLO.

Yeah, I remember spotting that during the alpha for FM23 when it was introduced ( But I think that's just a different means of calculating the stat rather than the stat itself not working. My concern atm is that it seems to be just wrong - or at least calculated differently for human player games than generated games. It's more of a "feel" than a "know" though. It just "feels" like the human player OPPDA is always oddly high

Ouch, those personalities. It's a real shame that Maucksh's positioning is so low as otherwise he could make a decent 'keeper. How well do your signings suit the 4-3-3? Anyone left out?

At the moment, my first team options at centre-back are 30 year-old IRL guaje José Gragera, 31 year-old Czech international Ladislav Krejčí and 22 year-old Mexican newgen Rafael González. I've just brought 19 year-old Mexican newgen Radamés Solano up from the B-team to provide extra cover too. In terms of Mareo newgens, I've only got 16 year-old Carlos - who I've just put in the B-team , Raimundo Montiel - who I see as more of the left inverted full-back and have just demoted to the B-team, and 18 year-old Federico Navarro. I could look to bring Manuel Navarro back to the club but I think Spurs would want £10m and I doubt he's worth it.

I was confused there - when I first read it you'd only given me the first answer! Haha Anyway: I like this idea - my only concern would be if Ayesa gets annoyed by the lack of game time, but it protects me in case Gil has a shocking run of form I'm 100% aligned I'm definitely shifting Aguirre to the right but I'm completely undecided on López still... I suspect you're right on game time though If I could find the right loan for Gil then I think this would be a good idea, but he isn't attracting any loan interest. I've asked the board for a new loan affiliate so I'm hoping they find a suitable non-Spanish club Same as Litmanen then and I agree with you both. I definitely have other guajes who can come in. Hugo Quiñones would be the first option I just can't decide on this one I feel you're right on Mouriño. Rosas is just too injury prone to rely upon. The problem is that I don't have many guaje centre backs to pull on so was keen to get Mouriño into the centre I like Escribano as a squad option because he can cover a few roles and won't moan about game time because of his rep. I think keep him around but prioritise Elvira for game time is the option

Dilemmas A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón So I left off the truncated last post by talking about difficult choices I'm about to face and I guess such choices are a key part of the game, indeed likely a key part of football management. Choices between tactical styles, trade offs between committing players forward or conservatively protecting your own goal, deciding recruitment priorities and which players to bring in. For me, it's about when to let senior players move on and bring the newgens through. Some examples: Dilemma 1 - Goalkeeper Gaizka Ayesa has been excellent for us, since replacing the error prone CJ Sánchez in 2028. A £5.5m signing from Bodø/Glimt, he's gone on to keep 28 clean sheets in 70 league games and broke the 7 mark for average rating this season. At 29, he's just hitting his peak years for a goalkeeper and signed a new 'star player' contract in January to keep him here for another 3 seasons. In truth, that was so that I could maintain his value and Saudi clubs came sniffing early in the window. I'm tempted to let him go but the £30-40m they've offered thus far is just too low. Carlos Gil came through the third intake alongside wonderkids Aguirre and Javi. Until the arrival of Corominas this intake, he's been my best hope for a newgen 'keeper and has been progressing relatively well this far. A loan spell at Racing de Ferrol last term and the B-team spot this campaign has given him 75 LaLiga2 games (19 clean sheets, 93 conceded). In 2027/8, I have him 19 first-team games and he did pretty well - 7 clean sheets, 23 conceded. Having turned 20, I feel Gil needs top flight football to see him kick-on. His attributes aren't great yet with Reflexes and Positioning of 10 the obvious weaknesses, so selling Ayesa and making Gil first-choice will cost us goals and points. Worth it for the long term? I can't see him getting a top-flight loan as first-choice in Spain - unless at a relegation candidate where his development might suffer for poor performances and morale... so the option might be a foreign loan for a mid-table club in Scandinavia or maybe Netherlands? We don't have any foreign affiliates with loan options and I've never noticed any interest generating naturally from such countries... So what would you do? Dilemma 2 - Playmaker Aarón Molínas joined us from Boca Juniors in our final season in LaLiga2, initially on loan and then triggering his £5.25m future fee once we were promoted. He's been an absolute stalwart of our success - first as the linking 10 in the 5-2-2-1 and then as a mezzala or centre mid playmaker in the 4-3-3. 31 league assists in 4 LaLiga seasons is decent, but then last campaign he managed only one - primarily as other players started taking set pieces. I almost let him go last summer thanks to his discomfort during big matches but the few offers we received for him were derisory. Mario Martínez came through the fourth intake and had one stellar season in the under-19s (scoring 14 and assisting 7 in 15 starts), before a successful loan spell with Segunda club Zamora. The following season he performed brilliantly for the under-19s, earning a promotion and was instrumental in the B-teams promotion from the Primera. Fast-tracked to the first-team, he played 2089 minutes this season and turned in some impressive numbers (0.43 assists per 90 [0.21xA], 1.59 OPKP/90, 5.04 progressive passes per 90). My favourite start of his is that whilst he was on the pitch the team conceded only 0.6 goals per 90 - perhaps an indication that he brings an element of control to the midfield. To a much lesser extent than Gil, Martínez's attributes are not of LaLiga level - certainly physically and he still lacks a little technically. So again, I would have to accept some drop off in quality compared to Molínas. So what would you do? Dilemma 3 - Inside Forward Diego López is my most expensive signing by quite some distance - costing me £16.5m to bring him back to Spain from Brentford. Unlike Ayesa or Molínas, López is a Mareo graduate but left for first Real and then Barca before finding game time at Valencia and a move to the Premier League. He was absolutely superb in his first season, playing as a 9, before having a really poor season in 27/28. For the next two seasons he's been moved to inside forward at AMR in the 4-3-3 and has scored 20 in 68 starts. He's a big game player with a good personality and, according to my coaches at least, consistent. My biggest problem with López has always been that he's a low volume shooter - in 3520 minutes this season, he took only 1.3 shots per 90 - 0.43 of which were outside the box, at 0.15xG per shot. Ander Aguirre has been well-documented on these pages recently - a clear talent for whom I'm struggling to find a slot in the team. He's not suited the DLF role that I'm using at 9 and has struggled to perform as a left-winger. Inside forward from the right makes a lot of sense - his physicals suit it perfectly, he can dribble and has great movement. He's also much better in the air than López which will help get the best out of left-winger Javi. This one I think is a done deal - Aguirre should be the starting inside forward next season. The question is whether or not to sell López. Listed as a regular starter, he may get irritated by a lack of game time. However, he's capable of covering the three forward positions and, at 28, is the only experienced player likely to get game time in the forward line. Feyenoord are interested and he should be bring in £30m, plus release his £42.5kpw wage. We also have no shortage of options coming through that could pick up game time if López left. Álex has done really well this season when given his chance, scoring 7; whilst Seydou Diawara is attracting interest from Inter and Benfica. Then there's golden boy Sergio Lozano - but he might be better served with a loan deal this season, guaranteeing him regular game time to get those attributes moving in the right direction. And we've got Vicente Cuadrado, Carlos Cerro, Oscar Villenueva and - according to the game the top prospect at Sporting currently - Fernando in the second string waiting to come in. How important is it to keep an experienced option around? At the risk that he throws his toys out of the pram? What would you do? ------------------------------------------- I have these sorts of dilemmas all over the park. Should I move Jonathan Mouriño to right-back where he has deputised for the injury-prone Guille Rosas so well this season, or pull him back into the centre and buy in cover for Rosas at right-back? Is it better to loan out Iván Elvira, or sell Domingo Escribano and let Elvira take his game time? Fun times and I'd love any opinions on any of these dilemmas. I think I've made up my mind on the three main ones above but opinions always welcome.

Do you think OPpDA is working correctly?

It's a fair point and I do think we're overachieving, given the constraints that I've put on team selection. We have £100m transfer budgets now and a spare £400kpw wage budget - so in an 'ordinary' save I could just go splash that to challenge the big three but it's just not my style. I think my issue with the HoYD has been the lack of pull-through on the personality - but then Márquez had "only" a professional personality with Reserved media handling. So I'm wondering whether the Perfectionist is going to give a more-rounded pull-through - with high Determination, Professionalism and Ambition. Plus he's Level Headed which implies decent Loyalty. One bad intake out of six isn't a bad record for the old HoYD but it's the personality thing that's been bothering me for three or four of those. I'm assuming your striker is not developing now? I'm finding the loan market a bit hit-and-miss, and pretty high risk. I've had quite a few players go out and just stagnate. I can't make up my mind whether or not it's any better than time in the B-team

Cheers I use this pack from Susi with the newgan manager thing https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/33/ultra-realistic-newgan-faces-megapack

Best of the Rest? A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón A successful season as we managed to negotiate continental football and retain our fourth spot to get back-to-back campaigns. The biggest disappointment of the campaign was the Copa del Rey semi-final defeat to Betis. Having beat them 2-1 in the first leg, I was left with that awkward position where I'm never sure whether to play aggressive and try to put the game out of sight early-doors - or go conservative and try to hold onto the one goal lead. And then, in typical FM style, I could tell from kick-off that we were destined to lose and a 2-0 reverse put us out. In the Champions League, we started with a hilarious game in Czechia when three of the goals were complete farces ... ...and yet took the win to combine with later victories over Olympiakos, Gladbach and Arsenal. A draw with Liverpool came between losses to Nice and Porto, before we finished off the campaign with a home defeat to Bayern. That was, surprisingly, enough for us to finish 11th but we came up against Enzo Maresca's Spurs in the playoffs where a 3-2 aggregate defeat flattered us. In the league, 6 fewer goals scored and 4 fewer conceded brought us four more points than last season - three defeats becoming three draws. Meanwhile, the B-team's first campaign in LaLiga2 was super successful - finishing 7th and one place outside of the playoffs they couldn't qualify for anyway. And the under-19s retained both their Under-19 Cup, defeating local rivals Oviedo 4-0 in the final, and the U-19 division - scoring 114 goals in the league phase and then knocking 7, 6 and 6 past their knock-out phase opponents. Dominance. Pleasingly, we did all this whilst boosting both the squad proportion and game time given to Mareo graduates. Gragera and Diego López, real life guajes, and newgens Francesc Polo, Ander Aguirre and Javi all saw >3000 minutes - whilst Mario Martínez, Jonathan Mouriño and Carlos Rojas all got between 2000 and 3000 minutes. The foreign contingent is made up of Czech centre back Ladislav Krejčí, Argentine playmaker Aarón Molinas and two Mexican defenders - Alejandro Gómez and Rafael González. The latter has been particularly good and will be joined in the summer by wonderkid Saúl González. González's arrival will mean that we have three of the world's top five wonderkids according to the NxGn award and has prompted me to consider the next stage of the squad's evolution - selling Krejčí and Molinas to make the squad entirely Spanish and Mexican, with the domestic contingent consisting of 9 Mareo graduates to every one bought in. This wasn't part of the original plan but the game has slowly been creeping in as I've subconsciously overprioritised the guajes and Mexicans. Ideally, I'd like it so the Mexican players only fill gaps in the guaje production - something which is definitely the case with Alejandro Gómez at left back and Rafael González at centre back. But Saúl is the sort of signing I never make - just a really good player in a position that I don't really need. That, together with some general dissatisfaction with the 4-4-2, prompted me into some tactical experimentation over the latter half of the season. The main impetus for the experimentation was my desire to get the most out of Ander Aguirre. The winger/striker was the undoubted star of the third intake and has developed into a hugely promising player in the four years since. He scored on his debut and in his first senior season he scored 10 in 16(9). Then in 2027/8, he scored only 5 all campaign - completely unsuited to the DLF role up top and struggling as a left winger. But I really want to fit Aguirre, Javi and Polo into the same side. Javi's technicals mean that he can only really be a winger, whilst Polo has been moulded into the link player that Aguirre isn't. The obvious option is to put Aguirre on the right as the inside forward but that slot is intended for golden boy Sergio Lozano in the long-term and is currently occupied by Diego López. So the 4-2-3-1 seemed like an obvious choice - allowing Polo to link from AM and Aguirre to play a striker role to which he is more suited. It hasn't really worked out though - results have been fine but the 9 doesn't get enough shots to make his lack of general involvement worthwhile. It also comes without the defensive shape that I prefer (4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3). So the 4-3-3 seems like it'll be back as the primary option and I have a choice to make on Aguirre versus López for right wing. Indeed, there are quite a number of choices to make as the newgens from intakes four, five and six start to challenge for places. Selling Krejci and Molinas will free up a couple of spaces, whilst Welton (22, newgen), Dani Quiepo (28) and Manu Garcia (32) are also surplus to requirements; and Romanian Florin Chiripus is the first decent newgen I've allowed to leave - sold to Cluj for £2.2m. --------------- Apologies, partial post but interrupted by family stuff and don't want to lose what I've typed so far.

Ah bloody hell. I assume "BR" was "briggs". I had no idea. What a shame.

I do remember the name. Didn't you used to post stories on TD? I do have 'fog of war' or attribute masking on. I find it a little odd the way the game treats it but I much prefer to playing without it. I think if you go to watch a game yourself then you should reveal attributes in the same way as sending scouts - or even when you play against other teams, but for some reason it doesn't work like that which I find very annoying. I think on Gonzalez, I've just accepted that I'm going to have ~75% of my players from our academy with the other ~25% either other Spanish players or Mexicans. And he is properly good so I couldn't pass him up two years on the bounce. Lozano is still listed as 'Fairly Professional' which is another reason for my disappointment in his development so far. He's had nearly 1000 first-team minutes this season but seems to be in a similar position to your players - he isn't playing that well so his morale is relatively low and therefore he doesn't develop? How long are you planning on sticking at Leverkusen? If the non-active promotions are based on reputation then you could get into 3.Liga within 3 seasons? Not sure how much the B-team would cost you but worth a shot? But I'd definitely agree that Bundesliga2 games with Duisburg will be much better - the only downside there is that you can't control the system they'd be playing in, or influence the game time the same way you can with a B-team. I'm absolutely with you on this intake. Underwhelming is definitely the word I'd choose. I do like Corominas a lot and I think Carlos is pretty decent but it's way behind all of our other intakes in terms of excitement factor. I ended up sacking our HoYD and bringing in Thomas Caers. Little bit of an experiment this one but I wanted the personality more than the attributes or the nationality. I have no idea if his lack of scouting knowledge in Spain will affect the intake at all. I don't think it does and I don't recall seeing anything in Evidence Based FM's videos about it, but it's always possible. Hopefully Caers can help us back into a better intake next year AND see some pull-through with the personality. Agree, I really like him. I'm just not sure what role is best suited for him - which is weird for me because I never sign a player unless I'm absolutely sure where he'll fit into the planned system.

indeed, some of them are just personal favourites too. Polo is now our top scorer even though he can be a bit streaky and Escribano is a really solid option in the middle. So far, I'm finding it no different. The board have no great expectations and so I'm willing to take the risk that we miss out on Champions League football by just playing them. We don't really need the money and I'm liking the slow burn rather than just bounding straight to the top. The only one who is causing me any concern is Lozano - the wonderkid from the last intake. He's actually regressed since spawning and I'm wondering whether I should have left him in the unders for a bit longer. I know there's 'official' feedback about players developing better if they play unders until 18 and whilst that obviously isn't always the case it certainly seems to have been with Lozano. One year in the under-19s might have been best. Or the b-team. Now that they've made it to LaLiga2, I've noticed a big difference in the development players are getting from their game time - so it's definitely a really important bridge for my side. At 3rd and 4th tier level... it was useful but no doubt that the step up to tier 2 is hugely beneficial. Leverkusen have a B-team?

The Seventh Intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón It's that time of year again, as we turn this... ...into this... And there's even a Mexican newgen hiding in there for the first time. Elite Talents Guillem Corominas - Goalkeeper That's a really solid start. Really solid. At 15, he has double figures for everything that I want in a 'keeper bar One-on-Ones and Agility, both of which should tick over pretty soon. The Aerial Reach should increase quickly with his physical development and let's assume he gets 3-5 attribute point on the rest of the Technicals and Mentals... he's a winner. The only question will be if the save lasts long enough to see him into the first team. As a 'keeper, we're talking another 5-6 seasons realistically... Antonio - Winger? All tattoos are terrible but neck tattoos are particularly terrible. We'll forgive the newgan picture development that though. Potential, for sure. His clear strength is in his Physicals and Technique, with good Flair and Teamwork. I can see why the game has put him as a winger despite being natural up top. If he wasn't identified as an Elite Talent then I'd probably put him in the 'decent' pile with a hope of developing, rather than expectation. Top Talents Melvyn Jarry - French Rather stereotyping with the terrible moustache there but Jarry seems to have washed up in Gijón after a heavy night out in Clohars-Carnoët over there on the south coast of Brittany. And I can't say I am terribly impressed. Physicals are fine and will develop, his technicals are ok for a midfielder I guess but those mentals are shockingly bad. Very much a meh, for me. Carlos - Centre back I really wanted centre-backs so this is a welcome one. Carlos looks decent and I'm really pleased to see that his starting technicals are already really solid for a centre back. I've struggled to get Heading, in particular, to increase for my newgens so far - with one or two points on the key three technicals then we should be on to a winner. The physicals should shoot up over the next two years and the mentals are fine, if unspectacular. My coaches also think he's already consistent - a massive boost for a defender. Really pleased with this one. Ivan Jiménez - Wide Targetman Don't mind a 6'4" winger at all, not one bit. On the other hand, Strength of 4 isn't ideal. And Off the Ball of just 6, Composure of just 4, Passing of just 6... there's some red flags there for sure. I really like the Work Rate and the Teamwork but his low Bravery, not to mention that Strength, is going to limit his effectiveness as an aerial threat. I think he'll dominate the youth leagues but struggle to kick on once he gets to senior football but we'll see. Pablo Castillo - Beard Quite the beard for a 15 year-old. Best personality so far and it's nice to see the Bravery that is so lacking in Jimémez but there are gaps galore with Castillo. If that personality helps him kick-on early and boost Heading, Marking, Positioning, Jumping Reach and Strength by 3 a-piece then perhaps he'll make the squads but... I'm not holding my breath. Good Talents There are 8 of them and they're all terrible. None more so than our first Mexican newgen... Juan Javier Jaramillo - Meh Triple J has a shocking personality and is poor physically, but perhaps has the Technicals to do something... in the b-team... maybe? Not really - I'm clutching at straws massively here. He can control the ball really well and he can probably dribble, really slowly, quite nicely and put in a half decent cross... but that's about it. -------------------- 2 Elite Talents, 4 Top Talents, 8 Good Talents and 2 Decent Talents. Of that I think Corominas is the big dub here, whilst Carlos is probably going to end up first-team material. Then there's maybe Antonio and... not a lot else? That probably makes this our worst intake yet - but the most disappointing aspect is undoubtedly the personalities of those 16 newgens: Balanced - 7 Fairly Loyal - 2 Unambitious - 2 Low Self Belief - 1 Fairly Professional - 1 Light-hearted - 2 Fickle - 1 My HoYD is Professional, so where's the pull through? I think a shake-up to refresh it all would do nicely so I'm going to sack Feliu Márquez and go on the hunt for a new HoYD. EDIT - in other news... Aguirre is the second-best wonderkid in the world and Jonathan Mouriño is fifth. Meanwhile, Saul González at affiliate Club América is this year's winner... and is joining Sporting Gijón in the summer for £8.6m.

OK, that's handy. But nothing on promises? Don't know why I'm asking. I'm way too much of a control freak to let my DOF do this

I like the look of Krassnitzer a lot. Got to love Austrians I've never let my DOF negotiate contracts etc, can you not set some limits or parameters to it? Seems a bit rubbish that he has free rein to set something like playing time. If not, will you just stick with that approach or try something else? I think you can choose to negotiate the contract yourself, set the playing time and promises and then handover to the DOF?

The Schulz stuff is very, very weird. I don't have many in my Sporting save but I loaded the Hellas / Feralpi save there's 90 or so. I think it was created on the same patch as your current game is? So maybe a patch with recurring newgen names - there was a thing with recurring IDs wasn't there, so maybe a crossover.

More outs than ins A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Some relatively significant departures from El Molinón as I pushed out three players who I think were costing us those big games. Jesús Orozco Chiquete, whose red card after 20 minutes cost us any chance at the Copa del Rey final, went to Saudi for £18.5m and was followed by Jonathan Varane - Raphael's little brother bringing in the princely sum of £42.5m and 20% of his next fee. Between them, winger Gaspar left for Greek football for a surprising fee of up to £14.5m. Gaspar is a guaje and I did consider keeping him around but that lack of big game mentality just forced my hand - besides, there's plenty of newgen options for his position now. With over £100m burning a hole in my pocket I only brought in two players - both Mexican centre backs. Rafael González joins the first-team as a direct replacement for Chiquete - combining aerial dominance with an ability to play out from the back. Solano joins the B-team to supplement for a general lack of guaje centre backs that have come through and gone on to prove their worth. At just £6m and £1.9m respectively, I still have quite the funding available to me should I have decided to use it. Instead, I'm once again just sticking the youth into the first team - Champions League and all. The senior squad now has 19 players classed as 'trained at club' and they continue to demand >50% of the side's game minutes. Indeed, these numbers are skewed somewhat by Manu Garcia and Dego López who are Asturians that started their careers at Sporting but not for long enough to be classed as 'trained at the club'. I've also brought in a few more newgen guajes to the senior squad, so that we now have the following. I've linked the posts with the intakes themselves, on the off-chance you want to go back and compare the players to when they spawned: First intake: Welton - Centre back Domingo Escribano - DM Florin Chirpus - DM Francesc Polo - DLF Second intake: Raimundo Montiel - inverted leftback Carlos Rojas - DM Hugo Quiñones - centre mid Third intake: Ander Aguirre - left-winger / 9 Javi - left-winger / midfield runner Carlos Gil - goalkeeper Fourth intake: Álex - DLF Mario Martínez - midfield playmaker Fifth intake: Jonathan Mouriño - centre back Sixth intake: Sergio Lozano - golden boy Whilst a couple of them might be borderline not good enough, 14 newgen academy players from each of the six intakes so far is a healthy return. And there's plenty coming through to add to that. With the B-team now in LaLiga2, I'm really giving the best prospects free rein to develop at the higher level in second team rather than go out on loan - and so far they're holding their own with a solid mid-table position. There are a couple of noticeable gaps - right back primarily, and centre back where Mouriño is clearly excellent but a lot of the other options tend to tail off about 19/20 and never kick on. This led me to almost splash £12m and bring Manuel Navarro back from Spurs but his technical weaknesses put me off and I've left him there in the hope he'll develop himself a bit better. With all that cash, I probably "should" have invested in some real talent and started challenging the three big clubs at the top of the table but, truth be told, I'm quite happy to play out a couple of seasons to establish ourselves as the fourth force in Spanish football and perhaps pick up a cup - as we can so close to doing last season. Besides, the planner is already rammed full of talent just needing consistent game time and I really don't like relinquishing control of the best players through loans. The one position I very nearly bought-in for was CM(A). Javi and Quiñones are not the finished article by any means and I was very, very tempted to bring in Mexican wonderkid Saúl González for his £8.6m release fee. Playing for affiliate Club América, González is clearly quality but isn't really a CM(A) - the position I was looking to fill. I figured I could bring him in, play him there for a season and he'd do pretty well - well enough that he'd get me a pretty chunky profit come the end of the campaign. I could then let Javi go on loan and get game time elsewhere. In the end I decided against it - we have plenty of our own prospects for DM, where González is best suited, and I just preferred giving Mareo graduates the nod over the all-too-standard 'sign a bunch of foreign wonderkids' route. Yes, it's sort of within the premise of the save to look at the Mexican market but I prefer to make things hard for myself really. So into the Champions League we go, with the average age of the squad now just a smidge under 23. Our annual salary is still only 16th in the league, too - like I say, I like to make it unnecessarily difficult. I'll probably need to figure out what to spend all that money on. A new stadium maybe? ¡Siempre Sporting!

Oooohh... In terms of realism, that's very hard to turn down. It's also a good time to leave because it doesn't feel, from the outside, like you've had enough time to build anything that you'd be sorry to leave at Bochum? Taking Raya with you then?

I decided to sell Varane (£42.5m +20% next sale) but the initial offer for Molinas was only £12m and, whilst I don't need the money, I couldn't accept that Thanks very much, always appreciated. I hope you remember the query some time

We haven't faced that level of fixture congestion so I'm thinking it's not that for us. I think for us it's that big players aren't keen on big matches - I've discovered another one in midfield. I hadn't realised that the game would consider the end of season fixtures as 'big games', but it looks like there's a switch once you get into the final 2 months or last 10 games. Both are going to be thoroughly plundered for first-team options this year. ----------------------------- A dilemma then. I've already sold centre back Jesús Orozco Chiquete to Saudi football for £18.5m, solely because he didn't like big matches and I'm looking to dispatch with the end-of-season chokers. The dilemma comes when I've discovered that two key players in midfield also suffer from the big game jitters. Varane has been our first-choice 6/8 for a while now, however he is better suited to the 6 role. Meanwhile Molinas is our first-choice playmaker and has performed really well at both 10 and CM, including 13 assists last term. Both, though, are 'not comfortable playing in big matches' and so I'm seriously considering moving both on. Some pertinent points: Varane is much better-suited to 6 than 8. At DM, we have any number of guaje options with the most obvious being injury-prone Carlos Rojas closely followed by Domingo Escribano and Florian Chiripus and Iván Elvira coming next. All three are first-team ready but not quite as good as Varane - plus we lose the obvious experience of the 27 year-old. Varane is wanted by Nantes and Al-Ahli but that's been the case for quite some time and no-one ever seems to make an offer. Molinas is clearly a playmaker and I have a couple of guaje options which are just making their way in the senior squad. Mario Martínez should, summer slump excepted, become very very good and is first-choice replacement, whilst Hugo Quiñones is preferred as the CM(A) but could definitely do a job as a playmaker. I also have Manu García, originally from the Mareo academy, and Roberto Lopez as experienced playmaking options - even if they aren't of the quality of Molinas. No-one is currently interested in Molinas. Neither are listed as favoured personnel but Molinas is a Team Leader and Varane is a Highly Influential PLayer. To sell either, I think I'd need to force through a move which would risk upsetting the squad and curtail the value I get for them. The latter is, in truth, not important. I already have a £50m transfer budget and plan to use pretty much none of it. This is just about tailoring the squad towards a more resilient set of personalities that doesn't wilt every April. So should I sell one, or both? What do you think?

Chokers A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Ok, so some simple stuff first: Champions League football at the Quini next season but that cup final loss to Real Madrid was part of an end of season collapse which is becoming the norm at Sporting. Here are the April and May results since I joined 2023/24: Played 9; Won 3; Drawn 2; Lost 4 2024/25: Played 9; Won 7; Drawn 0; Lost 2 2025/26: Played 7; Won 1; Drawn 2; Lost 4 (and we lost 3 from 4 in March) 2026/27: Played 8; Won 3; Drawn 1; Lost 4 (didn't win any of the last 5 games) 2027/28: Played 12; Won 2; Drawn 5; Lost 5 2028/29: Played 10; Won 3; Drawn 1; Lost 6 In all but our promotion season (2024/5), we've utterly collapsed in the last two months of the season. Why? Fatigue? We've just completed the final 90 minutes of the season and not a single player is above 'low' in Fatigue levels, and only 10 of the 26 senior squad are rated as 'low' at all. So is it down to mentality? Whilst I've made sure our captain Rosas enjoys big matches, we have four players who definitely don't - including the guy who got sent off in the Copa del Rey Final after 20 minutes. Lesson learned right there. But only two of those tend to play, is that enough to create a seeming crisis in confidence? Is it down to the young squad and lack of experience to get us over the line? That could perhaps be true these days but certainly not earlier in the save when I had the likes of Lemina or Ziyech bringing the experienced heads. It's a concern because whatever 'clutch' is, we are the opposite of that. We bottled it in the final - the aforementioned red card killing any hope we had of beating Real. If we're looking to push on to the next level against next season then we'll definitely need to figure out how to avoid these end of season collapses. Selling Varane and Chiquete, with their lack of big game energy, could be an option. Both have been excellent throughout and, cup final dismissal excepted, haven't shown any indication of bottling it any worse than the rest of the squad. Varane regularly attracts Saudi interest and I'm sure Chiquete would bring some bids in. Both also have potential replacements amongst the guajes and are, clearly, not from the Mareo academy themselves. I am, however, keen to avoid the mistakes of last season when insufficient squad depth clearly meant the continental adventure came at the expense of our league form. Additional depth is required and depth with quality. We already have £25m transfer budget to play with so I have no need to sell. I've also already confirmed a £3.5m (potentially rising to £6m) deal for 6'6" Mexican centre back Rafael González who will bring the sheer size that we're currently lacking in the defensive newgens. In other news, our B-team have been promoted at the fourth time of asking having made steady progress through the Primera. Next season they'll compete in LaLiga2 meaning higher reputation games for the second string. This is great news so long as they don't take a beating every week and lose morale. And the success doesn't end there: Our under-19s took home the junior double: winning both the Under19 Division 1 title and the Under-19s Cup. A remarkable achievement as I kept stealing their best players to bring into the B-team and then senior team. Driven by Álex's 37 goals and 13 assists in 31(1) games, there was no stopping them. No such clutch issues for the junior teams. All very promising.

So weird. Football fans are just bizarre. Imagine being expected to stand around and be scolded by some radge plank out of the stands. It's child-like

Thanks. Not something I do but interesting that the results for such a diverse set of roles are so close. Like Ben says, he pretty much has the ability to be anything. I'm also conscious that he's unlikely to be with us that long. Surely a big club will come along soon enough and throw money at him. So I'm thinking short-term we could probably use him most at AMR as an inside forward or raumdeuter - somewhere his starting attributes are best suited and don't require a couple of years' improvement. With Champions League football next season, he should get plenty of game time rotating with Diego López, who is also attracting significant interest from Benfica and Rennes