Shrewnaldo

Thanks! I have considered him as a fullback, given the crossing particularly. But I *really* like the combination of Aggression, Bravery and Positioning that he's got going on. If his Strength can grow nicely into his 20s then I'm keen to put him in the middle. If not, then I could well return to the full-back idea. And I know what you're saying and keeping his morale up for the development boost. It's something that bothers me about sending players on loan to weaker sides in relatively good leagues for their level. It's always a risk they just end up slumping in a rubbish team.

What the heck happened here? A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón What an odd season. Our defensive performance improved by 10 goals in the league but our overall performance deteriorated from last season - only by two games really, turning two wins into an extra draw and an extra loss to record five fewer points. That, however, saw us drop to 9th and fail to qualify for Europe next season so it has to go down as a big disappointment. And it's not really hard to see why we failed to capitalise on the stronger defence. Whilst Valencia's xG underperformance was nominally worse than ours, ours represents an 11.8% underperformance against our measly xG of 48.7. From the fourth best attack to the 8th worst, I really can't put my finger on any reason for the sudden dip in goalscoring ability across the entire squad. Clearly the worst culprit was primary 9 Diego López who still ended our season as top scorer but only thanks to Copa del Rey goals against minnows. He managed just 5 in the league this term and might well find himself jettisoned in the summer. Yet overall, it has to go down as a pretty successful season overall. Faced with continental competition for the first time, we still managed a top half finish and were knocked out by Real Madrid in the domestic cup - but the Europa League rather summed up our season. We were moderately dreadful in the league phase - then bizarrely smashed 6 past Qarabag and beat Spurs away to drag ourselves through to the knockouts. We then hammered Young Boys, Braga and Bologna in the home legs before rather less comfortable away fixtures which eventually saw us come unstuck in Italy. And how. We were absolutely cruising on the hour, 5-1 up on aggregate and in complete control of the game. But Chiquete, our best centre back, had gone off injured and Bologna stuck on Chaka Traoré who proceeded to score a hat-trick and assist the other to take us first to extra-time and ultimately to penalties where we'd lose out. Bologna would go on to lose to Man Utd in the final. That second leg came in a group of end-of-season fixtures which saw us conceded 17 goals in 5 games, with our previously rock-solid defence falling to pieces and costing us not only the Europa League quarter but also a chance to re-enter the tournament next season - taking just 7 points from the last 27 available. Dire. I then spent a bit of my 'parental taxi' time this weekend having a think about the save and where we've gone wrong this season. My conclusion, so far, is that I have fallen into the same trap I always do when I revert to 4-3-3: I try to cover every base and the tactic ends up becoming a vanilla meh of nothingness. We're fine, defensively pretty solid for the most part and create mid-table level of chances. With mid-table levels of players, that gets you... well... mid-table. I need to get back out of the vanilla and get some sort of tactical thought together on how to utilise the best players at my disposal. And this includes the best prospects at my disposal - several of which will be promoted to the senior team again this season. Despite the loss of European football and the 8-12 extra matches that goes with it, I want to continue that development route so Manuel Navarro, Hugo Quiñones and Javi will come into the first team squad. They may also be joined by Mario Martínez, Seydou Diawara and latest starlet Jonathan Mouriño. The latter three are more likely to be brought in for the odd game here and there, rather than permanent fixtures in the squad. And what system will these players come into, as I try to digress from the 'vanilla'? Why, an attacking 4-2-3-1 with a high press of course. What could be less vanilla than that?! But, in all seriousness, this suits the players at my disposal and looks to exploit the excellent creativity we have at 10 with Aarón Molinas and Roberto López, and the number of players we have who suit the double pivot. It also keeps the attacking right wing-back given Rosas is one of our best players and allows me to retain the 3-1 build-up shape that I've been enjoying using the IFB to form the 3 and the BWM(D) holding the centre in front of them. Our defensive personnel aren't world beaters so we've been tending to use possession as a defensive tactic and this will look to continue that, whilst I'm hoping the use of a natural 10 will bring us more success in getting the creative players into the right positions - as well as giving that 10 extra runners in front of him for those searching passes. I'm looking forward to working through it and stealing some of the analytical ideas from Ben. Not content with stealing from one fellow FMer, I also really liked the squad planning spreadsheet which Doop posted and have plagiarised the sort of format to improve upon my earlier efforts. This will be fully populated for next season. Finally, I realised that I had forgotten to post our game time statistics and a check back against the targets I'd set at the start of the save. So here are the tables, updated for the last two campaigns. And that has to be the most pleasing bit of all. The entire premise of the save is to make Sporting a successful team but through the development of players from the Mareo academy. We've now met both the 60% target for the number of players in the first team who are 'homegrown', and smashed the 50% threshold for giving the guajes gametime. Ok, this season might have been a blip on the smooth path to world domination but, within the constraints I've set myself, I reckon it's something we can happily accept. ¡Siempre Sporting!

Interestingly, after signing the good ones, we're now up to 4 Elite Talents and 2 Top Talents, including one that I didn't even include in the wrap up above. I don't see it. But like you say, Mouriño is undoubtedly the star of the show. He's already signed his professional contract - the question is just how long until I introduce him to the first team. He really isn't that far off.

This is really interesting. Can you walk me through what you did with Kozíc? Was he always in the first-team squad? Or did you move him up just for the mentoring and then make him available for unders games? Was he solo or multi tutored? In terms of Samake and Bothmann, their Determination is already fine for development. There's a threshold at 10 - under which development suffers and over which development is boosted. But, iirc from Evidence Based FM's videos, there is no further improvement after 10. Of course, Determination is useful for more than development so I'm not saying you shouldn't at least attempt an improvement.

Frustrating as that xG underperformance is, you can't really beat disappointed with that start to the season. Has your xG/shot gone down? Nearly 0.14 is really quite good but I'm guessing that's reduced a lot since promotion? The shots per 90 from individual players still look really healthy

Havertz is a hell of a signing. How are you planning on using him? I see he's not in any of your formation graphics above

Interesting switch up of roles for the 4-3-3. Definitely food for thought in your build up play. I'm sort of the opposite to you in that my 4-3-3 is defensively solid but offensively tepid, so something for me to consider as I'm amending it over the summer. More parallels between our games - I tried to sign Raya but he turned me down on financials. Meanwhile, you'll know Pérez is a Sporting youth graduate and has been excellent me. Sadly his staff attributes are rubbish in my save. I assume the relatively low final third passes (including the drop) is because you're playing quickly once you've baited the press and played out of the middle third?

The Fifth Intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Later, I'll post some detail on how this topsy-turvy season is going but for now it's the best part of the year - the newgen intake. This was the preview, so much as it means nothing whatsoever And that turned into this on the day: So here we go, reacting live. All very exciting. Elite Talents Jonathan Mouriño - Centre back Ok, ok. There's an awful lot to like there. Already 6'1" at 15, his strength *should* increase very quickly in a few years and the rest of his physicals are starting from a great base. Of his mentals, only the Teamwork is lower than you'd like whilst his technicals aren't far off at all. I really like that's he both brave and aggressive with excellent starting Positioning - whilst his Technique and First Touch are already first-team ready as a ball-playing defender. Long story short, Mouriño is very definitely A Special One. Alberto - Right wing Back to the more normal standard of newgens now - promising but a lot of gaps. Physically Alberto passes muster and he has clear technical strengths in First Touch, Passing and Technique - with the Flair to exploit. Crossing, Dribblins, Off The Ball and Vision are just one away from double-digits and I think Alberto's 'eye test' will be so much more favourable when these tick over. But I doubt he'll make an elite winger, in the truest sense, from a starting point of 9 for Crossing and Dribbling. Clearly, the passing is a strength but Composure, Decisions and Vision are perhaps too low for an elite playmaker. Top Talents Carlos Camacho - Goalkeeper Our 17 year old prospect in goal Carlos Gil (3rd intake) is already in the first-team and Spain's under-21 'keeper, so we're no longer desperate for a newgen goalie. Camacho is, I think, a good prospect but I can't see him usurping Gil as first choice. Starting points of 5 for Communication and 7 for Handling and Positioning are just way too low. Even increases by 5 for all three will only get him to mediocre LaLiga level. A good back-up? Perhaps. Oscar Villanueva - Striker Nice beard for 15. 6'4" and good feet for a big man with that Dribbling, First Touch and Technique. Plus the mentals look decent for a worker but there's quite a few gaps there for me. Physicals are a long way off really. As a finisher, he's really got a long way to go (7 for Finishing & Composure). As a link player his Passing and Vision are poor (6 & 7). As a hold-up player his Aggression (8), Bravery (6) and Strength (4) are way behind par. I'm not sure what to make of Villanueva. Juan Salazar - Right winger Another winger who can't cross. Good personality so he should develop nicely but into what? He can't cross, can barely dribble and can't finish. The game has him listed as a playmaker and I can see why but still with gaps and I don't particularly like using right-footed playmakers from wide on the right. Another one that stumps me. I'm afraid the rest are dross - including two Gambians and an Equatoguinean for reasons that surpass understanding... and still no Mexicans. So all-in-all, this has to be the worst intake of the five to date. Mouriño is definitely a winner whilst two or three of the others look to have some sort of promise, even if I'm not sure in what role. Thankfully, we already have a raft of talent that's making it's way through the system so I can afford an off year here or there. Indeed, the talent has started to make its way into the first-team, where I've decided to use the mistake of understrengthening in the market as an opportunity to just commit with the youth. More than 2000 minutes so far for Ferreras and Polo, over 1000 for Escribano, Moreno, Rojas, Gil and Aguirre. The last of these is clearly the pick of the bunch with 7 first-team goals but Carlos Rojas (intake 2) is the one who has seen the biggest improvement from the game time. Still only 18, he should have another year or so of high-level progression before slowing down a little in his 20s. This has made me consider whether my policy of 2 years in the under-19s, 2 years in the B-team and only then progression into the first-team is the correct one. All these players have more than held their own at LaLiga level, indeed most of them have far exceeded the performances implied by their attributes and are effectively playing to their PA, rather than CA. See Carlos Gil for a prime example. So whilst I still have the best part of £20m in the transfer budget, I decided to double-down on the mistake in January and didn't bring in reinforcements. What will be will be this season and I reckon we still have an outside chance of making it back into Europe, where we've been having a jolly old time this season - turning in a shocking performance in the league phase before disposing of Young Boys and Braga 5-3 a-piece to meet Bologna in the Europa League quarters. I had considered bringing additional youth players into the first team to cater for the additional games but, thanks to yet another wonder B-team bug in FM24, you can't use unregistered youth players after the 31 Jan registration date - even though I could previously. But for next season, the successes of Aguirre, Rojas and Escribano will see likes of Chirpus, Manuel Rey, Quiñones, Welton and Javi brought into the top squad. Whilst it won't ever become a 'youth only' save, I should only be looking for signings down the spine of the team - always with positive personalities to add mentoring to the quality. One other big lesson from this season - make sure I have recall clauses in loan deals. I've moved quite a few players into Primera and Segunda clubs on loan and whilst the majority of them have become first choice, Mario Rodriguez has been woefully under-used. Unfortunately I failed to notice that his loan club removed the recall clause and I have no option but to watch Tudelano consign a very promising player to another wasted season. Rodriguez is an outlier, however, and most of our youth is ticking along very nicely indeed. ¡Siempre Sporting!

The board just want mid-table, so we shouldn't be in too much danger so long as I can avoid a relegation battle. Our form has continued to fluctuate but we're helped out by the league being a bit crazy. We've just beat Betis 2-0 to rise from 15th to 7th. The bunching through the middle of the table is crazy. I've also just decided to go all out on the development kick and have promoted newgens Welton, Javi and Aguirre from the b-team. I've also decided to experiment massively and pulled Carlos Gil into the first team for the last 7 games. Guess which 'keeper has performed better? The now 17 year-old has 4 clean sheet in 7 games and an xGP/90 of 0.22. Sanchez has 4 clean sheets in 14 and an xGP/90 of negative 0.2. Who knows how that works. To give you an idea of how much I've committed to the 'screw it' approach, we ended that 2-0 win over Betis with the following ages on the pitch: 17, 19, 30, 25, 21, 19, 27, 18, 19, 17 and 17. The two goals were scored by Aguirre (17) and Moreno (19), the latter assisted by Javi (17).

I like the simplicity of training the skills that your team has been underperforming at. I need to check my schedules for chance conversion Looks like Can Uzun has been doing really well for you. How are you using him?

I know you said "struggles" but Europa semis is pretty handy, particularly given it's unlucky to get Real at that point Looks like a big clear out. Do the new signings mean a new system?

Hopefully. Nothing is going right for us just now. I set up a friendly during the international break to get some confidence back and Gaspar, one of our best attacking players, broke his leg.

Mistakes were made A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón So I made a very sensible post about what my transfer priorities should be and then I went into the transfer window and did pretty much none of that. So I guess I only have myself to blame. It's been a struggle. It all started great with that 4-1 thumping of Getafe, including a wonderful goal from guaje Domingo Escribano but it's been all down, down, downhill from there. We won the xG battle against Grenada, Zaragoza and Girona - comfortably in all cases - but we just can't score. Diego López, last season's top scorer, is taking <2 shots per 90 and has scored 1 in 7. And at the other end, we've been way too easy to score against. Now, I don't know if you're very familiar with the sport of associated soccer but that isn't an ideal combination. Our xG/shot is the third best in the league yet our conversion rate is the 6th worst. How do you account for that sort of loss of form? Perhaps I should have brought in some competition for Diego López but I figured Quiepo and, if necessary, the Peruvian Bernal would be good enough cover. However, a series of minor injuries in wide areas has meant Quiepo isn't available to deputise and Bernal has been both injured and now transfer listed after a tantrum. Perhaps I should have brought in another striker then, or perhaps more wide options, or perhaps just more players. In the end, I only made two first-team signings with Hakim Ziyech joining on a free and Mexican centre-back Jesús Orozco Chiquete one of two arrivals from Deportivo Guadalajara. Ziyech was the one piece of business I identified in the last post which I actually followed through on - an experienced, high reputation wide playmaker with a good personality to tutor Polo et al. But I never signed a replacement goalkeeper or a right-back. The latter I didn't need after Rosas, our current first-choice, never attracted any bids and eventually signed a new contract. The former... well that was definitely a mistake. I couldn't find any good options for prices and wages that I was willing to offer - either £15m+ or £70kpw+ is just not going to happen. And so I decided to stick with CJ Sanchez for now. In the 7 matches so far, he's averaging -0.31xGP/90. That's an underperformance of a goal every 3 games. Abysmal. I also had the unexpected job of replacing the outstanding Rafa Marín. Having joined from Real for £1.2m in 2025, following a successful loan spell the season before, Marín headed to Saudi Arabia when Al Taawoun triggered his £16.5m release clause. To replace him, I decided to head to the Mexican market again. Chiquete is decent and, to be honest, I'm pretty happy with him and our defensive performance so far - at least until the opposition take a shot at which point it all becomes a bit Massimo Taibi. We have the fifth lowest xGA. And we also have the 6th best xG... so what to do about it? Do we just ride this out and trust that our front players will return to form sooner or later? Do I call up Ander Aguirre from the unders and just let him have his shot already? I am sorely, sorely tempted to do so - surely López will return to form at some point but it feels like he needs to be taken out of the spotlight for a while and we're very short of other options. I'd much rather give Aguirre a few matches than Bernal. After throwing his toys out of the pram because I offered him around a bit, he's sitting on the transfer list and will likely leave for a fraction of his true value. Indeed, the same thing already happened with one of our brighter prospects. I was really keen on Javier Bravo when he came through our second intake but his attitude has been horrible ever since. His training was always shocking and he reacted really poorly to criticism. Thanks to both the poor training and his attitude, his development was turgid at best so I tried him on loan at a Segunda club last season. Just 3 goals and 2 assists later, I'd had enough. Surprisingly a lot of big clubs came in for him and he ended up going to Napoli - for just £235k and 30% of his next sale. Another mistake? We'll have to wait and see. I do not, though, have time to 'wait and see' what happens with our form. Our fixtures so far have been pretty soft and we're still shocking - with Atlético, La Real, the big Real and Sevilla coming up next we could be a bit of trouble. The board expect mid-table this season and I was anticipating another challenge for European places. At this rate, it's more likely to be a relegation battle. ¡Siempre Sporting!

My expectations were to repeat the European qualification and keep increasing the youth minutes. However, as I'm about to post, I think I've screwed up and we're really struggling at the start of the new campaign.

Big fan of this. I haven't really used the targets so far, except for a couple of outgoing loans. I am definitely stealing this idea. Have you noticed any changes to Determination from players meeting or failing to meet targets? I ask because one of my players had a drop of Determination immediately after failing his target to score 10 goals on loan. I wonder if this is coincidental or is intended to reflect that he has just lost heart that he'll make it. Would be interested to know if others have had the same. Tarnowski an option to challenge Moreno as the wrong-footed playmaker coming in from the right?

Are you going with the attributeless version of Ben's skin?

I'm not doing anything unusual with the Newgan manager. I know the 24.2 update mucked all the graphics up because it changed the way the UIDs had to be referenced in the config, adding the requirement for "r-" before the ID number. But if you just download the latest Newgan manager then it has this in it automatically. I've then just paired it with the SortItOutSI "UltraRealistic Newgan Face Cutouts" pack. Simple as that. Thanks, always happy to help develop a few mexicans. I wish I could get more into the system but the restriction on under-18s leaving LigaMX is stopping me. A shame most people hate Irraragori, although I can't say I'm surprised. I'll just pretend that his in-game persona is universally loved.

The question of when to throw them in is a good one and I'm really not sure. I've just mentioned this in the post above but I don't think there's a 'too young' - basically as soon as they're good enough to get a decent rating and maintain morale then I'm tempted to put them in. Is this the 'right way'? I'm really not sure. I know that SI folk have said there is an optimum previously - which is essentially 'not before 18'. But Evidence Based FM didn't find any such correlation in his detailed experiments so I'm ignoring that. In terms of individual training, I try to maximise the key attributes for the role I want them to perform and I use the role training for this. If there are relevant specific weaknesses - in the key attributes or otherwise - then I use the additional focus for this. I haven't really considered this, tbh. I'm guessing at some point I just won't have an option with individual players. The likes of Aguirre will get poached by a super-club eventually so I just have to make sure I've managed the contract well enough to keep the minimum fee clauses nice and high. For those that I want to sell, it'll just be at the point that I know they won't be good enough to fill a role in the club *and* have a better prospect coming up behind them. That could really be at any age.

Fourth Season A Sporting Heritage - The Gaujes of Gijón A successful season, no doubt, as we broke into the European places but frustrations remain due to the poor defensive performances and our tendency to lapse into losing streaks. Three times this season we've gone on winless runs of four games or more - including a six game streak at the back end of January that saw us lose three on the bounce and go out of the cup, and the last five games of the season where we lost four on the bounce and only snuck into Europa League qualification on the final day with a draw. Scoring 14 more than last season is great, conceding 7 more is not. The implementation of 4-3-3 has not been entirely smooth and we've suffered for the lack of two top-quality centre backs and CJ Sánchez's loss of form. The Cuban goalkeeper conceded 0.27 more goals than expected per 90 this season which is really, really poor. It's possible that the 5-2-2-1, which we used just over 20% of the time this season, will get more pitch-time next campaign - although, interestingly, the statistics suggest it may not be the answer to defensive issues anyway. Taking 14 minutes more to create a chance (22% worse) and conceding one 26 minutes faster (31%), it doesn't immediately stand out as being the tactical solution. Perhaps it's as simple as being that goalkeeping issue, something which this would support: Conceding 11 (eleven) goals more than expected... that's just painful. Yet Sánchez is the only current guaje option for in nets. Carlos Gil is coming through the ranks but is 3, maybe 4, seasons away from realistically being a challenger. Can I accept four more seasons of conceding 25% goals than we should? No, no I cannot. So I think I'll just accept that goalkeeper is one of the positions which will need an external player. Which may also be the case for centre-back where Lucas Ferreras, promoted from the B-team last season, has done ok but isn't showing any signs that the expanded top-tier game time will see him develop into a LaLiga player. Now that is disappointing (last 12 months of attribute progression). Yet statistically Ferreras has exceeded the performances of Pelayo and Jorge Meré - the latter a particular let-down following his summer arrival from Olympiakos. Therefore, my intention is to keep Ferreras as back-up to the excellent Rafa Marín and pull José Gragera back from his midfield role to play as a centre-back, thereby freeing up one of the three midfield slots for the excellent prospects we have coming out of the B-team. Brazilian guaje Welton will also be promoted as centre-back cover but allowed to play for the B-team, meaning that I can sell one of Pelayo or Meré. As the 4-3-3 uses an inverted full-back on the left to join the centre backs in a three when we're in possession, Ferreras' ability play both positions covers this naturally and will mean Mexican defender Alejandro Gómez, returning from a successful loan spell with affiliate Atlas, can slot back in to the squad nicely. On the right, Guille Rosas has been first-choice for all four seasons of the save but his performances have dipped slightly this season as he is pushing for a move away - with two years left on his contract, I'm in no rush but Premier League interest could see his £32.5m release clause activated. So that would add an attacking right-back to the goalkeeper on the shopping list. Into midfield and we've a host of options. With Gragera moving to centre-back, it's likely that our first-choice senior options for the three roles will be Jonathan Varane - DM(D), Jonathan González - BBM(S) - and Aarón Molinas - MEZ(AT). Of the three, González is the more likely to be replaced by incoming youngsters. Carlos Rojas and Domingo Escribano have started to pick up a bit of game time and will be fixtures in the squad next term. Both are more suited to the DM(D) role which would see the excellent Varane move into the B2B role and González miss out. For the wider roles, I might have to do a little bit of shopping. Prendes was promoted to the first-team squad last term but completely failed to impress when called upon and will be allowed to leave. Instead, I'd primarily rotated Gaspar, Francesc Polo, Dani Quiepo and the injury-prone Roberto López between the AP(S) on the right and the W(S) on the left. Youngster Polo has been a great success - 4 goals, 5 assists and a healthy 0.14xA/90. My only issue is that he is still only 18 and not the finished product - so do I want to be relying on him as the team's primary creator, completing more passes than his more developed team-mates? Maybe. Quiepo is more of a goal threat than a creator and scored 7 in 18 from the left, plus 5 from 7 when stepping into the slot at 9. Gaspar is really the utility man here - capable of either creating or scoring - but performs best from the left. Roberto López, when fit, was absolutely superb as one of the 10s in the 5-2-2-1 but, for reasons I haven't yet fathomed, was much less effective in the 4-3-3. The only options for youth promotion into the wide areas are 16 year-olds Javi and Ander Aguirre. The latter is ear-marked for the 9 slot and the latter, whilst clearly of future quality, really needs at least one more season in the unders. Which, given the volume of matches we're likely to face, possibly provides scope for another playmaker to come in. Here I would be looking for someone 29+ that can come in with the reputation and the personality to mentor the likes of Polo. Up front, we're covered. In January, I sold Uroš Sremčević, the 2026 NxGn runner-up, to Antwerp for £14.5m and 20% of his next sale. That allowed me to immediately sign Diego López from Brentford for basically the same cost. Sremčević may have been highly valued by the game but he was an infuriatingly inconsistent player who never got the goals his talent seemingly promised. López, on the other hand, is a former guaje who left for Real Madrid in 2017, then spent time at Barca and Valencia before, in my save, moving to the Premier League in 2025. He never quite cut it at the G-Tech and I was only too happy to 'bring him home'. 0.7 goals per 90 is an excellent return so far and he looks like being a great signing. With López clear first choice and Dani Quiepo and able back-up, we also have Peruvian Daniel Bernal returning from loan. The 6'8" striker scored 10 at Mallorca and finished 23rd in this year's list of the world's wonderkids. Yet he isn't gathering the slightest transfer interest and I'm loathe to force the issue and miss out on the value that's clearly there. Signed for just £375k, he's guaranteed profit but I'm hoping for somewhere close to his release clause of £20m with a hefty sell-on clause. If it weren't for the guaje options we have, I'd be more interested in keeping Bernal around but, leaving aside the likes of Rodriguez, Álex and Diawara, I'm just waitin Still only 5'10", his Jumping attribute has already increased by 4 points since spawn and he scored on his debut against Real Betis, beating 6' Patric and 6'2" Álex Pérez to this header. After 24 goals and 9 assists in 20 games for the under-19s, he was promoted to the B-team and scored twice, assisting once in 7 sub appearances. He's going to be phenomenal if he continues to develop like this and the only question is how long do I wait before putting him in the first team? Is 16 too young? I don't think there is a 'too young' in this game, so long as they are already good enough to hold their own and can perform well enough to maintain morale then why not throw them in? So I think Aguirre will bounce between the senior and B-teams this season. All that leaves a shopping list of: first-choice goalkeeper, likely replacement right-back for Rosas and playmaker from the right-wing. I'll also be doing my usual trawl of the Mexican market. González has been solid in the first-team and Abraham Meza made a good contribution in the B-team. They were joined in January by 18 year-old Manuel Rey, signed for just £200k from Orlegi affiliate Santos Laguna. Signed on his 18th birthday, if Rey hangs around until he turns 21 then he'll also qualify as a homegrown Sporting Gijón player. With his Professional personality, he's already looking like a good pick-up and I'm hoping will be the blueprint for Mexican signings going forward. ¡Siempre Sporting!

Very flattered to hear that I'm inspiring anyone and how they play their game. Martinez should be fantastic but has very quickly become an example of what I was saying in your thread about the speed of generic influence. He's started the game as Ambitious personality and, without being included in a mentoring group, has become Balanced within a month. In the under-19s, his Ambition has dropped by at least one inside a month. How can that happen so quickly without any senior players in the squad and when he's listed as a Team Leader within the under-19s... and yet the mentoring, which is specifically set up to influence such attributes, takes forever if it ever has any impact whatsoever. It's this sort of stuff which drives me absolutely insane with this game. In terms of what I've learned so far... I think most of what I've done is just the well-known stuff that everyone does: individual training, mentoring when I can and prioritising game time. I still find it difficult to balance squad depth in the unders squads with making sure that the right players are getting game time. And match minutes are just so important. The other thing is probably morale. In the second season, the B-team were smashing their way through the Segunda and development soared. In the third season, they had an up-and-down season before finishing mid-table and development stalled. Despite the increased competition reputation of playing in the Primera, my only explanation for the reduced attributional progression is that losing more games has impacted morale and that has in-turn reduced individual development. Unless anyone else has a theory, anyway.

The fourth intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón A combination of absolutely loving the save, only playing on Extended Highlights and an additional four hours playing whilst watching the Super Bowl has seen me absolutely fly through season four and already reach intake day. And it looks like being a beaut. The preview was certainly promising but this isn't anyone's first time at the rodeo. What actually arrives could be very, very different. Six elite talents. SIX?! Ok, so we might be on to something here. Let's take them in order of the intake starting with... Elite Talents Vicente Cuadrado - 10? Ok, that's an underwhelming start but even so there's things to like. Some attributes which don't tend to shift much (Decisions, Determination, Flair, Teamwork) are really good. And he's got good Technique and passable technicals for his age. The strength will increase over time whilst he's two-footed. He's ok but have to say I was expecting more. Carlos Cordero - right back A successor to Rosas was the only position for which I had no guajes, so a right back is very, very welcome. And if it weren't for his personality and height, then I'd be very excited about Cordero. But Casual implies irretrievably low Professionalism and it'll make it hard for the youngster to develop whatsoever. Which is such a huge shame as, height side, he's great and would have turned into a star. Álex - 9 Finally, we get a striker who is over 6 foot, although he still can't jump and would get knocked over by a fart. Good finishing, good pace and good touch for a big man, he's got some potential for sure. It's great that he's a different profile to the likes of Rodriguez and Aguirre, opening up all sorts of possibilities for how we can play. My initial reaction, however, is that he won't ever be as good as Golden Boy Elect Ander Aguirre. Mario Martínez - 8 Ok, now *that's* a newgen. Two-footed like nearly all our intakes, he's got mezzala written all over him. The pace should jump up nicely by the time he's 19 whilst he has the inherent Technique, Flair and Off the Ball, with really solid Finishing, Passing and Vision. My only tiny, tiny inconsequential downside is that he's primarily left-footed. As I need to make room for a star left-winger in Javi, the mezzala is going to play on the right with an AP coming inside in front of him. Being predominantly left-footed might hamper that a little but boy am I being picky. Martínez should be great. Iván Elvira - 6/8 Another really solid looking central midfielder, Elvira's personality and media-handling look like the only obvious downside as he looks well-suited to the box-to-box role alongside Martínez's mezzala. Santiago Caballero Pace, Determination and Technique. Plus 14 heading for someone who is 5'1". Interesting. Caballero could be decent but he's a million miles from the afore-mentioned Javi. His lack of ambition might be useful if it means that he's willing to stay as a bench-warmer / squad rotation option. With eleven attributes within 2 points of double-figures, he'll probably look a lot better in 12 months. Top Talent Gerard Monroy - destined to leave Yikes. He'd be just fine if it wasn't for that personality but Determination so far <10 means he's unlikely to amount to much. I also don't play right-wingers due to the obvious talents on the left - I'll likely make a forlorn attempt to retrain him at MC to become a back-up mezzala option but I'm expecting little. Good Talents A back-up 'keeper, a left-back with Determination of 4, a centre back with Determination of 3... it's a real mixed bag but there's a couple who I think could be decent. Víctor - centre-back Another unambitious player but with decent Determination and Unflappable media-handling potentially implying decent Professionalism, there's enough in there to give him a shot. The one thing really holding him back is his Heading which is unlikely to climb much higher than 10 or 11 - probably not good enough for a LaLiga centre back. The rest is handy though. José Carlos Ferrer - Right-back A right-back called Ferrer. Where Cordero has the attributes but a poor personality, Ferrer has the personality but poor attributes. Solid enough physicals, to be fair, but key gaps in Teamwork and Work Rate, not to mention Dribbling. A long shot but definitely one who will stick around. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Again no Mexicans, which is really disappointing. But the biggest disappointment for me is the lack of transference from the HoYD's personality. Professional with Determination of 14, there's very little sign of this throughout the intake. Indeed, about 50% of the newgens have explicitly poor personalities which is really, really disappointing. Having said that, Álex, Cuadrado and Elvira look handy whilst Ferrer and Caballero look to have something. The undoubted star of the intake is Mario Martínez who not only looks like a proper player but also arrives in a position where I didn't have a standout newgen option available. Rojas, Chiripus and Escribano are all really good but are more physical central midfielders; whilst Quiñones leans more towards playmaker than mezzala for me. José Antonio Vaquiero, who could have become that mezzala, broke his lower leg and it remains to be seen how well he'll recover. Overall, though, I'm really pleased with how the newgen stable is developing. We've had at least four players in every intake who look like they'll develop well enough to be first-team members (the links to the original posts will show the attributes at spawn): Intake 1 Seven elite talents, seven good talents, two decent Three years of development Roberto Vacas - stalling somewhat but goalkeepers develop later; Jaime Luis - ticking along and a fixture in the B-team but I think unlikely to make it; Welton - looking like he could turn into a very handy centre back and likely promoted to the first-team squad next term; Escribano - his Determination simply refuses to increase but the rest of his attributes have sky-rocketed as he has made his way into the B-team and a handful of first-team appearances; Luis Ochoa - his attributes were the first to flourish but he's been hampered by a series of minor injuries and looks like he's stagnating; Alejandro Soriano - Ben's favourite, he was ticking along really nicely until he broke his ankle on loan which is putting his development into doubt; Francesc Polo - undoubted star of the first intake, he's already in the first-team squad and smashing it this season with 9 goal involvement in 13 starts and 18 sub appearances. Intake 2: Three elite talents, four top talents, six good talents, two decent Two years of development Manuel Navarro - excellent centre back who just needs to get those technicals going to be a real talent; Raimundo Montiel - centre-back, left-back or wing-back... no-one is quite sure but just like Navarro, he could just do with those technicals ticking up a few points; Carlos Rojas is going to be brilliant - mentoring has managed to massage him from Temperamental to Balanced so far and he needs to get rid of that trait but he's one of my absolute favourites; Tomás - another who broke his leg and now has work to do to catch up; Javier Bravo - all the talent but shocking attitude which is reflected in his really poor development to date, sadly one who will probably be cast aside; Hugo Quiñones - another who has seamlessly made the step up to the B-team and is developing really well including Pace _4 and Passing +3, big fan; Mario Rodríguez - ticking along fine but has failed to really catch fire at any level, he keeps getting benched in favour of the stronger prospects despite clearly having talent, perhaps best to loan out next season; Dani Moya - listed only as a 'decent talent' in the intake, my coaches still don't fancy him but he's developing really well and has been solid for the under-19 side - I'm a fan. Intake 3: Three elite talents, four top talents, six good talents One year of development Carlos Gil - performing well for the under-19s even if there's little in the way of attribute development but then 'keepers develop late; Ander Aguirre - good lord he is going to be brilliant, 33 goal involvements (24G, 9A) for the under-19s saw him promoted to the B-team where he's already bagged twice from four sub appearances - PSG have already indicated interest but he is The One; Javi - has already joined his pal Aguirre in the B-team after 10 goals and 14 assists in 20 starts for the unders; José Manuel Ortega - I wasn't sure what Ortega was when he came through and he's one of the few whose potential has deteriorated, so probably not likely to make it; José Antonio Vaquero - broke his leg and still on his way back but 6 goals, 6 assists in 18 games implies there's still something there; Gabriel Vera - experimental loan to the Segunda looks to have done him some good but still too many gaps in his game for me; Seydou Diawara - the only good talent I highlighted during the intake, Diawara has gone on to prove me very, very right - his progress so far is exceptional with +4 in three attributes and +3 in nine, meaning he now looks like a real prospect. And then intake four above - six elite talents, one top talent, seven good talents, two decent And then there's the Peruvian guy I bought in. I'll need to sell him in the summer. ¡Siempre Sporting!

I think I just find the inconsistency in the feature irritating and, like I say, that the squad influences outside of mentoring (squad culture or traits) can happen faster and completely randomly. The latter particularly irritates my need for control. I tried your multiple tutor way, Ben, and it does appear to have had an impact (obviously no control against which I can test the impact). Will keep experimenting

Yeah I'm aware of all of that - the only thing I was wondering was the multiple mentors to single mentee, versus single mentor to multiple mentees. I'd always gone with the latter. But I just generally find mentoring to be of limited use these days. I was going to say "completely ineffectual" but literally just now my mentee has ticked over from Temperamental to Balanced so effectual... just very slowly. And it's that pace which irritates me. Doing all the right things with hierarchy, social group, training unit etc yet the impact of Mentoring is way slower and less reliable than the impact on Determination to general squad members. Surely, if anything, mentoring should just be faster than non-mentoring impacts? Anyway, I'm at danger of derailing Ben's threads again :-D

Loving this. Are you having the same issue I'm having with the getting the right wing-back's starting position to be high enough? I like that he plays relatively deep through the defensive and into the middle third, but as the ball progresses through the middle-third I'd really like him to play as high and wide as possible but feel like the only way I can do this is by changing the team's overall mentality - which I'm loathe to do. You mentioned Mentoring too - how successful are you finding that? I noticed that in a previous screenshot you'd gone with multiple senior mentors to a single mentee. This is not how I've done it in the past, but I've been having very little success with this. Is your method more fruitful?

Thanks. The one thing that's holding me back from using the editor is that the reason for it is the low rep - something which I'm taking advantage of because it also results in the lower expectations of the board. So it feels a bit hypocritical