brod_104

January 2025 It's been a little longer than planned, but time for another update. I've now completed the January transfer window in 2025. The season so far is going reasonably well, overall, and I'll come to competitions so far, but first of all, there has been some big transfers take place. The January window has seen 5 players arrive and four leave. We had a run of disappointing form in December, in which there were a few silly mistakes starting to creep in, notably from Lino, who had been given an opportunity following the departure of Green in the summer. I therefore decided to look for an upgrade in goal and the option I went for was another addition to the Norwegian contingent. Kristoffer Klaesson arrived on loan until the end of the season from Leeds United - I had asked about a permanent deal, given he no longer had a UK work permit, so couldn't play for Leeds. His visa situation, plus the fact his contract is running out in the summer meant he could potentially have been available for just £100k or so. Unfortunately, he is planning on reviewing his options in the summer, so a loan deal was the end result. This actually ended up resulting in Lino leaving, joining Girona in the end for £1m - this is a small loss in the end, but releases a spot in the European squad. In early January, my scout reports through up a potential wonderkid who could be available for a very low fee. The player in question was Madi Monamay, a teenage centre-back from Belgium playing for Bayer Leverkusen. The contracts of Pétrot and Briançon are expiring in the summer, and they aren't really good enough for the top end of Ligue 1 any more, so I took my scouts' advice and signed Monamay for a fee of around £1.2m. I decided that part of the reason for our slump before Christmas was down to a lack of experience in my starting line-up. To try and resolve this, and add a bit more quality to the team, I looked for additions at centre-back and in central midfield. The midfield option was quickly filled with the signing of Polish international Jakub Moder who was a free agent having been released by Brighton in the summer. Centre-back was a tougher deal to secure - my scouts were strongly recommending Brazilian defender Diego Costa, formerly of São Paulo, but who had joined Fulham in the Premier League in 2023/24. Theoretically he was available on a relatively cheap deal following Fulham's relegation at the end of that season, but it took several rounds of negotiations to get a deal done, and I still had to break the club's transfer record, with the deal costing an initial £12.5m, potentially rising to £16.75m. The final signing was another potential wonderkid, this time a Romanian left-winger from Farul Constanta. Enes Sali arrived with high hopes for a fee of £3.4m. In addition to the sale of Lino, the three other departures were Thomas Monconduit on a free transfer to Guingamp (at 33, his contract was another ibe due to expire in the summer, and he had dropped well down the order), and loan deals for Óscar Perea (who is frustratingly inconsistent when he plays) and Pierre Mbemba. In terms of results, the league campaign is going OK so far. We currently sit in 6th position after 20 games, with two games in hand on most of the teams around us following a weather postponement and clashes with cup games. If we win our two games in hand, we would go fourth, one point behind third place. However, one of those games in hand is against PSG so... I figure that's unlikely! Since the end of my last update, where our most recent result was a defeat to Monaco, we've lost only twice in 16 games: a dreadful 3-0 loss at Toulouse, and a narrow 1-0 defeat at Reims. We've had some very good wins, including 2-1 against Rennes, and 3-1 in the local derby against Lyon, but we've draw too many games in my opinion. Some of these are probably still decent results, against Marseille and Nice, but dropping points against Nantes and Lens who have been in the relegation fight so far was very disappointing. At the time of writing though, we've just played the home fixture against Monaco, and finally got a win - not just any win either, but a 4-0 thumping! After a goalless first half, Branco van den Boomen put us ahead just before the hour mark, before Cafaro gave us breathing room 5 minutes from time. As Monaco crumbled, top goalscorer Dion Drena Beljo scored twice in injury time. The big disappointment of the season so far was our performance in the French Cup. As we struggled through December, we squeezed through in the Ninth Round with a 1-0 win away to Le Puy Foot 43 - an affiliate club in the fourth tier of French football. We faced another fourth-tier side, Angoulême Charente, in the Tenth Round and threw away a 2-0 lead before going out on penalties. In more positive news however, the European adventure continues. We qualified from the League Phase of the Europa Conference League in 6th place, avoiding the play-off round. We were unbeaten, winning our first four games against Slask Wroclaw (1-0), Zeleznicar P (5-0), Club Brugge (4-1) and KF Shkëndija (1-0). We secured qualification with 2-2 draw away to Fenerbahçe and a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to FCSB. In terms of player peformance, Croatian centre-forward Beljo is once again the main man, with 23 goals in 28 appearances - this includes 14 goals in 19 league games, and 9 goals in 8 appearances in Europe. Teenager winger Aiki is the next top scorer with 7, following by fellow right-winger Kjølstad Nyheim and Cafaro on 6 each. Cafaro is the top provider, with 12 assists to go with his goal contributions. I've also been trying to blood some of the youth team players (which I think in part explains the exit from the domestic cup, as the team was heavily rotated). This has had some mixed results. Newgen midfielder Butrint Morina is a ball-winning midfielder with dual Albanian-Kosovan nationality, and has performed reasonably well in his 8 appearances so far, mostly in Europe for the last 15-20 minutes or so. Young French midfielder Antoine Gautier has done very well in three appearances so far, assisting for a late equaliser against Fenerbahçe, and also for the winner against Le Puy in the cup. Teenage midfielder Florian Gros had a less successful debut however, getting sent off in stoppage time in that games against Le Puy after coming on as a late sub. Anyway, I think our next two games are our games in hand in the league, firstly at home to PSG, and then away to Montpellier, so this should give us a better idea of whether we can challenge for the Champions League, or whether we should have our sights on the Europa League instead. Currently we don't know what the future holds for the Conference League campaign, as the play-off round hasn't been drawn yet, but at some point we could end up against West Ham, Bilbao, Feyenoord or Braga, who are probably the biggest sides already through to the last 16, with Fenerbahçe, AZ and Trabzonspor amongst the teams in the play-off.

I'm not sure if this is funny or whether I should be a little bit annoyed at the league... After every single one of my Europa Conference League games so far this season with St-Étienne, our league game immediately afterwards has been the early kick-off. Yes, we're playing Thursday-Sunday, which is fairly normal, but why are we getting the 1pm kick-off, when there are games kicking off at 3pm, 5pm and 9pm, sometimes 8pm as well! All the other games are televised as well, so it's not just my games... Feels a little unfair given we've had away trips to Armenia, Turkey, Poland and Serbia so far, with another trip to Turkey coming up... I was about to say our only relief from this scheduling is the French Cup tie in December after the home game against FCSB, with an 8:45pm kick-off, but I've just spotted that's pencilled in for the Saturday instead! I imagine that is a placeholder and our game will get moved to the Sunday when the draw gets made, but I bet it'll be 1pm again...

Thank you! September 2024 So, a quick update at the end of the summer 2024 transfer window, and there have been no further arrivals by the end of the transfer window. I decided to stick with the plan of giving Lino his chance in goal, and so far he's done pretty well, with 5 clean sheets in 8 games during August and the first day of September. Aside from a few loans from youth players, there was one more permanent departure, with 22-year-old Moroccan midfielder Benjamin Bouchouari signing for Southampton for £1.8m plus a percentage of future profit - Southampton have immediately listed him for loan with the express intention of making a profit themselves, so hopefully we'll see some more funds come in from that deal in the future. I was a bit worried that I would be forced into some deadline day deals, as bigger (or at least, more wealthy) clubs have started to circle around some of my players. Lino is attracting interest from Wolves - if that had gone through, I would definitely have needed to find a new goalkeeper, as I don't think Badji or Raveyre are quite ready for the first-team. More worryingly, Aiki and Beljo are also starting to attract interest - Aiki from Wolves and Southampton, Beljo from Wolves, Southampton, Leicester, Juventus, Roma and Sporting CP. I put Beljo's asking price as high as I could without unsettling him, at £46.5m, but that hasn't really discouraged potential bidders yet - there could be a bidding war triggered there if it comes to it... Wolves made a bid for Aiki, but I was able to talk him round by explaining he'd get more first-team opportunities if he stayed put. I'm relieved about that one, because the £4m or £5m offer would have been a lot less than I was wanting for someone with his potential. A bid was also made for Lino on deadline day, not by Wolves but by Monaco, who had allowed their first-choice goalkeeper to move to Marseille - Monaco's bid was swiftly rejected. In terms of games played so far, things have started reasonably well. I'll come to our European campaign in a moment, but the league has seen us have a fairly solid start. We're four games in, and after a slightly disappointing opening day draw at newly-promoted Troyes, we recorded home wins over Lorient and Brest. That was followed by a trip to Monaco, where we suffered yet another narrow defeat, this time 2-1. We're currently 6th in the standings, still within 3 points of PSG - I'm under no illusions that we could catch PSG though, as in one of their wins they put TWELVE goals past Nantes... In our European adventure, we starting in the Europa Conference League Third Qualifying Round against Ararat Yerevan of Armenia. A narrow 1-0 win in the away leg was secured thanks to a second half Bobir Abdiholiqov goal, and the tie was secured with a 4-0 home win through van den Boomen, a quick brace from Beljo, and a late cameo goal from Colombian winger Perea. This set up a Fourth Qualifying Round tie against Istanbul Basaksehir. I was a little nervous about this one, given that the Turkish side had comfortably beaten Aris Limassol 9-4 on aggregate. I needn't have worried though, as a 2-0 home win (Aiki and Beljo with the goals) was followed up with a 1-0 away win thanks to a boomer from Boomen! The Conference League switches to its new League format in 2024/25, and our opponents have been drawn... somehow... I still have no idea how fixtures are decided in this new format! Anyway, we will be playing Slask Wroclaw of Poland (Away), Zeleznicar of Serbia (A), Club Brugge (Home), Shkëndija from North Macedonia (H), Fenerbahçe (A) and FCSB (formerly known as Steaua Buchuresti) (H). I don't think that's too bad a set of fixtures (and, personally, I enjoy the variety - as much as I enjoy my usual Liverpool saves, it does sometimes get a bit tedious drawing the same mix of Spanish, German and Italian clubs almost every season!)

2024/25 (Pre-season) OK, I haven't got a whole lot further since my last update at the weekend (have been a bit under the weather, so not played much of anything this week!) However, I thought I'd prepare a quick update just before the start of the new season, because there has been some rather significant transfers taking place... First of all, the pre-season fixtures have generally been satisfactory. Admittedly we lost 1-0 at home to Slovan Bratislava, which was disappointing, but we have won all five of our other friendlies. This includes some comfortable wins against local lower-league sides while on a training camp in Portugal, and home games against Racing Santander and Aris. We're about to play our first competitive game of the season in the first leg of the Europa Conference League Third Qualifying Round, away to Ararat Yerevan of Armenia. If we get through that tie, we would face the winner of Aris Limassol or Istanbul Basaksehir. Now, summer transfers. I'm quite excited by the first two players I signed in the summer window, both Norwegian and both from Molde. The first is a central midfielder, Sivert Mannsverk, signed for £3m and who I'm hoping will be an upgrade in my BWM role. The second is a right-winger or striker, Gustav Kjølstad Nyheim who I ended up signing for £6.5m. The second one I may have ended up overpaying slightly, because I was trying to arrange this in May (before the end of the 2023/24 season) and ended up setting the transfer date to "end of season in France", thinking this would still go through in summer 2024. Instead I realised the contract start date was going to be summer 2025, so I ended up cancelling, and had to go back later to get the deal done in 2024, which gave Molde the chance to bump up the price... In addition, there were incomings at centre-back. Billy Koumetio's loan deal became permanent through my obligation to buy, but I also wanted a right-sided centre-back who could be an upgrade on Briançon and Giraudon. This second defender arrived in the shape of Clemens Riedel, a 20-year old German from Darmstadt, for £3.9m. The only other arrivals were a pair of 17-year-old newgen strikers on free transfers: Ismaïla Diallo from Senegal (who doesn't officially join until March 2025 after his contract expired at Génération Foot in his home country, but is on trial so that he can train until then), Thomas Jensen from FC København. So whilst I've spent around £14.5m, I've brought in around £12.75m. Sales have included Yvan Neyou (£775k to Sheffield United), youngster Lorenzo Cerutti (£575k to Montpellier), Koimizo Maïga (£160k to Eupen), and Chiedozie Ogbene (£2m to Espanyol). I also ended up moving on Jimmy Giraudon (£1.4m to Brest) - he did well enough for me in our promotion season, and was generally OK in our first season back in the top-flight, but there were some mistakes creeping in and at 32, and with Briançon and Riedel both ahead of him on the right, and Pétrot and Mbemba providing cover for the left, I decided to cash in before his contract expired. The big news though concerns Etienne Green. Sadly, the most aptly named player for St-Étienne is no longer at the club, and has joined Tottenham in the Premier League. Spurs saw both of their senior keepers Lloris and Forster retire in the summer, and made a bid for Green. I did ask if there was any way I could convince him to stay, but he felt the opportunity to play in a stronger squad was too big. Now I know Spurs have been a bit of a mess in real life recently (and in fact finished 10th in 2024 in my save), but I felt this would be a losing argument, so decided to let him leave without ruining the rapport we'd built up. I ended up agreeing a deal that should rise to £9.75m, although Spurs did also later sign Bijlow from Feyenoord, so we'll see if we get the payments based on league appearances... The sale of Green means Lino will get an opportunity to impress, at least for the first half of the season, in part because the deal to sign him last summer included a promise that he would become first choice if/when Green left. I just wasn't anticipating Green leaving only a year later! On the other hand, I can't see that promise listed anywhere any more, so maybe I could get away with signing a new keeper... As things stand, assuming there are no more transfer dealings, I think my first-choice line up will look something like this: Areas that are more likely to be subject to rotation are full-back, where Palencia and Buleza are very close to Maçon and Sinkgraven, Mouton for Moueffek, Puig for van den Boomen and Kjølstad Nyheim for Aiki.

As an small mini-update, I'm starting to get offers for interviews from other clubs, citing the performance of St-Étienne! Both Bayer Leverkusen and Marseille have offered interviews, with Marseille also commenting on my history of signing under-23s for the first team. However, I intend to decline them, because this save is geared around trying to do as much as I can with St-Étienne (where Beljo and I have now also made it onto the favoured personnel list...)

2023/24 (Part 2) This update will cover the second half of the 2023/24 season. Going into February 2024 and the final 15 games of the season, St-Étienne were 7th in the league and into the Eleventh Round of the French Cup. Our first match in February saw us take on Marseille in the Cup away from home. Despite being underdogs, we took the lead after half an hour through a Dion Beljo strike. We lead at half-time, but sadly conceded with a minute of the restart. There were no further goals, so the game ended up going to penalties - all four penalties were scored by Les Verts, whilst Marseille missed two of theirs, which put us through to a Quarter Final where we would face a home tie against... Monaco. Unfortunately Monaco were too strong and despite going in level at 1-1 at half-time, the team from the principality scored a second half winner to end our cup hopes. Monaco would go on to lose in their semi-final against second-tier Rodez, who in turn faced PSG in the final. Sadly there was no fairy-tale ending for Rodez, and they were thumped 8-0, with Mbappé scoring 5 in the first half. Meanwhile in the league, our form hit a rough patch through February and March. After beating Lens 2-1 at home, we would subsequently win only 1 game (against Nantes) in our next 7. This run included away defeats against Marseille, Lyon and PSG, which is perhaps not a big surprise, but the manner of the defeats (4-0 against PSG, and 3-0 in the other two games) was particularly disappointing, as were the home draws against Reims and Auxerre. April on the other hand was a huge success, winning four games out of four. This run of games put us back up to 5th position in the league. Results for other teams had really closed up the chase for European football. Nice and Marseille had struggled over the past month or two, both potentially distracted to a run to the Europa League Quarter-Finals. Lyon meanwhile had been in excellent form and moved into a Champions League qualification place themselves. After such a good run in April, and with only four games to go, we suffered a big reality check at home to Nice. We conceded two goals within the first 15 minutes and never really recovered. A goal early in the second half from Beljo could have given hope, but was immediately cancelled out by a third goal for Nice. We then drew away to Strasbourg, but recovered with a big win at home to Montpellier. This meant we were still 5th going into the final day, but it was all very close: Mathematically, we could still qualify for the Champions League, although goal difference means this was unrealistic. The final day fixtures were also not in our favour. Marseille and Nice both had seemingly winnable games against teams in the bottom half (Toulouse and Auxerre respectively), whilst our game was away to Monaco... The final day didn't start brilliantly, as Marseille took an early lead away to Toulouse. Meanwhile Monaco began to to apply significant pressure on our defence as they sought to break the deadlock. Better news came through from elsewhere on the south coast, as word came through that Auxerre had taken a surprise lead against Nice! As we reached half-time, Marseille had climbed to 5th thanks to their lead, whilst we were holding Monaco and so held 6th place on goal difference. The second half began and our worst fears were realised, as Kevin Volland broke the deadlock to give Monaco the lead on 52 minutes. Barely 10 minutes later, Nice equalised, and now we only held 7th place on goal difference. Fortunately after another 10 minutes, Auxerre retook the lead against Nice, which restored a 1-point advantage in our favour. Despite encouragement, Les Verts couldn't find an equaliser of our own, and in fact conceded a second goal in the final minute of added time. The full-time whistle went, and I was immediately sent to the tunnel post-match interview, with no idea whether there had been any late goals in the games involving Marseille or, more importantly, Nice. The reporter's questions didn't give me any hints either, so I nervously continued to find out the results... Marseille had held on, so finished above us, but Auxerre had also held on to beat Nice, which meant in our first season back in the top flight, St-Étienne qualified for Europe! The players have generally been very good this season, with the lowest average rating being 6.7. In the end only three players managed an average rating of over 7.0. In third-place, the first of these is French defensive midfielder Louis Moutton, who probably played more than I expected this season due to injuries to Moueffek. Next up is Dutch midfielder Branco van den Boomen - Branco actually had a slightly disappointing last couple of months, but ended up with 10 goals and 9 assists, so ended up being an excellent free transfer. However, the star of the season was the big money signing, Dion Drena Beljo, who scored a fantastic 23 goals including 19 in the league, which was also enough to earn him his first international cap for Croatia. The other players who I was impressed with this season were three youngsters in Billy Koumetio, who will be making his loan move permanent in the summer, Ukrainian full-back Andrii Buleza and teenage winger Ayman Aiki. Aiki in particular worked his way into my first-choice line-up this season, and ended up with 5 goals and 5 assists from 21 starts. The squad will obviously need some strengthening again for next season. I may look to prioritise a right-sided centre-back, as Briançon and Giraudon have made a few too many mistakes for my liking, given their experience, and I may look for a right winger/inside forward to replace Yvan Neyou (who was unhappy because he wanted to play centrally) and Ogbene, who has unfortunately not been as successful as other signings. I may also look for an upgrade on Camara as my BWM. I'll also be hoping to use some of the extra European games to blood some more youngsters, as there were some more interesting prospects in our latest youth intake - which did in fact include a couple of players for the positions I'm looking at, but at 15 they might be a bit young to throw straight into the starting line up!

2023/24 (part 1) As mentioned, I'm currently in January 2024, so thought I would also provide a report on the first half of our first season back in the French top flight. First of all, transfers. It was a busy summer! El Melali and Garnacho's loans came to an end, and they returned to their parent clubs. I would have liked to keep Garnacho, but the finances would have been too expensive. Mathieu Cafaro's loan deal was also due to end, but after his excellent season, I took up the option to make the deal permanent for £400k. Cafaro was one of 11 signings made in the summer transfer window, while 20 players left the club (including those release at the end of contract). Returning from loan deals away from the club were Cameroon attacking midfielder Yvan Neyou and French midfielder Mahdi Camara. Notable exits included Wadji for £165k (to Neftçi Baku), Lobry for £1.3m (Bordeaux), Marie-Gael Mukanya for £325k (Nîmes), Nadé for £600k (Dijon), Dreyer for £300k (Gijón), Sow for £1.8m (Gent) and - on deadline day - Pintor for £1m (Augsburg). I was disappointed to lose Nadé, Sow and Pintor, as they were definitely in my first team plans, but unfortunately they were all indicating that they would not extend their contract at the end of 2024 or 2025, so I cashed in. There were also loan deals for Abi, Bouchouari, Chambost and Maïga, who would find otherwise find their playing time limited due to summer arrivals, and the likes of Yanis Lhéry, a young prospect who I wanted to get some first team football. Krasso would also end up leaving on loan as part of the Joker transfer window. Signings were a mix of free transfers and younger players who could go straight into the team. The free transfers included former Barcelona midfielder Riqui Puig (unattached), Irish winger Chiedozie Ogbene (Rotherham), Dutch midfielder Branco van den Boomen (Toulouse) and Dutch wing-back Daley Sinkgraven (Leverkusen). Other arrivals included two strikers, Bulgarian Preslav Borukov for £2m (Lokomotiv Plovdiv) and Croatia's Dion Beljo for £7.75m (Osijek). We also signed 19-year-old Ukrainian left-back Andrii Buleza for £4.5m (Shakhtar), teenage Senegal goalkeeper Landing Badji for £96k (AS Pikine), German goalkeeper Lino for £1.4m (Antwerp) and finally Liverpool's French defender Billy Koumetio, initially on loan but with a mandatory future fee of £1.1m. Over the course of the first half of the season, the 4-3-3 formation has remained, with the first-choice line-up initially being Green in goal, a back four of Maçon, Briançon, Koumetio and Sinkgraven, a midfield three of Moueffek, Camara and van den Boomen, Neyou and Cafaro as the wide midfielders, and Beljo as the first-choice striker. Sinkgraven and Neyou have been a little underwhelming in terms of form however, while Moueffek has had injuries, so Buleza has played more games than expected at left back, and played well too, the right-wing spot has been taken by youth team graduate Ayman Aiki, and Mouton has excelled as the DM. The stars of the season so far are van den Boomen (9 goals and 8 assists from 22 appearances, admittedly helped by being on penalties and set-pieces!), Aiki (4 goals and 3 assists for the now 18-year-old in 21 appearances of which 11 were starts), Mouton and Koumetio (who has scored 3 goals in 20 games, including on debut). The media predictions had us down for a struggle to avoid relegation, and our league campaign didn't start brilliantly, with defeats to at home to Monaco and away to Toulouse in our first two games. These defeats were only 1-0 though, so there was potential, which was demonstrated in our next game, a 4-0 win against Angers, which saw Beljo, van den Boomen and Koumetio all get their first goals. September saw more promise, with a draw at Rennes and a win against Clermont. We then lost 3-2 away at Lens, before a dramatic home game against Marseille. Van den Boomen scored a penalty after 8 minutes to give us the lead, and in the second half the lead was doubled by Aymen Aiki's first goal for the club. However, Marseille fought back through Luis Suárez (again!), who scored a penalty on 82 minutes to reduce our lead, and then grabbed an equaliser in the 90th minute after a mistake by Green. This was already deflating, but then a highlight came up in the second minute of stoppage time. My heart sank as Marseille lined up a free-kick, Harit over the ball and a crowd of players on the edge of the St-Étienne box. The ball was played short to Kolasinac half-way into our half but their last man, and he took a heavy touch. Maçon pounced and robbed the former Arsenal fan, and sent the ball forward for Beljo. Running from his own half, the Croatian was onside and raced towards goal, as the keeper desperately raced back to his goal. Beljo advanced, was able to get into the area, and smashed the ball home to secure a dramatic 3-2 win. This win not only cemented our place in the top half, but in contention for European qualification, confounding those relegation fears. Our good form continued throughout October, November and December, our only defeats coming at home to PSG (understandable, and actually a little unlucky) and Strasbourg in our last league game before Christmas (which was more disappointing). Other notable results in that run included a 1-1 draw away to historic rivals Nantes (who were second at the time) followed by a 2-1 home win in the local Rhône derby against Lyon. In the cup, we entered at the Ninth Round (where we fell last season), but needed penalties to squeeze past relegated Ajaccio after throwing away a two-goal half-time lead. In the Tenth Round, we had slightly more comfortable time, winning 5-2 away to Trélissac. Our reward? Marseille away again on the first weekend in February... As we have just completed January 2024, we've played a gruelling run of 5 league games in 15 days, which certainly caught up with some players. Those 5 games ended with a draw against Toulouse, and win at Angers, a home loss to Rennes, a draw at Montpellier, and a 4-1 win at Clermont (with 3 goals coming in the last 10 minutes as I think the run of fixtures also caught up with them!). The January transfer window has been very quiet, with two arrivals and no departures. 18-year-old Colombian winger has arrived from Óscar Perea has arrived from Atlético Nacional in his homeland to provide cover for Cafaro, and promptly scored on his debut in the draw with Toulouse. The other arrival is an English newgen left-back, Carl Garbutt, signed from Doncaster Rovers for £125k - definitely one for the future, but I thought his mental attributes looked outstanding for his age: In summary, we currently stand 7th in Ligue 1 with 39 points from 23 games, 5 points ahead of Nantes in 8th who have a game in hand against Monaco who are 4th. It's a very tight scrap over the final two Champions League spots, the remaining European qualification places (which potentially goes down to 7th for the Conference League), or missing out altogether. Hopefully we can get past Marseille in the cup and have a good run in that, whilst also securing European football.

2022/23 As mentioned, I'm currently in January 2024 in-game, so the first season in Ligue 2 has already been completed. Pre-season was fairly successful, winning 4 games from 4 without conceding, including a 3-0 home win over Heerenveen as a highlight. The last weekend in July also saw the first league game of the season, which ended up as a 2-0 win away to promotion rivals Dijon, Cafaro and Pintor with the goals in the first half. In August, the good form continued, picking up 3 wins and 2 draws in 5 games. However, Krasso picked up an injury in a 3-1 win over Quevily-Rouen that would keep him out for a month, while Abi was still recovering from injury. This, along with an injury to Cafaro at the beginning of September, saw the goals dry up a little, and we actually only scored two goals in 5 games covering from 27 August until the end of September. Fortunately, the defense was fairly solid so we only conceded one goal in that same period, in our first defeat of the season away at Guingamp. In October, form picked up again as we won 5 games on the bounce (including our first cup game of the season), thanks in part to a run of 4 goals in 3 league games from Charles Abi. This included wins against Grenoble, Sochaux, Paris FC and Amiens, while lower-league opposition in the form of Frontignan were dispatched 3-0 in the Seventh Round. Unfortunately, that would be as good as it got for Abi in terms of form and, with Krasso also picking up injuries, a centre-forward was identified as a requirement for the January transfer window. That new player was identified as a player recommended on the Good Player guide on these forums: 25-year-old Uzbekistan striker Bobir Abdiholiqov of Belarusian side Energetik-BGU. "Bobi", as I've taken to calling him, couldn't be signed immediately due to any excess transfer budget being reallocated to wages in order to secure some of our key players and youth prospects, but his contract at Energetik would expire at the end of December, so a free transfer was agreed. During October, thanks to the Joker Window, we also managed to sell Correia and Silva before they could leave on a free, for £100k each to Bastia and Dijon respectively. The sale of Gabriel Silva would mean Pétrot playing at left-back fairly regularly, which was a success as he helped us have the best defense in the league, and chipped in with some stunning long-range goals on occasion too. In November we suffered a setback in our promotion bid, losing 2-0 away at table-topping Metz, before recovering to beat Rodez in our final league game before the break for the World Cup. On the eve of the tournament in Qatar, there was still time for the Eighth Round of the cup, an unconvincing 1-0 win away to AS Yzeure. After a couple of friendlies to build up match fitness, the league opened up against on Boxing Day (aka St Stephen's Day...) with a 2-0 win against struggling Annecy, followed by a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Caen to round out the year. The opening of the January transfer window saw Bobi finally arrive and several youngsters head out on loan. I temporarily handed over responsibility of initiating players signings to my Director of Football, Yann Rousseau, and on deadline day he arranged the signing of two wingers on loan. Firstly, Algerian right-winger Farid El Melali joined from Angers (sadly he would be unable to displace Pintor in my first choice line-up). The more exciting arrival, however, was Alejandro Garnacho from Man United and he would end up with some vital contributions, providing 4 goals and 3 assists during his 17 games. Rousseau also attempted to bring in wonderkid Warren Zaïre-Emery on loan from PSG, but unfortunately this fell through as PSG already had 7 players out on loan domestically. On the pitch, results were a bit of a mixed bag. We exited the cup in the Ninth Round, losing 4-1 away to Ligue 1 Marseille. This was disappointing given that Marseille are one of St-Étienne's traditional rivals. The performance for the first hour was actually really good - we were unlucky to trail 1-0 at half-time, and then equalised early in the second half. Unfortunately, we capitulated in the last half hour, with Luis Suárez (of Colombia, not Uruguay...) scoring a hat-trick. In the league, we beat Laval 2-0 thanks to a brace from Bobi on his full debut, lost to Niort 1-0, then beat Bastia and Sochaux, both 2-0. In February, we took another 8 points from a possible 12, including a 1-1 draw with Dijon, who at this stage where in a three-way tussle for the two automatic promotion spots with us and Metz. Our unbeaten run continued throughout March and into April, dropping points away to Bordeaux, Paris FC and Grenoble. The next key game came on 22 April, a top-of-the-table meeting with Metz, who had beaten us earlier in the season. Krasso gave Les Verts the lead after 14 minutes, only for us to concede an 81st minute equaliser. However, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Maçon played a long ball over the Metz defense for Bobi to run onto, and the Uzbek international made no mistake, securing a vital win, sending us a point clear at top of the table with 6 games remaining. The Metz game really was key to setting up the momentum for the title run-in, as we went on to win 5 of our final 6 games, whereas Metz could only win 2 of their final 6, and Dijon only 3. This run of results meant we were able to secure promotion and the title with two games to spare, confirmed with a 3-1 home win over Quevilly-Rouen. The developments didn't stop on the pitch either. Towards the end of April, reports began to appear suggesting a board takeover may be in the works. Rumours continued for weeks, to the point where the chairman, Roland Romeyer, put out a statement at in the middle of May asking for the takeover to be resolved as soon as possible to end the uncertainty around the club. Things moved quickly after that. Barely a week after his ultimatum, Romeyer announced he would retire at the end of the season - new owners were therefore a certainty. On 8 June, this was confirmed, with Bulgarian businessman Petar Peshev (who has been involved in Bulgarian club ownership before) taking over and floating the club on the stock market. This takeover offered a small financial boost, but didn't affect the transfer budget for summer 2023, which was set at around £16m.

The Initial Squad The squad had quite a few players who looked like they should be leading players in Ligue 2. The squad also had a lot of young players with the potential to become solid players in the top flight. My preferred formation is generally a 4-3-3 - perhaps a boring obvious choice, but usually a successful one. In goal, it was a straight choice between England U-21 international (and appropriately named) Etienne Green and veteran Matthieu Dreyer, with additional backup in Senegalese youngster Boubacar Fall. At full-back, Sergi Palencia and Yvann Maçon were the main options for right-back, with 31-year-old Gabriel Silva as the only real natural left-back. There was plenty of depth at centre-back. Anthony Briançon and Jimmy Giraudon provided the experience. Saïdou Sow and Mickaël Nadé offered youth and potential, whilst Léo Pétrot was a versatile option who could fill in a left-back if needed (spoiler, he would be needed...) In midfield, I decided to go for a DM DLP, where my first choice options were Morocco's Aïmen Moueffek and Louis Mouton. I also opted for a pair of MCs, one as a BWM and the other as an AP. The ball-winner tended to by Thomas Monconduit, with Koimizo Maïga as backup, while the attacking option was usually another Moroccan Benjamin Bouchouari with Victor Lobry as his stand-in. In attack, I had two wide midfielders. On the left was Mathieu Cafaro, on loan from Standard Liège with an optional future fee of £400k. On the right, my first choice was Lenny Pintor. Other wide options included Dylan Chambost and Senegal's Ibrahima Wadji. At centre-forward, my initial first choice was Jean-Philippe Krasso of Côte d'Ivoire, followed by Togo's Charles Abi and Guinea-Bissau forward Edmilson Correia On looking at the squad, I realised quite quickly that there was no room to spare in the wage budget, and my highest earners were Silva and Palencia, both on over £15k per week. Silva's contract would expire in 2023, so I made the decision that I would not look to renew his contract at the age of 31, and would look to try and cash in as soon as possible. Correia's contract would also be due to expire in 2023, and his attributes were nowhere near those of the other forwards, so he was also marked for an exit.

Hi there - I'm a long time player of FM (dating back to CM 00/1, and occasional poster on these forums, but this is the first time I've had a go at putting together a post, maybe a thread like this. I've posted a couple of comments about this save elsewhere on these forums, but figured this was a more appropriate place, where I could go into a bit more detail sharing updates. By day, I'm a big Liverpool fan - that's usually the focus of my main save, and sure enough I do have a Liverpool save that I'm a couple of seasons into. However, I wanted to try something different. I decided I wanted to stay in Europe and try a team that perhaps didn't have the resources of one of the Champions League regulars. I came up with a couple of options, but ended up settling on Saint-Étienne. I've kind of had a soft spot for this team, and honestly, I'm not sure why other than the fact that Étienne is the French equivalent of my own name. I realised that the team were relegated to the second tier in 2022 and decided that it would be a good challenge to see if I could get the team back to the top end of French football. I don't necessarily expect to overtake PSG at the very top with their resources, especially as I don't necessarily play as much as I used to, but maybe I could get them back into Europe on a regular basis. Setup I should point out that the game I've set up is using the original database from the release of FM23. The reason for this is a little bit of laziness - I've got quite a few custom leagues from the Around the Globe project and haven't got round to adding the latest updates! I guess this is important in that whilst we had a ban on fans attending home games for the first two months of the 2022-23 season, for some reason we did not start off with the points deduction that they received in real life (I don't know if this was overwritten by one of the custom leagues, or wasn't in the original database). At the time of writing, my save has reached the end of the January 2024 transfer window, so I don't have any screenshots from the original set up, but I can post some end of season details. The Club For a bit of background, St-Étienne are historically one of the most successful teams in French football, having won the Ligue 1 title 10 times, a joint-record alongside PSG (at least until the end of 2022-23...). They've also won the French Cup 6 times, and also reached the 1976 European Cup final, where they lost to Bayern Munich. Their youth academy has an excellent reputation for bringing through young players, including Jacques Santini, Willy Sagnol, and Loïc Perrin (who spent his entire career at the club), and in more recent years, Wesley Fofana and William Saliba.

The latest developments at St-Étienne, as of last night, are at board level! As I mentioned in a previous post, we had a takeover in May 2023, just as we confirmed our status as Ligue 2 champions. This was in part helped by the fact the original chairman decided to retire at the end of the season. Our new owner was a Bulgarian tycoon who immediately listed the club on the stock market. Fast forward to January 2024, and there are rumours of another takeover. That's all it is at the moment, rumours, and the sole news article that's come up seems less optimistic about this one going through, but I was very surprised to see another takeover even suggested. We're currently 5th (or maybe 6th) in Ligue 1, comfortably in the hunt for European football, maybe even the Champions League, so surely our Bulgarian owner isn't disappointed with on-field performance. I think the club is still quite healthy off the pitch too, with £25m balance, and plenty of transfer/wage budget left over from what I had to work with.

Not quite as regular yet, but after getting dumped out by Marseille away in round 10 (my third game) in my first season at St Etienne, my third cup game in season two will be... away to Marseille. Ah well, at least we beat them at home in the league...

The Summer 2023 transfer window has closed, and there has been a significant amount of transfer business, some planned, some less so. Incomings In addition to the signings of Cafaro, Sinkgraven, Buleza, Borkuov, Puig and Ogbene, I also signed two goalkeepers, a German goalkeeper by the name of Lino from Antwerp who will be my first backup, and a Senegalese teenager, Langing Badji, from AS Pikine in his native country. I also picked up another free transfer for central midfield in the form of the brilliantly-named Branco van den Boomen of Toulouse, who looks to be a bit of a set-piece specialist. I also ended up in need of a new centre-back, both Nadé and Sow decided they wanted to leave, so I've picked up Billy Koumetio, initially on loan from Liverpool, but with a mandatory future fee. The big name signing for the summer though was Dion Beljo from Osijek, for a fee rising to £7.75m Outgoings I managed to move on most of the players who have been deemed surplus to requirements. Victor Lobry joined Bordeaux for £1.3m, reserve player Marie-Gael Mukanya joined Nîmes for £325k, and Matthieu Dreyer joined Sporting Gijón for £300k. As mentioned, both Nadé and Sow wanted to leave - Nadé ended up joining Dijon for £600k, and Sow went to Gent for £1.8m. The likes of Abi, Bouchouari, Chambost and Maïga all left on loan, bringing in some additional loan fees. I was, however, left a little surprised on deadline day when Lenny Pintor handed in a transfer request following interest from Augsburg, eventually joining them for £1m. In amongst all these movements, the first four games of the season have taken place. We narrowly lost 1-0 at home to Monaco and away to Toulouse in our opening two games, before getting off the mark with a 4-0 home win over Amiens. We followed this up with a fairly creditable 2-2 draw away at Rennes before the international break. In the season preview, we're predicted to finish just above the relegation play-off spots, but with squad I'm hoping to be a bit more comfortable in mid-table, and personally I'd love to get a Europa Conference League spot.

OK, I realise this does result in a double-post, which I wanted to avoid with editing my last post, but I figured an end-of-season update on my St-Etienne side warranted a separate entry. In the league, it was a really close race for the Ligue 2 title throughout the season between us, Metz and Dijon, but in the end we came out on top, winning the league by 8 points. The key game ended up being a 2-1 win against Metz at the end of April, which put us a point ahead of them. After that, we won 5 of our last 6 games, whereas Metz only won 3 of their last 6. The cup run didn't last all that long - we won 3-0 and 1-0 against lower league Frontignan and Yzeure respectively, but went out 4-1 away to Marseille in the 9th round. We actually did really well for the first hour or so against Marseille, but ended up going out after Luis Suarez (of Colombia, not the ex-Liverpool forward!) bagged a 20 minute hat-trick. In terms of transfers, there wasn't too much to report, due to a lack of funds - I reallocated most of my starting £400k transfer budget to my wage budget, to try and secure some of my better players and improve the backroom staff. Brazilian left-back Gabriel Silva and Guinea-Bissau striker Edmilson Correia were both sold to domestic rivals for £100k each in October. We were struggling a little for goals in the first half of the season, partly through injuries, so I brought in a player I'd seen recommended on another thread, 25-year-old Uzbek striker Bobir Abdholiqov on a free transfer on 1 January from Energetik-BGU in Belarus. He turned out to be a great signing, and ended up my top scorer with 14 goals in 20 league appearances. I left responsibility for transfer incomings to my DoF in January, and he ended up setting up loan deals for two wingers: Farid El Melali from Angers and, more excitingly, Alejandro Garnacho from Man Utd! El Malali wasn't great, but Garnacho bagged 4 goals and 3 assists in 17 appearances. The DoF also tried to sign Zaire-Emery on loan from PSG, but that fell through because PSG had too many players already out on loan in France. Towards the middle of April, there started to be rumours of a takeover. This dragged on through May, to the point where the existing chairman threatened to pull the plug if it wasn't resolved. In the end though, he decided he was going to retire at the end of the season, and the takeover did end up going through, and we now have a Bulgarian owner who has listed the club on the stock exchange. The summer transfer budget had already been set at around £16m, and didn't really change with the takeover. Looking at the squad going into Ligue 1, there are some holes that I want to plug. Firstly, I'm trying to make Mathieu Cafaro's loan deal permanent - he faded a bit in the second half of the season, but at £400k, he's still a bit of a bargain. Most urgent is probably a new left-back. I'd been alternating between Macon, Palencia and Petrot (who scored a couple of screamers from left-back by the way). Trying to use the free transfer market, I've made an offer for 27-year-old Daley Sinkgraven from Bayer Leverkusen. I'm also looking at a Ukrainian teenager, Andrii Buleza from Shakhtar, who would potentially cost around £5m, which I'm trying to do in instalments. Other free transfers I'm trying to sign include Chiedozie Ogbene from Rotherham, who can play anywhere on the right-hand side, and Riqui Puig who is unattached. I'm also looking at another striker in the form of Preslav Borukov from Lokomotiv Plovdiv for around £2m. I want to look at a new goalkeeper as well - Etienne Green is very good, but does make the occasional error. However, there was a spell towards the end of the season when he missed a few games through injury, but backup keepers Matthieu Dreyer and Boubacar Fall both made a couple of absolute howlers. I did get a very promising keeper in my youth intake, but I want someone a bit more experienced to challenge Green. In terms of outgoings, I'll probably look to move on the two backup keepers, along with the likes of Chamost, Lobry, maybe Krasso and Abi. There are a couple of players who have indicated they may not want to renew their contracts, such as Nadé, so I may try and cash in on some of them too, which might result in additional incomings. Wadji has already been sold to Neftci Baku.

I was also in the market for a left back as competition for Robertson, given Tsimikas' move to Real Madrid. I was looking at most of those listed above, but Netz and Udogie were both more expensive than I was willing to pay at the moment (Netz is in excess of £60m!). I ended up making a bid for Kerkez from AZ, but then saw that Thierry Rendall Correira was transfer listed at Valencia. I'd seen him be snapped up by AI-Klopp in another save, and the scouts were giving him glowing reviews, so ended up instructing my DoF to make a loan offer initially, and have ended up signing him on a loan deal that will turn into a permanent signing for around £10m (with a further £9m in instalments).

I went on holiday to Florida recently, so used the flight to start dabbling with starting a save with St Etienne on FM Touch. Had a mixed start to the season, with a poor home record while home fans were banned, but away results gradually pulled us up the table until we could start getting crowds in again, at which point we started picking up wins at home as well. Got me intrigued enough to give it a go on the "full-fat" FM once I've done a season or two more on my main Liverpool save. Edit: So I've made a start on my St Etienne save today, using the original 23.0 database so that the AroundTheGlobe files I've got downloaded still all work. As normal for me, Summer 2022 transfer window is disabled. After three pre-season games (1-0 and 3-0 away wins against Beauvais Oise and AS Yzeure, followed by 3-0 at home to Heerenveen), this is likely my first-choice XI. Gabriel Silva is a more natural fit at left-back than Maçon, but at 31 and with wages of £17,750 per week on a contract until 2023 (making him my highest paid player), I'll probably try and move Silva on in January. Maçon is also more highly rated at LB than Silva. Palencia at right-back is also taking up a chunk of the wage budget at £15k p/w, so he might also be a contender for raising funds in January, despite being one of the best players in the squad.

He's still rated as a star player, I'm just a bit concerned about the injuries he's had at the start of my second season - the type, the repetition, and the frequency, plus he's going to be entering 1- or 2-year contract renewals due to board policy, so don't want to lose him for free. He's off at the Africa Cup of Nations now, so I guess I'll see what condition he comes back in, and how he fares for the rest of the season. Also, I really want Kvaratshkelia!! Transfer updates for January 2024, meanwhile: Firmino has gone to Benfica for £25m (18 months left on his contract, with no intention of resigning), and Tsimikas has gone to Real Madrid for £42m (again, 18 months on contract, and saying he was going to "consider his options", so cashing in now). Not been able to find a buyer for Fabinho yet, due to wages. Pitaluga (20-year-old reserve keeper) has also left for around £450k, as he failed to get a renewed work permit. Incomings so far include Vitor Roque for £14m (release clause), and Zaire-Emery will be joining from PSG in the summer for a structured deal worth around £35m after add-ons (maybe PSG will take Fabinho as a replacement in the summer...). Also looking at options for a new back-up left-back, including Balde of Barcelona and Milos Kerkez from AZ Alkmaar.

Currently running my traditional Liverpool save, but only got as far as December 2023 in season 2. Won everything in season 1, having started with the summer 2022 transfer window disabled. In the winter 2023 transfer window, managed to sell Keira before his contract expired (only £8m, but better than nothing), and arranged transfers for Schjelderup and Diomande from Nordsjaelland and Gulliksen from Stromsgodset. Gave the midfield a major overhaul in summer 2023. In came Rice, Caicedo (from a relegated Brighton) and Bellingham. Ox was released at the end of his contract, Thiago went to Leicester for £33m, and Jones went to Spurs for £30m (rising to£40m). In defence, Matip and Phillips were both sold, and Gvardiol came in. Transfers have worked a treat, and I'm currently top again entering the Christmas period with a 100% record. In fact, the only game I haven't won was a 2-2 draw away to Inter in the Champions League. I'm going to try and move on both Firmino (who wants a new challenge) and Fabinho (Rice is taking his place anyway, but I managed to give Fabinho a new contract last season and missed removing a promise about preferred position and role, and he's now unhappy that he's being used in a 'weak' role, even though he's still rated a 4* HB, rather than a 4.5* DM...) However, I find myself with a dilemma. Salah has missed half of the season so far through five injuries - two separate 4-week groin injuries, and two 2-week ankle injuries, and currently has another muscle injury. I'm concerned he's becoming injury prone and wondering if I should cash in, either in January or at the end of the season. I want to sign Kvaratshkelia from Napoli anyway, so is it a good idea to try and offload Salah? The problem I foresee is Salah's wages - I expect there would only be PSG and Real Madrid who could afford him... Any thoughts on my Salah situation?

No worries! Mini update below: First Champions League game done tonight, at home to Man City to open the group. Was a bit worried going into the game, so used the international break to prepare a new variation on my usual tactic, with 2 DMs and an MC, rather than one DM and 2 MCs. Seemed to work as we generally managed to hold them off for almost the entire game, and even had a couple of chances on the break. Sadly a 90th minute own goal from Dani Vivian, under pressure from Bernardo Silva, ended up giving City a 1-0 win and the 3 points. Rather harshly, that one own goal seemed to absolutely destroy the match ratings for both of my centre backs, and my keeper - they'd been a solid 7+ rating for the entire up to that point, and Vivian ended up with a 5.8, David Garcia got a 6.0, and Simon in goal went down to 6.4. Seems very harsh! Going well in the league so far, with 5 wins out of 5, with 5 clean sheets. Currently level with Real Madrid, but we play them next, away, so I suspect my 100% record will come to an end! A recent news item I received showed the extent of the challenge domestically, as it quoted the commercial income earned across the league. Real Madrid and Barcelona are both making in excess of £165m so far in this save, whereas 13 out of the 20 teams, including Sevilla, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Bilbao are making less than £5m. Even Atletico have earned £47m, and they didn't even qualify for European football for 2023/24! Edited with a question: does anyone else have matchday 2 in the 2023/24 played on a Monday/Tuesday pairing, rather than the usual Tuesday/Wednesday? I can't see anything online to suggest that is planned for the real life competition?

Might be able to tell for certain by going to Nations > Nation Club Coefficients on Europe's overall profile, and sorting by the coefficients for the relevant previous season. When the UK media was trying to explain how the extra places were going to be allocated, they said that if the new format had come in for the 2022/23 season, then England and Netherlands would have gained an extra Champions League spot, which you can see if you sort the club coefficients by the score achieved for 21/22.

I suspect it's the new Champions League format - how have Spanish teams done in general on your save? From the 2024-25 season, there will be 36 teams in the new league phase, which will include "2 teams from associations with the highest 1-year country coefficient" (from the Wikipedia description). So even though Bayern won the CL the previous year, if the other three semi finalist teams were Spanish for example, La Liga would probably get a 5th spot

Just got my first Champions League group. Man City, Dortmund and Salzburg... why Man City??? Target is to finish ahead of Salzburg and get Europa League after Christmas I think. If we can sneak ahead of Dortmund, that's a bonus.

I finally got round to giving a Bilbao save a go, after many years of thinking about it. Not doing too badly at the moment, just about to go into April 2023 in my first season. We're currently 4th in the league with 54 points from 28 games - Real Madrid are running away with the league, 14 points clear, but there's 11 points separating Valencia in 2nd and Atletico in 8th. In the cup, we've reached the final, and did it the hard way, somehow managing a 1-0 win away to Real Madrid in the quarter final, then a 3-1 aggregate victory over Barcelona in the semis - we play Zaragoza in the final in a couple of weeks. I did have a few concerns throughout December and January, as some of the squad and fringe players like Guruzeta, Zarraga and Vesga started to complain about game time. Vesga ended up being sold to West Ham for £5.25m, while the other two left on loan. I also allowed (perhaps foolishly) both Capa and De Marcos to leave on loan, leaving me with only Lekue as a recognised right back. The Capa loan did bring in a £450k loan fee though, with a potential £2.7m fee if he plays 10 league games, although this seems unlikely at the moment. It did allow me to free up some space to bring back Serrano (who wasn't getting enough game time on loan), and give an opportunity to a couple of other youngsters, who haven't let me down so far. Vicandi and Peio Canales have both opened their goalscoring accounts for the club, as has right-back Hugo Rincon, who scored a long range screamer to secure 3 points against Mallorca. The exits I sanctioned also allowed me to bring in an extra centre back, in the form of David Garcia from Osasuna. Admittedly, there was an element of panic about this signing, for two reasons. Firstly, injuries; Dani Vivian has been a tad injury prone thus far and has made just 12 appearances all season, which has meant Martinez and Yeray started to struggle with fatigue following a hectic post-world cup schedule. Secondly, transfers; Martinez decided very early on that he was going to consider his options, and eventually signed a pre-contract agreement with Barcelona, whilst Vivian has been attracting interest from a number of clubs and was unsettled by an offer of around £8m from Bayern Munich, which was rejected for being too low. Vivian subsequently handed in a transfer request, which I reluctantly accepted after he started to kick off. No offers have been made since, but interest continues to grow, despite his lack of appearances. With only three senior centre backs in the squad, one of which is leaving at the end of the season, and another who has barely featured through injury and could have left in January (and may still leave in the summer), I needed cover fast. David Garcia fit the bill and came in for around £5.5m, and has actually done very well so far, scoring twice in seven starts. The other aspect of managing in Spain that I'm struggling to get to grips with is how to deal with the B and C teams. In the middle of Vivian's tantrums and the complaining fringe players, I started to get inundated with messages about players from the B team and Basconia, asking for better contracts. The thing is, these were all players aged between 21-24, the majority of which only have 2-star potential and will never really be good enough for the first team. Now, I'm used to playing in England where, if a reserve team player gets to that age with that level of ability, then I'll move them on or not renew their contracts. However, in Spain, I'm conscious that the B and C teams actually play in actual leagues (although I don't have Basconia's league loaded). So with this in mind, I have a question - should I be looking to retain these 24-year-old reserve players for the B team? Or should I move them on and just fill the squad with my youngsters? If I keep them, what playing time/squad status should I offer - they'd likely be regulars for the B team, but is there an option for this? They're also asking for contracts with wages more than 10x higher than what they're currently on, which seems unreasonable... Any advice on this area would be much appreciated!