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Northern Boys – Prologue
Takeover or not, all is not well in the North. Or should I say, all is not well in the North-East of England in footballing terms, with past powerhouse clubs Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland all a shadow of their former selves at present and collectively struggling in their respective leagues – much to the despair of football fans on all sides of the Tyne river with the “good ol’ days” a long distant memory when it comes to on-field success in North-East England. But it wasn’t always this way. The North-East was once at the forefront of producing top-tier English talent, a hotbed of raw footballing pedigree wherein we saw numerous household names emerge from the cold shores of Tyneside and it’s surrounding areas. The 1940s and 50s brought us the legendary Jackie Milburn, who went on to become one of the most prolific goalscorers in English football and served as Newcastle United’s all time record goal scorer for almost 50 years until being surpassed by arguably the only other Northern Striker to exceed Milburn’s forward prowess – but we will get to him later. The 1950s and 60s were a family affair, with two of North-East England’s finest ever products rising to global stardom in the form of John and Robert Charlton, or Jack and Bobby as the wide world knows them from their careers at Leeds, Manchester United and of course their contribution to England’s World Cup win in 1966. From the days when their mother brought them to play football in Ashington where they grew up it was clear that these boys had a rare talent for playing football – Jack heading for Leeds at the age of 15 before the younger Bobby later made his way to Manchester at the same age a few years later. Little did they know that they would together become part of the most famous England team in history and though it was well known that they had their differences later in life, one cannot take away from the fact that these two working-class lads from the North of England were arguably the best pair of footballing siblings the world has ever seen. Even more interestingly and to echo our sentiment about football production in the North-East, Jack himself was quoted as saying that “this part of the world produced its fair share of footballers, and nobody was particularly impressed if a lad went away to play professional football. In fact we never used to say going away to play football, we just used to say ‘going away“. How times have changed. While the 1970’s were relatively unremarkable in the North-East as the area went through it’s own social and economical challenges, the 80’s and 90’s were much more fruitful and saw a real hyper-production of top-tier footballing talent with the likes of Chris Waddle, Bryan Robson, Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne all emerging as some of the most gifted midfielders in English football history, amassing over 250 England caps between them in addition to glittering careers at what were then among the best clubs in Europe at the time. What these lads lacked in discipline and overall collective normal behavior, they more than made up for in skill, technique and natural ability, and it’s fair to say we haven’t seen anywhere close to this level of talent in the North-East since. It wasn’t just in midfield that the North-East production line flourished either – while the most successful club of the 1990’s hailed from the red side of Manchester, much of their success was down to the solidity and synergy of their Central Defensive pairing of Steve Bruce (no comment) and Gary Pallister both of whom grew up and learned their trade in the North-East of England, and although neither ever really managed to translate this success to the International stage, both were stalwarts of that famous United side under Sir Alex Ferguson and were key enablers of the famed “Class of ’92” to grow and blossom around them. That’s a lot about defenders and midfielders – let’s talk about Strikers shall we? Northern England’s golden boy. The Premier League’s highest ever goalscorer. Newcastle United’s all time leading scorer. Former England Captain. 30 goals in 60+ caps for England. Once heralded as the Prodigal Son following his return to Tyneside after spells at Southampton and Blackburn, Alan Shearer is without doubt the greatest footballing product of the North-East since the days of the aforementioned Jackie Milburn and the Charlton brothers. Coming through the ranks at the renowned Wallsend Boys Club (whose alumni include Peter Beardsley, Michael Carrick and Steve Bruce among many others), Shearer’s career quickly skyrocketed due to his unrivalled power, shooting and heading ability in addition to his natural goal-scoring instinct and finishing and it was this that led to him twice breaking the British transfer record when signing for Blackburn and then finally returning home to his boyhood club Newcastle United for a then world-record £15m fee. The rest as we know, is history. Modern Times It’s probably fair to say that we have observed somewhat of a decline lately in terms of footballing talent being produced in the North-East of England. While the 2000’s brought us the likes of Steven Taylor, Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Adam Johnson and the more successful Michael Carrick as products of the North-Eastern football factory, we have yet to see anything close to the top-tier legends of previous years and although there have been glimpses of promise particularly in the form of Jordan Henderson and Jordan Pickford both of whom were pivotal members of Gareth Southgate’s successful England squads of World Cup 2018 and Euro 2020 – the future of North-East football is in it’s darkest ever place at present. Not only have the likes of Middlesbrough and Sunderland experienced sharp declines in their footballing stature, Newcastle’s downward spiral has been in freefall for over a decade not only in terms of on-field success but also in terms of talent production and contribution to international football in England. Promising academy graduates such as Taylor, Carroll, Fraser Forster, Adam Campbell and the two Longstaff brothers haven’t really fulfilled their original potential while the current academy & underage teams all appear to be lacking especially when looking at England’s U21, U20 and U19 teams which haven’t featured a Newcastle player since Matty Longstaff lined out for the U20 side back in 2019. Even at Senior level, it’s greatly alarming that the last Newcastle player to earn a full senior cap was Andros Townsend in 2016 and even then he was only on loan at the club. Yes, things are quite grim overall for North-Eastern football at present – where did it all go wrong? Save Focus “Them Basque lads, they seem to know what they’re at..” Imagine the takeover didn’t go as originally planned? With the help of the FM22 Editor, we will be doing exactly that – wiping all existence of the recent takeover, taking the reigns at Newcastle and gradually converting them to a domestic-only transfer policy. . Most of you are familiar with Athletic Club de Bilbao’s Basque-only policy in La Liga, whereby the club have implemented their own transfer policy of only signing Basque born/Basque nationality players to play for the Senior team. We aim to replicate this in the North-East of England – taking the reigns at Newcastle United under the guise of new club ownership whose sole mission is to develop football across the entire North-East region and convert Newcastle to a North-East-only club culture. It’s simple really (or impossible depending on how you look at it). We will give ourselves 4 seasons to convert the club to a fully “Basque” model / transfer policy, meaning that by the start of the 2025-2026 season we must have a fully “Northern” squad wherein all Senior players must have been born or raised in the North-East of England – primarily using the search functionality in Football Manager to hone in on players whose place of birth is in the North-East and/or Newcastle and it’s surrounding areas as well as developing our own academy and raising the talent bar locally. In that 4 seasons we must purge the current squad of all non-North-East players, capitalise on any resulting player sales/revenue and then reinvest this back into the region by only signing players born or raised in the North-East as well as doing all we can to pump cash into the smaller clubs in the area. Yes this is absolute madness. Yes we might get relegated or even sacked before we even get going. But for the good of football we will do all we can to revive football in the North-East and return the region to it’s former footballing glory. Essential Signings: Jordan Pickford; Adam Armstrong; Jordan Henderson; Giovanni Reyna (!!) Save Objectives Model: Convert Newcastle to a fully “Basque” model and transfer policy within 4 seasons, meaning that by the start of the 2025-2026 season we must have a fully “Northern” squad wherein all Senior players must have been born or raised in the North-East of England. Transfer Policy: During this transition, all players signed under the age of 23 must have been born or raised in the North-East. A maximum of 2 non-North-East players over the age of 23 can be signed on loan each season until the end of the 2024/2025 season. Transfer Budget: There won’t be any! Funds will be raised through the gradual sale of all our current players over 4 seasons Regional Development: Become a lighthouse for football in the North-East, elevating football in the region by injecting a minimum of £2 million per season into clubs in the local area – mainly through youth signings and friendly tournaments etc. Youth: Raise our Youth Academy system to Elite status, producing local talent that will be molded for the first team or sold locally to teams in the North-East. Player Development: Become a Senior Affiliate for all available smaller local clubs in the North-East, creating a continuous flow of local players to and from the club and our respective feeder clubs to continually boost their player, squad and club development. International: Get 3 North-East born/raised players capped at Senior Level for England. It’s not about winning titles, fighting for trophies, reaching finals or gaining achievements. This is bigger than success. It’s about reviving football in the North-East. Awakening a sleeping giant in terms of football as a region; restoring it’s reputation for producing top-tier talent as has been the case in previous years gone by. This is about legacy. This is about our responsibility as a football club to boost grass-roots football and elite footballers in the region, and above all restoring footballing pride in the North-East though the medium of Football Manager. As a great man once said: November 9th 2021 – it begins. Thanks for reading, MaddFM. Want to get involved and/or get real-time updates or sneak previews? Got players to recommend or advice on North-East geography I need to know about? I’ll be posting regular updates in a brand new MaddFM Discord server as well as on FMSlack (#MaddFM) so feel free to drop by and keep an eye out 👀. You can also catch me most Mondays on 5* Star Potential, your weekly Football Manager podcast.
Chapter 7 – Retribution
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. There was a time when our word was gospel in the halls of Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in Bologna. People would jump out of our way in the hallways, board members feared making eye contact during meetings and overall life was good at Bologna after finishing 4th in our second season thus gaining Champions League qualification for the first time in the club’s history. For some reason that all changed during the summer. It started with the board deciding to get brave and only allocate around £4m to our transfer budget despite amassing around £15m in prize money, severely hampering our chances of improving the squad with European football ahead of us. If that wasn’t bad enough, they then did this: Joey f*cking Saputo. You absolute chief. Not only is Tomiyasu one of our best players, he is also our best asset and €30m is an insult to what we could surely have demanded had we been given a chance to lead the negotiations. Despite our best protests, the wheels are already in motion and just like that, Tomiyasu is gone and is making the 2.5 hour trip North from Bologna to Milan. Absolute balls, and our hopes of some strategic pre-season preparation are already thwarted as we are forced to switch our focus to finding his replacement. Fortunately we don’t have to travel far… While convenient (especially as he also holds Austrian nationality meaning no issues with non-EU registration), it took £17m to lure Mert Muldur to Bologna, an extra £4m on top of the funds allocated to our transfer budget following the Tomiyasu deal. That meant, after letting a couple of players go we were only left with around £6m with which we are expected to build a squad capable of competing in the Champions League. Not half enough, however if you read our last post you may remember that we had started to dabble in the free agent market knowing that funds would be an issue this season regardless. Business went well, really well. On top of that we add Tanguy Nianzou on loan from Bayern (you may remember he was a baller in my Angers series), as well as making Oscar Mingueza’s earlier loan move a permanent one by activating his €7m option to buy from Barcelona. All in all, despite a couple of hiccups I feel we are ready to embark on Season 3 as well as our first Champions League adventure. Bologna FC Squad List 2022/2023 Goalkeepers: Uğurcan Çakır 🇹🇷, Christian Fruchtl 🇩🇪. Defenders: Oscar Mingueza 🇪🇸, Mert Muldur 🇹🇷, Tanguy Nianzou 🇫🇷, Aaron Hickey 🏴, Loic Badé 🇫🇷, Luis Binks 🇬🇧. Midfielders: Orel Mangala 🇧🇪, Jerdy Schouten 🇳🇱, Carles Alena 🇪🇸, Calvin Stengs 🇳🇱, Jayden Braaf 🇳🇱, Yunus Musah 🇺🇸, Musa Barrow 🇬🇲, Javairo Dilrosun 🇳🇱, Ianis Hagi 🇷🇴, Jack Harrison 🇬🇧, Emanuel Vignato 🇮🇹. Forwards: Adam Idah 🇮🇪, Pietro Pellegri 🇮🇹, Brian Brobbey 🇳🇱. Unfortunately – amidst all the panic following Tomiyasu’s departure, we failed to spot that the addition of Jack Harrison to the squad means we now have 4 Non-EU players in our squad along with Aaron Hickey, Musa Barrow and Uğurcan Çakır – meaning we now can’t even register the lad and he won’t feature at all this season. €25k per week to sit on his arse – not a bad job I suppose. The season starts – average. We opened by snatching a late draw away to high-flying Atalanta, then picked up wins against Verona, Genoa and Torino either side of a draw with Lazio and a defeat to Inter. Unfortunately a winless September saw us slip down the league and after 10 games we found ourselves in 11th place in the league. Meanwhile – the Champions League draw arrives and is not as kind as it could have been as we are drawn against Real Madrid, Arsenal and Shakhtar. Predictably we lose to both Arsenal and Madrid away from home, however a win against Shakhtar and then back-to-back home draws against the two giants mean that with just one game remaining we are in with a hell of a shout at qualification. Should Madrid beat Arsenal and we win our final game at Shakhtar, a European knockout round beckons for the first time in Bologna’s history. Back to Serie A and things are going from bad to worse.. We are making life very difficult for ourselves, as we slip down to 13th by the time January arrives and things are well and truly muddy in Bologna – not aided by the fact that neither Idah nor Pellegri seem to be able to kick snow off a rope this season let alone find the back of the net. Our league form has gone to shit, and knowing that this may be our lsat season at Bologna with FM22 around the corner – perhaps it’s best we put all our eggs in the European basket this season. Can we beat Shakhtar in Ukraine and hope that Real Madrid return the favour by beating Arsenal at the Bernabeu? Shakhtar Donetsk vs Bologna FC European Champions League Group C We take a slight gamble by starting Musa Barrow up front ahead of Idah and Pellegri, a gamble which pays off on 34 mins as Barrow opens the scoring to put us 1-0 ahead and level on 8 points with Arsenal but still behind on goal difference. 30 minutes later and our moment came as Vinicius Junior finally broke the deadlock for Real Madrid – WE ARE 16 MINUTES FROM THE KNOCKOUT STAGES! We bring on Nnamdi Collins to help shore things up and do the natural switch to defensive mentality in the hope we can see out the game. The right thing to do yeah? Well that was fun while it lasted. A draw with Shakhtar consigns us to 3rd place and a spot in the Europa League knockout stages which we proceed to lose to Slavia Prague in a one-leg tie caused by the 2022 World Cup (which incidentally Brazil won in a thrilling 6-2 final over Italy). So no more Europe and 4 months left in what has been a disappointing final season at Bologna – can we somehow find a way to resuscitate our campaign and finish this save with a shred of dignity in tact? “MaddFM knocks on the boardroom door..” We again strut the halls in Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, the board folding to our pleas and forking out €21.5m to sign Adeyemi who we hope can be the spark that reignites our season. Obviously 4 months is a short time for a Wonderkid to make a big impact but at 21 years old he is primed and ready to help propel us up the league. Let the games begin. After scoring on his debut against Atalanta at the end of January, Adeyemi bags 7 goals helping us pick up 9 wins and 3 draws in 18 games to finish in a respectable 8th place in the league – disappointing compared to our 4th place finish last year however after our disastrous start (not helped by the board’s decision to offload Tomiyasu) we will have to take it even though it means we miss out on European football. Milan take the Serie A title for a third consecutive season, bringing our Scudetto Gospel saga to a close and thus concluding another chapter of Football Manager as we bid farewell to FM21 – a year which saw us reach 973 hours of gameplay, 42/98 achievements, 2 long-term save series, 24 blog posts, 8 WeStreamFM articles, 4 Byline pieces and overall an outstanding gaming experience during what was easily one of the most chaotic years most of us will ever experience. So what next? With FM22 soon to hit the shelves, you can be sure that a new long-term save adventure with a banging backstory will soon be available to read right here on MaddFM.com, as well as a host of brand new FM content and collaborations in the pipeline. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye on Twitter for an FM22 save reveal in the coming weeks, and catch me on the 5 Star Potential podcast for ongoing FM nonsense and FM22 hype as we gear up for the next edition of this epic game. Thank you to everyone who has read and followed any of my blog series this year – never hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, feedback, suggestions or help needed! Over and out – thanks again and see you on the other side. Paul aka MaddFM.
Chapter 6 – Rejoice!
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. The saga continues! When we last left off we had just kickstarted our second season at Bologna with a narrow 1-0 win at home to Benevento having gone through a serious overhaul in the off-season bringing in no fewer than 8 summer signings and spending the bones of £90 million in the process after raking in some £65mill in transfer revenue through player sales. That meant a much improved if not revamped and unfamiliar squad list as we braced ourselves for much tougher opening games against Fiorentina, Lazio, Napoli and Inter – f*ck me Serie A is competitive. Bologna FC Squad 2021/2022 Season Goalkeepers: Uğurcan Çakır 🇹🇷, Lukasz Skorupski 🇵🇱. Defenders: Takehiro Tomiyasu 🇯🇵, Loïc Badé 🇫🇷, Stefano Denswil 🇧🇪, Aaron Hickey 🏴, Óscar Mingueza 🇪🇸, Thierry Correia 🇵🇹, Nnamdi Collins 🇩🇪, Lorenzo De Silvestri 🇮🇹. Midfielders: Jerdy Schouten 🇳🇱, Orel Mangala 🇧🇪, Yunus Musah 🇺🇸, Musa Barrow 🇬🇲, Brian Brobbey 🇳🇱, Emanuel Vignato 🇮🇹, Calvin Stengs 🇳🇱, Ianis Hagi 🇷🇴, Nico Williams 🇪🇸. Forwards: Giovanni Simeone 🇦🇷, Adam Idah🇮🇪. Let’s be clear – this is a much much different squad than the one that was here two seasons ago when we took the reigns at Bologna, having offloaded the majority of the existing squad and done quite well in terms of player sales and subsequent replacements. What this does mean however is that our squad dynamics are again up in a heap with squad and tactical familiarity at a minimum – having said that, ZERO SH*TS GIVEN – this is Scudetto Gospel, we are here for a good time not a long time 😎. They say patience is a virtue and although it takes a while, we finally start to see the likes of Simeone and Stengs contributing while Brian Brobbey also picks up where he left off at the end of last season. Stengs in particular has been immense with 2 goals and 5 assists in his first 10 games. Some shaky results in August and September culminate in a 3 game winning streak and by the end of October we find ourselves in 4th place after 10 games played. By and large things continued to go our way which is rare for me to say on this blog. So far we had been leading with Giovanni Simeone in the loan striker role, with the Argentinian far from prolific bagging 6 goals by the time Christmas came around. It was at this point that our young Irish striker Adam Idah whom we signed for €12m last season from Norwich decided enough was enough and seized his chance scoring 6 goals himself in just 4 games – leading us on an excellent run either side of a single defeat to title holders Milan. With 20 games played as we reached mid-January, are we brave enough to start thinking about possible Champions League qualification? JiNxEd iT Wouldn’t you know it – Stengs who has arguably been our best player this season is ruled out for 3-4 months with a broken foot and this added to injuries for Yunus Musah, Ianis Hagi, Orel Mangala and Musa Barrow means our midfield is suddenly a depleted force as we move towards the business end of the season. You’d like to think our squad depth is enough to see us through however we are forced to play the likes of 17 year old Nnamdi Collins at DMC and 18 year old Nico Williams on the left in addition to bringing in Denswil and Vignato, and overall the impodus which we had been carrying since October seems to vanish in the haze as we pick up one point from our next 3 games. With zero cash in the bank and just a hint of despair in Bologna, we need a loan signing. Fast. The problem is that we are already above our wage budget with no room to manouvre in our transfer budget, so something has to give. With one week to go until deadline day, we push the button and a series of events unfold: 1. We allow Lorenzo De Silvestri to join Royal Antwerp on a free with only 6 months left on his contract, freeing up £29,000 per week in wages. 2. Backup keeper Lukasz Skorupski is Qatar bound with Al-Gharafa paying us £325k for his services (contract also up in the summer) 3. We sign 21 year old Christian Fruchtl on loan from Bayern to replace him, only having to cover 50% of his £8k weekly wage. 4. We then sign this man on loan to bolster our broken midfield ranks 🔥. Dutch speedster Jayden Braaf arrives on a 6 month loan deal from Man City, almost a like-for-like replacement for Stengs and he will hopefully be able to add that spark we are missing with the likes of Hagi and Stengs out injured. I say hopefully – the kid goes on to score on his debut so naturally I am the greatest manager that ever lived as we proceed to go unbeaten in February and March including an epic 4-4 draw against Inter! Most importantly – ADAM IDAH CAN’T STOP SCORING and somehow we are still clinging on to that 4th place position with 30 games played, breathing heavily down the necks of Inter and Juventus ahead of us. Meanwhile on a completely unrelated but equally relevant sidenote….. Youth Development While this year’s Youth Intake was nothing short of abysmal, you may recall we had two very promising candidates come through in last season’s intake – Giandomenico Scaglioni and Giacomo Gatti, the latter of whom scored 28 goals for our U18 side this season and is coming on nicely in terms of development. We focused on strength and quickness regimes for Gatti as well as developing traits of moving into channels and going around the keeper in 1v1 situations, and at 17-years-old he looks like he could push for a first team spot in a few seasons time. Here’s a question – would you loan him out or keep him here to continue influencing his development? Crunch Time 8 games away from Champions League football. 8 games. Surely not. Actually, probably not once we realise that we have back to back clashes with Roma, Juventus and Milan 🤦♂️. At least we can be sure of 3 points against bottom of the table Citadella… Well sh*t. Fair enough losing to Roma and Juventus, and hell – kudos to the boys for beating defending champions Milan to stop them winning Serie A for a second consecutive season (at least for another game anyway). But Cita-f*cking-della, I mean really. This combined with a defeat to Udinese allows Napoli to creep up into 4th place where we have sat since before Christmas, and suddenly our Champions League hopes are on the line with just two games remaining against 11th place Sassuolo and 8th place Atalanta, while Napoli face off against Sampdoria and Genoarespectively. Time to find out if the boys from the mean streets of Northern Italy have what it takes to swag their way into the Champions League Group Stages. Adam “f*ck this I’ll score 4 goals and a 10 rating” Idah picks up his second hat-trick of the campaign to demolish Sassuolo, his 4th goal coming courtesy of an absolute pristine finish from the 19-year-old Irishman. That £12m prize tag is looking decent value right about now! Meanwhile over in Naples, Sampdoria have beaten Napoli 2-1 to all but guarantee Bologna a place in the Champions League with the gap now at 3 points. We head into our last game knowing that a point will be enough to confirm 4th place, while Napoli know that anything but a win and they will have to settle for Europa League football next season. Let the games begin! In the least emphatic of finishes – a red card for either side means we both end up losing our final game of the season, but WE CARE NOT as Bologna finish 4th in the 2021/2022 Serie A table and will play Champions League football for the first time since losing a European Cup qualifier to Anderlecht in 1964! Milan win their second successive Scudetto trophy while Inter pip Juventus to finish in 2nd place. Adam Idah‘s excellent form in the the second half of the season means he finishes our top scorer with 21 league goals in 26 appearances, and overall it’s another fine season at Bologna in which Ugurcan Cakir was outstanding in goal (sign him, seriously) as well as great signs from young players such as Hickey, Collins, Musah and Mangala along with new signings Mingueza, Stengs and Hagi (Mingueza on loan from Barcelona but with a £7m optional fee that we might just meet if the funds are there). The challenge we now face is cash. With Mingueza, Correia and Braaf all returning to their parent clubs we need to do some serious recruiting if we are to compete in Europe this season. Despite picking up £15m in prize money which brings our overall balance to £9m in total, the board only allocate about £4m of this to our transfer budget so we are in a bit of a predicament…having sold pretty much sold everyone we want to sell there’s only one thing to do… Thanks for reading – hopefully you are still enjoying FM21 as much as I am with this save, if not get on over to WeStreamFM.com where you can find plenty of inspiration for your next FM journey with about 4 months still to go until FM22 might come out. We have also been discussing some FM save ideas on the 5* Potential Podcast so be sure to give it a listen. Grazie mille, MaddFM aka Paul. Fancy getting more involved? Catch real-time updates and sneak previews via the WeStreamFM Discord (#scudetto-gospel) and via FMSlack (#MaddFM), as well as hitting the Follow button below and on Twitter for new posts and if you have any thoughts or recommendations for this save 👍.
Chapter 5 – Reckless
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. The madness continues but before we go into that we have important business to attend to. Having lost Assistant Manager Michael Laudrup after he got the manager job at Newcastle, we decided to try and bring in someone with a bit more local knowledge and our hunt brought us to a man I’d never heard of previously but one look at his track record and I could tell he must be a friend of one Patrick Vieira. Christian Lattanzio arrives as our Number 2 having spent 5 years in the backroom staff at Man City (originally arriving with Roberto Mancini) and obviously becoming best buds with Vieira considering he went on to be his assistant at both NYCFC and Nice (let’s ignore that neither went very well for the ex-Arsenal legend but I’m quite happy with his appointment overall). Picture the scene. Our transfer budget is announced – £7.5m stretching to £14m with some adjustments, and myself and Christian are sipping a Birra Moretti in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore wondering how on earth we will fund the transfers we need to kick on again this season and continue the batshit mad rebuild that we started last year. While thoughts of extravagant friendly competitions, minimal prize bonuses, ridiculous loan signings and even selling Tomiyasu to Tottenham all crossed my mind it was Lattanzio that slammed his 7th beer on the table and said “Fanculo Madd, sell them all“. Not one to argue with a semi-drunk Italian man, I decided to take his advice and we hit the fax machine hard. No calculator? From the end of Season 1 to the beginning of Season 2 we managed to raise £65m in transfer revenue, 75% of which made it’s way straight back into our budget. While losing the likes of Dominguez, Dijks and Skov Olsen was never originally part of the plan, the cash was too hard to turn down and once the wheels came off it was all sell sell sell at Bologna. I’ll say one thing though, it was worth it: If this were real life then Fabrizio Romano’s Twitter would be in overdrive. Whether tremendous or absolute turmoil, the Bologna fans can’t even keep up with all the transfer activity as we spend the best part of £100m on signings (ignoring the already pre-agreed £12m for Musa Barrow), many of which involve us paying 50% up front and the remaining in 3 annual installments but overall both Christian and I are sitting rather pleased by the end of it as we continue to boost the Birra Moretti share price single-handedly. In Stengs and Hagi we bring much needed Flair and Creativity into the forward line wherein Hauge and Soriano struggled last season. Simeone will bring experience, power and composure to the lone striker role and hopefully hold up the ball and bring more players into the attacking third. At 17 we hope Nnamdi Collins will be at the heart of our defence for years to come, while we also snap up Nico Williams on a free transfer to bring youth and pace from the bench in the latter stages. Mingueza and Correia both arrive on loan with optional fees and you would expect both to compete for a first team spot, while I hope that our most thought-through arrival and record signing Orel Mangala will have the biggest impact in match situations as we look for a strong, powerful and athletic ball-carrier (think prime Blaise Matuidi) who can ferry the ball up the field while also lasting the full 90 mins with high Stamina and Natural Fitness. As said before there is method to the madness, and these signings most certainly elevate our playing squad as we enter Season Two – the big question will be, can we fit it all together on time for our league opener against Benevento Calcio? Benevento vs Bologna FC Sunday 22nd August 2021 We decide to start the season slightly more conservatively, fully conscious that we have a completely new forward line and 7 of our 8 new signings included in the match day squad meaning the dynamics will be almost non-existent as the team continues to gel and we gain more squad/tactical familiarity. Debuts for Giovanni Simeone, Ianis Hagi, Calvin Stengs and Orel Mangala as well as a return to the squad for Stefano Denswil who returns after a loan spell at Club Brugge last season, Mingueza not fully fit and Nnamdi Collins out injured. Tactically we look to play a fast Counter Attack with this approach, with a High Tempo and quick passing out from the back and using width to advance the ball and create chances in the box while defensively the strategy is to press urgently (more so in our own half) and quickly break when possession is won. It worked at times last season however we didn’t really have the personnel to execute effectively throughout, we have to be more confident this time round surely. Ok so not the most convincing performance but a win is a win and we will take the three points away from home. Despite all our new attackers on display it was substitute Musa Barrow that broke the deadlock from a cracking delivery by Takehiro Tomiyasu (further justifying that switch to right back) and Simeone was also very unlucky with 6 shots on target and a goal disallowed by VAR for offside. Defensively we looked solid as a rock, however we were perhaps a bit limited in attack with both Musah and Mangala in deeper midfield roles – a home game against Fiorentina next will see what we are really made of, not to mention a tough run of games against Sampdoria, Lazio, Torino, Inter and Napoli all in our first 7 games! Serie A is 🔥 🔥 🔥 . Until next time, MaddFM. Don’t forget – if you would like to get involved and catch real-time updates and sneak previews I will be doing so via the WeStreamFM Discord (#scudetto-gospel) and via FMSlack (#MaddFM). You can also hit the Follow button below as well as hit me up on Twitter if you have any thoughts or recommendations for this save, and catch me most Mondays talking FM nonsense on the 5* Potential Podcast.
Chapter 4 – Relegation?
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. How did our first season go at Bologna I hear you ask? Ok, let’s rewind a little. When we last left off, we were approaching the end of the January transfer window with intent to go out and sign some form of Winger or Inside Forward to help create some badly needed chances for the likes of Adam Idah and Raul Ruidiaz up front. With about £9m to spend, what did we come back with? A CENTRE HALF. Just like when Jack went out to buy a cow and came back with magic beans, so too did we end up spending £9m on the button for RC Lens Defender Loïc Badé. Badé is a player I’ve been following a bit in real life and on whom I’ve heard a lot of positive commentary of late (Cc: Scouted Football). In FM terms, he is probably what I would call a middle-of-the-road Centre Half at the start of FM21 but as good as we might attract at Bologna in our current state, however my main reason for bringing him in is that I can’t ignore the fact that we are consistently playing Takehiro Tomiyasu out of position and I’m keen to see what he can bring as a Right Full-Back or Wing-Back – dreams of himself and Aaron Hickey bombing down the wings clearly impeding my judgement in the transfer market but fear not, there is method to our madness as we still manage to squeeze in one last bargain before the end of the transfer window: Ajax youngster Brian Brobbey arrives on loan until the end of the season and better still, he also agrees to sign permanently when his contract ends in the summer – I’m not entirely convinced he is as good in-game as he is IRL for Ajax however he will bring some much needed strength and firepower in the Inside Forward position, hoping the Serie A defenders wont know what hit them with his sheer power and decent finishing ability. Let the games begin. Wow. No, seriously – wow. Let’s not forget we lost 3 games in January, meaning we went a grand total of FIFTEEN games without a win. FIFTEEN. That’s 1,350 minutes without a victory, and although Brobbey proved to be a vital addition scoring 4 goals in 4 games amidst a horrid run wherein we faced Lazio, Roma, Milan and Inter, we suddenly found ourselves in the muddiest of muds embarking on a relegation dogfight with just 5 games to go. Will we even see a second season at Bologna?! It took us until May to finally find a win. With morale in the toilet we headed away to Torino and it was Adam Idah who rose to the occasion and finally started to repay some of the £12m fee we paid for him at the start of the save. It’s also worth pausing for a moment to revel in the fact that Adam Idah absolutely LOVES playing against Juventus with 3 goals in the two draws earned against the Italian giants this season. This seemed to light a flame under the Bologna boys as we pulled out all the stops to stay unbeaten in May and seal our survival with wins against Spezia and Napoli, and in the end we somehow finished in 12th place which all things considered was a pretty decent finish when you look at our form in the second half of the season. Milan romped home to steal their first Scudetto title in 10 years, and overall I think remarkable is a fair assessment of the season overall. Some particular highlights included getting into heated arguments with Gennaro Gattuso….. …finding out that Stephen Kenny had been sacked by Ireland only to be replaced by this man….. Having none other than my beloved Newcastle swoop in to ruin the bromance and poach our legendary Assistant Manager…. …who then proceeded to return and try to snatch our best player…. Positively I had my best Youth Intake in FM21 so far, with two really good prospects coming through the ranks… …while our U20 team won the Primavera 1 title, steamrolling ahead of the likes of Inter, Juventus and Milan… Sticking with youth, somehow Yunus Musah managed to finish 3rd in the NxGn awards behind Saka and Camavinga depsite only putting in a 6.73 average rating and waiting until the last game of the season to score his first goal for the club… ..while our board are clearly loving the youth success, agreeing to improve both our facilities and recruitment ahead of Season Two.. What a season! Our 12th place finish brings in a measly £5m in prize money, however with circa 20 players returning from loans and a lot of deadwood to offload in the summer, our mission will be to bring in as much cash as possible to continue the Bologna revolution and keep rebuilding this aging squad as needed (not to mention keeping our fingers crossed that Ricardo Orsolini gets picked up from Chelsea for a bagload of cash with that 50% next sale clause firmly waiting to be activated). Priority for us will be some additional quality in midfield with Soriano and Musah lacking the vision and creativity needed to ignite our counter-attack philosophy, while a Striker will also be on the cards with Ruidiaz proving to be a poor signing overall contributing just 7 goals in 27 appearances. Normally I would say tune in next week to see how our summer activity goes however to make up for lost time it is already written for you: Chapter 5 – Reckless, live now. As always, thanks for reading – feel free to get involved in the comments below, on Discord (#scudetto-gospel), on Slack (#MaddFM) or of course on Twitter where all the cool kids hang out. Forza Bologna! MaddFM. Be sure to hit the Follow button below to be notified of new blog posts, you can also catch some of my other Football Manager content either on WeStreamFM.com as well as most Mondays on the 5* Potential Podcast.
Chapter 3 – Reaction
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. If you have arrived here having already read the first two chapters of our series at Bologna FC then you will know that we had just recently lost our opening Serie A game away to Atalanta having brought in a number of new signings including Adam Idah (Norwich), Yunus Musah (Valencia), Uğurcan Çakır (Trabzonsor) and Jens Petter Hauge on loan from Milan, with the overall consensus being that we had spent the €20m earned from Chelsea for Ricardo Orsolini pretty well all things considered (overall being myself and new Assistant Manager Michael Laudrup – his nickname was the “Prince of Denmark” so surely he knows what he is talking about even if Lord Bendtner might not be so agreeable) . Unfortunately squad gelling and dynamics, they’re a thing! Our squad overhaul and injection of fresh blood right from the beginning meant that we struggled to get going at the start of this so called Scudetto Gospel; big time. Now before you get the torches and pitchforks going, hear me out. This is an aging side that finished 12th last season, and we’ve landed in and uprooted all they have known for the last few years – bringing in what is basically a group of kids and chucking out a number of thirty-something year-olds who are literally old enough to be their fathers. A narrative starts to whisper in the ears of Bologna players, staff and fans alike… Let’s look at the positives and negatives. Positively, Yunus Musah looks the real deal even though after scoring twice in a debut friendly against Werder Bremen he hasn’t really done a whole lot since. Despite winning only one game in five, we haven’t conceded more than one goal in any game with new signing Uğurcan Çakır looking like a top quality signing between the sticks. Roberto Soriano has been a bit of a surprise entity looking more than capable as an Advanced Playmaker or Shadow Striker, so something to build on there for sure. On a more negative note – with Adam Idah being ruled out for 7-8 weeks after being taken off injured in our league opener, we haven’t looked like scoring much at all bar that 3-0 win over Parma so the sooner we can get him back the better. We’ve all heard the line “you can’t win anything with kids” but this is Football Manager. We live for wonderkids. Youth are the future, right? 2 games later…….. Ok. It is ok right? Maybe it isn’t. Seven games in and we’ve still only won once, losing embarassingly to Hellas Verona in our next game (1-0 again) and then picking up a 0-0 at home to Udinese. WHERE ARE THE GOALS LADS?! At this point I’m reminded of a quote from the movie Snatch: “Tommy, the tit, is praying. And if he’s not, he f*cking should be“. Now I’m not one to panic, however it’s clear that goals are a struggle – even if Adam Idah is due to return, I feel we can’t overly rely on the 19-year-old Irish international considering he is pretty much unproven at the start of FM21. As we approached the end of the transfer window, things start to happen. 1. AZ Alkmaar arrive in with a £9m bid for Mattias Svanberg who is a Swedish international midfielder with fairly average attributes in a position which we already have plenty of cover. 2. While listening to the Ranks FC podcast, my attention is drawn to a goal-scoring machine currently plying his trade in the MLS with Seattle Sounders who have been the side to watch in North America in the last few seasons. 3. Svanberg agrees a deal and we receive £9m cash straight into our transfer budget adding to the £6m left over following the Orsolini deal. 4. We go shopping… We said we wanted to bring in some players with a bit of street cred – at the very least he looks pretty hard, and having scored double figures in pretty much all of his previous seasons in Peru, Mexico and USA I’m hopeful he can adapt quickly and bring that same goal scoring instinct to Serie A even if it is a huge jump in level. At 30 years old for £5.5m, if we can get 10 goals out of him he will be worth it for the sake of a season or two. WE MARCH. We started with yet another defeat to Cagliari before things finally started to improve (I’m choosing to ignore an extra-time exit from the Coppa Italia at the hands of Cremonese). Ruidiaz scored on his debut for the club in a 1-0 over Crotone, before the return of Adam Idah inspired a 4-0 thumping of Sampdoria who on paper have almost a better squad than we do. Enter December and the fun begins – games against Lazio, Roma, Milan and Inter put the fear into all of us however apart from a hammering away in Rome, we actually held up ok and managed to pick up 6 points from 5 difficult games. 2021 arrives with a double header in Turin. A 2-0 win over Torino fills us with confidence, Ruidiaz finally picking up his second goal albeit from the penalty spot. This sets us up for easily our biggest test of the season.. Juventus vs Bologna FC Wednesday 6th January 2021 Ronaldo and Dybala up front. Chiesa and Bernardeschi out wide. Kulusevski, Morata, De Ligt and Cuadrado on the bench. Feeling confident? AN IRISHMAN SCORES AT JUVENTUS!!! We held them well in the first half, however a poor 45 mins from Ruidiaz results in a half-time substitution, and Adam Idah clearly wants to make a point that he should have started by scoring straight from the kick-off – BOLOGNA GO ONE UP IN TURIN! From there the heroics ensued, Cakir in goal putting in a Man of the Match performance however the sheer power of Ronaldo levelled things as he scored a trademark header to put it one apiece and that’s how it finished. One has to feel like that would be a turning point for us, and it led us on to a 4-1 win over Spezia in the next game, however we then went on to encounter not one, not two but THREE straight defeats all of which ended in a 1-0 scoreline. Seriously, what the hell is going on? By the end of January and with 21 games played, we find ourselves in 10th place in Serie A and still trying to figure out exactly what is going wrong at Bologna. Defensively we are solid, outstanding in fact and the likes of Cakir, De Silvestri, Tomiyasu and Hickey all have been collectively very strong at the back. Our problems are most certainly on the attack – up front we could be better with Idah and Ruidiaz bagging 8 goals between them, however more disappointingly our other attacking players have been atrocious in terms of creative output and goal contributions. On the right-hand side Jens Petter Hauge has been hugely disappointing since arriving on loan from Milan, picking up one assist with a 6.5 average rating across 20 games; while on the left hand side, we’ve mixed between Musa Barrow and Emanuel Vignato however similarly neither have really found any consistent form with 2 and 3 assists respectively. Summary: our Strikers are good enough, our supply is not and that becomes our main priority with 3 days left in this transfer window. Looking at our budget we can stretch to about £9m on an Attacking Midfielder or Inside Forward – will we be able to afford or attract someone good enough with this? Two days to sort out this mess – let me know your recommendations either on Twitter or in the comments below! You can also get involved and catch some sneak previews via the WeStreamFM Discord (#scudetto-gospel) or on FMSlack (#MaddFM). Thanks for reading, remember: TRUST THE PROCESS. MaddFM. Be sure to hit the Follow button below to be notified of our next episode, and of course you can also catch some of my other Football Manager content either on WeStreamFM.com as well as most Mondays on the 5* Potential Podcast.
Chapter 2 – Revolution
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Welcome back or Benvenuto as we say here in Northern Italy. If you are new here and are wondering what’s going on (just like me in this save), then perhaps you should quickly pop back to read Chapter 1 of this series where we introduced our next big FM21 adventure on this blog and with it a rebuild at I Rossoblù aka Bologna FC, who play in Serie A in Italy. Our reasons for being here are simple – this squad is made up of a small handful of quality players that are good enough to lead this club forward into the future, while the remaining majority are a selection of players that are too old or not good enough for our ambitions, and as such mean that an instant rebuild is needed to compete in a league that is rapidly becoming one of the most competitive in Europe when you look at the likes of Inter, Juventus, Napoli, Milan, Atalanta, Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina all showing the ability to compete at a very similar level over the past season or two and you could argue that any one of them could compete for a Scudetto title next season. Our mission is to bring Bologna into the same conversation – taking what can only be considered as an aging outdated squad and completely pulling it apart as we look to rebuild the club in our own image. “Scudetto Gospel” suggests some form of righteous street-justice when it comes to how we will approach this save and our overall philosophy/playing style and to do that we will focus on bringing in a blend of fiery, experienced/proven quality players that are good enough for this league (i.e. the street cred) combined with some more raw up-and-coming talent (i.e. the new crew) whom we will look to sign and retain at the club for years to come #thestreetsneverforget. To do that however we will need three things – (1) some decent cash moneys, (2) approval from the elders in terms of sharing our ambition of rising to the top of Italian football and (3) a right hand man to handle all things “chat shit get banged” related. Finances: not great. Club vision: not overly ambitious. Assistant Manager: Legend, or at least he used to be – not many people can say they are a legend of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Swansea City. Good attributes though so hopefully he can fill in the gaps between our own Managerial ability (which we set to Professional Footballer at National Level) and what will be needed to succeed at this level. So far so good, let’s hit Continue shall we? No sooner had we clicked the Continue button then all hell broke loose. After identifying Orsolini as one of three players around whom we would build this team (alongside Tomiyasu and Hickey), Chelsea landed in with a £14m bid for him – in my haste to start thinking about potential transfer targets and budgets I had neglected to look at renewing contracts for our existing key players. ROOKIE MISTAKE 🤦♂️. We of course flatly rejected it, however what proceeded effectively sh*t all over our future plans and transfer priorities accordingly: Chelsea make another bid of £16.25m which our board intervene to accept on our behalf (great thanks lads) | We protest and convince them to reject it and they duly agree (insert Thug Life meme here) | Chelsea return with an £18.25m bid; fearing the worst and not trusting our board at all, we decide it’s best to take matters into our own hands and see can we negotiate a serious deal seeing as our board are incapable of doing so | Chelsea didn’t seem to be giving too much away in terms of his up-front transfer fee, however we manage to agree a £20m fee with a 50% next sale clause included. That’s not even 50% of the profit made – we are talking half of whatever Chelsea sell him on for at any point in the future in this save. RESPECT THE BUSINESS. As Matt in our Discord channel put it: A very good deal, 100% of the cash going into our transfer budget bringing it up to £28m million, not to mention that future clause however now our priorities need to shift slightly knowing we now need an AMR in addition to a Striker and a Central Defender (I’d take a goalie too if I got it). If Fabrizio Romano were here, you know what he would say….. Orsolini’s replacement and our first arrival comes in the form of a loan-signing – most if not all of you will know the name but having never managed him in Football Manager and watched very little of his time at Milan so far in real life, fingers crossed Jens Petter Hauge can quickly make the Bologna fans forget about what’s-his-name that moved to Chelsea. With a £20m option to buy included (even though we probably will never afford it), nice to keep our options open should the opportunity present itself. Balance restored somewhat, meaning now we can get back to our main focus area which is a Striker considering our only current option is 38-year-old Rodrigo Palacio. As much as elderly strikers seem to love life in Serie A (Fabio Quaglierella likes this), he simply won’t cut the mustard in this save so our mission is to replace him with a much younger more powerful, athletic, explosive, mobile and overall instinctive Striker within our new €27m transfer budget. The biggest challange is interest – after being turned down by the likes of Marcus Thuram, Josh Sargent and Ivan Toney who has technically only just signed for Brentford at the start of FM21, we finally find our man: Size, speed, energy, athleticism, instinct and above all the lad is Irish – a £12m fee is agreed (50% up front & 50% over the next 3 seasons) to make Adam Idah become the first Irish international to make the move to Serie A in 20 years, since a young Robbie Keane moved from Coventry to Internazionale for £13m in 2000 to make him the most expensive Irish player ever at the time. At just 19 Idah has bags of potential especially looking at his Pace, Finishing/Composure, Off the Ball and Heading/Jumping Reach – expect Idah to be our Number 9 for years to come at Bologna. Next we did something that one should try to avoid in Football Manager which was to follow the heart and not the head, however you’ll see why it was impossible not to. While searching the “Slightly Interested” player selection to get a gauge on the calibre of player we can attract to Bologna in it’s current state, a name popped up which as soon as I read it overcame any aspects of common sense or logic that I held previously about our transfer targets. Go big or go home; we did. Despite being relatively stacked in midfield, the opportunity was too hard to miss as 17-year-old Yunus Musah signs a 5 year deal after we agree a £17m fee with Valencia (also 50% up front). The more honest/reasonable part of me thought twice about this deal knowing that the chances of something similar happening in real life are highly unlikely, however as discussed in Chapter 1 this save is not about rules or restrictions as has been the case with my previous series’ at Furth and Angers; we are here to make an impact now within the confines of Football Manager and as one @FMDoop has professed repeatedly on the 5* Potential Podcast – “If the game allows it then it’s fine”, and for the first time in a few versions of FM we will happily go along with that and have a bit of fun in this save. That’s about half our budget spent already and we still have gaps at the back. Initially I really wanted a Centre Half, I mean really really wanted one – however the signing of Musah meant that affordability was a slight issue with about £12m left to spend, as was finding a player of real quality rather than a temporary stop-gap. In Takehiro Tomiyasu we have a world class defender who can equally play at RB or DC, and with 32-year-old Right-Back Lorenzo De Silvestri still in decent shape at least for another season we decide to instead turn our attention to the Goalkeeper position. I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t overly content with our current first-choice option Lukasz Skorupski who at 29 has gaps to fill and is unlikely to improve. Now he maybe could have been good enough for our first season at least, however as you can tell patience and decision-making are not my strong points and while scouting the Turkish league as one naturally does in a new Football Manager save, the decision was pretty much made for us. Admittedly I hadn’t heard too much about Uğurcan Çakır individually however the recent strong performances by Turkey in their Euro 2020 qualifiers during which they took 4 points from World Champions France definitely drew my attention and looking at this guy’s ability and potential, it was another easy decision to make after Trabzonspor accepted a €14m bid for the Turkish #1 (50% up front once again). As Goalkeepers go he looks as strong as we could have hoped for, and hopefully he will make up for a slight lack of quality ahead of him until we can lure a new Centre Back in future. That’s most of our transfer business wrapped up although a bit more “street cred” would have been favourable – very happy with our incoming transfers even though we are finding it harder to offload some of our unwanted players. Perhaps not so favourable is the fact that we will have to pay out £7m every year for the next 3 seasons due to the future installment deals agreed, these guys better be worth it! Let’s get down to business 🔥. Atalanta BC vs Bologna FC Sunday 20th September 2020 Time sure flies when you are having fun and don’t realise the game start date and league dates are a bit messed up due to Covid – by the time our transfer business is complete, our league opener away to high-flying Atalanta is upon us. Having just qualified for the Champions League our opponents are clear favourites to win, but can our new look albeit youthful side cause a surprise at Stadio di Bergamo? Six players make their Bologna debuts with Adama Soumaoro playing his first league game for the club since joining from Genoa on loan, Aaron Hickey coming in to make his Bologna debut with Mitchell Dijks still out with a broken foot, while all four of our new signings make the starting XI in a 4-1-2-3 formation. HERE…WE…GO… That was…disappointing! A distinctly average performance in which Adam Idah came off injured on his debut saw an outstanding defensive display from Atalanta, and Josip Ilicic’s goal on the brink of half time was enough to pick up 3 points for the home side. Our lack of cohesiveness definitely showed as did our shortage of creativity and clear-cut chances, fingers crossed we can get this squad gelling rapidly in the coming weeks otherwise we may be in for a tricky start to life at Bologna. Positively, Uğurcan Çakır looked very strong in goal saving 6/7 shots attempted and picking up a 7.3 rating however as for the rest of them, a lot more needed going forward as we lacked any real threat on goal….
Chapter 1 – Rebuild
Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. We had a great time at Angers. A great time. Nine seasons of homegrown challenge adventures culminating in a shock Ligue 1 title win in our final season, bringing Angers to the Champions League as well as lifting the Jules Rimet trophy with France at World Cup 2030 in Spain. Great times indeed… But those times are no more. As one save epic ends, a new door opens and as we pass the halfway point in the FM21 life cycle, there is most certainly time to roll up our sleeves and get stuck into a brand new save and blog series. As discussed on the 5* Potential Podcast, I had been toying with the idea of returning to England to start a lower league save however as I worked my way through ideas and the proverbial #narrative, I decided to park that idea for the moment perhaps until FM22 is on the horizon. There were a few reasons for this decision, but the main one was simple in the end – after what was a fairly strict and grueling save in France (albeit thoroughly enjoyable), we now want to move into a world without any save rules or restrictions and after watching a number of well known real-life clubs struggling all season (the likes of Arsenal, Juventus, Celtic, PSG and Spurs spring to mind), deep down what I really wanted to do was a rebuild – finding a team on the brink and starting a revolution of sorts. Let the hunt begin. Of course I didn’t really want to take over any of the teams above – big clubs with huge resources don’t really interest me when it comes to FM, probably explains or is caused by the fact that I’m a Newcastle fan well accustomed to the annual struggle each season. Instead what I wanted to find was a genuine club that is at that point where a rebuild is needed, approaching that transitional phase where it’s out with the old and in with the new, and/or have a great opportunity to embrace a change and like any business or product, emerge like a phoenix from the ashes to effectively rebrand or be reborn with a new strategy and new philosophy in place. But where to start? A few options briefly crossed my mind – Derby County who of course just narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship on the last day of the season were one such option; Valencia are always a tempting club to manage, consistently acting as a selling club without any real ambition or ability to compete with the elite 3 or even contend with Sevilla or Real Sociedad to be best of the rest in Spain; Marseille are another interesting club, in my mind they are up there with PSG, Lyon, Monaco etc as one of the best in France yet at the time of writing are already 20 points off the top of Ligue 1 with two games remaining; and finally Feyenoord were the last club to give me real food for thought, traditionally always competing with Ajax and PSV however in recent times have let AZ and Vitesse move ahead of them in the Dutch league standings. Close but no cigar – once our eyes shifted to Italy and Serie A, it was hard to ever look back. I’ve really enjoyed how the Italian league has played out this season, not only based on the resurgence of both Milan clubs and the impending fall of Juventus, but also looking at how the likes of Atalanta and Lazio have conducted themselves this year and over the past few seasons all of which has helped to very much close the gap at the top of Serie A and forced some welcome competitiveness across the entire league where you begin to think that any one of 7 or 8 clubs could challenge for the title next season and beyond. Let’s add yet another club to the equation shall we? I’ve never even given this club an ounce of managerial thought or attention previously, but one look and I knew this was the club of our second FM21 save. Steeped in footballing history as one of the founding members of Serie A, the club hasn’t won a Scudetto title since the 1963/1964 season but having produced players such as Gianluca Pagliuca and Roberto Mancini as well as seeing the likes of Roberto Baggio, Giuseppe Signori and Amadou Diawara all grace the turf at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara previously, there is pedigree at this club and it’s now up to us to find it again and kick-start this team back into life in Serie A following what has effectively been decades of mid-table mediocrity and even relegation repentance for the club. Our approach will be simple: out with the old, in with the new. It’s not hard to see why Bologna make for a club in need of a rebuild – one look at the Team Report and you’ll see what I mean: Danilo is listed as one of our best Defensive options and therefore first choice at Centre Back; he is 36 years of age. Rodrigo Palacio (38) is literally our only available Striker at the club with Federico Santander out for 9 months due to a cruciate injury; THIRTY-EIGHT for crying out loud. Our main Defensive Midfield option is a 33 year old Gary Medel who hasn’t seen days like this since his Cardiff City hoorah, while Club Captain Andrea Poli may only be 30 but with Fitness of 11 and Stamina of 10 he might as well be playing in the Bologna over-75’s for what he will bring to our side. So yeah, a rebuild is certainly needed at Bologna as well as a fresh injection of youth and life into this aging side who at the start of our save are also crippled with long-term injuries in addition to it’s ageism issues. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all doom and gloom and far be it from me to speak negatively in a Football Manager blog. Once we look past the grey hairs and Zimmer frames scattered round the dressing room, we can clearly see some genuine world class talent here and straight away it’s decided: we have at least 3-4 players whom we will take forward into the future as part of our quest for Scudetto glory, and effectively build our team around as we look to rebuild and revitalise the playing squad at Bologna. No commentary needed – these are our boys: Tomiyasu is a worldie. We will do all we can to retain him at the club, starting with a new 5 year contract – the main question is will we have to play him at Centre Back in the absence of any quality, or focus on turning him into a world class Full-Back or even Wing-Back. Orsolini also has the attributes and potential to light up Serie A and any thoughts of playing without wingers are quickly quashed at the sight of what will surely be a future World Cup international for Italy in a few years time. Whether Aaron Hickey will also be there is anyone’s guess – while England clearly have a fondness for Right-Backs in recent times, Scotland seem to be blessed with Left-Back talent and if we can develop him to compete with Andy Robertson or Kieran Tierney then we will have done something right here. We also have well known FM wonderkid Emanuel Vignato whom I wrote about previously in a WeStreamFM “Keep Your Wonderkid” article, however from the looks of it he has taken a slight dip in attributes this year so the jury is out as to whether he will be at the same level as these guys later down the line (challenge accepted). Aside from those, we will definitely need to improve this squad however we aren’t exactly rolling in cash moneys to do so: With just shy of £8m in the bank and in desperate need of at least a Centre Half and a Striker (though I’m not over the moon with our Goalkeeper either) – the game is on, we will need to adapt to life quickly in Italy in what can only be described as a league madder than a bag of cats when it comes to anything related to finances and transfers. We may need to be ruthless; we may need to bend a few rules; we may need to rob Peter to pay Paul; whatever it takes, the Bologna rebuild is on and the race for Scudetto glory begins – we didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose us. Thanks for reading – thoughts and feedback are welcome as are any transfer suggestions! Chapter 2 will be out next week and then you can expect a new post every 2 weeks once we get up and running, however if you want to get real-time updates and sneak previews on how the save is progressing I will be doing so in two places for the entirety of this save: WeStreamFM Discord – #scudetto-gospel FMSlack – #MaddFM You can also get involved on Twitter as well as in the comments below 👇. Cheers, Paul.
Track 17 – All Around the World
All around the world,You’ve gotta spread the word,Tell ’em what you’ve heard,You’re gonna make a better day.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. And hello again! That didn’t take long but of course we are now here for a good time and not a long time. Having just won the league with Angers in our 9th season, the first Ligue 1 trophy for the club in 109 years – we decided to end the save there and finish with a bang by accepting France’s offer to manage the international side for the 2030 World Cup qualifying campaign. An Irishman at the helm of Les Bleus – what could go wrong? Our missions are simple: Win the World Cup with France (which would make it their 3rd win in the last 4 tournaments) Do so with a minimum of one Angers players in the first XI (i.e. as many as possible) First order of business to contend with is our World Cup Qualifying Group and wouldn’t you know it, we are drawn alongside none other than this manager’s home nation the Republic of Ireland. Flashbacks of Thierry Henry’s handball and Irish heartbreak in 2009 will most likely haunt our dreams as we navigate this group fully expecting to finish top of our group and be seeded first for the finals next June. If you’re thinking he will probably just pick all Angers players in his first ever France squad – YOU BETTER F*CKING BELIEVE IT. We won’t dwell too much on the qualifiers seeing as we went unbeaten and in the process caused Ireland to miss out on qualification at the hands of Ukraine (our narrow draw with them probably didn’t help). What we do care about is the actual World Cup, wherein not only do we hope to lead France to glory but also put Angers on the global stage to see how our (former) players perform at international level. Let’s do this. Of course it’s the new World Cup format where it’s 3 teams in a group and 48 teams overall, how could we possibly forget that? We open our campaign in pretty good fashion – an 8-0 win over Iran which included 4 Kylian Mbappe goals is followed up with a 2-0 win over Senegal, setting up a Second Round clash with Australia. The Ozzies proved to be trickier than planned as we ran out with a 2-1 win courtesy of an Angers double whammy from Amine Gouiri and Theo. Iran, Senegal, Australia – a good warm-up run to take on the World #1 right? They said we couldn’t do it with a bunch of lowly players from Angers however we started the game with 5 of our former title winning legends – Silvestri at RB, Ait-Nouri at LWB, Giraud in the HB role, Morand in the AMC position and of course Amine Gouiri up top. The temptation to play Bernardoni and Theo was real but we couldn’t ignore the quality of Meslier and of course that man Eduardo Camavinga. Angers players + Angers tactic + Angers ex-Manager = WINNING. An outstanding individual performance from Michel Morand against a Brazil team largely made of of single-name Brazilian newgens – Football Manager at it’s finest, and suddenly sh*t is getting serious as we enter the World Cup Quarter Final. Our opponents? Where should we start? The fact that Simon Grayson is England Manager in 2030? That Rashford, Mount and Rice are all 30+ veterans of this talented England squad? How about Phil Foden being the only non-English based player in the squad where he is kicking it at Real Madrid after scoring 10 and assisting 10 last season? This will be a big test for us… A test it was but another Angers masterclass from Gouiri and Thimon made all the difference and despite a late equaliser from 33 year old Marcus Rashford, we replied instantly before putting the game away with 5 minutes remaining. WE MIGHT ACTUALLY WIN THE THING. In the other quarter final games, Spain beat Italy 1-0 courtesy of a late Mikel Oyarzabal winner; Germany overcome Argentina on penalties with 35-year-old Leon Goretzka scoring in the shoot-out (no doubt the lad is still ripped AF after 10 years of pumping iron in this save); and the surprise package of this year’s World Cup Algeria manage to overcome Portugal in Extra-Time with another of our former Angers players Jessim Pesslissard on the scoresheet. It’s been a good World Cup so far for the boys – maybe we should have stayed 😄. Brazil’s early exit means that Spain have somehow leapfrogged them into 1st place in the World Rankings already before the competition has even ended, we ourselves jumping from 10th to 5th following our steady path to the semi-final. This Spain squad is no joke – despite being littered with ridiculous Newgens from PSG, Liverpool, Barcelona and of course Newgen haven Bilbao – they also still boast the likes of Ansu Fati, Ilaix Moriba, Nico, Dani Olmo and of course the aforementioned Mikel Oyarzabal. 90 minutes from a World Cup Final….. They made us work hard for it and our players were absolutely knackered by the end, however that man Morand sparked a 3-2 win with talisman Camavinga scoring the winner on 67 minutes. It wasn’t pretty but we got the job done, so far avoiding any notorious FM penalty shootouts and we now find ourselves preparing for a World Cup Final with France, their second consecutive final having beaten Belgium last time round in 2026. It all comes down to this – can this Angers inspired French side reign supreme and most importantly – who will be our opponents?! (surely not Algeria….) 2018: France 🇫🇷2022: Germany 🇩🇪2026: France 🇫🇷2030: Uh oh…. If we were playing what comes next you might naturally guess Germany, and they are all that stand in our way in the 2030 World Cup Final, a chance for France to win their 4th ever World Cup and in doing so bring 8 World Cup winners medals back to Angers where the boys will live in infamy and never have to pay for a drink for the rest of their lives. I suppose it’s the least we can do after all they have done for us in this save right? Here we go – the last ever game to be played in this FM21 save universe…I’m not crying you are 😅 WHEN WE WIN. Over-confidence much? I mean, we scraped a league title after PSG effectively got stuck in the mud and threw it all away – greatest manager ever right? The Germans are elite – prime Kai Havertz is still only 31; Karim Adeyemi and Jamal Musiala make up a ridiculous front two not to mention WeStreamFM favourite and friend of the pod Nnamdi Collins who is a rock at the back with veteran Joshua Kimmich just ahead of him. Also, did I mention who is managing them? We make two changes – Meslier made two silly mistakes in the Semi-Final and with our stalwart keeper from 9 seasons at Angers waiting in the wings, it’s 33-year-old Paul Bernardoni who gets the nod for the final. He is also joined by our Captain and arguably best player from the entire save at Angers, that man Theo Zidane who let’s face it, has World Cup winning DNA coursing through his veins which means he gets the nod ahead of Camavinga who is lacking match fitness following our semi-final exploits. Surprisingly there is no place for Karim Adeyemi in the German starting eleven with Klopp opting for a Liverpool Newgen instead. Will the history books sway in favour of Mbappe and the misfits of Angers SCO, or is it to be Joshua Kimmich that lifts the Jules Rimet trophy in 2030? Get your limbs ready.. 0‘ – France kick off the 2030 World Cup final here at Camp Nou 2‘ – GOAL FOR FRANCE!! (Amine Gouiri) – a cross comes in from Mbappe, Morand scuffs the shot but Gouiri manages to get a foot on the loose ball to smash home and give France a perfect start to the game! France 1-0 Germany 7‘ – GOAL FOR FRANCE!! (Amine Gouiri) – it’s goal number two for the Angers Striker, or is it?! Morand plays a through ball but Gouiri is deemed to have been in an offside position by the linesman. Still France 1-0 Germany. 40‘ – Substitution for France as Eduardo Camavinga replaces the injured Theo who will be gutted to leave this World Cup final. 47‘ – Half Time, France 1-0 Germany. 45‘ – Germany get us going for the second half of this World Cup final – they will need to step up a gear if they have any hope of getting back in this game. 60‘ – Treble Substitution by Jurgen Klopp as Rausch, Adeyemi and Maina replace Kimmich, Havertz and Bachl-Staudinger. The Germans are going for it! 62‘ -Substitution for France – Mbappe is looking exhausted, what a tournament he has had. Mario Thimon replaces him. 75‘ – GOAL FOR GERMANY!! (Karim Adeyemi) – the Chelsea Striker shows why he should have started with an excellent 20 yard finish, and it’s all square with 15 minutes remaining. France 1-1 Germany 76‘ – Yellow Card for Germany (Jamal Musiala) 82‘ – Substitution for France – final change for Manager MaddFM as Striker Tanguy Renucci replaces Michel Morand. Perhaps the Manager is thinking about the possibility of penalties? 89‘ – GOAL FOR FRANCE!! (Tanguy Renucci) – unbelievable, the substitutes have changed this game as Swansea Striker (you heard me) bags what looks to be the winner as France break away on the counter from a Germany corner, with Mario Thimon running the length of the field before teeing up Renucci to slot home in the bottom right corner. Is this it? France 2-1 Germany. 90‘ – There will be four minutes of added time. 94‘ – FULL TIME! FRANCE HAVE WON THE 2030 World Cup!! MaddFM exhales and wheels back from the desk quietly. There is no suit for the Cup Final, no open top bus, no waking of children to witness greatness, no flares out the window, no Tweets or Tik Toks to be shared to capture the occasion. There is only relief and a brief sigh of content – we came to France to make our mark on domestic football and bring Angers to heights never-before-entered, and we depart France leaving only one thing behind: legacy. What a save, what a game, what a year – there’s only one thing left to do… One last time – thank you for reading, we will return soon with a brand new save and an entirely new collection of absolute nonsense and seamless Football Manager rambling. In the meantime, you can catch me on Twitter or most Mondays on the 5* Potential Podcast. Over and out, stay safe and keep FM’ing it large. MaddFM aka Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter , Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Track 16 – Live Forever
Maybe you’re the same as me, We see things they’ll never see, You and I are gonna live forever… Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Welcome back to Angers! It’s been a while – 31 days to be precise, the longest gap we’ve had between blog posts so far in this homegrown save adventure at Angers SCO; rest assured this save has not ended up on the FM21 scrap heap, nor have we lost the love after 8 cracking seasons in the West of France which has seen us ascend to back-to-back Champions League qualification in the past two campaigns and of course, 15 (hopefully) very enjoyable episodes here on MaddFM.com. This is no time to look back into the past however – we have much business to attend to for Season 9 and about €30 million in our Transfer Budget to do so following our 4th place finish last season which gains us automatic entry to the CL Group Stages for the third season running. As mentioned before, we do have quite a well-rounded squad which I have grown very fond of, and an annual challenge is that it continues to be tricky to bring in new players that are either interested in joining or are better than what we have already at the club – however if last season taught us anything, we are definitely lacking in quality when it comes to squad depth and we have pretty much outgrown the likes of Michael Olise, Enzo La Fée and Manu Koné who to their credit have brought us this far but will no longer be good enough to be regular starters if we are to compete at domestic and European level. Long story short – we desire (1) a creative technical versatile Attacking Midfielder who can cover any of our wide positions as well as slot into the AMC role, and (2) a left-footed Central Midfielder who can occupy the Advanced Playmaker role and pick up pockets of space vacated by our Inverted Winger/Inside Forward on the left-hand side of the pitch. Easy peasy right? Pierre Roussey arrives from Nice for a fee of €24m (50% up front) after scoring 6 and assisting 6 last season; his player screen advises he is best deployed as a Striker however his attributes are far more suited to play as a CAM or Inside Forward. He is joined by more-well-known-in-FM-circles Turkish midfielder Ömer Beyaz after he signs on a €17m deal from AZ Alkmaar who will be more than happy with the €12m profit they are making after he played just one season for the club contributing 5 goals and 7 assists in the Eredivisie. WAIT A SECOND MADD, HE IS TURKISH – that was my first reaction, however having spent 7 seasons in France with Bordeaux and Stade Brest, Beyaz picked up a French passport for himself and therefore meets our homegrown rule of having either French first or second nationality – as @Nerdphonic described on the 5* Potential Podcast, “that’s the kind of Irish I like” with regard to our approach to managing/bending our homegrown rules in this save 😄. What this does mean however is that we have finally reached a point in this save where I am extremely confident in our squad depth for the first time, we have almost got complete cover in every position which means we can almost fill a full second XI if needed; quintessential FM injury crisis, come at me bro 💪. A good mix of IRL and Newgen players, all of whom are of either French first or second nationality and amazingly none of whom have been capped internationally for France as yet, meaning Hojberg (Denmark), Gbamin (Ivory Coast), Beyaz (Turkey) and Pelissard (Algeria) are our only internationally capped players in this squad. I say this because one of our main save objectives is to have an Angers player capped at a World Cup for France (more on this later) as well as the fact that we have a Champions League Group Draw to worry about…after Real Madrid, Internazionale and Leverkusen last year it surely can’t get much worse right? Season 9 🚀 “Siri, show me the Football Manager equivalent of bursting out of the traps please..” Something has clicked. Something beautiful. And I have no idea what it is. So good is our start to the season that we literally explode to win 7 of our opening 8 games which propels us straight to the top of the league, with PSG breathing down our necks waiting patiently for us to slip up – ironic considering we went on to do exactly that when we played them in Gameweek 10 but that’s beside the point. Like us, they have started to branch into the Newgen world and although they are not as strong on paper as they once were (memory drifts back fondly to a time when they had Mbappe, Neymar, Ronaldo and Salah as their front 4) – they are still very much a force to be reckoned with having only failed to win the league twice in the past 16 seasons That slip up slightly rustled us in terms of any newfound sense of unbeatability, but we continued to battle well and most importantly keep up with the unforgiving PSG and Lyon who in every other season have eventually broken away from the chasing pack as soon as anyone around them dropped points. By Christmas we are very much in contention, and even more interestingly it is no longer solely down to the goals of Amine Gouiri who we lost for 6 weeks in October – step forward Michel Morand, Mario Thimon, Theo Zidane and Gouiri’s understudy Jessim Pellissard who all rise to the occasion to ensure we remain in second place at the end of 2028. Eurotrip 🇪🇺 Barcelona. Manchester City. Seriously. Even if there was no Super League, believe me nothing has changed in 2028 and these two continue to dominate their domestic leagues with both having won multiple titles since we started this save. Even if we can overcome Zenit and pick up 3 points in Russia in the away leg, we will need a miracle to defeat a Man City side led by Mssrs. Mbappe, Rafael Leão, Bernardo Silva and Frenkie De Jong let alone the Catalan giants who boast Ilaix Moriba, Christian Pulisic, Josko Gvardiol and Vinicius Junior in their ranks. Mind you, we nearly f*cking did it…. We got the wins we needed against Zenit along with a very unexpected victory over Barcelona and after 5 games we were level with the Catalan club on 9 points behind Man City on 12 – however a trip to the Etihad proved far beyond our means and once again we exited the competition to take a place in the Europa League knockouts, where a thumping 7-0 aggregate win over Braga was swiftly put into faded existence as Tottenham knocked us out in the Quarter Final before going on to win the competition outright. That’s Europe done for another season! Acquiesce noun to accept something reluctantly but without protest Is every season now inevitable in this save? We have continued to improve year-on-year but no matter how hard we try, PSG continue to better us in the league and the constant struggle in Europe means that there is very much a feeling of deja-vu in Angers. Are we to accept our fate as the “best of the rest” in French football and continue to go about our business while our rivals enjoy the fame and glory that comes with silverware each year? To that we say NAY. It would be easy to roll over and accept this fate, that PSG are inevitable and that no matter how many times we try to rewrite our path, we end up with the same outcome. We have worked too hard and too long to get where we are today, and something feels slightly different this year with how our squad have elevated our performance and raised our game to a whole new level. We just beat Barcelona – anything is possible, and having been knocked out of both Europe and the Coupe de France courtesy of a penalty shoot-out defeat to Saint-Etienne, our entire focus can switch to the league where our new mission is to cause as much pain and anguish for PSG as is humanly possible. Whenever PSG concede a late equaliser, WE WILL BE THERE. Whenever PSG pick up a red injury or have a player suspended, WE WILL BE THERE. Whenever PSG drop points or even think about rotating their squad to compete on all fronts, WE WILL BE THERE. As someone once famously said: They say life is a game of two halves and if you thought the first half of our season went well, the second half started almost identically – I mean it was almost an exact carbon copy as we stormed to 6 wins and two draws in our first 8 games before AGAIN losing to PSG to end our excellent run, however this time something was different… Jan – March Results: Angers vs PSG In a bizarre turn of events, for the first time in 9 seasons we see PSG taking out the proverbial bottle and very uncharacteristically starting to drop points needlessly in the second half of the season. ABSOLUTE SCENES!! Somehow with just 8 games to go we find ourselves 4 points clear that the top of the league, and all of a sudden we are leading a title race, the very fate of which lies in our own hands and this is completely unchartered territory for us lowly Les Scoistes in the West of France. What is even stranger is that normally I would be writing in depth about the heroics of individual players as has been the case in previous posts with the likes of Mathieu Cafaro, Rachid Alioui, Theo Zidane, Amine Gouiri and Mo-Ali Cho who have had some cracking individual seasons, but again we see a united team effort this time around in which the likes of Mario Thimon, Michel Morand, Pierre Roussey and Omer Beyaz all start to chip in with goal/assist contributions. Shock and uncertainty hangs in the air at Stade Raymond Kopa…do we have what it takes to keep our nerve and bring home the club’s first ever Ligue 1 title in 109 years? Naturally enough we went on to lose our next game embarrassingly in a 1-0 home defeat to Toulouse, however PSG were also in a self-destructive mood as they lost 1-0 to Dijon, and with three games to go we had the chance to seal the title away to Saint Etienne…which we DIDN’T do as they held us to a draw, meaning that we instead welcomed Lyon to Stade Raymond Kopa knowing that anything other than a defeat would clinch the title for us..even now as I type this, I still can’t believe it came down to this after 9 seasons at the helm! Sometimes it is just written. After we went down to a Fabio Silva goal on 10 minutes, I was fully prepared to go into our final game of the season and sweat out a manic season-finale away to Nantes. Thankfully the Angers players didn’t agree with me, with Amine Gouiri equalising in the 77th minute meaning we looked set to scrape ourselves to a draw and thus a league title accordingly. Mario Thimon decided that wasn’t enough however, and with the last kick of the game he smashed home a 93rd minute winner to send the Angers faithful into absolute ruptures never…
Track 15 – Whatever
Always seems to me, You only see what people want you to see, How long’s it gonna be, Before we get on the bus and cause no fuss, Get a grip on yourself, it don’t cost much.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Four months and twenty-two days ago we embarked on a new homegrown save adventure here at Angers SCO. As of my last post some one hundred and thirty odd days later, we had just completed our 7th season at the helm of Les Scoistes having finished in 3rd place to clinch automatic qualification for the Champions League Group Stages – a landmark moment considering we have twice previously failed to qualify at the hands of Sporting Lisbon in the qualification playoffs. Speaking of landmarks and knowing that after 14 blog posts it can be hard to keep up – let’s take a quick trip through the “Don’t Look Back in Angers” timeline and bring ourselves up to date before we crack into Season 8 in the West of France (click here to read from the beginning if desired 👍). This obviously is just a fraction of the 19 days worth of game time we apparently have clocked up in this save (bear in mind I leave the game open a lot, especially when typing blogs), but overall this has been one of my best ever FM saves in terms of challenge, realism, enjoyment and absolute FM misfortune which seems to culminate each season as we continue to fall behind PSG and Lyon on Ligue 1 and ultimately battle for that “best of the rest” label. If this season is to be any different than others, we most certainly need to bulk up our squad for both league and Champions League purposes and with €33m in the bank after receiving €60m for Guendouzi and €15m in prize money – an optimistic MaddFM takes to the transfer market to see if we can find some homegrown gems of either French first or second nationality, and hopefully avoid blowing it all on some newgen dud now that we are 8 seasons into FM21. Having lost both Guendouzi and Amadou at the end of last season, our midfield is the first place that needs investment – we generally play a 3-man midfield with those two acting as our main options for the Half-Back role, so DMC is priority number 1 this window. Just as I am taking a break from dragging a sackful of cash down the Angers training ground staircase, we decide to have a quick scan through the various Free Agents available; bearing in mind we are in the year 2027, the majority of Free Agents with whom we are familiar are usually far too old to even consider signing so my hopes were quite low as I prepared to splash the cash in this position. Boy am I glad I took the break…. A 31-year-old Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg arrives at Angers on a Free Transfer after his contract wasn’t renewed at Tottenham, and we learn he holds a French passport having been born in Copenhagen to a Danish father and French mother. He is joined by 28-year-old former PSG youth graduate Antoine Bernede who also arrives on a Free Transfer after he decided to leave Red Bull Salzburg at the end of his contract following 9 seasons at the club, 8 of which he scored above a 7.0 average rating. Both are quality Defensive Midfielders and even more interestingly, both shoot up in value to €35m and €18m respectively. OKAY OKAY OKAY fine…. You wanted magic beans right? In one foul swoop, we more than double our previous Transfer Record (Amine Gouiri – €18m) to complete the €47m signing of Michel Morand who is a Newgen attacker from Montpellier. A HUGE decision spending all of our budget on a single player, however the reality is that I am quite happy with and attached to my squad currently and there simply aren’t any other options available that are (1) Homegrown, (2) Interested and (3) better than what we have already. Granted we only had a €33m transfer budget however with circa €50m in our overall balance along with Champions League TV revenue and earnings to come, we decide to bite the bullet paying €30m up front and the remaining €17m over three seasons. This is the type of player that can help bridge the gap with PSG and Lyon as well as compete in our Champions League group which incidentally is drawn just as Morand is signing the paperwork at Stade Raymond Kopa. 900-1 odds on winning the Champions League – granted it’s unlikely however with our current squad I feel we have the best chance we have ever had of success this season, depending on what you define success as. Overthrowing PSG was never really on the cards, and as this save has progressed it looks like breaking into the Top 2 will be equally difficult. Nevertheless, our aim this season is to finish in 2nd place and this is the squad that will hopefully help us achieve it with which we started the 2027/2028 league campaign – reverting back to our 4-3-3 Asymmetric “Angers Management” tactic for which I now feel have the players to deploy. HERE WE GO. We get off to a good start. A very good start. A 4-0 in our opener sees debut goals for both Hojbjerg and Morand, and this theme congtines as we go unbeaten in our first five games, three of which saw us score four goals which left us in 3rd place right as we got ready for our first ever Champions League Group game against Bayer Leverkusen, a game which saw that man Hojbjerg bag the winner in a 1-0 win. The shock of Champions League football seems to slightly impact us in terms of fatigue however with back to back league defeats at home to Lorient and Monaco, and after 10 games we sat in 6th place while preparing to board a flight to Madrid for a showdown at the Bernabeu. The game against Real Madrid was an absolute banger, arguably one of the highlights of this save and we didn’t even win. It had everything – goals, cards, injuries, late drama and even Phil Foden who looks to be playing a lot less golf than Gareth Bale ever did. We ❤️ Europe I don’t know what it is, but we absolutely f*cking love it out there in Europe when it comes to group games. Following our epic 3-3 draw with Madrid, we welcomed Inter to Angers with the Italians boasting the likes of Nico Barella, Renato Sanches, Achraf Hakimi, Ismael Bennacer and a 34 year old Romelu Lukaku up front. Not only did we win, we battered them to put ourselves top of the group with 3 games played. As if we might qualify from the group of death we were dealt?! Unfortunately both Inter and Leverkusen got their revenge in the return fixtures in Italy and Germany, and with 5 games played our qualification hopes hung on a thread knowing we needed to pick up points at home to already qualified Real Madrid and hope that Leverkusen could hold Inter in Milan. DISASTER More last minute drama as we equalise 3 minutes after Madrid took the lead, however it wasn’t enough with Inter comfortably defeating Leverkusen – our first ever outing in the Champions Leauge which started so promisingly unfortunately comes to an early end as we exit the competition to take our place in the Europa League knockout round. I’m not even going to write too much about it – we got Arsenal in the draw, drew 1-1 at home and lost 3-1 away, putting a swift end to our European adventures while Arsenal in fact went on to win the competition outright. Home Soil, Club Bias and Justice for Amine Back in the league – by Christmas we sat in 4th place, picking up some decent results and going unbeaten in December however a combination of squad gelling and fatigue from Europe meant we lost points foolishly while our ever out of reach rivals PSG and Lyon continue to dominate all around them, with Lyon stretching to a 7 point lead as we entered 2028 in France. Even though we only lost 4 games the gap is persistent and halfway through the season our chances of closing said gap are already slim to none halfway through the season. It’s all we can do to keep up and our only option is to try and control the controllables, ensuring we do all we can not to drop points in the hope that they do. The January transfer window rocks around and we decide to take action – with Evan N’Dicka wanting to leave due to a lack of first team opportunities, we take the €10m Shanghai pay for him and reinvest it in an even better defender, echoing our earlier move for Serge Giraud as we bring in Jean-Paul Silvestri from PSG for €20m to help shore up our defence and provide competition at both Centre Half and at Right Back where we have the consistent but slowly aging Jean-Philippe Gbamin. We definitely see an impact, both with Silvestri slotting into that Right Back position (and retraining him accordingly) as well as seeing our team cohesion start to rapidly improve culminating in a 2-1 win over PSG courtesy of a brace from our divine hero Amine Gouiri taking his tally to 19 for the season. With Europe off the cards we can focus all our attention on the league and with 4 games left to play we push ourselves up to 3rd position, 5 points behind Lyon who have since succumbed to the PSG pursuit and we are now effectively competing with Monaco for what will surely be an irrelevant 3rd place considering both 3rd and 4th now qualify for the Champions League group stages. 4 games to try and spark a miracle; he who dares wins right? Saint Etienne (a) ❌ 0-1Lille OSC (h) ✅ 1-0Montpellier HSC ❌ 0-2FC Nantes ✅ 1-0 They say “one egg is un oeuf” in France but that certainly wasn’t enough. Despite encouraging signs in terms of us starting to gradually close the gap at least with Lyon in second place, we fell at the final hurdle allowing Monaco to overtake us meaning we finish our 8th season at Angers SCO in 4th place – securing Champions League football for a second season running but still with room to improve in our quality and ability to dominate weaker teams in this league. Gouiri finishes Top Scorer in the league for the second season running with 23 goals (more on this shortly), record signing Michel Morand chipped in 4 goals and 7 assists while Mario Thimon goes from strength to strength contributing 12 goals and 7 assists. Bearing in mind we are still always limited to signing French-only players (first or second nationality), we have done well to elevate ourselves to being a consistent Top 4 team in France and with newgen signings like Thimon, Silvestri, Giraud and Morand adding a layer of star quality to our spine of the likes of Brassier, Ait-Nouri, Hojbjerg, Theo, Koné and Mo-Ali Cho. Unfortunately we cannot compete with Lyon and PSG in terms of our own youth produce which means we have had to spend most of our budget each season on one or two players to make up the difference, however with regular Champions League football we hope to continue attracting some top talent and bridge that elusive gap…
Track 14 – Shakermaker
I’m sorry but I just don’t know, I know I said I told you so, When you’re happy and you’re feeling fine, Then you’ll know it’s the right time.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Hello again. The last time we were here we had just kicked off Season 7 of this Homegrown save at Angers SCO, sitting in 4th place after 4 games having just spent €17m for the signature of Right Winger Mario Thimon from RC Lens making him our second-highest ever transfer (narrowly pipped by Amine Gouiri on whom we spent €18m a few seasons back). Before we dive into our seventh season, let’s do the briefest of recaps on our original save objectives which we set before Football Manager 2021 was even fully released all the way back in October 2020. 1. European Football ✅ Having last featured in Europe all the way back in 1972 we set out to qualify regularly and compete in Europe with Angers, no mean feat for a small-town club in the West of France with a Homegrown transfer policy. To date we have finished 7th, 6th, 8th, 3rd, 3rd and 5th in our six seasons, unfortunately failing twice in the Champions League qualifiers meaning 4 outings in the Europa League so far to date but never making it past the Quarter Finals. A recent rule change means that now the Top 3 teams will qualify automatically for the CL group stages – might we finally break the curse and go where no Angers team has gone before? 2. Succeed at U19 Level ✅ We currently play in Group C of the U19 Championnat National each year wherein the winner goes on to contest a four-way playoff for the national title. In our last six seasons we have won Group C five times, reaching the playoff final twice and winning it outright once. While our newgens haven’t been amazing (more to follow), we seem to consistently perform well as a group and my strategy has been to gradually add one or two U19 players to this setup each season to ensure continued success each year. All we need now is a Wonderkid 🙏. 3. Beat PSG ✅ It sounds crazy but it took us four seasons to beat PSG in a league game – them spending about €800m on the likes of Ronaldo, Salah, Kulusevski, Firmino, Musiala, Adeyemi, Dembele, Havertz and Gravenberch didn’t really help but we have since managed to overcome them in 3 of our 14 clashes so far. 4. Have at least 1 player start for France in a World Cup ❌ This one still eludes us and it was scandalous that the likes of Bernardoni, Ait-Nouri, Theo and Gouiri were overlooked in World Cup 2026 with boss Rudi Garcia favouring the experience of Areola (34), Mendy (31), Pogba (33) and Griezmann (34). We have made a small bit of progress since with Bernardoni getting his first ever call up to the national squad after the World Cup, but with 26 year old Illan Meslier occupying the #1 spot since his €32.5m move to Benfica, it’s unlikely Bernardoni will be the one to help us overcome this objective – our hopes most likely lie with Giraud and Thimon who are currently first choice in the U21 setup. 5. Sell a Homegrown produce for €100m+ ❌ Definitely the most ambitious of our objectives so far considering the highest fee we have received for a Newgen in this save is €6.25m. We haven’t had much success when it comes to Youth Intakes with Damien Blanchard the stand-out youth prospect having come through last season and becoming the youngest ever goalscorer for Angers SCO – unlikely he will fetch €100m at any point, we might need to lower this value if we ever hope to achieve this objective! Theo Scores Goals Bernardoni has been iconic in goal for six seasons. Ait-Nouri is an absolute baller of a Wing Back. Gouiri is the best Striker I have managed for several versions of FM now and Giraud looks to be evolving into a world class Centre Half following our efforts to retrain him in a new position. But there is one man who epitomises this save in terms of being one of our most shrewd signings, taking into account his value, attributes, deployment and the fact that he only arrived here to replace our former hero Mathieu Cafaro whom the board sold to Newcastle without our permission. A man who despite not using his famous surname has evolved into our most influential player. His name? Theo f*cking Zidane. While the last few seasons have been all about assists for Theo (36 assists in his last 3 campaigns), he started this season deciding that he’d had enough of creating goals for everyone else and proceeded to commence scoring cracker after cracker in our early fixtures – so much so it would be rude of me not to whip out the old Gyazo to capture some of these fine finishes. The first half of the season goes pretty well and by Christmas we sit in familiar territory in 3rd place behind PSG and Lyon. Despite only losing one game we earn ourselves 7 draws to create a 6 point gap between us and second. Where things do go well however is in Europe. I hate to say it too soon and far from me to disrespect Europa League merchants Sevilla, but we are somehow starting to become Europa League specialists ourselves as we absolutely dominate our group winning all 6 games to finish top of a group containing Milan, AZ Alkmaar and Partizan Belgrade and even more shockingly, this leads to an early exit for the Italian giants whose squad still contains prime Donnarumma, Kessie and Jens Petter Hauge as well as Pietro Pellegri leading the line up front. Money Doesn’t Buy You Class What isn’t going to well is our finances. Yes, we have spent whatever we could in terms of transfer budget in a desperate attempt to try and keep up with PSG and Lyon who continue to spend and progress far beyond our own means – however the continued absence of Champions League football means we simply cannot keep up and with Ligue 1 income as limited as ever, our once beautiful bank balance is back in the red all over again. I’m not sure if it’s some kind of in-built FM logic or sympathy to our cause but help arrives in the form of a multitude of January transfer bids from China for pretty much half of our squad – Beijing Guoan, Wuhan Zall, Shanghai Shenhua, Guangzhou Evergrande – they all seem to want a piece of the Angers pie as we literally get slammed with bid after bid for the likes of Manu Koné, Evan N’Dicka, Jean–Philippe Gbamin, Lillian Brassier and Rayan Ait–Nouri. There’s just one problem: WE AREN’T A SELLING CLUB. Short of losing the aforementioned Cafaro to Newcastle as well as making a €15m profit on an aging Geoffrey Kondogbia (who incidentally also moved to China), we have no interest in selling any of our players as they are literally the best we can sign or attract at present and finding replacements is next to impossible considering we only get 20% of any incoming transfer revenue. Therefore, with heads held high we flatly reject all incoming bids and resist the temptation to cash in some of our best assets. Whatever happens, we will NEVER succumb to the lure of an easy windfall.. OK OK OK. I mean, how could we say no? We signed Guendouzi on a free transfer just 18 months ago, and out of nowhere Guangzhou Evergrande arrive in with a €60m offer that we of course can’t refuse – that kind of money only comes along every so often in a save like this and could virtually kickstart the club on a much faster upward trajectory. For six seasons we have watched PSG, Lyon and Monaco splash the cash like spoilt rich kids while we have had to maximise every penny to ensure we get maximum bang for our buck each season – if ever there was a time for us to finally start closing the gap, it’s now. Bye bye Matteo, you’ve been great ❤️. On the downside we didn’t have long to sort out a replacement which we badly need considering we are still in all three competitions. Part of me wants to wait until we (hopefully) qualify for the Champions League in order to attract a higher standard of player, however squad depth is an absolute necessity if we are to compete on all fronts so we decide to shop locally bringing in Abdoullah Ba from Le Havre who it has to be said has a top tier player photo from the old Sortitoutsi facepack – similar to Guendouzi he is capable both as a defensive or a more creative midfielder and at €7.5m is a mere fraction of the fee we just received. Something in the Water? Writing this blog feels much different to my previous posts where I inevitably begin to illustrate various misfortunes and downfalls to overexaggerate how difficult this save is and pull the wool over how bad I probably am at this game. That’s why you are here right? As much as I hate to disappoint – the fact of the matter is that things begin to absolutely click as we enter 2027 as we go an a proposterous 12 game winning streak and a 20 game unbeaten run which only comes to an end at the hands of Monaco in the French Cup Semi-Final as we exit via a penalty shoot-out. What’s even more baffling is that despite this ridiculous run of form, we still find ourselves in 3rd place at the end of it with the gap only decreasing by one point between ourselves and Lyon. If ever something has summed up life in Ligue 1 it’s this – even when we win 12 games in a row, they too keep winning with each only losing one game in the same period to maintain their foothold at the top of the table. PSG & Lyon Results 🤦♂️ That brings us up to March where after yet another disappointing Youth Intake, we prepare to welcome Lyon to Angers for a six-pointer clash in what is arguably our last chance to bridge the gap to have any hope of beating our best ever league finish and break into the Top 2 for the first time in our history. Angers SCO vs LyonLigue 1 – Mon 15/3/2026 In what can only be described as a batsh*t crazy game in which we took the lead three times, scored a penalty, saved a penalty and went down to 10 men due to a late Michael Olise injury (subsequently leading to us conceding a 94th minute equaliser) – the game finished three apiece which all but rules out our chances of finishing second or even challenging for the title this season. Damn you Jadon Sancho, damn you. When in Rome… After demolishing our Europa League group we found ourselves drawn against AS Roma in the knockout round, a side boasting the likes of Lorenzo Pellegrini (still only 30), Marash Kumbulla, Gonzalo Villar, Gaetano Castrovilli and Justin Kluivert. So far we have been in new territory in this blog post with a lot of positive or new events to report – I guess it’s only fair that we return to a sense of normality as we once again put in successive poor performances which sees us exit the competition far earlier than hoped. This might sound odd but hopefully this is the…
Track 13 – Little By Little
True perfection has to be imperfect, I know that that sounds foolish but it’s true, Day has come, now you’ll have to accept, Life inside your head we give to you.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Welcome back! We finished my last post on a bit of a high with us sitting in 4th place in Ligue 1 after 26 games played, just a point behind Monaco largely thanks to 19 goals from Amine Gouiri, while we also progressed to the Europa League Last 16 setting up a clash against none other than Fulham who somehow finished in 6th place in the 2024/2025 Premier League season still under the watchful eye of the best dressed manager in the Premier League, Scott Parker. In this post I was looking forward to bringing your further positive news – that we had an epic Youth Intake; that we somehow managed to equal or better our highest ever league finish (3rd) to gain Champions League qualification; that we went on an epic Europa League run and took down a few European giants, and watched Amine Gouiri smash the 30 league goals mark to finish top scorer in Ligue 1 ahead of the likes of Mo Salah, Karim Adeyemi and Patson Daka. How many of these do you think we achieved? Epic Youth Intake – ❌ After producing our best newgen so far last season (Damien Blanchard, more to follow) I remained hopeful that we might continue our upward trend of annual youth candidates with our preview advising of some decent potential youth players in defence, midfield and attack. Unfortunately this didn’t qutie transpire to reality – positively we see an increase in youth candidates of African descent which is something we have been pushing for through our scouting and staff recruitment, however only French Guiana’s Ludovic Baal is the standout player in this year’s crop of youngsters and even at that looks technically limited for a midfielder. As is often said in this save, #WeGoAgain. Champions League Qualification – ❌ Having finished 3rd in the past two seasons to reach the Champions League qualifiers only to fail both times at the hands of Sporting Lisbon, the plan was to try and leapfrog Monaco to clinch 3rd again, accepting that 13 points was simply too much of a gap between ourselves and Lyon in 2nd. How did that go you ask? Fitness and injuries hit us hard – with a squad size of just 22 players, we simply ran out of steam trying to balance domestic and European football – next season will need to be different but having slowly recruited a few prospects into our U19 side and doing our best to develop them to be at least good enough to be squad players, we should be able to bulk up for next season along with (hopefully) a couple of decent signings (spoiler alert: there will be a big one later in this post 👀). Europa League Run – ❌ We have to be beating Fulham right? Sigh 🤦♂️ There’s a slight chance I may have underestimated Ezequiel Barco who has long been a bit of an FM legend in recent years – as we are now in the year 2026, for some reason I had mentally deemed him past it or on the decline as a player not realising he is still only 27, rocking it up in the Premier League and valued at €54 million. That was a costly error as we exit the competition at this stage for the second year in a row; there won’t be a third 💪. Amine Gouiri +30 League Goals & Ligue 1 Top Scorer – ✅ It’s a first for me in quite a few renditions of Football Manager as Amine Gouiri bags 30 league goals for the season, with 35 in all compeitions which also bags him the European Golden Boot – did someone say this is a farmer’s league? The lad still hasn’t been given an international cap as yet and with one of our main save objectives to have an Angers player capped for France at a World Cup, perhaps this one could be the year with World Cup 2026 in Spain on the horizon? So that was Season 6 – a respectable 5th place finish albeit a drop compared to the past couple of seasons, however on a positive note the €12m we earned from selling Geoffrey Kondogbia back in January combined with the €9m prize money mean that we now have an €18 million transfer budget going into Season 7 at Angers. I mentioned that our squad was a bit light in terms of depth however rather than spend a lot of money on squad players we instead start by promoting no fewer than 4 players from our Reserve & Youth squads – all of whom have spent the last few seasons in dev mode, and little by little they have been knocking on the door of the first team squad. A Tale of Two Marios We obviously won’t stop here. Last time round, I spoke a lot about raising the bar in terms of recruitment and our transfer market activity if we are to have any hope of closing the gap with PSG and Lyon. The difficulty with being a relatively small club doing a homegrown save is that most players whom would in fact raise the bar to that star quality level are either out of our price range or out of our league in terms of interest in signing. Last season I felt we lacked depth on the wings due to injuries for both Mohamed-Ali Cho and Michael Olise, so an AMR is our main priority however after spending about 3 in-game weeks scouting numerous candidates, it becomes clear that we will have to spend pretty much all our budget in order to bring in a top quality signing in this position as we identify two possible options: Name: Mario Tournier Age: 21Club: Strasbourg Fee Required: €30m (50% up front) Name: Mario ThimonAge: 21Club: RC LensFee Required: €17m On paper Tournier looks the stronger of the two, particularly when we look his technical attributes and also his stats for last season (17 goals & 4 assists versus Thimon’s 3 goals and 12 assists) – in terms of impact the ball sways in his favour however he would require almost double the fee in the long-run. The Player Comparison tool is extremely useful when it comes to these dilemmas, if you don’t use it – you really should be. When we look at them side by side – a lot of attributes actually sway in Thimon’s favour and in particular I am drawn towards his Pace, Natural Fitness, Determination and Vision. Tournier however edges him in terms of Acceleration, Stamina, Work Rate, Dribbling and Technique. Decisions! In the end, even though Tournier can probably get us a few extra goals we can’t shy away from the difference in price – Mario Thimon, welcome to Angers 🔥. We aren’t the only French team busy in the market prior to kicking off Season 7. With Patson Daka leaving Lyon for Barcelona in a €90m deal, he is replaced by €49m signing Fabio Silva who arrives from Chelsea just 3 seasons after they signed him from Wolves for €94m. Things are also shaking up at PSG as both Karim Adeyemi (Chelsea – €81m) and Mo Salah (Spurs – Free) depart Paris, however my joy is short-lived as they are replaced by Jamal Musiala (Dortmund – €59m) and Aleksander Isak (Man City – €45.5m) respectively. Safe to say we will have more interesting fixtures to come against these two sides next season. #Scenes The departures of Adeyemi and Salah aren’t the only pieces of good news this summer in the Angers camp. First – after spending the past 6 seasons trying to establish an affiliation with an African club (watching the board either fail to agree terms, or consistently identifying feeder clubs in Europe only) – we finally manage to establish a link with Étoile Sportive du Sahel who are among the Top 3 teams in Tunisia having produced numerous players that went on to play in Europe and at International level (most famous graduate is Aymen Abdennour formerly of Valencia). Might we start to see a pipeline of Tunisian Newgens funneling through the Angers youth academy? Secondly – it would appear that Football Manager has some sympathy for us after we twice failed in the Champions League qualifiers following consecutive 3rd place finishes in Ligue 1, with only the Top 2 teams (i.e. PSG and Lyon) progressing straight to the Group Stages. With France overtaking Germany in the European coefficients table (presumably because they won the World Cup again as well as Lyon reaching the Europa League final last season?) – we are informed there will soon be four, that’s right FOUR Champions League spots available in Ligue 1 after the coming season. In a League dominated by a select few teams this is welcome news to Angers fans – might we finally see Champions League football after 7 seasons at the helm? Finally – we are seeing some steady progress in our quest to retrain last season’s January signing Serge Giraud from a Central Midfielder to a Centre Half, so much so that I may even consider starting him in that role this season as we look to improve on our defensive performances (sorry Evan N’Dicka). When we started he had no indication of role suitability at Centre Back, however we can see this has already started to appear after just 6 months of training & focus – calling it now, this guy will be a #6 for France in a future World Cup 🔮. Season 7 🚀 We spent most of pre-season building a new tactic. Having seen a notable decrease in output from our Inside Forwards that play either side of Amine Gouiri in the lone striker role as part of a 4-1-2-3 formation (e.g. Michael Olise, Manu Kone & Mo-Ali Cho), as well as the fact that we simply concede far too many goals particularly originating from our opponents attacking in wide areas where our full-backs are often exposed as a result – we go back to the drawing board to build a somewhat new 4-4-1-1 Tiki Taka formation which implements a Shadow Striker to accompany Amine Gouiri up top, with a focus on ball retention and high energy possession football. I enjoyed a lot of success with this tactic in previous saves at Blackburn and Tenerife in FM19 so it’s time to see if we can make it work in FM21. Angers SCO vs Stade Brestois 29Ligue 1 – Sat 08/08/2026 The good news is we didn’t concede! The bad news is we didn’t overly threaten with 12 shots on target and 52% possession, and that seemed to be the theme of our new tactic in our opening 4 games in August as we went unbeaten with two wins and two draws, only conceding one goal in four games but only scoring three ourselves including a debut goal for €17m signing Mario Thimon as well as Amine Gouiri back to his old tricks. We definitely look more solid, however we also look a bit more safe if not boring – having said that, with a Europa League group containing Milan, AZ Alkmaar and Partizan Belgrade, perhaps safe and boring might be just what the doctor ordered this season. Thanks for reading – see you in Milan next week for our Europa League opener 🔥. Cheers, Paul….
Track 12 – D’You Know What I Mean
I met my maker I made him cry, and on my shoulder he asked me why, his people won’t fly through the storm, I said listen up man, they don’t even know you’re born.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. So begins Season 6 of this Homegrown save at Angers SCO, and “Déjà Vu” are the main words coming out of fans’ mouths in the West of France. Last season we finished 3rd in Ligue 1 which is exactly where we finished the previous season, setting us up for a Champions League qualifier somewhat unbelievably against Sporting Lisbon, the same side that beat us in the exact same fixture last season. The main difference from this time last year is that we have a bit more money to spend with our finances in much healthier shape due to us not spending any cash at all in Season 5 (apart from signing-on fees for Free Agents Geoffrey Kondogbia and Jean-Philippe Gbamin whom we picked up after their contracts ended at Atletico Madrid and Everton respectively). Our bank balance (which had been depleted due to annual installments as part of deals we made for Amine Gouiri, Michal Olise and Lillian Brassier) is restored to a much healthier €16m, with the board giving us €9m to spend on transfers. Before we go on a spending spree 😅 (context: PSG have just spent €249m on the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Theo Hernandez and Memphis Depay, thankfully not Haaland though as was rumoured previously), the déjà vu keeps a rolling as we continue our shrewdness in the Free Agent market. Guendouzi amazingly is still only 26 years old in the year 2025 and is a welcome addition of quality and experience as we look to bolster our squad depth to better compete at domestic and European level – this makes us fairly stacked in Central Midfield with Guendouzi joining Ibrahim Amadou, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Theo and Enzo Le Fée who compete to start in a 3-man midfield (we play Gbamin as a Right Back and he has been quality in his first season). Where we are light however is up front – top scorer from our first two seasons Rachid Alioui decided he didn’t want to renew his contract due to a lack of game time, which leaves us with only Amine Gouiri as a Striker option (we only play one up front). Apart from that our squad remains the same and barring anyone leaving unexpectedly, we are in a position to use most of our budget to sign a Striker as competition or backup for Gouiri. The biggest challenge is that there aren’t many options – after 6 years in game we are at the point where Newgens haven’t yet fully matured to be good enough for first team football, while the majority of IRL players that would have been either suitable or interested are now almost too old to be in contention – long story short, we literally find only one affordable candidate with the ability and potential we need, and €7 million later he arrives at Stade Raymond Kopa to take the recently vacated #9 jersey. Angers SCO First Team Squad 2025/2026 Goalkeepers: Paul Bernardoni, Dimitry Bertaud Defenders: Evan N’Dicka, Lillian Brassier, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Valentin Rosier, Hugo Vogel Midfielders: Ibrahim Amadou, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Theo, Enzo Le Fée, Michael Olise, Mohamed-Ali Cho, Matteo Guendouzi, Antonin Bobichon, Manu Koné Forwards: Amine Gouiri, Jessim Pellissard “Déjà vu is a bast*rd“ MaddFM, 13th August 2025 For the second season running we face off with Sporting for a place in the Champions League Group Stages, and for the second season running we fail to beat them – a 0-0 draw in Lisbon looked to set us up nicely for Home victory in the return leg however despite Pellisard scoring on his debut, a brace from Daniel Braganca sends us into the Europa League Group stage where we are drawn to play Genk, AZ Alkmaar and Lokomotiv Moscow. D’You Know What Amine Brace yourself – Season 6 kicks off with the best ever start to a season I have had since I started blogging my Football Manager adventures here two years ago and after winning our first 6 games we found ourselves – wait for it, TOP OF THE LEAGUE. I would love to say we started as we meant to go on however natural order ensued and we began an unhealthy trend of dropping points unnecessarily, peaking too early both in Ligue 1 and in the Europa League – by Christmas, we found ourselves in 3rd place in the league and finished second in our Europa Group to set up a knockout round clash with Zenit St. Petersburg. Looking back it’s easy to analyse where things are going well and where we are struggling. Amine Gouiri has become a lethal finisher and absolute feast for the eyes in the Advanced Forward role – by the Winter break he has scored 19 goals in 19 games in the League to put him top of the scoring charts ahead of PSG’s Mo Salah, complimented by 3 goals in Europe. The Frenchman has become my favourite Striker in this year’s edition of the game (a sentiment shared by multiple members of the community managing in France at present) and looks on course to score 30+ goals this season which I myself have not had a Striker achieve for several versions of FM. I can only speculate that his form is purely down to my managerial and tactical prowess… On a slightly more negative note and as is clearly evident in the gulf that now exists between PSG/Lyon and ourselves/Monaco (13 point gap by the time we hit Christmas) – while these two elites are raising the bar each year particularly in terms of signings and quality of player they can afford and attract in each transfer window (helped greatly by their Champions League performances), we simply haven’t been able to keep up due to a combination of financial and recruitment restrictions with our main mission to retain our existing players and gradually improve the squad through bargains, free agents and youth development. While Amine Gouiri is the star striker so far this season, he was definitely an outlier in terms of big name signings which led me to take a quick look at each club’s transfer activity in terms of Top 10 signings over the past 5 seasons: Top 10 Transfers + Free Agents – PSG, Lyon & Angers SCO (2020-2026) Wow. I knew the gulf was huge, but wow. This is not me playing the sympathy card or somehow trying to brag about how we have performed against these sides (I’m the one that chose to do a homegrown save at a small club) – rather, the learning here is that I need to do better in terms of raising the bar on our signings and not simply settling for retaining the players we have currently. While I have remained loyal to the likes of Ibrahim Amadou and Evan N’Dicka, the harsh reality is they won’t be good enough to see us through to the Champions League and with the Board deciding to bump our Transfer Budget up to €10m, so begins our quest in January for a new Centre Half who will hopefully become the rock in our defence for years to come. Here is where things get interesting. After applying the filter above I found what looks to be the perfect candidate – French, wonderkid status, attributes on point, 20 years old, 6ft 4″ tall, currently at PSG but Transfer Listed by Request due to a lack of game time: Notice any problem? No? HE’S NOT A DEFENDER. Giraud is the perfect Centre Half on paper except for the fact that he isn’t one – I can’t get away from it, with a €10.5m asking price he is exactly what we are looking for. Would we be mad to spend the whole budget and then completely retrain him as a Centre Half? Interestingly it’s out with the old and in with the new as Guanzhou Evergrande suddenly land in with a €6m bid for Geoffrey Kondogbia; my initial reaction was to tell them where to go however sticking with the chain of thought above, the fact that we (a) realise he is 33, (b) signed him on a free just 18 months back and (c) convince the Chinese side to up the bid for €12m means that every player now has a price in Angers; enjoy China Geoff 👋. We kicked off the New Year pretty well as we geared up for our Europa League Knockout Round clash with Zenit, however the problem is so did Monaco – they leapfrog us into 3rd by a single point just as we are preparing to welcome the Russian side to Angers following a disappointing 1-0 defeat St. Petersburg. Having been knocked out at this stage last season, can we overturn them in the Second Leg and avoid another disappointing spate of deja-vu? Angers SCO vs Zenit St. PetersburgEuropa League Knockout Round – Thurs 26/2/2026 Injuries to Guendouzi and Gbamin mean that Amadou and Rosier come back into the side, while Zenit are almost at full strength including the worst haircut we have ever seen in Parfait Guiagon (not that parfait I can tell you). Top scorer Amine Gouiri has 28 goals so far this season in all competitions and will surely be the danger man with stalwart Dejan Lovren missing the game for Zenit due to suspension. We needed a clean sheet and we got it as we romp home with a 3-0 win, meaning we enter March in 4th place in Ligue 1 and a potential Europa clash against the likes of RB Leipzig, Fiorentina, PSV, Wolfsburg or Real Sociedad. In which exotic place will lowly Angers SCO find themselves next? Thanks for reading, Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter , Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Track 11 – Half the World Away
So what do you say? You can’t give me the dreams that are mine anyway, You’re half the world away.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Welcome back! If you took the time to read the above, you read correctly – we had our highest ever league finish last season and although we probably should have taken 2nd place, our 3rd place finish means that we qualify for the Champions League playoffs where we are drawn against Sporting Lisbon who also finished 3rd in the Portuguese Primeira Liga NOS. On the back of this we were directly offered the Switzerland international job without even having to do an interview, and after much deliberation I decided against accepting it – I play Football Manager slow enough as is, and considering this is a Homegrown save we will settle for nothing less than getting the France job (which may also help our quest to have an Angers player start for France in a World Cup 😇). As mentioned, money is definitely a self-inflicted challenge as we are still paying annual installments for the likes of Amine Gouiri, Lillian Brassier and Michael Olise and what we lack in financial ability, we had to make up for with a bit of shrewdness in the free agent market. To this day I still remember my first experience of the Bosman rule in what was then Championship Manager 3. As an 11 year old kid in the West of Ireland I was perhaps not so versed in the rules of football as I am now (writer’s note: debatable), and it was during one of my many Newcastle saves over the years that I suddenly realised one could sign a player for free at the end of their contract rather than paying a fee. I even remember the two players I brought in, both of whom were (a) positions I didn’t need to fill and (b) playing in the same position. Standard free-agent behaviour right? The Glory Days Nowadays we don’t see as many players running down their contracts, with clubs much more proactive and firm with regard to ensuring players are on long term deals and thus hold value either playing for the club or in the transfer market. Having said that, there is nothing sweeter than picking up an absolute bargain for zero transfer fee and watching their value skyrocket as soon as they arrive at the club right? Despite bringing in close to €10m in player sales, we still only receive 20% of transfer revenue thus we have very little to spend in the transfer market. Overall I am pretty happy with the quality of our squad however a bit more depth is needed, and there is one player that I have been monitoring for the past 3 seasons straight after originally hearing him mentioned on the Scouted Football podcast on numerous occasions (along with Isaac Lihadji who we also bring in on a season-long loan from Tottenham). In real life Koné has just recently secured a move to Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach however in our save universe he is still turning out for Toulouse in Ligue 1 and with just one year left on his contract, we manage to pick him up for a steal at €2m. You’re probably thinking “Decent signings, shouldn’t be too hard to improve on last season” right? I too share these sentiments at times, however news items like this have a habit quickly bring me back down to earth…hard. But enough moping about – we have a Champions League qualifier to tend to as we take the short flight to what is hopefully a Covid-free Lisbon in the year 2024. Can we overcome the Portuguese giants and take our place in the group stages? We made life very difficult for ourselves, never even getting started meaning we went into the return leg at home needing to win by three goals to be in with a chance of qualifying. After all that and a year of graft and slog to reach the qualifiers, we crash out before the race has even begun! Mega disappointing, and we take solace in the fact that we will now take a place in the 2024/2025 Europa League group stages – possible trips to Russia, Norway, Israel and Azerbaijan await as we look to fly the Angers flag globally and commence the Don’t Look Back in Angers World Tour, let’s head to London for the draw shall we? 2024/2025 League Season We start well going unbeaten in our first 5 games, and continue some decent form all the way up towards the winter break which culminates in a 2-1 home victory over PSG – WE F*CKING DID IT AGAIN!! After going almost 4 years without a win against the 7 time consecutive champions, somehow we have beaten them twice in a row and by Christmas we sit in 4th place after 19 games played. Despite dropping a few silly points in the league, for some reason we are indestructible in the Europa League as we pretty much smash all around us to take top spot and finally we are given the “Have boots, will travel” licence as we set up a trip to Ukraine to face Shakhtar in the knockout stages. Back home in the league things are going marvelously as we kick off 2025 like a house on fire – the most pleasing part of which is that our front 4 are all chipping in big time in terms of goals and assists rather than solely relying on one player to win us games. Gouiri in the AF role continues to lead the goalscoring charts, with Theo maintaining that consistency in terms of assists and wide-men Mo-Ali Cho and Manu Kone both chipping in their share of goals scored and created. Previously our seasons have been defined by one-man shows (see Mathieu Cafaro, Rachid Alioui or Amine Gouiri in the last few seasons) so this level of squad effort and impact is a very welcome sight indeed. As you can see however, it’s not Angers stealing the headlines – a rejuvenated Lyon side decide to make a play for the league title and after 30 games are in pole position to do so. All our energies, focus and hatred has been for PSG in this save and in doing so we overlooked the fact that Lyon have built a ridiculously strong side with an attacking line containing Jadon Sancho, Rayan Cherki, Patson Daka, Hossem Aouar and Moussa Dembélé – that is until we beat them of course, leaving things wide open at the top with 8 games to go. 😎 If the Lyon result was the highlight for March, it’s easy to choose the lowlight. After seeing a huge improvement in our Youth Intake last season with a potential French wonderkid arriving in the form of Damien Blanchard (who is progressing nicely by the way if you look at the year-on-year comparison below), we receive our worst EVER intake in our 5th season and arguably the worst I have ever seen in Football Manager. It’s not just random is it?! All eggs are in the Blanchard basket Further afield – we find ourselves in a Europa League Quarter Final against none other than Europa League specialists Sevilla, knowing that the likes of Tottenham, Lazio and Arsenal are potential Semi-Final opponents. Despite starting the first leg in Spain well and taking the lead twice, a Lucas Ocampos hat-trick condemned us to a 4-2 defeat and once again we were in a situation needing to win by two goals or more to progress. Deja-vu struck hard as we failed to score in the return leg, and we bid farewell to European football once more albeit with our heads held high in comparison to our crash out of the Europa Conference last season. End of Season run-in Eight games to go including fixtures against both PSG and Monaco and though it is highly unlikely, we find ourselves in a three-horse race for the Ligue 1 title with PSG on 70 points, Lyon on 67 and ourselves on 66. We need all the luck we can get… Who needs midfielders right? 🤦♂️ We proceed to drop 7 points in our next 3 games and quickly rule ourselves out of contention, however 3 wins from the next 4 means we seal 3rd place in Ligue 1 for the second season running – that’s 7th, 6th, 8th, 3rd and 3rd which for a homegrown side we are pretty happy with! The league is far from over though as we reach an epic final day climax with both PSG and Lyon tied on 86 points apiece (PSG with the better goal difference). Having won the league for the past 7 consecutive seasons the odds are very much in their favour, however Lyon knocking them of their perch will make life very interesting going into next season. I’ve never had so much anticipation for a final round of fixtures considering our own final game is irrelevant!! Outrageous scenes – Lyon do their best to bottle it with a 1-1 draw away to Nantes, however PSG go one further by losing 1-0 to Brest. Lyon have dethroned PSG! With all eyes on these two fixtures our somewhat embarrassing defeat to Reims is missed by many – overall it’s another really good season for us, Amine Gouiri again topping our scoring charts with 20 goals and 4 of our front line hitting double-digits. The icing on the cake is that, due to our limited spending this season combined with that sweet sweet €14m prize money, we finish the season with a positive bank balance for the first time in this save which hopefully bodes well for some summer signings especially if we can do one better than last season and actually qualify for the Champions League Group Stage 💰💰. Things are heating up in Angers 👀. What to do when you are PSG and you have just lost the league on the final day of the season for the first time in seven years? Thanks for reading, Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter, Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Track 10 – Keep the Dream Alive
I’m a stranger to this place, where real life and dreams collide, and even though I fall from grace, I will keep the dream alive Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. A quick recap on our original save objectives – click here to jump back in time to Episode 1 – The Masterplan where we originally set out the rules and goals of this save. Things are going pretty well! Ok, we haven’t beaten PSG in 7 attempts and we are in slight financial peril due to some of the transfer deals made wherein we are still paying installments annually – however by the end of December 2023 halfway through Season 4 of this homegrown save at Angers SCO, we sit in 3rd place in Ligue 1 and despite our financial woes our board are very happy with our performance so far. Setbacks As mentioned in my last post this season has been the Michael Olise show, and his goal in our 2-1 win over Amiens brought his tally to 9 in the league by December. Cue the inevitable as the lad goes on to pick up a spate of injuries, completely derailing his season and having a knock-on impact on our own form in January as well. They say when one door closes another opens, and Ebenezer Simons de Fanti is the man to walk through it. The 19 year old has been excellent for our U19s since starting the save however I had thought he wouldn’t be good enough to step up to this level unlike fellow IRL academy graduate Mohamed-Ali Cho who has cemented a place in the first team. A quick switch of Cho over to the left and de Fanti on the right suddenly gets us firing on all cylinders, and by the end of February not only has the lad earned himself a Player of the Month award, but we jump back up into second just as we enter that magical time of year which is our annual Youth Intake. On the topic of Youth Intakes – so far we have been left disappointed in this save with three distinctly average groups coming through so far. After a couple of failed attempts to set up some affiliations with African academies such as Generation Foot in Senegal to the point where we hired two of their former staff as our Assistant Manager and Head of Youth Development, we started to see a bit of traction with news that one of our top prospects is a Senegalese Centre Midfielder, and also that this looks to be our best group of youth candidates so far in this save. Needless to say the apprehension was building as we awaited that fateful day in which our youth candidates are confirmed, and while the Senegalese kid Arona Diallo isn’t as good as one would have hoped – it emerges that local lad Damien Blanchard is the star of this intake, coming through with 4 star potential and at just 15 looks like he may become a cracking player in a few seasons time. Bearing in mind one of our save objectives is to eventually develop and sell a Newgen for €100m, could this be the lad that brings home the bacon? One Night in Paris Youth intakes aside, March is all about one man who not only scores all 5 of our goals in the month, but also nets the winning penalty in a 1-0 victory over PSG in Paris. WE F*CKING DID IT!!!!! Admittedly they were without Cristiano Ronaldo this time round however we put in our best defensive performance all season against a side containing Neymar, Salah, Kulusevski, Firmino and Ferran Torres to keep a clean sheet and pick up 3 points courtesy of a 54th minute penalty. Another save objective off the list 🎉🎉🎉. 🥊 Beat PSG in a league game – ✅ At this point we find ourselves holding on to 2nd place in the league with 8 games remaining – might we actually keep this form going and properly achieve European football bringing this homegrown side to the forefront of elite football?! (Writer’s note: we definitely aren’t ready) With our bank balance very much in the red at minus €12 million, we need as high a finish as possible especially considering the prize money available in Ligue 1 which is pittance compared to the other top European leagues. It’s also at this point we lose Gouiri for 3 weeks to an ankle injury and although we manage to wing it for two games in his absence, we are half the team we were in the final third and a costly defeat against Amiens reduces our lead to just 3 points ahead of Lyon who won all games since as they make a late burst – Patson Daka rocketing up to the top of the scoring charts in the process. Draws against Rennes and Nantes put us under even more pressure and with two games to go we are suddenly in danger of missing out on Champions League football completely if results don’t go our way. Are we about to complete the biggest bottle job in Angers history and truly make ourselves look back in anger for years to come?!! Game 37.. Game 38.. If both Lyon and Marseille managed to win both their games then that’s us out of the Champions League after holding second place since February. Surely the Gods of FM can’t be that cruel….. A 2-2 draw for Marseille on the final day of the season means we finish in third, sealing a place in the Champions League qualifiers for the first time in our history and netting us that €14m prize money. Amine Gouiri finishes as our Top Scorer on 17 goals, while Theo‘s 17 assists put him top of the league charts and memories of our previous record holder Mathieu Cafaro have long faded away. In the end we threw away automatic qualification as well as the additional €2m in cash, just lacking that additional squad depth to cover injuries which we will absolutely have to rectify if we are to qualify and survive in the Champions League next season. On a more positive note – there are some accolades that money just can’t buy 😎. Somewhat interestingly this doesn’t go unnoticed….an bit of a decision to make, did someone say Club and Country save?? Thanks for reading, Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter, Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Track 9 – Stop Crying Your Heart Out
‘Cause all of the stars are fading away, try not to worry, you’ll see them some day, take what you need, be on your way, and stop crying your heart out… Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. 2021 → 7th; 2022 → 6th; 2023 → 8th. Life hasn’t gone too badly in our first 3 seasons of this Homegrown save at Angers SCO in the West of France. Considering our recruitment and financial limitations, we have done quite well to pick up three consecutive Top 10 finishes so far in this save (click here if you would like to start from the beginning and catch up on the first 8 episodes). The Angers board however, have started to get a little too big for their boots lately. At the end of last season, our Job Status was Insecure after losing a couple of games which led to us finishing 8th rather than in 5th or 6th (ridiculous considering our Media Predicted finish was 9th at the start of the season), and despite getting a new contract in the summer we entered Season 4 still Insecure in the Angers hotseat. Admittedly our finances are in the sh*t – after slightly panic-buying Amine Gouri in January for €18m with €9m being paid in installments, the €7.25m prize money for our 8th place finish wasn’t enough to bring our overall bank balance back in the green. It seems the board are quite fond of positive cashflow, who would have thought it… Who cares right? As long as the results flow, there’s not much the board can do… Considering we can only obtain 10% of any incoming transfer revenue due to the financial situation, we are in trouble. Our backup keeper Dimitry Bertaud who we signed on a free two seasons back isn’t bad, but Paul Bernardoni has been immense for the past three years and is fundamental to our cause (also hoping to make him the first capped Angers player to meet our save objective which we set at the start of the save). So bad is our financial situation that we can’t even afford to improve his contract…as if losing our first choice keeper isn’t bad enough, we look set to lose him to one of our rivals if we are generous enough to call Marseille a rival (they did finish two points ahead of last season, bast*rds). This season is not starting well… Bernardoni throws us an unexpected lifeline as he rejects the contract offer – HE LOVES ME, HE REALLY REALLY LOVES ME. An absolute bullet dodged seeing as we are still scarred from losing Mathieu Cafaro last year under similar circumstances – here’s hoping no other bids come in for him. Dortmund Manager Mauricio Pochettino: Absolute madness here but thankfully no more clubs come calling for him or any of the rest of our squad. I am actually happy enough with the personnel we have currently going into the new season, however with Leo Lebon returning to Bordeaux after completing his loan spell we are a bit light in terms of cover both at Centre Half and in Defensive Midfield. With absolutely no budget to play with – LET THE GAMES BEGIN. While the elders of this club take a leaf out of the UK government’s book by continuing to make rash short-term decisions for personal gain rather than thinking of the long-term consequences of their actions – we swoop to make not one but two bargain deals, with Claudio Gomes arriving on a free transfer after his contract expired at Man City, followed by Tanguy Nianzou who returns to the club on loan from Bayern after a successful spell here in our second season. Both can play at DMC with Nianzou equally adept at Centre Back – safe to say our squad is now very well rounded and we are ready to kick off Season 4 at Angers SCO. Angers SCO First Team Squad 2023/2024 ⚫⚪ Goalkeepers: Paul Bernardoni, Dimitry Bertaud Defenders: Evan N’Dicka, Lillian Brassier, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Enock Kwateng, Valentin Rosier, Hugo Vogel, Mamadou Doucouré Midfielders: Ibrahim Amadou, Tanguy Nianzou, Antonin Bobichon, Theo, Enzo Le Fée, Michael Olise, Mohamed-Ali Cho, Sofiane Boufal, Mathias Pereira Lage, Claudio Gomes Forwards: Rachid Alioui, Amine Gouiri Our season starts very, very well…I mean, really really well… I would love to say it is down to my tactical prowess and undoubted ability as a Football Manager football manager, however the reality is that it was all down to one man… After a couple of fairly average campaigns, Michael Olise appears to have finally blossomed and earns every penny of the €5.5m we spent on him back at the end of Season 1 – scoring 7 goals in our opening 8 games and catapulting us to the top of Ligue 1 for the first time in 4 seasons. WHAT IS GOING ON. Needless to say it will most likely be short-lived as Game #9 is against none other than PSG who have absolutely walked the league for the past 3 years running. Important to note that one of our main save objectives is to beat PSG in a league game which we have so far failed to do in 6 attempts… Angers SCO vs PSG – Saturday 7th October 2023 They’ve got Neymar, Salah, Ronaldo, Kulusevski, Firmino – never mind the fact that Mbappe left for Man City in the summer for a cool €194m. BUT WE’VE GOT MICHAEL OLISE. A Cristiano Ronaldo brace brings us crashing back to earth as we lose 3-0 which looks a lot worse than it is considering we were only 1-0 down with 11 minutes to go. It’s near impossible to compete with them in this league – they have spent €783m since we started the save compared to our €71m (much of which we are still paying in installments). Our quest to beat them in this league continues!! Thanks for reading, it’s gonna be a good season 🔥. Cheers, Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter, Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Track 8 – The Importance of Being Idle
If you give me a minute, A man’s got a limit, I can’t get a life if my heart’s not in it.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. We are back!! After a 2-3 week hiatus from FM due to Brexit-induced work chaos, we finally managed to get back to a somewhat normal routine which means completing Season 3 of our Homegrown (i.e. French nationality only) save at Angers in France’s Ligue 1 after finishing 7th and 6th respectively in our first two seasons. If you are new here feel free to jump to the beginning and catch up (20 mins should do it), otherwise join me as we find out how well (or not well) things are going in the West of France after three seasons at the helm. Idle Ideas = Ideal If things weren’t bad enough having to take an enforced break from FM21 in real life, we also experienced something similar in-game where we have just reached November 2022 which brings the first of a two-month Winter Break due to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – YEAH THANKS FIFA. When we last left off, we were sitting in 11th place in Ligue 1 after 13 games having lost our star player Mathieu Cafaro to a board-accepted €16m bid from Newcastle (replacing him with none other than Theo Zidane i.e. SON OF ZINEDINE), followed by the worst injury crisis I have ever set eyes on in FM where 9 of our first team were out injured over the course of a 2-3 month period including a long term injury for top scorer Rachid Alioui who has played just 3 games this season. New year new us right? The positive thing about the 2 month winter break however, was that it allowed us to focus on some badly needed admin – what to do when you have 61 days to kill before your next competitive game? 1. Affiliations One of our main save objectives outlined at the very beginning of this save is to establish affiliations with some of the top African academies in the hope of influencing our Youth Intake to develop a pipeline of French/African youth prospects and/or wonderkids. While this is of course a Homegrown save in which we can only sign players of French nationality (first or second) – the hope is that rather than sign players directly from these feeder clubs, having this connection will influence the quality and nationality of our annual Youth Intake. After 3 seasons we are finally given the opportunity to select a club with whom we want to create such an affiliation and our first port of call is the Generation Foot Academie in Senegal, responsible for producing the likes of Papiss Cissé, Ismaila Sarr, Diafra Sakho and Sadio Mané. The club already have an affiliation with FC Metz who are in Ligue 1 so part of me thinks the game won’t allow two Parent clubs from the same league however we manage to hoodwink the board to hop on a flight down to Dakar in the hope we might get our first African feeder club in this save. This objective could prove to be tricky to say the least however I take comfort looking at the league table above and seeing Metz sitting in rock bottom – there is hope yet! Our other target is the Right to Dream academy in Ghana, however we will have to wait for the board to get over the wasted trip to Senegal before asking again. 2. Staff Up I haven’t spoken much about Backroom Staff in this save so far; even though we all do it it’s not usually the most exciting thing to read or write about especially as I am limiting myself to the same Homegrown rules for staff as well as players – however during our trip to Senegal we became acquainted with two French expats that have played a key role in the development of the Generation Foot academy, so we decided that we would have them both! Emmanuel Beauchet arrives as our new Assistant Manager, while Olivier Perrin takes the reigns as Head of Youth Development – even if we don’t get an affiliation any time soon, hopefully this might help influence our youth intakes in the coming seasons which have been fairly poor so far in this save. 3. Training Having flicked between some of the default training schedules over the past two seasons as well as a couple of tailored ones in between letting our Assistant Manager handle a lot of the hassle – we decide to do a complete overhaul and create 5 new training schedules which are largely designed to cover our match plan depending on (a) our opponent each week, )b) whether we are at Home or Away and (c) whether we expect to be favourites, have a close game or get our assess handed to us by a PSG or Lyon as has generally been the case so far in this save: > Schedule 1 – “Pure Counter“ By and large we have been playing a Fluid Counter Attacking tactic, relying on decent BPD/DLPs to distribute the ball up the field quickly and on the speed of wide players to carry the ball forward and create chances. To facilitate this, our training schedule is set up so that we focus on Defensive Play earlier in the week where we work on pressuring our opponents to win the ball back in our own half, followed by sessions focused on transition, distribution and wide play to then create chances accordingly: > Schedule 2 – “Attack the Block“ It doesn’t happen often but on the occasion where we are favourites or expect to dominate our opponents, we swtich to a more attacking training philosophy which is all about taking the game to our opponents and attacking at every opportunity to maximise our chances and scoring output. > Schedule 3 – “Lockdown“ PSG like this. When you are up against a side that now boasts Ronaldo, Mbappe, Neymar, Salah and Kulusevski it’s literally all we can do to try not to concede (let alone having to also try and compete with the likes of Lyon, Monaco and Rennes), therefore we focus completely on defensive positioning and movement for the majority of the week in the hope that our lads at the back remember the ball isn’t supposed to go over their heads and that remembering to mark a player as you were told can actually be effective if executed correctly: > Schedule 4 – “Ronnie Ballwork“ Possession. Ball Retention. Repeat. Always repeat. > Schedule 5 – “Fitness & Set Pieces“ This one is simply for weeks where we have no game or a decent gap between fixtures as well as increasing intensity during the Winter break etc. The focus is on intense physical/fitness training in the mornings all week, with Set Piece training in the afternoons to give a bit of relief. With the likes of Theo (6ft 5″) and N’Dicka (6ft 4″) we don’t capitalise enough on Free Kicks and Corners, plenty of room for improvement here. 4. Individual Development It’s not half as easy to impact an individual player’s development as it used to be in earlier versions of CM/FM, however one of the best ways to see visible results sooner is by focusing on Player Traits which specifically develop a player’s propensity and ability to take a certain action more frequently in match situations – this requires a bit of manual intervention on the Individual Training screen however the results can be pretty quick and worthwhile to see more of what you want to see in-game. Always a good feeling to take care of some of the admin which I had put on the backburner for a while, and this combined with Rachid Alioui returning from injury and scoring in a couple of friendlies gives us a fresh positive outlook heading into the second half of the season. LET’S DO THIS. 🖱️ One mouse click later…….. COME ON. I mean seriously – this guy has had more injuries than I’ve had poor Oasis puns. The dude is 30 years old and should be in prime condition, however when I look at his injury history since we started this save – well, see for yourself… Enough is enough. We can’t go another month without a quality goalscorer in the team. Our backup options are Stephane Bahoken who simply isn’t good enough for this level, and Said Benrahma who isn’t a natural Striker and lacks the clinical goalscoring instinct we urgently need to resuscitate this season. We need a proper Striker; one who can score goals, is good enough to lead the line and ultimately replace the aging and ever fragile Rachid Alioui. Having earned €30m in transfer fees during the summer window and spending less than €20m, we have the bones of about €9m in our transfer budget to find ourselves a proven goalscorer who can make an immediate impact and who of course meets our Homegrown rule by being French or having a French passport. We really don’t ask for much in this save…. They say the January Transfer Window is silly season, designed for panic buying and over-spending – I have no idea what they are talking about. Amine Gouri arrives at Angers from Nice for a total fee of €18 million (€9m up front and €9m over 3 years), completely emptying out our finances and more than likely screwing our overall bank balance for the foreseeable future….did we think about this before clicking that Confirm button? Of course we DID NOT. Did it make a difference? Whether it was scoring on his debut in a 2-0 win over Lorient, or just a bump in morale on the back of making our record signing – either way we went on an epic 8 game unbeaten run in which almost all our attacking players managed to find the net, marred only by a narrow defeat at home to in-form Strasbourg followed by our usual defeat against PSG. By the end of February we find ourselves up to 8th place – the killer thing about this league is that in general, when one of us has a run of good form we all do, with Monaco picking up 9 wins in 13 games and the likes of Brest and Nimes also hitting spells of form. Amine Gouiri picks up 4 goals in 9 games which isn’t a bad return – if we can keep this up, we are in with a shout of European qualification for the second year in a row (hopefully not the Europa Conference again) and potentially continuing our upward trend having finished in 7th and 6th position respectively in the last two seasons. After that, things started to get a bit..interesting. I say interesting…WEIRD is probably a more appropriate word. After that defeat to PSG, we go on a 7 game unbeaten run which sees us climb up to 5th place in the league, before back-to-back defeats against Lille and Montpellier send us down to 8th place again. Considering some of the quality we are competing with and that we are a squad limited due to our Homegrown rule I think we are doing well – the board on the other hand decide to take an extremely strange turn, firstly getting ticked off with something I said to the media (still actually don’t know what triggered it) and then subsequently making our status “Insecure” at the club. What the hell is going on?! That game finishes 1-1 at home and I…
Track 7 – Roll With It
I think I’ve got a feeling I’ve lost inside, I think I’m gonna take me away and hide, I’m thinking of things that I just can’t abide.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. remonstrate [ ri-mon-streyt ] v. to make a forcefully reproachful protest – “he turned angrily to remonstrate with Tommy” It was Summer 2022 and all was well in Angers after finishing 6th in our second season of this Homegrown challenge, up one place from our 7th place finish the year before. The Gods of FM were ever in our favour having just signed a new 2 year contract, Chairman Said Chabane quietly content with life having seen his club pocket €9.65m in prize money, a hefty €4.5m of which he will pump into the club’s transfer budget. Yes, life was going well for Manager MaddFM in Ligue 1 – qualifying for European Football (i.e. the Europa Conference League) was no mean feat for a club that can only recruit and sign players of French nationality (first or second), signings such as Evan N’Dicka, Mathieu Cafaro and Michael Olise adding a layer of quality to the spine of Paul Bernardoni, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Antonin Bobichon and Rachid Alioui who were already at the club. Based on our progress so far, you’re probably thinking this is a farmer’s league by now… Trust me – it isn’t. As if it wasn’t bad enough that PSG spent €142m on Mohamad Salah last season, they top it off this season by not only signing Cristiano Ronaldo, but also adding Dejan Kulusevski, Corentin Tolisso and Angel Correa to their ranks spending €295m in the process. Did I mention we have a transfer budget of €4.5m?! Our own transfer business starts pretty well – after two seasons on loan at the club, Ibrahim Amadou signs permanently after his contract expires at Sevilla. While he is signing his contract, another loanee waits outside in the form of Said Benrahma whose loan we also manage to extend for another season after he initially joined us in January to help rescue our season (which he did chipping in 5 goals and 2 assists). Two quality first team signings without spending a penny so far, not bad! We will need all the cash we can muster up this window – so much so that we decide to offer the lowest amount of prize bonus possible in the League, Cup and Europa Conference, which stretches our transfer budget to €7.5m. Footballers aren’t motivated by money right? Romain Thomas has been at the heart of our defence alongside Evan N’Dicka since we started this save, however at the ripe age of 34 it’s time for him to move on as he joins FC Lorient on a free at the end of his contract, thus making signing a Centre Half our number one priority and handing the Club Captaincy over to the aforementioned Ibrahim Amadou. This took a while as we scouted 5 or 6 potential candidates (again somewhat limited due to homegrown restrictions), before securing the signature of Lilian Brassier from Stade Brestois for a fee of €7.25m, the highest we have paid for any player so far in this save. Unfortunately (or malheuresement as we say in the West of France), it’s not just new players at Angers that are stealing the limelight. Mathieu Cafaro‘s 3 goals and 11 assists last season start to attract interest from a number of English clubs notably West Ham, Wolves, Fulham and Newcastle (never mind his 10 goals and 8 assists the year before), and as we casually turn down multiple bids of between €7m and €9m (at which point we are happy the AI clubs don’t seem to value him any higher), the sh*t hits the proverbial fan at Stade Raymond Kopa: NO. PLEASE GOD NO. Cafaro has been without doubt our best player since we signed him at the beginning of the save two seasons ago, and in a cruel twist of fate it’s Newcastle (this blogger’s boyhood club) who have dangled a €14.25m carrot in front of Chairman Said Chabane’s greedy little eyes and we are powerless to stop it. Despite remonstrating i.e. protesting the sh*t out of it, our efforts are wasted and the board refuse to budge on the decision. Either we threaten to resign in protest, or we accept that we are in reality a feeder club and roll on with it? We opt for the latter – the only thing we can do is push them to renegotiate in which they manage to up the amount to €16.5m, however from there it’s bye bye Mathieu and suddenly we are left with a huge gap to fill in terms of creative output. Granted the funds will do us well considering we receive 60% of all transfer revenue, but how on earth are we to find a player of that quality with French nationality and a desire to move to to mid-table France? The search begins again. Very frustrating. What we want from a creative midfielder is someone who can fill the majority of the MC/AMC roles, with strong Passing, Vision, Technique, First Touch and if one can get it, decent Long Shots and Free Kick taking to go with it. Add “Slightly Interested” and “French” to that filter and we aren’t really blessed with options…the likes of Eddy Silvestre, Florent Da Silva and Randy Nteka all pop up in our filters, and just as we were about to make a decision, one man pops up out of nowhere that suddenly appears to be interested in joining seemingly due to a lack of first team football at Inter Milan since moving there on a free transfer from Madrid last summer. A man that carries a footballing pedigree/legacy/burden like few other (apart from his brothers of course). Enter Theo..F*cking…Zidane. For whatever reason, his estimated cost is extremely low so we throw in a €3.8m bid to match his current value, and wouldn’t you know it – ACCEPTED. I can honestly say I haven’t been this psyched for a transfer for many FM versions now…granted the kid is lacking slightly in the speed department, but he more than makes up for it in his Mental and Technicals (not to mention the lad is 6ft 5″ for crying out loud!) and on paper looks like he could set Ligue 1 on fire given the chance. We are talking about the son of (arguably) France’s greatest ever footballer, if he can even turn out to be half as good as his father how can we not sign him?! Newcastle’s bid for Cafaro seems to turn Premier League eyes in our direction as we receive further interest in some of our earlier recruits. Brighton land in with a €6.5m bid for Yann Karamoh who has been largely disappointing since his €4m transfer from Sampdoria, while Newcastle come back for seconds as they launch a €5m bid for backup Left Back Jean-Claude Ntenda who we originally signed from Juventus for €1.5m. We decide to accept both bids – with our transfer revenue now up to 75% the money can certainly be used elsewhere, we lack depth at RB and MC while we also swore not to neglect our U19 team as part of our original save goals (spending a portion of our annual budget on youth recruits). Valentin Rosier arrives from Sporting on a €5m deal, his natural position is at Right Back however looking at his attributes I reckon we can train him towards being a decent Defensive Midfielder also (challenge accepted). He is joined by French U21 Midfielder Enzo Le Fee who arrives on a €2m deal from FC Lorient – if Theo doesn’t work out for any reason or if some other club comes knocking on the door, Le Fee should be an adequate understudy if called upon. On the topic of understudies – we also manage to bring in 3 signings for our U19 team that all meet our homegrown requirements and will hopefully prove capable of progressing towards our first team in the near future, with Ahmed Youssouf (Nimes) arriving for €2m, Hugo Vogel (Lyon) landing for €1.5m and Leo Lebon (Bordeaux) arriving on loan with a €7.5m option (he looks top notch). That’s enough right? Here is how our squad looks as we prepare to kick off our third season at Les Scoistes in the West of France. Angers SCO First Team Squad – 2022/2023 ⚫⚪ Goalkeepers: Paul Bernardoni, Dimitry Bertaud Defenders: Evan N’Dicka, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Lilian Brassier, Enock Kwateng, Valentin Rosier, Mamadou Doucouré, Leo Lebon Midfielders: Ibrahim Amadou (c), Antonin Bobichon, Mathias Pereira Lage, Theo, Michael Olise, Sofiane Boufal, Enzo Le Mee, Mohamad-Ali Cho Forwards: Rachid Alioui, Said Benrahma, Stephane Bahoken 2022/2023 Season Our season starts like a dream, with new boy Theo Zidane scoring not only on his debut in a 3-0 demolition in Nantes but also bagging the winner in a 1-0 victory at home to Bordeaux. Two games in and naturally we think we are going to win the league. Unfortunately our maiden voyage into Europe does not go so well – despite beating CSKA Moscow 1-0 at home in the first leg and holding them at 1-1 on 84 mins in the second leg, we somehow manage to leave Russia empty handed as they score two late goals to overturn our away goal advantage and hand us an early exit from the Europa Conference league. It’s around this point that all hell breaks loose and the wrath of the FM Gods seems to incur. The injuries…I have played CM/FM for about 25 years now and never in my life have I seen anything like it. Over the course of August, September and October we see no fewer than 19 separate injuries, with 9 of our First Team ruled out with Moderate or Major injuries forcing them to miss at least two games each time – this includes repeat injuries for top scorer Rachid Alioui, as well as backup Stephane Bahoken leaving Said Benrahma as our only forward option . Honestly, I am baffled – we have a full cohort of Physios and Sports Scientists, our training intensity is not that high and we have dropped the full-pressing high intensity Gegenpress tactic of yesteryear. What the f*ck is going on? Seriously – comment below if you have had anything like this. This sadly has a direct impact on our league form – after those two defeats to Monaco and Marseille in August, we proceed to draw 6 of our next 7 games giving us the most unwanted of records (9 games without winning), and it wasn’t until a 2-0 victory over OGC Nice that we finally put 3 points on the board courtesy of a Michael Olise double. I’m not going to lie, we played absolute dogshite throughout this period with so many first team players out injured and our 11th place standing after 13 games is thoroughly deserved. Why 13 games I hear you ask and why does the table look like sh*t? Well, it’s that wonderful time in the calendar where our friends at FIFA decided it would be a good idea to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar during Winter Time for almost everyone else at the higher levels of club football, which means that the end of October kicks off a 2 month Winter Break while we wait. Sadly none of our players make the French squad (and weren’t expected to) meaning that particular part of our save goals continues (as do all of them really) – for now all we can do is sit back…
Track 6 – Some Might Say
Some might say you get what you’ve been given, if you don’t get yours I won’t get mine as well.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Second Season Syndrome A team, who after defying expectations and punching well above their weight in their first season, suffers from an anti-climactic second season, enduring a severe collapse in form, slumping down the table and possibly ending in relegation. 🎙️ “Some might say your campaign hasn’t quite gone to plan with a series of disappointing results. How do you see things going in the second half of the season?” 🎙️ Welcome back, or if you are new – welcome. Here lies the 6th instalment of our French Homegrown adventure at Angers SCO – if you would like to catch up on the first 5 episodes, 15 minutes will probably do it – click here to find the full episode list. When we last spoke (writer’s note: we don’t speak to eachother), Les Scoistes were experiencing what can only be described as a gruelling start to our second season after finishing 7th last year, losing our opening 3 league games and finding ourselves in 19th place after 9 games played despite some high profile signings including Michael Olise and Evan N’Dicka as well as the returning Rayan Ait Nouri from his loan spell at Wolves. Safe to say the second-season-syndrome theory holds water, with FM21 recognising some of the weaknesses in our squad in the absence of any overseas quality. But we will prevail. We will continue to pursue the homegrown dream in which only players of French nationality (first or second) will be signed. For every Talles Magno, there is a Mathieu Cafaro; you say Erling Haaland, we say Rachid Alioui. Regardless of what happens and if this is to be our last blog post should we get the sack in the West of France, let it be known that we stuck to our principles at any cost. Stubbornness is a required attribute in Football Manager, right? What Dan should have said is that the Homegrown challenge holds back none but the challengee (writer’s note: not a real word). So far we have been playing a 4-1-4-1 Asymmetric Gegenpress tactic which focuses on pressuring our opponents high up the field and always closing down space to try and neutralise our opponents’ ability to play their own game. Something just isn’t working, and even though we don’t have an abundance of quality, we shouldn’t be this bad. Time for a change. Now, I’m not the most analytical FM creator out there (probably more gifs on my site than analysis or statistical info) however when it comes to breaking down FM I try to keep it simple and work with what I can see and touch. In terms of a Gegenpress, in my view it requires high levels of Stamina, Natural Fitness and Work Rate particularly from our Midfield and Forwards in order to be successful as they are the ones most likely to press higher up the pitch, so let’s look at our First Choice Midfield/Attack in these terms to see how we fare up: Wow. That Work Rate 🤦♂️. We have gone 1.5 seasons playing a system that fundamentally requires high Work Rate, Stamina and Natural Fitness and we are distinctly below average on all three accounts! By contrast to the above attributes, where we do score well is in the Pace/Acceleration, Passing and Vision departments (averaging 14 for all three) therefore the decision is to switch to a Fluid Counter Attacking philosophy, wherein as the frequently weaker side we will look to absorb pressure and break on the counter at speed. Man this better work 🙄. You may also notice a previously unmentioned name on the teamsheet in the form of Mohamed-Ali Cho, and this is where things get quite interesting. After Sofiane Boufal picked up that broken leg injury back in September, we were wondering how to go about replacing him however it dawned on me that we might just have one already available who would be as good as anything we can attract in our current state. Having lit up the U19 leagues last season, the 18 year old half-French / half-English winger is promoted to train with the first team and immediately impresses with his speed and technical ability which earns him a run in the first team as we try to get out of the current rut in which we find ourselves. The tactic and personnel changes led to an instant improvement which saw us win two games in October, however the honeymoon period quickly wore off as another barren spell ensued which was capped with a 1-0 Home defeat to lowly Stade Brest, and at this point the board’s patience began to wear thin…whose fault is it that the Club Vision didn’t give me an option to actually tell them about the Homegrown rule? Despite that somewhat amicable meeting – it’s clear that we are on thin ice approaching the Winter Break, the French media clearly calling for Irish blood and not the Newgen kind. Will we live to tell the tale or has this blog come to a swift end after only a month of full-fat FM21?! Thankfully our tactical familiarity starts to improve with this new strategy as we pick up a 3-1 win in which Michael Olise finally decides to score his first goal for the club, a somewhat underwhelming debut season for him so far considering he was our marquee signing last summer. We follow that with a win at home to Dijon, before the game of the season where we manage to leave Nantes with a point following an 8 goal thriller in which the aforementioned Mo-Ali Cho scored his first goal for the club – it will be interesting to see if this kid turns out good enough to spark a battle between France and England for his allegiance 👀. Additionally, switching Rachid Alioui from Advanced Forward to Complete Forward also seems to have a positive impact whereby he seems to get on the ball a lot more and finds himself in space far more often (5 goals in December alone). At the turn of mid-season we find ourselves with a little bit of breathing space – only a little bit mind, and that second-season-syndrome continues to linger and threaten to spread at pandemic alarming proportions. In Need of Education I’ve referenced the line “If you’re feeling cocky, it’s because there’s something you don’t know” previously which comes from one of my favourite books as a kid/young adult (Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer). Just when things are going relatively rosy, wouldn’t you know it – disaster strikes. While the upside of doing a Homegrown challenge in France means that there are a lot of quality African players to choose from whom were born in France or have French nationality, the downside is of course the fact that most of them bugger off every two years to play in the African Cup of Nations which without warning (i.e. I didn’t pay attention) takes away 4 of our main first team players for up to 5 weeks in January. F * C K. As if losing our top scorer wasn’t bad enough – Boufal has literally just returned from that infamous broken leg only to hop on the first flight out of here, while RB and DMC are the two positions where we have arguably the least amount of depth and quality…this is serious, proper save ending stuff and the impact of this on our January results is already clearly evident. What the hell can we do? Drastic action is needed but we are flat broke (€3m in the red to be precise). Initially we consider selling Rayan Ait Nouri who is attracting interest from Chelsea and Newcastle, however the challenge we faced last summer remains the same: there aren’t many quality players interested in a permanent move who are better than what we have already. Based on this, we do two things: 1. €6.5m raised through the sales of Prince-Desir Guano (€4m – 100% profit) and Alex Claude Maurice (€2.5m – €500K loss), both of whom were brought in by yours truly and have been largely disappointing during their time in an Angers shirt 2. Because we now only get 20% of all Transfer Revenue, there’s only one place to go as we look to bring in some quality cover on loan to help navigate what is far too prematurely the most important few games in this save so far. In Said BENRAHMA (West Ham) Loan – 50% Wages (€27.5K) AM(R/L) – View Profile In Gaetan LABORDE (Newcastle) Loan – 40% wages (€16.5K) STC – View Profile In Tanguy NIANZOU (FC Bayern) Loan – 60% Wages (€12.5K) DC/DMC – View Profile Now I’m feeling better – let’s see if 2022 can bring about as much change in Football Manager as I hope it does in real life. Now we are talking! A combination of the new tactic, our new recruits and overall a much healthier squad once our African colleagues returned (none of them won the bloody thing, thank you Mali) meant that we went on a cracking run of form, almost achieving our goal of beating PSG in the league but for a 78th minute equaliser from that man Neymar. Benrahma gives us an extra spark of quality in the final third and chips in a few goals along the way, while a new love affair with Tanguy Nianzou ensues: Football is a funny old game. After 24 games, we sat in 14th place as we prepared to face Rennes away from home. 24 hours and a win against Amiens later, we found ourselves up in 8th position. 8th!!! A lot can happen in a day We enter April in 8th place, 8 points off 6th placed OCG Nice with 8 games to go. Considering our atrocious start to the season combined with Sofiane Boufal’s broken leg and that pesky African Cup of Nations (sets reminder for January 2023), might we now even go so far as to say we may equal or even better last season’s 7th place finish and put the “Second-Season-Syndrome” label back to whatever hellish place it came from? As a great man once said – Here We Go. Think of the Children At this point we will take the briefest of detours – you might remember that one of our save goals is to build a successful U19 team, and by successful we mean trophies. Last season the lads reached the U19 Championnat National final after winning Division C of the 4 league competition, narrowly losing 2-1 to Monaco. With 6 games remaining this season, the lads sit in 3rd place so it’s time for a dash of shithousery as we send Mo-Ali Cho back to help them in their remaining games. The impact was immediate as the boys picked up two wins to put them joint top of the league with 4 games remaining, however a defeat to rivals Nantes ultimately burst their bubble and two draws from their remaining 3 matches meant that in the end they had to settle for 3rd place just 2 points off the top. We will try to give them a bit more support and attention this summer 🙌. Quest for Europe 4 points behind Lille with 4 games to play. It would really help us if Lille were to implode somewhat, and they proceed to do exactly that with back-to-back defeats by Strasbourg and Lyon before drawing away to our nemesis Stade Brest. In the meantime we…
Track 5 – Stand By Me
Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday I’ve got a lot of things to learn, Said I would and I’ll be leaving one day before my heart starts to burn.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. One might be inclined to say that Angers SCO finishing 7th in our first season of this Homegrown Football Manager 2021 save was an over achievement, and one might be fairly right all things considered especially taking into account that headlines like this are what we have to compete with in this league: Yes, we have an uphill battle ahead of us especially when you consider the fact that we are a club with limited means, a limited transfer policy and with limited interest from any players of real quality given that we can only sign players of French nationality/second nationality. No wonder we lost our last three games of the season; did someone say FM21 is too easy? Personally I think it’s too generic to say it’s too easy. Sure, managing Man Utd to an unbeaten season is rather unrealistic at this stage in real life, however with their resources and facilities they tick a lot of in-game boxes in terms of key success factors. Certain players might be a tad bit over-powered e.g. Callum Wilson at Newcastle or Adama Traore at Wolves (sorry @daveazzopardi) however again, this does not mean that the game is broken. We had our ups and downs last season, and while we had some terrific results and a really good run mid-season, equally we threw points away at various stages so overall I feel it’s balanced enough for me to be content with the challenge this year. For us, the main catalyst was this man: 10 goals and 8 assists playing in the AMC role as a Shadow Striker meant that Mathieu Cafaro was our Player of the Season by a mile (sorry Evan N’Dicka), and unfortunately this didn’t go unnoticed.. Repeat bids of six and seven million from Monaco, Wolves and Aston Villa ensue and we politely tell his suitors to go and f*ck themselves, thankfully a bid from Arsenal doesn’t materialise and the lad doesn’t appear to get overly unsettled. The cash would of course have been nice however our 7th place finish meant that we picked up €8.4m in prize money; time to bring in some quality to distract Mathieu Cafaro from the bright lights of Wolverhampton. Sing Me Something New I’m not gonna lie, we’ve had our eye on one specific French player long before this save even started. I initially started to notice a player plying his trade in the Championship in England, with his name frequently showing on the goals and assists charts. This was then further fueled by frequent references to the lad on the Scouted Football podcast, more recently by Lee Scott (@FMAnalysis on Twitter) who referenced his exceptional passing and dribbling ability as well as some of his statistics in the Championship which then led me on to read an excellent article on the Scouted Football website which gives an even more in-depth narrative on the same player in question. His name you ask? The kid’s got potential, perfect for our Homegrown ambitions. Even better, with only 1 year left on his contract we might just have a good old fashioned hustle on the cards (rubs hands together). A €5.5m fee is agreed with Reading (50% up front) and suddenly the prospect of Olise and Cafaro in our midfield has mouths watering in the West of France. It would be a crying shame not to have a Striker feeding off those two. Last year Rachid Alioui eventually got off his arse to score 18 goals in total, however at 29 with distinctly average attributes in terms of Pace and Off the Ball, competition is badly needed and subsequently enters in the form of 23 year old Ivorian-with-a-French-passport Yann Karamoh who arrives on a €4m deal from Parma. Admittedly this one is a bit of a gamble however with a lack of alternative options (seriously slim pickings for French Strikers interested in a move to Angers) and looking at his speed and potential, I’m hoping he might tear it up in Ligue 1 either as an impact sub or first choice if Alioui doesn’t produce the goods. That’s two attacking signings, let’s talk about the other end (that’s what she said). At the end of my last post, we dropped a spoiler of possibly the greatest thing to happen in this save so far – the return of Rayan Ait-Nouri to Angers following his loan spell at Wolves who decided not to activate his €20m optional fee. Surprisingly there is no interest in his services which we don’t mind at all, having this lad come back is as good as any signing we could have made and we will do well to keep him with us on this homegrown journey (even though we manage to hoodwink him into signing a new 4 year contact). On a more negative note – those selfish b*stards over at Eintracht Frankfurt decline our repeat attempts to bring Evan N’Dicka back to the club on loan (seriously, read here to see how good he was last season) and insist on a minimum of €10m for his permanent signature. That leaves us in quite a predicament at Centre Half having allowed Ismael Traore to leave on a free, meaning we only have one first choice central defender in 33 year old Romain Thomas! Having spent most of our funds there was only one place to turn: Christmas decided to come early in Angers as we find not one but two absolute bargains who are out of contract – Prince Desir Kouango joins after being released from Amiens, while Mamadou Doucoure arrives from Germany after being let go from BMG. Are we now stacked or are we stacked 🔥🔥. That’s us just about primed and ready for Season 2, definite additions to the squad in terms of quality and depth and with a league opener against lowly Nimes Olympique, surely it’s all coming up Millhouse at Les Scoistes this season. They said FM21 is too easy right? Call it squad gelling, second season syndrome or just plain poor management on my part but somehow we manage to lose our opening four games of the season in desperate fashion, made worse only by the fact that I was streaming live for all 4 games at the time! (Twitch.tv/MaddFM if you are into that kind of thing). We spent most of that stream blaming @WAFCLiam for our poor results, and after throwing our fourth water bottle he only went and had the audacity to do this: Bottom of the league after four games, 7 league defeats in a row (remember we lost our final 3 games last season) and arguably one of our best players now out for pretty much the majority of this year’s campaign…surely this can’t be happening right? Now if you’ve read my blog previously you will know I’m not one to take drastic measures or panic at the first sign of defeat right? In a panic about our on and off pitch misfortunes, we decided to make a last ditch effort at rescuing our season on transfer deadline day after bringing in €2.7m through the sales of Vincent Manceau and Casimir Ninga. Naturally we should be on the hunt for an attacking player to replace the injured Boufal as clearly we are lacking in the goals and chances created department, however on one of our usual jaunts through the neighbouring leagues and in particular looking for players with only a year left on their contracts in the hope of a bargain, something wonderful, unexpected and completely unnecessary happens… After initially demanding €10m for him back in June, suddenly (and assumingly because he now has less than 12 months left on his contract) our hero and defensive brick sh*thouse from last season Evan N’Dicka is available for what is surely pittance at €3.2m. We absolutely don’t need a Central Defender, and it would be completely irrational to spend the rest of our budget bring in what would be a 4th first team Centre Half..wouldn’t it? Thankfully we manage to get a draw against Monaco before picking up our first win of the season against Ajaccio which temporarily lifts us off the bottom of the table and it’s at this point you are thinking “now he’s going to hit a run of form and shoot up the table, lovely”. You should probably stop reading now (writer’s note: well done, you’re now telling your readers to stop reading 👏). Nine games played and we find ourselves in 19th place. 19th. Place. 5 points on the board, 6 goals scored and 11 conceded. What on earth have we done? I don’t know about you, but it would be an awful shame to get sacked in blog form… #StandByMadd Thanks for reading, Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter, Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Track 4 – Up in the Sky
Hey you, up in the sky learning to fly, tell me how high do you think you’ll go, before you start falling.. Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. We need to talk about Evan… When we initially signed Evan N’Dicka on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt for a monthly fee of €250K with a €10m optional fee, part of me was obviously conscious that we’d be spending €3m on him just to play in an Angers jersey for this season alone. In hindsight, N’Dicka has more than earned this fee already – at just 21 years old standing 6ft 4 inches tall, he is literally and metaphorically head and shoulders above the rest of Ligue 1 in terms of his defensive contribution so far topping the charts in terms of Key Headers won and Defensive Clearances made. The lad is a beast. A man mountain of sorts. Evan N’Dicka rises to meet the ball like a salmon leaps from water, such is his determination and aerial ability – his Height combined with his Jumping Reach make him a formidable unit at the heart of our defence, and when you pair this with his 6ft 4″ Centre Back partner Romaine Thomas – safe to say we don’t concede many headed goals in this team. Naturally we want to see this replicated at the other end and convert N’Dicka’s aerial ability into an aerial threat on set pieces – if you know you know. On the topic of goals – one of our main priorities during pre-season was to sign a Striker capable of bagging us the goals we will need to survive and compete in this league, however it became quickly evident that there were no interested parties better than what we already had at the club. Rather than waste money, we decided to make do with what we had which was French-born Moroccan international Rachid Alioui – would this guy be good enough to chip in 15-20 goals considering he only scored 6 last season in real life? It took him 7 games just to open his account, scoring a brace in our 3-0 win over Lens. Needless to say alarm bells were ringing and it was time to shake things up. We had started the season with a rather defensive tactic, mainly as we were up against the likes of PSG, Monaco, Rennes and Marseille in our first few games- however this seemed to invite teams to come at us in each game, so a change was needed. After much deliberation, I decided to go with a slightly more aggressive high-pressing/high-tempo version of the 4-1-4-1 asymmetric tactic that we designed in FM20 while managing Greuther Fürth in Germany, which focuses on shutting our opponents down and breaking at speed on the counter. What I like most about this tactic is that it allows greater expression in terms of player positions, allowing me to maximise individual player’s impact by deploying them in preferred or more effective roles on-field. The results? On a positive note the tactical switch made a huge impact – an emphatic run followed during which we went 9 games unbeaten, and somehow we found ourselves up in 5th place by the end of what can only be described as a disgrace of a year that was 2020. On a slightly more negative note – while the run was epic, the form of Alioui was not as consistent wherein he managed 3 goals in the two unbeaten months. The dude gets plenty of chances with the creativity and energy of Mathieu Cafaro and Sofiane Boufal around him, it’s just the end product that was lacking. To combat this, we take two approaches: 1. We bring in not one but two coaches with decent Attacking and Technical coaching attributes – the latter of whom you will of course remember was a Croatian Striker for Monaco and Rangers, good thing he seems to have a French passport handy. 2. Despite being 28 years of age, we manage to successfully teach a relatively old dog a new trick: Now I wouldn’t be one to throw around claims of being the best Manager in the world too easily, but… Life becomes the Alioui and Cafaro show – the latter of whom has been dynamite in the AMC role as a Shadow Striker, so much so that he even bags a perfect hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Dijon. You will also notice a bit of a cup run emerging. One of our initial save objectives was simply to beat PSG in a competitive game – do penalties count? We manage to get all the way to the Coup De France Semi-Final only to then be on the receiving end of a penalty shootout defeat, with Saint Etienne ending our dreams of silverware in our first season at Les Scoistes. By the end of March and with 30 games played, we find ourselves in with a shout at European football next season. Looking at the league table I’m amazed to see the likes of Lille, Monaco and Nice all struggling while the likes of Nimes and Reims are among the chasing pack – with games against Lyon, Nice, PSG and relegation threatened Lille, our end of season run-in looks set to be a belter. Welcome to my World Things are going well on the Homegrown front – by and large our main signings (N’Dicka, Kwateng and Cafaro) have been a success and to even have a sniff at a Top 5 finish is unthinkable (as is bringing a homegrown side to Europe after just 1 season!). As part of our Homegrown strategy, a key component of this save is to also invest heavily in our U19 squad in terms of finances and time/effort and the signings of Massengo, Ntenda, Kotchap and Touati were key to this as well as bringing in a host of U19 staff including Manager Michel Le Lay and his Assistant Emmanuel Beauchet who incidentally came in from Generation Foot in Senegal after we mentioned them in our opening post of this save (more to come on this later). The U19 signings we made are all good enough for first team football, so our strategy has been to have them as squad players in the first team but make them available to the U19 at all times as a priority. This combined with some particularly strong youth players already at the club (notably De Fanti and Ali-Cho) have had an instant impact on our U19 team performance, and by the end of March they sit on top of Group C in the French U19 league. Should they stay there, they enter a playoff with the winners of Groups A, B and D to challenge for the overall title 🔥. March also brings our first ever Youth Intake at Angers SCO. Now, if you’ve read any of my blogs before (mainly May The Fürth Be With You) you will know that I have a slight obsession with trying to dictate Newgen Nationality in Football Manager. In FM20 one of the main save goals was to produce an Irish Newgen in Germany, a feat which ended up taking 9 seasons. We have no such objectives in this save – all our Youth Candidates are eligible as Homegrown having been produced organically at the club; you can guess what happens: Having accepted that in a French Homegrown only save we will probably never be able to bring in any Irish talent – 17 year old Jimmy Holohan arrives at Stade Raymond Kopa and although not overly impressive on paper as one of our best candidates (they are all pretty poor to be honest), we will have some fun seeing if we can turn this guy into an Angers first team player in this save. Flying Without Wings? Why wouldn’t there be a Westlife reference in a blog built around Oasis tracks. So far we have been flying high, way above our means and that’s not just referring to Evan N’Dicka towering above the rest of us. 8 games away from possible European football, far earlier than expected or even planned in this save – we are in no way ready for the additional workload particularly in terms of squad depth and quality, but then again this is an Irish Manager doing a Homegrown save in France so anything can happen right? April started and ended well; the in-between, not so much…. Suddenly Up in the Sky looks more like Head in the Clouds, and we drop to 6th place with 3 games remaining against Lille, Nice and our final game at home to PSG which is somewhat romantic seeing as we opened our save and league campaign with a defeat in Paris. Is there a final twist of sweet sweet revenge and poetic justice before we sign off our first season at Angers Sporting Club de l’Ouest? Wow. I mean, wow. Ok, so if you had offered me 7th place at the start of the season I probably would have bitten your hand off (even if the prize money is only €8.5m), however after playing some wonderful football and seeing some outstanding individual performances from the likes of Paul Bernardoni (quality keeper btw), Evan N’Dicka (even though he didn’t score from a set piece all season), Mathieu Cafaro (who really did end up as our signing of the season) and the revived Rachid Alioui (18 league goals) all of which put us in 4th place (comfortably) after 30 games, 7th certainly feels like a disappointment of sorts – most notably because it means we miss out on European football and the bright lights of the Europa Conference League (I’m not sure what it is either). 2020/2021 End of Season Review That means it’s up to our U19 team to help us finish the season on a happy ending. The lads ended on a high by finishing top of Group C setting up a Playoff Semi-Final with Lyon, with the winners progressing to the overall French U19 National Final against either Monaco or PSG. When you consider that this is a competition that has been won by the likes of Mbappe and Camavinga in recent years, it’s certainly not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and there’s one more chair to kick – despite beating Lyon in the Semi-Final, the lads were narrowly beaten 1-0 by Monaco in the final and we live to fight another day. The future is bright however, and perhaps these homegrown lads might just get the opportunity to shine on the international stage before long. We don’t look back around here 👀. Thanks for reading, what a season!! (exhales) It can’t get any better than this right? Cheers, Paul.
Track 3 – Be Here Now
Wash your face in the morning sun, Flash your pen at the song that I’m singing Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Kicking Up A Storm Homegrown saves at lowly French clubs are difficult. When we last left off, we had identified that at least half of our squad would need to be replaced if we are to have any level of success in our first season at Angers SCO, and considering we start this save with a €3.5m transfer budget one might be appropriately concerned about how exactly we plan to do this. Your concern is welcome and appreciated. On completion of our squad review, we decided to slightly amend our homegrown rule in that we will immediately offload all of our non-French players rather than wait until the end of the season to do so. As we were about to add 6 or 7 players to the old reliable discard list, one of them must have called in a favour in a desperate attempt to stay at the club: This means that he now meets our homegrown requirements which we don’t mind at all, Coulibaly will provide competition and/or cover for Ibrahim Amadou in Defensive Midfield so a definite plus. The same can’t be said for the rest of our non-French players as we instigate a mass exodus at the club within the first two weeks of our arrival – great in terms of clearing the decks for a homegrown save and bringing in some funds, not so great for morale with some of the players quoting new manager MaddFM as “l’étranger qui déteste les étrangers” (the foreigner who hates foreigners). What we lose in terms of squad dynamics we make up for in cold hard cash, and believe me we need it. 100% of the €7.5m Transfer Revenue raised means that our budget rises to approx. €11m and now we have some room to manouvre in the transfer market…the challenge is, for some reason not too many top quality French players want to move to a mid-table mediocre side in Western France..who’d have thought it? For context, this is what the “best we can attract” looks like as we commence the wheeling and dealing process: Transfer Time 🔥 Knowing what we know which is that we need to strengthen in almost all areas of the pitch as well as commence building a quality U19 team which is one of our main save objectives, there’s no time to waste with only a few weeks until our league opener versus PSG (yes, PS F*CKING G). Football Manager, come at me bro. First in the door is one of our main priorities which was to sign a quality Ball Playing Defender who can also offer a threat on set pieces. This brings about our first foray in the new Loan to Buy update whereby as is the case in real life during the current pandemic, we are now seeing a lot more Loan to Buy deals rather than up-front permanent transfers mainly due to the financial uncertainty and circumstances surrounding world football during this pandemic. Miles spoke of this on the FM21 first look stream a while back, whereby not only will the deals be more realistic and clubs will drive harder bargains when it comes to loan deals, but also the added new feature that loan deals can be agreed prior to the transfer window being open. As a big fan of in-game realism and as Manager of a club with minimal budget who start FM21 on July 20 (therefore a full month before the window opens) – MaddFM likes this. After several over-and-back negotiations with Eintracht Frankfurt, we finally manage to broker a €250K per month deal with a €10m optional fee at the end of the season which we would love to activate if we have the funds to do so. Did someone say Transfer Reveal?? #AnnounceEvan Next in the door (no pun intended) is Enock Kwateng, a Right-Back picked up from Bordeaux for hopefully a steal at €2.5m (50% up front). Solid attributes accross the board (love me a lad that can tackle) and at 23 has plenty of time to improve and develop under my excellent broken French-in-an-Irish-accent tutelage. Moving on to Midfield and what I hope will be our signing of the season. Whilst combing through endless homegrown player search filters I came across a young French playmaker at Reims who was seemingly garnering interest from both Man Utd and Tottenham. Naturally this would peak ones interest – the lad is French after all so of course we have a claim on his soul forever right? Valued at €4.3m, we manage to get a €5.5m bid accepted (€3m up front) and add arguably our best player to the squad in terms of technical and creative ability – also still only 23. Nearly there…initially the plan was to bring in a first-choice Striker as on paper Rachid Alioui doesn’t really look to be the bagsman we need to survive in this league. The problem here is that, when it came to affordable options that are better – there weren’t any. After Marcus Thuram turned down a loan move from BMG, we decide that patience is indeed a virtue so rather than waste money on a Striker for the sake of it, we instead invest our remaining budget to bring in not one but two attacking options – Afimico Pululu (Striker) on loan from Basel and our very own ACM with the arrival of Alex Claude Maurice from Nice who signs a 4 year deal for €3m (50% up front). Allan Saint-Maximin, eat your heart out. Overall verdict – I would say success! We manage to bring in five first team signings (3 permanent and 2 loan deals), all of whom are French (meeting our homegrown rule) and under 23 years of age which bodes well for our future at Angers assuming we have one. Angers SCO First Team Squad 2020/2021 ⚫⚪ U19 Signings Before we crack on to our first league game (which of course is a trip to Paris to face Mbappe, Neymar and co 🤦♂️), let’s not forget that we have an U19 team to build. In my last post we went through our best youth prospects by position, however we have committed to spending a portion of our annual transfer budget on improving our U19s with a view of challenging for the U19 league title. Short and sweet – that’s exactly what we did: Han-Noah Massengo Midfielder (Centre) Bristol City – Loan €150k per month (€6m option) View Profile Armel Bella-Kotchap Defender (Centre) Bochum – Loan €85k per month (€5m option) View Profile Hussayn Touati Attacking Midfielder (Right/Left) PSG – €120k View Profile Han-Noah Massengo arrives on a season-long loan from Bristol City of all places – why wouldn’t there be ex-Monaco youth prospects hiding out in South-West England? Not sure if his name or his hair is what sealed it. He is joined by Armal Bella-Kotchap on loan from Bochum, and Hussayn Touati who signs a 3 year deal from PSG. In my next post I will give a bit more detail on our U19 progress but if we can get these guys firing, our youth squad could go far this year. PSG vs Angers SCO – Sunday 23rd August 2020 Not only is our opening game of this save against the ridiculously strong PSG, but 4 of our opening 6 fixtures are against some of the top teams in the division as we also face Rennes, Monaco and Marseille. Who said homegrown saves aren’t challenging? No point moaning about it – let’s get this shitshow party started. Loving these new TV panels 😍 Mbappe, Neymar, Di Maria, Veratti – you’re expecting a hammering here right? To summarise, the game went as follows: 11 mins – Goal Angers!! (Romain Thomas) 1-0 31 mins – Goal Angers!! (Rachid Alioui) 1-0 44 mins – Goal PSG!! (Neymar) 1-0 90+3 mins – Goal PSG!! (Rafinha) 2-0 Needless to say – a cracking start to FM21 and our new life in Ligue 1!! Thankfully we followed that up with wins over Rennes and Bordeaux, before back-to-back defeats against Metz and Monaco and then a draw against Marseille at home – that man Mathieu Cafaro picking up a couple of goals early in his career which bodes well, however some clear Striker issues which might form the topic of my next post. After 6 games played, we sit in 11th place which for a side tipped to finish 15th this season probably isn’t half bad considering our homegrown restrictions. Am I going to finish every blog post with that excuse? Only time will tell. Thanks for reading, Paul. As always feel free to leave any comments or questions below, hit that Follow button and if you want to chat further you can always catch me on Twitter, Slack or Discord. You can also get more involved in the FM community by checking out @WeStreamFM on Twitter and Discord as well as some excellent FM content on WeStreamFM.com.
Five One Season Wonders to Manage in FM
On the 2nd of May 2016, Leicester City shocked the footballing world by winning the FA Premier League in what was only their second season back in the top flight after gaining promotion in 2014. Led by the “The Tinkerman” himself in Claudio Ranieri, the Foxes’ brand of fast-paced counter-attacking football combined with Ranieri getting the most out of players such as N’golo Kanté, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Captain Wes Morgan meant that they defied all expectations and logic to not only win the Premier League but become the first team in over 20 years to do so outside of Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City. Unfortunately the following season proved to be a struggle for post-Kanté Leicester, breaking the record for the worst title defence in Premier League history finishing 12th which ultimately led to Ranieri’s eventual departure from the club. Football is a cruel and unforgiving game…the real question is though, could you have done it differently? Can you do one better by not only recreating a classic underdog story, but keeping said underdog at the top of their respective league? Here are five one-season-wonder champions for you to try and emulate in Football Manager. FC Twente (2010) When one looks at the past winners of the Dutch Eredivisie, FC Twente would appear to be the odd one out amongst the great Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord teams that have won the vast majority of titles in Holland over the past 30 years – so much so that Twente fans themselves can scarcely believe that their team were league champions in 2010 under the guidance of former England Manager Steve McLaren. In a year that saw a 22 year old Luis Suarez bag 35 goals for Ajax, FC Twente shocked the whole of Dutch football by narrowly pipping Ajax to the title by a single point with a squad largely made up of unknown or relatively small name players (Bryan Ruiz being their best player…know who he is?). The following year Twente managed to come second, however thus began their downfall where they fell out of the top four for the next three seasons. Since then they have failed to come even close to competing with Ajax and PSV, and with a relatively unknown squad predicted to finish 17th at the start of FM21 – even the best Football Manager out there might find it a challenge bringing Twente back to glory in one season. Key Players: Joël Drommel, Kik Pierie, Vaclav Cerny Sampdoria (1991) Sampdoria are a Football Manager dream. Steeped in history, nostalgia, underachieving and a host of iconic players over the past 30 years (Lombardo, Vialli, Pagliuca, Mancini, Icardi, Platt, Cassano to name a few) – the club have always shown potential to compete with the giants of Serie A however more often than not have ended up selling their best players to the likes of Juventus and Milan, thus preventing them from ever maintaining consistent form and competing at the higher levels of Italian football. I say more often than not – the exception to this came in the 1990/1991 season, a time when Italian football was dominated by both Milan teams and somehow Sampdoria came out of nowehere to win their first ever scudetto. For context on how remarkable this achievement was – this was when AC Milan boasted the class of Dutch trio Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, while on the other side of Milan the German trio of Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsmann were in the prime of their careers at Inter having just won the World Cup the year before. Sampdoria weren’t bothered though – 19 goals from Gianluca Vialli sealed them their only Serie A title and since then they haven’t come close to ever winning a second. Key Players: Fabio Quagliarella, Adrien Silva, Emil Audero, Manolo Gabbiadini Blackburn Rovers (1995) Shearer and Sutton, name a more iconic 90’s Premier League duo. The 1994-1995 season saw cash-rich (at the time) Blackburn Rovers win their first Premier League title in 81 years, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that this was smack back in the middle of Alex Ferguson’s dominant Man United era. Fueled by Owner Jack Walker’s millions, Rovers won the league by a single point over second place United, with Manager Kenny Dalglish taking the Manager of the Year award accompanied by Alan Shearer finishing as top scorer with 34 goals. Fans of English football will know that Blackburn have since had a somewhat tumultuous journey ever since, ranging from European football to relegation down to League 1 in 2017, and currently in the Championship Blackburn are well overdue a return to the top flight. FM21 might just provide that opportunity. Key Players: Bradley Dack, Darragh Lenihan, Adam Armstrong Montpellier FC (2012) Most people forget that not only have teams other than PSG won the French Ligue 1 during the past 10 years, but also that in the 2011/2012 season Montpellier FC took French football completely by surprise by winning the league title ahead of PSG in second. That season PSG spent €82m strengthening their squad, however it was Montpellier’s record transfer who stole the headlines, scoring 21 goals to help them win the league – that man was €1.7 million signing Oliver Giroud, and the rest as we know is history. Fast forward and Montpellier have since only managed a series of mid-table finishes, while PSG have moved on to completely dominate French football for the foreseeable…have the days of surprise league challengers come to an end, or do Montpellier still have that taste of success ready to be reignited? Key Players: Téji Savanier, Gaetan Laborde, Andy Delort VfL Wolfsburg (2009) Once upon a time there was life before Bayern in the Bundesliga. In the 2008/2009 season, three things happened: Brazilian Striker Grafite scored 28 league goals; Edin Dzeko scored 26 league goals and Zvjezdan Misimović notched up 20 assists – the fact that all three players were playing for the same team meant that VfL Wolfsburg won their first ever Bundesliga title, finishing two points ahead of Bayern and firmly etablishing Manager Felix Magath’s name in the history books as one of the greatest German Managers ever (let’s not talk about his later spell at Fulham). Nowadays and similar to Ligue 1 mentioned above – it’s difficult to see anyone other than Bayern winning the league, and even if that happens it’s likely Dortmund will be the ones to do it. Is the future of German footall written? With young talent such as Xaver Schlager, Marin Pongracic and Josip Brekalo coming though to the first team, there may be life in the old wolf yet. Key Players: Wout Weghorst, Maximilian Arnold, Kevin Mbabu ⭐ Bonus Team ⭐ Greece (2004) The ultimate underdog. Before 2004, Greece had never won a game at an International competition, and after being drawn in a group with Portugal, Spain and Russia most football enthusiasts that they would face an early exit and soon be on a flight back to Athens. They were wrong. After beating Portugal and earning a draw against Spain in the group stages, the Greeks went on to defeat France and Czech Republic, setting up a final rematch with hosts Portugal who themselves had beaten England and Holland to make themselves favourites for the clash. Greece Manager Otto Rehhagel had built a rock solid hard working Greece team, difficult to break down and seemingly set up to win all of their games by a single goal…so why should the final be any different? The Portuguese were frustrated for the whole game, and on 57 minutes Greece took their chance through an Angelos Charisteas header which was enough to win them the game and the tournament. Never has such a feat been experienced or repeated on the international stage – with Greece failing to qualify for Euro 2020, can you make the 20 year anniversary of their epic win one to remember in 2024? There you have it! Whether you are looking for a short-term save (ideal for the FM21 beta) or a longer term challenge with the goal of turning these one-season wonders into regular title contenders or even champions of their respective leagues – either way it should be both a challenge and an entertaining journey trying to emulate these team’s past glories and bringing good times back to their loyal fanbase. Be sure to let me know how you get on either below in the comments or on Twitter etc! Thanks for reading, MaddFM.
Choosing a Club in Football Manager
I wrote this piece for Football Manager’s The Byline at the start of FM21 – click here to read the published version. Life is full of important decisions. Choosing a save in Football Manager is one of them. Here are five things to consider when choosing a team to lead in Football Manager. Realism There are circa 400,000 real players from over 50 playable leagues in Football Manager, with data compiled by a network of 1,000+ researchers globally each year. This isn’t for no reason; with each new addition, the game brings in more and more additional features, roles, aspects and data points to further enhance the sense of realism in the game, as well as frequently consulting with real-life Football Managers and experts year-on-year to make the game as close to real-life football management as possible. Because of this, gone are the days whereby you could take a non-league team to the Champions League in six seasons. Repeat multiple back-to-back promotions are almost unheard of in real-life, so don’t expect to go from Sunday League to Premier League without putting in the hours. Many new Managers often set-up to fail if they cannot adapt to a couple of years in each division before progressing, therefore it’s important to taper your expectations rather than being disappointed at a perceived lack of success. Remember when Leicester won the league? It took them 8 seasons to get there from League 2 alone.. 2. Backstory It’s all about the narrative. Of course managing your local club or the team you support is usually most FM players save of choice at the start of a new game, it can be equally if not even more rewarding to take on a team or save challenge where there is already a backstory in place or alternatively creating your own save narrative as you navigate your way to managerial greatness. Whether it’s Fallen Giants, Rags to Riches, Unemployed, Bottom at Christmas, Homegrown or a good old fashion Journeyman – having that storyline in place gives an extra layer of enjoyment and immersion to the save, 3. Expectations We spoke a little about tapering your own expectations when it comes to managing in modern day FM so as not to become disillusioned at a save not going as planned or where success does not immediately arrive as expected. Similarly, it’s important to also consider a club’s expectations and philosophy before settling into the hotseat as this too has an important bearing on the direction and evolution of the save. Taking over a club with lower expectations than your own can often lead to disappointment in that the club may not be equally as aspirational as you when it comes to club vision and ambition, therefore you may lack the buy-in and commitment/resource to bring the club where you want them to be. Similarly – if you have plans to build a foundation and focus on youth and long-term success, then taking the reigns at a club with much higher short-term expectations will also be detrimental to the cause. Over and under-achieving are very much a real thing – make sure that you and your new club share similar ambitions in terms of expectations and philosophy to ensure a healthy partnership as you embark on a new journey. 4. Connection A long-term save needs to be meaningful. Football is a game of emotion, of passion, of sentiment – what some consider dots on a screen, others view as a deep emotional investment and rightly so. The average regular FM player plays over 1,000 hours of absolute committed game play each year, and most of this is a result of successfully establishing a deep connection with the club or save at hand which in turn facilitates a long lasting affiliation, nay, legacy with each annual version of the game. Finding that affiliation or connection with a player or club makes your save yours and yours alone. 5. Club Colours Football Manager isn’t just about data and numbers; it’s also about style and class, and this year’s game brings even more of this with the improved colour schemes and team-specific frames/backdrops which you will notice as you embark on a new save adventure. The club you choose not only dictates who and where you will be managing, but also the look and feel of the game which has become far more aesthetically appealing in recent years. Most importantly and no differently to real-life, your team’s kit is an essential component of your save and connection to the club – remember, if you’re there for the long haul it’s the kit you will be looking at for years to come in-game which translates to hundreds of hours of gameplay! We’ve even seen FM players donning the kits of teams they’ve managed in-game, so much so that it’s not uncommon to see a Newgen’s name on the back of a well known jersey as you walk down the street – heck, even Football Manager now have their own awesome kit such is unique style and swag the game now possesses! As well all tell ourselves, it’s not all about looks – but it helps. Thanks for reading – hopefully this will help you as you look to embark on a brand new save adventure in this year’s version of the game. At the end of the day what’s important is that you find a team and a save that you can invest in and enjoy managing, it’s a long year too so multiple saves are often required! Your club, your way. Cheers, MaddFM.
Track 2 – Hello
Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day, Nobody ever seems to remember life is a game we play Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. It’s here…and it’s beautiful. We finally have our hands on Football Manager 2021, and not a moment too soon as the familiar lockdown vibes muster around us and we knuckle down for the winter – what a time to be alive. In our intro we went through the rules, objectives and inspiration behind this save but that’s not the real intro we need to worry about – we have just taken the reigns at Angers SCO after ousting previous Manager Stéphane Moulin, who not only spent the past 9 years at the helm of Les Scoïstes (and 6 years as Manager of Angers B prior to that), but was also the longest serving Manager in Europe’s Top 5 Leagues until we hit that Confirm button. Safe to say the Angers players are going to be in for a shock when they turn up for training… There’s only one way I can win this side round – I have to become one of them… Things are indeed different, and I don’t just mean in the Manager’s hotseat. Football Manager 2021 feels smoother, swifter and slicker than ever before – I just hit the save button and it barely took 5 seconds! Forgive the pun – this one’s a game changer. By now you should have already clocked up some quality FM hours, so rather than narrate what is new about this year’s version we will instead go straight into it. I recently wrote a piece for Sports Interactive’s “The Byline” about Day One in FM, which covers some of the main things you should do before getting stuck in to your new career – I highly recommend giving it a read, whether you’re new to the game or it’s time to change your underpants you never know what you might learn! It’s all about getting off to a good start – some of the first things you can do in a new save are among the most important actions you can take, or rather the things you don’t do can be quite costly. What follows next is a step by step guide of how I go about assessing a squad when loading up a new career so that we can get a feel for how well/ill equipped this Angers side are now that we are in game, and more importantly how much work we have ahead of us. As and when we observe new features and improvements in the game you better believe there will be over-enthusiastic ramblings to follow. The MaddFM Squad Assessment™️ Now remember – this is a homegrown save. Our rules our simple: all non-French players unfortunately need to vacate Stade Raymond Kopa by the end of our first season, and subsequently any new players either need to be of French nationality (first, second etc) or alternatively have to be homegrown internally through our youth academy. Apart from the recently departed Rayan Ait-Nouri I know nothing about this squad, so I am going to quickly show you how I navigate an unknown team at the beginning of a new save (before it literally gets pillaged for FM21 blogging gain). I know it can be slightly tiresome reading a blog with a lot of player profiles, however I want to bring you the reader along the same journey and thought process as me when it comes to making key decisions and assessing where we need to strengthen most – if that’s not for you, don’t worry – skip the below section to see a snapshot summary of our squad on Day One of this new French adventure. 1. Set up Squad View Before you do anything you need to set up a decent squad view. Never underestimate the value of good information – whether it’s deciding on recruitment or squad selection, every FM Manager should have their own squad views. For mine I like to have a holistic snapshot to help me with all key decisions that need to be made, looking at nationality, ability & potential, morale, training intensity/rating, injury risk, playing stats, contract expiry and value all on the one screen – download it here if it takes your fancy, or alternatively take a look at some of @FridayNightFM‘s excellent selection of Custom Views at WeStreamFM.com. 2. View Players by Position Simple but effective – to give myself the chance to formulate my own opinions on the squad and not be overly influenced or potentially misled by either the Team Report or Player Ratings etc, I like to filter the squad view position by position to see how equipped we are in each area both for our Senior Squad and our U19 setup, analysing our best Senior and Youth players in each area of the pitch. Goalkeeper 🧤 Senior – Paul Bernardoni Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Melvin Zinga Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Record signing Paul Bernardoni is quality. Having spent €8m for his signature from Bordeaux during the summer, the 23 year old looks like he has the ability and potential to hold the #1 spot at Angers for years to come and might even have an outside shot at vying for Hugo Lloris’ jersey on the International scene, while 18 year old Melvin Zinga also has high potential to become quite a powerful understudy – normally in my FM saves I like to bring in my own keeper however it looks like this may be one of the few areas in which we don’t need to improve. Oh, and they are both French 😅. Right Back Senior – Vincent Manceau Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Christian Yakité Potential Ability ⭐⭐ If Goalkeeper is one of our strongest positions, Right-Back is definitely one of our weakest. Vincent Manceau‘s best days are well behind him, and even though he is French we will need to replace him asap as we look to rely on Wing Backs as one of our main attacking outlet. Left Back Senior – Souleyman Doumbia Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Prosper Joao Claudio Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐⭐ We should be writing about Rayan Aït-Nouri here, it’s too painful to discuss again so skip back to my last post for an update on his situation. His place is currently occupied by Paris-born Ivorian international Souleyman Doumbia (I say international – he is backup to Lyon’s Maxwel Cornet) however he won’t be a backup here with 16 Pace and 15 Acceleration, ideal for a Left Wing Back which we plan to deploy this season. Unfortunately 16 year old Prosper Joao Claudio is still a few years off being ready however he looks one of our best prospects at the club, and we will do our best to have him primed for first team football when he comes of age. Centre Half Senior – Romain Thomas Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Senior – Ismael Traore Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Kevin Mouanga Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Kevin Boma Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Definitely not an area blessed with talent. Though our two best Centre-Back options both qualify as Homegrown (Traore was born in Paris), both are unfortunately on the wrong side of 30 (writer’s note: so are you). Speed is a definite concern and I am already having nightmares about facing Mbappe with these two, so a pacey Centre-Half will also be on the list as neither of our defensive prospects (Mouanga and Boma) have an ounce of acceleration between them. Defensive Midfield Senior – Ibrahim Amadou Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Zinedine Ould Khaled Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐ I love a good DMC, and wrote one of my favourite pieces about this position for WeStreamFM a while back (click here if you’ve not read it or it’s been a while). You can imagine my excitement when I learned we have a 20 year old youth prospect called Zinedine, however he isn’t even half the player his namesake was..that means our current best DMC option is Ibrahim Amadou who is on loan from Sevilla; granted he is French and fits the bill for the Homegrown rule, however I don’t see him lasting more than the season-long loan he has signed. Centre Midfield Senior – Antonin Bobichon Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Kamil Elkit Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Things aren’t much better in this department – some of you may recognise Antonin Bobichon from previous FM versions, was he a wonderkid in FM18 or 19 maybe? Either way he is distinctly average and will definitely need an upgrade…more excitingly our best youth prospect plays this position, 15 year old Kamil Elkit who has 4 star potential at the start of the game with decent physicals and technicals…might we see him in a France jersey in years to come? Attacking Midfield (Centre) Senior – Mathias Pereira Lage Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Ebenezer Simons De Fanti Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Last year I got great mileage out of the Shadow Striker role. I haven’t yet decided on what tactic we will deploy or whether we will use this role from the get go – looking at Mathias Pereire Lage who is declared for Portugal but was born in France, he has potential to do a job however his relatively average technicals combined with a 5-6 month injury at the start of the save mean that we will need to hit the transfer market if we plan to utilise an AMC – De Fanti is our only prospect in this position based on attributes and even he will struggle. Right Wing Senior – Sofiane Boufal Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Walim Lgharbi Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐ You might recognise the name Sofiane Boufal from his time at Southampton where he unfortunately didn’t make much impact after a €16m move from Lille, only scoring 3 goals in 60+ appearances for the saints with a loan spell at Celta Vigo in between. Considering the fact that he actually began his career at Angers and they just picked him up on a free transfer during the summer, we potentially have a bargain on our hands with Boufal arguably the best player at the club in addition to Bernardoni in goal. Left Wing Senior – Sada Thioub Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Mohamed-Ali Cho Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Not much to report here – Sada Thioub is a Senegalese international born in France however apart from his decent pace and acceleration, he doesn’t offer much quality as our best left-sided midfielder and sadly the same can be said for his understudy Mo-Ali Cho. Definitely an area that needs strengthening. Forwards Senior – Rachid Alioui Current Ability ⭐⭐⭐ Youth – Selyane Raib Potential Ability ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Finally the most important part – goals. Angers only scored 28 goals last season, with Rachid Alioui finishing as top scorer with just 6 goals. At 28 he looks a decent option on paper however is unlikely to score the goals that we will rely on to propel us up the league. Selyane Raib is allegedly 4 star potential at just 16 years old (eyes emoji), but with a few years to go it will be interesting to see if we can bring in a better Striker much sooner given our Homegrown and budgetary constraints… Summary WE HAVE WORK TO DO. 3. “Les Rejects“ We originally stated that all non-homegrown players must have left the club before the start of the 2021/2022 season. That was before we realised that most of the “non-French” players in the Angers squad were actually born in France or have French nationality/citizenship. Based on this, we will bring forward our deadline and now…
Track 1 – The Masterplan
Take the time to make some sense of what you want to say, and cast your words away upon the waves Disclaimer: I’m fully aware that “Angers” and “Anger” are not pronounced the same – one will do anything for a bit of convenient wordplay 😄 Suggestion: Blogs aren’t made to be read in Twitter WordPress reader – click here to read in it’s original format if viewing on a mobile device. Football Manager 2021 is almost here. Despite everything that the year 2020 has thrown at us, the team at Sports Interactive have clearly gone above and beyond to deliver yet another (hopefully) epic edition for us, and we are eternally grateful not only for this but for the endless hours of enjoyment FM20 gave us during various stages of lockdown, quarantine, isolation and downtime that, even though most of us FM die-hards are well accustomed to (flying solo and spending endless hours away from the real world), all of us in some shape or form have had to endure, overcome and deal with in our own way as we adapted to the new abnormal normality we collectively live in today. On a positive note – what lockdown and isolation took away from us in terms of social life, travel and working in an actual office with human beings (remember that?), it more than made up for in Football Manager time and whilst we were midway through #MayTheFürthBeWithYou and squeezing every last minute out of FM20, plans for FM21 were already in motion and a desire to manage in a new league/country combined with a 25 year affiliation with Manchester legends Oasis (rivalled only by my 25 year obsession with CM/FM) led to a first confirmed save for the new edition of the game: That’s right – not only will we be embarking on my first ever save career in Ligue 1 as we take the reigns at Angers SCO, but it will also be a Homegrown only save in which we can only sign and recruit French nationals (players and staff) or players that have been produced and developed organically through the club’s academy. As if trying to compete with PSG, Lyon and Monaco wasn’t enough right? I’m not going to spend too much time delving into the club’s history, philosophy and general information as is usually the case with a new FM blog – everyone knows that Les Scoïstes aka Angers SCO (est. 1919) play at the 19,000 seater Stade Raymond Kopa where they have recently been enjoying Ligue 1 football since the 2015/2016 season right? Instead we will today discuss the inspiration behind this save, and how we will go about trying to successfully navigate a Homegrown challenge with a particular focus on the club infrastructure and our planned approach before setting out the main rules and objectives for this adventure. Let’s do this. A Degree of Pedigree We intend on not only building a homegrown squad capable of challenging at the higher echelons of French football, but also developing our somewhat non-existent conveyor belt of organically produced talent at the club – ideally through our youth setup and by recruiting young French talent with a view of placing them in our academy team until they are ready either for first-team football or to be sold for a tidy profit so as to continually reinvest in our production line. I know that every FM save ever talks of focusing on youth etc but for us, the main call-out is that we will not only try produce wonderkids and newgens each year but also spend a considerable portion of our transfer budget on players specifically for the U19 team that we can mould for first team football, and the U19 team will get almost as much attention as the first team throughout the save. While not historically blessed with talent coming from their youth system, we have seen a handful of well known players passing through the Angers youth teams and subsequently go on to have largely successful careers elsewhere – the likes of Nicolas Pépé, Étienne Capoue, Anthony Réveillere, Ulrich Ramé and the recently returned Sofiane Boufal are all graduates of Les Scoïstes youth team, while in recent times younger players such as Romain Saiss, Jeff Reine Adelaide, Jonathan Kodija and Karl Toko Ekambi all had successful spells at the club which inevitably led to big money moves away from the West of France. Reine-Adelaide, Saiss and Pepe at Angers This is what we intend to emulate and our focus will be as follows: Youth Academy – raising the quality of our homegrown produce via increased attention and investment in our youth facilities and recruitment, and most importantly only recruiting French backroom staff in doing so Affiliations – setting up links both with domestic lower league French clubs as well as overseas teams with a focus on both funneling players into our annual youth intake as well as having first options on youth players (more on this below) Smart Spending – rather than put all our eggs in one basket by focusing solely on our youth produce, we will also look to spend a considerable amount of our annual transfer budget on young French talent brought in specifically to play in our youth team wherein they will hopefully progress towards first team football or be primed and ready for the transfer market (every player has a price right?) Made in Africa If you are looking for either some quality football content or for some inspiration for your FM21 save, I highly recommend the Scouted Football podcast which is an extremely insightful in-depth look at U23 football across the world, produced by the guys who bring you the Scouted Football handbook every 3 months which contains analysis on the world’s top youth prospects. Recently I was highly inspired by two specific episodes where host Joe Donoghue spoke with both Lee Scott and Ed Aarons about the pipeline of young African players and their pathway into European football, the latter of whom wrote an exceptional book called Made in Africa which is a wonderful narrative on the history of African footballers in English football. What interested me particularly was the discussion around some of the football academies in Africa, more specifically the Generation Foot academy in Senegal (responsible for developing the likes of Sadio Mané and Ismaila Sarr) and the Right to Dream academy in Ghana where the likes of Mohammed Kudus and Kamaldeen Sulemana learned their trade before following that pipeline into Europe. The more they discussed this pipeline and the idea of European satellite clubs that recruit these types of players, groom them into elite footballers and then sell them on for considerable profit (including the likes of FC Metz, KRC Genk , Red Bull Salzburg and FC Nordsjælland who are responsible for the emergence of players such as Khalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mané, Wilfried Ndidi and Naby Keita to name a few), the more I was drawn towards trying to replicate something similar in Football Manager. Obviously doing a homegrown save means that we can’t simply start snapping up players from these countries for little or nothing, however what we will incorporate into this save is to try and develop affiliations throughout some of these African countries e.g. Mali, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco etc in the hope that we can offer a similar pipeline to younger players who in turn will be produced as youth candidates at Angers and thus meet our homegrown requirements. We tried something similar in my FM20 save at Greuther Fürth in Germany whereby the goal was to develop Irish youth candidates at the club, a feat that took no fewer than 9 seasons to achieve. Hopefully we won’t have to wait as long this time around! Looking Back in Anger…literally Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. When I decided that Angers SCO were the club for me in FM21, a certain Rayan Aït-Nouri was the club’s first choice left-back and arguably one of the hottest defensive prospects in Europe with a host of top clubs rumoured to be interested in his signature. At just 19 years old, Aït-Nouri only broke into the Angers first team in 2018, and began the 2019/2020 season with two assists in three games helping the club to an 11th place finish in La Liga. Rewind – the date is the 4th of October 2020, and with one day remaining until the Covid-19 driven extended Transfer Window closes, Aït-Nouri is still an Angers player and my plans to build the team around him and do everything in my power to keep him at the club were well underway. ONE DAY. 24 hours later and he would still have been an Angers player – now we must commence the save without him, and to add insult to injury he has signed on loan meaning two things: We won’t really benefit financially as we start the save – obviously Wolves are covering his wages and probably paying a monthly fee for his services, but this won’t be of much use to us in the transfer market We are at the whim of whatever Wolves decide to do in-game with a £20m optional fee; seeing as we will be finished our first season long before real-life Wolves decide if they want him permanently – will he stay or will he go?! Odd One Out? Even if this photo is before your time (some of you weren’t even born when it was taken!) – more than likely you recognise it as one of the great World Cup winning teams with the likes of Zidane, Desailly, Thuram, Deschamps and Barthez all at the peak of their powers in 1998, helping their nation lift the Jules Rimet trophy for the first time in their history. What’s equally remarkable about this side is that, as you go through the first team squad you will see players from teams such as Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern, Inter Milan, Chelsea, PSG and Arsenal but to name a few – all of that First XI were playing for some of the best clubs in Europe at the time. Well, almost all of them… Somewhat randomly, Auxerre’s Stéfane Guivarc’h found himself leading the line for the World Cup winners throughout the tournament after winning the Ligue 1 Golden Boot during the two previous seasons. Whether it was down to France Manager Aimee Jacquet’s fondness for a lone striker role, or just relatively lucky timing for Guivarc’h given that both Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet were only 20 years of age – either way he found himself in the Number 9 jersey playing among the best players in the world and lifting the World Cup trophy despite not even scoring for the whole tournament – not bad for a Striker plying his trade at the 7th best team in France at the time. Why is this relevant you ask; fast forward to the most recent World Cup in 2018 (also won by France of course) and you won’t find anyone in that final squad not playing for an elite European club (Pavard being the slight exception in that he hadn’t signed for Bayern yet). Barcelona, Real Madrid, Man Utd, PSG, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea – the quality of this France side means that it is almost a certainty that a repeat of the Guivarc’h debacle will never occur, and the chances of a player from any team outside of the Champions League starting for France in a World Cup are pretty much non-existent at this point. Save Rules & Objectives Rules 📜 1. Only Homegrown players can be signed and play for the club, with “Homegrown” defined as the following: Any player of French nationality (first or second etc) Any player that has earned French citizenship after spending minimum amount of time required to qualify (1,825 days i.e….
Pledge Your Allegiance
Name a player that has gained Senior International Caps for Argentina, Colombia and Spain. I’ll wait. Impossible I hear you say, how could anyone play for three different countries? Well, wind back to the 1950’s and you would have been able to watch one of the greatest players of all time do exactly that. Alfredo Di Stefano, more commonly known for scoring 216 goals in 282 appearances for Real Madrid, initially made his debut for his home country Argentina back in 1947 and scored 6 goals in 6 appearances to help them win the Copa America the same year. Unfortunately they were to be his first and last caps for his home nation – player strikes and a dispute with the Brazilian FA led Argentina to withdraw from qualification for the 1950 World Cup as well as the following two Copa America tournaments, and shortly afterwards Di Stefano moved to Colombia where he went on to to score 92 goals in 101 appearances for Bogota based side Millionarios. It was at this point that Di Stefano made 4 appearances in a Colombia shirt, selected to play a group of friendly games that were not recognised by FIFA as official international games – not sure if that would fly in the modern era, but hey at this stage 2020 is capable of anything. Fast forward to 1956 and Di Stefano has lived and played for 3 years at Real Madrid, absolutely smashing La Liga helping them win back to back league titles and dominating the goalscoring charts year-on-year. After becoming a naturalised citizen, Di Stefano scores a hat-trick on his debut for Spain and goes on to score 23 goals in 31 appearances – the third international jersey Di Stefano has now worn in his career; imagine if Cristiano Ronaldo somehow managed to play for Portugal, Spain and Italy?! One of the original GOATs 🐐 Nowadays of course, players tend to have to “pledge their allegiance” and somewhat officially declare which nation they will play for – often causing controversy as we have seen when the likes of Declan Rice, Jack Grealish and Diego Costa all caused much debate on the subject when changing/declaring their allegiance. According to FIFA, an uncapped player is eligible to play for a nation if he/she meets the following criteria: Born on the territory of the relevant association Biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant association Grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant association He/she has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association Many nations have strategically taken advantage of this in order to bolster their ranks; Ireland’s successful World Cup teams of 1990 and 1994 contained a host of British-born players with Irish heritage including the likes of Andy Townsend, Tony Cascarino, Ray Houghton and Jason McAteer. This has continued all the way to present times and in the past few years young players such as Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Tim Cahill were all approached to play for Ireland due to their Irish connections. These days when a young player with dual nationality/eligibility arrives on the scene, an instant battle almost ensues – when Adnan Januzaj burst onto the scene at Old Trafford back in 2013, a three way contest for his allegiance appeared to take place between England, Kosovo and Belgium before he eventually declared for the latter in 2014. More recently a similar situation occurred with 17 year old Dortmund Midfielder Giovanni Reyna, son of ex-USA international Claudio Reyna; born in England, holding a Portuguese passport from his mother’s side and eligible for both Argentina and USA on his father’s side, much debate was held about which nation he would declare for before he seemingly quashed all rumours by stating he intended to play for his “home” nation, the USA. (Interestingly he is listed as “English” in FM20 but not fully declared 👀). How is all this connected to Football Manager? Why not try the same – taking over an International side and attempting to convince a World Class player to declare for that nation based on their heritage/bloodline. Reckon you have what it takes to convince them to change allegiance and help you lead their new nation to glory? 5 Undeclared Players with Dual Nationality / Eligibility in FM20 1. Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil → Italy) Born in Brazil but eligible to play for Italy through his father – could one of the hottest prospects to come through the ranks at Arsenal in years be the catalyst in bringing international success to the Azurri for the first time since 2006? More importantly – can you be the one to lure him away from playing for Brazil? 2. Harvey Barnes (England → Scotland) The highly rated Leicester star is already 21 at the start of FM20 – if he doesn’t get capped for England soon, could he have his head turned North and help lead Scotland to success on the international stage? 3. Josha Vagnoman (Germany → Ivory Coast) Competition at right-back for Germany is fierce with the likes of Joshua Kimmich and Lukas Klostermann playing for the top clubs in the Bundesliga. Vagnoman is eligible for the Ivory Coast through his father and should he not get capped for the German side, perhaps he can be swayed to bolster an already talented Ivory Coast side? Potential future team-mate Wilfried Zaha is no stranger to this debate. 4. Houssem Aouar (France → Algeria) Granted – the chances of this kid not getting capped for France are pretty slim but seeing as he is still uncapped and undeclared in FM20, adding Aouar to an Algeria squad that also boasts the likes of Mahrez, Slimani, Ghoulam and Bennacer is a mouth-watering prospect.. 5. Eddie Nketiah (England → Ghana) Ghana boast a strong side with the likes of Thomas Partey, Kwadwo Asamoah and Baba Rahman among their ranks but not since Tony Yeboah (#thunderbastard) have they had a top quality centre-forward lead the line at international level…could the man the man loved by FMDoop like no other be tempted to change allegiance should he fail to break into the England side? Make no mistake – convincing one of these guys to switch allegiance is no easy feat even in FM; you could try some of the tips suggested by FridayNightFM in his piece for The Byline about Signing Uninterested Players in FM e.g. watching their games, having them scouted etc however your best hope is that they remain uncapped long enough to become impatient at not earning an international cap as yet. Either way, giving this a try as a new save challenge or side-project to your existing save could make for an interesting international #narrative – let’s not even begin to discuss Brexit. There are plenty of other players of a similar nature who are yet to be capped or declare for a nation – adding the “Second Nationality” filter/column in the player search is a great way to identify these, otherwise stay tuned for Part II where we will look at some of the other dual nationality players that we hope are waiting for your call. Thanks for reading – feel free to share your thoughts below or on Twitter and let us know if you succeed! Cheers, MaddFM.
FM21 – What We Know So Far
Throwback – the date is September 24th 2020, and after much commentary and deliberation about Football Manager 2021 potentially being delayed, postponed and at times rumoured to be in jeopardy altogether due to Covid 19 restrictions, a glum year all round is jolted back to life by the heroic announcement from Sports Interactive that this year’s version of the game will in fact be released as planned and most importantly, just in time for Christmas. Not much was mentioned about new features, licensing, leagues, match engine or gameplay in general aside from the sleek new kits and colour scheme which we love here at WSFM towers – however shockwaves rippled through the Football Manager community at the announcement that not only will the game be available on PC and Switch as well as the usual Mobile and Touch versions, but will also return to Xbox for the first time in over a decade since Football Manager 2008 (context: Lionel Messi was a 20 year old hot prospect in that version who could only be nullified by the wonderkid that was Anthony Vanden Borre). Fast forward to Monday 12th October – Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just made some important announcements about new Covid 19 restrictions, however this isn’t the announcement people are talking about. The big news is, Football Manager have released their first feature announcement trailer, and needless to say the team at Sports Interactive have come up trumps yet again. ICYMI ☝️ If you are in any way like our friend Brian and slightly overwhelmed by the abundance of features, graphics and absolute video production mastery from the Sports Interactive content team, below is a quick synopsis of what we know so far in terms of Football Manager 2021 features. RECRUITMENT MEETINGS Many FM players have trust or control issues, and at times our scouts don’t do a lot to appease the situation. The introduction of Recruitment Meetings appear to give us additional input and control over the types of players our scouts will both source and recommend – hopefully gone are the days where your Chief Scout recommends a 33-year-old Left Back when you already have a worldie and a wonderkid in that position! BODY LANGUAGE Something makes me think this little guy could have a big future in the FM community – representing all that is good and pure in the world, or in the Football Manager world at least! Player interactions have been given a completely new dimension of reality with the addition of body language in the conversation; we all know how a 121 meeting with a player can take a sudden turn for the worst at the flick of a button, and hopefully this functionality will enable us to keep morale high, motivate and spur on your key player to kick on a notch in your next game, or most importantly convince him to stay when other clubs are sniffing around – we’ve all been there 👀. PLAYER AVAILABILITY This could be the Football Manager equivalent of Tinder. How often have you pursued a player or played hardball with a club to negotiate an acceptable transfer fee, only to find out that the player has no interest in joining at the contract screen? Now you can approach the player’s agent to identify whether or not the player is open to a transfer that the current time – if the response is positive, it might make you think twice about asking said player to sack their agent later down the line when it comes to contract renewals 😏. PRESS CONFERENCES It would appear that Press Conferences are about to get a hell of a lot more real – the trailer eludes to multiple members of the press being in the media room, upon which you can select which member of the press or media publication you would like to receive questions from and perhaps more importantly who you wish to ignore! We all know a certain United States President that might enjoy this feature… TACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS/ADVICE “We should switch to a shorter passing style”. Changes to Short Passing Style. 5 minutes later. “We should switch to a more direct passing style”. Unless we’ve hired Ant & Dec or the Chuckle brothers to be our Assistant Manager, nobody needs to be this confused right? It appears that pre-match tactical advice at least has been given a makeover, hopefully making it more intuitive and user-friendly as many of us tend to ignore this advice due to lack of trust and/or control issues. In the Assistant Manager we trust? XG (EXPECTED GOALS) Many have campaigned and advocated for this in the past, and finally it’s here. xG i.e. Expected Goals basically allows you to more critically assess just how clinical your attackers are and overall how likely you may be to score and win games based on how and where you tend to have more shots at goal. By assigning an Expected Goal rating to chances from different areas of the field, it enables you to measure the quality of goal-scoring chances that are created against the likelihood of them being scored. While the trailer leaves much to the imagination, it would appear that the Data Analyst will now present a more in depth illustration in terms of goal-scoring opportunities and statistics based on your team’s tactic, strategy and playing style. Stats nerds, ASSEMBLE. MATCHPLAY GRAPHICS While there is no mention of changes or additions to the match engine (yet!), it appears that the in-match presentation has been freshened up, with noticeable changes to the match score, menu and dialogue boxes that appear – no complaints here, we like what we see so far. LICENSING? We all love a good cliffhanger. While there is no official confirmation as yet, the appearance of Leicester City’s official logo in the trailer suggests that some form of licensing agreement has been reached. Is it with the club specifically or is there more to this than meets the eye? Might we see Premier League licensing in the near future? There’s only one way to find out – Football Manager 2021 is out on Tuesday 24th November 2020, with the beta expected to drop a couple of weeks beforehand. Your season starts here. Be sure to follow WeStreamFM on Twitter for reaction to the latest FM21 updates – you can also get involved in the hype by joining the WeStreamFM Discord where you can find hundreds of like minded FM enthusiasts as well as some of your favourite WeStreamFM streamers, bloggers and YouTubers all gearing up for the next edition of the beautiful game.
Bonus Post (#spoilers)
For those of you that have made it this far – I salute you! If you haven’t already read my last post you will have missed the end of my #MayTheFürthBeWithYou save where 9 epic seasons came to an end and we received news of the retirement (finally) of Mick McCarthy from the Ireland job, paving the way for us to meet our final save objective and take the reigns of the Ireland National Team. This blog will be short and sweet as we travel forward in time to the World Cup 2030 qualifiers where we will attempt to get Ireland on the plane to the competition finals in Spain. Bearing in mind that this is 10 years on from where we sit now in reality, I have actually no idea what kind of team we will have apart from the Irish players that have passed through our doors at Greuther Fürth during the past decade – without further adieu, let’s find out who we have to choose from and who will be our opponents as we mount a monumental qualifying campaign to lead the Boys in Green to glory. Key Players Most of our better players are still IRL players and players we had at Fürth, with the likes of Gavin Bazunu, Adam Idah, Troy Parrott, Joe Hodge, Luca Connell and Jason Knight all in their prime in 2030. We don’t see much in the form of newgens with midfielder Mark Martin the standout newgen plying his trade at Wolves following a €34m move from Arsenal. We are drawn in Group 5 of the qualifiers alongside Germany (more #narrative), Wales, Cyprus and Belarus knowing that most likely we will need to finish as one of the best second placed teams in order to qualify – Germany have a ridiculous team dominated by newgens, so topping the group is somewhat over-ambitious having been battered by many of these players in the Bundesliga in recent times. As we prepare for our opening game against the Cypriots, it’s clear there is a significant lack of Central Defenders in the Irish national pool and with Shane Duffy now at the ripe old age of 35, it looks as if our best option will be to play Joe Hodge at Centre Half alongside Nathan Collins having spent the last few seasons playing the Half Back role for us previously. Seeing as there are so many past and present Fürth players in the squad, it would be rude not to take our beautifully horrendous looking 4-1-4-1 Asymmetric formation with us into the Ireland camp. A highly successful qualifying campaign sees us qualify as one of the top second placed sides, and we enter the draw with 48 teams as bottom seeds in the new World Cup format where will be placed in a group of three teams, two of which will proceed to the knockout stages. At this point I’m so confused by the format and sheer volume of teams I have no idea who we might get – let’s just skip to the main event! I reckon a crime has been committed as we have just gotten away with absolute murder – despite being bottom seeds we get a very favourable draw against South Korea who boast our last ever Fürth signing Lee Kang-In, and a Senegal side who no longer consider Sadio Mane worthy of a call up now that he is a 35 year old free agent in the game. Call it luck of the Irish, but I reckon we might just have a chance at progressing in this World Cup – watch out Spain, the Boys in Green are coming. At the last minute we convince Englishman Aiden Charles (Newcastle) and half Irish/half Norewegian Kristian Tonstad to pledge allegiance to Ireland, and both are included in in the final 23-man squad as we prepare for our opening game against South Korea. The bad news is Nathan Collins picks up an injury meaning he can be included in the squad but wont be available for 3-4 weeks – I guess we will need to get to the final if Nathan expects an appearance! So, about this Tonstad guy……. With Luca Connell not fit, we started Tonstad in the Inverted Winger role and the lad bags a hat-trick on his Ireland debut – imagine if an Ireland player won the Golden Boot! If that wasn’t enough – we somehow topped that with a 6-0 demolition of Senegal who to be fair are not the side they once were, 32 year old Ismaila Sarr their main standout player. It’s too soon to start thinking Ireland are going to win the World Cup right? A defensive masterclass allows super-sub Brian Carroll (Man City U23s) to nab a winner on 84 minutes and it’s absolute scenes in Sevilla’s Benito Villamarin stadium (where else). Manager MaddFM is spotted celebrating among the thousands of Irish fans on the streets of Seville as Ireland gear up for their last 16 clash against a Czech Republic boasting one of the best players on the planet in Adam Hlozek. Despite going a goal down on 16 minutes, Ireland fought hard until scoring a well deserved equaliser on 67 mins with that man Krystian Tonstad netting his 4th goal of the tournament, and 1-1 was how it finished to send the game into extra-time. Neither team were able to break the deadlock, even after Ireland’s Joe Hodge was sent off with 2 minutes remaining – it wouldn’t be a World Cup without a Penalty Shootout now would it 🤷♂️. HEARTBREAK IN SAN SEBASTIAN! Ireland came so close to reaching a World Cup Quarter Final for only their second time in history, however penalty misses by Adam Idah and Conor Coventry condemned the Boys in Green to an early exit from World Cup 2030. Ireland can hold their heads high after powerful victories in the Group Stages, and based on the performances of this youthful side the future is certainly bright for the Boys in Green. And that was that!! We went further than I had originally predicted, however in hindsight I feel we should have gotten even further looking at the path and quality of opposition faced – it just wasn’t to be. The Czechs went on to beat Italy in the Quarter Final before losing to eventual winners Portugal who defeated England in the final courtesy of a Ruben Vinagre winner. Welcome to the future 🧐. Just like that, as quickly as he arrived on the scene at Greuther Fürth a decade ago, MaddFM picks up his hat and coat and his silhouette is seen strolling into the sunset…he was never seen again 😄. Thanks for reading – rest well FM20, it’s been a hell of a ride.
May the Fürth Be With You – XVII
PART XVII – Go Fürth Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.. Here we are. After 8 seasons, 16 blog posts, one promotion, one Europa League final and an abundance of gifs, Irish references and forced wordplay blog post titles – we enter our final season at Greuther Fürth as FM20 draws to a close in advance of the next iteration of this magnificent football management simulation game. We started this save back in June 2020 (IRL of course) with the sole mission of kickstarting an Irish revolution in the Bavarian city of Fürth in Germany, instigated by the fictional takeover of the club by Irish legend Niall Quinn who has remained as our fearless leader for the past 8 seasons. Our save goals were fairly straightforward however we are still to cross off a few objectives – with one season remaining, time is most definitely against us however overall we have had a highly successful career at the Kleeblätter and I can say without any doubt that this has been my favourite ever Football Manager save in my 25 years of playing since the days of Championship Manager 2 which I nicked off a mate and still have never returned to this day. Save Objectives Create an Irish revolution at Greuther Fürth ✔️ In addition to our esteemed Chairman, so far to date we have brought in 12 Irish players, more than 30 Irish Backroom Staff, created affiliations with 4 Irish clubs, played 11 friendlies against Irish teams and completed 3 training camps in Ireland. Make Greuther Fürth an established Bundesliga side and qualify for Europe for the first time in the club’s history ✔️ Only buy players under the age of 25, and free transfers under the age of 30 ✔️ Ferran Torres, Nicola Armini, Joe Hodge, Maxence Caqueret, Noel Bilic, Pascal Le Lay, Ryan Porteous – just some of the names we’ve managed to bring in and despite having limited cash at times, we have managed to avoid signing any ringers or free agents over the age of 30, – possibly to our detriment but there’s nothing more stubborn than an Irishman blogging about a Football Manager game. Develop an Irish Newgen from the Greuther Fürth youth academy ❌ We have failed 8, yes 8 times in our quest to develop an Irish Newgen from our own academy. Despite having an Irish Director of Football, Head of Youth Development, Scouting Team, Youth Management team and now 4 affiliations with Irish clubs based on youth recruitment – we are still yet to produce an Irish Newgen after seeing graduates from Finland, Denmark, Kosovo, Poland and even Northen Ireland most recently last season. Having worked tirelessly each season to see if this can actually be done in the game to no avail and with no further options available, I have pretty much given up on this objective. Conclusion: we can’t influence youth candidate nationalities in Football Manager (at least not in 8 seasons) 😔. Get the Ireland job and take them to a major tournament ❌ There are three certainties in life: Death, Taxes and Mick McCarthy. The year is now 2027, and despite only qualifying for one major tournament since he started the role in 2019, the sweet talking 69 year old silver fox is still at the helm of the biggest job in Irish football, with MaddFM eagerly waiting in the wings for a chance at taking Ireland to a major tournament. His job has never been Insecure and it looks like this is a save goal which will also elude us as we enter our last season of FM20 😤. Show me the money? In my last post, we had just finished in 4th place in the Bundesliga sealing a Champions League qualification place while also narrowly losing our first ever Europa League Final in a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal (I say narrow – they hammered us everywhere except the scoreline). With prize money of €86 million earned for our highest ever league finish, the Kleeblätter faithful are looking forward to a summer spending spree as we gear up for Champions League football…or are they? €7 million. €7 million for an overachieving club that have been punching above their weight for several seasons and are now expected to mount a Champions League campaign with what is a talented but equally young and relatively thin squad. Granted we can try to do some manouvering with our budgets and stretch it, but in the year 2027 €12 million won’t get you far.. Last season we conceded 37 goals, the highest in the Bundesliga Top 10. Our main Centre Back pairing has been Nicolo Armini and Scott McKenna with Ryan Porteous providing cover, however with McKenna now 31 and Porteous having begun the inevitable decline now that he is 29 years of age, our main priority is a Centre Back and most importantly one with pace as Armini isn’t necessarily the quickest when tracking back. Did someone say Italian Centre Back pairing? 🔥🔥 Roberto Pesenti arrives from AC Milan for €11 million – that’s almost all of our budget, however if he can partner well with Armini it might give us that extra layer of solidity at the back which will be essential if we are to survive the Champions League. The 90’s called – they want their Italian Centre Half pairing back 😆. With little or nothing left in the bank, we need to improvise. Kane Ritchie-Hosler arrives on a free transfer after his contract ends at Rangers to provide backup for Ferran Torres on the right side of our attacking three, while on the other side real life PSG academy player Mergim Ramadani arrives on loan from Aston Villa to provide cover for Luca Connell – both are lightening fast and will be valuable options from a bench that can contain 9 named substitutes in the Bundesliga. At this point we almost have cover in every position except at Left Back where Marko Djira is currently our first and only option, operating as a LWB Attack overlapping Luca Connell who plays as an Inverted Winger which allows for Djira to push higher up the field. While searching through various options focusing on Acceleration and Pace, we happen to stumble across a former colleague of ours with whom we unfortunately had a bit of a tiff back in Season 5 when he refused to sign for us permanently after 3 seasons on loan with us. Have bridges been burned, or might we perhaps be able to lure George Bello back to Bavaria? Atlanta don’t want him go go out on loan – can Chairman Niall Quinn be guilted into parting with a little bit more of that sweet sweet €86 million prize money we handed him a few weeks back? Although a bit steep for €10 million, the arrival of Bello means that for the first time in this save we have a full backup XI in every position. Since we started playing in Europe, the strain of 40+ games each season has been evident on the squad and hopefully this will counteract the renowned “continental hangover” (writer’s note: it’s the hangovers after the Irish Cottage pub in Fürth you need to worry about). We are almost ready to kick off Season 9 and our last season of this save, however before we can do that there is the small matter of finding out who we will face in the Champions League Group Stages for the first time in the club’s history: More FM poetic narrative as we get an opportunity for revenge over Arsenal for that Europa League final defeat last season, while trips to Madrid and St. Petersburg will certainly prove challenging regardless of how big our squad is. I fear our Champions League debut may not last very long 🤦♂️ Let’s play some football shall we? An 11-0 cup win over Meiendorf possibly led to a complacent start to the league with a 3-3 draw away to Augsburg, however apart from that we began Season 9 in the Bundesliga reasonably well – 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats left us in 4th position after 10 games, while in Europe our CL group is as difficult as expected with defeats against Arsenal and Atletico either side of a dominant 4-0 victory over Zenit. Fast forward to Christmas and we’ve managed to climb to 3rd in the league – imagine if we could better last season’s 4th place finish in our last year at the club! (writer’s note: don’t count your chickens). Unfortunately this is offset by a Champions League exit at the first time of asking – despite holding Atletico to a draw at home, we lost 2-1 to Arsenal and finish with a 1-1 draw in a what we thought was a meaningless game in Ukraine until afterwards when we realise that point ensures we qualify for the Europa League Knockout round! Could we get to the final for a second consecutive season and even become the German Sevilla? #EuropaLeagueForLife Fürth-quake It’s at this point we are greeted with some truly Fürth-shattering news (writer’s note: another pun, seriously?). For those of you that don’t pay heed to these things – December is when we are presented with our first preview of the annual youth intake and after 8 extremely unremarkable intakes previously, we prepare to be disappointed as per usual. I DON’T F*CKING BELIEVE IT. Being honest I had given up hope and somewhat forgotten about our youth intake especially knowing that this is our last season at the club. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!! Not only do we receive the news that we finally have an Irish player breaking through the ranks (and is potentially the strongest of our intake), but said player is also from Galway. Why is this relevant? The logical side of me knows that the main reason for this must be our affiliations with two Galway based clubs (Salthill and Mervue), however we can’t help but wonder…might we be lucky enough to get a son in Football Manager? I wrote about this last year during my Tenerife save and apparently the odds are something like 10,000/1 of it happening…one can only dream of how epic it would be for this to occur in our final season. Galway isn’t overly known for it’s footballing exports however in recent years we have seen the likes of David Forde, Greg Cunningham, Daryl Horgan, Ryan Manning and Aaron Connolly all playing at the highest level of English football…are we on the verge of adding a name to that list? Money Shown January is silly season. Both of these players were signed on Free Transfers over the past couple of seasons. Now, I know what you’re thinking – €135 million profit, right? Normally I’d be with you, however considering this is our last season, that we only receive 60% of transfer revenue and that Le Lay would directly receive €17m due to a sell-on clause in his contract – we turn down PSG’s offer much to Niall Quinn’s dismay (imagine the tab down at the Irish Cottage pub) however to keep him sweet we accept the bid for Matias Palacios and he heads for the bright lights of China. That leaves us with a gap in our Attacking Midfield cover with only a few days remaining in the transfer window, so we decide to shop a bit more locally for a proven Bundesliga talent who is one of those players that I feel has scored against us every…
May the Fürth Be With You – XVI
Part XVI – The Fürthest “Football Manager giveth, and it taketh away” MaddFM, Fürth 2026. When we last left off, the mighty Kleeblätter aka Greuther Fürth had just finished in 5th place in the 2025/2026 Bundesliga (our 7th season at the helm) and been given a €25m transfer budget with Manager MaddFM actively seeking a new Defensive Midfielder to replace outgoing stalwart Paul Seguin who departs following 8 seasons at the club. After some deliberation, we were left with two choices to fill the Half Back role that has become a vital cog in our tactical formation: Being Irish it’s hard not to overlook Hodge and he appears available for around €15m from Hull whom he joined for just €525K from Man City 4 seasons ago. Kana looks the stronger player on paper, however Anderlecht (how is he still there) demand €21m up front for his services which would pretty much deplete most of our funds knowing we still need to make a few more signings to keep improving the squad year on year…it’s decision time once again. Joe Hodge (DMC) Hull City – €17m (50% up front) View Profile Around the same time, we receive a €10.5m offer for Josh Sargent who also has been with us since the start of this save, with Spartak Moscow keen to secure the American international’s signature – while Sargent has scored some important goals for us and been a solid backup main man Noel Bilic, he only scored 4 goals last season and has started to decline in quality in the last year or two – the bid is accepted and he heads east to ply his trade in Russia. That means we now need a new Striker, we had Bilbao newgen Mikel Martinez on loan last season however he failed to score a single league goal, therefore it’s back to market we go. 50% up front for Joe Hodge took about €9m from our €25m budget, which was effectively cancelled out by the Sargent signing – therefore we have about €20-€25m to play with. Adam Idah (STC) Norwich City – €30m (50% up front) View Profile With 26 goals in 50 caps for Ireland and still only 24 years old, Adam Idah becomes our 13th Irish signing at Greuther Fürth so far to date after 7 consecutive seasons in the Premier League with Norwich. With bags of pace and power as well as really good finishing and composure, he will provide much needed backup/competition for Noel Bilic in the lone Advanced Forward role. That pretty much takes up the majority of our budget, however we neglected to mention one signing which we agreed back in March, that of Matías Palacios who arrives on a Free Transfer from Man City. Matías Palacios Man City – Free Transfer (Out of Contract) View Profile Just when we thought all the new additions were complete – we receive an update on another new addition to the Kleeblätter family: With an increase of 12,000 seats this is of course great news, however by the time we are finished our dealings in the transfer market our overall bank balance is already €10 million in the red – it’s going to be a long season for the bean counters of Greuther Fürth. Greuther Fürth 2026/2027 Squad List ⚽🟢⚪ Goalkeepers: Gavin Bazunu, Peter Walsh Defenders: Ryan Porteous, Nicolo Armini, Scott McKenna, Marko Djira, Simon Asta, Zinho Vanheusden, Joao Ferreira, Marvin Brack Midfielders: Ferran Torres, Joe Hodge, Fin Back, Luca Connell, Josh Cullen, Maxence Caqueret, Alex Blesa, Edon Zhegrova, Pascal Le Lay, Matías Palacios Forwards: Noel Bilic, Adam Idah Definitely a stronger squad than last year which will be vital considering we are in Europe for a second consecutive season. At the time of writing, FM21 is almost on the horizon and I recently announced my plans for the next edition of this magnificent game: Wouldn’t you know it – in some kind of romantic, poetic FM multiverse parallel storyline, look who one of our opponents will be in this years Group Stages: You love to see it, even though Wolves have since snapped up Angers’ best player Rayan Ait-Nouri in real life around whom we had planned to build the team – we will certainly look back in anger if he turns out be be half as good as he is in this current save where he plys his trade at our rivals Borussia Dortmund. Now, on to more pressing matters – let’s start the 2026/2027 season where our goals are as follows: Qualify for the Champions League (Top 4 finish) Noel Bilic to break 20 league goals Get to Europa League Semi-Final Alex Blesa to get capped for Germany having changed from Spanish to German citizenship Produce an Irish Newgen having failed 7 times already Hope that Mick McCarthy retires or gets sacked from the Ireland job With 3 of our opening 5 fixtures against the top 3 teams in Germany (Bayern, RBL and Dortmund) – we don’t ask for much, right? Let’s do this. The less said about those 3 opening games against Bayern, Dortmund and RBL the better as we lose all three and concede 12. Thankfully the same cannot be said in the Europa League where we dominate our group winning 5/6 games and going unbeaten to set up a Knock-Out round draw with Dinamo Kiev, the team who knocked us out last year (more poetic narrative FM, GG). This give us a fantastic morale boost and we start to pick up some momentum throughout the first half of the season including revenge over RBL in a 4-3 win which helps us climb to 4th briefly, however those earlier draws and a defeat to Bayern leave us in 8th place after 20 games played – still a lot of games left, but definitely feeling the effects of having so many additional games in the calendar due to European football. North, South, Fürth And so arrives our 8th opportunity to try and produce an Irish Newgen here in Germany. As mentioned in my last post (and several others), we have been trying our damnedest to achieve this through Irish staff, affiliates, scouting etc with zero success so far; with FM21 approaching we are rapidly running out of time; will we be any luckier this time around? We are getting closer at least! A very average intake so far as have been most of them in this save – the quest continues. We head into February 5 points off the Champions League spots while also preparing for a visit to Ukraine for the Europa League knockouts – preparation went well as we go unbeaten for two months, wins over Dortmund and Leverkusen propelling us up to 5th and level on points with the latter! For the first time we have a clear cut chance at Champions League football next season without having to rely on other results – 7 games left to decide our fate. A well earned 1-1 draw in Kiev means that our 1-0 win at home puts us through to the Europa League Quarter Finals…HISTORIC 👀. There’s a line in one my favourite books from my youth (Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer) that states “Confidence is ignorance. If you’re feeling cocky, it’s because there’s something you don’t know“. Even though we were confident of overcoming Portuguese side Maritmo to reach the Europa League Semi-Final, what we didn’t know was that we would go on to lose two of our next 4 league games and completely throw our Champions League aspirations in jeopardy: If that wasn’t bad enough – in our third last game of the league, well – see for yourself: Suddenly it’s advantage Leverkusen – with just 2 games remaining, they sit 3 points clear and our Champions League dreams begin to fade…. Meanwhile in the Europa League… An English team awaits us in the final if we can overcome a Lyon side that still boasts the lkes of Moussa Dembele, Bruno Guimaraes, Amine Gouiri and Rayan Cherki as well as signings such as Jeff Reine Adelaide and Olivier Ntcham. WE ARE IN THE EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL!!! A 2-1 win at home in which we also missed a penalty is followed by a scoreless draw away, and for the first time in the club’s history we will battle for European silverware…the big question is, who will be our opponents? Out of Our Hands Two league games left to play, 3 points outside the Champions League places. Our fate is no longer in our own hands – to have any hope of qualifying, we will surely need maximum points from our two remaining fixtures against Hertha Berlin and Dynamo Dresden, while also needing Leverkusen to drop points in arguably two more difficult fixtures against RBL and Stuttgart. Will the Gods of FM be smiling down on us, or will Leverkusen have the last laugh in yet another rollercoaster season here at Fürth? WE’VE DONE IT! Or at least – they didn’t!! This campaign throws one final curveball in which somehow Leverkusen manage to end up in 6th place following a loss and a draw in their last two games, while our back to back wins (including our best performance of the season against Hertha) push us up to finish 4th, just a point ahead of Schalke who nab 5th place – as final days go, this was absolutely epic and the Kleeblätter are still in shock at the prospect of playing Champions League football next season. I’m in shock myself!! Needless to say Chairman Niall Quinn is ecstatic – €86 million prize money would do that to a man 😄 . Unfortunately for him and all involved, our bank balance before this sat at minus €32 million after the season’s expenditure combined with new stadium costs and installments on prior transfers – of course the €86m will go a long way towards correcting that, however it remains to be seen how much we will have in our arsenal as we prepare for Champions League football here in Bavaria. Did someone say Arsenal? There’s no time to revel or even think about next season – we have the small matter of a Europa League Final to attend to. It goes without saying that this is the biggest game in the club’s history, so you can imagine my reaction to the first piece of news that pops up relating to our clash against the Gunners who themselves also just finished 4th in the Premier League: The good news is that Arsenal are also without key players Mohamed Ihattaren and Gabriel Martinelli..with them priced at 6/4 and ourselves available at 13/8, we might just have a game on our hands… This game was streamed live on Twitch – here is how things looked after 5 minutes. By half-time we were 2-0 down, hopes of European glory and silverware slowly fading. Tactical changes and a good bollocking ensued, and on 70 minutes it was that man Noel Bilic who managed to get us back in the game and make it 2-1 to give us a glimmer of hope with 20 minutes remaining. Unfortunately that’s how it ended! We did well to get ourselves back in the game but on the whole, Arsenal were comfortable and never looked like losing – even the €10 million prize money isn’t enough to lift our spirits, but we live to fight another day and with about a month left until FM21 arrives, plenty of time for us to kick on and smash at least one or two more seasons before this save reaches a conclusion – more to follow next week as we embark on our first…
May the Fürth Be With You – XV
Part XV – Come Fürth We are back! Life, work and real-life footie have slightly derailed my FM20 playing time for the past two weeks, however some well overdue time-off has enabled us to get back on the proverbial horse in Fürth and ride on through Season 7 of what has been a thoroughly enjoyable, immersive and most importantly realistic save as we navigate through the dying embers of this year’s version of the game. With about 6 weeks remaining until FM21 is released (at the time of writing), we still have plenty of time during which our mission to qualify for the Champions League as well as unearth an Irish Newgen here in Germany are very much alive; there is also time for Ireland Manager Mick McCarthy to realise that at 68 years of age, retirement is surely beckoning so that MaddFM can swoop in and give the Boys in Green one last hurrah in a big tournament before we sign off from Football Manager 2020 forever. Enough rambling – similar to how one can watch a 5 minute video to basically speed watch a series like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, here is a rapid 5 line reminder of where we are in this save so far to date: 1. After promotion as Champions from Bundesliga 2 to Bundesliga in our 2nd season at Greuther Fürth, we have finished 8th, 8th, 9th and most recently 6th last season which brought Europa League football to Fürth for the first time in our history. 2. The year is currently 2026, and after 10 games we sit in 11th place in the league and 2nd in our Europa League group behind leaders Everton after 3 games played . 3. Record Signings – Ferran Torres (Valencia – €22m), Luca Connell (Celtic – €22m) 4. Tactic & Best XI: 5. We love Noel Bilic November saw a marked improvement as we adjusted to the furore of two matches per week and trips to the bright lights of Merseyside, Brugge and Rome. The aforementioned Noel Bilic went into hyperdrive and alongside the likes of Alex Blesa and Pascal Le Lay we start to look a powerful force in the final third. Five wins and a draw mean we look a lot healthier in the league by the end of the calendar year, while in other news WE HAVE QUALIFED FOR THE EUROPA LEAGUE KNOCKOUT ROUND 🎉. It’s at this point things usually take a turn for the worst – the German winter break arrives to put an end to our new found momentum, or so we thought… Not only do we pick up 4 league wins (let’s not talk about the 6-2 hammering by Bremen) – we manage to top up our 1-1 draw away to Benfica with a 2-1 home win which puts us into the last 16 of the Europa League – the only issue as seems to be the case with the Bundesliga season after season is that when we win so too does everyone else around us and every defeat is extremely costly. By the time we experience a 2-0 away defeat to Bayern, we find ourselves back in 6th place with a lot to do if we are to play Champions League football next season. Youth at Fürth Seven seasons. Seven years during which we have not only failed to produce any wonderkids of real quality (though Zogiani looks decent), but have also failed in our quest to develop an Irish newgen at the club. Why bother you ask? Being honest – I just want to see if it can be done; if we as Managers can have any control on newgens and where they come from etc. So far we have had youth candidates from Turkey, Kosovo, Bosnia and Finland to name a few however producing an Irish newgen continues to elude us despite taking the following steps: Irish Head of Youth Development Irish Chief Scout & Recruitment Team Irish Affiliates Irish U19 Manager, Assistant Manager & Backroom Staff 11 Irish players signed/loaned to date As another intake passes by with no sign of a newgen from the Emerald Isle, drastic measures are required. Having not changed our Director of Football or Technical Director upon arrival at Fürth (due to the fact that they are both club legends), strategic upheaval is need as we replace both with upgraded Irish versions: From an affiliation perspective – our most recent activity means that we are now affiliated with three Irish clubs from each tier which are spread across the East, West and South of the country. Short of playing friendlies there every year and going on tour etc – there’s really not much else we can do at this point to make ourselves more Irish! If it doesn’t happen next season, chances are it never will – where’s me lucky charms when I need them 🍀😄. Come Fourth Fürth 12 games left to secure Champions League football next season, but first there’s the small matter of trying to secure a place in the Europa League Quarter Finals. Standing in our way are Dinamo Kiev who themselves have just sampled Champions League football before entering the Europa League after failing to qualify from their group – one would think these should be easier to over come than our previous opponents from Portugal.. We crash and burn at home losing 2-1 and a 0-0 stalemate in Ukraine kicks us firmly out of Europe. The optimist in me isn’t too bothered considering what’s at stake in the league, and simultaneously as you can see – our league form has been cracking as we pick up 6 wins and 2 draws including a spectacular comeback away to Dortmund in which we turned around a 1-0 deficit after 86 minutes! So tight is this league however that everyone around us seems to keep winning, and the four points dropped at home to Frankfurt and Dresden mean we sit in 5th position going into the final 3 games of the season, two points off the Champions League places – yes, this league really is that f*cking hard. We need a few things to happen, mainly for Bayern and Leverkusen to somewhat self-destruct if we are to have a chance at getting a Champions League spot; considering one of the last 3 games is a 6 pointer between ourselves and Leverkusen, it’s all to play for and looks like it could go down to the wire with only 2 points separating 3rd and 5th. After a hard earned draw against Leverkusen and an important win against Schalke, we went into the last game of the season needing a win against Mainz while hoping either Bayern or Leverkusen would drop points. They both did, but unfortunately so did we in tragic fashion as we ship 3 against Mainz to condemn ourselves to a 5th place finish – bettering our highest ever position last season (6th) but still somewhat deflating after playing extremely well in the second half of the season!! Once again our early season jitters proved to be very costly and even though the likes of Torres, Le Lay and Blesa were immense throughout as was Bilic who finally broke the 20 goal barrier, the fact of the matter remains that this league is extremely competitive and more reinforcements will be needed to break into the Top 4 of the Bundesliga. Speaking of reinforcements – the first area that we will need to target is to replace Paul Seguin who at 31 decides to leave the club at the end of the season following 8 rock solid seasons during which he rarely scored below a 7 average rating. As Vice-Captain he will be sorely missed in that pivotal Half-Back role, however as his attributes and performances began to decline the harsh reality is that an upgrade is needed; having received €67m in prize money for finishing 4th (€25m of which goes straight into our transfer budget) – I reckon we can allocate €15m-€20m of this towards his replacement as it is the main area that we need to improve in. As usual we face a standard MaddFM transfer dilemma: who would you choose? 👇👇 (please comment below – bear in mind one is Irish and probably much more affordable ;P). Tune in next week to find out if we manage to land either as we enter Season 8 at the helm 😄. Thanks for reading,
May the Fürth Be With You – XIV
Part XIV – Fürther Afield We still can’t believe it. Greuther Fürth are in Europe. After 6 seasons and 13 blog posts, our highest ever finish in the Bundesliga (6th) last season means that sh*t just got real here in Bavaria and we have a huge task on our hands if we are to take this squad to the next level especially knowing that squad depth and quality has been an issue, as well as our somewhat limited means and commercial income as a club. There’s no time to dwell on that though – it’s time to shop for a new outfit as we prepare for European football for the first time in the club’s history. It doesn’t seem like a lot and that’s because it isn’t – unfortunately our negative balance of minus €17 million at the end of last season means that we again have limited means with which to strengthen the squad. €21 million transfer budget means we should have around €30 million which isn’t at all to be laughed at – main objectives are to sign a Right Back with Lee O’Connor not really strong enough to play at the next level in Europe, a backup keeper with Sascha Burchert having retired, as well as find another Striker to compete with Noel Bilic particularly with Josh Sargent still out for the rest of the year due to that horrific cruciate ligament injury – I’ll say it now, if we lose Bilic this season we are f*cked. If we can fill those slots and bring in a few additions to bulk up our squad depth, then we should hopefully be in a good place to kick off Season 7. It’s at this point when reviewing our squad as a whole that we reach a startling realisation: ONLY ONE OF OUR FIRST XI IS GERMAN. For six seasons, this has not been an issue at all as Bundesliga rules are quite lenient when it comes to squad registration and home grown players etc. Europa League is a different kettle of fish however: Things just got a bit more interesting…as it stands our current squad looks as follows: With only 4 “homegrown” players in our squad and a minimum of 8 European squad places required to be allocated to homegrown players – looks like a slight change to our transfer policy will be required; with a squad of just 17 players on the books, we need at least two more German / Homegrown additions in this transfer window so off we go: Simon Asta D/WB (R) Wolfsburg – €11.5m View Profile At just 24, German full back Simon Asta looks a quality signing and I’ll be surprised if we don’t get him capped for the national side before long. Speaking of the national side – as we continue our slightly more refined search for homegrown players, we are given an unexpected surprise which will greatly benefit our quest to meet Europa League registration rules: Not only is he now a German citizen but he can also be called up to the German squad having never been capped for Spain as yet…new save objective anyone? 😀 This means that with Asta and Blesa we now have 6 homegrown players in the first team squad – knowing the Europa League registration is 25 players and with a squad of only 18 – even with a few additions we will probably only register 22 or 23, meaning the two vacant spots can act as the two additional homegrown spaces…this might give us a bit more leeway in the transfer market… Our First Newgens ❤️ When I say our first newgens, I mean we have signed our first ever newgens. This is always a sign that you are well and truly down the rabbit hole in a save, that point where a lot of the top players from current real life have now retired and newgens are starting to take over the world. I’m fine with it though as our first newgen signing comes in on a free transfer after his contract ended at FC Nantes: Le Lay is followed through the Fürth revolving door by another newgen who we sign on loan from Bilbao to provide cover for Noel Bilic up front – we tried to sign him permanently but as is the case with most Basque players in the game, Bilbao wanted about €700 million to sign him permanently (closer to €50m but still) so we settle for signing him on loan but happy as it gives additional depth up top and as an Inside Forward if needed: From there it’s a case of bulking up our squad seeing as we have just added a minimum of 6-8 games to our already busy calendar and still only have a squad of 20 to choose from: No major call-outs however we receive an offer that we can’t refuse as Werder Bremen sign Lee O’Connor for a hefty €8m – not bad considering we signed him as a free agent a couple of seasons back. The hardest part of that deal was saying goodbye to a fellow Irishman, however we continue to maintain our save goals (signing at least 1 Irish player each season) with the arrivals of backup keeper Peter Walsh from Birmingham, and Irish/German midfielder Ryan Johansson who will also help our homegrown requirements. Aside from that I’m secretly quite happy with the free signing of the wonderfully named Fin Back from Manchester City, especially after discovering he is actually a real player! With Paul Seguin not getting any younger, he might be able to stake a claim for that Half-Back position we have grown fond of implementing over the past few seasons. Fin Back DMC / MC Man City- Free Transfer View Profile Greuther Fürth 2025/2026 Squad List ⚽🟢⚪ Goalkeepers: Gavin Bazunu, Peter Walsh Defenders: Ryan Porteous, Nicolo Armini, Scott McKenna, Marko Djira, Simon Asta, Zinho Vanheusden, Joao Ferreira, Vitaly Belyakov Midfielders: Ferran Torres, Paul Seguin, Fin Back, Luca Connell, Josh Cullen, Maxence Caqueret, Alex Blesa, Edon Zhegrova, Pascal Le Lay, Ronan Curtis, Ryan Johansson Forwards: Josh Sargent, Noel Bilic, Mikel Martinez With that business done, it’s almost time to kick off Season 7 for the Kleeblätter – before that though, there is the small matter of the Europa League draw and admittedly the excitement levels start to rise for this slightly overenthusiastic Football Manager blogger, namely because having managed the likes of Southend and Newcastle before this, European Football has become quite the fantasy until now. I definitely wouldn’t call it easy…away trips to Rome and Merseyside will most certainly prove challenging, but if we can escape the group we might just have a chance when looking at the remaining teams in the competition – Arsenal are the standout favourites but aside from them I feel we can give any of these teams a run for their money which is exactly what we tell the media when asked :D. So, without further Freddy Adu (because that’s a saying) – let’s kick off Season 7 at Greuther Fürth. We start like a house on fire with 7 points from our first 3 league games, after which things got a bit rocky to say the least. Pascal Le Lay picked up 5 goals 4 games and then decided he was done for the season, and only the goals of Blesa and Bilic kept us going throughout the first 3 months of the season. Our first Europa League adventure could’t have gone better, a 2-0 win at home to Lazio putting us top of the group, until a trip to England saw us lose 3-1 away to Everton – thankfully we managed to beat Brugge in Belgium, keeping our qualification hopes alive for another while at least. Evidently our European exploits do appear to have an impact on our League form – despite a cracking win over Dortmund and a draw against Bayern, we pick up 4 defeats in our first 10 games, which leaves us hovering in 10th position by the end of November. Have we embarked on European football too soon? One thing’s for sure – if we don’t pull our socks up, there won’t be any more of it next season… Thanks for reading,
May the Fürth Be With You – XIII
Part XIII – You’ve Been Fürthed! It’s taken us 6 seasons to get off to our best ever start to a league campaign and most certainly our best ever start to a Bundesliga season here at Greuther Fürth in the Northern Bavaria region of Germany – spending a relatively low €120 million on transfers along the way (including installments and additional fees etc) and bringing in approx. €180 million into the club in prize money so far. Despite this we are still the smallest and lowest earning club in the Bundesliga so overall I am pretty happy with our current 5th place standing in Season 6 as we enter the Winter break at the end of the year 2024. In my last post we spoke about Noel Bilic and Alex Blesa being our main goal-scoring threat and for the first time we have hit some sustained form in terms of goals scored – what we didn’t mention is the man behind it all who after 16 games tops both the Bundesliga Assists and Average Rating charts with 10 assists so far this season in addition to his 4 goals scored. That man? Ferran Torres: Of course this is all makes for great reading and having cost us €22m back in 2022 he now looks to be a steal as we build our tactic and team around the Spanish Inside Forward. However, as is the case with football and of course Football Manager, it doesn’t take too long for others to notice and of course, the inevitable happens: What happens next can only be described as either the most stupid, the most stubborn or the most shrewd bit of managerial decision making I reckon I have ever made in Football Manager during my 25 years of playing these games all the way back to the CM2 days. Having initially turned down bids of €39 million from both Bayern and Tottenham, this happens: Now I know what you’re going to say. EVERY PLAYER HAS A PRICE. You are right, they do…but is Torres’ price really only €67 million? (he says with an overall bank balance of minus €17 million – it couldn’t be more red). This is the biggest decision we have had to make since starting this save and while of course the money received would pretty much secure our financial future (in the short term at least), it’s important to remember that (a) we are trying to maintain a really realistic save and transfer policy whereby we operate within our means and only bring in what we feel are realistic transfers for a club of our stature (worth noting that we signed Torres long before Man City came along in real life, (b) we don’t really want to become a selling club as we have aspirations to pick up at least one piece of silverware before FM21 eventually puts an end to this save in a few months, and (c) who the hell can we sign that would be interested and even half as good as Torres when it comes to nabbing us those kind of stats? Looks like it’s going to be a sleepless night for the Kleeblätter Manager – thankfully the board don’t dare intervene for fear of the wrath of the Irish here at Fürth. In the end we decide as follows: Torres has a €77 million release clause..while it’s only €10m more than the offer on the table, only €48m of Bayern’s bid will be paid up front and with the board only giving us 60% of that at present (therefore less than €30m will go to our transfer budget), we decide to insist that Bayern meet his release clause in order to secure his signature..the question is though, will they have the balls and wallet to do so? WITHDRAWN. Have we made a huge mistake? Are we truly insane to turn down that amount of money? You can imagine Chairman Niall Quinn’s reaction to my outstanding negotiation skills: FEAR NOT NIALL – MaddFM is at the wheel. Money (hopefully) isn’t everything, if Torres maintains this form and can rack up the bones of 10 goals and 20 assists by the end of the season, then we will look back and laugh at Bayern’s paltry €67m bid and watch as the whole world and their dog bid for him next summer…..right?? 🙏 The big question now is, how will the team react as we enter the second half of the season… 2025 starts…well, shaky to say the least. Granted two of our first 3 games are against RBL and Dortmund, but a stalemate at home to our bogey team Hertha BSC is not at all desirable, and suddenly an air of doubt starts to fill the room down at the Irish Cottage pub in Fürth..has MaddFM’s blatant Irish stubbornness finally cost us? The answer is yes – but not why they think. I stand by the decision not to sell Torres, however we do come to the realisation that we are being stubborn in more ways than one, in particular when it comes to our tactical set up (and we aren’t the only ones to notice): Tactical Familiarity A few seasons back we came up with a beautifully horrible looking asymmetric 4-1-4-1 formation, and it went so well at the time that we have bought players specifically to fit this tactic and used it for 99% of our games since: 4 seasons on and I guess it’s now evident that we have become quite predictable; opposition teams are able to set up to counteract this formation, and we tend to get a bit stale at different points in the year as is clear in my previous posts. Throughout the last 3 seasons we have experienced significant dips in form – is this the reason why?? There’s only one way to find out as we come up with two alternate tactics, no doubt it will cost us as we build up our tactical familiarity however we need to do something if we are to stay on course for European football next season. We deployed both of these during our next 4 games – whether it was the element of surprise (from both teams) or just blind luck we will never know, however February saw a marked improvement! 3 wins and a draw from 4 games and suddenly we are flying high again (or at least gliding nervously :D): Squad Depth Of course tactics and a strong first XI only get you so far. Just as we are starting to find our groove at exactly the right time, the four horsemen of the FM apocalypse arrive to ensure our taste of victory and potential success is shortlived at best. Having already lost Maxence Caqueret for two months due to a fractured leg, we are presented with the devasting news that poor Josh Sargent has done his cruciate ligaments and will be out of action for 8 months effectively ruling him out for the rest of the entire calendar year. This seems to set off a chain reaction of injuries in the team (let’s not speak of pulled abdominal muscles 🤦♂️), and it wasn’t until I visited the Medical Centre section which I rarely if ever navigate to in Football Manager that I realised 7 of our first team squad had picked up longer term injuries (i.e. Moderate to Major) within 1 month, in addition to a few minor injuries in between..can this game get any more hateful than it already is?! This combined with our already small squad had an immediate impact on the pitch and once again we found ourselves going through another poor run in the business end of the seaosn..who’d have thought it!! Tight at the Top This league is ridiculously close. After managing in Spain for most of FM19 I had thought that La Liga was the toughest league I had ever managed in particularly when it came to competing with Barcelona and the two Madrid sides; I have come to realise that the Bundesliga is far more difficult in the sense that outside of Bayern Munich, most of the top 10 sides are on par with eachother and as a result there is literally nothing between us as we prepare for the end of season run-in, just 5 points separating 5th and 9th with 3 games to go. Unfortunately that poor run of form leaves us now in 7th place, hoping that Bremen or Dortmund (unlikely) will drop points in the coming fixtures while also hoping we can pick up enough points to stay ahead of Schalke and Wolfsburg who are hot on our heels. Dortmund Bremen Fürth Schalke Wolfsburg Frankfurt (a) Freiburg (h) Dresden (a) Bayern (h) Leverkusen (a) Hertha BSC (h) Wolfsburg (a) Frankfurt (h) Stuttgart (a) Bremen (h) RB Leipzig (a) Mainz 05 (h) Hertha BSC (a) Hoffenheim (h) Hamburg (a) End of Season Run-In You’ve Been Fürthed You’re yet to confirm whether being “fürthed” is a good thing or a bad thing right? The answer is it’s both… We shot ourselves in the foot by losing our first game away to Dynamo Dresden, which dropped us back into 9th position with 2 games remaining and a hell of a lot to do to get into Europe next season. We have finished 8th, 8th and 9th respectively for the last three season, surely we can’t do the same again – there’s only so long I can blog about the same outcome each season! 😄 Two remarkable things then happened…first we beat Frankfurt, which was remarkable due to the fact that 6 minutes in Noel Bilic scored his 17th goal of the season (making him 3rd top scorer in the Bundesliga, not bad!) and we managed to hold on for the entire game to grab a vital 3 points. This coupled with the fact that Dortmund somehow managed to lose to Hertha BSC meant that we were back in with a shout of that coveted 6th position – Bremen already sealing 5th after picking up two wins in a row. All we need now is for RBL to beat Dortmund, and of course we need to pick up 3 points away to Hertha ourselves – did I mention earlier they are our bogey team?! 🤦♂️ To be fair to them, Dortmund played their part, and by the time we reached 70 minutes they were 2-0 down at Leipzig. The problem at this point is that over in Berlin, Hertha are holding Fürth scoreless in Berlin, both teams putting on a defensive masterclass but neither looking likely to score. With Dortmund having a better goal difference, a point is not enough to get us into Europe. Heads are starting to drop when Fürth are given a free-kick about 10 years outside the Hertha box….. IS IT IN?! IT IS!!!!! WHAT A HIT FROM FERRAN TORRES!!!!! After months of painful deliberation as to whether we made a terrible decision in not selling him for €67 million to Bayern in January, Ferran Torres steps up to reaffirm all doubts and regrets to smash in a 30 yard free-kick which hits the underside of the crossbar, comes down onto the goal line and somehow spins forward into the Hertha net. UNBELIEVABLE JEFF!! The crowd goes wild, and the next 15 minutes are the nerviest we’ve had in this save so far. Two games ago we were in 9th position with it all to do, and suddenly we are minutes away from finishing in 6th position, our best ever Bundesliga finish and a place in the Europa League next season. The way this save goes, you’d expect an equaliser however I am happy to say NOT UP…
May the Fürth Be With You – XII
Part XII – Look no Fürther Season 6 is upon us!! I’ve become very conscious that my last few posts have involved a lot of misfortune and negativity about our luck/progress at Greuther Fürth (obviously nothing to do with my management capability) so I’m determined to finish this one on a positive note…if the FM gods allow it 😄. We finished 9th last season after consecutive 8th place finishes in the Bundesliga the two seasons before, one could argue we are getting worse however with our financial ability, club size and standard of facilities I am content that we have made great progress in making the Kleeblätter an established Bundesliga side since getting promoted after our second season at the helm of the mighty Fürth. Speaking of financial capabilities – I’ve mentioned it before but we continue to be among the lowest spenders and earners in this competition; shortly something is about to happen that could change all of that, but for now this is where we stand in comparison to the rest of our Bundesliga rivals: We aren’t complete peasants of the league, and we have managed to smash our transfer record each season with our current record signings being Ferran Torres and Luca Connell, on both of whom we spent €22 million respectively albeit with only 50% paid up front for each. This is a costly model of business in that our balance suffers year on year having to pay installments for these, however if we can continue to finish in the Top 10 and work our way towards Europe then the prize money alone justifies this type of transfer system. We received €56 million in prize money for last season’s 9th place finish which is great for our bank balance, however Chairman Niall Quinn only gives us €12 million to spend on players this season – with our squad needing strengthening/cover in Centre Midfield and also in the Attacking Midfield/Inside Forward positions, I fear we may need to sell some players for the first time in this save (aside from offloading dead wood etc) in order to improve going into the new season. Fürth Priorities? I’m not sure if it was streaming this save for the only the second time live, or just standard Football Manager ineptitude by yours truly – either way, while hunting for a creative CM and a backup AM we managed to do this: Our existing Number 1 had been Irishman Kieran O’Hara whom we signed on a free transfer way back before our second season in Bundesliga 2 – since then he has proven to be more than good enough for Bundesliga level and outstanding value for a free agent when we look on four years later. Everyone has a price however, and while meandering through the transfer market for midfielders we suddenly receive a €10 million bid from Swansea for his services. The offer is of course too good to refuse so we immediately set off to find a replacement – with the board giving us 80% of incoming Transfer Revenue and my rarely mentioned affinity for signing Irish players, we don’t need to look too far before agreeing a fee for O’Hara’s competition for the Ireland #1 jersey who is 6 years younger – Gavin Bazunu. Man City accept a €16 million bid, with us paying the expected €8m from the O’Hara deal up front and the rest spread over the next three seasons. A no brainer right? Gavin Bazunu (GK) Man City – €16 million (50% up front) View Profile The icing on the cake is that Bazunu is a graduate from the Shamrock Rovers academy who are our Irish affiliate club as we look to develop Irish youth candidates here in Fürth – as part of the deal they will receive €2.3 million from Man City, perhaps this will be invested in their own youth facilities and recruitment? 👀 It is at this point (of course) that Kieran O’Hara decides to completely screw our plans and reject the contract offer from Swansea, and suddenly we have blown at least half our budget and now have two first team Goalkeepers on our books… We now find ourselves in a frantic bid to offload O’Hara in the hope that we can tempt another club into paying the same fee for his signature – you know as well as I do that the chances of doing this in Football Manager are slim to none…. Two million down the swanny however we are left with little or no choice but to accept Watford’s bid of €8m – thankfully he decides that Vicarage Road is the place for him and we can now get back to our midfield shopping spree albeit with a slightly slimmer transfer budget than planned!! Our main priority is a creative Central Midfielder – so far to date we have deployed Pol Lozano in this position however after 5 years with us I feel he has reached his potential and is unlikely to improve any further; if we are to move on to the next level we need to sign a player with real star quality, and a combination of recent IRL Champions League exploits combined with some creative search filtering bring us to our new Top Target for this save: It’s at this point something beautiful happens. We can see Caqueret’s contract is up at the end of next season, and inspired by Tottenham’s relatively cut-price deal to sign Matt Doherty in real life due to his contract expiring within 1 year – we decide to test the water by popping in a €7m bid which matches his current value exactly, just to gauge whether the lad is even within range of our transfer budget.. Lyon clearly know that Caqueret’s heart lies in Fürth and are happy to cash in before he can contemplate running down his contract, all we have to do is agree terms and he’ll be wearing a Kleeblätter shirt next season… Maxence Caqueret (DM/MC) Lyon – €7 million View Profile Two quality signings added to our squad which pretty much depletes our budget – our squad is still thin however. We have managed to come this far without selling any of our key players, and haven’t yet sold a single player that we ourselves brought in since taking over 5 long seasons ago – unfortunately that has to change if we are to further strengthen with zero transfer or wage budget remaining. Pol Lozano (MC) Borussia Monchengladbach – €10 million View Profile The fact that BMG are in the division below and were the only club willing to pay that much for Lozano tells me it’s the right decision, and 80% of his fee can be put to very good use as we look to add a couple more faces to our thin squad. Edon Zhegrova (AMRLC) Genk – €13m (50% up front) View Profile Zinho Vanheusden (DC) Standard Liege – Free Transfer View Profile Very happy with our business this summer transfer window – Kosovan Edon Zhegrova joins to provide cover across all of our Attacking positions, while Zinho Vanheusden is a steal on a free transfer as his contract expires at Liege. Greuther Fürth 2024/2025 Squad List 🟢⚪ Goalkeepers: Gavin Bazunu, Sascha Burchert Defenders: Ryan Porteous, Nicolo Armini, Scott McKenna, Marko Djira, Lee O’Connor, Zinho Vanheusden, Alexander Lungwitz Midfielders: Ferran Torres, Paul Seguin, Luca Connell, Josh Cullen, Maxence Caqueret, Alex Blesa, Edon Zhegrova, David Raum, Ronan Curtis Forwards: Josh Sargent, Noel Bilic, Jonathan Afolabi New Season, New Us? This is the season where we hope it will all come together. As mentioned in my last post, Noel Bilic is looking like he will be a bagsman of a Striker and with the quality of Torres, Caqueret, O’Connell, Armini, Djira and Bazunu – can we finally take the leap towards European football in Fürth? (Writer’s note: well done on the positive thinking 😄). The season starts pretty well especially as we were live on stream when it happened! A 3-1 opening day victory over Dortmund is complimented by a 1-1 draw away to RBL, which saw them grab an 86th minute equaliser with 10 men (#heartbreaking), and from there we picked up 3 wins in our next 4 games with Bilic and Alex Blesa scoring 9 goals between them. The freshness of our squad then seemed to creep through when we lost 3 in a row (#standard), however a strong run up to the winter break including back-to-back 4 goal wins over HSV and Dresden means that Christmas has come early as we sit in 5th place in the league just 4 points off RBL in second. Chairman Niall Quinn advises us how happy he is with our performance, and after a few pints down at the Irish pub he is already talking about Champions League football…DON’T F*CKING JINX IT NIALL!!!! A decent start to Season 6, our best so far at Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer and hopefully we can build on this as we enter the second half of the season – only way to find out will be to tune in next week, and if January’s events are anything to go by it’s going to be a good one 👀. Thanks for reading,
May the Fürth Be With You – XI
Part XI – Fürth Choice If football is the beautiful game, does that make Football Manager the beast? Looking at our progress so far in this save, beautiful is certainly not the first word that comes to mind – “Looks good on a night out” is probably a more accurate representation of how we have performed here at Greuther Fürth. Allow me to illustrate. In my last post we had picked up one win in our first 10 games as we kicked off Season 5 at the Kleeblätter leaving us languishing in the relegation zone, memories of back to back 8th place finishes in the Bundesliga were quickly being forgotten as we tried to come up with a way to resurrect our season before it has even begun. Our biggest issue is that we just aren’t scoring goals (surprise surprise). We have never been prolific in terms of our lone striker scoring bags of goal each season, and where we lack goals in the striker department we have always been able to compensate through our Shadow Striker and Inside Forward roles. Having persisted in this manner for 4.5 seasons, it has become clear we can’t continue like this. Without having a Striker that can score 20+ goals a season, there’s no way we can kick on towards European football and/or ever compete with the likes of Bayern, RBL and Dormund in the Bundesliga (writer’s note: we are still miles behind them, striker or no striker). For the past 4 seasons, we have largely rotated the Advanced Forward role between two striker options and while collectively it has wielded decent results i.e. their combined performances resulting in a reasonable haul for the lone striker role, at an individual level we haven’t gotten the best out of these players by rotating which is clear if we have a quick reflection on our strikers for the past 4 years: The question is what are we going to do about it. We don’t really have the finances available to replace the strikers we have, nor do we have space in our wage budget to look at the loan market. Even if we did, I still have faith that the players we have do have that goal scoring ability that we need however we aren’t leveraging it in the tactic being played (even though we have had seen brief improvements at times – it’s your tactics mate). At this point, the only way to try and eradicate/remedy this issue is to settle on a first-choice Striker and move away from constantly rotating between the two – the question is, who do we put our faith in as first choice and who will have to settle for the bench going forward? On paper it’s Bilic all the way however his age, lack of goals, lack of experience and his strength (or lackthereof) have put me off from giving him a consistent run in the first team. Sargent more suitably fits the bill as a lone striker, however he is no stranger to goal droughts having had several of them so far in this save..it’s a difficult one, however at just 20 years old I feel Bilic has the potential to be a top quality striker so from this point on we will put all our eggs in the Bilic basket, making him our first choice striker and putting a lot more effort into his individual training and development as follows: Strength training is a must if he is to operate as a lone striker, at least getting him above double figures Player Traits – I have noticed that Bilic often struggles in 1 v 1 situations, so we will address this by putting him on an individual training routine to develop traits such as “Tries to round keeper where possible” and “Tries to Place shots” in the hope it will improve his goal return. Our next game went a little better, no goals from Bilic but a first goal for his newly signed Croation team mate Marko Djira aka Ed Gamble (cheers Andrew) who we went to a lot of effort to sign in my last post: As the song goes, things can only get better – thankfully they did, despite another blip against Augsburg, Bilic started to enjoy life as our first choice striker scoring 7 goals in our next 10 games. The German winter break also seemed to work in our favour as we returned to win 5 games on the bounce and this good run dragged us from 17th after 10 games to 7th after 20: The fans down at the Irish Cottage Pub in Fürth City Centre are jubilant – talks of European football are back on the Guinness soaked table and as we enter March and are getting ready for our annual youth intake and our 5th attempt at developing an Irish newgen here in South Germany, surely things are finally working in our favour and everything is coming up Millhouse for us…right? This game is aging me – we play shit, we play great, we play shit and we play great. Two points from six games drops us back to 12th position and yet again we have another barren run on our hands. Maybe that’s just football? If that isn’t, then this certainly is: I keep talking about Irish newgens and it may seem ridiculous and unimportant on the grand scheme of things, however I am determined to find out if it’s possible to dictate the nationality of your youth intake in any way and if so, what contributes towards it. As mentioned previously, we have already filled our backroom team with Irish staff including the HoYD, Scouting and U18 Management team as well as developing an affiliation with Shamrock Rovers from the Irish league – we have also repeatedly tried to establish a second affiliation with Sligo Rovers who have the best youth facilities from the remaining Irish clubs, however it seems Chairman Niall Quinn’s negotiation skills are not where they need to be: Will we be any luckier this time around? You already know the answer.. I’m starting to think we will never make it happen but there’s nothing more stubborn than an Irish Football Manager blogger – WE SHALL ENDURE. On the plus side, Marvin Brack looks to be the best newgen we have produced in this series so perhaps things are looking up in the Greuther Fürth youth academy. To add insult to injury, not only did Hertha Berlin steal one of our youth candidates, they also proceed to beat us 5-1 just as we decided to fire up a live stream for our last 7 games of the season (Twitch.tv/MaddFM if you’re into that kind of thing :D). Suddenly we are in despair and morale is at rock bottom, what more can this season/save throw at us?! This season has had more runs than the Kleeblätter fans after a night out in the Irish pub – while streaming live Luca Connell decides to find an oustanding run of form as we win 5 games on the trot, while Noel Bilic scores his 12th goal of the season to finish as our top scorer, bodes well for next season! With 1 game remaining, we sit in 8th position just 1 point clear of Stuttgart – a win against bottom of the league BMG in our final game would seal 8th place for a 3rd consecutive season, with Stuttgart the only thing in our way as they face 3rd placed Leverkusen. Surely the odds are in our favour? Brace yourselves – within 10 minutes Stuttgart were leading and we were a goal down courtesy of a BMG penalty, which put us in 9th place as things stood. By half time we were level and Stuttgart were 2-1 down, putting us back in 8th position. We then went 2-1 down straight from the second half kick-off, and Stuttgart’s equaliser on 66 mins pushed us back down to 9th for another 13 minutes until Noel Bilic scored his 13th league goal, and with 10 minutes to go it looked like we had sealed 8th place for the third year in a row – that positive thinking lasted just 6 minutes when Stuttgart scored a winner to condemn us to a 9th place finish for the season. If that isn’t a Football Manager last game of the season I don’t know what is!! 9th place it is – not great but not terrible, and definitely better than the predicted 16th place finish from the media at the start of the season! The most positive outcome aside from the €56m prize money has been the improvement from Noel Bilic after we decided to put more faith and focus in him as our first choice striker – not only does he develop the “Rounds Keeper” trait as planned, we see a huge improvement in his development by the end of the season, and he looks like he could be a formidable force for us up front next year as we enter our sixth season at the helm of Greuther Fürth. Onwards and upwards! Thanks for reading, see you next week for Season 6 – be sure to hit the Follow button below so you don’t miss out 👌. Cheers,
May the Fürth Be With You – X
Part X – The Fürth Pursuit A quick summary of where are so far to date in this save: (click here to start from the beginning though, you know it makes sense) Season 1 Season 2 League: Bundesliga 2 (Finished 5th)Cup: DFB-Pokal (Second Round)Transfer Budget: €150,000Transfers In: Pol Lozano (€1.7m), Ryan Porteous (€1.6m), Emmanuel Matuta (€1.2m), Aaron Connolly (Loan), Josh Sargent (Loan), Mathias Olivera (Loan)Transfers Out: Maximillian Wittek (€3.5m), Havard Nielsen (€1.9m), Daniel Keita-Ruel (€200K) League: Bundesliga 2 (WINNERS)Cup: DFB-Pokal (Semi-Final)Transfer Budget: €2.5mTransfers In: Ronan Curtis (€1.3m), Josh Cullen (Free), Kieran O’Hara (Free), Aaron Connolly (Loan), Nicolo Armini (Loan), Josh Sargent (Loan), George Bello (Loan), Enrico Del Prato (Loan)Transfers Out: Kenny Redondo (€400K), Nuno Sarpei (€100K) Season 3 Season 4 League: Bundesliga (Finished 8th)Cup: DFB-Pokal (Semi-FinalTransfer Budget: €1.1mTransfers In: Noel Bilic (€4.2m), Alex Blesa (€1.4m), Josh Sargent (Loan), George Bello (Loan), Enrico Del Prato (Loan), Paolo Gozzi (Loan), Darragh O’Shea (Loan), Antonio Marin (Loan), Florent Da Silva (Loan)Transfers Out: Timothy Tillman (€175K) League: Bundesliga (Finished 8th)Cup: DFB-Pokal (Second Round)Transfer Budget: €19mTransfers In: Ferran Torres (€22m – 50% paid up front), Josh Sargent (€10m), Nicolo Armini (€7.5m), Jonathan Afolabi (Free Transfer), Enrico Del Prato (Loan), George Bello (Loan), Antonio Marin (Loan)Transfers Out: n/a Now that you’re up to date – let’s crack into Season 5. 📅 16th June 2023 (in game) After back to back 8th place finishes in the Bundesliga, there’s a slight bit of deja-vu (AGAIN) in this save as we pick up another €59 million in prize money for finishing in the Top 10 last season. Last year Chairman Niall Quinn gave us €19m of that for our transfer budget which we managed to stretch to about €28m with budget adjustments – this year he wasn’t feeling as generous, deciding that €15m is enough with which to bolster our squad. This is how our squad looks currently as we enter the Summer Transfer Window: You’ll notice we are significantly lacking in the full back department, having had to rely on loan signings such as George Bello and Enrico Del Prato for the past few consecutive seasons – priority is to sign at least one of these permanently and solidify our defence. We are also getting a bit light on the left side of midfield with David Raum and Ronan Curtis struggling to maintain their ability for this level so a Left Inverted Winger will also be a must. Aside from that I am relatively happy with our First XI – Sargent and Bilic will continue to rotate in the Lone Striker role while our midfield trio of Seguin, Lozano and Cullen are good enough for another season at least. Any other signings will be brought in as cover preferably at Centre Half, Right/Left Back and perhaps another winger after Antonio Marin returned to PSG following his loan spell with us. Viva La Revolution ☘️ Despite being completely empty in the full-back department we do the logical thing and dive straight in to find a Left Midfielder to fill our Inverted Winger slot – this role is intriguing in that I find it offers a dual purpose giving width when needed but equally offering another outlet in more central areas either acting as a 3rd CM or cutting inside with the ball similar to an Inside Forward. Based on this, our focus is on the following key attributes: Dribbling Passing Off the Ball Technique Acceleration Vision Work Rate First Touch As usual, our search creates yet another transfer dilemma as we have to decide on one of two choices: With both valued at €8m and almost the same age at 21/22, we probably need to fork over the bones of €20m to secure either option – Van Der Heide looks to be the better option on paper, and while it’s tempting to throw in a bid, it is near-impossible to overlook the fact that Luca Connell is Irish and if you’re not already aware that one of our save goals is to fill this team with as many Irish staff and players as possible (minimum one player signing per season), the outcome is inevitable. Sorry Arjen, it’s not you it’s us 🙌: Luca Connell (ML/C) Celtic – €22m (€11m up front) View Profile Bellø-end Having had George Bello on loan for the past 3 seasons in which he has been sublime in the Left Wing Back slot, signing him permanently became our number one priority but with Atlanta demanding €10m for his signature this puts us slightly above our budget so we do the honorable thing and bring Chairman NIall Quinn for pints down at the Irish Cottage Pub in Fürth in an attempt to convince him to put up some extra cash for a bid.. Buzzing – Niall whips out his Nokia 3210 and puts in an €11.75m bid which is immediately accepted by Atlanta – I tried to tell him they only wanted 10 but as he is seven pints deep there’s no stopping him (I suppose this is the same guy that once made Craig Gordon the 3rd most expensive goalkeeper in world football). All that’s left to do is wait for Bello to sign a contract for the beloved club with whom he has spent most of the last 3 seasons on loan… For some reason the treacherous ungrateful American b*stard decides he is too good for us and refuses to enter contract talks, and before we even get a chance to begin “the pursuit” (more on this later), Werder Bremen who finished in 3rd place last year swoop in and sign him on loan. What a complete BELL-end, I’m not one to hold a grudge but this season just became all about beating and finishing ahead of Bremen just to sicken our former friend George. The Fürth Pursuit Back to the drawing board we go – the reason we wanted Bello was not only because he has decent defensive attributes, he brings an added threat going forward both due to his Pace, Crossing and Dribbling ability. With limited scouting budget our search doesn’t yield any really promising options (we are only 4 years in and I’m not ready to splash any cash on Newgens just yet), it’s back to the Champ Man days as we start scrolling through random clubs in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia in the hope of identifying an affordable and equally effective wing-back option. We go again – a €6.5m bid is accepted, however either there’s a deja-vu glitch in the matrix or else George Bello has been badmouthing us all across Europe. We can’t take no for an answer twice. Although it is notoriously difficult to persuade an uninterested player to join your club in this game, my good friend @FridayNightFM knows all about the pursuit in Football Manager (formerly known as the @Teach pursuit on the 5* Potential Podcast) and wrote a cracking piece for Football Manager’s The Byline about how to go about trying to convince a player to join your club even when they have no interest in joining; time to put some of these tips to the test, let the games begin.. Step 1. Declare interest Step 2. Talk to his mates Step 3. Glorified Stalking Step 4. Repeat We pursued the poor lad relentlessly for about 3 weeks solid, and roughly a month on from when we originally made our first bid we went back in for a second attempt which Dinamo Zagreb accept for the same fee – is there any chance this guy will change his mind and realise he is the Croatian catalyst needed to fuel the Irish revolution in Fürth? Ok let’s not get carried away – 1. we are only signing what might end up being an above average left back from the Croatian league, and 2. we’ve managed to get him from “Not Interested” to “Uninterested” in discussing terms (yes, there’s a difference). What will it take to get that signature on his contract? While his agent was adamant about paying him the wage requested, we managed to get his Minimum Fee Release Clause up from €7.5m to €15m – probably overpaying in terms of his total compensation however a combination of blind hope in his ability and stubbornness at convincing him to join brings us to this outcome: Marko Djira (DLC/WBL) Dinamo Zagreb – €6.5m View Profile Suffice to say that’s our transfer budget wiped clean, however our left side now looks a lot stronger and two major gaps are now filled. Now on to find a few more free agents and/or loan signings to bolster our squad before we kick off Season 5 at Fürth Lee O’Connor (Celtic) Free Transfer (End of Contract) View Profile Enrico Del Prato (Atalanta) Loan Renewed ✔️ View Profile Scott McKenna (Aberdeen) Free Transfer (End of Contract) View Profile Toni Herrero (Levante) Loan (€7.5m option) View Profile Admittedly we had already agreed terms with Scott McKenna before his contract ended, and he is an absolute steal to come in on a free providing quality competition for Porteous and Armini at Centre Half. We also raid Scotland for another player out of contact in the form of Irishman Lee O’Connor who will provide versatile defensive cover on the bench (don’t forget we can name 9 subs in the Bundesliga). We also manage to renew Enrico Del Prato‘s loan from Atalanta for a 4th season to fill the vacant right back spot, while Toni Hererro comes in as back up for Marko Djira after we agree a loan deal with Levante. All in all – pretty serious transfer business!! We enter Season 5 with a strong First XI (IMO anyway), the question is how our new signings will gel with the rest of the squad and whether this team is good enough to take us to the next level i.e. European qualification. The Dark Side Why dark? See for yourself…👇👇 After 10 games we manage to pick up just one solitary win along with three miserable draws to cap our worst start to a season in the 5 years we’ve been here. We beat Paderborn in Game 2 and from then on we can’t buy a goal and even though we faced difficult opponents such as Champions Leverkusen, Dortmund and Bayern it’s safe to say I’ve never seen us play so poorly in this save to date…let’s not even mention the 0-0 draw with George Bello’s Werder Bremen who since also brought in Antonio Marin on loan – copycats much? Perhaps our transfer dealings weren’t so shrewd, have we made a huge mistake not bringing in a more reliable goalscorer? A minute ago we were talking about Europe and dreaming big here at the Kleeblätter, now suddenly relegation is a more realistic conversation piece down at the Irish Cottage pub in Fürth and it’s only November – will we even have a job by the time our next blog piece is released? It might be a cold lonely Christmas in the MaddFM household this year…. Thanks for reading,
May the Fürth Be With You – IX
PART IX – Wheel of Fürtune 🎡 📅 16th October 2022 (in game) After our opening 5 league games during which record signing Ferran Torres was literally on fire nabbing 4 goals and 3 assists, it’s safe to say life for the Kleeblätter faithful started like this as we commenced our fourth season at the helm of Greuther Fürth and our second in the Bundesliga: What followed over the next 15 games or so unfortunately resembled something more like this: Despite Torres exploding on the scene, everyone else in particular our Strikers Josh Sargent and Noel Bilic decide that the 2 month winter break caused by the 2022 Qatar World Cup (sigh) isn’t enough and they basically go missing for 3 months either side of it – neither of them scoring throughout the whole of September through to January leaving us in 12th place after 20 games played (I don’t even want to talk about going 64 days without a competitive fixture – cheers FIFA). While neither Sargent or Bilic have ever been prolific and our tactical setup means we only play one out-and-out striker at a time, something surely is afoot here if our first choice striker can manage to go 15 hours (yes that’s more than 10 games) without scoring while his understudy similarly failed to deliver a goal in 4 starts and 8 substitute appearances. Again – I’m happy with our formation and tactical setup, however for whatever reason we just aren’t getting the right supply to our Striker, or else it’s a case that he is not getting in the right positions to create goal-scoring opportunities for himself. Either way, something has to change and where else does an FM blogger go for inspiration but to consult his real life football management acquaintances by taking a look at what some other creators have experienced in this year’s edition of the greatest game in the world (Writer’s note: what? it is). The Role As we were going through this particularly unspectacular run, I spotted @FM_Samo release a post from his Eibar save whereby similarly he had a Striker going through a dry spell (28 games if you don’t mind) even though in his situation the team were still playing well and scoring at will finishing as 4th top scorers in the division. What I liked about this post is how he looks at what he wants from the lone striker role and assesses whether or not his striker (in this case Eddie Nketiah) is good enough to play that role versus some of the other options he has. In our case – we have been playing Sargent/Bilic in the Advanced Forward role whereby we want them playing on the shoulder of the last man, getting into the box and putting pressure on our opponent’s back four, however because of this it appears too easy for their two centre-backs to nullify the threat and effectively eradicate how much influence they can have on the game by marking or cutting out balls into feet. This coupled with our short passing play meant that our striker has become one of the least influential players on the pitch when in fact the opposite should be true. I’m convinced both are good enough both for the level as well as for the system/role being implemented – even though they are distinctly different types of player, both have more than enough when it comes to Off the Ball, Work Rate, Acceleration, Touch, Technique etc so for a rare occasion I’m going to suck it up and admit to myself that IT’S YOUR TACTICS MATE in terms of why these guys aren’t scoring, and it’s up to us to fix it. Movement As I thought more about how we can tweak and change this without completely shaking up our tactic, @FMGrasshopper released a timely piece via Football Manager’s The Byline (where yours truly has also contributed two Wednesday Wisdom articles) wherein he wrote about getting more from your Strikers in particular via Attacking Movement and specific player instructions for the Advanced Forward role. As I read his thoughts on playing the AF alongside an Inverted Winger and Attacking Winger (similar enough to our own system), a couple of points stood out in terms of movement and supply for the lone striker in particular the following: focusing on having the Advanced Forward run into space and try to break away from / through the opponents back line implementing a more direct passing approach to capitalise on movement and attacking runs from our Striker leveraging the Goalkeeper to get more involved and initiate attacks by distributing the ball over the opposition’s defence I decided to try some of these by tweaking our team and player instructions to emphasise and facilitate all of the above – adding the “Roam from Position” instruction for the Advanced Forward, instructing Kieran O’Hara in goal to continuously look to distribute long balls over the top and intermittently switching to a Direct Passing Style in games where we felt we could stretch our opposition, create space and therefore lead to more clear cut chances for our Striker in match situations. The result? While our results are good without being great, we see a marked improvement whereby Sargent and Bilic manage to bag 5 goals between them in 7 appearances, which is pretty decent considering both are rarely if ever on the field at the same time. The increased movement means that our “Pass into Space” strategy that we have always had seems to include the striker a lot more often than before, thus getting them on the ball far more frequently and creating goal scoring chances. Similarly, the pace of Bilic means that the additional balls over the top and direct passes into space are more effective as he has the speed to beat most defenders in this division. Have we perhaps turned a corner at exactly the right time with 7 games still to play? **INSERT ANNUAL DISAPPOINTMENT UPDATE HERE RE: YOUTH INTAKE** We aren’t chasing a Golden Generation, heck (heck?) we aren’t even that desperate to produce a wonderkid at this stage even though we have made huge improvements to our youth facilities and recruitment over the past 4 seasons (excellent and good respectively) – all we aspire to achieve is to produce an Irish newgen of reasonable potential at the Kleeblätter Youth Academy, and following last year’s affiliation agreement with Shamrock Rovers one has to feel like this could be our year in terms of fulfilling this objective: Wheel of Fürtune Three of our next five games went very well; two of them did not. So tight is this league that those two defeats put us back to 10th position with two games remaining although incredibly we are only 3 points away from Mainz in 5th place – in the meantime, Leverkusen managed to leapfrog RBL to win the league and Bayern are languishing in our way in 8th position. Is it me or is the Bundesliga just flat out bananas?!! They say fortune favours the bold – a draw in our penultimate game vs Wolfsburg means we have it all to do on our last day. To have any hopes at European qualification, the following need to happen on the last day of the season: We need to beat already relegated Union Berlin at Home Hamburg, Schalke and Mainz need to lose to Wolfsburg (H), RBL (A) and Leverkusen (A) respectively. WE F*CKING BOTTLED IT. With all three of our nearest competition losing, we couldn’t break down the team with the worst defence in the whole league and a 0-0 finish is enough to earn/condemn us to an 8th place finish – exactly the same as last year albeit with one point less, leaving us at the point whether we are wondering if we have done well to climb from 12th to 8th or if we should be disappointed at missing out on Europe. Let’s go with the first one shall we? All in all for a team with the least financial muscle in the league who are operating under fairly rigid constraints (e.g. half of Fürth is now Irish), it’s safe to say we have cemented our place in the Bundesliga and surely things can only get better from here. With recent announcements from Sports Interactive eluding to the fact that FM21 might be later than normal this year, this save will continue until we either rise to the top of German football, or finally produce an Irish Newgen that we can hopefully develop towards the first team – either way, we are having good craic in Fürth and on we go to Season Five – stay tuned! Thanks for reading,
May the Fürth Be With You – VIII
PART VIII – The Fürth Order After finishing 8th last season in our first year back in the Bundesliga (our third season as Greuther Fürth Manager) and earning the club a tidy €59 million in prize money for our efforts – needless to say we have business to do as we look to build on what was definitely a season of over achieving for the Kleeblätter. Chairman Niall Quinn gives us €19.3 million to bolster our squad, a bit of smart maneuvering and shithousery means we might be able to stretch that to €30m if we play our cards right 👀. A-loan no more Josh Sargent has been on loan with us for three consecutive seasons, scoring 30 goals in 65 starts playing in the lone striker role as an Advanced Forward. While not overly prolific, his strength, movement and finishing make him a quality striker at this level therefore and having played a big part in our rise to the Bundesliga, he earns a permanent deal as we agree a €10 million transfer with his parent club Werder Bremen. Josh Sargent (STC) Werder Bremen – €10m View Profile Another repeat loan signing for us who initially played a big role in our promotion chase before becoming a rock in defence during our first season back in the Bundesliga is Nicolo Armini, who we have had on loan from Lazio for two consecutive seasons with a €7.5 million optional fee. ACTIVATE THE SH*T OF IT NIALL. Nicolo Armini (DC) Lazio – €7.5m View Profile Player Declines in Football Manager There comes a point in every footballer’s career where the inevitable decline begins in terms of both their physical and footballing ability, as well as their ability to continue competing at the higher levels of the game. Some are lucky enough to have a very slow and gradual decline whereby they continue to play a part in their team’s success even if not in a full time capacity – unfortunately some players experience a much more rapid fall from grace and this has been quite evident even in recent times where players have gone from playing top level football to suddenly finding themselves out of contention and often unwanted by their clubs – think Jack Rodwell, Joe Hart, James Rodriguez and Anderson to name a few. Football Manager is no different and can be equally as cruel – players can often go from being first team regulars in one season straight to the unwanted list the following year or even halfway through the season as their ability and attributes start to decline. We as Managers with a fondness for loyalty and connection to the players we manage/sign can often find it difficult to spot or accept that a player’s ability has declined, and this blogger has frequently fallen for the “Halo” effect whereby we have continued to persist with a declining player, refusing to accept that they are no longer deserving of a first team place and are no longer capable of performing at that level – I’m pretty sure I never sold alan Shearer in over 10 years of CM/FM saves at Newcastle such was my stubbornness and denial levels 😆. The best way to avoid this? Here are a few handy tips to ensure you can spot a player whose ability is declining, so that you can react accordingly either in the transfer market or via some miraculous individual training mastery to combat said player’s fall from grace and decline in footballing ability. 1. Player Development Summary Our Assistant Managers are sometimes (lol) known for giving somewhat random advice at times with an extreme fondness for spotting that we are being overrun in midfield (writer’s note: we never are) – however one of the more useful features in FM is that they send a fortnightly report on Player Development which calls out how your squad is developing and which players are improving or declining in ability. If one of your important players appears on this list and looks to be on a downward trajectory, you’d best be getting a replacement lined up asap as once that decline starts it can be next to impossible to halt their downfall. In this save, Assistant Manager Alan Maybury is also kind enough to provide welcome reports on positive development so it also pays to keep an eye out for updates like these: 2. Backroom Advice You can always ask for advice if you trust your backroom staff’s judgement and opinions – the “Advice” section of the Player Development tab gives a short summary on the player in terms of Training, Tactics, Contract and Development and it’s here that you can get a real time view of how that player has developed over the past few months. 3. Player Progress 📈 Football Manager is excellent at displaying a player’s attributes and in particular when these are moving in an upward direction as a player’s training performance improves. What we don’t see at first glance however is when a player is declining particularly over a longer stretch of time – to see this one needs to dig slightly deeper within the Player screen by navigating to the “Progress” section of the Development tab. Let’s look at Branimir Hrgota, our 30 year old Swedish Inside Forward who has been immense for us since taking the helm at Greuther Fürth three seasons back. At the start of the save his Acceleration, Pace and Finishing really stood out and he surprised us with 20 goals and 10 assists over the past three seasons, showing he was good enough to play Bundesliga football and contend with Antonio Marin for the right Inside Forward position. As we approached the end of last season, I noticed Hrgota starting to get dispossessed quite frequently as well as being beaten for pace on occasion – he started the season well scoring 3 goals and getting 2 assists in our first 10 games, however in the second half of the season his output was much less impactful scoring just 1 goal and 1 assist, and this led me to have a deeper look at his overall progression and development bearing in mind he had just turned 30 in January. Looking at his attributes screen he still looked close to being the same player however it was only upon reviewing his progress that we can see a sharp decline right around the point that he turned thirty (writer’s note: MEGA HARSH SPORTS INTERACTIVE #justiceforthirtysomethings). Not only did his overall ability deteriorate, so too did some of the key attributes we need to deploy him as a successful Inside Forward (Pace, Acceleration, Dribbling, Finishing etc) and where previously I had felt we were strong in this area and Hrgota was good enough for our First XI, suddenly we have a major gap to fill if we are to compete and build on last season’s 8th place finish in the Bundesliga. Off to Market We know what position we are after, we know what attributes we need, we can attract a slightly higher calibre of player after hitting a Top 10 finish last season and we have the bones of €15 million to play with – this is what Football Manager is all about. Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Loving the fact that Johnston is Scottish and a Celtic graduate – granted he isn’t Irish however it’s close enough in terms of the #narrative of this blog and our Irish connections. I haven’t heard much about Torres from an FM perspective, and while I have heard rumours he is linked with a move to Man City in real life I’ve never seen him make a big move in-game, what a coup he would be if we can broker a deal within our means. I’ve always been a big fan of Dilrosun and he is electrifying when it comes to pace and quality down the wing – my only concern would be his goal scoring ability as we rely on our Inside Forward to bag goals as part of our tactical setup. As is always the case when it comes to me making transfers, the standard Steve Martin gif needs to be brought out: After hours of negotiations with Valencia we finally settle on a €22 million deal – €11 million up front with the other €11m paid in 3 installments over the next 3 years. We tried to go for Johnston however Celtic wanted over €30 million for the lad, Valencia clearly in more need of the cash as they agree a split transfer deal which suits our budgetary constraints. Admittedly this will be a hefty blow to our future transfer budgets however, WHAT A F*CKING PLAYER. Ferran Torres (AMRC) Valencia – €22m View Profile That pretty much depletes our entire budget however we still have a couple of gaps particularly at Left and Right Back – we shopped around however eventually we settle on return loans for both Enrico Del Prato and George Bello (writer’s note: this blog is getting very deja-vu). We also decide to bring Antonio Marin back in on loan for another season – we are still getting great mileage out of David Raum in the Left Inverted Winger role however if we are to push for Europe this season, we will certainly need more quality and depth in our squad. Enrico Del Prato (Atalanta) Loan Renewed ✔️ George Bello (Atlanta Utd ) Loan Renewed ✔️ Antonio Marin (PSG) Loan Renewed ✔️ Finally – as mentioned previously we have a rule to sign at least one Irish player each year if for nothing but another partner in crime down at the local Irish Cottage Pub in Fürth. While browsing the Celtic squad when scouting Mikey Johnston, we spot that a previous target of ours is at the end of his contract so we dive straight in to bring in a 3rd choice Striker to offer backup to Sargent and Bilic up front: Fourth Season at Fürth An 8-0 win over Baunatal in the DFB-Pokal Cup 1st Round gets our season off to a flyer however as they are a Tier 5 team we are under no illusions that it might as well have been a friendly – new signing Ferran Torres picks up 2 goals which will do no harm for his confidence and morale. Despite finishing 8th last season and bringing in a few signings, the bookies still have us at 1000-1 to win the league, tipping us to finish in 15th place which doesn’t sound too bad until you remember there are only 18 teams in the Bundesliga. Regardless, hopes are high in Fürth as we kick off the league campaign with a home tie against Borussia Monchengladbach (BMG sidenote: if you never seen this video, watch it now). Our second season in the Bundesliga starts like a dream as we win a penalty on 17 mins – with Josh Sargent on the bench and our only designated penalty taker (yes I am a bad manager), it’s new boy Ferran Torres that is selected by the match engine to take it and he calmly steps up to net his first league goal for the club. The elation of our new signing giving us the lead lasts for a grand total of 2 minutes before Breel Embolo equalises for BMG – the replay had barely ended for crying out loud 🤦♂️. Even though we had Armini, Bello and Del Prato on loan the last couple of seasons it feels like the game thinks we have a new squad to gel and we look fairly rusty until Shadow Striker Alex Blesa smashes home a 67th minute header to bag all 3 points on day one of the new season – we’ll take that!…
May the Fürth Be With You – VII
Part VII – Dirty Fürthy After breaking our transfer record on the €4.2m signing of Noel Bilic from HJK Rijeka which pretty much depleted our entire budget for our first season back in the Bundesliga – we were welcomed back to the Bundesliga with a bang with 3 defeats in our opening 3 league games of the 2021/2022 season. Defeats to Koln, Wolfsburg and then a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Red Bull Leipzig highlight the gulf in class between our young Fürth side and the more tenured clubs in this league – RBL’s €37.5m signing Marco Asensio from Real Madrid getting on the scoresheet, for context that’s 7x our entire transfer budget 🤦♂️. The same gulf is clearly evident when it comes to income and expenditure – we are literally minnows in this league, the lowest earners and spenders when it comes to commercial revenue and player salaries – Chairman Niall Quinn must actually be squandering all of our budget down at the Irish Cottage pub in Fürth City Centre. OK OK WE GET IT – YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE IN THIS DIVISION. Being honest I don’t think we completely are – even though we had minimal budget and are relying on the same players that got us promoted, we were definitely too good for Bundesliga 2 and the additions of Bilic and Marin along with renewed loans for Sargent and Armini should hopefully give us enough quality to avoid going back down in our first season in the top flight. I mentioned Antonio Marin – most of us will know this kid from FM19 and although I don’t think he is as strong in this year’s version, he settles into the Inverted Winger position beautifully, picking up 3 goals in his first 3 games which kickstarts our season as we go from losing our first 3 games to going 8 games unbeaten. Josh Sargent starts to look more like a Bundesliga quality striker while Branimir Hrgota, Alex Blesa and Ronan Curtis all start to show they can compete at this level. 10 games in and we find ourselves in 10th position – we’ve not even faced Dortmund or Bayern yet 👀. Dirty Fürthy That classic dilemma of what we can do to make this squad a bit more competitive, in a particular facing off against teams that are far superior to us. Tactically I am happy with how we are playing albeit conceding too many goals – personnel changes aren’t really a luxury we can afford with our current squad size so the only other option we have is to have a slight review of our mental state and in particular our aggression/determination levels for this youthful side; bearing in mind we have turned this club into an Irish legion, there’s only one man to turn to when it comes to becoming more aggressive: This coupled with an increased training focus on Defending Engaged and a more frequent instruction to “Get Stuck In” appears to have an immediate effect – not only do we manage to subdue both Dortmund and Bayern holding each to a draw and almost doing the same away to RBL – we also manage to pick up 3 red cards in 7 games with George Bello, Ronan Curtis and Nicolo Armini all earning themselves an early bath during this period. The Roy Keane effect? For good or for bad our increased aggression and more combative approach does not go unnoticed… Think of the Children We dream of an Irish Wonderkid here at Fürth – praying for an Irish Newgen with each intake that comes around. Season 1 saw our best youth candidate come in the form of a Finnish Newgen we nicknamed Johnny Bravo due to his glorious hairstyle, while in our second season we had Bosnian twins with little or no potential along with the wonderfully eyebrowed Daniel Lange who we nicknamed a young Jack Nicholson for his efforts. All are still at the club however have not really flourished – third time lucky perhaps? A Turk and an Angolan are the latest overseas Newgens on a production line containing an Irish Owner, Irish Manager, Irish Head of Youth Development and entire Irish U19 backroom team. We have repeatedly tried to establish an affiliation with an Irish club to boost our chances however Niall Quinn’s negotiation skills seem limited at best – that is until the moment our Youth Intake for this season ends upon which a miracle happens: Will this affiliation be the final piece in the puzzle to help us on our quest for Irish Newgen greatness in Germany? We’ll have to wait another year to find out… Cup Running A 2-0 victory over Wolfsburg in February means that suddenly we find ourselves in the DFB-Pokal Cup Quarter Final and wouldn’t you know it we are drawn against holders Bayern Munich who themselves have had a spell of bad form dropping from 2nd after 10 games to 6th after 20. Needless to say this coincides with an injury to our main Striker Josh Sargent – cue the biggest game of 19 year old Noel Bilic‘s life as he leads the line against the German Champions on their own turf at the Allianz Arena. Despite the strength of this slightly aging Bayern side, we put on a defensive masterclass with Armini and Porteous nullifying Lewandowski completely, and Bilic’s 15th minute first goal for the club is enough to see us through to the Semi-Final. Is silverware somewhat unexpectedly on the cards in our first season back in the Bundesliga?? Our reasons for being pessimistic about this draw are not just down to the fact that RBL have already beaten us twice this season and have arguably the best squad in the division; by the time April comes along, their dominance combined with Bayern’s continued downfall in form mean that after 28 games they have wrapped up the league title. On a more positive note – our own form also picks up along with this cup run, picking up 5 wins in 6 league games before the Semi-Final comes around. 30 games in and this is how the table looks: Greuther Fürth vs Red Bull Leipzig – DFB Pokal Semi Final – 20/04/2022 After Bilic’s heroics in the Quarter Final it’s only right that he starts the Semi – we are under no illusions about how difficult this tie will be even if we do have home advantage – to add insult to injury, RBL have signed Carles Alena from Barcelona since we last played, he was immense in my Tenerife save for FM19 and no doubt the Gods of FM might fancy some poetic injustice today 👀. Despite going a goal down thanks to a Marcel Sabitzer finish on 28 minutes, we put in a really solid performance and even though we end up with more shots on goal and on target, unfortunately the combination of Upamecano and Konaté in RBL’s backline prove too strong and it’s our opponents who progress to the final. So close! It’s not all doom and gloom however – this cup run has done wonders for our bank balance as we pick up over €2m for reaching the Semi-Final: The Final Lap Four games to seal our fate – not only were we originally favourites to go down – we find ourselves on the brink of European qualification for the first time in the club’s history. Three of our last four games are at home however wouldn’t you know it, two of these are against Bayern and Dortmund….what would Roy Keane do? Despite a brace from super-sub Noel Bilic to give us a 2-0 win over Hoffenheim, we completely run out of steam in our last 3 games with narrow defeats to Bayern and Dortmund and a lacklustre scoreless draw at home to Paderborn which in turn secures their place in the league for next season (writer’s note: aren’t we kind). The squad with which we kept faith in after gaining promotion lead us to a still very impressive 8th place finish (just as Reading did back in 2007 under similar circumstances), however we end the season just outside the European places. It’s not all bad news though: €59 million!!! Suffice to say that we have a very interesting Summer break ahead of us – I am determined to keep this save as credible and realistic as possible, and having come this far mainly through the repeat loan signings of several players (e.g. Sargent, Armini, Bello etc) the plan is to try and make these guys permanent additions to the squad before delving into the transfer market to see what calibre of player we can attract and afford. Suffice to say – whatever business we do will be far more authentic, realistic and sensible than this: Thanks for reading – feel free to recommend some summer transfer signings in the comments below! Cheers,
May the Fürth Be With You – VI
Part VI – Fürth Time for Everything In 2006 Reading were promoted to the Premier League after winning the Championship with a record 106 points tally – they spent just £1.85 million in the summer keeping the majority of the squad that got them promoted and finished their first season back in the top flight in a very respectable 8th position. The same year, Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United also gained promotion to the Premier League after finishing in second place behind Reading. They spent over £12 million across the summer and winter transfer windows (including €3m on one Claude Davis), bringing in 14 new players in total and finished that season in 18th place to seal their relegation back to the Championship. Jump forward to the year 2021 and Greuther Fürth Manager MaddFM faces a similar dilemma – having just won Bundesliga 2 to gain promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time since 2012, our biggest predicament is thus: do we keep faith in the squad with which we got promoted (and have grown quite fond of) or do we attempt to bring in a few ringers / higher quality players now that we are back in the big time? As mentioned in my last post – prize money for winning Bundesliga 2 isn’t exactly astronomical; we acquire €17m for our efforts, however with an end of season bank balance of negative €2m at the end of the season (mainly due to upgrading youth and training facilities) it remains to be seen if Chairman Niall Quinn will be generous in terms of how much we have to play with during the Summer Transfer Window. Despite our overall bank balance rising to €13m, Niall decides that €1.1m is more than sufficient to compete with the likes of Bayern, Dortmund and Red Bull Leipzig – let’s not speak of the fact that those 3 clubs had a combined spending of €335m on new players last season! Upon further review of the budget it looks like we have a small bit of room to manouvre, whereby it can be stretched to max €6 million through Budget Adjustments meaning we will realistically have about 4-5 million to play with – still a hell of a lot less than Neil Warnock had to spend back in 2006… Positives – the permanent signings we’ve brought in over the past two seasons (e.g. Ryan Porteous, Pol Lozano, Josh Cullen, Kieran O’Hara, Ronan Curtis and Alex Blesa) are all good enough for Bundesliga at least in this blogger’s opinion and are as good as any players we can either attract or afford within our means. On the negative side – much of our promotion winning side were loan signings that we had hoped to sign permanently (namely Nicolo Armini, George Bello, Josh Sargent and Aaron Connolly). If we can perhaps extend/renew some of their loans and pick up a few bargains along the way then we might have a microscopic chance at avoiding relegation next season – what’s German for Yo-Yo? Nicolo Armini (Lazio) Loan Renewed ✔️ Enrico Del Prato (Atalanta) Loan Renewed ✔️ George Bello (Atlanta) Re-signed on Loan ✔️ Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen) Loan Renewed ✔️ Unfortunately we are unable to loan back Aaron Connolly as Cardiff fork over €7.5m to sign the Irish international from Brighton – this leaves us with a big gap in terms of our attacking options; although I am a big Josh Sargent fan he is far from prolific and our system of rotating him and Connolly has been very effective (basically when one isn’t scoring the other is). That makes signing a Striker our top priority – while Sargent is strong and good in the air, Connolly offered more in terms of speed and movement therefore our mission is to sign a player with Pace, Off the Ball, Finishing, Composure and a decent First Touch & Technique wouldn’t go astray…not asking a lot with €4 million to spend right? Having previously broken the club’s transfer record with the signing of Ryan Porteous for €1.7m from Hibernian, we smash it again as 18 year old Noel Bilic arrives from HNK Rijeka for €4.2m. Though not a son of Slaven Bilic as initially hoped, Bilic is touted as the next Goran Vlaovic who 90’s football fans might remember scored Croatia’s first ever goal at a major tournament during Euro ’96, and two years later scored in Croatia’s emphatic 3-0 win over Germany at World Cup ’98 which saw them go as far as the semi-finals before losing to eventual winners France. That pretty much wipes out our transfer budget even though our squad is still relatively thin – we also haven’t signed an Irish player yet this season as per our save rules – back out to the loan market we go 🚀. Noel Bilic Striker (Centre) HNK Rijeka – €4.2m View Profile Dara O’Shea Defender (R/C) West Brom – Loan (€5m option) View Profile Paolo Gozzi Defender (Centre) Juventus – Loan (€15m option) View Profile Florent Da Silva AM(RLC) Lyon – Loan (€10m option) View Profile A busy window! We approach our Bundesliga league opener against FC Koln with a relatively healthy squad, definitely stronger than last season however the FM Gods believe that we will in fact go straight back down as the media predict we will finish at the bottom of the league alongside fellow promoted side Paderborn…1,000-1 – I’ll have some of that 😄. Greuther Fürth 2021/2022 Squad List ⚽🟢⚪ Goalkeepers: Kieran O’Hara, Sascha Burchert Defenders: Ryan Porteous, Nicolo Armini, Enrico Del Prato, George Bello, Paolo Gozzi, Dara O’Shea, Alexander Lungwitz Midfielders: Paul Seguin, Pol Lozano, Josh Cullen, Alex Blesa, David Raum, Ronan Curtis, Florent Da Silva, Anthony McDonald Forwards: Josh Sargent, Noel Bilic, Branimir Hrgota It Begins.. In winning Bundesliga 2 we went on a 24 game unbeaten run after changing to a slightly unorthodox 4-1-4-1 asymmetric formation which we will continue to implement this year even though we have jumped up a level to the Bundesliga. For a brief moment I thought that maybe I had unearthed some kind of overpowered / exploit tactic that had effectively broken the match engine – I for one have never had such a long unbeaten run, and fears began to creep in that if it was an OP tactic, my save would instantly lose that element of realism/credibility and forever have that element of doubt over whether it’s me or the match engine that is dictating our path through this save. Both our unbeaten run and notions of an exploit tactic end with a bang as we start life in the Bundesliga with 3 defeats in our first 3 games…if opening defeats against Koln and Wolfsburg weren’t wake up call enough, we get smashed at home by an RBL side containing Timo Werner, Dani Olmo, Dayot Upamecano and new signing Marco Asensio – safe to say we aren’t in Bundesliga 2 anymore 🤦♂️. Panic Stations Now I’m not normally one to scare easily (writer’s note – you would say that), however after losing 3 on the trot and getting absolutely smashed by RBL we are admittedly freaking out with 31 more games still to play with this team. We have zero cash in the bank and very little to play with in the wage budget, however we fall for the infamous Deadline Day panic as we go for one more jaunt in the loan market in a last ditch moment of desperation: Antonio Marin AM(RLC) PSG – Loan (€20m option) View Profile He looks pleased about it too.. Having signed for PSG in 2020 and not played a game for them since, Antonio Marin arrives on a season long loan to hopefully give us a bit of extra quality when it matters – this team hasn’t experienced defeat since October last season, can our second Croatian signing help us bounce back and stop this season from ending before it has even began? Thanks for reading,
May the Fürth Be With You – V
Part V – Fürth things first At the beginning of November 2020 (in-game), we did a tactical overhaul and went into unchartered territory for this author by deploying a slightly unorthodox asymmetric tactic after years of stuttering through various versions of CM and FM with traditional formations like your standard 4-4-2 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 set-ups. Fast forward to February 2021 (skipping that pesky German winter break) and this is what the Kleeblätter faithful are waking up to following the 500km journey home from Osnabruck after overturning a 6th minute lead to win 3-1 away from home. Now I am as shocked as you are. First and foremost I have never been a master tactician, not one for downloading tactics and I am still figuring out what exactly it is about this new formation that has this Greuther Fürth playing quality football for the first time in 10 years since they were last promoted to the Bundesliga. As discussed in my last post – the motivation behind this tactic was simply to start putting our opponents under more pressure as we consider ourselves to be the better team in most of our fixtures, moving away from a balanced conservative possession-style strategy to a slightly more positive aggressive mentality. We also wanted to create more space by driving better off-the ball movement and focusing more on the specific roles each player plays and how they compliment each other e.g. having a marauding LWB overlapping an Inverted Winger, using a Half-Back to cover this attacking role and deploying an Inside Forward to get more bodies in the final third when on the offensive. Whether it’s the tactic or a combination of all of the above, it has certainly been effective as by the end of February we find ourselves in 2nd place after 25 games – suddenly Irish Manager MaddFM finds his German rapidly improving with the addition of the word “Beförderung” (promotion) to his vocabulary i.e. back of a beer-mat down at the Irish Cottage bar in Fürth city centre. Are we actually going to ascend to the Bundesliga at the second time of asking? Just when I’m starting to think I must be the greatest Football Manager football manager ever (🤔), reality kicks in as we get slapped in the face by a complete managerial blunder by yours truly. One of the big successes of this formation has been George Bello at Left Wing Back, who by switching him to Attack and instructing him to overlap David Raum at Inverted Winger picked up a goal, 3 assists, 2 Man of the Match awards and a 7.5 average rating during this run. Having signed him on loan from Atlanta with a €4.5 million permanent option (and fully intending to activate that should we get promoted), we discover that even though we had agreed to sign him on loan until the end of the season – due to some weird MLS rule the loan could only run until January seemingly as his loan cannot finish after their transfer window closes – can someone explain this? 🤦♂️ SHIT! Not only does his loan contract come to an end, we are unable to renew it due to the same transfer window rule meaning we are suddenly without arguably our best player heading into the most important 9 games the club have ever faced…we have no money to spend and minimal wage budget to sign a replacement with the same ability, so with little or no options we have no choice but to take a very brief trip down memory lane as we re-sign last season’s left-back who also was on loan and had considered signing permanently for his €2.1m optional fee – welcome back Mathias Olivera, please let him fit into this new tactic 🙏🙏. From Finland to…Bosnia? Throwback to last season when we had wishful thinking of getting an Irish Newgen due to our entire Youth and Recruitment staff being Irish, and instead we ended up with our best youth prospect being none other than Finnish because you know, why wouldn’t he. Despite several attempts to get an affiliate club in Ireland including Chairman Niall Quinn even allowing us to approach Shamrock Rovers directly (though Quinners couldn’t agree a deal #negotiator), we remain hopeful that we might yet get an Irish wonderkid through the ranks this time around especially now that our Head of Youth Recruitment and former Ireland World Cup star Alan McLoughlin is in the big leagues. The outcome? Instead of an Irish wonderkid we end up with Bosnian twins (not the Eastern European twins one would usually hope for) – not only that, they aren’t really any good either therefore this year’s hopes lie in German newgen Daniel Lange who with those eyebrows resembles a young Jack Nicholson…this writer gets the feeling our best chance of an Irish Newgen in Fürth will only ever happen about 9 months from the moment we get promoted 😆. Fürther Afield Back to business – 9 games to secure promotion. If things stay as they are we would be promoted automatically in second place; finish third and we face a playoff against whoever finishes 18th in the Bundesliga; finish first…don’t jinx it. The next few weeks go well…very well…. Not only are we winning games but the clubs around us start to lose theirs and take points from each other. Normally at this point you start to ask yourself – surely this is too good to be true? I’ve often spotted creators talking about mad long unbeaten runs but having managed the likes of Newcastle, Southend, Tenerife and Blackburn in my past few saves, unbeaten runs like this have been few and far between (writer’s note: yeah, blame the club). I’ve heard of the perfect week, is there such a thing as the perfect end of season run in? April was a month of mixed fortunes for the Fürth lads themselves. A couple of posts back I spoke in depth about the Shadow Striker role when we specifically went shopping for someone to occupy this position, with Alex Blesa ticking all our boxes especially seeing as we couldn’t afford anyone else at the time. After renewing his loan for another season the lad has turned out to be a shrewd piece of business and has been awesome in the SS role, picking up 7 goals and 7 assists so far to date. What I like most about this kid is that he has a knack for arriving in the box just at the right time, and also seems to come up trumps in big games when it matters – April is no different and thanks to him our run continues, leaving our title hopes and our destiny very much in our own hands. One player who doesn’t have a perfect week is Ryan Porteous. Our star Centre-Back has a roller coaster few days in which he manages to get himself sent off, fined, injures one of our own players for 9 months by basically breaking his back (after they only joined on loan in January) and finally tops it off by by kicking up a fuss because we reject a transfer offer for him…am I in an episode of Dream Team? Needless to say we tell Monchengladbach exactly where they can put their €3 million – WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF WINNING THE LEAGUE RYAN GET OVER IT #vicecaptainmyarse 4 Games left, 4 points clear…Come Fürth It goes without saying that 3 of our last 4 games are against teams in the Top 5 – if Football Manager did end of league run-ins…you know the drill. After beating Sandhausen, we face off against 5th place Heidenheim, 4th place Augsburg and 3rd place Arminia Bielefeld in what will be the three defining games of our season. We are still in a state of shock not only because of this ridiculous run but also at the thought of facing the likes of Bayern, Dortmund and RBL with a current overall bank balance of just €4 million and a squad largely built on loan signings at present. There’s no time to think about that however – it’s time to nut up or shut up and see if we can lead the Kleeblätter back to the bright lights of the Bundesliga. Champions!!! Our insane unbeaten run continues as we win all three games to lift the Bundesliga 2 trophy, shamefully this FM blogger’s first piece of silverware in the whole of FM20 so far but more importantly Greuther Fürth’s first return back to the big time since 2012. Despite not rocking the goal-scorer charts (Branimir Hrgota ends up third top scorer in the league with 14 goals), we keep the best defensive record in the league with free agent Kieran O’Hara keeping the most clean sheets and somehow this beautifully horrible asymmetric tactic has turned our season around to help us clinch the title. I’m not one to get carried away especially when the prize money for winning the league is only €4m more than what we received last season for finishing 5th, however we will savour the moment before even thinking about the fact that we will most likely be straight back down next season! Thanks for reading, see you in the Bundesliga 👌. MaddFM.
May the Fürth Be With You – IV
Part IV – Tactical Fürthcomings Pre-Season – Fürth, Germany July 2020 Despite earning the club a hefty €13m in prize money by finishing in 5th place in Bundesliga 2 last season combined with our best efforts to sweet talk Chairman Niall Quinn into parting with some badly need funds for our transfer budget – we start our second season as Greuther Fürth Manager with a measly €2.5m to spend on players – I say measly because we have 5 first team players to replace after Felix Beijmo, Mathias Oliviera, Aaron Connolly and Josh Sargent have all returned to their parent clubs while Julian Green moves on to pastures new at Akhmat in Russia (because why wouldn’t he). The transfer policy we have in place is that we will only bring in players on loan if we can agree a reasonable future optional transfer fee to sign them permanently should we get promoted or have the finances to do so – the only one of those players we can afford with that budget is Left Back Mathias Olivera (€2.1m optional fee) however I am understandably reluctant to blow all of our budget on a left back with both of our main Striker options having left the club. Connolly and Sargent scored a combined 22 league goals last season, bearing in mind we rotated them in the lone Striker role – if we can somehow manage to get either of them back in on loan then our limited budget will be well spent elsewhere. Before that though, we continue the Irish revolution in the City of Fürth as we welcome not one but two promising Ireland internationals who both arrive after their contracts were not renewed at West Ham and Man Utd respectively. Kieran O’Hara Goalkeeper Man Utd – Free View Profile Josh Cullen DMC/MC West Ham Utd – Free View Profile Both are likely to be first team contenders, in particular everyone’s favourite FM20 first season free agent Kieran O’Hara who should be a quality signing at this level. Cullen will compete with Seguin and Lozano for our central midfield spots, the latter two were solid as a rock last season. My biggest concern is in defence. Having lost both our full-backs after their loans ended and with aging Captain Mergim Mavraj having turned 34 years old, only Ryan Porteous remains as a guaranteed starter – we have some major gaps to fill. I’m reluctant to bring in signings who won’t be with us next season either due to the fact that their calibre/transfer fee surpasses our means or that they won’t be good enough for Bundesliga football should we get promoted. Keeping this in mind, we will only bid for or loan in players that we know we could and would take with us permanently if promotion beckons – any loan signings we bring in will have optional future fees agreed that must be below €10m, and as usual no one over the age of 25 will be signed. Sounds easy right? George Bello Defender (Left) Atlanta Utd – Loan (€4.5m option) View Profile Enrico Del Prato Defender (Right) Atalanta – Loan (€7.5m option) View Profile Nicolo Armini Defender (Centre) Lazio – Loan (€7.5m option) View Profile Ronan Curtis AML/C Portsmouth – €1.3m View Profile Our defence is bolstered with three loan signings to fill our vacant RB, LB and CB slots – while there’s another addition to the Kleeblätter Green Army with 24 year old Irish International Ronan Curtis arriving to provide competition for David Raum on the left hand side – suddenly our squad is looking a lot healthier apart from up front. With half our budget spent on Curtis, we have no option but to return to the loan market – as mentioned above, we already know who we want but can we get them both back in? It’s inevitable what will happen once we kick off Season 2 – one does not simply replace half the team and expect to start winning right from the get go. The influence of morale and squad dynamics in modern day FM are so strong that it’s next to impossible to avoid having to wait a few weeks before the squad starts to gel etc – and that’s exactly what happened. Despite frequent Team Bonding sessions down at the Irish Cottage and the subsequent Community Service Outreach earned (drinking ban now in place), after 10 games we sit in 9th place following a somewhat tumultuous start to our second season. Tactical Fürthcomings Now I am as impatient as the next guy when it comes to FM. While I am well aware it takes time and we have a very young squad at our disposal, I can’t help but feel we aren’t creating enough chances or dominating opponents, and while we are picking up wins, most of the time it’s by the narrowest of margins. FM20 has made me very conservative when it comes to how we line up tactically – when managing Newcastle in my last save, I couldn’t ignore the amount of times we leaked goals over the top and allowed speedy wingers in behind by pressing poorly and immaturely – so much so that I completely removed all instructions in terms of pressing & closing down both at team and individual level. Team & Individual Instructions to prevent balls in behind For the same reason I carried a similar strategy over into this save however there are some fundamental differences that I haven’t really thought about until now: 1. We are a stronger team in this league than Newcastle are in the Premier League by comparison 2. Most of the teams we play should be inferior to us, whereby we should be the ones putting teams under pressure and dictating the pace of play 3. There are far less “speedy wingers” and quality of passing at this level, therefore there are less killer balls and exploiting at the back We’ve been setting up to not lose games rather than win them – playing a very balanced, structured, rigid symmetrical tactic and strategy. While it is quite safe and we don’t seem to concede a huge amount of goals, equally we create very few chances and rarely hit more than 10 or 15 shots on goal per game. Rather than sticking with this tried and tested albeit safe and boring approach – we decide to try something which I’ve rarely if ever implemented in Football Manager in my 25 years of playing these games: Having grown up with the standard Championship Manager games and traditionally always operating fairly straightforward tactics that are ALWAYS balanced and visually symmetrical (#OCDmuch) – we completely flip our tactic on its head and switch to a Gegenpress style of play in order to grab the game by the balls horns and pressure our opponents with a more offensive mentality so that we can break on the counter more frequently. Last year I wrote a piece about Defensive Midfielders in FM, and one outcome of some analysis on Half Backs is that they are highly effective at covering for attacking full-backs and wing-backs when possession is lost, therefore Seguin is dropped down to the Half Back role from his initial DLP position – this allows us to push George Bello up to Wing Back in order to take advantage of his pace (15) and crossing (13). Deploying Raum in the Inverted Winger role on the left will hopefully also provide cover for Bello on the overlap as well as create space by cutting inside and taking the opposition full-back with him. On the other side, pushing our right-winger up into the Inside Forward position will hopefully give us another option in the box as it was clear that our lone striker was getting isolated – instead we will now have an Inside Forward, Advanced Forward and of course a Shadow Striker (see my last post for more info) as options in the final third to hopefully provide more attacking outlets, fashion more chances and ultimately get more badly needed shots on goal. So to summarise – a switch from Control Possession to Gegenpress; from 4-4-1-1 Balanced to 4-1-4-1 Attacking and from zero pressing intensity to full on Jack Charlton style “put ’em under pressure“…this could either be great or about 3 hours of time wasted between setting it up and writing the last 5 paragraphs 😅. Was there a difference? Definitely. Granted this wasn’t our toughest run of games but in terms of dominating games, creating chances, imposing ourselves on the opposition and ultimately getting more shots on goal we could see a clear improvement based on this new approach (82 shots on goal in last 6 games vs 59 in the previous 6). Pushing Bello up to Wing Back has been immense while moving Hrgota to the Inside Forward position has added an extra level of firepower in the final third as planned. Below is an example of where we can see we our players closing down the opposition successfully from which we launch a counter-attack to actually win us the game on 86 mins – not exactly a tactical masterclass but effective nonetheless when it mattered most. I still find it hard to look at the lack of symmetry in the tactic but if we turn a blind eye then at least one side of it looks balanced :D. By December and as we enter the winter break (still getting used to that), we find ourselves in joint 3rd place after 18 games played, only 3 points off top and missing the playoff spot by a single goal! A lot of football left to play but hey, we are playing Fürthball now 😎. Thanks for reading, feel free to share your thoughts and feedback below or let me know if you’ve had success with something similar previously! Cheers, MaddFM.
May The Fürth Be With You – III
Part III – One Step Fürther When we last left off, the Kleeblätter aka Greuther Fürth had just entered the winter break (yes that’s a thing in Germany) sitting in 4th place in Bundesliga 2 after 20 games played – signings such as Aaron Connolly and Josh Sargent taking turns in the lone Striker role to provide the goals which keep us in the hunt for promotion to the top tier of German football. We aren’t ready for it of course, our squad is thin and heavily over-reliant on loan signings (not to mention being coached and trained by a legion of Irish backroom staff 🤷♂️) however we battle on and this Irish Manager’s ego is generously bolstered by the Media’s perception of our progress so far (not that it’s needed): Ryan Porteous has been solid at the back though, playing alongside Albananian International Mergim Mavraj and while we have leaked goals quite frequently (it’s your tactics mate) he will definitely be our First Choice Centre-Half over the next few seasons – 33 year old Mavraj will need to be replaced in the Summer but that’s for another day. What We Do In the Shadows I’ve long been a fan of the Shadow Striker role, having enjoyed much success with it previously through the likes of Xadas at Newcastle in FM17, Bradley Dack at Blackburn in FM18 and Mickael Cuisance at Tenerife in FM19. I find that they get into fantastic goal-scoring positions along the edge of the box, link up play between Midfield and Attack without dropping too deep and put great pressure on opposition defenders forcing them to clear the ball rather than play from the back. When I think of real-life examples of Shadow Strikers in recent times, the likes of Wayne Rooney, Tim Cahill and Kevin De Bruyne all come to mind and it’s that type of player I always aspire to deploy in this role in Football Manager. One player who hasn’t been so solid for us is Julian Green, for whom we had high hopes in the Shadow Striker role as a former Bayern Munich Midfielder with Bundesliga pedigree. He continually (and frustratingly) loses a lot of possession when dribbling, constantly giving away stray passes to nowhere and ultimately squandering chance after chance which is highly costly at this level. I am keen and stubborn enough to want to stick with the role and formation we are using, so when Akhmat (who?!) in the Russian league came in with a pre-contract offer to sign him at the end of the season, we decided it was time to bring in a replacement sooner rather than later with a little cash in the bank after we also sold Norwegian Havard Nielsen to rivals Nurnberg for a not-too-shabby €1.9m in this January Transfer Window (even though we only get 40% of the transfer revenue since Chairman Niall tightened the strings a few months back). Football Manager defines the Shadow Striker as “one of the team’s main goal-scoring threats. Usually coupled with another forward in support, the shadow striker pushes up into goal-scoring positions as the ball moves into the final third and looks to close down opposing defenders when out of possession“. The Shadow Striker is inclined to Take More Risks, Dribble More, Get Further Forward and Move Into Channels, and based on this the key attributes I look for in this position are as follows: Technical Attributes First Touch Technique Passing Long Shots Mental Attributes Anticipation Work Rate Off the Ball Vision Now I know what you’re thinking – how am I going to sign a decent Shadow Striker for less that €1m? I don’t expect to sign a player that ticks all of the above, however the goal is to bring in a player that could potentially develop into the Shadow Striker we need, good enough for First Team football but equally young enough and with the potential to develop into a top quality player. In the end I identified two realistic options who are interested in joining the Kleeblätter: Needless to say, Bongiovanni is the better player on paper and has all the attributes and potential we need to make the Shadow Striker role more effective in our formation. The downside is that he is already on loan at AS Béziers therefore we can’t really make a bid for him yet. On the flip side, Alex Blesa is not only almost two years younger – he has a €1.4m release clause, which could end up being serious value for money if we can develop him effectively. Decisions!! Alex Blesa MC/AMC Levante – Loan (€1.4m option) View Profile Unfortunately we can’t afford to activate his release clause up front therefore we agree to bring him on loan until the end of the season with the option of signing him permanently once we have the funds to do so. We put him straight on an individual training plan in the Shadow Striker role with a focus on Attacking Movement and he will be deployed in a 4-4-1-1 behind Connolly or Sargent, hopefully supplying assists and giving us a bit more of an attacking goal threat than Green has been able to do so far. Luke, I am your Fürther The Winter break also provides us with the outcome of our first ever youth-intake at the club. I’ve not done too much research into this but I am hoping that with such a strong Irish influence at the club in terms of ownership, management and backroom staff we might see this reflected in our youth candidates, the world needs more Irish newgens and where better to brew them than in the Bavaria region of Southern Germany. FINNISH 🤷♂️. Bring in an Irish Head of Youth Development, Irish Scouts and fill the U19 staff roster with Irish managers and coaches and what do you get – a Central Midfielder from Finland catching our eye as our best youth prospect 😄. A quick scout through the SI forums about Youth Intake nationalities doesn’t really shed much light on this apart from trying to gain an affiliate in that country, so we put that on our priority list of things to discuss with our esteemed Chairman Niall Quinn – we had also asked to improve our youth facitilities and recruitment earlier in the season however even after a few pints in the local Irish pub, Quinn wasn’t keen on parting with the cash; we have a lot to do in this space. After a couple of rudimentary friendlies over the Winter break, we start back strongly with 13 points from a possible 15, continuing to flirt with the promotion places and there is a real buzz about the city of Fürth that normally only comes with the arrival of the annual Burgfarrnbach fair (Bürgerfest). Greuther Furth’s Irish contingent can do no wrong in this city and never have the Kleeblätter fans been so proud of the shamrock in their emblem – the board echo these sentiments, Manager MaddFM appears untouchable at the helm of this Bavarian side looking to return to the Bundesliga for the first time in 8 years. You know as well as I do what comes next – we proceed to draw 4 games on the trot, and despite turning around a two-goal deficit away to Holstein Kiel to savage a 2-2 draw, it almost feels like our promotion hopes are then crushed in a 4th vs 5th six-pointer against Hamburg whereby our 57th minute lead is cancelled out in the 91st minute to draw 1-1. By the end of March and with just 7 games remaining, suddenly our promotion chances are slim at best as we sit 5 points from the playoff spot. Alex Blesa started ok and picked up 2 assists in his first few games, however he then proceeded to pick up a knee injury and is ruled out until the end of the season – Julian Green takes his place for the remainder of the season and popped up with a couple of goals so I have high hopes for the Shadow Striker role going into next season! March does bring good news though and I don’t just mean St. Patrick’s Day (writer’s note: enough of the Irishness) – our Youth Intake is announced; are all our hopes really to rest on a Finnish Youth Candidate? Logic.. Unfortunately our hopes of bringing through an Irish youth prospect fall short at the first time of asking – we will continue to embed the Irish influence on the club, pushing for an affiliate from the Irish Airtricity League and assigning our scouts to get more and more familiar with the Ireland as a nation. I haven’t seen much content out there about how to achieve this, if we can make it happen then you can be sure there will be separate post about it in the near future! Season Finale A fact about Bundesliga 2? It is easily is one of the most competitive leagues I’ve ever managed in. Despite the fact that we went on to win 4 of our next 5 games (somehow losing 4-1 to the side we beat 6-0 earlier in the season), all of our closest competitors did pretty much the same and with two games to go we found ourselves in another six-pointer with VFL Bochum knowing that only a win could keep us in contention for a playoff spot, even if we would need help from else where to seal it. All was going well after Aaron Connolly gave us the lead on 32 mins, and that’s how it stayed for 52 more minutes until this season hammered the final nail in the coffin to sum up the campaign as a whole: That draw not only sealed our status in Bundesliga 2 for another season, but also condemned us to finish in 5th place with 4th now mathematically out of reach – our last game of the season now irrelevant, thus providing us with a somewhat anti-climactic finish to our first season at Greuther Fürth. We are disappointed not to get a crack at promotion however equally I have really enjoyed the first season and haven’t had that buzz about a save since FM20 was released – I guess finishing in 5th place isn’t bad for a team that were predicted to finish 10th at the start of the season? Positively – three of our first XI appear in the Top 10 Goalscorers list, suggesting that we are well set up to score goals across the team rather than relying on a specific player to carry us through the league. David Raum’s 4 goals against Darmstadt give him the honour of being our top scorer, while Connolly and Sargent pretty much took turns all season and knocked out 22 goals between them, would love to bring at least one of them back next season 🤞. The downside is that it will now be a lot harder to bring in some of our loan signings on permanent transfers without the finances and lure of the Bundesliga; even Josh Sargent’s €6m release clause may well be out of our reach. Chairman Niall Quinn seems quite pleased with the season overall however, and why wouldn’t he – think how many pints can be bought down at the Irish Cottage pub with this? Looking forward to Season 2 already 🍻. Thanks for reading,
May The Fürth Be With You – II
Part II – Fürth Blood First XI, first transfers, first game, first win, first “Frankenderby” – let’s find out who draws first blood in Part II of “May the Fürth Be With You” (writer’s note: easy on the movie references). Monday 10th June 2019 – first day in the office for Greuther Fürth’s new look Irish legion of backroom staff who still look fairly raggy after Chairman Niall Quinn reportedly spent the equivalent of the club’s annual scouting budget on Guinness and Jameson in the Irish Cottage Pub in Fürth city centre last Saturday night. Manager MaddFM means business however – there are major decisions to be made as we evaluate our current playing squad based on the team report he found stuffed inside his suit jacket on Sunday morning. For a club predicted to finish in 10th place this season (bear in mind that Bundesliga 2 has 18 teams) – we do actually have some decent players in our first XI. Our best player by far is Maximillian Wittek, who according one Kleeblätter fan in the pub “has the best left foot you’ll ever see on a football pitch”; he’s obviously never heard of Ian Harte, but wasn’t wrong when singing Wittek’s praises about him being good enough to make most Bundesliga sides. He will be a key player for us and should be good enough to hold down that Left Back spot for years to come as we look to gain promotion to the top tier of German football. Defensively we have gaps to fill – the combined age of our two first choice centre-halves is 66 meaning there’d be more pace at a Friday night Bingo Hall, so that’s definitely an area of concern in this Greuther Fürth squad. In Midfield Paul Seguin looks to be our best Playmaker, while we also have flair and creativity through the likes of former Bayern players Julian Green and Timothy Tillman along with the on-loan Marvin Stefaniak who is here for a season from Wolfsburg. Up top is the area that most concerns me however – Branimir Hrgota is a decent option with great finishing, however I’m not convinced he can get us the goals we need if we are to have a shot at promotion this season. Our only other option is Havard Nielsen, who I can only describe as the man Norwegian’s have already forgotten since the emergence of Erling Braut Haaland – it’s easy to see why, his attributes are poor and I don’t see him being here come the end of the season. Getting our Money’s Würth We need a Centre-Half, a Centre-Midfielder and at least one Striker – and have €150,000 to do so. I knew finances at this level wouldn’t be great but despite our healthy overall balance (pints are on Niall Quinn again this weekend), we have little or no room to manouvre in our transfer budget. I am generally against loaning in players unrealistically for short term gain who we know will never stay at the club past the first season, so in order to avoid this our transfer strategy will be as follows: 1. Only sign loan players if we can agree an Optional Future fee which we will activate if we are either promoted or have the funds to do so (assuming the player is a fit and becomes a first team regular) 2. Only Free Agents under the age of 30 will be signed 3. Permanent transfers must all be under the age of 25 4. Every year we will sign at least 1 Irish player to continue our Irish connection with the club Sounds easy right? Four days in, we think we have it all worked out and have the perfect plan in place…then I realise three things; 1. Our best player Maximillian Wittek is out of contract at the end of the season 2. He doesn’t want to sign a new one with interest in his services from Mainz, Southampton and Udinese 3. He’s a pr*ck Five minutes ago we were preparing to build a squad around the lad, and now we are in a situation whereby our new assistant Alan Maybury is advising that we should sell him for fear that he will run his contract down if told otherwise..the beer sweats are well and truly in play at this stage, and soon the inevitable happens: A classic FM dilemma – do we refuse and hope that he will eventually cave and sign a new contract, or risk losing him on a free at the end of the season? Looking at that Transfer Budget, it’s hard not to imagine what we could do with the cash – let’s see what how much we can squeeze out of Southampton depending on how bad they need a Left Back – Ryan Bertrand won’t be happy. We asked for six million and got five – considering Niall Quinn is giving us 75% of transfer revenue, that’s about €3.5 million we now have to spend this transfer window. Shit just got real here in Fürth – it’s shopping time. Transfers In Ryan Porteous Defender (Centre) Hibernian – €1.7m View Profile Aaron Connolly Striker (Centre) Brighton – Loan (€10m option) View Profile Mathias Olivera Defender (Left) Getafe – Loan (€2.1m option) View Profile Pol Lozano Midfielder (Centre) Espanyol – €1.6m View Profile Josh Sargent Striker (Centre) Werder Bremen – Loan (€6m option) View Profile Anthony McDonald AM (RLC) Hearts – €180,000 View Profile Suffice to say we are feeling a lot better after completing six transfers before the window closes, putting the Wittek money to extremely good use and our First XI looks a lot healthier coming into our first league game against FC St. Pauli. For the most part we will alternate between a 4-4-2 and a 4-4-1-1 depending on Home/Away fixtures and whether we feel we are the stronger side – a big part of our philosophy will be on possession-based football, therefore we will focus all of our training and tactical efforts on short passing, ball retention, off-the-ball movement and working the ball into the box – more on how we hope to achieve this later. We open the league campaign with a 1-0 away win at St. Pauli courtesy of a 59th minute Aaron Connolly winner – THE IRISH REVOLUTION BEGINS!! ☘️☘️ This is followed by back to back wins over Regensburg and Hannover 96 and already the Kleeblätter faithful are talking of top flight football next season. Connolly picks up three goals in three games before hitting a dry patch in September and October, however American Striker Josh Sargent starts to vie for the lone Striker position as he quickly moves to become our top scorer after 10 games wherein we sit in 4th place after a couple of draws and our first defeats at Bielefeld and Hamburg respectively. Das Legendäre Frankenderby Despite some weaker opposition in this league we still have to compete with the likes of Stuttgart, Hamburg and Bochum all of whom have equal ambitions to gain promotion. Our biggest game of the season however comes in the Frankenderby – a bitter clash between ourselves and local rivals FC Nurnberg. Of the 266 times we have faced off previously, Nurnberg have won 139 times versus our 77 wins so the pressure is on to prove to the Kleeblätter faithful that the Irish can lead their club to glory. Greuther Fürth are favourites going into the game and rightly so – a brace from that man Josh Sargent either side of half time give us a 2-0 victory and it’s first Fürth Blood to the Kleeblätter – you can imagine this writer’s glee when a guy called Sargent gives us a win and therefore a further John Rambo reference 😆. By Christmas we sit in 4th place after 20 games played – the other highlight being a resounding 6-0 win over Darmstadt. Although we have been outstanding at times we have had our fair share of slip-ups, however overall we are very much in contention for promotion as we prepare for the business end of the season. Despite the fact that we were predicted to finish 10th at the start of the season, have completely overhauled our backroom staff to facilitate the Irish revolution, and have pretty much a completely different first XI to what the club would have had last season – our ambitions are high and we will absolutely be aiming for promotion at the first time of asking. This means we will need to finish first or second to gain automatic promotion, while 3rd would mean we contend a playoff with whoever finishes 3rd last in the Bundesliga. A top 5 finish wouldn’t be too bad in terms of prize money, even if it’s a fraction of what promotion in the Premier League can earn a club – however we are going to go in all guns blazing in the hope that we can battle our way into the Bundesliga. Thanks for reading – I can’t promise much as to whether we can actually gain promotion or offer any significant Football Manager insight during this journey, however I will at least try to (marginally) reduce the frequency of overused movie references next time round 😄. Cheers, MaddFM.